Wrath of the Battlevigil

Some time ago I wrote about the Vigil and how great it is as a cheap fast salvage boat.
This post is also about the Vigil, but one with teeth. Say hello to the Battlevigil.


While browsing the SHC boards I stumbled upon a post by Prometheus Exenthal. Prometheus is known for his awesome frigate videos and if you don't know them yet, you should really go watch them here.
His Vigil fitting inspired me to modify it a bit for high-sec shenanigans. If you are in a Rifter, Tristan, or maybe a Merlin people expect you to be somehow experienced at pvp. But no one but a clueless noob would engage in a Vigil, right? This ship is an aggro magnet.

The setup is like this:

[Vigil, battlevigil]
Damage Control II
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I
Micro Auxiliary Power Core I

1MN Afterburner II
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Medium Shield Extender II

Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
Dual Light Pulse Laser II, Scorch S
OE-5200 Rocket Launcher, Caldari Navy Gremlin Rocket

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I
Small Core Defence Field Extender I

Hobgoblin II x1

78 dps at 10km, 1435m/s, 5252 effective hitpoints, and a 21dps passive shield recharge while being cap stable.

While the stats don't look very promising, the Vigil is almost impossible to hit by drones or bigger guns, and thanks to the range of it's weapons it is easy to overheat the afterburner and get out when things go south.

Here are some examples from a long list of fights:
This was the first fight. When I picked up some of this guy's ore he docked his mining ship and came back in a Drake. Oh dear. A long fight but nice training. Orbiting at 7km I was able to almost tank his damage while taking out his drones. His tank was tough although I was surprised I managed to get him below 50% shields at all. I burned out my afterburner so I had to run at some point. When I docked at the station I noticed there wasn't a repair shop. Fortunately they sold new afterburners here so I trashed the old one, bought a few new modules, and undocked again. Turned out the Drake also docked and bought new drones. When I came back to the belt we met again.
This time I managed to mitigate his damage better. While tackling him in a comfortable orbit I logged in my Orca alt on a new client, jumped the Orca several systems to the fight, and swapped ships to finish him off.



Here I was chilling in a belt while eating a pizza. This guy in his Heavy Interdictor warped in, bumped little me, and dropped a can while targeting me. We exchanged some pew pew while the Orca warped in, I hopped into the trusty Hurricane and he went down in flames quickly. Turned out it was the first HIC he ever bought, he just wanted to test it's tank. Oh well...


This was also an interesting encounter. This guy was mining with his Hulk while chatting to his Orca friend. I looted some of the cheap mods from the wrecks nearby and he sent his drones after me. When I tackled the Hulk the Orca started remotely repairing him.


Flashy Hulk and Orca? Time to get the gank-Cane yet again. Fights like this one are the reason I fit two warp disruptors.


Battlevigil vs. Hurricane


Battlevigil vs. Prophecy and Retriever


Battlevigil vs. Hyperion

Turns out the Vigil is a very nice ship to harass people with. Although you need to pick your fights it's very easy to gain aggro and it's equally easy to leave a fight when you have to. The only Vigils I lost were due to my stupidity when swapping ships at my Orca.

Pendulum of LOL

Pendulum of Doom Declares War Against Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2010.02.07 16:21

Pendulum of Doom has declared war on Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service. Within 24 hours fighting can legally occur between those involved.

People declare war on us quite often. This might be related to some not so happy customers but in this particular case I suppose Pendulum of Doom just wanted to collect some trophies for their killboard. They are a mercenary alliance consisting of one corporation - The Filthy Few.
Being brave ninjas we did what we often do. We shrugged and went on stealing other people's stuff anyway. Unfortunately (from their point of view) many ninjas like a nomadic way of life. We often stay in a region for some time and move on as soon as the missionrunners get used to us. Furthermore we like cloaky ships and use safespots and anchored caches for ammo and loot in space so when those guys finally brought themselves to come over to our headquarter and camped a station for some hours, they didn't see much action.

However, during the following days they roamed New Eden tryinig to find ninjas but as it turned out they hardly ever found one. A corpmate encountered a small group of wartargets at a gate once while hauling loot to Jita but for some reason they didn't manage to catch his t1 hauler nor did they follow him.

Props for the funny campaign name though. ("Tears for Queers", looks like they deleted the campaign from their killboard since no ship has been destroyed during this war)


Alliance mate Sal Pheebu had some nice conversations with one of them when he was checking his contracts before heading off to work in the morning.

