Engagement Report 5 – Dual Hull Brutix

Another day, another Dual Hull Brutix Roam. I started up in Thera, but somehow I messed up probing my intended exit and got a connection do Low Sec instead of Null Sec. Not wanting to go back and probe more signatures I decided to roam around. It was fairly close to M-OEE8, a busy area, so I decided to give it try.

Eventually I jumped into a small gang. Devoter, Stilleto, Vexor Navy, Brutix Navy and Zealot. Right now, I made the 1^st mistake of the night. I forgot the HIC recent rebalance. I tried to MJD away, only to find myself scrammed at 25km from the Devoter. I should have tried to cloak and burn back to gate instead. Those guys also had links, double webbing me at 18km away, so jumping in my 2^nd Brutix into that “fight” would just have got him killed too. Blasters don’t hit much at 18km, so I died.

Jita was not far, so I got another Brutix and got both my toons together. Around Taisy system I found 3 Brutix… Looked at their guns and they had Neutron Blasters. This could mean “Shield Brutix” or “Hull Tanked Brutix”. Upon my decloak I burn back to gate, and one of them Scrams and Webs me. Having a web meant they were “Hull Tanked Brutix”. Auch… Still I had a good opportunity for a fight here. How would my 2 Hull Tank Brutix fare against 3 Hull Tank Brutix?

I needed to split them a bit and get gate guns on my advantage.

So I burn back to gate, jump into Taisy. 2 Brutix follow me, 1 stays behind, aggressed and taking gate guns fire.

 I burn back to gate. 1 Brutix shoots at me getting gate guns fire and 1 Brutix just holds. I jump back out of Taisy. On the other side, the Brutix that was previously aggressed had warped off to avoid gate guns fire. Not sure if he was close or far, but it would give me some time. I burn back to gate and jump into Taisy again.

Only 1 Brutix is here. He targets me and shoots, getting gate guns fire.

I finally have a good opportunity. 1 hostile Brutix is getting gate guns fire and 2 are away giving me some breathing room. I shoot back and bring in my own Backup Brutix. Primary target goes down and the 2 other hostile Brutix join the fray. The hostiles primary Pleniers, my own Tank Brutix, so it allows me to apply better DPS with Rtb my DPS Brutix. Unfortunately I could not jamm the guy scramming Pleniers, so Pleniers dies, as well as their 2^nd Brutix.

It’s down to Rtb and the 3^rd of the hostile Brutix. Damage is being applied quite even in both ships until my ECM drones manage to jamm him. Should I stay and try to kill him, or use the opportunity and warp off?

2 factors weighed my decision. 1^st factor was that they had a 4^th guy in local belonging to same alliance. I could not say if it was links, some random guy traveling or someone in a 4^th Brutix coming in. The other factor was that I was not entirely sure if my opponent was getting gate guns fire or not… With all the dual tabbing stuff I was really not paying too much attention, so decided to call it and warp off. I kinda regret not staying there, but I suppose that killing 2 Brutix and only losing one myself was not a bad result, but then again, not awesome either. I think the real victory was to use the local environment (gate guns) to my advantage and managing to split them decently before the engagement started.

Either way, it was time to go fetch another Brutix at Jita. When coming from Jita to Taisy I jumped into another gatecamp. An Ashimmu, Omen and Scythe aggress me upon jumping into Jan system. I also noticed they had a few Alliance mates in local, so I decided to take it with caution. I burn back to gate and jump out. At the same time I bring my 2^nd Brutix into position, taking me about 5 minutes to get sorted.

I jump back into the gate camp with my Tank Brutix. Now it’s only the Omen and Scythe, no Ashimmu to be seen! I hate when this happens! I really wanted to kill the faction cruiser, but I don’t want to stay long, so I just go for the Omen. The Scythe repairs the Omen just fine against gate guns and 1 Brutix, but when my 2^nd Brutix lands on grid the Omen pretty much melts and the Scythe runs away. Time to proceed with my roam.

Finally I reach M-O, my original destination. Can’t really complain because I did had a couple engagements so far. Once I jump into M-O there’s a gatecamp going on. Nice!! 1 Harbinger, 1 Malediction, 1 Hurricane and 2 Vexors. I burn back to gate and manage to get the following intel:

1       - Malediction has a Scram;

2       - Harbinger is beam fit, at 50km from gate,

3       - Hurricane is 425mm fit, probably armor fit looking at his killboard

4       - 1 Vexor has no guns and looking at the pilot’s killboard is probably 1600mm fitted.

