I had moved out of the friendly C4 with the spiring new w-space alliance and was on my way to a new new system. This time it was a C4/C4 and it had plenty of sites, but the idea was to do the plexing in the static instead of the comfortable familiarity of your own system.
Now I needed to get my Orca with ships and POS in.
C4s that do not have a static C2 or C3 are notoriously hard to find good routes to. At least if you wish to not jump your Orca through Tama and Old Mans Star to get there. C4 logistics makes for a ton of scanning. This is particularly true if you are solo and can't share the burdens with a few corp-mates.
It was getting late, and I really wanted to get situated in this new system. The route that I had found was not pretty, nor simple, but it had to do.
When running a ship that do not have any offensive capabilities at all (well, normally) and can't hide or run away you really need to scout ahead. A single scout can really ruin your day - you want empty systems.
Two systems from my target C4 was this C5 that had been as empty as they normally are. But while C4s can lay untouched and stay clear of incoming wormholes for days, C5s sees much more traffic, and traffic that's of a much more dangerous quality. C5s gets rolled all the time. All the larger w-space entities scan and roam long chains of C5/C6 systems. The chance of one of their forward scouts being the beginning to your end is substantial.
It all comes down to intel. Knowing whats lurks out there. One of the best ways to be sure it's reasonably safe is to spend time in a system. The longer time that have passed without anything on scan, or any new sigs appearing, the better. But spending time was not something I had done this time. I had a forward scout just checking out the system as I jumped the Orca one system at a time.
When i warped the scout through one of the C5 systems I saw a Tengu on scan for a moment. That don't need to mean anything, but it could be worrying. Especially since I found a covert ops from Ash alliance on the WH I was just landing at zero at. What was even worse was that my Orca was already inbound to that very wormhole, and it was going to land any second. To warp the Orca before you had carefully scouted the next hole is obviously not recommended, and not something I normally do, but I was dead tired and was totally off the little game I normally have.
I quickly jump my scout in the hope the scout would follow and not notice the hulk of a ship that was inbound. It jumped, and I got my scout away clean on the other side. The Orca now had to do a 180 at the hole and warp to a celestial to cloak up. From a standstill, my Orca warps in 10 seconds, but boy are those seconds endless when you have hostiles on the other side of the WH! Incredible, I managed to get the Orca away from the WH and safely cloaked up.
This is the time when I broke the second of the holy rules of w-space - patience!
With known activity from a major w-space alliance in the system, and them knowing about me, and possibly the Orca, it was no time to take any risks. Just cloak up, put your head down and wait it out.
For some reason that I really can't explain, I did the opposite. I took gamble on me knowing what they had and that I could outsmart and outrun them. The result was of course disastrous. An fully loaded Orca lost for no good reason.
Here's what happened.
I was cloaked, perfectly safe, in the Orca a few AUs away from the WH which where I previously almost had got the Orca tackled. From here I saw them try and scan me down with combats, and for a second a Cheeta Covert Ops appeared on the Orcas d-scan, just to disappear again. At the same time my scout on the other side saw a WH activation, the Cheeta taking a quick peek and then quickly jump back through the WH (and thus polarizing itself). They where clearly looking for the Orca.
I figured I should seize the opportunity and quickly warp the Orca to the WH, jump through and get away on the other side. I knew the Cheeta was polarized and could not follow, even if I would meet it on the WH with the Orca. Well, the assumption was that the Cheeta was alone, and since I already had seen a Tengu on scan I should have known it was not.
I landed the Orca, all kind of ships materialized and it was all over.
Lessons learnt (again!): don't play when you really want to sleep, and don't force a move when you do not have to, live to fight another day. Patience is golden!
Showing posts with label PVP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PVP. Show all posts
Friday, March 28, 2014
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Just like Penny
Today I felt like Penny. I log in, scan out our static with my cloaky Tengu (I know it's not a Loki, but a cloaky T3 is close enough) and take a peak inside in the hope of finding someone doing something out in the open, but no luck.
