Tuesday 2 March 2010

Liking the Drones

The rogue ones only come out to play a few at a time -- you can shoot some, and then get into prime position for the next lot, without worrying about sniping.

Not like that d*mn repair station and its s*dd*ng stasis tower. Fortunately my own drones can eat tower, and I just have to tank the incoming. And that seems to be possible in a BS.

Monday 1 March 2010

Overdoing It

Okay -- I ought to have known, when the agent offers me about twice what he had been for a mission.

Mind you :: I've *learned* -- I looked it up first, before I accepted it. Four waves, it said -- frigates, cruisers, up to BCs, some with webby things and so forth. And a stasis tower.

But on my side I have Mal's legacy -- in this case a Nevy Issue with 12 drones in the bay, some modules that boost the drones, and four hybrid turrets. And a shield booster (which, being Mal, is an X-large and drinks cap like a dockside wrangler).

So I get there (no gates) and get stasis-towered. Launch the heavy drones and send them to deal with that, while I try to tank the frigates and get some range with my AFB. Then open up on the tower myself, and tank tank tank, till it's gone. that's better -- I can move now -- call back the heavies, loose a flight of lights, and watch as the frigates go down. There's one cruiser here, which I leave till last 'cause the cheat-sheet says that one's the trigger for the next wave.

It goes and they arrive -- at something like 120 km. So I call in the drones for some shield repair, run my own shields back up, and have a wait. Here's where I'd have chatted to poniez but there aren't any (and the man with the kittiez said they were too small to let me have :: they might get in the working of my bigger ships, and never been seen again).

Eeventually they arrive, and I target some at extreme range, fire off a volley or two, and, once I've got their attention, loose some drones. This lot, thankfully, come in 2 squads and neither seems exactly to love the other -- I blow one lot away and then start on the other. Once again, I'm lucky, and keep the drones off the trigger ship till I've cleared the others. Somewhere round the end of here, is where I decide that I can do to have a break, and get my cap back, so I collect the drones (see -- I *can* remember to, once in a while), warp to a station, repower, releoad, and get out there again.

The next lot also arrive at long range and once again prove to be two squads. Unfortunately, somehow, after clearing the first lot, the second ones send for reinforcements -- suddenly I'm overloaded with targets, coming in from three directions, and all angry. Fortunately they all target me, so I can leave the drones out unhindered. This one needs a warp-out partway through (for re-cap) but I go back at 70K range, which means I'm not where they expect mne, and I pick off the two b*tards with target painters quick (actually I'm quite proud, not once did the webby-type ones get within their range, and though there were targetting disrupters advertised on the cheat-sheet, I never noticed any on my HUD overwiew). I was just getting ready fort he foruth wave, when the "Mission Accomplished" flag goes up.

So I warped for home base, and switched ships to one of Mal's salvagers -- an ex-BC I think -- anyway it holds three tractors and 2 suites of double salvagers. Then back to hoover everything up (which took 2 runs and would have been more but there weren't as many Metal Scraps as sometime).

And when I added it all up, the bounties alove were over 3 mill.
So I'm going to lie low for a while, just in case the cartel have my registry number.