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.