So go figure.
All in all Lucifer's Hammer was 15-10 yesterday, which isn't the end of the world, but certainly isn't great either. Typically we rarely have days like that, so it was unusual to say the least. I've gotten pretty used to seeing mostly green on our killboard. For me personally, three of those ten losses were mine.
It started off on the wrong foot. A flashy Dramiel was on our station so I undocked in my Dramiel to see if I could get a fight. Since it was Ministry of Failure he ran off. (Ministry of Destruction lives in the same system as we do and they are notorious runners awayers. They'll only really fight you if they have a overwhelming advantage. As we'll see later in our story.)
I went a few systems over to help someone out but by the time I got there the situation had changed. Seeing as how I had undocked the Dramiel without any drones, I figured I'd head back to get some. Along the way a flashy Merlin sat on the gate. I pondered a moment and then he started shooting me, so I figured why not? It quickly became obvious that I needed my drones as he was active shield boosted, but I could simply hold on long enough and he would run out of boosters. Cause my Dramiel fit is boss and I was in no danger. Sadly he knew this also and stopped shooting me and jumped away. No biggie.
At some point the MoD guys in local started gathering on their station, which they love to do, and we decided we'd try some things to see if they would fight. Nothing worked and believe me we tried. Tiring of this we decided on a more direct approach, so with only 4 of us available, we undocked in a Tempest, a Drake, Cane and my shiny new Maelstrom. We managed to get a couple of them off the station a bit and decided to engage. Seeing as how the odds were only 12-1 in their favor, they called for additional back up and quickly the odds were more like 20-1. My poor Maelstrom managed to get a few ships into structure before the full weight of the blob overwhelmed him, a Megathron, 2x Pilgrims, 2x Rapiers and a Falcon is what it took to bring the proud ship down and that took awhile.
This was to be the theme of the day, futility. When confronted by the blob the warrior is left with few options. We do what we can to save our ship, help our corp mates, align to something in the hope that we can at least save our pod and pray for the best. Later in the day I lost a Artie Cane to 5x Canes, 2x Drakes, Ferox, Myrm and a Blackbird - not to mention sentry guns. There were 5 of us in our gang and they totaled about 20 or so.
Even later I would lose an Ishkur to a Drake/Myrm team on a gate, mostly because one of us DC'd immediately before we engaged. This time I stayed to the bitter end to keep point since help was on its way, it just came too late. Nothing to be done about that. That was a good fight and we lost. Shame it all hinged on one of us bugging out, but these things happen.
You might think losing three ships in one day would be disheartening, and it is of course. But that isn't how I play Eve, I don't play Eve to "win" anything. You can't "win" Eve. I play Eve to play Eve. If you are going to fight then you are going to lose eventually, and sometimes those losses tend to gang up for one reason or another. It happens, it happened yesterday and it will happen again. The good news is that victories also gang up and the only way to ensure they do is to fight.
So Angor and I undocked in our Megathrons and went on a quick MEGA ROAM!! Sadly we didn't find anything to shoot at and only managed to get our poor scout popped in the process. Heck, I even reported us on a few of the shared channels and nothing.
Not wanting to end on a down note I fitted up another Artie Cane and went and killed this poor guy, with Fallout's help. Which helped to alleviate his pain at losing that scout ship earlier.
Wonder what today will bring?