Molden Heath - Tastes like....victory

Logging on a few hours later, I carried on back towards Oddedulf along the Molden Heath loop. With it only being 3 jumps away, I popped a pizza in the oven, figuring I would be docked in the 20 minutes it would take for it to cook.

Jumping into Heild, local was at 10, with no ships on scan. Warping to the sun at range, there was still nothing on scan. A closer look at local revealed several members of the same alliance in local. With the only location still off scan being the Bosena stargate, my outgate, I warped my alt at range to see what the situation was like before committing my Battlecruiser.

Sure enough, they had a small, neutral gang sitting there composed of a Drake, Incursus, Jaguar, Wolf and a Vagabond. Warping my alt off, I noticed local spiking with another gang jumping in, either from Bosena or Aedald. With nothing appearing on scan in Aedald and the new arrivals going criminal judging by local, I warped my main to the stargate at 50 to see what was going on.

As I warped in, through my directional scanner I could see the composition of the new gang - Armageddon, Curse, Cynabal, Drake, Stabber Fleet Issue, Tempest and Zealot - this was going to get interesting!

Landing 50km off the main brawl, I started locking up the GCC gang whilst moving in, not wanting to have sentries against me as well. With their Drake in low shields, I burnt towards him but alas he warped off before I could secure point. With both sides locked, I could tell the neutral gang was getting thrashed. A matter of seconds later, their Vagabond got exploded, with their Incursus already down. They started warping off, leaving the field whilst I remained behind.

Burning off, I could see the entire flashy gang going for me, with their Cynabal in the lead keeping me pointed! Overheating my MWD for a single cycle, I put distance between the majority of their gang and me whilst lighting up the Cynabal. With them realising they couldn't catch up, they let their MWDs turn off and waited until the Cynabal got 150km from them and they could warp to him. Whilst this was a smart decision, the speed at which the Cynabal and me were travelling meant that everytime they warped to him, by the time they landed we were 50km or more off.

Meanwhile, the Cynabal was getting torn up keeping me tackled. Once he slipped into low shields, I overheated my Heavy Pulses, MWD and Warp Disruptor and brought him down when he was 20km from me, his final resting place 300km from the stargate.

The Cynabal, Faction Cruiser with extreme speed

With his wreck 20km off me, with their Stabber Fleet Issue rapidly approaching with the rest of them 80-90km off, I was about to engage the Stabber when my alarm went off - pizza ready!

Warping off, I docked and hurried to get my pizza. Returning to my laptop with my food, I posted the killmail before digging in. When it processed, I could hardly believe that Cynabal had a Republic Fleet Warp Disruptor and it had dropped, the module being worth 150M or so!

Angry, I quickly repaired my damaged modules whilst getting a warpin with the alt. Whilst most of their gang was no longer on the stargate, they were still in local with a Zealot sitting ontop of the Cynabal wreck. Bookmarking it and then warping my alt off to my main, I fleet warped him to the wreck at 10km.

Landing 20km off the Zealot, I quickly warp disrupted him and started chewing through him whilst he did the same. Unfortunately, he was armor tanked and not shield like I had hoped - I can kill an shield Zealot in mere seconds with my Harbinger whilst armor takes significantly longer. Kiting him was fairly simple - I was both faster and more agile, whilst him with an armor tank was only scratching my tank:

[ 20:16:47 ] Focused Medium Pulse Laser II belonging to Motty 007 hits you, doing 342.6 damage.

[ 20:16:49 ] Focused Medium Pulse Laser II belonging to Motty 007 hits you, doing 316.3 damage.

[ 20:16:49 ] Your group of Heavy Pulse Laser II hits Motty 007 [SCONE](Zealot), doing 528.9 damage.

[ 20:16:51 ] Focused Medium Pulse Laser II belonging to Motty 007 hits you, doing 349.1 damage.

[ 20:16:52 ] Your group of Heavy Pulse Laser II hits Motty 007 [SCONE](Zealot), doing 519.4 damage.

[ 20:16:52 ] Focused Medium Pulse Laser II belonging to Motty 007 heavily hits you, inflicting 441.6 damage.

[ 20:16:54 ] Focused Medium Pulse Laser II belonging to Motty 007 barely scratches you, causing 211.4 damage.

[ 20:16:55 ] Your group of Heavy Pulse Laser II is well aimed at Motty 007 [SCONE](Zealot), inflicting 631.4 damage.

With the Zealot at half armor, his gang finally arrived. Luckily, due to me pulling range they were still 30km off and thus for the most part out of weapon range.

[ 20:17:52 ] Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II belonging to Rain Al'Thor misses you completely.