Yuller > well Sal where is that big bad pvp alt?
Sal Pheebu > We're ninjas. If I told you, it would defeat the purpose.
Yuller > what ever cupcakes
Sal Pheebu > Of course, you aggressed us, so we should be asking where your big bad PvP fleet of very expensive T2 ships is, and whether we're ever going to see it in Dodi.
Yuller > if all your gonna do is sit here shit stick i guess you'llmiss the fight
Sal Pheebu > I'm not sitting. I'm checking trades. :) I do that standing up. Better for the circulation.
Yuller > planet 1 shit stick
Yuller > me and you
Sal Pheebu > Typical merc. One size fits all. If your name calling didn't get me to undock in my battle-iteron yesterday, what are the odds that approach will work this time?

For me it was business as usual most of the time. Wartargets showed up in different regions every now and then but were offline during my (EU timezone) hours for the most part.

It was a rather uneventful evening in HEK. I was in my salvage Vigil zipping through missions picking up loot when I met Aromoro in his Brutix. Level 4 missions with battleships usually provide better loot but missionrunners in battlecruisers often like to shoot me which is always a welcome change.
So I grab loot from the very first small wreck, and sure enough the Brutix locks my frigate, opens fire, and launches a flight of mixed drones. Taking heavy damage I warp off to a celestial. Once out of warp I immediately turn round and head back into the mission. The Brutix is still here and locks me again. He shoots. I warp off. Out of warp, turn round, warp to him. Lock. Shooting. Warp off but this time I change ships. When I come back he again starts shooting but this time I am in a Sleipnir command ship.

Poof!

Aromoro > WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM?
enterap > wow
Cineva > hm... you can get bamed for that languege, you know that?
Aromoro > FUCKING SCopquie jumped my mission and blew up my SHIP
Scopique > Sad story
Aromoro > IDC IF I GET BANNED YOU FUCK JACKASS
Aromoro > fuck you takes a great player to trounce a newb faggot
Aromoro > if you were any good you would be flying real mishes instead stealing for me
Scopique > A newb? Your char is older than me. Or did you ebay him?
Aromoro > you ass is ours now
enterap > wow
Scopique > yeah sure
enterap > guys no fighing
Aromoro > no I went offline due to the faggot gate camping
enterap > show some love
Aromoro > just restarted a week ago
enterap > we got to love to live people
SpyS1mon > rofl
Fuldi > lol
Cineva > is a E bay guy clearly

Only half an hour later. The loot is salvaged, my Vigil repaired, and I got myself a cool beer from the kitchen. I warp into the next mission with a Hurricane. Another battlecruiser. Is he going to shoot also?
When I arrive there are a lot of wrecks but only one that hasn't been looted yet. Zooooooooooooooom! Overheating my afterburner I arrive just in time to grab 100 light missiles (worth almost nothing) from the small wreck.

Lock
Shooting
Warp off
Warp back
Kaboom!


No tears unfortunately, but all the salvage from his wrecks adds to my pile.

Wartarget Yuller jumped into HEK several times and searched the stations for me. I never had to dock though so after a while he gave up and left. After four days they retracted the war. I hope no one actually paid them for hindering us from salvaging.

Pendulum of Doom Retracts War Against Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service
From: CONCORD
Sent: 2010.02.11 01:21

The war between Pendulum of Doom and Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service is coming to an end. Pendulum of Doom has retracted the war against Tear Extraction And Reclamation Service. The war will be declared as being over after approximately 24 hours.

Becoming famous!

When I logged in today I noticed something unfamiliar. I had to check twice but it's true: Someone wants me so badly he put a bounty on my head! \o/


This is my first bounty and I have been wondering when it would finally happen. Maybe I owe it to Mr Scandere?

It was just the day after I wrote about my recent customers and the lack of more expensive ships in my region when I entered yet another system with three or four people in local. Following the usual routine I warped to my scanning spot when suddenly a Myrmidon battlecruiser appeared on scan along with some wrecks in a belt. Without thinking twice I fired up the warp drive, activated defensive mods, and initiated the warp disruptor.

