Three versus One

Starwalker was roaming around Metropolis in his Breacher when he scanned an Incursus in a complex. The Breacher arrived to find the Incursus waiting. Starwalker was using his favourite fit that was based on fitting both the Medium Ancillary Shield Booster as well as the Small Ancillary Armour Repairer.

The one recent change he had made was to change the shield rigs for another missile damage rig. General fitting wisdom decried dual tanks but on occasions it was a useful addition to the ship's defence. Starwalker had reached the point where he made up his own mind about a fit, he felt he had earned his stripes going through the levels of understanding:

1. Copied a fit, not really understanding why that particular combination of modules were used, their strengths and weaknesses
2. Fitted a ship with a general understanding of the ships and modules and fitting rules but not exploiting the ships strengths and/or mitigating weaknesses. Using general fitting rules such as
• Fit modules to fight at a certain range (close, scram or point)
• Fit weapons of all one type/range
• Fit MWD and warp disruptor or afterburner and scrambler
• Fit either an armour or shield tank
• Use zero or one fitting module such as an Auxiliary Power Control or CPU Upgrade to enable a particular combat fit
3. Fitted a ship understanding why the modules are selected or not selected, complementing the ship's bonuses and the purpose of the fit

Starwalker considered a dual tank justified on this ship and he was confident that he would destroy the Incursus. As he engaged though a Slasher and Rifter also landed at zero and he made an almost instant decision to switch targets as the Incursus had only just recently entered armour.

Whilst Starwalker had no reason to believe that this was a three versus one situation he assumed that it was and decided to kill the ships in an order of "kill-ability". It was a term he had heard when Kil2 and Kovorix had discussed the order of target selection:

1. Slasher - as an attack frigate it would likely have the weakest tank and the Incursus would have the strongest tank
2. Rifter - it would be next purely because the Incursus would be last
3. Incursus - it was the most dangerous ship because it had a combination of good damage and a strong tank

It was always a hard decision to switch targets but Starwalker did and also tried to maintain range by heading towards the Slasher. It worked as the range from the Incursus increased to around 5km and the Rifter was about 7km away. The Slasher went down quickly and then the Rifter was targeted. The medium ancillary shield booster was overheated and working full time but was running low on charges. As the Rifter went down the shield booster ran out and Starwalker started the armour repairer and could finally focus on the Incursus.

Starwalker pulled range and the Incursus damage dropped dramatically, the armour repairer had saved the Breacher. The Incursus was toast.

It had been very satisfying and Starwalker was please with the fight and fighting three at the same time had been a really good experience. Sometimes the kill-board time on fights seemed like they were more than one versus one but targets simply arrived in quick succession. One example, this Executioner came into the complex where Starwalker was waiting and it was nearly dead as this Slasher arrived and it died as well.

Changing Targets Quickly

Starwalker had been enjoying the May madness in New Eden and had achieved a personal record for the number of kills in one month - 73. He had also lost the most ships - 18, including his first ever Daredevil. Unfortunately the Daredevil had not died in glorious battle but to a gate camp, indeed it seemed that most of his losses when solo were to gate camps or getting attacked by more than one ship.

Notably he had died three times to a similar tactic, albeit each one in different situations and with different protagonists. He had engaged or been engaged and then a neuting ship had joined the fight. In each case (Sentinel, Pilgrim and Crucifier) he had quickly been bled dry of capacitor and from there the fight had finished badly for Starwalker.

However, he had realised afterwards that a key problem was that he had not changed targets fast enough. The neuting ship, like electronic warfare ships (Griffin...) represented the biggest danger and he had to do something about them immediately either fight or flight. When each neuting ship had arrived he had a small window of opportunity to react, to try and kill it before his capacitor was empty.

The first time it had happened he had not even switched targets to the greater threat (Sentinel). With the Crucifier he had switched targets but it had been just a little too slow and he had died anyway. So far, he had not tried to run but that would also have been an option. In short, if the fight changed with a new entrant then he needed to do a fast threat assessment and change targets as needed or make a run for freedom.

The month of May had also seen a lot of Rebel fleets out and about. Peri Simone still FC'd fleets but it was good to see that other pilots were also trying their hands at the reins. Patrick Kasper, Laassaalos Kiblos and Angron Vail had all been FCs recently and the various roams had been great fun. One of those fleets had been themed around the Rifter hull and Starwalker thought it was still a great looking ship, even though it had been eclipsed recently by combat improvements to the other T1 frigates.

Perfect Fitting Skills

Starwalker had perfect fitting skills with the completion of Advanced Weapon Upgrades V. It now seemed that training choices were largely based on whim or indeed next ship or fit to fly. As he still enjoyed racing around in frigates he had started to train Small Energy Turret to V - not because he intended to use it immediately but because it gave him the choice to do so when he wanted. 

Whilst Starwalker could fly most sub-capital ships he had not trained the large weapon systems so that would need to be added to the list, as well as filling out to level V select support skills such as Energy Grid Upgrades or XYZ Compensation skills. Navigation was already at level V but there were plenty of other skills at III or IV that would add a little extra performance. In the majority of cases that little extra didn't matter but on occasion it did, especially when meeting top ranked pilots. Starwalker had been lucky like that recently - meeting and being destroyed by pilots such as Zoe Fishpants (~2596), Rakkanar (~34) and Radzak87 (~253).

