Right Place, Right Time

Action Summary

Task: Solo roaming, but things quickly turn crazy.

Problem: Sudden local spike to 30, enemy AHAC gang with logistics support, followed by a spike to 72, friendly tier-3 sniper gang.

Enemies: 8-9 Zealots, Deimos, Damnation, Devoter, Loki, Proteus, 4 Guardians, misc light tackle.

Friendlies: About 20 tier-3 snipers (mostly Tornadoes), some Recons, 2 Falcons, 2 Scimitars, misc light tackle.

My ship of choice: Cynabal.

Reasoning for choice: I was in it for the solo roaming when shit got real hot, real fast.

Killmails

Lots of kills: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13317379

After Action Report

I was solo roaming in my (new :D) Cynabal when local spiked to 30. An enemy logi-supported AHAC gang entered system and warped off. Shortly afterwards, another spike to 72, and a friendly tier-3 sniper fleet jumped in and warped after them.

I wasn't there at the beginning of the fight, but apparently a friendly Loki was tackled and the enemy gang all bum-rushed him. This allowed our snipers to set up perfectly as the Loki was desperately burning away, and the shooting gallery started. By the time I got there, the hostile fleet was well over 80-100km from the gate, and our sniper fleet was another 80-100km farther out doing business.

I warped in at 100 and nearly shit my pants, as I landed almost in the middle of the AHAC blob, but fortunately was able to burn out and away before they could react. I then started joining in on the festivities. Our FC was doing a fantastic job of target calling, and we were quickly popping Zealots as our Falcons got jam cycles in on their Guardians. After losing several Zealots and most of their fast tackle, the enemy gang started burning back to the gate in an attempt to escape.

At this point, our fast tackle swooped in and started webbing, and we popped a few more Zealots as they desperately burned back to the gate. In addition, we were finally able to break the tanks of their Loki and Proteus as their logistics were jammed or panicking, and snagged some nice juicy kills.

They ended up getting out with pretty much a single Damnation and their logistics. Apparently it's customary to let logistics live if they make it out now, as we could have chased them down easily but the FC figured he'd cut them a break.

Best part of the night? Our two hero Scimitars somehow kept our initial tackled bait Loki alive through the entire engagement.

Lessons Learned

Sniper fleet > AHAC fleet, any day. They were doing next to no DPS to us simply due to range, and were also slower by far due to their massive armor plates. Also, pay attention to blue fleets. If I had not realized a fight was going on, I would not have thought to join the fleet, and would probably have just gone to a different system to poke at solo targets.

Although the Cynabal is absolutely not a ship suited for sniper fleets, it can still maintain excellent range against AHAC gangs. I was perfectly safe from incoming DPS even with no logistics repairing me, as long as I stayed around 30km from the AHAC ball.

The hostile FC probably should have called a disengage sooner; that way, he would have lost 3-4 Zealots at most and the rest could have gotten away. His decision to stay on field and burn back to the gate cost him another few Zealots, and most importantly, cost him his two juicy T3s.

Overall a fantastic night and a fantastic fight that I completely stumbled into on accident. Killmail whoring ftw! My efficiency is looking quite nice this month now. :)

Take care, and fly safe!

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Action Summary

Task: Engage a Vexor who's bouncing around in system looking for a fight.

Problem: None at first, since I have a gang and he has a sole Vexor.

Enemies: 1 Vexor.

Friendlies: A few random T2 frigates, mainly bombers/interceptors.

My ship of choice: Cynabal.

Reasoning for choice: I was in it when he came in system, good DPS, good kiter, great solo ship.

Killmails

Cynabal loss: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13307239

Vexor kill: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13307231

After Action Report

We were camping a gate when a lone Vexor jumped into system and started bouncing around, obviously looking for a fight. We abandoned him for a little bit while chatting, and someone said they saw him warp to the sun. I decided to warp there on the off chance he was still there, and landed on him at zero, at which point I immediately realized how fucked I was.

He scrammed, webbed, and began NOS'ing me immediately, and I called for backup. However, he was able to kill me by the time backup arrived. We ended up killing him, but he massively won the ISK war, as he killed my 380 mill Cynabal with a Vexor.

Lessons Learned

Be very careful warping to celestials in any nanohac. If I had thought about it before I warped nonchalantly, I would have realized that if I landed at zero and he was able to tackle me, I would be screwed, as a Vexor does more DPS at close range with a blaster fit and can keep me tackled easily. With a 1600 plated fit, he can also out-tank me easily.

