Gonna fly cheap stuff for a while

After reading EVE FNGs most recent post it got me thinking about ships I fly and recent losses. My usual ships of choice are the Hurricane or the Rifter. Rifter is good because it is cheap, but it dies easily. Cane is a great combination of mobility, fire power and speed, but many targets in lowsec won't engage a Hurricane. They are also a tad expensive to lose (yeah I know, I'm poor).

So the point of this rambling? There is a bunch of ships I've barely flown. Jaguars, Wolfs, Ishkurs, Ruptures, Vexors, and once I train Caldari Frigate V, Merlins, Hookbills and Hawks can be added to the list. These are all pretty cheap and less scary than Canes.

Righto, so once my hanger is restocked with ships. My goals are: attempt to minimise stupid deaths, use an AF/Thrasher to kill a bloody Dramiel who camps the plex 2-10 in Heild, find myself a decent pvp corp, have a crack at Faction Warfare (need to grind standings first /le sigh).

Coming up next time: blindly jumping into 0.0 and DIAF.

Oh, I reached 110 deaths VS 188 kills. Gotta avoid dying so much lol.

Time to die...I mean vote!

Vote if you want to have a say in the future direction of EVE. I voted for Seleene as he came across as a very level headed and balanced candidate. Ok, thats enough politics.

On to shooting at stuff. Due to excessive carebearing, there has been little in the way of combat the past week.

I logged in and surveyed my hanger in Heild. One Cane, Stiletto and two unfit Jags. After slapping together an AB Jaguar I headed out. Molden Heath yielded no targets. I roamed further afield. On a whim I set my destination for Gusandal, as it has a reputation a busy pirate system. It was quiet aside from a sniper Tempest that took a pot-shot at me. The Tempest pilot, general dogzbody, docked up and undocked in a Wolf. We proceded to bounce around the system before clashing outside the station. Briefly, the fight was in my favour. But then the Wolfs thick armor and active tank tippped the fight against me. For once I managed to disengage and warped out in structure. Warping to a random belt I landed 40 KM from a ratting Hound. After a brief WTF moment I hit the AB and burn for him. But he managed bail.

Dramiels...damn fun to fly. Not so good to fight against in your average frigate. Jumping into the Hedgiviter Low Sec pocket, spy a Dram in the 2-10 plex (Seriously, these things are great for frigate fights). Hmmm the pilot is only 2 months old...I can totally take this guy! Activating the plex gate I land 20KM or so from him and burn in. I lock him up and he launches Warrior 1's...I love noobs in Drams! Fitting a neut to my Jag pays off as his ship crumples. I snag the pod and try to convo the pilot to offer a ransom. After paying the CSPA, he disapears from local. The pod goes splat and I scoop the corpse for Lala.
I was spewing that the Gistii B-Type Small Shield Booster didn't drop. I got the Faction AB at least.

Last fight of the night was with a flashy sniper Zealot. He was chilling 80KM off the gate. So, I warp to a belt, then warp back and land 20 KM from him. Overheating the AB I drop into a tight orbit with zero damage and start working on his shields. The Zealot hits 20% shields as a Munin warps in at 47KM then warps away again (/shrugs). I overheat the guns and the Zealot hits 60% armor...then 2 Drakes land. As the Zealot had no point (lol) I easily escape. Turns out these guys were an Italian pirate corp. We had a brief chat in local in Italian (Google translate FTW) where they tried to get me to undock and asked me to bring them my sister. Something might have gotten lost in the translation.

Things to remember:
There is no dishonour in running away from superior odds. It can also lead to some interesting smack/chatter in Local.
Missioning is boring. Dual boxing makes it faster and more challenging. Gunpoint Diplomacy suicide ganking and spamming random meme's in Local also provides some entertainment.

On a final note: I've nearly finished training up missle skills. So I will be returning to my Caldari roots and flying DREAKS!