Space was filled with plenty of pilots roaming around New Eden and not all of them were top ranked. Starwalker liked to kill them all (or at least try to) and get their pods but getting pods was becoming rarer as pilots seemed to know to spam warp just before destruction. That made getting the pod even sweeter when it did happen and when possible he liked to collect the corpse as well as the loot.

That was the case with this cyno-ship that was killed at a leisurely pace after warping in, shooting, warping out and then back again. This sequence nicely exploited sentry gun mechanics that did not maintain aggression following the warp out. The pilot, ChanDoi, was slow to warp his pod away and so Starwalker collected his corpse too.

It was similar with this Rifter pilot at a small complex that stayed to fight but was easily destroyed by a dual web Caldari Navy Hookbill and was slow to get his pod away. Starwalker liked the dual web Hookbill fit for its range control and wondered if he could use the same idea on other T1 frigates like the Kestrel or even the Merlin. The benefit would be strong range control up to 13km but the downside would be less tank and especially for the Merlin with its shield resistance bonus, that would be a significant waste.

Hookbill and Hawk Meet Their Maker

Starwalker had been enjoying the success of his Caldari Navy Hookbill in his recent engagements. It was bound to end at some point and it was with a little bit of over-confidence that he engaged an Algos at the sun. He had expected to simply burn through the Algos tank before the drones could break his shield. That was not the case and his fine Hookbill became a heap of space junk. For the next Algos fight Starwalker rectified that mistake and went for the drones first but in killing the drones he lost the scramble. So Nathan Irythia escaped with his ship but not his drones.

Starwalker undocked at the helm of a nice Hawk, which was a bit slow in comparison to the Hookbill but it was still a good ship. He spied a Federation Navy Comet at a complex and warped in. The fight started as expected, the Comet was being murdered by the Hawk but then an Incursus arrived and the Comet started to pull range. The Incursus fired on the Hawk. Starwalker suspected that they were cooperating and then noticed that they were both part of the B O R G. The Comet left the fight in deep armour and the Hawk started firing at the Incursus instead but it was easily tanking the damage.

The Comet came back along with a Dramiel and the fight had just turned decisively against Starwalker. He realised too late that tactically he should have moved from the warp-in point as he had made their job much easier. With three frigates in close proximity pounding on the Hawk it was not long before it too became an inert lump of metal and joined its maker.

Back at base Starwalker undocked in another Hookbill and took to the space lanes again. An Atron in a small complex was looking for a fight and surprisingly had the idea of taking on the Hookbill. He started 40km away but edged his way closer feeling out the range. At first Starwalker suspected a kiting fit because he deliberately stayed out of scramble range but then he seemed to change his mind and moved into an orbit of around 8km

This was an opportunity too good to miss and the Atron soon regretted coming in so close as the rockets tore through its structure. Starwalker moved on and spied a Rifter and Tristan together in a medium complex. He decided to engage and as he warped to the gate the two T1 frigates were waiting together for the fight.

Starwalker obliged and went for the Rifter as the closest ship and before long the Rifter was in armour and trying to disengage - it was soon out of scramble range and carried on to go about 30km away. The incoming damage was low and so Starwalker turned his attention to fight the Tristan and before long it too was in deep armour. For some unknown reason the Rifter decided to come back and help his fleet mate but as he got to within 10km the Tristan exploded. The Rifter turned around to run away but Starwalker overheated his web and afterburner and the Rifter died in an explosion shortly after the Tristan.

Starwalker had engaged in a 1 v 2 fight and won, he was very happy with the result even though it was not really a tough fight.

Too Much Time in Dock

Starwalker contemplated his flight time and was disappointed that he had spent so much time in dock. But from time to time he had to be docked to replenish his ISK, Starwalker enjoyed his lifestyle but it did not pay for itself. Recently, he had spent very little time in space and he was missing the opportunities to get into trouble in New Eden.

However, he now had the opportunity and without hesitation he undocked in his Tristan. He had considered changing his fit or flying a different ship but when he was docked all such plans were on hold. The Tristan was still a good ship and the fit was fine, so he scanned local looking for targets and noticed a Rifter, just as his communication channel signaled a Rebel fleet had been formed and were out and about only 13 jumps away.

That was an opportunity too good to miss. He would rendezvous with them but first things first, where was that Rifter - there was some killing to be done. It was at a complex and as Starwalker warped in the Rifter was ready for combat and immediately engaged. Starwalker was a little slow getting his drones out and before long he had his small armour repairer overheated as the Rifter pounded on the Tristan's hull with its autocannons.

The DPS race was truly on as the Rifter orbited at around 1km and the Tristan was dipping into structure. But the drones and the blasters were also wrecking havoc on the Rifter's shields and once they were gone the Rifter rapidly became a wreck. Starwalker exchanged a GF, scooped the loot, repaired the structural damage and joined up with the Rebels.

The fleet headed off with Peri Simone as the fleet commander and with Kane the Black and Groggolog acting as scouts. The fleet had the usual fun and games looking for targets, chasing ships around and waiting at the sun as an open invitation. Finally in Amamake the fleet engaged another small fleet and after killing a Daredevil and Osprey they bugged out.

It had been a good night, a solo kill and a couple of fleet kills. Starwalker headed back to dock happy with the roam. Back in station he sighed as he took off his Black Jacket, he had returned to dock and didn't know when he would be able to undock again. There was still so much he wanted to do and he had so little time in space - it was truly disappointing.

