Operation Kent: First Blood

The Captains Log 22/9

With Operation Kent now in play I decided it was time to go and chose a ship and get it in position to deal some damage to the Proviblock alliances. After some deliberation I decided to use my Manticore for this operation, so I took a noob ship over to the Sys-K Stain Region staging point, picked it up and took the Jump Bridge network to empire, where I sat out side a providence entry point.

While waiting, intelligence reported that there was a gate camp one jump into Providence that had a Eris in it. Perfect. Another chance at a bombing run to try and take out a Interdictor after the failed attempted on the Goonswarm Sabre that resulted in the destruction of my Hound. Now if only I had a bomb launcher. I raced over to nearest system with one for sale, picked it up and fitted it to my ship.

Once in Providence I decided to warp immediately to the gate and hope I entered warp before the Eris got its bubble up, thus putting me within striking range. Unfortunately, the bubble went up first so I got caught in it. My brilliant piloting skills though got me out of the bubble, so I started to drift into a bombing run position behind the gate. Before I got into position though a UK vagabond (who I’m blue too) jumped through the gate, prompting the Eris to put up its bubble and for the whole gate camp to rush into the bubble.

Now this was problematic. I had the perfect opportunity to use my bomb, but I was not in position and it would therefore take me my full align time before I could warp out. Additionally, I was not quite in range as I was 40km out, meaning any target had to be within 5km of where the bomb exploded. So throwing all caution into the wind and ignoring my own advice on how to use a bomb, I decided to go for it.

I hit approach on the Eris, uncloaked my ship and launched my bomb and watched it fly across the void towards its targets in eager anticipation of the resulting carnage. The sound of lock alarms though brought me back to the real world as my overview indicated that a Brutix was establishing a lock on me. Sweat began to pore down my head and my heart began pound. If this guy managed to lock and tackle me this operation would be over. I was half way aligned when his lock resolved and hybrid ammunition began to pound into my shields. Then it happened, my Manticore finished aligning and entered warp just as the stargate was lit up in enormous flash as my bomb exploded.

Checking my log it turns out the Brutix that was shooting me was utilising railguns, giving it a sniper fit. Also my bomb had failed to kill anything and only damaged a Proteus that had being sitting on the gate. Ah well there will be more opportunities in the future.

Operation Kent

The Captains Log 17/9

Well I have just got a new operation up and going: Operation Kent (took me awhile to think of that name). For now I can’t release any details as it involves a bit of secrecy. What I will tell you is that it should net me some nice kills. Well that’s the intention of it anyway.

I actually tried to get this operation running a couple of months ago but it failed and it has taken me that long to my character in position again to take advantage of recent opportunities. As it turns out all the preparation I made for the operation was unnecessary. Ah well it’s good to take precautions. 

How to avoid bombs (or not)

The Captains Log 23/8

Some losses for me

On my last post about how to use bombs Manasi asked me to write a post on how to avoid them. Yesterday I also suffered some loses from a stealth bomber using bombs on me, which has prompted me to write this.

So I was using my haulers and Crow to move some assets across the AAA JB’s when a Nemesis fired a bomb at my Iteron V. Now this failed as my Iteron V managed to warp out before the bomb even got near me, which shows that you should be using torps and bombs in that situation. So I knew he was there and what he was doing so I decided to us my Crow to try and take him out. The theory was that when he fired his bomb I would burn towards him and be out of range of the bomb when it exploded. It didn’t quite work and my Interceptor died. I knew this would happen and should have prepared better. So I went to the station and fitted up a Taranis to try again. This time I used my hauler as bait, which was taken. Again I missed tackling him and my hauler went boom (my Taranis survived though). I knew I should have bought a unfitted a hauler and used it. Sigh. After this I went back home, with the knowledge that I had a lot to improve on when it came to solo PvP.

How to avoid bombs

The primary rule to avoiding bombs is warp out if you can. Most bomber targets have good align times and will be able to warp out before the bomb explodes. However, this also requires you to pay attentions to your soundings, mainly don’t get stuck in bubbles. If you are stuck in a bubble you can expect to be an easy target for a bomber as you cannot warp out.

If you are in an interceptor, turn of you MWD to lower the damage that will be done to your ship.