I then drop probes and scan down the four signatures that's in here; the two statics, a HS to Minmatar, a C1, one EOL C3 and the system I came from. I opt to check the C1 first. It's static is a nullsec, and is relative empty, but I spot a scanner-probe on d-scan. That's always a good sign of activity. The only POS with a forcefield up is a medium one, belonging to a 12 man corporation. It's totally without defences. I guess you don't need much living in a C1/Null, eh? :)
When I see on d-scan that the probes disappear and a Buzzard appear, I note that the ship do not land in the POS. I sort of assume that it's someone from nullsec and not the inhabitants of this system. Nullsecc'ers often like to use w-space as easy routes to empire. I jump back to the C2 and there I find the probes again. Ok, now the scout will find the HS, jump out to check exactly where it is (thanks to Tiger Ears, most educated people can now place a WH reasonably well, just from the colour) and then, with a little luck (s)he will jump strait back, getting polarized. And with even more luck (s)he will end up within non cloaking range from the wormhole. I would then possibly have time to lock it up and kill it. That is, if I was uncloaked, ready, and with my sensor booster running. Maybe. Just maybe.
It's worth a shoot at least, so I warp to the high-sec hole and waited for the scout to find it and do as I predicted. Which (s)he did, but then he (s)he did not jump back in. Bah... When I checked the info on the guy I realized it was actually not a null inhabitant at all, but instead he was coming from the POS in the C1. Well, that changes little, because if you live in such a system you don't get high-sec connections everyday, so there's a good chance this is a scout for some hauler, like you see from null so often.
I hardly had time to think that thought through, before a Tayra (or a Badger Mk II as us oldtimers like to think of it) pops up on scan. And then promptly lands on the highsec and jumps out. Right before my cloaked eyes. Well, are they going out they most likely are going to come back in. I just switch my target-focus from an unlucky (he had to be really unlucky for me to catch it) Buzzard to a Badg... Tayra. I simply change the position of the planed gank to their system. Now that I know where they are going there's no need to try and kill something on a hopeless HS hole.
I warp the Tengu back to their C1 system and jump through. Nothing on scan. The two pilots I've seen so far are probably the only ones active, but you never know. In any case, I have no reason to think they have eyes on this hole. I re-cloak and starts to wait for the scout and the Tayra. To catch and tackle your prey just when it jumped through a hole is advantageous because once tackled, their only option is to jump back and get polarized. Me on the other hand can not only follow, but also, if something bad would happen, jump a second time.
However, while staring at the hole I begin to think I might made a tactical error. Do I de-cloak directly on wormhole fire? What if the scout jumped first? But not de-cloaking until you see the hauler have it's dangers also since there's a delay after de-cloak during you can't get a lock. I have a sensor-booster, which mean the lock time itself will not be long, but that cloak delay... I would hate to see such a simple target as a hauler get away just because I did not de-cloak in time.
They also take their time getting back. What if they are getting something else in? That POS looked quite new, maybe they ware going to bring in some more ships? Forgetting I'm in a C1, my bet is a Raven. Ravens always seems to appear at wormholes in low class w-space when you least expect it. Could I take on a battleship? Sure, but it would take time and they might get reinforcements.
This is where I'm starting to stray from the Penny mindset. She always hunt alone, and when she does get help, it's from a real friend, not an alt. She's a true w-space soloist, that's one thing that make her adventures so interesting.
I brought Tashi. He had just discovered the joys of large lasers and burned for the chance to test his Oracles pulses on something other than the Angels in our nullsec connection. Since the Oracle is not very cloaky, I had to hide him somewhere, and why not in plain view? The idea was to simply get him into highsec and off grid with the wormhole. With the help of local and a narrow scan towards the hole, he would be a great early warning system to both the fact they where incoming and what they were flying.
Unfortunately I had been to slow in my thought process, because when he lands on the highsec he just have time to see the backside of the Tayra (new name, same ugly behind) warping to their C1. Oh man... Well, no rest for the wicked. Tashi does an U-turn on the hole and warps right after the hauler. He lands on the C1 but no sight of the Tayra. Quick, quick! Jumpy, jumpy. On the other side he make contact, lock the ship up and with just two or three salvos he recycle the Caldari vessel into space dust. No point even needed. Well, that did not make the enthusiasm for lasers any less.
Tashi now have a new proverb; If you need a point, you don't have enough dps.