Courage or Stupidity

Starwalker was roaming around in his Tristan and saw four T1 frigates in a medium complex and immediately recognised Semirande as he had only recently destroyed his Atron. The default assumption was that all four frigates were together and a quick check of local revealed a number of people in the same corporation as Semirande.

Starwalker thought it was very unlikely that he could take on four frigates at once but he also wondered if the four were perhaps actually doing the complex and if so there was a chance to engage just one or two. It would be a risky choice to go in as it was equally possible that they wanted to catch something entering the complex. Indeed retrospectively he saw that they had killed a Thorax only 15 minutes before.

Whether it was courage or stupidity Starwalker decided to give it a try - no guts no glory. He warped into the complex and was met by all four frigates as he entered, they were waiting for the chance to pounce. Starwalker went for the nearest ship, the Rifter, and launched his drones. However, momentum changed the relative positions and it ended up 7km away with the Merlin and Republic Fleet Firetail being closer.

The majority of damage was from the drones but this early targeting had the effect of splitting the Tristan firepower because the blasters were out of range. Worse, the drones did not all go after the Rifter and the log showed that they seemed to split their attention between the Rifter and Firetail. Normally Starwalker set the drones to focus fire to concentrate their fire but perhaps Starwalker had switched to the closer Merlin and Firetail.

In any case, the Tristan was taking a lot of damage and was not doing enough damage in return. Given that, it was inevitable that the Tristan would succumb quickly and it did so. There was an Incursus there as well but that must have been out of range when Starwalker arrived as only the other three frigates were on the killmail.

When Starwalker reconsidered the fight he realised that he should have thought about the fight before entering the complex. To decide what he would do if they were waiting for him. Given this was a trap, his only real chance was to overheat his afternurner and speed off away from the frigates rather than engage directly. That manoeuvre was not intended to run away but to split the enemy targets. If he was able to inflict heavy damage whilst avoiding as much incoming damage as possible then he had a chance. Brawling against the odds was not a winning tactic.

Escaped from Kiters - Twice

Starwalker was cruising in his Hawk and looking for trouble. He had refit his Hawk away from the previous MWD fit to an afterburner, two webs and to have slightly more tank. The basic rationale was that he needed range control when brawling and the Javelins could keep kiters away.

Recently he seemed to have run into more kiters and generally fast ships in lowsec, although perhaps that was also because he had been chasing faction warfare pilots. It seemed to Starwalker that he was far more likely to find a fight at a complex than anywhere else currently. He did scan the belts from time to time but he had found zero ratters or anything else for that matter.

He spied a Slasher at a small complex and warped in to find a... Tristan. Starwalker wasted no time wondering about the Slasher and immediately locked up the Tristan, it was soon scrambled, double webbed and taking heavy damage from the rockets. But it wasn't alone and a Rifter, Condor and a Griffin landed close by. Before they could really help the Tristan went down.

Starwalker was firing close range Rage rockets and so attacked the Rifter next, which had come in to 2km, whist the Griffin and Condor were around 15km away. This proved fruitless as the Griffin jammed the Hawk and Starwalker tried to align out to make a desperate run for it. In hindsight, he should have moved in towards the Griffin as he had one more brief window of attack but wasted those shots on the Rifter rather than the real problem - the Griffin. The Hawk was jammed again and then was finally destroyed.

Starwalker jump cloned to Gultratren and undocked his Tristan, using the fit with the web and small armour repairer. Before long he saw a Condor, piloted by Malfyrion, in a complex and warped in. The target was 20km away and so he launched his drones and tried to get closer but the Condor was going at 4.6km/s. That was so fast that the Hobgoblin IIs could not catch up and hit it. Starwalker tried to slingshot in but unsuccessfully and then after some manual flying managed to breakout of range. He succeeded but suspected that Malfyrion had burnt out his long point with all of the manoeuvers. It was a lucky escape as the Tristan was about to run out of capacitor and the ship was already in structure.

A short while later, after getting fully repaired, Starwalker's Tristan warped in to a Kestrel at a complex. The Kestrel again maintained range and Starwalker was again unable to close the distance but this time the Hobgoblin's were inflicting their thermal damage. The Kestrel called for support and an Atron arrived on the scene and started to target the Tristan and so Starwalker decided it was time to head away rather than try to slingshot the Kestrel again.

The Kestrel was deep in armour and decided to beat retreat but the Atron continued to hold point. The drones attacked the Atron and after receiving some damage it decided to leave. Starwalker had now had a second escape from a kiter but luckily got this killmail later when that Atron must have run into a Heron whilst still damaged and was then killed.

Starwalker decided it was time to return to base before one of these kiters destroyed his Tristan when he saw another Tristan when scanning from the sun. He waited at the sun and before long the Tristan, piloted by Destru Kaneda, arrived only 40 km away. Starwalker moved in with his Hobgoblins first and then tried to close into point blank range. Destru had other ideas and the distance was held around 7 to 8km and Destru had also released his Warrior IIs.

Starwalker was slightly surprised to see Warrior IIs as he had assumed that Hobgoblins were the best general choice but on later examining the Tristan's resistance profile - explosive damage was better for armour tanked Tristans. Given that Starwalker's electron blasters were out of range of the target Tristan he set to work on the drones and killed five drones. Initially, he used his web on the enemy drones but in retrospect he should have left it on the Tristan.

