Engagement Report 15 – Dual Hull Brutix

Basing out from Thera I went to Oasis Region. Cobalt Edge Region, to the north seemed too active in the map, with several systems with 20+active people according to the map, but some systems a bit further to the South looked a bit quieter, worthy to take a look. I was aware that everyone around would be blue to each other (like all good carebear pockets) but with so many active people I was wondering if they’d all come chase my tail, and if they did, how long I’d have before needing to safe up.

I went to a system belonging to “Guns’n Roses” alliance. Quite fitting because my corp name is based in a song from them… These guys are my old acquainted as they tend to defend their space, but generally are somewhat inexperienced, so I’d maybe be able to snatch a kill.

As I warp to station, I see them undocking a Hyperion, Abbadon, Megathron, Drake and Tengu. As soon as I arrive, they all warp to the only gate in system. The gate was bubbled by 4 or so Large Mobile Bubbles so if I warped there directly I’d be caught by all those guys at 0km… not my idea of fun… Alternatively I warped to an anomaly nearby and warped down to the gate, coming out in the back of the gate, and pretty much in the opposite direction where the gang was waiting for me.

While I was burning back to the gate to jump out, they all aggress me! Ok, that’s very good to gather some intel. I looked into my combat log notifications and here’s what I gathered:

1 – Hyperion had Ion Blasters;

2 – Abaddon had Dual Heavy Pulse Laser;

3 – Drake had Heavy Missiles;

4 – Megathron had 350mm Railguns;

5 – Tengu had 4 ECM mods… that’s probably the 2^nd ECM Tengu I ever saw in my life, but ok…

What could I do against all these guys? Split them I suppose, but even then, if those Battleships had good tanks, they’d be able to withstand my damage for 1 minute and then kill me… The only viable targets would be the Drake and maybe the ECM Tengu, as I’d hope for it to have a weaker tank than an “normal” Tengu.

 I jump back in to have an idea of the situation in there. Megathron, and Hyperion are away from the gate 40km, only the Abaddon and ECM Tengu are 0km on gate. Drake is nowhere to be seen. Burn back to gate again and see if the 2 guys on gate will follow, but no, they just aggress me as I jump out… Bummer.

Pretty much at this time I notice +3 in local in the adjacent system. Random travellers or local guys starting to cry for help? I cloak up to assess the situation and see a Machariel, Loki and Huggin belonging to “Just a game” alliance. More than that, Sister Combat Probes are out, ECM  Tengu and Vigilant “Guns’ n Roses” join the Machariel and Huggin as they warp from gate to gate like crazy mice. They’re chasing me alright…

Vigilant would make a perfect target. I’m sure I’d kill it fast, but not fast enough to avoid backup from the ECM Tengu or Machariel. The Loki was probably links and the one trying to probe me, so at this time I ruled him out from the equation. Anyway, even without needing to worry with the Loki, I decided to wait it out a bit.

Not long after they “gave up”. Guns and Roses guys went back to their system, Just a Game jumped out and the only one making me company was the Link Loki. I had seen where the Machariel and Huggin had jumped out to, so I went there to check it out. As I jump out, I confirmed what I pretty much expected. The Huggin and Machariel were waiting for me. I burn back to gate, hoping to split them, but they both aggress me as I jump out. This allowed me to gather some intel again. Both ships had long points and Machariel had a Heavy Neutralizer. Fairly standard I’d say, but that Heavy Neutralizer would be a major pain.

I cannot tarry this anymore. More backup will be coming to aid them soon, so I either try to ninja the Huggin now, with both Brutix at same time, or It’s back to Thera before I get camped.

Of course I tried to ninja the Huggin! I jump in both toons, decloak, catch the Huggin, spit out ECM drones and overload guns! The ECM drones went into the Machariel and I was able to jamm him at least once. Unfortunately his Heavy Neutralizer was proving to be harder to deal with and I eventually get capped out in my Tank Brutix, unable to cycle guns and unable to activate MJD.