I then drop probes and scan down the four signatures that's in here; the two statics, a HS to Minmatar, a C1, one EOL C3 and the system I came from. I opt to check the C1 first. It's static is a nullsec, and is relative empty, but I spot a scanner-probe on d-scan. That's always a good sign of activity. The only POS with a forcefield up is a medium one, belonging to a 12 man corporation. It's totally without defences. I guess you don't need much living in a C1/Null, eh? :)
When I see on d-scan that the probes disappear and a Buzzard appear, I note that the ship do not land in the POS. I sort of assume that it's someone from nullsec and not the inhabitants of this system. Nullsecc'ers often like to use w-space as easy routes to empire. I jump back to the C2 and there I find the probes again. Ok, now the scout will find the HS, jump out to check exactly where it is (thanks to Tiger Ears, most educated people can now place a WH reasonably well, just from the colour) and then, with a little luck (s)he will jump strait back, getting polarized. And with even more luck (s)he will end up within non cloaking range from the wormhole. I would then possibly have time to lock it up and kill it. That is, if I was uncloaked, ready, and with my sensor booster running. Maybe. Just maybe.
It's worth a shoot at least, so I warp to the high-sec hole and waited for the scout to find it and do as I predicted. Which (s)he did, but then he (s)he did not jump back in. Bah... When I checked the info on the guy I realized it was actually not a null inhabitant at all, but instead he was coming from the POS in the C1. Well, that changes little, because if you live in such a system you don't get high-sec connections everyday, so there's a good chance this is a scout for some hauler, like you see from null so often.
I hardly had time to think that thought through, before a Tayra (or a Badger Mk II as us oldtimers like to think of it) pops up on scan. And then promptly lands on the highsec and jumps out. Right before my cloaked eyes. Well, are they going out they most likely are going to come back in. I just switch my target-focus from an unlucky (he had to be really unlucky for me to catch it) Buzzard to a Badg... Tayra. I simply change the position of the planed gank to their system. Now that I know where they are going there's no need to try and kill something on a hopeless HS hole.
I warp the Tengu back to their C1 system and jump through. Nothing on scan. The two pilots I've seen so far are probably the only ones active, but you never know. In any case, I have no reason to think they have eyes on this hole. I re-cloak and starts to wait for the scout and the Tayra. To catch and tackle your prey just when it jumped through a hole is advantageous because once tackled, their only option is to jump back and get polarized. Me on the other hand can not only follow, but also, if something bad would happen, jump a second time.
However, while staring at the hole I begin to think I might made a tactical error. Do I de-cloak directly on wormhole fire? What if the scout jumped first? But not de-cloaking until you see the hauler have it's dangers also since there's a delay after de-cloak during you can't get a lock. I have a sensor-booster, which mean the lock time itself will not be long, but that cloak delay... I would hate to see such a simple target as a hauler get away just because I did not de-cloak in time.
They also take their time getting back. What if they are getting something else in? That POS looked quite new, maybe they ware going to bring in some more ships? Forgetting I'm in a C1, my bet is a Raven. Ravens always seems to appear at wormholes in low class w-space when you least expect it. Could I take on a battleship? Sure, but it would take time and they might get reinforcements.
This is where I'm starting to stray from the Penny mindset. She always hunt alone, and when she does get help, it's from a real friend, not an alt. She's a true w-space soloist, that's one thing that make her adventures so interesting.
I brought Tashi. He had just discovered the joys of large lasers and burned for the chance to test his Oracles pulses on something other than the Angels in our nullsec connection. Since the Oracle is not very cloaky, I had to hide him somewhere, and why not in plain view? The idea was to simply get him into highsec and off grid with the wormhole. With the help of local and a narrow scan towards the hole, he would be a great early warning system to both the fact they where incoming and what they were flying.
Unfortunately I had been to slow in my thought process, because when he lands on the highsec he just have time to see the backside of the Tayra (new name, same ugly behind) warping to their C1. Oh man... Well, no rest for the wicked. Tashi does an U-turn on the hole and warps right after the hauler. He lands on the C1 but no sight of the Tayra. Quick, quick! Jumpy, jumpy. On the other side he make contact, lock the ship up and with just two or three salvos he recycle the Caldari vessel into space dust. No point even needed. Well, that did not make the enthusiasm for lasers any less.
Tashi now have a new proverb; If you need a point, you don't have enough dps.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Architecture of a small gank
Who said you could not mess up as a carebear? Even with the new system scanner, and even if you do everything right. Even if you do things by the book, and have securing systems for plexing down to an art, there's still room for messing up. I just lost 2 billion in Rattlesnakes because I forgot to look at the scanner for new sigs. Possibly it was slightly bugged and did not display fully automatically. In any case, my point is; idiots still die.