With their Curse closing in on me, I finally finished off the Zealot. With the Curse neutralizing my capacitor and warp disrupting me, I didn't even try to fire on him in order to conserve capacitor for my one chance at freedom - a single overheated MWD cycle to try and burn fair enough away.

Whilst the Curse held onto me, their longer range ships had finally started landing, including an Artillery Maelstrom, who well, hurt.

[ 20:17:58 ] Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile belonging to Jack Dant hits you, doing 1548.4 damage.

[ 20:18:00 ] 1400mm Howitzer Artillery II belonging to Pere Madeleine hits you, doing 4260.9 damage.

[ 20:18:04 ] Caldari Navy Scourge Heavy Missile belonging to Jack Dant hits you, doing 972.6 damage.

Entering low armor, my shields gone from the constant pecking of the Zealot, my MWD finally finished it's cycle, allowing me to punch it! Entering low structure, I was jammed by a swarm of ECM drones, confusing me as I thought I had died since I was unable to lock anything. But no, I still had a sliver of structure left, my capacitor empty as I hammered the warp button and......

[ 20:18:04 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:05 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:05 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:05 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:05 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:05 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:05 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:06 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:06 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:06 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:06 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:06 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:07 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:07 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:07 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:07 ] 220mm Vulcan AutoCannon II belonging to CraftyCroc misses you completely.

[ 20:18:07 ] Dual Heavy Pulse Laser II belonging to Rain Al'Thor misses you completely.

[ 20:18:07 ] Mega Pulse Laser II belonging to Rain Al'Thor misses you completely.

[ 20:18:07 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:07 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:08 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:08 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:08 ] External factors are preventing your warp drive from responding to this command.

[ 20:18:08 ] Warrior II belonging to Jack Dant misses you completely.

[ 20:18:08 ] Warrior II belonging to Jack Dant misses you completely.

[ 20:18:08 ] Warrior II belonging to Jack Dant misses you completely.

[ 20:18:08 ] Warrior II belonging to Jack Dant misses you completely.

[ 20:18:08 ] Warrior II belonging to Jack Dant misses you completely.

[ 20:18:08 ] You cannot do that while warping.

And then

Close one!

I didn't even have enough capacitor to make the warp to the Customs Office I was aiming for, instead landing in a shallow spot 1.5AU from the stargate I escaped from. On D-Scan you can see what their gang had.

Docking up, I finished my pizza whilst I followed two trains of thought - how close I was to dying, whilst the second was - Who looted that fricking Warp Disruptor??!

Molden Heath - Mixed Bag

One of the staples of any hangar I keep is my shield Harbinger, with its unique combination of agility, damage, range and speed. A direct competitor to my shield Harbinger is the shield Hurricane, possibly the most commonly sighted solo ship in all of New Eden. And in Molden Heath, they were a plenty. Therefore, it made sense to seek them out and see what magic I could do.

Harbinger, Amarr Battlecruiser, possibly my favorite ship in New Eden

Doing another loop around Molden Heath, this time I departed Oddedulf, jumping into Bosena first. After a few minutes, I found a shield Hurricane to engage. Unfortunately, when he entered structure a Falcon decloaked and jammed me. Cursing, I could only watch as the Hurricane warped off and the Falcon cloaked up. Amusingly, I managed to decloak the Falcon but he jammed me before I could kill him.

No matter, soon enough I found a Hurricane missioning who had no such backup. He went poof nicely.

Moving on, the systems passed through in a flash and soon I was in Egbinger, home of Wensley of Rifter Drifter. After lingering around for a few minutes setting up safe spots, I spotted a Macheriel running a mission. Cracking out the probes with my alt, I warped my main in but the Angel Battleship pilot was on his toes and warped off, already pre-aligned before I got out of warp. Catching sight of a Blood Money Cartel gang consisting of Ishkur, Pilgrim, Thrasher and a Vengeance, I waited patiently at the sun for them to come after me. After a few minutes of them staying in the safe spot, I took the initiative and probed them out with my alt.

Dropping out of warp, due to their movement I landed 50km off the Thrasher. Before I could close range, they warped off. Surprised at their reluctance to engage me, I began to head out, before catching sight of a Myrmidon sitting on a station. Warping in, I was dismayed to find out he was neutral; I would not be able to engage him first without sentry guns opening fire on me.

A quick look in local whilst waiting for him to open fire first revealed that he had two corpmates in system with him. Still waiting for him to engage, I had a quick look through his killboard history which revealed he liked to fly shield Myrmidons sporting Blasters. After a few more minutes of sitting on station with no attention from him, I felt unloved and warped to the sun at 50.

