Bungling in to a battlecruiser
26th June 2014 – 5.01 pmThe Viator transport is swapped for a Myrmidon battlecruiser, a fairly sure sign that his planet-goo collecting is finished. The Imicus scanning frigate is swapped for a Nereus hauler, though, which makes me wonder if a new hauler will make itself vulnerable, for small values of vulnerable given the state of industrial ships and the broken tracking tools. Apart from any other circumstance, I've been in our neighbouring class 3 w-space system for around twenty minutes already. Our K162 must surely be known by now, thanks to the discovery scanner.
I'm considering turning my Proteus strategic cruiser around and heading home, trying to be happy with my earlier Sleeper combat as progress for the evening, when the Myrmidon warps out of the tower. The battlecruiser doesn't warp to a planet, the star, or, checking the system map, our K162. Out of curiosity, I poke anomalies in the direction of the Myrmidon's vector with my directional scanner. Huh, he's in one of them, and with his buddy in a Tengu strategic cruiser too. I didn't even notice the Tengu leave.
I warp in to see what's going on in the anomaly. I can't quite believe that the local pilots would be active with a known wormhole opening in to their system, but I also haven't seen any scanning probes yet, despite there being two piloted and at least one active scout boat available. Even so, I drop out of warp to see the Tengu and Myrmidon engaging Sleepers in as normal a fashion as possible.
I aim to drop short of the anomaly, not wanting to hit any Sleepers, their structures, or either of the two ships. It seems the Myrmidon had the same thought, though, and my Proteus almost collides with the battlecruiser. I back off a little, wanting to assess the situation before thinking about striking, before remembering that hitting the Myrmidon is what I'm here to do. Besides, the Tengu is fairly distant, making it unlikely to come immediately to Myrmidon's aid, and the battlecruiser is a better target for my Proteus than the strategic cruiser, particularly when I've not tested it in combat yet. This is an excellent opportunity.
Rather than continue to move away from the Myrmidon, I turn back towards it, decloaking as I do. Engaging more combat ships directly is why I switched to the Proteus, so if I don't do that I'll have wasted plenty of ISK. As soon as my sensor recalibration ends, I start my ambush on the Myrmidon. I gain a positive lock, disrupt the battlecruiser's warp engines, and begin shooting.
The Myrmidon reciprocates my target lock, once his initial shock wears off, and calls his drones back from attacking the Sleepers to start shooting me instead. Right, drones. I launch my own and get them on the battlecruiser, adding to the damage my blasters are inflicting. I don't have to worry about the Tengu either, as he's gone quicker than shields in an armour boat. I perhaps need to be concerned about his returning in a bigger boat, though.
It's looking good for me, bad for the Myrmidon. My armour is being slowly depleted, but the Myrmidon's is pretty much gone, although the Sleepers are now taking umbrage with me, not him. I keep shooting, hoping no one will come to his aid. Anyone? No? Good. The battlecruiser explodes, my Proteus is bloodied. I aim for the pod but it disappears in to warp immediately, leaving me a wreck to loot and shoot. Or just shoot, given that the Sleepers have webbed my ship down to a crawl.
I manage to get my Proteus clear of the anomaly, away from the Sleepers, and back to our K162. I orbit the wormhole and update d-scan, seeing the pod jump in to its own Proteus, at which point I think it best to go home and repair the armour damage mine has sustained. Through the wormhole, to the tower, and a quick refit has my Proteus back to full strength. I return to our static wormhole, staying on the home side for now, and loiter to see if anyone ventures through. No one, which suits me fine. It's time to get some rest, after a decent first combat outing for my new ship, against a rare target in w-space.
9 Responses to “Bungling in to a battlecruiser”
Well done. You like it already, don't you? C'mon, admit it.
Your Loki is going to get very dusty!
Not sure how you are fitted, but potentially 100K tank, 700 DPS with Void and overheat, extended point range, and a covert cloak....scary ship.
Sadly, it is squarely on fozzie's "rebalancing" chopping block.
Yep, I'd best make the most of it whilst it remains a monster.
And Gwydion? Fix the cigarette lighter.
Not until after we see the penguin.
Lol'd about forgetting (almost) to put drones out. I do the same thing every time. Funny, my Proteus is in highsec atm while I'm giving a Loki a spin. I do miss the brute force though.
I am Caldari trained and spent a while tackling Sleepers, who hate drones, so they don't often come to mind.
I'm just glad I remembered to load some, although I managed to double-up on one flight of drones instead of having different options. I should correct that at some point.
Assuming you have the fit that gets the 4 sets of lights, the drones are more there to provide anti-frig defense and to get on killmails when there's a lot of targets. Make sure you have a set of EC-300's in there somewhere for escapes.
Those might be the ones I managed not to buy, somehow opting instead for two flights of Acolytes. Don't tell anyone, ok?