I was on my last day in Gamma (or so I thought). I had tested the Vargur enough and now I wanted to go do something else. I still had 12 sites in my system and the idea was to quickly bring in my old trusty rattlesnake workhorses and kill those before I pulled down the POS. So I was 5 Frontier Barracks in, going on the last wave in the first Information Sanctum when all of a sudden a Legion appears on grid with me.
I was honestly quite shocked to see anyone manage to sneak up on me because the system was totally mine, all the sigs was known and the static was closed before I started plexing. I also watched the scanner for new sigs indicating a possible new K162. Something in all this had obviously failed, but I had no time to investigate further because now I was not fighting sleepers anymore!
As more ships appeared on grid with me, my first action was a futile attempt trying to run. One of my Rattlers was already scrammed by the sleepers and the Legion pointed the other one (lucky!). So I was screwed. Well, at least I could give them as good fight as possible before I went down.
I started to lock up the ones that had arrived. Legion, Proteus, Devoter and a Helios that probably was the bastard that found me. I had Gardes out and the covops was not moving enough, so I quickly popped it. Because the pod did not warp away (most likely because of dualboxing) I could lock it up and kill it. Next on the list was the Legion. He was already in armor from the sleepers when I got the Gardes working on it. When it popped, the sleepers and my two rattlers had brotherly divided the damage equally.
After that it got harder. I now had another Legion and Proteus to deal with, and since they were so close my Gardes could not hit them very well, even with tracking scripts loaded in all three links. My only other choice in drones was Bouncers, Warriors and Hammerheads. None of them was any good. I switched to Hammers in a desperate attempt to at least scratch the paint of the remaining T3s. Would I have had a set of Ogres they would have applied full 2K damage, and that would definitely have been a factor. With the new scripted omni-links you can get awesome tracking out of Ogres, they now kill sleeper-frigs as well as Warriors even if they still travel like stuck in syrup.
While this was going on, the group seemed to have problems breaking my tank. I had to overload my mids and forgot (naturally) to turn it off in time, so I burned out one of the invulnerable fields. Their response was neuts. But even if I would have had some Ogres to fight back with, I was not going anywhere and it was all over when they brought two Guardians. These guys probably found me while rolling their static, and were not quite ready for a gank, hence the late arrival of some of the ships. Had it been made in a proper way they would of course have had the Guardians on grid from the start and no one would have lost a ship. More then me that is :)
I was on my last day in Gamma (or so I thought). I had tested the Vargur enough and now I wanted to go do something else. I still had 12 sites in my system and the idea was to quickly bring in my old trusty rattlesnake workhorses and kill those before I pulled down the POS. So I was 5 Frontier Barracks in, going on the last wave in the first Information Sanctum when all of a sudden a Legion appears on grid with me.
I was honestly quite shocked to see anyone manage to sneak up on me because the system was totally mine, all the sigs was known and the static was closed before I started plexing. I also watched the scanner for new sigs indicating a possible new K162. Something in all this had obviously failed, but I had no time to investigate further because now I was not fighting sleepers anymore!
As more ships appeared on grid with me, my first action was a futile attempt trying to run. One of my Rattlers was already scrammed by the sleepers and the Legion pointed the other one (lucky!). So I was screwed. Well, at least I could give them as good fight as possible before I went down.
I started to lock up the ones that had arrived. Legion, Proteus, Devoter and a Helios that probably was the bastard that found me. I had Gardes out and the covops was not moving enough, so I quickly popped it. Because the pod did not warp away (most likely because of dualboxing) I could lock it up and kill it. Next on the list was the Legion. He was already in armor from the sleepers when I got the Gardes working on it. When it popped, the sleepers and my two rattlers had brotherly divided the damage equally.
After that it got harder. I now had another Legion and Proteus to deal with, and since they were so close my Gardes could not hit them very well, even with tracking scripts loaded in all three links. My only other choice in drones was Bouncers, Warriors and Hammerheads. None of them was any good. I switched to Hammers in a desperate attempt to at least scratch the paint of the remaining T3s. Would I have had a set of Ogres they would have applied full 2K damage, and that would definitely have been a factor. With the new scripted omni-links you can get awesome tracking out of Ogres, they now kill sleeper-frigs as well as Warriors even if they still travel like stuck in syrup.
