15 Jun 2012

Summer time, RR roll-out and stealth bomber magic.

The last couple of roams we have been going out with Stealth Bombers - partly inspired by Rixx's excellent article on Stealth Bombers and that their new make-over is SEX has meant that us pirates have been screaming around low-sec in these little beasties. I am flying a hound but I have to say, the Nemesis looks sweet. Might need to get me one of those. However the pickings have been slim so we decided that it was time for a change. Stealth Bombers are ninja for sure but I think I need Rixx to give us some pointers! I will continue to fly them for sure but a little bit of luck would have been welcome.

We have the ships now....

So time to ship up to the venerable battle-ship class ships and with six pilots & hulls available, we decided that the remote repping set-up would give us the most bang per buck. Thrown in a force recon and we were good to go.

Our fleet: 
Megathron
Dominix
Typhoon
Typhoon
Armageddon
Rapier

With the recent revamp of Faction Warfare we have definitely seen an increase in numbers in all systems but most pilots have been flying around in smaller ships classes: frigates and destroyers so not too useful against the larger (and slower) battle ship hulls we were piloting. With a scout ahead of us, we rolled around low-sec until we ended up in Molden Heath when the fleet scattered a little in order to cover more ground. This proved to be a fatal mistake but at the time it wasn't obvious.

Our scout reported that a neutral dominix was tackled one jump away from our current position in Oddelulf (we were headed to Bosena but our other scout reported negative targets) - our megathron suddenly lost connection two jumps away while the rest of use leapt into action. Timing was horrible as the megathron was our main source of DPS but we were committed to the action so away we rumble into fire and destruction!
I promise you that is what I said!

Landing at the gate we saw a megathron, stabber, blackbird, typhoon and a tempest. We set primary to be the tempest while sending our drones onto the blackbird. They counter attacked by going after Dil'e Mahn's Dominix having dispatched the neutral Dominix easily. Any remote repair work requires timing and organisation and quick reactions. We fired off our reppers and kept Dil'e alive while we got to work on the megathron, the ship we assumed would be the main damage dealer. Our DPS was low however, relative to the fleet hulls we were flying. The megathron was going down slowly but without the punching power of our own megathron, it was going to be tight. The blackbird came back at range and then, an Archon appeared.

Game over for us as it quickly slapped armour repairers onto the megathron completely negating our incoming damage.  In addition to the archon, it was joined by an abaddon and an armageddon to add to our woes and we were surrounded.


Damn....

Our own repairing efforts was too little to counter the incoming damage. Edney went down, guns blazing and then it was Dil'e followed by Mal. I was left to last (thanks guys!) and whipped my pod back home along with the rapier and megathron. A sobering experience for sure - I really should scrape some cash together to get a carrier for myself!

(oh, for some insane reason I now have Minnie Dread and Minnie Cap Projectile at V) - why, I ask myself? I must have wanted a long skill training when I went on leave all those weeks ago and never checked back. 

However, I have now looked at the price of ships (from frigates all the way up to capital class) and all I can say is this: DAMN. Most ships have increased by at least 35% if not more; luckily I have a bunch of ruptures but I feat that this will mean we will need to fly even smarter. I suspect that (at least for us poor pirates) - we will be flying the T1 express more!

Have no fear, my rupture of doom will be taking to the skies this week. I am going to see if I can fit a ship for just a few million in terms of fittings and still be effective? Absolutely. Stay tuned.


This is my ship of choice and there should be no other....