In the end, this was caused entirely by my own mistake. If I had warped to the sun at 20 or 30 instead, we would have had an easy Vexor kill. Instead, I'm down a Cynabal and going shopping again. :)

That said, I got my money's worth out of this one and am definitely planning to get another one or two, as they are fantastically fun ships to fly. This has just taught me a very important lesson, and I now have a #1 unbreakable rule in a Cynabal - never warp to things at zero if you're trying to chase down a target. Ever.

Overall, a great lesson to learn. I chatted up the Vexor pilot afterwards and congratulated him on a fantastic kill, and he provided me with a helpful link (http://www.eve-log.com/index.html) with which to upload logs and see detailed combat damage analysis after a fight. I highly encourage you to take a look at it if you're interested in more detailed combat data, including drone damage split by drone type.

Take care, and fly safe!

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Action Summary

Task: Camp a gate near our home system.

Problem: Boredom. No really, there's not a problem this time.

Enemies: One solo Cynabal - the same one we caught in "To Catch a Cynabal."

Friendlies: Arty Hurricane, Stiletto, Kitsune.

My ship of choice: Cynabal.

Reasoning for choice: A Cynabal is a great gate-camping ship because of its agility and relatively high scan resolution. It can sit 30km off a gate and apply damage reliably with barrage, and can also assign drones to fast tackle. To be honest, there's nothing much to be learned from this post other than "don't be stupid," but that in itself may be worth the read.

Killmails

Cynabal kill: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13278651

After Action Report

We were camping a gate with (lots of) bubbles with an arty Hurricane, a tackle Stiletto, an EWAR Kitsune, and me in my Cynabal. A hostile Cynabal was reported on the opposite side of our gate and jumped through into us.

However, instead of burning back for the gate and running, he chose to burn away from us and attempt to kite/kill us. I don't think he realized we had a Kitsune on the field until too late, and he ended up being pretty much permajammed.

The Stiletto and I chased him down and poked him to death slowly. Again, as before, he refused to respond to "gf" in local. Also as before, his Cynabal had T1 guns on it. He got his pod away nearly instantly (probably with ridiculously expensive implants, since he apparently has more ISK than sense) so we were unfortunately unable to see what he had in his head, but rest assured it was nothing intelligent.

Lessons Learned

Don't be stupid. I did some research after the fight, and found out this character was less than 3 months old. This was the third Cynabal he lost in our pipe over the last 3 days, all fit equally terribly with T1 guns. Unfortunately, I have to blast him here for his horrible decisionmaking - pirate ships (especially something as expensive as a Cynabal) should never be flown with T1 guns, period. If you don't have the training to use T2 guns, you don't have the training to fly a pirate ship effectively. I started flying my own Cynabal only yesterday, strictly because my T2 gun training did not finish until then. 

That said, if this guy decides to come back yet again, I'd be more than happy to solo him. :)

Oh well, eventful Saturday mornings are always nice, I suppose.

Take care, and fly safe!

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi

No Rest for the Wicked

Action Summary

Task: Engage a mixed armor/shield BC gang dicking around near our home.

Problem: They are being very reluctant to engage, and have eyes on us.

Enemies: Phobos, Deimos, Brutix, Drake, Drake, Harbinger, Hurricane, Myrmidon, Ishkur, Crow.

Friendlies: Rapier, Rook, Drake, Hurricane, Rupture, Heretic, Taranis, Incursus.

My ship of choice: Stabber Fleet Issue.

Reasoning for choice: I like nano shield fits, and I didn't want to take my Cynabal into a gang and get it primaried. A Stabber Fleet Issue is nice for picking off support ships and otherwise doing damage at range. It's also very good at staying alive versus armor/brawler gangs, as it's difficult to catch and hold down if flown properly. If I didn't screw up, I could basically ignore the Phobos, Deimos, Brutix, and Myrmidon completely.

Killmails

There's a bunch this time, so here's the related kills: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13269411

After Action Report

A hostile mixed gang was reported dicking around in our front yard, so we formed up a gang to go give them the boot. Our gang was mixed as well, but definitely more kiting/nano/range than their brawler gang.

I was last to join the fleet, so I ended up at a perch looking at the enemy gang at a gate. On the other side, my friendlies were at a perch, and the hostiles had a Phobos sitting at the gate trying and failing to bait. I began gathering intel, including several key facts:

1. Their Hurricane pilot was less than 6 months old. Our FC was reluctant to fight at first, but this fact helped convince him that the enemy gang was less strong than it appeared. Ultimately this was an awesome call, since he was using T1 meta 0 guns and doing jack-all for DPS. http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13269302

2. I told my FC that, if we flew correctly, we could basically ignore the Phobos, Deimos, Brutix, and Myrmidon, since they'd have difficulty getting us in range. This wasn't entirely accurate, but it was a decent suggestion, since nanos > brawlers any day.