This is all a bit too much for me alone, but fate wanted otherwise. A neutral Vagabond also jumps into the gate camp and burns back to gate. I convo him and ask if he wants to team up. He agrees and we set a plan.

The Plan: I decloak 1^st to act as Tank and grab whatever is closest to me: Either a Vexor or the Hurricane. Taisy>M-O is a regional gate, so I cannot really spend too much time chasing for something far away…  The Vagabond primaries the Malediction and shoots at my primary target afterwards. Then we proceed to kill them all! Easy huh?

We jump in, I spawn near the Hurricane and proceed to shoot at him with both my Brutix. Vagabond pilot fails to kill the Malediction and I start seeing damage in a Vexor 20 km away from me. Not sure what happened there, but he might have been caught and needed to defend himself. Things were not going according to plan… Still, nothing more that could be done, other than opening my way with blasters. Hurricane dies and I proceed to help the Vagabond pilot killing the Vexor he was already damaging. That Vexor dies and I start working on the 2^nd  Vexor. 2^nd Vexor also dies.

Pleniers was getting really low in structure so I MJD and warp off. Vagabond pilot ended up dead. I also need to bail Rtb. I prepare to activate my MJD, but the Malediction comes in close and scrams me. I inject my Drop Booster, change to Antimatter ammo and put all my damage into it, as well as my ECM drones. Rtb keeps going down, Blasters are not hitting, even though I have, drugs, scram, web, neut, tracking ammo and ECM drones. I bring ECM drones in and spit out Hobgblins. Malediction starts to finally go down, but not fast enough and Rtb dies. This is why I asked the Vagabond pilot to primary the Malediction! Brutix are awful interceptor killers, unlike Vagabonds that quite excel at it, but oh well. I suppose I could have used damage drones a bit sooner but not sure if would have worked fast enough.

It was not a great result, but was a decent fight while being outnumbered. I went to repair and the Vagabond pilot reshipped to a Sleipnir. We would see if they wanted to play again, after all they did had 50 guys in local…

My Sleipnir mate started 2^nd round and managed to kill the Malediction and another Vexor. Once I joined we managed to kill another Vexor but noticed something important. Our foes started to bring out Logistics in the form of an Exequror, even though it was not enough to save the Vexors. Eventually my Sleipnir mate needed to go away and it’s me alone in my Brutix, with no support from Rtb that got podded back to Curse.

Within 2 minutes the locals bring a new wave of cruisers, but this time they have 2 Augorors… Alone I would not be able to break those, so I jump out and call it a day. I had gotten a few good fights, killing stuff and losing 3 Brutix in the process. It was time rest and log off.

Curses! - Episode 22 - Pleniers Post Battle Log Analyst

Hello fellas,
This is an odd one... I bring you guys, Pleniers Post Battle Log Analyst.

An Excel file that reads EVE combat logs and helps you analyse what happened in a particular engagement.

PVP and Trading – February 2016 Report

PVP Report

This focus into my “Alone PVP” endeavours, using usually 2 tons. I might eventually team up with the occasional friend during my “Alone PVP” roams, but any kills/losses I achieve in a proper fleet are not posted or analysed here.

I’m not even going to lie about my goals as an ”Alone PVPer”. I want to find people, deceive them and kill them. I’m a brawler at heart, so dying is inevitable, but I want to make sure I manage to kill more than I lose. While not trying to be an Isk Efficiency fanatic, I do prefer to use cheaper affordable ships to kill more expensive ones. 

COMBINATIONS FLOW

Next graph shows how many ships I killed and lost, using my most usual combinations. 

I’m really monochromatic as to what I fly… Once I like a certain combination I try to explore it to the extreme. Right now, the Dual Hull Brutix is my favourite combination having killed 83 ships while losing 19. I used a new Hull Myrmidon / Brutix combination once, but I did not really liked it… Back to Dual Hull Brutix it is!

Solo Hull Brutix engagements are had when one of my toons is truly alone and has no backup nearby (probably because backup got killed). I prefer to use 2 toons, but will not completely avoid fighting just because I only have 1 toon left… Still managed to kill 7 ships while losing 2 in true solo combat.

During February I killed less and died more than in January. BUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHH. So much for “personal improvement”…

In order get me going I bought, shipped to Curse and fitted 60 Hull Brutix this month…. I hope it’s enough for a couple months at least…

HOSTILES KILLED

Let’s take a better look on the hostiles I killed. Next graph shows what ships I killed and how many.

