Vengeance v Caracal

 

The hunt:

A small Tusker fleet had formed up to chase down a Lucifer's Hammer fleet spotted in Aeschee. In the end, we never actually caught up with them; they briefly clashed with another corp and then retired from the field.

However, while we tried to pin them down, I noticed a Caracal a belt, and I told the others I was going to take a run at it - I wanted them to know that I would be occupied for the next little while.

I warped in on the Caracal, and landed only a few kilometers away. I quickly pointed the cruiser, and then moved into a wide orbit, opening fire and activating my web.

I had chewed through most of its shields and had taken very little damage in return (I think I was at 75% shields) when I was asked how I was doing. Without thinking, I said "I've got point on it". After all, half the battle for a Vengeance is actually catching something.

About 30 seconds later, several of my corp mates land, and unleash utter hell on the poor Caracal.

2011.07.06 17:07

Victim: Jawls Rohn
Corp: Science and Trade Institute
Alliance: Unknown
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Caracal
System: Aeschee
Security: 0.2
Damage Taken: 7090

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin
Security: -8.8
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Damage Done: 4426

Name: CannibalCorpseZor (laid the final blow)
Security: -7.2
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Ship: Machariel
Weapon: 800mm Repeating Artillery II
Damage Done: 1705

Name: Kishin Hattori
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: None
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vagabond
Weapon: Vagabond
Damage Done: 810

Name: Serpentis Wing Leader / Serpentis Corporation
Damage Done: 149

Destroyed items:

Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 50
Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 3
'Benefactor' I Ward Reconstructor
Medium Shield Extender I
Small Shield Booster I
Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 1346 (Cargo)

Dropped items:

Widowmaker Heavy Missile, Qty: 75
Heavy Missile Launcher I, Qty: 2
10MN Afterburner I
Medium Shield Extender I
Small Armor Repairer I
Overdrive Injector System I

I snagged the pod, and asked if anyone would like to try to ransom him. Cannibal told me to pod him, though, and I remembered that my hesitation against the Dram had nearly cost me my ship (see my last post), and I did not want to make that mistake again. Aeschee was absolutely full of hostiles, including at least one battle fleet, and we needed to get back to a safe.

So I podded him. Right before Kishkin told me to wait. Apparently, it is a tradition in the Tuskers to ransom new pilots for a joke, or a song, or something like that. I thoroughly approve of this tradition, but I had been unaware of it before now. Too late for poor Mr Rohn.


Afterthoughts:

This fight was absolutely full of fail on my part, and my lack of gang experience really showed through.

Sure, I found the Caracal, and I made sure that I did not go off without telling the fleet what I was doing. I'm even pretty pleased that I managed to effectively solo the Caracal. After that, though, it goes down hill.

First, my response to the fleet's enquiry was sloppy. When a frigate declares it has point, that's typically the trigger for the fleet to jump in and start dps, so my careless reply was interpreted as a request for backup - which is not terribly surprising given the Caracal is a renowned frigate killer. The fleet could not know I was soloing the cruiser because I did not tell them.

I feel quite bad for the Caracal pilot. Losing ships is part of low sec, but to be stomped on quite so hard (we dropped a frakking battleship on his head) is pretty discouraging. For his sake, as well as bragging rights, of course, I would have preferred to keep the fight just between us.

I compounded my error by being over hasty on the pod kill. Tuskers have no clear chains of command; each Tusker has to be able to operate completely independently, so we're not a corp full of guys that need or want that kind of structure. However, this can mean - as in this case - that the first response you receive is not necessarily authoritative or indicative of any kind of consensus.

I suspect that Canibal, not unreasonably, was keen to get his battleship out of the belt with an enemy fleet nearby. If I had a little more situational awareness, I could have recommended that the others warp to a safe while I sort out a ransom/release. That way, only my ship was in any danger of being blobbed.

This should have been a fight that I was proud of, soloing a Caracal. Instead, it's a fight that I deeply regret; my coms performance was poor and my situational awareness was nil.

We are not a corp that drops gangs with battleship support on noobs in cruisers. Except when I screw up, apparently.

I can't change what happened, but I can try and make sure it does not happen again.