Finally, he warped in, landing 30km off. Pointing him before he could leave was trivial and soon I was handily kiting him. Chewing through his shields were taking a while however and before they were halfway gone a second Myrmidon and a Hurricane landed 50km off. Continuing to pour fire onto the Myrmidon I was already engaging, I was forced to switch to manual flying to stay out of overheated web range of the 3 Battlecruisers whilst still firing on the first Myrmidon. Whilst I was able to keep out of their weapon systems' optimal, their drones were starting to chew through my not so large shield buffer. With me entering low shields, the Myrmidon finally entered structure. Unfortunately, he managed to get out of my overheated point range just as he hit half structure. With me entering armor, I warped off.

Docking up and repairing, I spotted a small gang of frigates in Muttokon with my alt. Jumping in with my main, I noticed the gate flashing behind me as a Hurricane, Rifter and Typhoon decloaked, the pilots who I had just fought!

Typhoon, Minmatar Battleship. Fast, deadly, a real beast on the battlefield. 

Reviewing the situation, I was lucky enough that the Rifter had not decloaked within scramble range of me. Overheating my MWD, I started burning off the stargate, the gang following behind me. By now, my aggression to them had run out and I was unable to fire on the Rifter without sentry guns interfering until he engaged me first, which he was wisely careful not to do. The Hurricane was kind enough to fire on me and I started laying into him with overheated Heavy Pulse Laser IIs.

Soon enough I had the Hurricane in half structure, however I had forgotten to stop overheating my guns and they burnt out. I could only watch as my Valkyrie IIs attempted to finish him off, but it was clear they were not up to the task so once again I was forced to warp off.

Evading the gang as I left, I docked up in Aedald and repaired my heat damage. I started heading back and met up with Wensley who had just logged on, but I was forced to leave early due to RL before we could get into a scrap.

Hardly the introduction to Molden Heath that I wanted for Rend, but it could only get better from here on in...

Molden Heath - Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do

After killing the guys in the wormhole with my Myrmidon, I docked up and ate dinner. Undocking, I spotted a Maelstrom and Raven on scan. Further refinement using my directional scanner yielded their approximate location, within 30 seconds my Myrmidon was in warp to their mission courtesy of my alt having refitted with 2 Warp Disruptors in order to catch them both.

Dropping out of warp ontop of an acceleration gate, I activated it and landed 90km off them, with a few rats remaining in the mission.

Raven, Caldari Battleship famous for mission running

Overheating my middle rack of modules, I burnt towards them. Suprisingly, they let me get in point range and I had them both pointed quick enough. Settling into a tight orbit around the Maelstrom in order to reduce his turret DPS, I started pounding away at him with Republic Fleet EMP M as well as my set of Thermal Drones. His shield took a few minutes to go through and his armor lasted long enough for me to swap to Explosive Drones + Fusion, but eventually he popped.

Gliding up to the Raven, I started working through his considerable shield tank, but eventually he fell also. Docking up, I dropped off my loot, refilled on cap boosters and waited out my GCC. Just before it finished expiring, through my alt I spotted a neutral gang of 3 Vagabonds and a Rapier in Bosena, excellent prey for my Myrmidon. At the same time however, I was convoe'd by a member of Gunpoint Diplomacy and asked if I would help them kill the same gang. "Of course" I replied, more pewpew is always welcome.

Undocking, I made my way to the Bosena stargate and met up with the rest of the gang whilst connecting to their TeamSpeak server. In total we had Armageddon, Blackbird, Hurricane. my Myrmidon and two Tempests. Definitely overkill for such a small gang we were facing.

After a very long game of cat and mouse, eventually they slipped up and my alt secured us a warpin ontop of them. With the Heavy Neutralizers fitted to our Battleships, we caught and killed one Vagabond whilst the rest warped to the high security stargate. Following behind them, we are delighted to find them shooting a neutral Rapier on the stargate who had apparently fired back. The opposing gang warped off whilst the neutral Rapier was dispatched quickly.

Whilst looting the field, a Tristan autopilotted to the stargate and he promptly felt our wrath.

Poor, poor Tristan.

Heading back to Oddedulf, a Drake and Omen were spotted belt-ratting. Unfortunately, they kept warping to another belt as we landed. Putting a ship in each belt, we caught them and they were also eliminated. Rather unusual fit for an Omen.

After quickly suicide ganking a Hulk in neighbouring high security, I logged off for the night, eager for more pewpew the following day.

The next post will contain some actual good fights!

Molden Heath - Gunpoint Diplomacy

Before I moved to Molden Heath, I had no idea how many bloggers lived in this tiny section of Eve. Well, now that I'm here, I can tell you there's quite a few! Most of them seem to be members of Gunpoint Diplomacy.

Whilst some of their blogs are well known, such as Wensley's Rifter Drifter, others are slightly trickier to find. I figured I would do them a service and link them all together. So, without further ado, I present to you the bloggers of Molden Heath!