Tuskers v Heretic Army

The hunt:

This was a very interesting fight, and my first real run in with Heretic Army (BANE), who are campaigning near us.

I was hanging about in Hev when I (and others) spotted a Rupture on D-scan. A look at local told us the pilot could only be Jones Bones, a member of Heretic Army.

Now, while I wouldn't call BANE blob artists, they tend not to be solo pilots either, preferring small gangs of 3-5 ships. The Tuskers in local, who were all flying frigates, were happy to do battle with a Rupture, but we realised that we had to stay alert for reinforcements.

As sometimes happens, a couple of us missed Jones as he jumped about, presumably trying to jump in on us. Before we caught up with him, though, a Myrmidon piloted by Dust Hunter (Muppet Ninjas) entered system. At this point we backed off; we did not know BANE well enough to know if the two pilots were working together. Even if they were not, we definitely couldn't handle both ships if the second jumped in while we were dealing with the first.

A call went out over vent, and nearby Tuskers started moving towards Hev, joining a hastily thrown up fleet while they did so.

Meanwhile, the Myrmidon and the Rupture decided to tangle. I don't recall who jumped in on who, but their engagement was the spark that triggered everything that followed.

A couple of our Rifter pilots decided to jump in on the fight. We could focus on the battle cruiser and then deal with the Rupture afterwards. While they were mid warp, however, the BANE reinforcements jumped into Hev. The Rifters tried to abort, but the lead elements of the BANE fleet reached the fight about the same time as the Rifters, and they were pointed.

At this stage we were heavily outgunned by the enemy assets in system, but I was damned if I was going to watch my corpmates go down without lending a hand, so I jumped into the dogfight.

I landed in what felt like a sea of red; seven hostiles plus the associated drones. I quickly hunted for a target, and latched on to a Hookbill that I thought I might be able to kill before I went down. Settling into a tight orbit, I overheated my launchers and activated my repair system.

The Rifters went down fast, the poor things. Excellent solo ships, they don't have the tank to last long in a fleet fight. For what felt like an eternity, I was the only Tusker on grid. Fortunately, BANE fire was divided between the Myrmidon and myself, and my tank was up to the challenge, at least for a while.

Rather surprisingly, I was actually giving the Hookbill a good kicking; we both entered half armor about the same time. At that point, Tressin, who had lost his Rifter, reshipped into a Hurricane and jumped into the fight. Suleiman also arrived in at that point, bringing his Harbinger into the fray.

BANE had to respond to the new arrivals, and in the confusion the Myrmidon managed to drop some ECM drones and escape, leaving the fight a Tusker v BANE match up. Tressin threw some alpha at my target, which allowed me to finish burning him down.

2011.07.27 20:52:00

Victim: Heimotz
Corp: Heretic Army
Alliance: B A N E
Faction: NONE
Destroyed: Caldari Navy Hookbill
System: Hevrice
Security: 0.4
Damage Taken: 3054

Involved parties:

Name: Taurean Eltanin (laid the final blow)
Security: -9.8
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Vengeance
Weapon: Caldari Navy Foxfire Rocket
Damage Done: 1867

Name: Tressin Khiyne
Security: -10.0
Corp: The Tuskers
Alliance: NONE
Faction: NONE
Ship: Hurricane
Weapon: 720mm Howitzer Artillery II
Damage Done: 1187

Destroyed items:

Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Rocket Launcher II, Qty: 3
Small Ancillary Current Router I
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 29
Ballistic Control System II
Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
1MN Afterburner II
Small Warhead Calefaction Catalyst I

Dropped items:

Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Dark Blood Warp Scrambler
Internal Force Field Array I
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 58
Medium F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction
Thorn Rage Rocket, Qty: 5000 (Cargo)

Now, up until this point I was pretty happy with my performance, but my lack of fleet experience started to show here. Unused to dealing with multiple targets, I had not kept track of where everyone was, or lined up a second target. As a result, I floundered aimlessly for a few seconds after the Hookbill exploded, trying to make sense of my overview. That was all it took for BANE to finish me off.

Somewhere along the line, Jaxley had gone down in his Enyo, which left Tressin and Suleiman on the field against a Vagabond, a Slicer and a Hurricane. Realising that this was a losing fight, BANE retreated from the field, leaving Hevrice to the Tuskers.

"Gfs" were exchanged in local.


Afterthoughts:

Total Tusker losses: 2 Rifters, an Enyo and a Vengeance
Total BANE losses: a Hookbill, a Jaguar and a Rupture

The escalating nature of the fight meant that our fleet was not set up properly for leadership bonuses. Suleiman is certain that the Vagabond would not have escaped if we had been a bit more organised in that regard. Leadership skills are a murky, unknown science for me, so I shall happily defer to Suleiman on this point.

I was disappointed that I lost my ship, of course, but when I returned the field of combat I looted the Hookbill and found the Dark Blood Warp Scrambler! Ecstatic, I offered it up for the obvious loot split, but everyone bowed out. I had lost my ship (and thus the reimbursement would come out of the loot before the split), and the kill had been primarily mine. So I turned a net profit over the course of the fight. Other losses were reimbursed from other loot, and from salvage.

Clearly, I'm a bit of a fleet fight noob. After killing the Hookbill I just floundered, trying to process information that I should have been tracking the whole time. In particular, I was let down by my overview; it is set up to deal with solo hunting, showing me pilot names, but not ship types. When I'm hunting someone, I know what their ship is before I jump in, so I've never needed that particular piece of information before.

Obviously, I'm going to update my overview.