Within seconds the asteroids came into view, along with the Myrmidon and a flight of small drones. I was so excited about my luck! The target quickly resolved and the warp disruptor caught Mr Scandere who was pounding away at an Angel Commander. Activating my microwarp drive I set a close orbit of 2000m and once within range six autocannons began to grind into the enemy battlecruiser's armor while two medium energy neutralizers sucked his capacitor dry.
Suddenly everything went pretty fast. I expected high damage from the Myrmidon's drones so I sent my own warriors after them first. At the same time the local population exploded when ten or so people jumped into the system. A trap? A quick glance at the enemy ship's status indicated he was already deep into armor. My own ship was barely scratched but my capacitor was almost empty.
Usually I do not have any cap isues at all with the fit I use on my Hurricane, but this time I was a bit distracted by scanning for enemy reinforcements so I just deactivated the neutralizers, sent all drones to finish of the Myrmidon, and hoped for just a few more seconds.

Reinforcements never came and the enemy gang left the system as quickly as they had come. When Scandere's ship exploded in a flash of light and the wreck quickly drifted out of range I finally noticed the reason for my empty capacitor: I had left the microwarp drive running!


Mistakes like this make me realize how important it is to stay calm even when something unexpected happens.
However, this fight is a good example of why I love flying solo in lowsec also: With neither a backup fleet nor a scout to provide intel it can be win or lose each time I warp towards a potential victim. I like the unpredictable!

Solo impressions

Daily business

For some time past I have been operating from my base in Metropolis. First I flew around in my Jaguar to make myself feel comfortable in the area. I made several bookmarks, both for scanning and retreating, and I tried to get as much information as possible about the local population. Three major parties are mainly to be found: New players who roam the borders of lowsec to kill rats at belts, mission runners both solo or in groups, and other pirates or pirate hunters. Pirates and pirate hunters (or anti pirates as they often call themselves) are hardly to be distinguished between however. Both tend to move in blobs, camping gates and killing everything that comes in range.

Those gate camps are a plague for the aspiring solo pirate! Often created at a highsec to lowsec gate they block off any potential new customer. I am sure most ratters or mission runners would prefer a personal treatment I could provide instead of the anonymous mass processing a gatecamp offers. Luckily some pilotes are smart enough to sneak around those blockades and enjoy their PVE activities while the lazy guys remain sitting at their gates.

While the Jaguar is great for scouting and shooting at inexperienced pilotes, this ship has some drawbacks. First of all it's lack of tank limits the amount of potential targets. I cannot attack at gates nor stations, else the senties would rip me a new one quickly. The dps is rather low also. Enough to kill other frigates and T1 cruisers, but hardly enough to engage bigger ships.


Size does matter!

So I went back to my base and hopped into a Hurricane battlecruiser. Fitted with a passive shield tank it is quite agile and with a good fitting, it is a very versatile ship.


Here is a list of some guys I met last week:

Ceetee Emess and Avil Ligotum were ratting in a Rupture and Caracal respectively. Avil called me names in local a few days before when I couldn't disrupt his warp drive fast enough with my Jaguar. This time however he couldn't escape.

Hoki Moonwolf was doing a mission. Unfortunately there isn't a probe launcher equipped on my Hurricane. Fortunately I had reinforcements close by!
Some quick scanning led me to his mission site, through two mission gates, and several dozen km from my warp-in point to his ship. Maybe doing missions is so exciting he wasn't able to look at the overview or it's so boring he was browsing a forum or reading a book. His Thrasher had some shiny modules but unfortunately most of the loot blew up with the ship.

Cattirbrie was also ratting in a Caracal. Obviously he was planning to stay in lowsec for a long time since he had several skillbooks in his cargo hold.

Gemba used an interesting fit on his Thrasher destroyer with mixed guns, a mixed tank and cargo and ship scanners. I wonder if he scanned the rats for loot before he killed them?

Tangodude had two Warp Core Stabilizers equipped on his Blackbird so he would have been able to escape in case of an attack. However, he never used them although it took me some time to maneuver my 'Cane around all those asteroids to get in range.

Skarr is also a pirate. He was part of a small gang that often roam Wiskeber and the surrounding systems. This time I met him solo in a Rifter though. I expected a trap but went in to have a look anyway, and a flight of Warrior II drones made short work of him. His mates arrived minutes later with a blob of 10+ ships but fortunately didn't bring a probe launcher.

Omd was idling a few km off a gate in an Iteron MK III. He had one unit of frozen food and one unit of Kernite in his cargo. Looking at his recent losses I wonder if he is a hauler bot with a broken script? I sold the Kernite and microwaved the food while looking for new customers.

