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