 Svipuls, Svipuls, Svipuls, Svipuls… These poor suckers just seem to throw themselves at my feet, begging me to put them out of their misery. As overpowered as they are, it’s good to know that a couple BCs can bring some good sense on their blind “King of the Hill” madness.

Following we have the Caracal and the Cynabal. I’m not surprised about Caracals because they are probably the T1 Cruiser most popular choice, but managing to kill so many Cynabals was a little odd… Don’t really know why so many people would fly a Cynabal over the Orthrus as they kind of fill in the same role in EVE. Is it because Cynabals are a bit cheaper or because they use guns instead if missiles?.... No idea.

During this month I killed 56 different ship types, even though mostly only 1 or 2 of each, so people like to bring some variety to the field. Nevertheless, Caracals and Svipuls are probably dominating too much the T1 Cruiser and T3 Destroyer categories.

Following graph shows the Isk value per ship type.

Top kills isk wise were Gila. People really like to pimp up their Gila! Other top spikes are Tengu, Svipul and Cynabal. Nothing really surprising here, as all these ships tend to have the occasional faction mod. Even Svipuls are mostly fitted with faction shield extenders and T2 rigs these days, making it more expensive than a BC.

Last month I was surprised on the number of Ashimmu I engaged. This month I didn’t kill any.

Even though many ship types killed might attest for a good variety on the field, I created some Categories in order to understand better the different ship classes I managed to kill.

 

My 3 top preys were with no doubt Faction Cruisers, T1 DPS Cruisers, and T3 Destroyers. Again… Just like last month! Coincidence? Definitely not. I truly think that small gang PVP is mostly defined by these 3 categories nowadays.

Last month I was surprised to kill “so many” Combat Battlecruisers. This month I really didn’t kill all that many, and are more in line with other not so popular categories. I’m very curious as to how many Combat Battlecruisers I’ll be able to kill next month.

How about isk wise, in what categories I’m able to inflict more economic pain?

HELLLLLLLOOOOOOO FACTION CRUISERS! Again… By a long shot, way way over any other category! People really seem to like bling their faction cruisers, and that’s fine by me. This ship category seems popular, fragile enough for me to engage and has a good chance of becoming a loot piñata. I think people don’t know how to fly faction cruisers, or I would never kill so many! 

Really down there we have the “rest” pretty much even, with some more relevance to T3 Cruisers and T3 Destroyers, just like last month, again…

When it comes to ships that I killed, January and February had very similar results in terms of categories killed. Does this reflects I have an unidimensional gameplay or that the EVE meta in small gang PVP is narrowed on those 3 most popular choices? Time will tell.

HOSTILES KILLING ME

Equally important is the notion on what ships are being used to kill me. Solo players always complain about being “blobbed” all the time. Well… I WANT for my foes to try to “blob” me, I WANT to fight outnumbered, I WANT for them to bring their best, so that I can outsmart them and kill them, just before I bail out teasing them!!... or die trying… Of course, once my foes bring too much it’s time to safe up and let them vent in local on how I’m a coward because I’m not throwing myself at their 15/20 men fleets for their leisure. This is my main source of daily adrenaline.

1^st thing I checked was how large were the fleets that actually killed me, or in other words, how many people are in my losses killmails.

Generally speaking, if I died to a gang of more than 10 people I was probably simply ganked. I want to avoid these gangs at all costs. It means that I probably jumped into a gatecamp or got a nasty roaming gang catching me in a precarious position. It’s unavoidable if you “scout” in a battlecruiser.

If I died to a gang with 5-10 people, I was either surprised by unexpected backup or I was trying to get a quick ninja kill, probably thinking that I could MJD away or deaggress in time.

My preferred targets are mostly gangs with less than 5 people, and if I died, it probably means that I made serious mistakes and/or assessed the situation very badly and that there is a lesson to be learned around on how to make better next time.

Looking at the graph, I was ganked by large fleets 6 times… This is more than It should happen to me

I died 8 times to gangs with 6-10 people. This is definitely too much and it tells me that I simply don’t know when to quit and call it off XD. Usually 5-10 man fleets do take some time to form, so I’m pretty sure I’d have ample opportunities to get safe. I should be more careful and not be caught by fleets this size at all!…

I did died 9 times to 1-5 man Fleets… These are my intended targets and I seem to find these a lot, so I still believe there are good opportunities to a solo player/small gang out there.

Let’s take a look to the ships that actually managed to kill me.

