The hunt:
While running the Molden Heath loop, I noticed an unfamiliar industrial on D-scan. When you consistently move through the same territory, you start to recognize the non-combat ships that are parked permanently behind force fields; this was not one of them.
Quickly using the D-scan to find the industrial, it appeared, unbelievably, to be sitting in a belt. I would have thought it was bait, except there was no obvious backup in the system. Still, there was always the possibility that help was on the other side of the next gate.
The opportunity was too good to pass up, however, and I immediately jumped to the belt at zero. As I landed I spotted the Iteron about 25km off the warp-in point, so I overheated my point and afterburner and hit approach. The Crusader responded beautifully, it's engines roaring into life, and the distance quickly narrowed.
As I approached I was able to examine the target more closely. He actually appeared to be mining in the belt, and did not seem to be pre-aligned. As the distance between us plunged, I established point and opened fire.
With backup possibly on the way, and the ever present risk of warp stabs I immediately overheated my guns and settled into an orbit that kept me within optimal for Multifrequency and well within my tracking bracket. I then kept a careful eye on local, which remained quiet.
For all my concern, the ship did not seem to be bait or to have warp stabs equipped. It also had no tank to speak of, and soon popped.
2011.05.12 17:03:00
Victim: Kajisora Thiesant
Corp: Center for Advanced Studies
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Iteron Mark III
System: Ennur
Security: 0.1
Damage Taken: 2064
Involved parties:
Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -2.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Crusader
Weapon: Gatling Pulse Laser II
Damage Done: 2064
Destroyed items:
Expanded Cargohold I, Qty: 2
Radiant Hemorphite, Qty: 59 (Cargo)
Mexallon, Qty: 136 (Cargo)
Golden Omber, Qty: 1332 (Cargo)
Zydrine, Qty: 64 (Cargo)
Tritanium, Qty: 1477 (Cargo)
Pyerite, Qty: 591 (Cargo)
Dropped items:
Miner II
Expanded Cargohold I
Isogen, Qty: 481 (Cargo)
Up until now I have avoided targeting pods, even when they have sat before me, afk and mine for the taking. Largely, this is because I had not wanted to deal with the drop in sec status, but a few things had changed.
First, I now had a basic hauler alt trained up. This made dealing with the sec hit much less intimidating. But I was also running low on cash, and ransoming pods could potentially be a source of income. I was also conscious that I had a target of 25 campaign kills to meet.
Of course, this pilot was not afk, and I knew going into the fight that I would have to be fast to catch the pod. The Crusader's impressive lock time would help, but I had gotten my pod out of enough fights to know how hard it could be to catch someone who was serious about escaping.
Fortunately, FNG has written a fantastic guide to catching pods here. So right before the Iteron exploded, I killed my speed and had my finger hovering over my scrambler hotkey. As soon as the pod appeared on my overview I activated my scram and locked him down.
I contacted the pilot and asked if he was interested in saving his pod. His response was negative, and very rude, which left me no choice but to send him back to his clone vat - my first pod kill.
Post battle review:
For whatever reason, I don't seem to be finding "fights" right now, and I have fallen into the role of a ganker. This is not an intentional shift, and I hope that changes soon.
Still, the Crusader's ability to cover distance swiftly probably earned me a kill that the Punisher would have missed. Equally, the excellent lock time probably helped me catch the pod. I'm certainly enjoying this additional performance.
Lessons for the future:
I managed to pull off a pod kill on my first attempt - largely due to FNG's guidance. I need more practice at this, but it seems an auspicious start.
Expanded Cargohold I
Isogen, Qty: 481 (Cargo)
Up until now I have avoided targeting pods, even when they have sat before me, afk and mine for the taking. Largely, this is because I had not wanted to deal with the drop in sec status, but a few things had changed.
First, I now had a basic hauler alt trained up. This made dealing with the sec hit much less intimidating. But I was also running low on cash, and ransoming pods could potentially be a source of income. I was also conscious that I had a target of 25 campaign kills to meet.
Of course, this pilot was not afk, and I knew going into the fight that I would have to be fast to catch the pod. The Crusader's impressive lock time would help, but I had gotten my pod out of enough fights to know how hard it could be to catch someone who was serious about escaping.
Fortunately, FNG has written a fantastic guide to catching pods here. So right before the Iteron exploded, I killed my speed and had my finger hovering over my scrambler hotkey. As soon as the pod appeared on my overview I activated my scram and locked him down.
I contacted the pilot and asked if he was interested in saving his pod. His response was negative, and very rude, which left me no choice but to send him back to his clone vat - my first pod kill.
Post battle review:
For whatever reason, I don't seem to be finding "fights" right now, and I have fallen into the role of a ganker. This is not an intentional shift, and I hope that changes soon.
Still, the Crusader's ability to cover distance swiftly probably earned me a kill that the Punisher would have missed. Equally, the excellent lock time probably helped me catch the pod. I'm certainly enjoying this additional performance.
Lessons for the future:
I managed to pull off a pod kill on my first attempt - largely due to FNG's guidance. I need more practice at this, but it seems an auspicious start.
While targeting non-combat ships makes for safer kills, I have to say it's also making for less interesting stories. The problem is that there's no suspense - as soon as we see the ship type, we know how it's going to end. Your combat writeups are much more exciting, because we don't know who's going to win until we see the killmail!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Of course, I have only a certain amount of control over the opportunities that come my way.
ReplyDeleteOther bloggers deal with that by posting every week or so, picking out the most interesting fights to post about. Because this blog is as much a learning journal for me as it is entertainment for the rest of the community, I have decided to exclude only a narrow range of fights (suicide ganks and lol fights), and so I post pretty much everything, dull periods and all.
The upshot (I hope) is frequent posts and a fairly honest view of a beginner pirate's life in New Eden.
Ganking haulers always leaves a sort of bad taste in my mouth after I do it. A necessary evil I suppose, but I'd always much rather they'd just pay a small ransom to be let go. What is a Pirate going to do with all that Ore anyway?
ReplyDeleteAs a small tip, when engaging haulers and miners in belts where Stabs are of concern, best to just hit approach. You don't really need to orbit to avoid any damage and the collision can often keep them from aligning long enough to get the kill. Cheers.