T1 – Merlin Murders Rifter in Moonlight

Starwalker issued a challenge for a T1 tournament duel and The Ecca One came in his Rifter. It was agreed to fight at Moon 10 and Starwalker warped to zero in his Merlin ready for combat.

The Ecca One wasted no time as he too landed at zero and the fight commenced immediately. It was a simple slugfest. The Rifter was hitting with all the damage that can be inflicted by 200mm auto cannons and rockets and the Merlin was soaking up the punishment and returning fire with 150mm auto cannons and rockets. Starwalker overheated his guns and accidently ungrouped them instead. No matter – start firing and overheat the rack instead.


As a straight damage race it was being won by the Rifter but it was not just a straight damage race – it was also about surviving the onslaught long enough to get the kill. The Merlin established its relative superiority and murdered (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2915) the Rifter in the moonlight. The Rifter had inflicted more damage but it couldn’t survive long enough to get the kill – the Merlin did.

It was another good fight and Starwalker had been using ROTA (Range, Overheat, tank and Attack) to watch the fight and to react to key elements of the combat.

T1 – Kestrel Wings Clipped

Rocanegra issued a challenge for a T1 tournament duel and Starwalker answered the call, undocking in a Merlin. Rocanegra was likely to use a Kestrel as he had won four times previously with it.

The Merlin had been specifically fit with a micro warp-drive to close to scramble range against a kiting fit. The question was what would Rocanegra bring to the fight? If he brought something else then the battle plan would need to be adapted.

Kestrel jumped in at 100km – mystery over. The next key question was could the Merlin close to scramble range? The Kestrel closed to point range and its missiles started hitting hard; Starwalker didn’t bother trying to shoot back at 20km. The micro warp-drive was kicked into life to close to scramble range, the seconds ticked by and… it wasn’t working, the range was being held around 20km.

Starwalker overheated the micro warp-drive and then suddenly the distance closed rapidly. Fantastic - scramble applied and finally the guns and rockets returned fire. The Kestrel was about to have its wings clipped, the Merlin had broken into close combat range and it would be over soon. The Merlin shields were down to 40% but the Kestrel simply melted (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2771) at close range.

Starwalker was very pleased and exchanged a “good fight”. It was then that he noticed that the micro warp-drive was burnt out and lots of other overheating damage. Well, it didn’t matter now as the fight was over and won. 

T1 - Speed Kills Kestrel

Doctor Genocide was ready for a T1 tournament duel and came in a Rifter that landed 100km away. Starwalker started to move towards it but decided to lower the speed of his Kestrel to 1200m/s to see the effect on the capacitor rather than using full warp.

This was not the time to be messing about with the speed and more importantly – Starwalker forgot to reset it as the distance closed to combat range. Around 40km Starwalker’s attention was diverted to targeting the opponent’s Rifter and at 30km firing the first round of missiles. Then setting orbit to 19km. It was then that Starwalker noticed that the speed was still at 1200m/s and whilst it was reset to full speed it was too late.

Doctor Genocide was not one to miss an opportunity and took full advantage of the mistake to close the distance to less than 10km. The Kestrel had no tank worth speaking of and disintegrated (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2756) quickly.

It was a silly loss that was the result of pure fail, not the type of error to repeat in the wild and not really one to repeat within the T1 tournament. Lack of speed killed the Kestrel or more accurately the silly time to experiment with its speed and worse forgetting to reset it until too late.

T1 – Rifter Kited to Death

Starwalker undocked in a 400mm armour Rifter ready for some T1 tournament action with Super Space Fighter, who also arrived in a… Rifter. Good, game on - it should be a stand up fight, so let the brawl commence.

It started well with Starwalker flying in from the sun but then it all went horribly wrong as the distance did not get down to close quarter combat, the range remained at 10km to 15km. Starwalker’s 150mm auto cannons tried to lay down the hurt but fighting at that range was barely hitting and even overheating did not appreciably change the damage.

The artillery fit Rifter had no such trouble and was now tearing away Starwalker’s armour to get to the pod. The armour repair was not keeping up and a last desperate measure was tried – to overheat the afterburner to close the distance.

It was useless and in all the excitement Starwalker forgot the basic lesson – try to slingshot (move away and then back towards) a kiter to get into range. Eventually the armour was ripped away and then the structure to destroy (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2720) the valiant but doomed armoured Rifter. It had been kited to death.