Largest spike are Phantasm, mostly because I got caught by a fleet of 10+ Phantasm in 1 single event that actually killed my 2 Brutix… Same goes for Federation Navy Comets, Thrashers and Hurricanes, in 3 different occasions, thought those fleets only killed 1 of my Brutix in each occasion.

The spikes that don’t really represent large fleets killing me are the Caracal and the Sabre. I find these ships often enough in pretty much every circumstance. Hell, I even find myself wondering sometimes “Where is the Caracal and Sabre that every freaking one brings to the fie.... OH! There they are!...”

Last month I pointed the finger at the Orthrus as a ship used many times to kill me. This month I was only killed by 3 Orthrus, so nothing really out of the ordinary comparing to many many other ship types… 

There are also many many ships that show up in my Killmails once or twice only. A total of 75 different ship types were used to kill me. I pretty much think this shows that EVE is healthy when it comes to variety and small gang PVP.

Let’s look at the Categories used to kill me

This month it’s Faction Cruisers and Interceptors that killed me the most. Also, many categories have similar spikes like Combat Battlecruisers, Faction Frigates, Interdictors, Stealth Bombers, Recons, T1 DPS Cruisers and T1 Destroyers. I was “equally” killed by many categories and that is quite nice to EVE diversity.

Last month I was getting worried about HACs and T3 Destroyers killing me too much, but this month, both these categories did not fared all that well against me. T3 Destroyers actually killed me “few times” considering the large number of kills I achieved against them.

Ships that completely dominate solo wannabe PVPers, like ECM Cruisers and Logistics, aren’t really used all THAT much. The T2 Logi Cruisers  in my graphics were all from the same gang, so a rare sight in my travels, and I really only met ECM ships a bit more than a couple times, just like last month. I find that extremely good news for me and other solo guys out there. 

That’s all I remembered to take a look at in a PVP Report. Send me out a mail if you think I overlooked something, and make sure to undock and go out there!

TRADING REPORT

MARKET PROFITS

This month profit was around 12 billion, slightly less than January but a bit more than I expected. As long as profits maintain themselves more than 10 billion, I’m happy for time being.

I’m also changing my market strategy. I’m leaving Dodixie dormant, and I’m investing more in Hek. In fact, all 305 orders I have in Hek are not sufficient to put up all my items in sell orders, so I’m bringing my Rens dormant market toon to Hek. This secondary Hek trader will take care of putting up sell orders of the “extra” items that my main toon cannot accommodate. Reason is simple… I don’t really need to update my market orders in Hek as often as in other hubs, in order to achieve a good profit. This way I expect to maintain my profits, updating orders less times. This is actually just another extra step to become even more lazy at market PVP.

All market profits were made resorting to Regional trade, buying in Jita Sell Orders, and selling in Hek Sell Orders. Supplies were brought from Jita once per week and orders were updated once per day or once per 2 days, depending on my patience.

I use a Google Spreadsheet with Steve Ronuken Script in order to pull prices from the items I trade. Currently, my Google Spreadsheet tracks about 600 items that I’m interested in trading.   I also use the free site EVE PROFIT to keep track on my profits, and EVERNUS to update orders fast. I trade mostly Faction Mods, Implants, Capital Mods, Large Rigs, POS Structures and T3 Subsystems.

HAULING EXPENSES

I use only public contracts to haul stuff from Jita to other Hubs, giving 30 Million reward for a 2 Billion collateral, putting 1,8 Billion worth of stuff in each contract. I spent a total of 1.8 billion but this includes 3 contracts of 380mil each, to Black Frog, to take 60 Brutix to Curse.

PLEX EXPENSES

Payed my 2 accounts with 1 PLEX each, costing me a total 2.4 Billion

BLUEPRINTS

This month I had 1.9 billion profit, by selling 77 contracts with an average of 24,5 million profit each contract. 129 million were BPC profits and rest are BPO profits. Quite less than last month for a couple reasons, but nothing dramatic:

1 – Last month my research POS got wardeced, so my research process was somewhat interrupted and it reflects in less available material for sale in February;

2 – I actually had a very small stock of researched BPOS coming from January as they sold a lot during that month;

3 – Most of February was spent researching new BPOS and only transported a pack to Jita during last week;

4 – I got lazy putting up expired contracts back up…

All those factors meant I had less material available for sale, so less profits were to be expected

MISCELANEOUS INVESTMENTS

Managed to make 235 millions from reselling Capital BPOs and I sold out all my stock. I actually tried to buy some more, by looking the contracts for good deals once per week, but I really didn’t found anything worth investing. Maybe next month.

Finally, my Overall Graph