While this was going on, the group seemed to have problems breaking my tank. I had to overload my mids and forgot (naturally) to turn it off in time, so I burned out one of the invulnerable fields. Their response was neuts. But even if I would have had some Ogres to fight back with, I was not going anywhere and it was all over when they brought two Guardians. These guys probably found me while rolling their static, and were not quite ready for a gank, hence the late arrival of some of the ships. Had it been made in a proper way they would of course have had the Guardians on grid from the start and no one would have lost a ship. More then me that is :)
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
No plexing for Dominixes
Wait! Were there not eight sigs before? Now there are nine here in Gamma, my new C4 home. Well, I better get the old sisters out to find out what's new...
It turns out it's a incoming C4 with two towers and a bunch of Russian (I think) piloted battleships, mostly Dominixes. Now they are hanging there, but I have the distinct feeling they are gearing up for something. Could they have plexing in mind?
It turns out they are. But not their own system. When they all start to align, to my surprise they do so towards my C4! The hole is relatively old, and I just got back home, so chances are they have not seen anything of me yet. That is, more than my small, poorly defended 4-man corporation POS with a single floating Scorpion, and that is not scaring anyone.
But, but, those sites are mine! They are my training-ground for messing around with a Vargur! We can't have this. Must, must stop Dominixes!
Since my entire "pvp-fleet" consists of two ships, with hardly 400dps between them, I'm somewhat limited in my response. But if I know carebears, they will be easily spooked. No shoots needs to be exchanged. I doubt they will have the nerve to plex an active system. Just for me to show some pretend muscle and they will probably change their mind.
When all 4 of their Dominixes land on my WH in their system I'm jumping after them with the Astro I'm flying. On the other side I decloak, orbits and throws an point on a random Domi. They must have been pretty surprised to see me there.
They hanged at the WH for a bit, setting up their cap-chain. I could almost hear them reasoning about what to do. They eventually decided to withdraw and jumped back.
Now I was left with a decision to just log for the night or mess up their hole, making sure they where not to come back later to steal my sleepers when I was not looking. Putting an Orca heavy back and forth through the hole would do it. Since I figure these guys was not that experienced, I betted I could surprise them and get away with a sneak Orca-attack against the hole. If they had a scout that was on the ball, they could potentially tackle me long enough for the Domis to come back and give me trouble.
I had Ashi in her Tengu on their side of the WH as I let Tashi throw the Orca at the WH. On return, a Anathema decloaked. I don't know if he tried to tackle me or if he just got scared about mass and wanted to get back home, but in any case the Orca got clear. A few domis did land on their side of the WH when it did thou, so they where really trying to get it. "A" for effort, but my Orca live to see another day.
After that they disappeared and I finished the night by closing the WH for them with my Scorpion.
It turns out it's a incoming C4 with two towers and a bunch of Russian (I think) piloted battleships, mostly Dominixes. Now they are hanging there, but I have the distinct feeling they are gearing up for something. Could they have plexing in mind?
It turns out they are. But not their own system. When they all start to align, to my surprise they do so towards my C4! The hole is relatively old, and I just got back home, so chances are they have not seen anything of me yet. That is, more than my small, poorly defended 4-man corporation POS with a single floating Scorpion, and that is not scaring anyone.
But, but, those sites are mine! They are my training-ground for messing around with a Vargur! We can't have this. Must, must stop Dominixes!
Since my entire "pvp-fleet" consists of two ships, with hardly 400dps between them, I'm somewhat limited in my response. But if I know carebears, they will be easily spooked. No shoots needs to be exchanged. I doubt they will have the nerve to plex an active system. Just for me to show some pretend muscle and they will probably change their mind.
When all 4 of their Dominixes land on my WH in their system I'm jumping after them with the Astro I'm flying. On the other side I decloak, orbits and throws an point on a random Domi. They must have been pretty surprised to see me there.
They hanged at the WH for a bit, setting up their cap-chain. I could almost hear them reasoning about what to do. They eventually decided to withdraw and jumped back.
Now I was left with a decision to just log for the night or mess up their hole, making sure they where not to come back later to steal my sleepers when I was not looking. Putting an Orca heavy back and forth through the hole would do it. Since I figure these guys was not that experienced, I betted I could surprise them and get away with a sneak Orca-attack against the hole. If they had a scout that was on the ball, they could potentially tackle me long enough for the Domis to come back and give me trouble.
I had Ashi in her Tengu on their side of the WH as I let Tashi throw the Orca at the WH. On return, a Anathema decloaked. I don't know if he tried to tackle me or if he just got scared about mass and wanted to get back home, but in any case the Orca got clear. A few domis did land on their side of the WH when it did thou, so they where really trying to get it. "A" for effort, but my Orca live to see another day.
