Lesson One: Correct Use of Shovel...

"'Chapter Fifteen, Elementary Necromancy'", she read out loud. "'Lesson One: Correct Use of Shovel...'"
-- (Terry Pratchett, Jingo) 

Last night, in the afterglow of an epic bit of Piracy and a billion ISK payday for each of those involved, I decided it a good idea to tangle with a small gang that had set up shop on the Gusandall gate in Eifer, in all my genius I decided on taking a new ship out to play and promptly losing it. The rest of the locals with no co-ordination whatsoever followed suit and it ended up being a little farcical with two battleships and three strategic cruisers lost, but we didn't really care, had a laugh after and carried on with our lives

Here are the lessons learnt

•Intel Intel Intel

For fucks sakes, when you have intel, like the fact that there's at least 3 Caracals, 3 Moa, a Gnosis, 2 Ishtar, 3 Scythes and some tackle, jumping in all gung ho is not the smartest move. 
Sometimes being a solo pirate leads to some communication problems and combining forces doesn't always work out as hastily planned
We had sufficient intel and decided to jump in anyways, believing we were that good that we could clean up a remote shield boosting gang with a mix of ships, no voice comms and no fleet setup.

•Active Tanking 101

I haven't active tanked a battleship in a while and I was rusty, a dual rep AAR tank should have lasted much longer than I did, but I failed, the incoming damage was high and I didn't activate my reppers early enough, thinking I could bait tank a bit, but by the time I got them going it was too late.
I'm not a novice at active tanking, I just went full retard thinking I could just pull it off easily.

Dual Large Armour  Repairer or Single rep and single Ancillary rep?  The jury is still out for me, I'll have to play with it more and see which I orefer. I have dual repped in the past and had much success and I feel the boost rep of the Ancillary might be a bit more useful in the type of fights I would take in my right mind

•To MWD or not to MJD

One of the things I was toying with was the Micro Jump Drive, a new unit and one I had never used in combat. 
I was debating the Micro Jump Drive over the Micro Warp Drive and reasoned that I could just jump away if there were no scrams on me.

Were there any scrams on me? 
No, no there weren't
Did I just activate the MJD and jump away?
No, no I didn't

•Smartbomb over neutralizer

I'm undecided on this, the smartbomb could come in useful, had I had time to make best use of it to kill off drones and in this fight the neutralizer wouldn't have saved me, but what it might have done is break the rep chain of the Scythes a bit.

I did get one Moa before they could set up their reps properly but that was it, once they got going I wasn't going to break them, all that was left was for me to explode, even though I could have tanked better and simply micro jumped away.

All in all an expensive lesson, not as expensive as some I've had this year but not going to deter me, I shall still try this out, and maybe, just maybe, not go full retard and ruin what was an epic day :)

Eggs in one Anshar

Basically, there were two sides to the world. There was the entire computer games software industry engaged in a tremendous effort to stamp out piracy, and there was Wobbler. Currently, Wobbler was in front.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Only You Can Save Mankind) 

Four words... Well five...

[ 2014.03.22 18:41:11 ] Sasa Basta > Anshar caught in sot
[ 2014.03.22 18:41:14 ] Sasa Basta > SUN
[ 2014.03.22 18:41:20 ] Jonathan Cage > omw
[ 2014.03.22 18:41:25 ] Kane Rizzel > omw
[ 2014.03.22 18:41:25 ] xxx > omw

A mad scramble ensues, I choose something that has a smartbomb to pop the pod, A Hyperion Aliastra Edition and made my way to Sot, the assembled Pirates dropping whatever they were doing for the chance of a juicy kill.

Ransom was offered by the Anshar pilot

[ 2014.03.22 18:43:05 ] EL Brutor > kill , 2 bil offered is too low

I warped to the sun and landed 48km away, I dropped sentries and slowly made my way towards the stricken jump freighter, too far away to effectively apply DPS, will have to look at my choice of Micro Jump Drive for future such endeavours.

It hits hull and the pilot ejects, he is quickly podded because we take this shit seriously. We hold fire as we try to find a jump freighter capable pilot who can help us, with not one of us knowing such a pilot the decision was made for a shiny killmail.

With the wreck of the Anshar glowing brightly so close to the star we find out exactly what happened.

[ 2014.03.22 18:50:30 ] EL Brutor > ibis failed on the cyno, anshar bumped on station, I burned to her, was @ 60 and escaped, but warped to sun
[ 2014.03.22 18:50:46 ] EL Brutor > i just had to burn 100 kms to her

Props to Brutor for the epic tackle and then for his patience splitting all the loot and ISK after

One night in Egmar

"Today Is A Good Day For Someone Else To Die!"

-- (Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay)

I spent the evening roaming the Minmatar Faction Warfare zone looking for the ever illusive 1v1s that I'm convinced the revived Rifter is capable of dominating.

