Engagement Report 17 – Dual Hull Brutix

In one of my random roams I headed up to a dot in map that showed about 5 guys active in space. Upon arrival I realized it was not a station system and got pretty disappointed. Reason is simple.

In a system without a station, locals will have no more than a handful of ships, mostly dedicated to their PVE activities. Not only that, without a “Central Place”, I cannot get myself easily known to the locals. By having a station, the locals can poke their heads in and out until they properly outnumber and outclass me, as they’ll only leave theundock once they are confident enough. Also, people are more likely to have PVP ships ready in a station rather than in a POS.

If a system has no station, I’ll try to grab some less aware carebear in a mining or ratting site, but if I fail to catch anything within 1 minute, it’s usually time to move along. If I warp to a POS, guns will shoot on me, so yeah, not an option.

In this particular case I failed to catch anything in an anomaly, but as I was leaving a Caracal and a Stabber land on my gate!

Well hello…

They had around 6 in local, so not that many guys, and by bringing T1 Cruisers directly to a gate they are pretty much saying: “Hey there neutral Brutix! We’d like some action and we’re willing to lose these cheap crappy ships!” I jump out and they follow.

Before we proceed, it’s important to realize that people never play “fair”. A Stabber and a Caracal are no match to a Brutix, so them having some sort of backup is to be expected. Sure, those ships are mostly kiting ships, probably planning on staying away from the Brutix Blasters, etc etc, but my gut told me they’d have some backup. The plan: Engage these 2 cruisers with my Tank Brutix and only bring the DPS Brutix once their backup revealed itself.

As we all decloak, I managed to catch the Stabber. As the Stabber was dying, local gets +1. My hopes of having a new juicy target decloak got washed away as it proves to be only a Crow…. Meh… As the Stabber dies I also manage to get a Scram on the Caracal.

I keep hoping for more backup on their part, but nothing… As the Caracal reaches 50% shield I just decide to bring in the DPS Brutix to help kill the Caracal faster, as well as the Crow that had decided to come into my scram range. The faster I kill the Caracal, the less damage I have to repair later on, as repairing structure takes some time.

As my DPS Brutix lands, an Ishtar jumps in an decloaks! That’s exactly the juicy fat fish I was hoping to catch!! I go immediately for the Ishtar, but it warps of in a hurry!! ARRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!!! By bringing the 2^nd Brutix too soon I ended up scaring my most valuable target… Even more annoying, all pretty much unfolded as I predicted, but because their backup took so long to show up, I was not expecting it anymore…

Anyway, Caracal and Crow end up dying and I had still around 80% structure left. The fact I was Hull Tanked took them by surprise. One of the pilots posted something in the lines of “What’s the deal with that freaking structure?! Is that something from last patch?!” 

Feeling somewhat frustrated for scaring the Ishtar, I’m about to move along with my Scout Tank Brutix to look for a quiet system to repair, when a Cynabal lands on a Ping on my gate, 300km above!

Well hello…

It looks like they wanted a Round 2. “Rounds 2” are very very bad things and are most likely to go very wrong my way. In any Round 2 I will have forfeited any surprise advantage I had, and will have no idea what they are going to bring. Not only that, one of my Brutix has already more than 20% damage and I have no time to repair.

 They pretty much had baited me with 2 T1 cruisers and had tried to drop a HAC on my tail to “win easily”, but it didn’t turned out as expected for them. Now, with a Cynabal in a ping they are saying “Ok, now we’re being more careful and we’re just going to overpower you my deceiving little prick!”

Round 2 are awful things to be had… but then again, Cloaky Hull Brutix aren’t the best idea either, so I decided to keep around a bit more and see what developed. I cloaked up my DPS Brutix nearby anyway. Sure they know it exists, but they might feel a little bolder to engage just one ship and thus make some mistakes.

Shortly after, a Phobos comes to the gate at 0km and the Cynabal warps down to 0km too. Very well… Phobos has a huge tank and a 30km Scram, but limited DPS. It’s really not a ship that worries me too much right now. Anyway the plan: Jump out, catch Cynabal, kill Cynabal and then bail out, either by deagressing and jumping out or jamming them and warping away.