After that they disappeared and I finished the night by closing the WH for them with my Scorpion.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Mega vs. Proteus + friends
After putting together my first Astero and heading into a C2 just a few jumps from Jita I got a fight with a Proteus. Well not in the Astero and not really like I had thought, but it was still a fun fight.
In this C2 there were some dudes active, I was just seconds away from getting one of their Mastodons at a POCO (I did not decloak tho) and there were two or three afk/active in ships at the POS. I scanned down the system while waiting for something to happen. Their high-sec static was EOL and half mass and they had a incoming lowsec and a C3. There was a Domi hanging piloted, but inactive at the POS. Some other dude was jumping into different ships at a SMA. Eager to test out my little cloaky gank-frig, I was waiting for something that was light or industrial enough for me to attack it to leave the safety of the POS.
When something at last did leave the POS, it was not something light neither industrial, it was a Phobos, a heavy interdictor. He warped to the high-sec and bubbled up. Hmm.. they (he?) had probably seen me and my probes on scan and wanted to try and catch me on my way out. Maybe they thought some of their neighbours were using the exit to haul stuff out. It was close to Jita after all.
Now, I could not do much about the Phobos from the inside, but I could get my alt there in something bigger to play with it. With just half mass I was unlikely to close the WH, but I could at least force him to jump out. Not like I had something better to do. But while Tashi was doing the 10 jumps or so in a pretty heavy tanked Mega, I watched the Phobos get tired, and warp back to the POS. Darn it.
Eventually the Phobos got changed into a Proteus and when I jumped the Mega in the Proteus had just jumped out. Not the best timing. After contemplating what to do with the Mega in their system for a bit I jumped back out to high-sec. And there was the Proteus. By now, the hole was critical and when the Proteus disappeared (I did not see if he jumped back in, or if he cloaked) I took a chance and jumped the Mega heavy back in. That closed the WH and I had now either trapped the Proteus on the outside or he had jumped in before me and I could get a fight. It was the latter, the Proteus de-cloaked and we went at it.
We traded armour for a good while and it looked like I was going to come out on top. The Mega was tripple-plated and the Protues was scrammed and webbed so I did good damage. Obviously this guy might have a lot of friends in here, but I had only seen two other toons active, a covops and the Dominix. I was waiting for the Domi to come and save the Proteus, and I got quite surprised when a Vagabond warped in. Apparently the Vaga was not the only one that got the call for help, because when the Proteus was getting dangerously close to structure, the Domi and two guardians joined in. A Proteus, Vaga, Dominix and two guardians might be a bit too much to take on, and the very definition of a lost cause for my poor Megathron. I had to watch it pop and use a C3 - LS exit to get my pod out.
Even if I did not get to try my Astro out, at least I got a fight. There was just to few of me to win it :)
In this C2 there were some dudes active, I was just seconds away from getting one of their Mastodons at a POCO (I did not decloak tho) and there were two or three afk/active in ships at the POS. I scanned down the system while waiting for something to happen. Their high-sec static was EOL and half mass and they had a incoming lowsec and a C3. There was a Domi hanging piloted, but inactive at the POS. Some other dude was jumping into different ships at a SMA. Eager to test out my little cloaky gank-frig, I was waiting for something that was light or industrial enough for me to attack it to leave the safety of the POS.
When something at last did leave the POS, it was not something light neither industrial, it was a Phobos, a heavy interdictor. He warped to the high-sec and bubbled up. Hmm.. they (he?) had probably seen me and my probes on scan and wanted to try and catch me on my way out. Maybe they thought some of their neighbours were using the exit to haul stuff out. It was close to Jita after all.
Now, I could not do much about the Phobos from the inside, but I could get my alt there in something bigger to play with it. With just half mass I was unlikely to close the WH, but I could at least force him to jump out. Not like I had something better to do. But while Tashi was doing the 10 jumps or so in a pretty heavy tanked Mega, I watched the Phobos get tired, and warp back to the POS. Darn it.
Eventually the Phobos got changed into a Proteus and when I jumped the Mega in the Proteus had just jumped out. Not the best timing. After contemplating what to do with the Mega in their system for a bit I jumped back out to high-sec. And there was the Proteus. By now, the hole was critical and when the Proteus disappeared (I did not see if he jumped back in, or if he cloaked) I took a chance and jumped the Mega heavy back in. That closed the WH and I had now either trapped the Proteus on the outside or he had jumped in before me and I could get a fight. It was the latter, the Proteus de-cloaked and we went at it.
