This will be a small diary/guide, to the things I learned, and am learning, often the hard way, by losing ships in losec while fighting pirates and members of the Amarrian militia.
First, let me start off by talking about my ship, the Rifter. I have been using this ship frequently for combat, for about the past 2 years, and it has rather become my "go-to" for my losec prowls. It is fast, it does good damage, and most importantly, it is cheap... which is good.
I lose a lot of Rifters.
I have had a bad string the last few days, both due to my choice of targets, ie, very experienced Frigate pilot pirates, and my fit. I had been running 150s for so long on Jaguars, that I simply stuck with them, and my beloved neutralizer, on my rifters. Then I noticed I keep getting killed by similar fits;
200mm guns, rocket launcher, AB/scram/web, and active tank. Yep, more or less, the old standard.
I fit one up, running 3 200mm Tech II Acs, a Meta 3 rocket launcher, an AB, web, and scram, and a 200 plate, damage control, and a Small Armor Repairer II. For rigs, I selected my beloved burst rig and an ambit, and one small change; a explosive resist rig.
The 200mms have both more falloff and a higher DPS, and since CONCORD has changed the regulations governing rocket motors, the changes have actually made a 30% or so increase in my applied DPS, with better range. So, those fights I have been losing, with the other guy in half structure.... yeah.
I jumped in my new Rifter and headed to the Warzone, via Bosboger and Amamake; both quiet. Dal, Vard, and Siseide were very blue, and as I entered Hofjalgund, I encountered a rather large Murientor Tribe gang, who informed me that there was little to see further up the pipe.
At that moment, two amarrians, a Rifter and an Imperial Navy Slicer, ran their gatecamp and headed into Eszur. I informed Muri I was giving chase, they wished me well, and into Eszur I went.
I jumped into system and immediately see several open Plexes. As Eszur is a nice, small system, I narrow them down... to a nearby standard complex. Crap, I think. I have no MWD... well, lets see if they wish to fight, and not run.
I warp to the gate, and am immediately targeted and fired upon by the Rifter. Oh! I scram, web, engage, shutting his MWD down and crumpling his rather weak tank, of one SMALL shield extender as shown here My damage was minimal, repaired by a couple cycles of my SAR. As I scoop the loot, the Slicer pilot calls me to planet III.
Deep breath, and into warp I go.
The slicer pilot begins a high speed orbit, moving almost 4k/sec, as I open fire and take GCC. Now, I have a problem. MWDing slicer versus AB fit rifter. Ok, i have done this before, several times, with Stabbers... this cant be much harder.
I burn at high speed, heating my AB, directly opposite her path, pulling her orbit into an ellipse, and actually slipping out of her point range for a moment. I then peek at the sky, estimate where she will be in 3-4 seconds as she burns back toward me, and make my turn. I heated my web and scram, but... for no reason.
She goes from over 20k range, to 3k, within about 3 seconds. Scram and web landed, repper working hard, and off I go, holding her at 6-7k range and pounding away with fusion. (( I had fusion and phalanx rockets loaded for the whole fight )). Cap is empty, I shut my AB off, madly attempting to cycle the SAR whenever enough cap is available... and the slicer pops, dropping some shinies. Loot scooped, and off i go, to wait out my GCC and relax.
Yep. I just prevented an attack on Eszur, and broke a horrid string of losses. At least against this pair, the new Rifter fit had worked simply splendidly.
Tired, I head home, to Auga, to crash in a Militia-operated hostel and get a bite to eat.
There would be plenty to do tomorrow