T1 – Another Rifter Bites the Dust

Kooba Kaundur came to Auner for a T1 tournament fight and Starwalker obliged with his trusty Rifter, waiting at a safe spot. The d-scan revealed that this would be a Rifter on Rifter duel and Starwalker spun up the engines and headed off in a random direction.

The enemy Rifter arrived on the scene and this time Starwalker quickly went through the lock, orbit, scramble, fire and overheat guns routine. It was immediately obvious that there was very little incoming damage but that the outgoing damage was seriously ripping apart the target’s shield and armour.

Kooba Kaundur’s Rifter tore apart (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2691) and the flames were quickly quelled by the cold dark of space. It was over and another Rifter bites the dust.

What was strange though was that the damage pattern echoed the one with Joe Struck:

The mystery remained as to why the damage was highest in the first 20 seconds or so of the fight. Perhaps the initial approach had a very low traversal but once the orbit settles in the traversal becomes higher and reduces the damage. One way to test this theory would be to use keep at range instead.

T1 - Kestrel Kite Strikes Again

Duke Thunderhorse was in system looking for a T1 tournament victim. Starwalker answered the call and emerged in a new Kestrel after the last one got its comeuppance from Overnauta.

The Kestrel swooped into the fray and engaged from 18km. The missiles smashed into the Rifter and it was unable to respond. The Rifter shields disappeared and the red march through armour continued uninterrupted. The Duke was about to be demoted to a corpse when the capacitor ran out and the point dropped.

Duke Thunderhorse needed no second invitation to leave the dance and warped away. Starwalker waited, guessing that the Duke was bouncing between planets and trying to repair. Starwalker waited for the capacitor to recharge rather than waste a booster and then warped to the Duke for the last dance.

Duke’s Rifter hung limply in space near a huge planet. The Kestrel circled its prey, which was in bad shape with around 25% armour remaining but the shields had recharged back up to 90%. The Duke was bloodied but ready and went for one last throw of the dice with a do or die run at the Kestrel.

It was no good – he was too slow and too weak to put up much more of a fight and a few more shots laid the Duke to rest (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2695). The Kestrel kite had struck again.

T1 - Kestrel Gets Comeuppance

Overnauta was in his Rifter ready for T1 tournament combat and arrived on scene to find Starwalker’s Kestrel. The Kestrel moved in and engaged at a distance of around 18km. The Rifter tried to respond but the 150mm autocannons simply missed completely. It looked like the Kestrel would claim another victim.

It was looking bad for Overnauta but his luck was just about to change as Starwalker accidently burnt out his microwarpdrive and then his missile launchers. Starwalker was helpless, waiting for the inevitable end. The Rifter closed in and started scoring some real hits. The Kestrel shields dropped away but unexpectedly the firing stopped – Overnauta had in turn burnt out his guns!

The real result was right there – a draw due to both pilots burning out their weapons. But this was the Black Rebel Rifter Club and the right outcome is a kill!

So a rematch was agreed and a few minutes later the fight was on again. However, Starwalker was having trouble with the controls and despite trying to turn off the overheating on the missiles – it wouldn’t work. Starwalker was winning the fight but had to leave because his missile launchers had burnt out again. As soon as he did so he realized that it was a mistake and that he should forfeit the match.

Overnauta was very sporting and suggested a third and final match. Starwalker knew that he should change ships but since he should have lost the match already he decided to stay in the Kestrel and see what Overnauta could do – third time lucky.

Overnauta’s 280mm artillery fit Rifter managed to land reasonably close to the Kestrel from the warp-in and he lost no time in striking first. It was a good and massive hit and the Kestrel shield melted down to 25% immediately. Starwalker tried to gain a bit more range and delayed overheating the missile launchers because of the earlier trouble with overheating. It was a fatal mistake.

The Rifter continued to apply damage out to 20km but much less so and the Kestrel was slowly catching up, tearing away the Rifter shields and armour. But the excellent first strike start, the delayed overheating of missile launchers and a final well-aimed artillery shot decided the match. The Kestrel had got its comeuppance (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2690).

T1 – Rifter versus Rifter Brawl

Starwalker issued a T1 tournament challenge in corporation chat and Joe Struck answered. He was a younger pilot but that did not necessarily mean much. Zodiac Black had been a younger pilot but had easily won the practice duels. Preparation, combat skills and effective ship fit could easily overcome any training skill deficit.

The decision now was what ship to choose? Close or ranged combat ship? Undocking a Rifter Starwalker headed to the rendezvous point. Joe Struck landed in a Rifter only 4km away and the fight was on.