The area was buzzing with activity, numerous small and large gangs all over the place, Amamake hot as hell and Santo "Pod Reaper" Trafficante lurking.

My recent experience with the Rifter has shown me it's a lot better than it was, but is limited to singular engagements but damn it I'm going out there and going to find my Nirvana.

So it was that with one or two random warps to various faction warfare plexes I tripped over two Cheetahs, very unlucky for them that I would exit warp right on top of them and disable their cloaking systems.
Killing cloakers is almost as satisfying as killing warp core stabbers.

After one such kill I warped back to the wreck to loot the cloak, when a Firetail frigate warps in, piloted by the skillful and dangerous Lhorenzho.

A quick look at the Firetail shows me it has artillery fit, with its superior speed this was going to be an interesting fight, it quickly starts to close range as I align out, my afterburner at full throttle, he closes.

50km

40km

30km

My afterburner cycle is about to finish, I overload and pull off a maneuver I haven't done in a while, not since the days of the static 2/10 in Gusandall.
With bits of metal straining all around me, the forces exerted by the Crazy Ivan do almost as much damage to my Rifter as any weapon system, I'm launched in a direct collision course with the Firetail.

20km

10km

Scram and web kick in, the added range my guns now had wouldn't help me in this fight so I had to get close and mitigate some of the incoming damage, weapons systems overloaded I go to work on Lhorenzho's Firetail, his damage is impressive and so is his tank, it's neck and neck, both our repair systems fighting to repair the chunks of armour being torn out of our ships, he's still significantly faster than me and starts to get range where his artillery starts hitting me harder.

With my repper out of nanite paste his armour crumbles, my own is close to evaporating under the massive volleys of his artillery.

I try to orbit, minimising the impact of his salvos, using the greater tracking of my guns to finish him off.
I'm rewarded with a satisfying explosion as Lhorenzho's Firetail illuminates the Egmar system

A great fight and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

I seem to be having an issue with my modules burning out, cost me a Police Comet kill with him at 3% structure, but the pilot was gracious enough to offer a 1v1 against my Rifter, we did so at a deep safe and this time I managed not to melt everything and win. Another good fight.

Also just lost my Astro, took on a Hyperion in an anomoly... Neuted, tackled and dead :(

Tweaking the Rifter and illegal mining

In all, I've had seventeen demands for your badge. Some want parts of your body attached. Why did you have to upset everybody?
-- Lord Vetinari reproves Vimes.

(Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay) 

Mr Sard "I don't need no Bastion" Caid has called me out, a once proud Rifter warrior blogging about ships other than the Rifter, but have no fear, a recent update to the systems of the once mighty frigate have me flying my favourite iconic ship once again, I have however found a slight flaw... It doesn't do well when there are more of them than there are of me.

I am however confident than in a 1v1 situation I may be able to pick off most other frigates

Kane Rizzel > gf
Sarcos > gf
Johnny Twelvebore > apologies for the blob:) << There were only three of them and I almost had the rail Atron
Kane Rizzel > np :)

This is the second loss in Evati, yesterday a Firetail narrowly escaped in 10% hull when his destroyer friend exploded me whilst I was busy violencing his vessel. Seems Faction Warfare has picked up as the numbers flying about would seem to indicate that I will be hard pressed to find the mythical 1v1 the Rifter so desperately craves.

So I headed back to Gusandall to fit another Rifter but a lone miner was reported in Eifer with a broken tail light, so I boarded my Police ship and went to investigate

EVE System > Channel changed to Local : Eifer
Kane Rizzel > good afternoon sir
Kane Rizzel > I am from the space police
Kane Rizzel > do you have a permit to mine this rock?
LETSMINESTUFF > the space police?
LETSMINESTUFF > Let me see your concord badge sir.
Kane Rizzel > look at my space police lights sir
LETSMINESTUFF > oh dude
LETSMINESTUFF > your ship really has police lights on it
LETSMINESTUFF > where did you get that
Kane Rizzel > that is correct sir
hck ruffneck > Police Pursuit Comet Blueprint
Kane Rizzel > now licence and registration
LETSMINESTUFF > Sigh
LETSMINESTUFF > hold on its in my glove box
LETSMINESTUFF > I.. I cant find it
Kane Rizzel > may I remind sir that it is illegal to have open alcoholic beverages in the pod of your mining vessel
LETSMINESTUFF > >_>
LETSMINESTUFF > I have no alcohol in my ship
LETSMINESTUFF > (POUR IT OUT POUR IT OUT)
Kane Rizzel > box of twinkies and a can of gas and I'll let sir off with a warning, or if you tell me a joke that makes me laugh
LETSMINESTUFF > hmmm
LETSMINESTUFF > A man walks into a psychiatrists office naked wrapped in nothing but clingwrap
LETSMINESTUFF > The shrink walks out and says
LETSMINESTUFF > Sir... I can clearly see you
LETSMINESTUFF > you're nuts
Kane Rizzel > HAHA, good day to you sir
Kane Rizzel > o7
LETSMINESTUFF > o/

Sure I didn't make any money or make any explosions but sometimes I just want to see the universe smile.