A Garmur comes in and joins the fray. I realize I’m going to lose Pleniers in my Tank Brutix… Even if ECM drones jamm the Machariel and if I kill the Huggin, I’ll still pointed by the Garmur, so it’s game over for him. As I realize this, local spikes by +25 from my gate! Crap…

I immediately activate my MJD in my DPS Brutix, in order to warp off and save one of my ships at least, but I get instantly Scrammed, Webbed, Damped, Painted etc etc… Just pretty much NOT Jammed. My only option it to keep overloading guns and bring that Huggin down with me!! I can’t believe I’m about to lose 2 Brutix for nothing… Hate when that happens!!

Fate decided to throw me a bone and the Huggin dies 2 seconds before I lose the 2^nd Brutix! At least I’m entitled to a compensation prize. As it turns out, the Machariel and Huggin were blue to that new 25 man Fleet, but were separate groups. If that gang had not jumped in I would have managed to kill the Huggin and MJD away from the Machariel, losing only 1 Brutix…

Once again, being the underdog in the capacitor warfare got my Tank Brutix killed

Before I logged off I got convo’d by the FC of the 25 man gang. They were surprised on how fast the Huggin had died and were asking me why the Huggin had died so fast... That’s a weird question on my book, but I think people fail to realize the pain 2 Brutix can inflict within the optimal range of their blasters.

Engagement Report 14 – Dual Hull Brutix

I log in and look at the map, wondering where I could go roam close to Curse. During previous couple weeks I had roamed around Pandemic Legion space, Infamous space, Inglorious space, Methodical Alliance space, Short Bus Syndicate space, Horde space, Black Core space, Slyce space, Test Space, RANE Space, Zero-Four Ops Space… Who was I missing nearby?... Ah yes, Only Pixels space! Why not?!

About 2 jumps away from their home system I spot one of their FC’s in local and an Orthrus on D-Scan. I just hold on ingate and cloak up my DPS Brutix in the previous system, close to the gate. Orthrus make range on me and aggresses at 50km away. Of course I’m not going to try catch him, but knowing he’s an FC, I’m sure he’d call for backup. I jump out and back in to avoid getting too damaged. After all, I cannot really repair mid fight, so need to preserve the most of my EHP possible.

As I jump in an Onyx arrives the gate. Both the Onyx and Orthrus aggress me, but I’m able to burn back to gate easy and jump out. Too bad they both aggressed me. I was hoping for the Onyx to jump with me and engage it, away from the gate, with my 2 Brutix. Engaging an Onyx 0km on the gate is useless as it can probably deaggress and jump out.

Nevertheless I was willing to engage those 2 guys at same time. The plan: jump back into them, kite 1 MWD cycle away from the gate in order to lure the Onyx away from the gate, bring in DPS Brutix, kill Onxy, MJD away from Orthrus. If needed, I could even put my ECM drones on the Onyx to mitigate incoming DPS and warp off before I even killed it. 

As I jump into the Onyx and Orthus with my Tank Brutix a Devoter shows up… Ah crap… My beautiful plan just got washed away into the dirt… I hate when this happens. Upon a better look the Devoter is not a Only Pixels guy, but is a Memento guy, so blue to them, as they talk in local about teaming up to kill me. I need to re-assess this whole mess, and as more time passes by, the worse for me it will be… I probably missed the engagement opportunity window already… 

Anyway, right now it’s time to get safe. I don’t want to get scrammed by 2 HIC away from the gate, so I pull the “Burn back to gate and cloak trick”. Once they saw me cloak, local exploded! Oh boy, they start to call me all sort of names and insult me… I got to the gate and jumped out while the Orthus follows me. Here I messed up...

The Orthrus follows me and sees my backup Brutix decloaked. I had forgotten to re-cloak it once I decided to not engage due to the Devoter arrival. In fact, during the previous local smack talk they asked where my “Remote Repairing Alt” was. They were expecting for me to bring my old traditional Augoror backup, but now they could see I had 2 Brutix instead. 

What really surprised me now was the Orthrus warping away in a hurry, instead of pulling range and tackling me! Were they afraid of my 2 Brutix having 2 HIC and an Orthrus themselves?! I mean, they could easily scram me 25km+ away from my Blasters and still apply DPS, but I decided to take on the opportunity!

