War Record: The First Week

Whilst I'm not strictly at war with anyone, I still like to prepare reports. It's a good tool for skill development.

My initial hunts didn't turn up much, but the behavior of capsules in the Federation/State war zones is... odd.

I found a Caldari State militia man defending a complex with a Venture mining frigate. Despite it being a civilian ship, he was participating in a combat role, so I engaged. Unfortunately the Venture's overpowered warp coils escaped my warp scrambler.

Quite why he was in a mining frigate is beyond me, but his ship is well equipped for running away. I'd like this to be an isolated incident, but, well... read on.

The second target I found was a kiting Tristan. The Tristan is a drone specialist ship, sporting 5 of the little bees at any one time. A very flexible ship, able to deal damage effectively at any range, due to it's drones. Brawling fits are typical of brawlers (very tough and damaging), whilst kiters, again, are typical, if a bit on the slow side.

I affectionately dub this ship the War Bunny.

When fighting a kite Tristan, there are two possible tactics. Simply engage, ignoring the drones, treating as a regular turreted ship, or target their swarm, crippling the damage output.

Initially, I treated it as a normal turret ship. However, my attempts at a slingshot were thwarted quite handily, so I set to destroying his drones instead.

The fight ended with me unable to catch the frigate itself, but taking out his entire complement of drones. Cost of rockets used was much less than the cost of the drones, so, despite a lack of kill mail, I'll count it as a victory.

The rest of the week devolved into several cat and mouse games, with no real engagement, except for this peculiar kill.

An unfit Executioner, defending a complex. Even more strangely, the pilot self destructed his capsule, even before I had a chance to lock him again. Not that I would destroy his pod, but I stayed to watch him commit suicide, simply out of curiosity.

I'll say this for the Minmatar Republic. They're not as weird as the Gallente and Caldari.

Review

My hunting strategy isn't getting me any worthwhile engagements. I shall need to think upon this some more.

Strategikon Arcani: Kontarion Breacher

I believe I am coming to understand the mind set of a brawling pilot.

I have a certain distaste for it myself. Simply engaging and bullying your opponent from close range is hardly befitting of the intelligent warrior. But I can see now that there are nuances to learn when fighting within a few kilometers. And brawling is a part of flying the Kataphract Slicer. 

Equally, although I have respect for Minmatar fighters, I don't understand their mind set, or fully understand their tools of war. As I said before, Matari ships are gutter fighters, their use of projectiles in the age of space travel a sign of the desperate freedom fighter. Amarr ships are more like phalanx soldiers, well armed and armoured, but lacking flexibility.

Fortunately, the Minmatar are not wholly disimilar from the Khanid. As a people, we Khanid are mentally robust, and unlike our Amarr bretheren do not cling to tradition and dogma as a shield against reason. The Tribes, in their search for weapons, have many ships dedicated to missiles and rocketry... a trait which the Khanid can certainly sympathise with!

Khanid designed vessels are all missile based, with technology borrowed from our Caldari allies. In true kataphract fashion, our vessels exemplify thick armour and the tactical flexibility such a weapon system offers. The Republic, in one of it's rare bouts of wisdom, produced a frigate similar to this, albeit shield based instead of amour... clearly the Republic has yet to find funds to reproduce the advanced alloys coming out of Khanid Innovations.

So without any further exposition, presenting the Breacher.

Do not be fooled by its... spartan appearance. This is a tough vessel, and an extraordinary ambush predator. 

Relatively light on it's feet (for a full combat vessel) it provides extremely strong shield defenses. Whilst not as tough as Caldari shields, it can repair it's shield strength very rapidly.  

It fields two light drones, which make up roughly a third of it's firepower. I like drones. They provide firepower at any practical range, and whilst they need to be looked after, they can be relied upon to hound the target.

Missile systems have a travel time before firepower is applied, but unlike turrets, do not need to track or account for falloff. In fact, rockets, whilst giving a lower damage than other weapons, can better a pulse laser in range, and that's before rigging!

These elements all combine to make it an almost perfect training brawler.

[Breacher, Kontarion]

Damage Control II

Overdrive Injector System II

Ballistic Control System II

Medium Ancillary Shield Booster, Navy Cap Booster 50

Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I

1MN Afterburner II

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket

Rocket Launcher II, Caldari Navy Inferno Rocket

Small Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I

Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I

Small Bay Loading Accelerator I

Hobgoblin II x2

This set up is fairly mundane, but the simplicity is balanced with effectiveness. With my skills, rockets hit out to about 7.6km, which lends itself to some brawling tactics:

• For pulse laser ships, keep as close as you can. The tracking on lasers is relatively weak, so you will mitigate damage this way.
• For blaster and autocannon fit ships, maintain a 6-7km orbit. With the fall off from those weapon systems, you'll be out of the bulk of their firepower. 

Keep an eye on your drones, but they're fairly autonomous. If the enemy starts shooting at them, bring them back in, then release after the enemy has forgotten about them.

Repair your shield as needed. Unlike most active tanks, the Ancilliary shield booster is quite immune to energy neutralizers. In addition, your rockets don't use capacitor either... so long as you're in range you can deal damage to your target.

This can be seen in this Tristan fight. My capacitor was drained completely, but the drones and rockets punched their way through regardless. A bright ray of sunshine, on an otherwise terrible month.