The curious case of the Sleipnir

This last weekend I found myself online for a few hours. During the course of the day I managed to get a few kills. It all started with Grumblecub 2, my Rifter finding an Omen ratting in Adirain which was little challenge as the pilot had fitted shield and armour tanks along with a mix of lasers, artillery & missile launcher. Sometimes I feel like I should tell the pilot about how to better fit their ship, however they never seem to want to hear about it after their prized posession has been destroyed.

Next up, a call went out that a small BC gang had been seen a few systems from Hevrice. Three Tuskers including Kirith in BC's plus one in a Dramiel set off in search. We eventually lost them as we were a few jumps behind, however our scout found a Hurricane and we caught him as he jumped through the gate, the dual webs on my PODLA Drake thwarting his efforts to reach the gate we destroyed him in short order.

Heading back towards Hevrice I was trailing behind the gang and caught sight of a Catalyst ratting in Costolle. His warp core stabiliser failing to save him as two volleys of heavy missiles were sufficent to destroy him before he could warp away.

Much later in the day I was cruising around in my Dramiel (can't remember if I said I'd bought another?) and saw a Retribution and Sleipnir slowboating away 450km off the Hulmate gate in Onne. I advised the Corp of my sighting and moved on. Back in Adirain and a Brutix had jumped in seemingly afk from Arnon, knowing that time would be of the essence I jumped into a Drake and made best speed to the gate. He must have come back at some point during my missile bombardment as he returned fire and started telling me to stop in local. It didn't take long before his Brutix was destroyed and swiftly after his Pod too.

While waiting out my GCC for popping the Brutix, Corp chat picked up on my comment about the Sleipnir and a small force assembled to engage it. Running the gate guns our response force waited at the Onne gate in Aeschee. As soon as the Sleipnir had been tackled we jumped in and quickly took it down with the Retribution swiftly following. We were surprised with the speed the Sleipnir dropped and the lack of bling loot contained within. During the process of dealing with these two a Rupture was found in local and swiftly dispatched.

We still have no idea what the Sleipnir was trying to do just slowboating off into space.

All in all, quite a fun day

Two "new" Rifter loadouts

Before I get onto the main body of the post, following my last post about the 1m isk bounty it seems to have increased up to the heady height of over 25m isk now and certainly attracts some interest from fellow pirates who now would quite like to take it for themselves! Nothing quite beats having a nice number over your head for me as a pirate, I just hope that I don't go and get podded now and lose it again...

Anyway, to the main body of the post. To regular readers you will know that so far in game with my 13m sp I have only ever flown Minmatar Frigate hulls with the occasional foray into the Thrasher. The Rifter is where I always come back to, it's just capable of incredible feats whether by skill, balls or blind luck (delete as appropriate). To new readers then, this sets the scene.

To date I have had a distinct preference for the cap boosted gank machine Rifter which has been posted elsewhere in this blog. What I have come across recently is the undoing of said cap-boosted Rifter by other Rifters mounting a web. This traversty surely cannot stand. Time to change my setup to move with the times as more and more ships I fight now seem to have fallen in love with webs again. Change and adapt.

With that said I decided on my last supply run to buy 15 Rifters upon which to test my two "new" loadouts. And so, in just over a week I have lost a single one, and that was down to simple unintelligent piloting by me.

The first loadout is slow by Rifter standards, but sports some nice ehp courtesy of an armour buffer, bigger guns and a web. With the bigger guns came a decline in the tracking that I am used to so a tracking enhancer has also been introduced.

[200mm AC Heavy]
3 x 200mm Autocannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
1 x Rocket Launcher II, Gremlin Rage Rocket

1 x Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler
1 x X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
1 x Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters

1 x Micro Auxillary Power Core
1 x Tracking Enhancer II
1 x 400mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates

2 x Small Trimark Armour Pump
1 x Small Projectile Burst Aerator

My skills put her at 4400ehp, 122dps, 877m/s. In solo fights its a very tough mofo, however if you are engaging multiple targets solo in the same engagement then it's probably going to die.

The second loadout being tested is more of a falloff fighter, pretty easy on controlling range. A variation based originally on the old cookie cutter fit with a few swaps on modules.

[Caned & Unable]
3 x 150mm Light Autocannon II, Republic Fleet EMP S
1 x Rocket Launcher II, Gremlin Rage Rocket

1 x Fleeting Progressive Warp Scrambler
1 x X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
1 x Cold-Gas Arcjet Thrusters

1 x Small Armour Repairer II
1 x 200mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates
1 x Gyrostabilizer II

2 x Small Projectile Ambit Extension
1 x Small Projectile Burst Aerator

My Skills put this one at 2700 ehp, 146 dps at a speed of 1070m/s. Everything runs for 36 seconds which of course is stable without the repper active. Having never been a fan of falloff fighting I do actually like this ship for it, its pretty effective.

I have yet to reach firm conclusions on the capabilities of these two, so time remains to tell. I have a couple of other loadouts I want to try on my next delivery which include shield tanks & MWD's so watch this space in months to come for the low-down.


On an unrelated note, A small crew of around 8 Tuskers were fortunate enough to receive word of a carrier (Archon) and a command ship (Sleipnir) doing a site in a wormhole. Forces were mustered quickly and despatched. The Sleipnir died extremely quickly followed by the Archon. Props to the carrier pilot for not self-destructing! I was there to offer a token frigate hull presence on the mails =)

Oh so quiet

That about sums it up recently. It's been extremely quiet in my home "neighbourhood" of late. Maybe it is a consequence of my plummetting security status or just other factors. I've also been away on a family matter (18 hours spent travelling by train!) for a few days and thus been offline. Due to these factors my kills have been very few and far between.

My last kill was back at the weekend where I caught a Cheetah with its pants (cloak) down skulking at a Moon in Mateber. I'm sure that they won't make that mistake again any time soon. Unfortunately I wasn't able to carry all of the nice modules that it dropped in one haul and by the time I returned to the wreck it's previous occupant was sat over it in a Sleipnir.

This evening has been another poor night on the hunt. I took the opportunity however to extend one of my roam routes, planting some useful bookmarks along the way. Perhaps in the next few days I'll head out that way again and see if I can find anything, I will just need to be wary as it sends me into Faction Warfare territory.