200 MM AC Sabre

Ah the Sabre, it has the reputation as the best Interdictor and is deadly versus frigates. So when a corp mate was popped and podded by one, I just had to go have a poke in my Dramiel. Jumping into 8G-QMV there was a cloaky transport idling on gate. I lock it up and go to work. Promptly a Sabre de-cloaks and a bubble goes up. After briefly toying with idea of disengaging, I deploy drones, overheat the guns, AB and charge in. Shields start disappearing in chunks. My speed drops to 400MS. The Sabres shields go down and my guns blow through his armor and hull (Not sure how common dual web Sabres are). I finish the fight in 90% armor, as a hostile Harbinger and Dramiel land. Then I swiftly GTFO. GF's are exchanged in local and the Sabre pilots tells me his Falcon friend was slow to warp to the gate.

After the "Tengu Incident", followed by the "Shit I'm flashy red and need to jump my Loki through high sec event", I arrive back in Heild safely. I take a nano-cane out for a roam and kill some random frigates and one brave Jaguar.

2 days later, I'm loitering around Egbinger and I spy a pod on the 0.0 gate. Feeling bored I warp in and start to burn for it. A Vaga lands on the gate and starts burning for me. I move to engage and start plinking away with Barrage. He comes within 12KM and I start cycling the neuts, then in a moment of genius I decide to load RF EMP. I turn off one neut as the Vaga caps out. A Sleipnir lands 185 KM away. The Vagas shields hit about 30%, then the Sleipnir and a Drake (Ok after looking at the KM there was another Cane there) land on me boom.

I head to Hedaleolfarber (had to check DOTLAN for the correct spelling) to pick up my Wolf. Undocking I warp to the 2-10 plex and spy a Daredevil on scan. I activate the gate and the DD follows me in. I pulse the MWD to pull some range, DD lands and his speed jumps to 1000MS, ok AB fit. I employ my highly complex strategy of overheating guns and flying straight in. Fight goes well for me and the DD bails just after entering structure. :(

After spending 15 mins bouncing around safes, I spy a Sabre on D-scan. I bounce back to the 2-10 plex moments later the Sabre lands and it's on. We close with AC's blazing. My SAR saves my ass as the Sabre goes poof. I finish in 20% armor and 3% structure. I snag the pod and convo the pilot, he refuses my offer of a ransom so I send him back to the clone vat.

Feeling very cock, I repair and head back to Heild. A Punisher, Dramiel and Ishkur show up on D-scan. I warp to the Angel Creo-corp plex and wait. A Punisher enters and idles on the warp in. Hmmmm, I can totally take him. It was going fine until his Dramiel friend came in and shredded my Wolf. Ah well.

Things to remember when engaging:
Shooting ammo that matchs the highest base resist...bad idea.
When soloing in a Cane carry ECM drones. They might have saved my ass in the fight with the Vaga.
Charging in blindly to attack a bait ship who has corp mates in local...also a bad idea.

Press buttan, recieve Tengu

Well kind of. It was more a case of a Rapier remote sensor boosting an arty Tempest and arty Machariel on the station undock. Hmmmm I can totally undock my alts Tengu and use the insta to warp away. The undocking bar seemed to take forever to fill, then the blackscreen...sweet I'm out in space...in deep armor...pop. I quickly undock my dramiel to try and loot the Faction shield booster and get alphaed. Then my alt gets podded trying to warp back to the station. Sigh.
This, coupled with losing another alts Viator and pod due to pilot error, marked my most expensive losses to date. While I won't cry about losing ships in PVP, losing expensive PVE ships because of my own foolishness is frustrating.
Well this was the end of running missions in Curse for Angels. I've now moved my characters back to Molden Heath. When I have replaced ship losses I will resume running level 4's in low-sec and get back to pirating.
Righto, QQ post is finished! Tune in for the next one which includes foolhardy engagement choices (Frigates VS Sabres), shooting EMP Med Projetile rounds at Vagabonds and bait Punishers.