More of the same Sleeper combat
14th January 2014 – 5.51 pmNo bookmarks beyond the home system, five gas sites, and a glorious leader on-line. Gassing? 'I'm doing no such thing. No such anything.' Well, in that case, it looks like we're nicely isolated again, and still have a bunch of decent anomalies to plough through. Maybe we should make hay while the sun shines. 'I would hate to see someone else grab them', says Fin of our anomalies. Then it's settled. It's another evening of shooting Sleepers.
Now, how should we do it? I've been happy bouncing around in our Golem marauder with a micro jump drive, pausing occasionally to activate bastion mode, with Fin flying independently in a Tengu strategic cruiser. But I could understand if that arrangement weren't preferred. Thankfully, I am indulged an awful lot by Fin, who is 'happy with our previous arrangement', if I am. Yep! Let's do it.
'Ready. Try to keep the bloom down to a minor retina scarring.' Roger that. Warp drive initiated towards an unglamorous but important part of w-space living. And if we get enough liquid ISK, maybe we can get a second Golem so that I can be shown how a cruise missile-fit marauder would be much more efficient than the torpedo fitting I perversely prefer.
The first site is cleared without drama, much as it should be, although I am getting my angles wrong when using the micro jump drive. Only on the first wave is it suitable to jump straight towards the Sleepers, as the subsequent waves have the gall not to appear at a convenient hundred kilometre increment. I get it wrong again in the second site, the MJD not quite taking me where I want to be. It's operator error, of course, but Fin is reassuring. 'Got it wrong again. That is our motto.'
I am not quite where I need to be to reach that final Sleeper in the wave. Fin comes across to me in her Tengu, just to say hi, and gives the Golem a nudge. Hey, that's an idea. The bastion module prevents my moving, but maybe I just need a hand. I ask Fin to bump me towards the retreating Sleeper, getting a run-up first for better effect. Her Tengu backs off a bit, turns, and burns towards me, ramming the Golem with some speed. I spin a bit on my axis, but stay rooted in space. I have no idea how the bastion module works, but when active it apparently anchors the ship its fitted to to a different plane.
The second site is cleared. I try to do better with my angles in the third site, and I get pretty close. My efforts are definitely better, if not actually good just yet. Then again, my jump to the battleships in the third wave couldn't have been much closer, it's just that the pair of them run off in different directions, both directly away from me. Still, Fin and I work well as a team. She deals with the cruisers, I pop one of the battleship, and by that point the remaining damage is low enough that I can drop out of bastion mode to pursue the final Sleeper. Well, as much as any unmodified Golem can pursue anything.
The third site is cleared. In to the fourth, and I'm getting the hang of bouncing with the MJD to get in to range and balance the number of remaining targets with my mobility. It's like practice makes you improve. Weird! A slight kink happens when Fin's Tengu petulantly goes off-line without warning, leaving me alone in the site. My first instinct is to warp back to our tower until Fin reappears, but then I remember that the whole point of fitting the Golem with a bastion module was so that it could survive in these sites by itself. We tested it.
I warp back to the fourth site to continue in Fin's short absence, and it's pretty short. Fin recovers her Tengu as I am in warp, and she appears in the site almost at the same time as I do. That worked out well. Even so, Fin suggests that it is probably a good idea to 'finish this and get salvaged'. Our aim is helped when Fin remembers to re-activate her shield hardeners, after the unscheduled interruption. We're so professional.
Four anomalies cleared of Sleepers, now to clear them of the Sleeper wrecks. Our combat ships are swapped for a pair of Noctis salvagers, and we split up. We can do more damage that way. It's a simple task to loot and salvage, and today we bring home a good haul, compensating for recent poor results. Another four hundred million ISK in plunder is brought back to our tower safely, to be stored until we get a decent route to empire space. That'll keep us going for a while longer.
2 Responses to “More of the same Sleeper combat”
That is a nice return per anomaly. For some reason I thought you lived in a C2. Have you moved to a C4? I currently live in a C3 and our "warpable" anomalies average about 50M. Only the relic sites would go up to an average of 90M. I know its luck with the ribbon drop.
NF
We've been in a C4 for a while now, also farming the sites through our static wormhole to a C3. The best C4 anomalies give 66 Miskies in bloot alone, compared to the best C3 anomalies giving 32·5, going up to 49·5 Miskies for a relic site. As you say, the actual profit is based on the luck of salvaging melted nanoribbons.