I jumped back into the 2 HIC, only to see the Onyx warp off in a hurry and the Devoter to sit on the gate unwilling to aggress me! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! As I was trying to think on what to do, both my ships stopped responding to my commands... Sigh… Here we go again…

SOCKET CLOSED!

Hell of timing as always… It would be a matter of time before they’d call for a prober, so I better get back in fast! Fortunately my machine was not lagging too much and I log in before they probe me. As I land back onto the gate with both toons, I realise they brought a couple more guys…

Now they had 2 Orthrus, 1 Onyx, 1 Devoter, 1 Cerberus and 1 Cynabal. I land 6km away from the gate, but they fail to bump me as some of them aggress me, so I reach the gate, jump and even managed to warp off. It really shows how disorganized these guys were, because there’s no way I should have been able to get out of that mess so easily. Unfortunately it was way too much for me to handle, even considering I had managed to split some on the gate. 

I happened to warp off to a ping at the LBC- gate and the ones that were un-aggressed  follow me to that same gate. As I land on the ping I cloak up. I was really not comfortable on how fast all this had turned around, and needed a few moments to settle down.

My foes see me cloak and local smack talk explodes again, with no insults on my person being spared. I should point out that not everyone insulted me, it was really only a couple guys in their fleet, rest kept it civil. I also confess… it feels well to piss of people sometimes, and after a day’s work, some venting in local actually feels nice, so I also flamed away a bit too… The flesh is weak XD.

During this time I noticed an important factor. Cynabal and Devoter were Memento guys, rest were Pixels guys. Pixels guys soon realized it was not worth staying around with me cloaked, so left local back to their home. On the LBC gate, away from the direction Pixels left to, I had the Cynabal at 0km on the gate and the Devoter at around 30km away from the gate. A plan quickly formed in my head.

The Plan: Deloak, warp down to LBC gate, jump out, wait for Cynabal to follow, catch it, bring in backup Brutix, apply ECM drones on the Devoter and warp off before Pixels guys (who would be burning back to my location from almost reaching their home system once these Memento guys cried for help), had the chance to catch me! Simple huh?! What could go wrong?!

So I set the Plan in motion and you know what… it freaking worked!!!!! MUHAHAHAHA. I managed to kill the Cynabal and warp off before backup arrived, but some details developed indeed a bit differently than planned:

1 – Cynabal was lightly tanked and only 1 Brutix was used to kill it;

2 – The Devoter NEVER EVER aggressed me…  He targeted me for ages and I was well within his “Focused Mega Scram” range. I was really puzzled on that one! Was he afraid that my 2 Brutix would kill him before backup arrived?

3 – Backup arrived faster than expected and I even got long pointed by an Orthrus, but my MJD saved the day before all the other guys showed up.

In the end, my safety was achieved due to the Devoter’s unwillingness to aggress. Had he Scrammed me, there’s a good chance I would have lost one of my Brutix, but even then, it would have been a decent trade for an Arty Cynabal.

Engagement Report 13 – Dual Hull Brutix

I log in one day and I feel the urge to go HED-GP. A true magnet for every kind of adrenaline seeker capsuleer. Solo, small gang, large blobs, cloaky campers, hotdroppers, hi-sec suiciders, “elite” linked kiters, 3 day old brawlers… You name it, they go there! On top of that, local station was Freeport, so great way to repair my Hull Brutix fast.

Upon arrival I jump in with my Tank Brutix and cloak up my DPS Brutix at the HED-GP gate, orbiting at 5km. It might indeed get decloaked by some random traveller or gang, but being close by to provide fast backup surpasses that risk.

Inside HED-GP scan shows around 20 in local and about 10 frigates towards Kebers gate, as well as a crapload of bubbles. I warp to a ping in order to draw their attention. As expected they are camping the gate with bubbles, and as soon as I arrive, some of them start warping to their own pings close to mine to catch me. These guys are in full out in blind bloodlust! Good… Bloodlust people are prone to overconfidence and mistakes.

Enyo, Enyo, Rifter, Crusader, Worm, Hawk, Stilleto and I think they also had a Garmur as well as a couple more interceptors. I don’t want to be caught at this location, so need to act fast.

