Malediction v Exequror

The hunt:

I was roaming around, looking for another fight, when I managed to find an Exequror at a belt. Warping in, I saw that he had (very sensibly) pulled the rats a long way from the warp-in point, so I was nowhere near him.

Unfortunately, he had pulled them too far. By warping to one of the wrecks, I was able to land on top of him, and establish a point. Falling into a tight orbit, I opened fire.

He launched drones, of course. Here, at last, was the drone test I was looking for.

My response was clumsy. I was not used to having so many targets to deal with, and I felt a little overwhelmed. Still, I started webbing and shooting at his drones and I was gratified to see that I could destroy them after a few volleys.

With the damage starting to add up, though, I turned on my nos and started pulsing the repper. If I could kill the drones before they got me, I would win. Otherwise, I would be destroyed; I was in no mood to retreat from this fight.

The damage was too much for my repair system to deal with completely, but it did slow the damage down. My opponent clearly realised that the survival of his drones would be the deciding factor, and he started to put serious effort into micromanaging them. When I targeted one he would recall it before it could be destroyed, and release it (or a fresh one) when I started on another drone.

In the end, my cap gave out. Without the repair system, his drones made short work of me, and I wished him a hearty "gf" as I warped my capsule out.

2011.05.30 14:37

Victim: Taurean Eltanin
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Malediction
System: Aedald
Security: 0.3
Damage Taken: 3144

Involved parties:

Name: K'Roa T'Jal (laid the final blow)
Security: 0.61
Corp: Critical Mass Inc.
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Ship: Exequror
Weapon: Hobgoblin II
Damage Done: 3144
 
Destroyed items:

Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 25
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 2
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Small Armor Repairer II
Gremlin Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I

Dropped items:

Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 50
E5 Prototype Energy Vampire
Rocket Launcher II
1MN Afterburner II
X5 Prototype I Engine Enervator
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Damage Control II
Caldari Navy Thorn Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 600 (Cargo)
Caldari Navy Phalanx Rocket, Qty: 300 (Cargo)


Afterthoughts:

I'm going to write a post specifically about rockets, so I won't say too much here. I was pleased that I was able to hit and destroy his drones, though, and if I actually had decent missile skills then the result might have been very different.

Of course, there is a very sensible argument here about not flying ships I'm not properly skilled in, and that's a good argument. However, the whole point of the T2 Tour is to give me an idea of which ship I want to become properly skilled in. This fight had let me see another side of the Malediction, and I now felt ready to move on to the next ship.