In the meantime, both ships were going into structure and it was going to be very, very close. Destru moved in to 5km and Starwalker switched from the remaining three drones to Destru's Tristan and also applied the web. Both ships marched towards zero structure and it looked like Starwalker's Tristan would explode first but a final lucky hit saw Destru's Tristan explode into a fiery ball of flames and his remaining warriors hung limply in space. Good fights were exchanged and Destru noted that it was the closest fight he had been in for a long time. It was the closest fight ever for Starwalker - he had just 4% of structure left.

Faction Warfare Targets

Starwalker had been grounded or at least that was what he felt like as he had spent almost no time in space in the last month. He still had his penchant for the Tristan as an alternative to his Merlin and he had now had a few more fights.

Most of those fights were with faction warfare pilots that were either really doing the complex or simply waiting for a hunter to become the hunted. Crimson StrongBlood had been looking for a fight in his Rifter but when it came down to it - he exploded quickly. The same could be said for groapadegunoi and his Slasher. Alexanderdit was in the complex but whether he wanted to fight was not really clear but whether he wanted to or not his Tristan was forfeit.

However, Starwalker hadn't had it all his own way. The first night back from his long spell away he lost this Tristan. The problem was simple enough:

• Warping in from the acceleration gate he was immediately targeted by JESSKABAL in his Caldari Navy Hookbill, who was waiting for his next target
• Rather than target the Hookbill Starwalker had managed to target the inoffensive beacon as he clicked on the target in the overview as it switched position with the ship
• Launching drones, getting up to speed, scrambling and firing his blasters took some precious seconds. Precioius seconds where he didn't notice that he had the wrong target selected
• Realising he had the wrong target selected Starwalker switched but he had now lost nearly a third of his shield
• He saw the tracking disruptor and web applied to his Tristan and also noticed that he was doing no damage - his guns could not hit the Hookbill at 7.5km with Null while disrupted. But where was the drone damage - that made up two thirds of  the Tristan's firepower?
• His drones were out but simply idle. Having drones set to aggressive and on focus fire had not resulted in them attacking the Hookbill that had now taken half the shield from the Tristan
• Belatedly Starwalker engaged the Hookbill with his drones but he knew that it was too little too late
• He aligned out and tried to escape but with a web applied by the Hookbill he had no chance of getting the Tristan out - only his pod

The fight had not gone well, Starwalker felt rusty and that he had made a lot of silly mistakes. He had been in a later fight where he had engaged a Tormentor and somehow had made the same mistake with his drones. The damage came in but very little was going out, he felt sure he had pressed "F" to engage but his drones (again) were idle. It appeared that this command to engage had been lost at the start of the battle.

These faction warfare pilots seemed to run the full range of behaviours, from those that were in the complex for itself and did not want to engage, those that were there but would engage, those that were there as bait and those that were there to kill the hunters. That classification did not include those that were AFK, warp stabilised or those that lurked 100km - 200km away just watching but would disappear if you approached. Starwalker wondered if he should sit in a complex and see what came, perhaps an interesting new tactic to try.

Whilst Starwalker had gained a little more experience with the Tristan he also realised that he liked the holy trinity of propulsion, scram and web and the shield fit that he was using did not have the web. That web gave some degree of range control and would increase the damage from his drones, which was important now that he had Drone Interfacing V. The trouble was that the small armour repairer did not seem especially effective but perhaps that was Starwalker's imagination.

Tryst with Tristan

Starwalker was contemplating the next Gallente ship to fly despite having just bought loads of missiles. His Kestrel had killed this Venture but the ship just did not set his heart on fire. The reason was simply down to the alternative - the joy of fighting up close and personal with high damage blasters. He had to replace his last blaster ship - this Merlin lost to a Thorax.

Choosing what ship to fly though was a combination of factors and not just one thing. In particular, and beyond their capabilities, there were four frigates that Starwalker actually liked the look of - Rifter, Merlin, Punisher (and their variants) and also the...Tristan. It was a very quirky looking ship but there was something about it that just appealed, unlike 80% of the other ships in New Eden.

The Tristan had recently been over-hauled and was now a drone boat with blasters and Starwalker decided that he would start to fly it immediately as he had good blaster skills and reasonable drone skills. The drone skills had been started when he had dallied with the battlecruisers earlier this year. 

The Tristan fit recommended on FailHeap Challenge was a railgun kiting fit but Starwalker liked blasters. However, given the ability to field five drones most of the damage was drone based with the ship's bonuses to turret tracking (7.5%) and drone tracking and hitpoints (10%). The first fit that Starwalker came up with was based on defining a decent tank and amplifying the drone damage:

[Tristan, MSE]

Pseudoelectron Containment Field I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Drone Damage Amplifier II

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Medium Shield Extender II

Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Light Electron Blaster II, Caldari Navy Antimatter Charge S
Small Energy Neutralizer II

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I

Hobgoblin II x5
Warrior II x3

At level 5 skill this Tristan put out an impressive (combined) 189 DPS with a 6.6k EHP tank; using small core defence field extenders would increase the tank to nearly 7k EHP but Starwalker wanted the resists. The maiden voyage of the Tristan resulted in two nice kills:

• Rifter, piloted by Naen Aliel, who tried to maintain a 5km orbit (successfully) whilst trying to kill the drones. He killed one drone but the others got him and Starwalker only noticed after the event that his blasters had contributed nothing to the fight
• Punisher, piloted by Energy God, who surprisingly decided to get in close. Energy God started firing at the Tristan but then changed to the drones. It didn't matter as the result was the same - another kill

Whilst both fights had resulted in kills Starwalker realised that he had some potential improvements to make:

