Friday Fights is a new regular feature here on Eveoganda where I imagine a hypothetical 1v1 battle between two ships that may or may not have any business fighting each other. It's for fun, for debate and ultimately for learning a little more about the two ships involved. The only restriction for me is that I have to actually fly the two ships involved, so this will all come down to personal experience and opinion. Hence the debate part. Should be fun I hope.
Yesterday I was sitting above a gate in my trusty over-priced Dramiel when a Falcon jumped thru and cloaked up. It got me thinking, how would a drag down between these two nasty ships go? Who would be victorious? In the game the Falcon had eight buddies behind him in the other system, but here on the pages of Eveoganda I can limit the fight to just these two ships.
So Ding! Ding! Let the best ship win!
Right off the bat the two ships have obvious advantages and disadvantages that any combatant should be aware of. The Dramiel has only one thing on its side and that is speed and lots of it. For the sake of this fight we will assume the Dramiel pilot is dual propulsion fitted, which means he has a Microwarpdrive and a Afterburner taking up two mid-slots. On the other side, the Falcon has two advantages over the Dramiel and they are both significant. The Falcon can cloak and the Falcon can jam like a champion. (Assuming the pilot has the proper skills, which he should or he shouldn't be flying a Falcon!)
Both pilots have things to worry about. The Dramiel needs to worry about one thing first of all and that is de-cloaking the Falcon. Honestly that shouldn't be hard for an experienced pilot since the Dramiel is little more than a bullet on acid. The second thing the Dramiel pilot should be worried about is those damn ECM thingies on the enemy ship. No doubt the Dramiel will get lock first and that is important, but eventually the Falcon will probably jam the Dramiel. Again, assuming the Falcon pilot has the skills and the proper ECM modules fitted. If, for some odd reason, the Falcon also has a Web Scrambler that could also pose some issues, but the Dramiel can get out of range quickly especially if dual-prop fitted.
Those things are the same things the Falcon pilot is worried about, except from the opposite side. Will the Dramiel de-cloak him, get lock first and be able to pop him before he can jam him up? At this point the variables start to mount, variations in fits, skills and the reality of the battlefield all start to come into play. But that's the joy of combat isn't it?
The fight comes down to this, can the Dramiel dish out enough dps fast enough to pop the Falcon before the Falcon can jam his point and warp away? The key factor might come down to drones, which drones does the Dramiel have loaded? Does he have 3x Warriors or perhaps ECM Drones for breaking locks in tight situations? The choice of drones could make the slight difference in this fight, mostly since once locked the drones will continue fighting even when the Dramiel is finally jammed.
It all comes down to cycles in this fight. In my opinion it is a 50/50 proposition for the Dramiel and Falcon. If the cycles favor the Falcon then he will get away, if they don't the Dramiel will be victorious. It is important to note however that, barring epic fail, the Falcon should never be able to win the fight. Only escape. I honestly can't imagine an instance where the Falcon explodes the Dramiel.
So get out there and fight. Remember, 1v1 is good. Don't be afraid of it.