Option A – Warp to the safety of station and take a few more minutes to play cat and mouse games, in order to see if there is more than meets the eye, like a Falcon, Recon or just plain DPS ships holding back;

Option B – Warp to the SV5 gate at 0km, try to split them and get hostilities going as I decloak my backup Brutix.

Taking in account they looked completely disorganized, I went for option B. Let’s go to the gate and see what happens. Surely enough, they were already at the gate when I arrive, but with them comes a Tengu!! Oh crap…

A properly PVP fitted Tengu can, alone, engage head on both my Brutix with ease… I might be in bigger problems that I expected. Some of the frigates have already Scrammed me but keeping cool for a few extra seconds I look at the Tengu’s weapons. There aren’t any! Ufff… that’s a relief… It’s a Links Tengu… Sure Links will be annoying to deal with, but nowhere compared to a beastly faction fitted Neutron Blaster Tengu or a Heavy Assault Missile Tengu.

Ok so, all on gate, some aggressing me. I jump out, most of them follow. Some aggress me too inside SV5- as I burn back to gate. Good, now they’re split among both systems. I jump back into HED-GP and it’s on! Primary targets are the Scrambling frigates to make sure my MJD can activate properly when the time comes. I bring in my backup Brutix and then…. Greed takes over me… What if I used my Backup DPS Brutix to kill the Link Tengu orbiting the gate? The hell with some crappy frigates, I’d prefer to have a T3 Cruiser kill any day!

I split my own fire… Tank Brutix focus on frigates, DPS Brutix focus on Link Tengu… But the frigates don’t go down fast enough. The Link Tengu pilot is also probably realizing he’s under fire and he can just jump it out at any time. With this much going on, there’s no way I got the awareness to try bump him off gate. If I continue down this path, there’s a good chance I’ll lose 1 Brutix over nothing! I must control my greed with a strong leash or it’ll get the best of me.

As the Tengu was reaching 50% shields I decide it’s time to get back to the original plan and focus on teaming up both Brutix properly for maximum effect. From this point onward I focus both Brutix into the same target and surely enough, the frigates start to go down at good pace. Eventually my Tank Brutix reaches around 10% structure, but having killed all the Scramming frigates, I MJD and get him safe while my DPS Brutix kept on field clearing the rest of the fellas that didn’t warped off already. I was able to kill 2 Enyo, Rifter, Crusader, Worm, Hawk and Stilleto, but most of all, I was pleased with my decision in mid-fight of keeping my bloodlust under control and ignore the Tengu, assuring a better outcome of the battle. 

From here I went to run the Catch-Querious pipe. Usually a slow place, but map showed some dots, so went to investigate. Warping at range on a random system belonging to Infamous guys (when Infamous lived in Catch), I see that a Hurricane Fleet Issue is undocked. There’s about 10 in local and I know some of the local names. They usually like to fight and tend to organize fairly fast, but at same time they are also prone to make mistakes fairly easy. This combination means that I might have a chance of scoring a good kill here.

The Hurricane Fleet Issue is aligning towards me, and slowboating away from station. This is a sign of aggressive stance, and knowing these guys, he will not engage me alone. I warp off to a gate, but keep spamming D-Scan. As I warp off, I see in D-Scan a Falcon and a Crusader. Auch.. ECM… Even with 2 Brutix this could go wrong, but I’m still willing to engage. Let’s see what develops. I land on the gate with the Crusader and decide to try ninja it. I aggress it on the gate and he aggresses back, but unfortunately Falcon lands and jamms me before I kill it. As the Crusader gets safe, the Hurricane Fleet Issue and a Curse land on the gate, both aggressing me too.

Well, I had already faced a Rook and Curse some time ago, and it went terribly wrong. Even with 2 Brutix I would have very slim chances to score a kill, especially considering the Crusader pilot is probably going to reship into something sturdier. I deagress, jump out into safety and go repair in a quiet system. I might not be able to kill them, but they also messed up a perfectly good chance to bait me properly and kill me.