1. The Rifter could have left the fight at any time with the range control. Indeed he should have left earlier to avoid destruction. The Tristan needed to have a web to keep targets in range - better pilots would simply have left once it was clear that they were losing and they could escape
2. The energy neutraliser may have had an effect but as the range oscillated, mainly in the Rifter fight, it had to be continually re-applied. It was unclear how effective it was during the fight
3. Starwalker did not manage the drones at all during the fight, he simply launched them and engaged the target. He would need to start managing the drones during the fight, in particular, recalling drones that were about to be destroyed to save them. It might even be possible to relaunch them later when the target was focused on other things (drones or Tristan)

Starwalker was pleased with how the fights had gone and how the Tristan had performed. He might tweak the fit a little more but in short he enjoyed flying it and managing the drones, even if superficially so far, it was a whole new experience.

Problems in a Plex

Starwalker had been wandering around Placid for a while and had terrorised a few plexers but some of those ships had not even been armed, reducing the fun factor. Most of the time they simply ran away as soon as they were aware that they were not alone. On occasion, some waited until the last minute to warp away - a sort of FU.

The really clever ones would wait until they were engaged and fired on and then warp away courtesy of their warp stabilisers. The beauty of this last method meant that the aggressor had GCC and had to wait it out - the best FU, as the aggressor didn't even have a kill to show for the wait.

Of course, some plexers were acting as bait, waiting for an aggressor to arrive and that was the equivalent of waiting at the sun or the top belt for them. A chance to turn the tables where the hunter becomes the hunted, especially if the hunter has fit the ship specifically to catch plexers or overcome a single warp stabiliser.

Starwalker had killed this Incursus but there wasn't a huge satisfaction in it as it wasn't even armed and could not fight back. The problem was that these easy kills had lulled Starwalker into a false sense of security as he rarely ever encountered someone looking to kill the hunter. Indeed, he had modified his overview to show the NPCs as he was in more danger from them rather than the plexer.

It was with this overconfidence that Starwalker entered a plex and saw a Rifter 60km away. He started the burn towards it and decided that he would wait until the last moment to target it and use his scrambler first. There was no real reason to do that - just a different way of locking up the target and scrambling it, an experiment with a different method. The one notable difference being that targeting happened at the last moment or within 10km rather than 20km or 30km away.

The trouble was - it all went horribly wrong. The Rifter may have been looking for a fight but Starwalker wasn't 100% sure and as his Condor got close he got locked up by NPCs and his auto-target locked them back. This setting worked well in PvP but it was not so useful with NPCs in close proximity.

Unfortunately everything was in close proximity and just as Starwalker was targeting the Rifter with his scrambler the position of the ships changed in the overview and Starwalker had started to lock an NPC instead. These precious few seconds lost was not good. Worse the targeting had to be started again adding more seconds of delay.

The damage was coming in thick and fast and Starwalker set the ancillary shield boosters going. As the wasted seconds ticked by Starwalker had to waste some more time to select the Rifter to fire on. And by this stage the Condor was nearly running out of shields and the booster was running low but he opened fire anyway and started to neut the Rifter.

Starwalker realised that it was all too little too late, you simply could not waste 7-10 seconds in a 20-30 second fight and his Condor burst into flames whilst the Rifter was still in armour. Disappointed at his lack of dexterity and over-confidence Starwalker's pod streaked away to safety.

In retrospect, Starwalker should have:

• Targeted the Rifter much earlier, there was no special reason to wait. This was especially important if NPCs were in the overview and close by
• Recognised immediately that he was at a disadvantage with the targeting error and align out to get some distance and possibly escape as needed. Instead Starwalker had continued to orbit at 500m, which was unnecessary in a rocket ship and benefited the Rifter
• Rifters with autocannons should have been engaged at around 5km anyway to reduce the effectiveness of their autocannons. He should not have been lazy and left the orbit set to 500m. He had 500m set to reduce ability for targets to run away but in reality that rarely ever happened once plexers had been engaged

Incursus and Rifter Jump Merlin

Starwalker was scouting for StarStepper at the sun in Oulley and noticed that there was a gate camp waiting for those coming from Orvolle. What he didn't notice immediately was an Incursus landing nearby, it was just under 10km away and it had not targeted Starwalker's Merlin yet. That was strange or may be it had literally just arrived.

Starwalker did not hesitate and engaged the Incursus, and almost as soon as the fight started a Rifter came in too and targeted his Merlin. The Incursus was firing and trying to maintain a range of around 7km but with a web applied the distance closed to 2km. However, with two close targets available Starwalker made a decision to take down the Rifter and opened fire.

He felt sure that the Incursus would be difficult to kill and the Rifter would be much easier - he also wanted to take at least one down before his ship exploded. The damage was coming in hot and fast and given how his shields had evaporated Starwalker knew that he was unlikely to survive this encounter but he was determined to take the Rifter with him. The Rifter started to take serious damage.

The Merlin was on fire with the shield booster desperately trying to forestall the fiery end, at least long enough for the Rifter kill. The Rifter exploded first and then the Merlin followed soon afterwards. Starwalker got his pod away and was satisfied with the kill.

In retrospect he should have realised that the Incursus was railgun fit by the range and initial damage profile. Consequently, he should have started firing sooner and tried to stay close to the Incursus as the Rifter would probably have also stayed close. With the Incursus railgun and web fit Starwalker was unsure if his Merlin could get under its guns and stay there to reduce the incoming damage but it would have been worth trying.

