Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Canflipping Extrema

So last night, I was sitting around Dodixie bored out of my mind waiting for war targets to undock, and got the idea to go to their home system in my Rifter, stopping along each belt along the way to shoot rats to improve my sec status, and maybe even annoy some miners.

The trip there was uneventful, and consisted of ganking small rats. However, when I reached their home system, 8 jumps away, I noticed that it was abuzz with miners. I warped over to the first belt, and saw a retriever with a can out. I waltzed up, jetted my own, and put his ore (a FULL 27km3 of it) into my can.

He deployed drones, and I orbited a bit wider, after a while, he warped off. I started my Orca alt hauling ass the 8 jumps to scoop the ore. While it was hopping through systems, the miner came back in a Thorax, and deployed medium drones. Let me remind you, I was in a Rifter... Medium drones aren't so good at hitting light ships. I orbited at around 30km, and he was apparently unable to engage with his drones. I just wanted to hold off until the Orca had picked up the ore. Unfortunately, he warped seconds before the Orca landed and scooped the payload of ore, and I never saw him again.

Continuing on to the next belt, I came across two miners, both with cans out. Added to that, they had an Orca of their own in the center of the belt, next to a Brutix battlecruiser. Presumably it was there for fire support if someone such as... me, showed up.

This required some finesse. I warped my neutral Orca in first, positioning it in the middle of the belt, away from their support ships, and warped my Rifter in at 100km. I bookmarked both cans, warped out, and warped to the first one. Again, I jetted mine, and flipped the ore, and immediately warped out.

Tractoring the can with the Orca, I noticed that it was nearly full as well. My Orca was nearly full! I warped my Rifter back to the other can, and flipped it the same way, tractoring it in, but this time, I started orbiting the Brutix at 30km. It targeted, but never engaged. What use is fire support if it won't be used? I warped off after a few minutes, and at this point my Orca had ore coming out its airlocks, and I made the journey back to Dodixie.

So, some tips for miners:
Fire support needs to be willing to engage.
Fire support needs to be near the CANS.
Haulers need to be near the CANS.
Never leave a FULL can around.
Don't AFK mine.

1 comment:

  1. I laughed my ass off. Fucking fantastic !

    (Google Reader recommended me your feed)

    ReplyDelete