Moving on to Querious, I dwelled into a pocket in the south. For me, the biggest problem in entering these closed pockets is their ability to control intel. If I show up I have 2 Brutix I lose my edge, but if my backup is too far away I miss on good kills or I die.

Anyway I move in the pocket and an Ishtar follows me at range and warping to pings on my gates. Me and Ishtar pilot talk a bit and he was always polite. He tells me to leave the area because they would not fight and I’d be wasting my time in an area with no content. In my experience, people will fight if they think they can properly overpower you, so I press on around. After all, they had more than 50 people among 2/3 systems…

Eventually, while jumping a random gate, I’m greeted by a Kestrel, Crow and Crucificier, all at range. They aggress me without coming close to me, so I warp off to station at range. This seems promising but I need to see what they have prepared for me. Archon, Myrmidon and Vexor at the undock. Good. I start to think where I want the engagement to take place, and best spot seems to be at the ingate for several reasons:

1: From station to the ingate it’s about 60AU, so somewhat far. Any heavy backup incoming from station will take a bit to arrive;

2: Previous system was empty. I can cloak my backup Brutix really close to the ingate for a fast backup. I can only hope for their intel toons to not spot him while he gets in position.

While my backup Brutix gets indeed in position they post in local something in the lines of “hey, tell your mate to come in” and “your mate is lonely out there”. Unwillingly, they’re giving me some insight. The fact they are calling my backup Brutix my “mate” means they don’t realize it’s my alt, so aren’t probably researching my killboard, and the fact they did not bragged about knowing he’s also in a Brutix, convinces me they don’t know what he’s in. Most likely only saw one guy in their local moving around and that’s it. Good enough for me.

Once I’m ready on both toons, I go sit with Tank Brutix at the ingate and wait. Kestrel, Crucificier, Crow and Atron engage me and I kill the Atron pretty easily. Meanwhile, in the previous system, my cloaked DPS Brutix sees the Ishtar pilot jumping into fray. It’s the perfect opportunity for a juicy kill. I stop messing with those kitting crappy frigates, reaproach gate, load void, recall my drones back, overload my mids and prepare for the Ishtar to decloak. As it decloaks I manage to catch him, easily. I bring in my DPS Brutix and also join for a quick kill.

As the Ishtar is about to go down, Myrmidon and Vexor arrive at range and hit my Tank Brutix with sentries. As the Ishtar dies I MDJ and warp my Tank Brutix away, but I need to decide what to with my DPS Brutix.

The Myrmidon was exactly 100km away from Rtb in the DPS Brutix… I could just MJD on top of him and kill him fast! I mean… he’s EXACTLY at 100km from me. The Universe wants me to kill it for sure! They don’t have anyone with Scrams in the field, I expect that Vexor and Mymidon to be PVE and range fitted, and these guys are fairly inexperienced, so what could possibly go wrong!? I play the “Cocky” card and MJD on top of the Myrmidon.

He’s completely taken off guard and he does not even tries to move. Then I realize he actually has a 1600mm Plate on that Myrmidon, my “ninja” kill is taking a bit longer than I’d hoped for… Then a Hawk lands just on top of me and Scrams me… Somehow I have the sense this is all going downhill... Even though I cannot MJD anytime soon, I might need my MWD mobility sooner than later, so I change focus from the Myrmidon into the Hawk and hit D-Scan as they might have more backup incoming.

Archon on scan… Just wonderful… I keep my focus into the Hawk, but he’s not dying fast enough. How did I manage to get myself in this mess again?! Ah yes, I remember, I got cocky…

Archon arrives and the Hawk pulls some range on me, enough to drops is Scram. I use this opportunity to start kiting with my MWD overloaded towards a random celestial, but I still need to survive for more than a minute as my MJD cools down while I’m long pointed by the Crow. Fortunately their inexperience surfaces once more and the Crow fails to maintain a long point on so I’m able to warp off.

It was getting late, and with my surprise advantage gone, an Archon in the field, and 1 Brutix in low structure, It was time to call it a day and log off. I chatted with the locals a bit as I moved away, but even though they were not happy for me to be there (after all I was harassing them in their home) they kept it civil.