The Rules of Two

Taking a little break here on vacation in sunny San Francisco to sit with a coffee in an internet cafe and do some blog catching-up. There’s something about this city that makes me realize a) how filthy New York is, and b) how much better west-coast coffee is than east coast brew. I like your style California.

Anyways, the other day, I had the pleasure of taking down two belligerently anti-ninja bears in battleships; at the same time. And I’ve gotta tell you, if there’s one thing better than pew-pewing a whiney wheepy carebear into space dust, its pew-pewing TWO whiney wheepy carebears into collective space dust. In saying that however, I realize there might be some trepidation and uncertainty as to how one goes about nailing 2 bears at once, especially when out-classed in ships as well as out-gunned in numbers.

To illustrate this little “how-to” scenario, I though I’d break it into rules; the Rules of Two (tm?).

Rule: Get aggro from everyone, everywhere.

Really, don’t be afraid of getting as much aggro as possible. When I entered this mission space the other day, there was a Megathron, Rokh, Hurricane, and Prophesy. Now, sometimes seeing 4 guys from one corp in a mision is enough to dissuade even the most prepared ninja from looting. I rock a gank-Cane most of the time, and as tough as it is, 2 battleships and 2 Battlecruisers are a lot. This brings me to the one exception to this first rule: know when you ARE going to lose. For instance a few weeks ago I got yellow boxed by a Tengu, Loki, and Sleipnir all in one mission. Pass.

But back to our story: throwing caution to the wind though, I swooped over to a wreck and immediately filled my hold with whatever I could stuff into it. Bingo, the Hurricane red-boxes me and opens up. I warp out, grab my own cane, and jet back, only to realize that the mark is gone. Bah. The Prophesy has also bounced and I’m sitting there 50km away from 2 battleships I still have aggro on. I decide to antagonize them and start motoring towards them both.

As I do so, two things happen: the Mega warps and the Rokh locks me up. Eager, I continue to close the distance to him, when all of a sudden, armor maintenance bots pop out. Huh? The repair drones swarm over me, actually healing the 4 or 5 pts of damage my armor has on it before the Rokh pilot quickly recalls them and warps away, out of what I can only image is extreme shame and embarrassment.

I sit around for a few more minutes before warping out. This time I change out for a CovOps and warp in at 70km cloaked to see both the Rokh and the Mega are back. I decloak, loot to get myself some more flashy-red time, and BM a wreck right next to both of them. I warp out switch out for the Cane again.

Rule: Fit two points. A lot of the time, I fit a disruptor and a web on my Cane, since being able to lock down drones can be pretty helpful when taking them out. With two BSs on the line though, I swapped the web out for another disruptor.

When I land right next to both of them, initially nothing happens. I try provoking them by locking them both up and bumping them off and on, but I get no love. Right as I’m about to leave though, the Mega suddenly goes red. Bingo! I point him and start to lay into him with everything I’ve got. All of a sudden, those pesky armor bots pop out of the Rokh and start repping up the Mega. Point #2 goes on the Rokh now and I continue trying to hammer down the Mega.

Rule: The second you realize the RR is too powerful for you to overcome on your primary target, go for the RR-pilot (exceptions being well piloted Logistics ships that you’re never ever going to catch anyways).

There was no way I was ever going to overcome the repping power of the Rokh, so with them both still pinned, I switched my guns and neuts over to him. My drones were working overtime trying to get rid of the swarm on top of me as I managed to pummel the Rokh into submission.

I turn my guns back onto the Mega now, but at this point I’m dipping into dangerously low levels of armor. He’s got me scrammed anyways, so I decide to go for broke and overheat everything I have at him. I’m making good progress until he gets me into structure, and poof goes the cane. Damn.

Rule: Always have a backup plan.

I warp back to the Orca to grab the only other pew ship I have for 3 jumps: a Rupture =P. Feeling especially gung-ho, I warp right back to my BMed wreck and land RIGHT on top of the very surprised Megathron. I lock him up again, and start pumping RF ammo into him. Some jobs need finishing and I’m not going to leave this one un-done.

Rule: Never underestimate the power of a low sig-radius, a medium armor repper, and a cap booster.

As soon as I get a nice orbit going, I basically become untouchable to the Mega and start giving him some ninja-love. I open a convo with him the intention of getting my ship loss covered by way of a ransom.

*A quick note about ninjas and ransoms: It is the official policy of Suddenly Ninjas to NOT have an official policy on ransoming. Here’s the deal: we’re big on individuality in this corp and encourage everyone to play the game their own way, without being told how to. To that end however, different ninjas deal with the idea of high sec ransoms in different ways. Some honor them, and other will not, and thats just the way the cookie crumbles. More on this in a later post, but personally speaking, if I feel as though I’m dealing with a mature individual who I’ve had a good fight with and agrees to pay a reasonable ransom, I WILL honor that ransom. The opposite scenario will of course garner the opposite outcome though.

The Mega agrees to my ransom request and then decides to string me along (waiting for backup I’m sure), and then way under-pays me. Bad move. Poof, the Mega assplodes.

Ok, so this wasn’t the perfect “two with one” bear-hunting scenario seeing as I actually lost my Hurricane. But, I see netting two battleships, some faction loot, my own loot, and some half-assed compensation as well worth a non-blingy battlecruiser. Plus, killing a battleship with a cruiser is guaranteed to make you giggle the whole time. That brings me to my last rule:

Rule: Go for broke. Not totally sure you can win that fight? Take a try, you might just surprise yourself. And like I always say, its just internet spaceships, so if you lose, you lose. I also don’t faction fit my gank-ships, so its a lot easier to say decide to go out guns blazing and “see what happens”.

Hope these helped, or at least entertained. In saying that, feel free to send me KB links for any double-carebear kills you manage to get, and I’ll post them up here for general entertainment.

For now, I’m going back into vacation mode. Fly safe, keep em crying, and I’ll see you back in game on Wednesday.

o7,

-Aiden

~ by Aiden Mourn on July 19, 2010.