Sunday, October 14, 2012

It's a Trap!

So I had a jump clone and a rifter (just one) in Eugales.  I decided it would be a good idea to pick up both of them and move to somewhere that I could use them more.  And if the rifter blew up on the way, so much the better.

I stopped in Dodixie to do some business then headed out on a roam.  I jumped into low sec via the Jel/Egghelende gate.  That jump still gives me chills up and down my spine.  As a 2 week old character (not Jack Dancer - it was my explorer alt) I picked up a level 2 mission (or something) that required a delivery to Egghelende.  I put the package in my Iteron II and hoped for the best on my first trip to low sec land of pirates.  Instead of good luck I was destroyed, podded, and decided to change mission agents... Jel/Egghelende is a scary place!

But back to this story.

I passed through Egghelende without trouble and in Siseide saw a procurer (a mining barge) and a condor in an asteroid belt.  I assumed the condor was destroying the barge, but just to be sure I immediately turned everything up to 11 and headed that way.  I landed near the procurer and instead of fleeing he just sat there while I approached.  Excellent!  Though, at the time it seemed a bit odd...

I attacked and was amazed at how little damage I was doing.  I then remembered reading something about mining barges having their defenses buffed.  And this one might have been especially buff...

At about that time the condor arrived and there were hobgoblin drones flying around everywhere.  I tried to target the condor, but he was 20k away and using some sort of voodoo so that I couldn't target him.  I was in a tough spot.  I tried to burn away to get out of range so my warp drive would kick in - but no luck.

I held on longer than I thought I would against the drones, but eventually I blowed up.

I made a couple obvious mistakes.  One was not running from what was obviously a trap (though losing a rifter worth 6 million isk isn't really a big loss... so I'm not sure this is a "mistake").  Another was not targeting the hobgoblins.  They were doing all the damage and I should have tried to destroy them.

So it goes.

GFs were exchanged in local and my Death to Flying Things Campaign score is currently 16-40-1.

2 comments:

  1. I've been interested in trying the new skiff as a bait ship for pirates. Large defense and good drone skills with a web + scram can make for an interesting fight against frigates.

    The only time I engaged a miner in low sec (after the changes) was with Zodiac Black, and it was a mack...wondering how much dps and tank you will need to fight 1v1 against a skiff/proc and win.

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  2. From this experience the procurer works quite well as a bait ship. I think the condor was probably parked in the neighborhood at a safe spot so it had a short trip to the action once I was scrambled.

    Though it would be better to be in a less active system and to have the condor a bit farther away so that a dscan doesn't show them both at the same belt. The procurer can be parked far enough away from the warp-in point to give it some GTFO time in case a big scary ship arrived instead of a rifter like mine.

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