This was a habit I picked up when I was in Lucifer's Hammer. It isn't Station Camping, instead I call it "Work Camping". It allows me to work and also keep an eye on local, eventually something will or won't happen. To be honest, it rarely works. When I'm doing this, if anything does undock, I usually let it go. Several smaller ships and a Thorax undocked, but I didn't engage. Why waste the GCC? I was waiting for better fights, but they didn't happen.
On my way back to Hev in the Wolf, the Demon Suli announced he might have a target in Jov. I docked up and jumped into one of my Arty Canes and undocked. Sure enough, it wasn't long before he called point and a few of us kilt the hapless Myrmidon. I didn't know it, but this was the beginning of what would end up being a 16 kill night.
I re-docked in Hev and started thinking about the next ship I would take out. When you have almost 60 ships fitted up, that process can take longer than you might think. I noticed the chatter was picking up on Comms, so I started listening a bit closer. I missed the beginning bits, so I'm not sure how this all came to be known. Either way, Intel isn't something I'd be sharing here anyway, suffice to say we discovered a few Battleships were camping a hi-sec gate up in Parts.
We managed to put together a decent little gang. Marc Scaurus brought his Harbinger, which he said he hadn't flown in a fight yet, and Anzwi and I brought our Drakes. The Devil Suli was already on his way in a Stilleto. It is important that I repeat that. A Harbi, 2 Drakes and a Stilleto. That's it. If you know anything about the space between Hev and Parts you know we had to travel thru Hi-Sec to get there, so nothing bigger than a BC would probably work. The only worry at this point was if the targets would still be there when we arrived.
They were. Not only that, but their ranks had grown. A Harbinger, Tempest, Raven, Dominix, Megathron, Myrmidon and an Armageddon were hanging out in a pounce off the Hi-Sec gate. There was another Cane in local, but we couldn't be sure if he was with them or not. We played a little GCC timer game with them at first, we had some to burn. This also allowed us a chance to slightly re-fit our ships. I can't reveal exactly what we did to our Drakes, but we replaced one mid-slot mod with another one. If your smart, you'll already know what I'm talking about.
The enemy was grouped up together ( tsk tsk, spread out people! lol ) and Suli went in first to find a good spot. Since they didn't have tackle he could fly around at will and get us a great warp-in. Which is what he did, being awesome and all has its perks. Now a word about tactics. 3 BCs and a Ceptor against 5 BSs and 2 BCs, despite the numeric odds of a 4-7 fight, we were certainly outclassed in some ways from the start. More than likely the Domi had neuts, maybe some of the others as well. And we had limited points. So coordinating distance, range and points would be crucial. All in all we did a good job of it, things got a tad confusing at times and we lost two of the enemy ships because of it. But that happens.
This is the battle report. We had the Raven into structure before he managed to get away from us, someone had switched point and someone else forgot to pick it up. None of us know how that happened, but I have my own suspicions. I think it was my own fault. At one point the Domi neuted my Drake down to zero while I was pulling range. I think I may have lost point on the Raven at that moment. Fog of war, I don't remember losing point, but I might have.
With no losses and a nice amount of kills we waited out our GCC and decided to head back towards Hev. Reports of another gang in the Aeschee area prompted us. On the way back a Myrmidon jumped into us and died. Yeah for Webs on a Drake!
The gang running around Aeschee turned out to be a mixed Shadow Cartel gang, with some other elements thrown into the mix. Mostly those other elements included former Burn Away members the Corporation for Noble Sentiments and my friend and fellow Blogger Nashh Kadavr and his Corporation. This was starting to look fun.
We put the call out for more pilots, this time we couldn't engage about 18 ships with just the four of us. Again we played the GCC timer game and waited it out while our gang formed up around us. In the end we managed to just about equal their numbers in BCs at least, they still had the edge with a Talos.*
The fight plan wasn't all that different from before really, although this time we started out split up into three groups. We decided to engage and primary the Talos first. Upon landing the field was a mess, ships and drones everywhere. When ever I land in amongst something like that my first inclination is to properly orient myself, I can't tell you how many times I go burning off in the wrong direction and get myself kilt. The Talos runs, can't blame him, but the rest stay and fight it out. God bless 'em.
This is the battle report. We slugged it out and it was a good fight all the way around. They stayed on the field, even when it was obviously going the wrong way. So well done. We ended up 10-1 in favor, although I think our loss actually happened before the real fight started. But I can't be sure.
My killboard shows 16 kills yesterday, although I think there is a pod or two missing. Either way, it was a great start to what I hope is a more regular return to Eve. The last two months have been tough, between RL pressures and stress and my other outside commitments, finding time to play the game I love has been tough.
Good way to kick back into it. And sorry for blowing you up yet again Nashh. lol.
Nashh wrote his version of events HERE.
And Marc "Binger" Scauras wrote his version HERE.
Check 'em out!
*Early Battle Reports indicated ships that were not actually on the field. This post has been edited to reflect the actual situation.