I jump out, they follow, we all decloak but I fail to catch the Cynabal, (even with the MWD overloaded) as it kites away. Phobos Scrams me and I try to slowboat back to gate, not aggressing anyone. Phobos is just too resilient for me to try kill it before their backup (whatever it might be this time) arrives.

As I was slowboating back to gate, something weird happens…. The Cynabal comes directly at me, into my Scram range! How cool is that!? Something went wrong on his part for sure, because I don’t really believe he did it on purpose, but nevertheless, EVE is about making the best from your foes mistakes. I aggress the Cynabal and bring in my backup Brutix.

Cynabal melts and dies. Ishtar comes in at same time, and I decide to try catch it with the Brutix not scrammed by the Phobos. Unfortunately it also kites away and makes range on me… I decide to get back onto the Phobos and focus on it with both Brutix. Not many seconds after a Caracal shows up… then a Dominix!

Ok it’s time to bail! There’s too much for me to tank and I already killed a Cynabal in Round 2 so I’m happy. I deploy the ECM drones from both Brutix into the Phobos, and try to get away. ECM drones managed to jamm the Phobos in their 1^st cycle, so I MJD away to get rid of any long points and warp off to a random celestial!

I could hardly believe it worked my way, exactly like I planned initially!! This is the main reason why I push my engagements too far! Sometimes you’re able to pull some stunts and when it works its great and makes up for the times stuff backfired on your face! Had my ECM drones failed to kick in I would have lost Pleniers, but the Cynabal kill would still made it somewhat decent… 

The Cynabal pilot reshiped into a Vagabond. For a moment there I still wondered about a Round 3, but then they also brought a 2^nd Dominix, so it pretty much settled this engagement for me. It was time to leave while I was ahead and continued roaming leaving them sitting on a gate.

Engagement Report 16 – Dual Hull Brutix

From time to time I have one of those awful days where everything goes wrong. Most times I blame my own decisions, but sometimes, just sometimes, it ain’t all my fault! One of these days in some random system, the locals formed up a Stiletto, Sabre, Sleipnir, Ashimmu and Cynabal. The Sleipnir was a bit too much for me to take on, but with some “splitting moves” pulled on a gate, a ninja kill would be surely possible.

As usual, I tried to pull them away from their “home system” advantage and the Stilleto pretty much followed me. While in warp to my outgate, I had an emergency at home… Hell, this time I did not even had time to finish my warp move and cloak up somewhere safe, so I opted for my only other choice. Log off…

I knew the stiletto was chasing me, so it would be a matter of pure luck… Would he aggress me on gate and prevent my ship to make an emergency warp off, or would he not aggress me, waiting to see what I would do (like jump the gate), and allow my ship to warp and disappear into safety?

Yeah… he aggressed me and I returned to my Pod in station. Annoying for sure, but RL does come first. On the other hand, it gave me the opportunity for a solo Brutix roam, while trying to join up both toons.

Of course I prefer having 2 Brutix at all times, but I will engage with only one, even though the spectrum of targets and situations where I can engage and win is considerably smaller. I ended up with Rtb in my DPS Brutix in some SLYCE pocket while coming home, and had 2 guys, in a Gila and in a Rattlesnake, poking their heads outside the station. I moved around a bit in the adjacent systems looking for some targets while giving them time to form a bit more, no way these fellas would engage with only 2 guys on their side.

After checking and harassing nearby systems I came back to their main station system and noticed they had 2 Caracals undocked and 3 or 4 more guys in local. Ok, things were in motion. I did not had to wait a long time for a Stabber Fleet Issue to land 50km away from me, at range on station. I had to make a decision:

1 – Fight here and now, knowing I’ll be facing at least 2 Caracals and 1 Stabber Fleet Issue. In my mind I was expecting this Stabber Fleet Issue to be Active Tanked, even though I really had no elements to support this assumption;

2 – Warp to gate, play the “Chase me” game, and try split them on gate.