CleverCougar was also idle 40km off a gate in an Imicus. Turned out he is a textile vendor of some kind, carrying several hundred units of polytextiles in his bay. Sitting 40km off a gate in lowsec isn't as clever as his name suggests though.


No impressive kills unfortunately. For some reason it looks like all solo pilots I meet are new players in T1 ships while all the older guys are only roaming lowsec in gangs. I'd like to fight something bigger like a battlecruiser or maybe even a battleship without a support fleet next door. But then again it's been a bit more than a week only.
So far it's a lot of fun!

Consecration

Final preparations

Reallife has been a bit busy lately, so I was eager to finally set up my base and blow something up. My trusted readers made me aware of several problems the pirate-to-be should think of, so I double checked my strategy:

Money
Piracy is a money sink. Experts might actually earn money by looting wrecks or ransoming customers, but a solo noob like me is likely to loose more isk than he earns. How do I fund my adventures?

-Fly cheap ships: Frigates, T1 cruisers, and battlecruisers are relatively cheap. I'll stick with those when flying solo until I am audacious enough to use their more expensive T2 counterparts.

-Wormholes: Some friends set up a pos in a wormhole system and they are killing sleepers regularly. Whenever an entrance to the system is within reach of my new home I can join them for easy cash.

-Missions: In case I really have to use him I have a mission runner alt ready to go.

Logistics
-To keep the supply of ships and modules up and running I have a freighter alt in training at the moment. In two weeks he'll be able to hop into a Providence. I will try and set up my base in range of one of the major trade hubs to keep flight times low.

"Seriously dude, that's way too complicated! Go and join a true pirate corp!"
-Nope. It will be tricky and there is a risk I'll totally mess it up but I'll go and try to be solo for some time. I am still in my corp so there is the corp chat for those lonely nights, but I will be far away from most of them for some weeks at least. I want to learn how much of a challenge it is to make allies and foes, deal with logistics, and fight on my own.
Me likes challenges! :)


Conquest of the promised land

With my hauler alt still in training, it took me some hours to move all equipment to my new base. Buying modules for half a dozen different ships is a pain. I always list all mods from EFT in a textfile, copy it to the ingame notepad, and start shopping but it's an annoying task. Why isn't there an option to buy all mods you need for a predefined ship setup at lowest price automatically?

Two battlecruisers, one heavy assault ship, four assault frigates, and a huge load of t2 drones, ammo, and cap boosters later I was ready to go. Undocking from "my" station in a 0.5 system in Metropolis I set course for the lowsec gate and began my quest for glory and plunder.



Lacking customers I jumped into the Heimatar region. The systems around Eifer used to be busy and full of targets last time I crossed them but tonight, fortune didn't smile on me. Some systems were empty, some full of macro haulers I couldn't take on with my Jaguar, and some were busy with large gangs. I zipped around, dodged a gate camp or two, scanned belt after belt but without success.
A few jumps later I entered Molden Heath. Teonusude and Oddelulf are highsec mission hubs and a lot of mission runners enter the bordering lowsec systems to do a mission or kill a few rats. Unfortunately not tonight. A battleship gang roamed the area and scared away most pilots. When I noticed the first flight of combat scanner probes aproaching my savespot, I decided to dock and call it a night.


First blood

The next morning I couldn't resist and logged in an hour before I had to go to work. Only a few pilotes were in local and none of them belonged to the same corp. Quickly I noticed a Thrasher on scan but when I tried to pin him down I realized he was way off any celestial object, probably in a mission. (Note to self: Go and buy a covops ship with a probe launcher next time you're in Rens!)
Cursing my bad luck I read some intel channels for a while, randomly scanning for targets when suddenly the Thrasher disappeared from scan. "Done with the mission, are we?" I muttered, but for some reason the pilot didn't leave the system. Rather bored I set my Jaguar in motion and entered the coordinates for another scanning spot.
Even before the warp bubble collapsed I had the Minmatar destroyer on scan again, this time in the direction of some asteroid belts. Usually I warp to a planet first to confirm the exact position of a victim but this time I had a feeling I should hurry. I quickly warped to the last belt in the system and only seconds later the Thrasher landed directly on top of me.

Granted, a young pilot in a destroyer isn't a particularly tough opponent but a kill is a kill. This poor guy has been the consecration of my new career. May there be many who follow him!