I haven't written one of these in a long time. This feature is where I talk about recent engagements and tell you the unvarnished truth about each one. Some are good, some are bad, and some are just downright ugly. Over the years of this feature the bad and ugly have gotten more and more challenging to discover. Which, after all, is a good thing. Today is the 12th of the month and I've only had two losses so far. So I'm guessing I should include those.
The Good - Hookbill vs Daredevil
Pirate Frigates have truly gotten the short end of the stick over the past two years. The current kings of the landscape are Destroyers and snuggly Navy complexes that don't allow Pirate Frigates or Assault Frigates. So the opportunities for fights, should you choose one to fly, are extremely limited. But I like flying my Daredevil and my Dramiel, so I still do from time to time. But it took me ages of flying around the other day to find a situation in which I could hopefully find a single fight. And then I sat inside this small advanced plex for twenty minutes while local showed more than enough ships to remove me. Finally this courageous pilot gathered enough nerve to slid into me and start a fight. Thank you.
The Bad - Worm vs Rifter
Both of my losses so far this month have been in Rifters. I've been trial running some new combinations in the venerable frigate based around sig tanking and so far it has been going extremely well. But, even so, there is only so much you can do with the little ship. Especially against a Worm. I was doomed from the beginning - in hindsight. But I will say this - it almost worked. And that is what keeps me going. The mental image of that shield tank almost breaking... so close.
The Ugly - The Dominix
This was ugly. Did you know there is a gas cloud in this game that actively destroys your ship? GAS! Lolz, yep that's right. You fly into it and suddenly your shields start to vanish, your warning alarms go off, and you start to die? And then you realize there is a gate you landed 70k off of that you need to get to before you die? And inside that gate is a tackled Dominix that is killing your friend? We lost two ships grabbing this battleship inside that gate, but it was worth it. It wasn't pretty.
PS: The gas cloud destroying your ship question was rhetorical btw.
The Bad - Mobile Cyno vs Astero
It takes a long time to kill a Mobile Cyno with five light drones. 29k+ damage. But the neighborhood needs to be kept clean of garbage. So it had to die. You can't just leave your stuff hanging around like that and expect nothing to happen.
The Good - Cormorant vs Astero
This fight was nothing to write home about, but once again the story is the thing. This player was warping into belts at perches far above the belts and I chased him from one to another, hoping he'd find some red dots to kill. We did this over and over again in one system, until he finally just left local and vanished. I forgot about him and went on my way.
Later on, in yet another system, I saw his Corm on scan once again. On the third try, he finally found some red dots to land on and I managed to catch him. I've been seeing this tactic a lot more lately and while it makes it more challenging to catch ships, it doesn't make it impossible.
Oh, the other loss was an unfortunate situation when I landed my Rifter right smack on top of a well-fit Catalyst with blasters and a web. Not gonna survive that.
Until next time.