The Ups and Downs of an Eve Pirate...

Having gotten back to the usual routine after a somewhat crazy RL week, my game time has not been very productive as far as kills go. It seems that the life of a pirate seems to come in seasons. One day you will be up to your wooden leg peg in targets, and the next week you will be struggling to even find a frigate to kill!

This week was one of latter weeks, where I struggled to find anyone, in the end however, a couple of good fights game my way.

Assault Frigate Duel

Taking out my trusty Ishkur, Joust, I began looking around and eventually fount myself in Mynxee's neck of the woods. Coming into the system, I had an Enyo on scan. Perfect I thought, an AF vs AF fight. As I brought up my scanner interface and began searching for the ship's signature, my mind raced through things I knew about the Enyo:

• A brother to the Ishkur, focuses on Hybrid Turrets
• Only carries one light drone
• Generally considered inferior to the Ishkur
• Has a nice red finish as opposed to the Ishkur's green paint.
  

And I was done, you know it helps a lot to know what you could expect from your opposition before entering warp! I landed at a belt just out of disruptor range, and in the time it took my engines to power up, the 3 month old pilot warped to a safe.
Dissapointed, as an Enyo would have been a test for my Ishkur, I talked to the pilot (cynchron) in local, and after Mynxee vouched for me, he agreed to a 1v1 fight with no pod-killing.

We met at the planet and the fight was on. At first he did a good job keeping a little out of my range, however as he had blasters too he closed the distance. My guns and small NOS went to work, as did my drones, and after a while his ship went up in a beautiful display of fireworks!
I kept my word and did not try to pod. Looted up his wreck and said GF in local. He was a good guy, so I gave him back his loot when in station.
Whether it was because of my Skill point advantage, or because of the ship itself, I came out with more than half armor I believe. My ship performed just as good as I could expect. The only thing that I could have seen giving me problems was if he had a better tank, as I was nearly running out of cap thanks to my repper going. Even with this thou, I cannot see how an Enyo would be a better choice than the Ishkur. The 4 extra drones that the Ishkur can employ is a huge advantage, making up for the extra turret bonuses that the Enyo has.

A Fun Roam with Hellcat's Top Cat
After the fight with the Enyo, Mynxee and I fleeted up to go roam for a little while. She was flying a Stabber Fleet Issue, while I stayed in my Ishkur. We must have done a good 20 jumps or so, without finding a valid target. Finally, fed up with the boredom, we decided to try out our l33t skills and gank a tristan that was on autopilot going through oulletta. We oppened up, and the gates opened up on us. As I saw my ship taking damage, I recalled drones and gave the command to warp to the planet I THOUGHT i was aligned to. My systems said warping, but my ship was still there taking damage...finally I entered warp towards the planet. Doing a damage report, my console informed me that I had left the battle with 3% structure!!! My jaw dropped to the floor. I did not know what had happened, I thought I was alligned but it took forever to enter warp. Happy to have made it out alive thou, I asked mynxee if we had finished off the tristan. She reported she had warped out, but before she did she saw the tristan get to the gate and jump out! The tristan had been in structure when I left. Truly it was being piloted by one of the most expert pilots in the galaxy to be able to escape the clutches of a cat and the horns of a tusker!!!

While me and Mynxee laughed at ourselves for our incredible failure (could have been worse if I had lost the ishkur!!) local began to spike. Soon we fount out why. The tristan had been a scout for two Freighters and their escorts. As I sat in station and we waited out our timers...Mynxee and I had some fun with the locals. We did not insult them or anything, but it is a game after all, and a little light humor can completely change a roam from worthless to an enjoyable time.

The Demise of Joust
With our fun at Oulletta over, we headed back to Mynxee's home system. Once there I decided to head back to Hevrice and call it a night. However, Itching for a good fight as I always am, I let a crusader engage me at a gate. I had T2 warrior drones with me...so what could go wrong...right?
Well shows how much I know :). Was a long and good fight. He did a good job of keeping range and I was able to get a web on him for a second or two by overheating my webber. However, hew ould be able to get out of range and speed up before my drones got enough hits on him. Eventually he started to kill my warriors, so I had to use my hobgoblins which are even slower. I got him down to 50% armor or so before Joust was destroyed.
It was an expensive loss, calculated on the killboard at around 25 mil (although those prices are rarely accurate). A valuable lesson was learned, and I will know next time how best to attack a Malediction.

We Interrupt this program to bring you a special public announcement!
For those of you living under a rock (like myself), the long awaited Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" will finally see the light of day on November 22nd!! After 14 years or so, Axl Rose has finally decided to share his music with the world. Most of you probably don't care, but I am a huge GnR fan, and so this is monumental. I cannot wait, and you can be sure that when it comes out, ships will be destroyed to the sounds of great songs like "Better" and "IRS"!!!