Warfare & Tactics

Killboard links removed - CCP Falcon

I'm still quite new to PVP... but maybe not anymore, maybe this battle marks a turning point for me. A corp mate, a mentor of mine, tells my I have now mastered the art of frigate Bushido after this fight. I lost the Ishkur, but I took a lot with me, and it was GLORIOUS! It was, in my mind's eye, the fight that I've been looking for since I started playing EVE.

I remember seeing the "I Was There" trailer and thinking, I want to be there too. No, I'm not trolling, I know that sounds cheesy but that's really what I was thinking. Today, I was.

So, I frapsed it, but I'd rather tell the story. I did have friends in system, one of which was hunting a Dram, so I decided to help after completing a mission (but prior to turning it in) and warped to a planet to d-scan the belts from. Well, I found the dram, and warped in to the belt I was facing, but apparently, so did a bunch of other stuff. I'm flying an Ishkur I named Skylark, it's fit primarily for taking on larger ships, mostly cruisers and battlecruisers, with tracking disruptor, short point and AB, armour tank, ECM drones and Hornet IIs.

I landed on a Tengu, Corax, Atron, Griffin, Dram (which was about 50km out with MWD and never aggressed, so we missed out on that one), and a Navy Exeq showed up soon after. I had to think fast. Bail, or engage?

Screw it, I thought, and primaried the Tengu for point (thinking my mates would come help) and then locked everything else in the belt, launched Hornet IIs and put them straight on the Corax, then went after the Atron with guns. I locked the Exeq and put tracking disruptors on it. It seemed to be interested in the Tengu though, so I ignored it while I finished off the Atron then went for the Corax.

The Corax was in structure when it warped, cuz I only had the one point and I had that on the Tungu. Meanwhile, as the fight rages, I've linked the asteroid belt TWICE in an intel channel to local friends who keep telling me to join fleet, without sending me an invite, while I'm in the middle of fighting a half dozen ships, all of which except the Dram and Exeq seem to be primarying me. No, guys, I'm not multitasking or anything, but I link the belt a THIRD time for their convenience

After the Corax warped, I switched straight to the Griffin and put drones on the Tengu, which was at ~3/4 shields would be my guess. The neutral Navy Exeq was having trouble doing damage, so after some quick thinking, I decided to lift the tracking disruptor off it, but kept point on Tengu, killed and podded the Griffin pilot.

The Dram was still way outside range, my mates were still taking forever to mobilise and still asking me to join fleet. By now, I'd given up on them turning up and had to make a decision - Tengu or Exeq?

I went after the Exeq, and suddenly, it switched to me. The Tengu was dead. A Gnosis showed up - never mind, friendly, focus on Exeq. Which I did, but I forgot to tracking disrupt it, and it started hitting and getting through my tank. I put everything I had on it, overloaded it all, and with the Gnosis helping, we were getting closer...

Too late, I was exploding. My pod was en route to the sun before I even realised I'd warped it out, and I was docked up one system over waiting to hear the results of the end game from my mates. The Gnosis died, but one of our guys showed up in a Sleipnir and made short work of the Exeq.

I have never had a greater thrill in my life. I'm sitting in a new Ishkur at the moment, with all new modules ordered waiting to be picked up in my hauler alt. I'm going to log for now though, on a high note, and go for a walk outside. We just had a massive storm near Brisbane, where I live, and I'm feeling like some fresh air.

The point of this story, by the way, is not just a bit of a brag, which I feel a little entitled to. Flying against that many enemies solo, not knowing what they're capable of and whether you'll live or die... some might call that stupid. I call it fun :D it's the fight that matters to me, not the result, but even the result wasn't terrible. A 5-1 (4 not counting the pod) end result for me, personally, is not too shabby. Especially in a frigate.

The point, though, is to give some inspiration to all you newbie pvp'ers out there who, like me, are just looking for good fights. I still consider myself newb at this stage, I still feel like I have a lot to learn, but I guarantee the best pvp'ers out there feel like they have a lot to learn as well. But the good fights are real, they do happen, they do take place. There was no hot drop, no camping fleet waiting to jump in, no boosters, no logi. Not that I complain about that stuff, that's EVE really, it happens, and you have to make the best of a bad situation. But there is no question that when that stuff isn't present, when the fight is just a fight, then the fight is more fun, the fight is more of a thrill, and the losses don't sting so much.

That, however, will never stop me joining a blob fleet :p

EDIT: this is also for all the nay-sayers who complain about PVP in this game being bad and one sided and whatever, the whiners who really think that every fight should be like this one without exception. Well, these fights do exist, do happen, so stop your whining. Everyone gets blobbed, everyone gets Falcon'd, no one escapes, you learn to roll with the punches or you quit the game because that's the only way you're going to avoid taking the punches at all.

As a GD regular, there are a few people on these forums, other regulars, that need to see that I'm growing up in EVE. People that have teased me for my KB in the past, who don't understand that learning is a process. Also, this is about EVE in general. GD is the place for it.

Seems to work well enough to me, and everyone I know in the game. Think I'll continue to link it where appropriate.

Already figured that out, but don't need to drop to meta 4 scram to make that work, just a meta 4 disruptor. Also, don't wtf hornets, they did 15% of the damage on that Tengu, I didn't take my guns to it even once. Don't really care much for "it's not a good kill because" kinds of criticisms though, just sounds like jealousy to me. A kill is a kill is a kill.

And Battleclinic is just fine.

I know, I appreciate the ship fitting suggestions, I always listen to those. But it's not like I had enough time to check the fits, player ages and BC records of everything that was in that belt before I decided whether or not to engage. I had no idea how the Tengu was fit.

Hornets are faster than Hobs, and do enough damage when you've got 5 T2s on frigates. Like I said, the ship itself is fit primarily to take on cruisers. The Hornets are for dealing with interceptors or other fast frigs. I also carry a flight of ECM drones for when there are no frigs on the field.

First: congratulations on the kills! In the end you're never sure what the hostile target has fitted, can be some lethal killerfit and he's baiting or perhaps just a losuy fit and he dies to anything. But in the end, it's you who got to decide to engange a target, and work to kill it.


On Good PvP isn't dead: Good Pvp will never die. It just means different things for different people. For some it's achieving victory against a numerically superior enemy. Others enjoy succesful PvP with underrated ships. And you got plaeyrs who get a kick from fleet vs fleet engangements.
In the end, Good PvP is subjective, but it does have one thing in common: you enjoy it as it fits your notion of good pvp.

Kind of what I meant, yes, but didn't word right. It depends on what you enjoy, but it's definitely out there. Took me since April 2012 to find my good fight, but it came, and I have never felt more satisfied.

Arguments aside, the OP makes me smile. It's good to see people noticing that pvp isn't just GANKGANKGANK and blob warfare. There are gudfiets out there. Glad you found one man :)

Just put it back,

**** the system!

Congrats OP, well done.