Starwalker also considered that if he was a better pilot then maybe he could have taken them both down and his Merlin survived to tell the tale. Something to aspire to.

Just In Time to Die

Starwalker had managed to run into a gate camp (Hurricane and Curse) and died very quickly. The surprise - first gate camp in some time - had resulted in Starwalker turning on his tank but forgetting to try to burn back to the gate or generally escape. Although the Merlin's demise was sufficiently quick that it probably would not have made it. Worse, he was podded too.

Starwalker upgraded his clone from the default medical clone, paused the training queue and then plugged in another set of +3 learning implants:

• Ocular Filter - Basic
• Memory Augmentation - Basic
• Neural Boost - Basic
• Cybernetic Subprocessor - Basic

Plus some additional cheap implants for minor boosts:

• Zainou 'Deadeye' Small Hybrid Turret SH-603
• Zainou 'Gnome' Shield Management SM-701
• Inherent Implants 'Noble' Mechanic MC-803
• Eifyr and Co. 'Gunslinger' Surgical Strike SS-901
• Zainou 'Deadeye' Rapid Launch RL-1001

The total cost was around 40m ISK, which was a level that Starwalker was comfortable losing when podded. The +4 implants were just a little too expensive to lose. Undeterred from the loss Starwalker was soon out again in another Merlin.

Angron Vail noted an Incursus at his local sun in the corporate communications channel and called for some help as he thought it was with a Thrasher. Peri Simone responded that he would help and soon called point on the Incursus. Starwalker replied that he was three jumps out and that it would be all over by the time he got there.

Just as Starwalker arrived at the home system gate Peri Simone called point on the Thrasher and immediately Starwalker jumped through and warped to the sun. Peri Simone was in a Republic Fleet Firetail around around 50km away with a Thrasher and an Incursus. Just as Starwalker started to burn towards them Angron Vail returned in another Rifter.

The Incursus, piloted by Raiden Rattlehead, turned towards the new arrivals and the distance closed rapidly to engagement range. Starwalker's Merlin applied scram, web and blasters and the Incursus tanked like a champion. It was clearly another dual repair active tank fit and they were really strong. 

The Thrasher had rejoined the frigate fray and was targeting Starwalker's Merlin and it was struggling to stay alive. However, the other Rebels tipped the balance and the Incursus became a space wreck. Starwalker switched target to the Thrasher as the point dropped on the Merlin and considered whether to leave to repair as the Thrasher was already damaged.

He took too long to decide and the Merlin joined the wreckage. The Thrasher though did not last much longer and it too went down in flames. Starwalker had not expected to join this fight as he thought it would be over by the time he got there but as luck would have it - he was just in time to die.

Merlin and Rifter Dance of Death 2

Starwalker was still basking in the satisfaction of having just killed an Incursus and was collecting the loot when the same Cynabal pilot, WRAITH DEMON challenged Starwalker to a frigate duel. Naturally, he accepted.

Starwalker waited at the sun and wondered whether it was a good idea to fight again immediately given that he had the loot from the last kill in his cargo hold. However, in reality that hardly mattered as losing the ship was more important than the loot and losing the ship was not that important.

WRAITH DEMON arrived in a Rifter and Starwalker started to burn towards him, however, around 30km away the Rifter warped away. Confused, Starwalker asked him why he had gone and the reply was that he had been hit by station guns from his GCC and wanted to repair. So Starwalker waited but wondered if this was part of a trick.

Soon, the Rifter was back again and Starwalker engaged in the usual sequence to lock, web, scramble and fire. He had set keep at distance to around 1km or point blank range. It seemed the Rifter was also fit for a brawl and the dance of death began.

As the two frigates whirled around each other it was not looking good for the Merlin as its shields started to evaporate. The Rifter shields hardly seemed to be moving at all and Starwalker briefly wondered whether it might be getting repairs from elsewhere. However, he was committed and this was now do or die.

The Merlin shields started blaring the low shield warning and Starwalker thought it was looking bad but then the Rifter shields started to crumble and suddenly the Rifter was losing its shield fast. The Merlin's armour was being ripped away and it received its first dent to its structure but now the Rifter was also in armour. Suddenly it was over and for a moment Starwalker didn't know whether he had exploded or WRAITH DEMON.

The Rifter was gone. Starwalker was elated, he was in 50% structure but he had won, he saw the pod and went for it but again was too slow and it got away. However, Starwalker was ecstatic with the second kill and collected another lot of loot from the wreckage. He returned to base very happy and looking forward to his next flight but he knew that he woud be docked for a couple of weeks for some planetside holiday.

Merlin Tracking a Rifter

Starwalker was roaming around The Citadel in his Merlin and noticed on warping to an out gate that there was a Gila on scan. The pilot was new and the opportunity seemed to good to pass by. So Starwalker started burning off the gate in a random direction and tried to narrow down the Gila location.

Jev North landed on the same gate in his Merlin about 10km away and immediately locked up Starwalker and started firing - lazors. Maybe he had been reading Azual and some of his alternate options for fitting a Merlin. In any event, Starwalker returned fire and closed in applying web and scramble. However, before the fight really got going Jev North headed away again and when out of range he simply warped off and did not return. Strange, presumably some experiment.

Starwalker returned to scanning down the Gila and it seemed to be in the direction of an asteroid belt. Starwalker warped in to 20km on the basis that the Gila was ratting and had pulled away from the belt a little. There was nothing there. The Gila must have been at a POS or safe and Starwalker did not have any probing ships near by.