After 10 minutes of the most intense staring contest ever, I decided to go balls deep and try to lure a fight in. My friendlies warped to the hostile Phobos at 20km, and I warped down to the gate and jumped into them.

As I expected, they all jumped in after me and the shooting started. Weirdly enough though, none of the enemies were shooting - their FC decided our gang was too scary. Instead, they all jumped back and left us laughing and shaking off the adrenaline rush.

Then their FC grew balls and sent a lone Hurricane into us to start the fight. We popped it before his friends could jump and decloak. Then an all-out brawl started, and the details start getting fuzzy. Personally, I was focused on maintaining range and picking at targets while avoiding their Deimos, who insisted on trying to tackle me in vain. I ended up surviving the fight with plenty of shields.

All in all, we won the ISK war and had an awesome start to a Friday. Good fights were had by all.

Lessons Learned

Intel, intel, intel. Although it was a gamble, their 6-month-old Hurricane pilot was using meta-0 T1 guns, which helped us enormously in the fight, since he was doing very crappy DPS. Also, balls. Without balls, our FC was very close to just docking us up and waiting for them to leave. Instead, my intel and pestering convinced him that the fight could be an excellent one. Lastly, target calling. Our FC did a great job of target calling, and as a result, we were able to win the ISK war while still keeping some of our pilots alive.

Oh, and also, support ships are insane. The Rapier wasn't as useful in this fight, since it was all on a gate, but our Rook was invaluable in negating a portion of enemy DPS and helping us whittle them down.

Phew, what an awesome start to a Friday. More to come this weekend!

Take care, and fly safe!

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi

It's a Tarp!

Action Summary

Task: Save a hapless newbie Drake tackled in a belt by an Ares.

Problem: No problem, we just need to save him. (But wait, cool shit happens.)

Enemies: One Ares, but you'll soon discover more.

Friendlies: A Rupture and a Rook.

My ship of choice: Cynabal.

Reasoning for choice: A Cynabal is fast, agile, has great first-on-field tackle capabilities, extremely long point, great damage projection, etc. Overall an amazing ship. The point of this AAR is not ship choice, but intelligence. Read on!

Killmails

Drake kill: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13268217

After Action Report

A despondent newbie in a PvE Drake posted up in intel that he was tackled by a hostile Ares in a belt in T22 and needed assistance. He was in a Drake though, so we had a bit of time. The Rupture, Rook and I were a few jumps out roaming, and we began heading back to throw rocks at the Ares and make it run away. I invited the newbie Drake into our fleet so we could get warpins when we arrived.

On the way there, we noticed another member of the Ares pilot's corporation with us. I was a bit ahead of the pack, and saw a Drake on D-scan who disappeared (along with the pilot in local) as I landed on each gate. Obviously this guy was burning to his friend in the Ares in hopes of a juicy newbie Drake kill.

I jumped into T22 right behind the hostile Drake and saw him warp off in the direction of the belt, and immediately warped to our poor newbie. I landed on grid immediately after the hostile Drake, and pointed him nearly instantly. The Rupture and Rook then landed and we all had some good laughs while poking the hostile Drake to death with sharp sticks.

The hostile Drake pilot left us a "nice catch" in local. Newbie Drake survived. Ares left, tail between his legs.

Lessons Learned

Pay attention to local. The hostile Drake pilot had about 3 systems to realize that he was being followed, and also had a Cynabal on scan as he was leaving each system. This is a clear example of someone getting hasty and not paying attention to local/D-scan. If he had been paying attention, he would have told his Ares to disengage and he would have warped off himself, knowing that hostile backup was on the way.

Also, the Cynabal is an amazing ship. Despite having just killed one two days ago, I just got my own today and it is an absolute joy to fly. For anyone who's considering training PvP, T2 medium autocannons are the best investment for your time, hands down.

Well, that's all for tonight. Hopefully more goodfites tomorrow. :)

Take care, and fly safe!

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi

Twitter Feed Test

I've just linked the blog with my old Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/maretard) at the recommendation of a reader. This is a test post to verify that the automated Twitter posts are working.

In other news, a big op is scheduled for a few hours from now - hopefully good fights will be had and stories will be told. :)

Until then, take care, and fly safe!

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi

To Catch a Cynabal

Action Summary

Task: Catch a wandering Cynabal hunting for solo targets.

Problem: The Cynabal is reasonably paranoid and not stupid, and is only looking for easy solo kills.

Enemies: One hunter Cynabal looking for solo kills.

Friendlies: A few Drakes and an Ishkur.

My ship of choice: Nano shield Rupture with scram.