That’s about all you can do to avoid bombs.

Update: Revenge is Sweet

The Captains Log 24/7 6:45

Got back from my vacation today, so I’ll give a rundown of what happened with the Covert Ops campaign. The alliance obtained some more kills which included  a Ishtar, Covetor, Harbinger, Vexor and a Raven. Apparently Cold Steel didnt like this so the closed down the whole constellation because of us.

Locking down a constelation.

We tried to get Cold Steel to pay us to leave, but they didn’t like the idea of that, so the op was ended and everyone was jumped out of Providence using our Redeemer pilot. Unfortunately for me, I missed the bridge out as I was on vacation, so when I got back I had to get an alliance member to light a cyno for me so I could get my Widow pilot to bridge out my Stealth Bomber pilot and cyno 5 alt. No big deal really and it was uneventful.

What did I learn?

Firstly, I knew people complained a lot the lack of a fuel bay in Black Ops but didn’t quite release what it meant in practice. I found this out when I used my jump portal and found that I could only bridge through a transport ship and jump myself through and back again before I ran out of fuel.

Thankfully CCP is fixing this with the next expansion by adding in fuel bays.

Secondly, while waiting for targets we ran the numbers and found out that it would take 30 stealth bombers around 10 volleys each to kill a carrier, and 300 to alpha one (variable according to resists and fit). I would love to see this done.

And finally, what would really improve our covert op fleet is mobility. By having more black ops pilots and cyno 5 pilots it would be possible to lock down more systems and increase our reign of terror.

Related Posts

Revenge is Sweet

Revenge is Sweet

The Captains Log 19/7 13:14

-      Fossa77 > lol my guess is if you are not in there alliance you will die

So the alliance ran its first Black Ops op over the weekend. The target system was K1Y-5H, part of Cold Steel Alliances domain and the same constellation were I lost my Manticore and close to where I lost my Arazu. After being beat up on by Burn Eden and their Black Ops fleet it was nice to get out there and make someone else suffer. After doing a couple of practice jumps through low sec to our jump location we bridged in our scouts who quickly found a Orca outside the station who looked like he was going to go outside docking range. Fortunately, for him he didn’t venture to far, though an Abaddon also docked and warped too a belt.

Our scouts followed him into warp, the Stealth Bombers primed their torpedoes and the Arazu’s cycled their points. The Arazu followed the Abaddon into a belt and soon yelled out “I have point!!” “Cyno lit” “Jump Portal up, all ships bridge through now.” With the jump portal up the Stealth Bombers jumped through and immediately entered warp to the belt the Abaddon was sitting in. With five Manticores pounding on its hull it didn’t stand a chance, with the resulting explosion taking place 34 seconds after the first volley of torpedoes was launched. Next an Imperator was killed as it was trapped in a bubble.

For some reason this seemed to aggravate the locals and they dropped a large fleet into system to hunt us down, rather ineffectively. After this I powered down my ship to get a bit of rest while the rest of the fleet continued their rampage and succeeded in killing a Drake, 2 Myrmidons and a Griffin until the locals started to leave their system.

I was also able to use my Widow to Jump a few people into the target system, which is the first time I have ever done this.

A few hours later our Crane pilot was putting up bubbles on the station when four Cold Steel Stealth Bombers uncloaked and started shooting him. The Crane got away and the Stealth Bombers started shooting our bubbles. At this point dinner was called so I left for a little bit. Upon coming back the rest of the fleet had killed a Manticore and a Nemesis as they were shooting the bubbles. The Cold Steel response to this was to undock three carriers, two Chimeras and the Minmitar one, and kill all our bubbles.

So after camping there system for a day and a bit I think our OP can be summarized by the words of one of Cold Steel members, who was running a gatecamp in a attempt to capture us. (why would we use gates with have Black Ops?)

sha LiGeng > Jaggermeister leave the system

sha LiGeng > K1 closed

A pity really, Jaggermeister was flying a Paladin

During my sleep time the rest of the managed to kill a Caracal and a Punisher. As for me I am now leaving the system as I am going on a vacation for a week. The rest of the fleet though should still get some more kills. Upon getting back ill write a discussion on this op and what could have been done better.