Moving on to a new system Starwalker was challenged to a T1 frigate duel by BillyBulb. Whenever Starwalker had been challenged it was usually a good pilot looking for another kill and this seemed to be no exception. BillyBulb was a Battleclinic top ranked pilot but that was no reason to refuse the offer, and so Starwalker accepted it and waited at a random planet.

BillyBulb arrived 60km away in a Rifter and Starwalker was concerned that he would be kited to death at around 6-7km or possibly even an artillery fit from outside scram range. In any event, he would find out soon.

The two frigates engaged with range closing to point blank around 1km. Pleased that it was a straight brawl, Starwalker overheated everything immediately and set orbit to 2km. After a short while he remembered to use keep at range instead and the Rifter shields collapsed under the fire but its armour held. It was active tanked with a huge amount of repair taking place each cycle. Unfortunately, Starwalker did not have a neutraliser to destroy its capacitor, he would have to rely on time for it to cap out.

The Rifter dipped into structure and back out again but the Merlin shields were nearly gone. Starwalker noticed that his guns were nearly burnt out and tried to stop the over heat. Too late, the rockets were gone and one of the two blasters. It was over. Starwalker aligned out and spammed warp, as usual, not to save the ship but to save the pod. The Merlin ignited into a bright burst of flames as its last sliver of structure was blown away.

It turned out that the Rifter was dual repair fit with a capacitor booster so it was never going to cap out before the Merlin died. Starwalker checked the log files after the fight and noticed the part that transversal and tracking had played in the fight. 

When orbiting - the blasters missed more than half of the time, and when using keep at range they missed less than 10% of the time. The Caldari Navy Antimatter S and reducing transversal made a big difference to effective damage applied. Starwalker would need to pay more attention to tracking and transversal.

Merlin Finds Rifter in Plex

Starwalker's Merlin was cruising around in The Citadel and noticed a Rifter and Tristan come up on the scan. Time to find trouble. The scan narrowed down the Rifter to a plex and Starwalker jumped right in by warping to zero.

The acceleration gate invited activation but there was nothing else around so invitation accepted the Merlin launched itself deeper into the plex. Right into the Rifter that was waiting there. Starwalker proceeded to hit multiple buttons to lock the target, orbit, apply scramble and fire. However, as usual it seemed that too many orders too quickly confused things and the targeting order failed.

Starwalker had yet to find a reliable way to exit warp and lock up the target and point or scramble it fast. The operative word being fast. It seemed whether he used the keyboard, overview or click that something went wrong. At least one Rifter was able to get away because the point was not applied fast enough.

However, this Rifter, piloted by Milo Caman, wanted to fight and he locked the Merlin and proceeded with his acts of violence. Starwalker engaged and finally applied his scramble but it was hardly needed as this Rifter was not trying to run. Whilst the Merlin was soaking up the damage its return fire was also tearing away the Rifter defences.

It would be a fight to the death and the two frigates pummelled each other at close range. Starwalker originally wanted to orbit at 4km but the fight was happening at 1.5km. Despite the Merlin webbing the Rifter it was the Rifter that had established range control with its web and its armour repper was trying to keep up with the incoming damage but failing ever so slowly.

However, the Merlin's shields were also going down and it was not clear who would win. The two frigates were on fire but continued to try to deal the final death blow when a Tristan arrived. Starwalker assumed he was here to save the Rifter and decided that he would align out but stay to kill the Rifter or go down trying. As usual, the alignment out was not to save the ship but to save the pod.

The Tristan, piloted by Jev North, closed to within 7km of Starwalker and fired its rockets. The Merlin was engulfed in flames but finally destroyed the Rifter with just under 5% of structure left. It was the closest fight that Starwalker had ever had but the victory was short-lived. Less than a second later it too was destroyed as the final sliver of structure was ripped away by the Tristan's rocket. The flight time of the rocket had been enough of a delay for Starwalker to get the kill.

Two Rifters at the Sun in Tama

Starwalker was cruising around The Citadel in his Crow and enjoying flying at interceptor speeds ~3km/s. Jumping in to a new system a Kestrel was around 50km off the gate and Suzu Fujibayashi asked whether the Crow was an SML or Rocket fit.

After considering the question for a moment, Starwalker replied "Rockets" and went to the Sun.  His thinking was simple - if the Kestrel was missile fit and could successfully kite then he could simply run. If the Kestrel was also rocket fit then it should be a victory. The Kestrel arrived at the Sun 100km away and Starwalker burnt towards it.

The Crow started orbiting and firing away with the rockets at around 18km and the Kestrel started to lose its shields. After a few seconds the Kestrel simply decided to leave, gained distance and warped away. Starwalker was surprised that the Kestrel could get away so easily and wondered if he should have approached or used a tighter orbit to make the Kestrel's escape a little harder.

Starwalker moved on, was soon in Tama and warping to the Sun. Two Rifters were there around 100km away, piloted by Cyberkilll and Gerhard Faust. Starwalker hadn't scanned the sun beforehand and so it was a surprise to see them there but he did not hesitate and simply charged straight in.

The first Rifter was locked and being orbited at around 16km with the Crow's rockets tearing away the shields. The second Rifter was closing fast and was around 10km away and applied a web very quickly. Starwalker tried to keep the second Rifter at distance but it didn't work and suddenly the Rifter was at 3km with a scram applied.