Reasoning for choice: A Cynabal can easily outrun Drakes and avoid their damage, and an Ishkur might not survive long enough to keep the Cynabal tackled while we kill it. We need a medium-strength tackler with the speed to catch the Cynabal while it's being held by our Ishkur and the tankiness to survive once the Cynabal kills our Ishkur and turns his attention to me. A nano shield Rupture with a scrambler fulfills both of these requirements, as it's both fast, and can take a reasonable amount of punishment and allow our Drakes precious time to kill our target.

Killmails

Cynabal kill: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13259730

Ishkur loss: http://redc.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13259754

After Action Report

I and our Drakes waited on the only exit gate from our pocket while our Ishkur tried to find the Cynabal. He ended up finding it on a station undock and successfully baited a fight about 50km away from the station. Once the Cynabal had aggression, everyone warped in on him. Upon landing, I was approximately 30km from the target, who was sandwiched between me and our Ishkur. I overheated my microwarp and my scram and began burning full speed towards him.

To his credit, he tried burning down and away from both of us, but just as I anticipated, our Ishkur maintained tackle long enough for me to burn within 10km  and apply my own point before he exploded. At this point, the fight was over, as we had 4 Drakes on field and a Rupture with solid tackle on him, and he went down very  quickly. Apparently, he was rather ticked off, as he never even responded to our gf's in local. :(

All in all, a great fight with great planning. I'm very happy with my decisionmaking process here, as I knew just what we needed (a fast non-frigate tackler with a scram) and was able to fill a crucial role to help land us a juicy Cynabal kill.

Lessons Learned

This isn't really new to me, but might be new to other players - never underestimate the insane importance of competent and skilled tacklers. Although we sacrificed an Ishkur to get this kill, we could have easily sacrificed him for nothing if I had not gotten secondary tackle, as a Cynabal can easily outrun Drakes and warp away without a scrambler on him.

Well, that's all for tonight. Hopefully more goodfites tomorrow. :)

Take care, and fly safe!

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi

The Journey So Far

I figured I'd start the blog off with a short intro about me and how I got to where I am. I started off as a highsec Caldari carebear running missions for the Caldari Navy, and I'm ashamed to say that I spent the first few months of my Eve career wasting away there.

Fortunately, about three months into my career, I joined Dreddit/TEST in their home in Fountain. As my first nullsec experience, the time I spent with Dreddit was instrumental in convincing me that PvP was the path for me in Eve.

Despite being terrible, I survived my time there, and left after four months of solid experience. After spending some more time in highsec with Red vs Blue, I joined my current corporation, Red Core. Here's where the real story starts.

When I joined, Red Core was a very small corporation with very big plans. At the time, Red Core consisted of highsec mission runners with an eventual goal of learning PvP and moving to lowsec/nullsec. To be honest, when I joined, we were all absolute shit at PvP (with perhaps the sole exception of our CEO).

My first two months with Red Core were spent practicing and training with the other members and developing a sense of community. We spent our time diving into lowsec in small gangs, fighting the likes of Noir and Narhwals Ate My Duck. In those two months, we went from a ragtag gang of meta-fit cruisers and battlecruisers to a reasonably solid group of battlecruisers with scout support.

Once we got comfortable, we formally moved to lowsec, where we further advanced our PvP abilities to include HACs, recons, and logistics. After some time here, we started butting heads with a corporation with hotdropping/capital habits, and decided to accelerate our move to nullsec.

This brings us to the present day. Red Core is now based in Syndicate space and still improving our PvP abilities. Despite being the most active PvPer in the corp, I am the Director of Quantitative Easing (read: any and all PvE operations). This blog will feature analysis on general Eve PvP lessons and theory that I encounter during my time here.

I've come to terms with the fact that, like it or not, Eve is now a large part of my life, and it would be incredibly disappointing to the future me if I never documented any of my adventures in this incredible game.

Well that's certainly enough wall-of-text for one post. Thanks for your time, and I hope you have as much fun reading as I do playing and writing!

Take care, and fly safe!

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi

Welcome to AAReporter

Hey there. If you're reading this, this blog is either brand new, or you've done some exploring to find this post. Welcome to AAReporter, a catalog of my journey through the universe of Eve.

This blog focuses almost exclusively on PvP operations and my experiences in them, and is targeted at beginner-to-intermediate Eve players who know the basic techniques and mechanics but are interested in learning more about situational awareness and decisionmaking.

I will be posting killmails for all of my adventures, both wins and losses, but some posts will involve no kills or losses and just describe a particular experience.

I hope you enjoy what you find here! If you would like to find me in-game for pew-pew or just to chat, my in-game name is Sarah Ichinumi.

Take care, and fly safe.

o/

-Sarah "Numi" Ichinumi