If I were in my solo Tank Brutix I would NOT opt for choice 1. Reason is simple… The DPS in it is very low and anaemic. It fulfils a role, but facing active tanked ships is not one of them. Even an unbonused active tank ship would be able to survive for some time.

Considering I was in my DPS Brutix, I decided to fight here and now. Also, with only 3 guys on sight, and maybe a couple more lurking on station, I didn’t believe they’d chase me. I was pretty sure they would just hug station until they had more 4 or 5 guys to actively chase me off to a gate.

I loaded Void, overloaded guns, sent out DPS drones instead of ECM drones (priority was to kill it fast, not really to mitigate damage or try to escape) and engaged the Stabber Fleet Issue. As soon as we get into close range, my suspicions get confirmed as he repairs his armor. It was an active tanked ship. It was to be expected, so no big worries, and situation is somewhat under control.

An Arazu undocks from the station. I expected backup to undock, and the fact it was not some high DPS ship, or even a Carrier, was really good for me. I could not care less for an Arazu keeping range at 40km, dampening and long pointing me. It could prove troublesome if it eventually scrambled me, but so far so good.

Stabber Fleet Issue was struggling to maintain itself alive with his armor repairing less and starting to bleed into structure. Now, active armor ships are very deceiving, even more than a “bait structured tank” ship, but he was also having capacitor Issues, because at some stage he dropped the Scram off me. I wondered if I should just MJD and bail at this point, but considering that the backup from station had already poked it’s head out in the form of an Arazu, I wasn’t really too worried. 

Having decided to press on, a Stealth Bomber uncloaks! Crap! A Stealth bomber is a serious threat to a Battlecruiser due to its native huge sig radius, allowing bombers to apply most of their damage. Ok, time to bail out FAST!

I activate my MJD and 1 lousy freaking second before it activates, the damn Stabber Fleet Issue wakes up and scrams me back! ARRRRRRRRGH!!!! 1 LOUSY SECOND?! REALLY?!! Could he not have realized it 1 second later?!!?

With the added DPS from the Stealth bomber, my Structure drops a lot faster and I die.

Very well…. What were the factors that led to my demise?

1 – The Stealth Bomber coming in late, when I was already getting low on structure. The Bomber was only on grid shooting me for the shortest time, and made as much damage as the Stabber or the 2 Caracals. Had he showed up before I could have reacted better, either by try killing him or just putting ECM drones onto the Stabber Fleet Issue and bail out.

2 – The Stabber Fleet Issue actually dropping his Scram mid fight, for a long period of time. I got a bit confident there, hoping he would not realize it in time, inducing me to think I could bail out at “any time” with the MJD. Had he not lost his scram on me, I would not have been so complacent.

This is also a perfect example on how I hate going true solo. If I had my 2^nd Brutix available, I would have managed this engagement easily. Then again, had I my 2^nd Brutix available (even if out of local, 1 jump away), I’m not even sure if they’d even undock.

I ended up also somewhat surprised that they engaged me with so few guys (even though was just enough to kill me), so the following day I went back, this time with 2 Brutix. I have no illusions… The chances for the same conjuncture to repeat itself are slim, but who knows. I cloaked up the DPS Brutix in a strategic place and went moving on around in the carebear pocket with my Tank Brutix.

Several ships warped off from their ratting sites as soon as I entered local across the several systems, as expected, but I was not seeing any local formup. After harassing them for 15 minutes or so, I notice 4 new raptors warping around from gate to gate like crazy. Using the “25% Tackle Rule” I expected their main fleet to have 15+ guys waiting for me get caught.

I let myself get caught by one of those raptors on a gate I’d knew to be far away from their possible fleet incoming locations, and my cloaked eyes confirm what I expected. Local spikes by +20, in a mix of logistics, Hurricanes, Cerberus etc. There was nothing I could do against a formed up fleet of that size, so I got safe, cloaked up and went AFK. Eventually they also realized I was not going to fall into their lap and went away, leaving the local systems empty and void of any activity.

I was not going to get a rematch on my terms, so there’s always tomorrow.

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.