What was clear immediately was that Joe Struck operated the ship controls much faster than Starwalker as the damage started coming in before Starwalker had even started. The shields disappeared almost immediately and Starwalker decided to overheat the auto cannons and rockets.

The armour repair started to deal with the incoming damage to the armour and Joe Struck’s Rifter was still comfortably in shield. Slowly the shield Rifter started to give way and then it went completely and was quickly followed by the armour and structure. It ignited (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2639) into a burst of flames and then it was gone. Starwalker had about 20% of armour still remaining.

The combat log revealed the tale of two damages and Starwalker noted the increased damage at the start, followed by a tailing off and then and a slight increase and tailing off again.

Starwalker did not understand why this particular pattern was produced and decided that more combat logs would need to be seen to understand the applied damage mechanics.

T1 - Kestrel Kites Tristan to Death

Rebel Gul’gotha Der’vash issued a challenge in chat for a T1 Tournament duel – Starwalker accepted. It was agreed that it would take place in Auner and Starwalker undocked in his especially prepared Kestrel.

Gul’gotha arrived in system with his Tristan and Starwalker approached. Targeting the Tristan and settling into an orbit of 15km the missiles started to crash into the Tristan and inflicting damage.

As expected there was little or no return fire as the range was simply too great for most close combat ships but the Tristan had one trick to pull which was to release a Hobgoblin I drone. However, a single drone unassisted was simply no match and a couple of bursts of missiles destroyed it in short order.

The missile assault on the Tristan restarted and it looked like the Tristan could neither run away nor close the distance to catch the Kestrel. The only question that remained was would the firepower be sufficient to overcome the Tristan tank. It was time to overheat the missile launchers.

Unexpectedly Gul’gotha had an opportunity to escape as the Kestrel capacitor ran out and point dropped. Starwalker boosted the capacitor and reapplied the point. It was all over now unless the Tristan could pull off some fancy flying. It couldn’t or didn’t. The Tristan armour was stripped away and then its structure – it was helpless and exploded (http://r1fta.griefwatch.net/?p=details&kill=2634) in a fireball of death and destruction.

Good fights were exchanged and Starwalker reviewed the combat log to see the course of events in terms of dps:

It was clear to see the key stages of the fight

1. Missiles start applying damage
2. Hobgoblin I attack unassisted provides a tepid response with some hits and misses
3. Drone is destroyed and attack on Tristan then continues
4. Missiles are overheated with a noticeable impact in applied damage

This had proven to be interesting and Starwalker wondered whether there was a case for taking the Kestrel out into the wild. It could clearly take down a T1 frigate but could it do the same against a frigate with a T2 tank? Similarly, a Rifter had the opportunity for above class kills by getting under their guns but the Kestrel was more likely to be picked off at range. This was something else to think about.

R1FTA T1 Tournament

Kaeda Maxwell arranged a R1FTA tournament based on T1 frigates and modules only with no ECM. Many of the R1FTA pilots signed up and Starwalker was no exception. The key of course was to define what ships and fits to use against whom. In essence two different fits would be needed one for close combat and one for ranged combat.

Starwalker had seen previously in corporation chat that range fits would generally do better in frigate duels than close combat fits. In essence you strike and kite the opponent to death, whilst typically being out of range of any return fire.

Numerous Rifter close combat fits could be modified for T1:

·       Shield (buffer) tanked with auto cannons and rockets | neutralisers | vampires

·       Armour (active and buffer) with auto cannons and rockets | neutralisers | vampires

Looking for a ranged fit, the search began with the favoured Rifter and using the 280mm ‘Scout’ Artillery I but that did not seem to have either the range or bite needed against multiple different targets. Whilst some other rebels had been successful with it, most notably Tomba, it seemed too easy for an opponent with a web to get close. Starwalker looked elsewhere and came to the Kestrel after re-reading Azual’s excellent articles on Know Your Enemy.

Starwalker had previously flown various Caldari ships during his pre-R1FTA days when missioning. Unfortunately an accident with the medical clone had removed 5% of skills and Standard Missiles V but that would be easy enough to train again.

The Kestrel fit created nominally had less DPS than the artillery Rifter but it could operate easily at a range between 15km-20km. At that range the Rifter DPS would fall off dramatically and 15km-20km was also comfortably outside of web range. So effectively the applied DPS would be higher and the chances of being caught by a close combat ship would be reduced.

So decision made, Starwalker went to the Neocom console to order the ships and equipment for the T1 Tournament. The final confirmation, if any were needed, was that another rebel - Rocanegra – had already successfully used a Kestrel.