Back to Rifters, The Riftering is still going to happen, I have a lot of things to deal with at the moment, least of all is working six days a week, so as soon as I can set a date I will do so and make all other arrangements, I'm so looking forward to finally being able to confirm it and actually getting it going.

Bad Boys Bad Boys...

FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC.
-- The motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch
(Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!) 

Gusandall Police Department, the GPD motherbitches.

A Fed Navy Ogre, Integrated Ogre, Hammerhead, Hobgoblin and Salvager walk into a bar...

Quote #205.

He nodded to the troll which was employed by the Drum as a splatter [footnote: Like a bouncer, but trolls use more force].
-- Nobby takes Carrot for a drink in The Mended Drum
(Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)
 It's been a better month so far, considering last months disaster where for the first time in my long career as a Pirate I operated at a loss, even 5 billion in loot wasn't enough to cover said losses.

With that I return you to your regular update of Piratey goodness.

The Hunting so far today took in the sites of the area, setting up as is my way, the entire area is scanned and bookmarked, and with that it's only a matter of patrolling and seeing if anybody is foolish enough to venture forth to find fame and glory.

Eifer as always proves to be ground zero and my first catch of the day. A lone Cyclone battle cruiser lingers in system and core probes appear on scan, he's actually probing for something, must be a combat site, so I check my bookmarks and there are none, but the Cyclone goes off scan and leaves system, oh well, moving on, I start my patrol once again.

Minutes later, a birdy whispers in my ear that the Cyclone is back, in the direction of a Data site....

"Are you making fun of me, a Cyclone, data running?"

I head back to Eifer and it does seem to be the case, I focus my remote cameras on the Cyclone and see he has missile launchers fit, so I warp away to a safespot, drop a mobile depot and refit for tank, with a neut for added pressure.

I warp back at range, then warp on top of a can he's busy hacking, I engage with scram and web, deploy drones and settle into a neat orbit. He deploys a flight of tech 2 hammerheads and starts shooting at me, I focus my flight of warriors on his drones to eliminate as much incoming DPS as possible.

Nathaniel Belruld > expensive ship to be pirating in isn't it?

With his drones out the way I'm still taking damage, my speed with an afterburner in a relatively tight orbit not enough to mitigate missile damage, so I start using my repper, overloaded, boosted with a cap charge, I keep it running sporadically, every now and again with an extra hit of ancillary repair, I had recalled my warriors and deployed hobgoblins, they chewed through his shields, nommed through his armour and snacked on his hull, all that was left was a violent explosion.

Kane Rizzel > business is good, what can I say :)
Kane Rizzel > gf

I scoop the loot and head back home to refit to my normal hunter/killer load out.

Later on this afternoon, while on patrol I warped past something odd on the scanner in Hrondmund, a Navy Vexor running a site, must be an anomoly as all the scannable sites in system weren't combat, so I started the process of manually scanning the anomolies until I found him, which of course I did, come on, this is me, I warp in, but he's eighty clicks away, next to a mobile tractor unit, he's almost done with the last wave so closing under cloak would take too long, so I quickly bookmark the mobile tractor and warp towards the sun, I engage warp back to my bookmark and drop cloak just before I land.

My prey is right in front of me as I nearly careen straight into him as I land, warp plasma streaming off my Sisters of Destruction frigate, I haven't refit, I'm full hunter/killer mode, dual scram and propulsion, I engage a tight orbit with MWD rocketing me in a dizzying spin. I lock his drones, a mixed bag, Integrated and Fed Navy Ogres, a single tech 1 hammerhead and hobgoblin and a lonely salvage drone. I quickly decide that the threat they pose is negligible and send my warriors out to play.

At no point does the Navy Vexor aggress, he makes a weak move to escape , almost in vain, but my Sisters of Destruction frigate is up to the task, there will be no escape, no quarter, take everything, give nothing back.

The Navy vessel explodes, raining bits of debris across the my Astro.

I hang about to kill the Mobile Tractor as the stupid thing has stolen the loot, and if there's any stealing to be done it will be done by me.

Burn

Death isn't on line. If he was, there would be a sudden drop in the death rate. Although it'd be interesting to see if he'd post things like: DON'T YOU THINK I SOUND LIKE JAMES EARL JONES?

-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)
Kane Rizzel > sup
ClintEaststick Sticks > Lol nice but im afraid the 200 thousand isk worth of crap wont help you.
Kane Rizzel > some folk just want to see the universe burn