We traded armour for a good while and it looked like I was going to come out on top. The Mega was tripple-plated and the Protues was scrammed and webbed so I did good damage. Obviously this guy might have a lot of friends in here, but I had only seen two other toons active, a covops and the Dominix. I was waiting for the Domi to come and save the Proteus, and I got quite surprised when a Vagabond warped in. Apparently the Vaga was not the only one that got the call for help, because when the Proteus was getting dangerously close to structure, the Domi and two guardians joined in. A Proteus, Vaga, Dominix and two guardians might be a bit too much to take on, and the very definition of a lost cause for my poor Megathron. I had to watch it pop and use a C3 - LS exit to get my pod out.
Even if I did not get to try my Astro out, at least I got a fight. There was just to few of me to win it :)
Monday, July 8, 2013
Closing C4 WHs, solo-style
Day Nine
Closing a new 2B wormhole is as easy as jumping an heavy (100MN prop mod on) Orca six times and a single heavy battleship two times through it. In most cases that closes the hole just fine. You want to make sure you have your ships on the right side when it does thou. And you don't want anyone else to interfere. The battleship can be considered a throw away ship, but it would hurt to lose the 800M Orca. Still, it needs to be done. Closing wormholes is the basis of any safe carebearing.When I'm stalking people I use information from what ships they jump into, if they align, and most importantly, what I have seen them do before. If I have seen an Orca do a quick appearance on a WH its most likely a closing op going on. If they don't have multiple Orcas their polarization timer is my time to set something up till catch and kill the Orca. If they do it easy for me by announcing their plans way in advance, well, so much better.
This have made me formulate a quick and cloaky policy for my own doings. Always assume there is eyes watching you. You want as little information-leak to these eyes as possible. Just showing a piloted Orca will tell them a lot. And attract interest.
- Never be uncloaked at your POS. The more you can get them to guess what ships you have, the better.
- Never announce intent in advance. Don't jump into a BS + Orca and align to a WH.
- Never be uncloaked if you can help it. If you warp to a zero on a WH you do so with the intent of jumping.
- Make it quick. If you think the coast is clear, you have nothing to gain from lingering. Any extra time uncloaked is a chance for information-leaks, or worse.
- The more time you can spend cloaked, scouting a WH out in advance, the better. The absence of you seeing somebody jump is not the same thing as "safe" but if you have not heard WH activation the last 20 min it's not very likely there's somebody else there. Unless you have drawn attention with juicy targets before of course.
Since I only have one Orca-pilot and I need to do three trips back and forth, I have two timers to wait out. This goes against the whole "be quick and cloaky" approach, but I try and come as close as possible.
Typically I scout the WH with a cloaky Tengu first. Check the inhabitants. What ships on scan? What pilots on? Any POS'es out of d-scan? The more activity, the more time I spend on the WH pre-scouting. Showing a cloaky Tengu also raises the bar for what "my side" fly. A cov ops is only a scout, a Tengu is a potential pvp-ship, even a cloaky one. I want anyone to think twice before warping anything to the WH that could potentially be dangerous for my closing ships.
First Orca jump is quick, just warp there, jump in, jump back, and then warp away and cloak up. Anyone not spamming d-scan should miss it completely. For anyone paying attention, it's good if they don't realise that's the first Orca-jump in a closing sequence. While I wait out the polarization timer, I stay on the other side in the Tengu. Checking for signs of new activity. Scan probes? Anything warping to the WH? Anythig jumping?
After exactly 5 min, I do the second Orca-jump. The less time I give people to react the better. If I see a set of combats probes go out after the first jump, this is no reason to hold back on the second, giving them even more time to figure out what's happening. After the second orca-trip I stay for a few minutes at the WH with the Tengu and then jump back home, and switch it out for a Scorpion. When both timers are out, I do the last Orca-jump together with the Scorp. The Scorp is then working as a scout, and bait. The idea is that if anyone jumps the gun on the Scorp I might get away with the Orca. I also have the mass on my side. Anyone that wants to kill me will have to do it while following me through, because I will close the WH on the way back with the Orca.
Unless I have reasons to believe there's nasty things lurking, I stay cloaked with the Orca on the WH while waiting out the polarization. That way, the Orca works as a scout while I switch from Tengu to Scorp for the last jump.
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