Starwalker thought it was looking bad but he kept his overheated rockets on the first Rifter and it exploded. The incoming damage was very low but he had no time to think about that and quickly switched targets. The rockets now pounded at the second Rifter and as that Rifter started to crumble he noticed that very little damage had been received or was being received despite the fact that the Rifter was still close. It too erupted into a ball of fire.

Starwalker had won his first 1v2 even if both victims were new. Whilst this was the first time that he had engaged two ships solo and won he considered his mistakes. He had not:

• Considered positioning his Crow to engage one at a time, he had simply charged in and set the orbit
• Reacted to the second Rifter soon enough, he had not watched the second Rifter approach and he should have tried to keep it at range earlier
• Seen the relative positions of the ships, he had watched the battle through the overview and HUD and so was never aware of relative position, only relative distance 

Whatever the faults of the fight, Starwalker was please to get some kills and looked forward to flying in the Crow again. That reminded him, his training for Battlecruiser V was now finishing, he would complete Destroyers V next and then do Interceptor V.

RIFTA says Hello and EVE Welcome by the North

The R1FTA holiday in the North had started and Ilik Tanikalot was beginning celebrations with a roam around the local area. It was a frigate and Thrasher party and the meet up started in The Citadel.

Starwalker had a Merlin and was testing out a new fit as an alternative T1 frigate to the trusty Rifter. Starwalker was still enjoying experimenting with ships, even if that had almost exclusively been with frigates so far. 

Training for a larger ship had commenced and Battlecruiser V was currently being trained but Starwalker wondered if he had dismissed the cruiser class too quickly. Maybe he should actually fly them before battlecruisers, however, that question could wait, as Starwalker returned to the task in hand - to fit the selected modules to the Merlin.

The new Merlin experiment failed immediately as Starwalker tried to actually fit the T2 blasters. He did not have the pre-requisite skill level. Starwalker had forgotten to train the blaster skill before starting battlecruiser V. In turn, this then emphasised a problem with only keeping a few ships and fittings at a station - few or no alternate choices for fitting the ship.

Starwalker replaced the T2 blasters with 200mm auto-cannons and knew that his carefully selected set of modules for the ships present in station had just been thrown into chaos. A rethink and resupply to the station would be needed to realign the ships and their available modules.

The Merlin was ready and smoothly slid into space and joined the other R1FTA pilots. The fleet meandered through The Citadel looking for targets of opportunity and eventually their patience was rewarded in Black Rise, Akidagi. A Tengu was spotted and engaged.

The R1FTA pilots swarmed in and initiated - death by a thousand cuts. Point was established and maintained as frigates and destroyers swirled about the Tengu but the Tengu was not alone and as it started to go down his friends joined the fight - Cynabal, Vagabond, Stilletto, Pilgrim, Blackbird and Ares.

The R1FTA swarm was being depleted fast but they focused on the Tengu and brought him down. The remaining R1FTA pilots then bugged out to reorganise and re-ship as needed. The R1FTA hello to the North had resulted in a great Tengu kill.

With spirits high and alcohol flowing freely the reorganised fleet set off again but the North hadn't properly finished welcoming the R1FTA pilots and the fleet was decimated in Akidagi again and Starwalker lost his lovely Merlin. Undeterred the R1FTA fleet set out again with Starwalker buying an available fitted Thrasher. It did not last long as the R1FTA fleet again succumbed to the locals and the newly commissioned Thrasher became a new wreck.

Starwalker returned to base to re-ship and was unable to fit a Merlin so undocked in a trusty Rifter but with an artillery fit. Starwalker preferred brawlers with more tank but his choice was limited to what was in station. The reconstituted fleet headed off to Syndicate null-sec and received yet another warm welcome from many locals and the artillery Rifter was gone.

Having had a full evening of entertainment Starwalker headed back to base - in his capsule. It had been fun and the highlight had been the Tengu kill. No doubt it would be an interesting holiday here in the North and Starwalker reset his clone location to local. Given the warm welcome so far it would only be a matter of time before he found himself in the clone vat.

On Imperial Navy Slicer Kill By Accident

Starwalker was flying with some other Rebels in Heimatar looking for trouble. It was not really an organised roam, more of a collection of Rifters in the same area looking for targets. One of the engagements was an Imperial Navy Slicer.

The Slicer was playing on the gate with the Rebels, knowing that the sentry guns would fire on any Rebels that took aggressive action. Of course, the Rebels knew that too but decided to play with the Slicer as it targeted various Rebels and so a Jaguar locked it up and fired.

Starwalker also had the Slicer locked because he had auto-lock set and watched the Slicer shield disappear and enter armour. Presumably the Slicer was not returning fire and would simply jump as soon as it felt in serious danger. So, Starwalker decided to open fire just to add a little scare by increasing the incoming damage a little faster.

His intent was to fire two rounds and then warp away before the gate guns decimated the tank of the Rifter. The first part of the plan went fine but when the warp away was supposed to happen - nothing happened. Everything seemed to hang and then suddenly, everything caught up and Starwalker was in structure and then his pod. WTF!

Starwalker went back to station hugely disappointed. He knew the target was not red, knew he had not been fired on, knew the gate would open fire if he aggressed, but decided he could get away before being destroyed if he didn't hang around but inexplicably he did not warp away.

The only consolation was that the Slicer was caught a little later at the sun and Starwalker was on the kill mail. Starwalker heard the good news in station and was about to undock when his system crashed.