Monday, December 19, 2016

The Bar Hound

On the way back to my HiSec staging area after yesterday's first day out with Bomber's Bar I take a gate and see a suspect Orca being attacked by a pair of Proteii [that's plural for Proteus :P] from Vendetta Mercenary Group. I seem to recall them being HiSec WarDec griefers but this Orca is flashing yellow, I can't ignore that. I set my kite up at 30 km's, damp his scan resolution so he can't send his drones after me and send my Nova Rage torpedoes to assist in the take down. I can only assume the Proteii were of the cloaky variety because they didn't seem to be doing a whole lot of damage and my little Hound that somehow survived the smart bombing debacle of earlier in the day had himself another billion ISK kill. I really must do this Bomber's Bar thing more often, it's getting me nice kills just by undocking!

Day two in Bomber's Bar and I'm joining a fleet that's been going for several hours with limited success. En route to the rally point, some twenty odd jumps through High and LowSec regions, the comms are electric as they try to take down a Rorqual being supported by a SubCap fleet. Despite losing six or eight bombers spirits are high as they've taken some high value targets down in the process, coming out in front of the ISK war to the tune of about a billion ISK. As they fall back to staging some pilots drop fleet, but already more are joining. It's a living, breathing animal with an insatiable blood lust and I'm just a little bit inspired to be a part of it.

With the element of surprise gone the connection to that particular region of NullSec is to be rolled away and a new one sought out. Bob was unkind during the rolling process, taking our scouts to several sparsely populated regions but we eventually hit pay dirt. The fleet of around forty Black Ops, Recons and Bombers laid in wait whilst the hunters did what they do best, simultaneously stumbling upon Carriers grinding for ISK. One group made warp before tackle could be laid but the second target was not so lucky. Sitting 350 km's from a POS forcefield with his fighters engaged at long range we jumped through the wormhole into Curse, waited for the bridge and jumped on our target. Now, I've been on a lot of Carrier kills in my time, but I've never seen one succumb to SubCaps so quickly before. I landed perhaps two, maybe three volleys, before this one popped, but I guess that's what happens when you don't take tanking seriously. A 2.5b ISK Nidhoggur is a pretty decent start.


The fleet quickly looted what there was of value and reformed not having to wait long before another scout finds a pair of Nidhoggurs engaged in ratting. Cyno up, through the bridge and finally the chance came to sling some focused void bombs at a target. His shield buffer was significant and the Falcons did a fine job of keeping the fighters off our backs. Eventually he succumbed however, quickly exploding once his shields were breached. With attention switching to his friend D-Scan began to light up, a rescue fleet was inbound. The call was made to clear the bubble and align out, the fleet comprised a large number of small ships that would tear through our bomber horde in short order if allowed to. As I had been preparing to make another bomb run I was well clear but I could see some of our number being positively pedestrian in their efforts to clear the warp bubble. That lack of urgency cost a few of them their ships, a Rapier and a pair of Bombers if I recall correctly, but it mattered not, the ISK war was, once again, well in hand.

Two Nidhoggurs and an Orca down for about six billion ISK, I think I like it at the bar. :)

4 comments:

  1. I've been meaning to join up with some bombers bar stuff but haven't yet. Stories like this make me feel I really ought to look into it again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You really should. The people that run it are well drilled and whilst there is an element of wtf sometimes with all the newbies a public roam attracts, for the most part it's very well led.

      Delete
  2. Question: why would you care about ISKwar in bombers bar? You're not at war with the people you fight. They're all just targets of opportunity. The people you hunt mostly care about their own ship, they're not gonna be happy losing a carrier even if they get a bunch of kills in return.

    Likewise, what difference does it make to you if other guys in your fleet get blown up? Bombers isn't a corp so it's not like those losses hurt you in any way. It's just a collection of guys teaming up for big kills -- all you should care about is getting the kill and not losing your own ship.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The ISK war is generally how success is measured. If you can destroy more than you've invested, you're #winning. I know plenty of people, myself included, who would be quite happy to lose a capital ship if it meant a swag of kills in return. Hell, I've sacrificed a pretty pimp Moros in Tama some time back in that very pursuit and I've got zero bad feelings about it. About the only time I get bitter about losing a ship is when it's a T3 because of the SP loss involved.

      Regarding my fleet mates, no, it doesn't hurt me if they lose a ship, but as a part of that fleet I also want to see the success of that fleet. It is an extension of myself and, as such, whilst I'm in that fleet I will do my best to ensure its success. Fleets like Bomber's Bar invariably get filled with lots of newbros; they're going to make mistakes - that's accepted, what's unacceptable is when they don't learn from those mistakes.

      Delete

Keep it civil!