A more permanent home...

Alright. It feels like it's been awhile since I updated you all on what's been going on. So here it goes...

So where I left you off was when I had escaped out of W-space. I also told you how AWESOME the Tengu is. And it's only been getting better...

So anyways, I have partnered up with a former corp mate. We have decided to run W-space together which will be very different in and of itself for me. So our first night running sites (we just ran sites in a C3 that spawned close to our base), we didn't really end up running many sites. hehe. We did pvp though... Bob in his Tengu, Ant in her domi, and my (now) corpy in his tengu. We were running sites and all of a sudden, a harbinger appears at our WH back to hi sec. Followed by a Raven. At that point bob was in the salvage boat about to warp to the sites to salvage the wrecks. They shot at him!

Well we couldn't stand for that. And feeling EXTREMELY cocky in our shiny new Tengus we decided to show them up. So I jump back through the WH and make a bee line to the station to get my Tengu while corpy and Ant warp to the WH to engage. Apparently these pilots have no appreciation for a Tengu tank...or dps. We decided to primary the harby. So one domi + tengu = harby kill mail. One domi + 2x Tengu = faster kill mail. Yeah, my sleeper war now includes casualties of the human variety. The Raven warped off with it's tail between its legs.

Feeling victorious we logged for the night.

A few nights later, my corpy made a great find. A C3 from lo sec leading to a C2. It turns out that the C2 had a static C3. Exactly what we've been looking for. One problem...it's inhabited. drats.....

So my corpy links their corp after finding their pos and I strike up a conversation with one of their diplomatic contacts. I had been looking for a hole like this for awhile and I did NOT just want to move on because it was inhabited.

The convo started out pretty tense but we soon got past the this-is-w-space-and-i-have-to-assume-that-you-want-to-kill-me formalities. After awhile I simply asked if he and his corp would be willing to share the WH with us. And to my complete enjoyment, they accepted!

Not only does this WH have a static C3, but it also has a static hi sec exit. When considering this before I really didn't want to have that in the WH I inhabited. But since I have learned WH management (thanks Stack All!) it actually seems more like a great asset to have. The security of always having a hi sec exit means I will never have to worry about fuel or making sales runs. I think this is gonna work out just fine...

So I brought in the Medium POS setup that I had ready in the orca. Within about 2 hours it was all ready to go.

Today was the first day that we really made use of our friendly relations with our WH neighbors, to the benefit of all involved. I logged on before anyone else in the WH and checked out the new C3. Nothing doing. No sites to run. Oh well. So I closed it. Next WH. Same thing. Oh well. Closed it. By the time the new WH had opened up there were about 4 other pilots online from our WH coop. Turns out this WH had about 7 sites to run. So we ran them.

Boy did we run them. We had no less than 3 tengus, one domi, and one raven. The sleepers fell like flies. And it all took less than an hour. Not too bad. I'll report in soon about how much we ended up making...

The first run with the Tengu

Just thought I'd drop a quick post about how the first WH experience went with the tengu. I spent awhile today scanning down systems and WH's looking for the perfect one for me to inhabit. Didn't find it. I did find an unoccupied C3 with lots of combat sites though. Perfect time to test the new Tengu.

Man....it is such an upgrade over the Drake. I don't even have the subsystem skills where I want them to be yet and it is leagues above the drake. There are two main differences. The tank: I don't have to ever worry about the Tengu taking dmg. The ROF: the Tengu just spits missiles out like a big leaguer spittin' sunflower seeds. It made a very big difference when it came to completion time on sites. Definately glad I made the jump to t3.

So in my little WH raid I only ran about 5 or 6 sites. Ran the loot to my favorite trading hub for a total of 248 million isk. Made back a chunk of the Tengu already. Another two runs like that and it'll be just about paid off....

It's gonna be a new approach

So let me start this post by telling you how I wrapped up my adventures in my last WH. As you know, I had a small POS with no defenses as my only POS in the hole. Only a little protection, but only a little risk. When I logged on this morning I had two DED mails. The first telling me that someone had taken some pot shots at my POS. The second, that my POS's shields had gone below %50. Great....I warp in on a reinforced small POS.

Fortunately, I followed the cardinal rule of POS managment. Make sure to have plenty of strontium in the tower! Unfortunately, I found that while the POS is reinforced, you are unable to access anything in your corp hangar. It was at this point that I found out just how awesome it was that I always log off with my valuable sleeper salvage in my cargo hold. I was able to access the ship maintenance bay so I decided to make a break for it.

Yes, I made the extremely difficult decision to leave my small POS behind.

Along with all of the modules I had in the corp hangar, I'm estimating that I have abandoned about 120 million isk in w-space. That's a lot of isk. Not an easy decision. But, that's what they say about W-space, it's only a matter of time before you lose stuff in there. I'm happy that I made almost a billion isk with this one :)

Escaping the WH turned out to be an adventure in and of itself. I entered and scanned down the adjoining static C4. From there I moved into another WH and scanned it down. And another. And another. I couldn't believe my terrible luck. I went at least 4-5 WH's deep and didn't find an exit to hi sec or lo sec anywhere along the way. And I was VERY thorough. I actually reached a dead end where the only WH's left to go through were about to collapse due to time and I was not about to risk leaving my ships in W-space.

Next option...close the WH. As some of my readers will know, I've been on the wrong side of a closing WH before. Not fun. But a capsuleer's gotta do what a capsuleer's gotta do. So I bring out the domi and begin collapsing the WH. To finish it off I close it off with two jumps with the orca. A risk, I know, but I really really wanted out of that WH.

The next WH opens up. I scan it down and find........a Hi sec exit!! Very close to Jita at that. Perfect escape. So about 45 min later I have everything out of the WH not attached to the POS and I bid a sad farewell to Antioch...it served me well...

Needless to say, I wanted back in W-space, and quick. But before I just jumped in, I decided to take the next step in escalating my w-space effectiveness. Thanks to the 482 million isk I made from the loot I carried out with me, I was able to buy.....

Can you guess?

Yeah...it's a Tengu.

(awesome name pending)

So I'm gonna consider this an escalation of the Boblakov vs. sleeper war. It's gonna be good.

So, what it looks like now is I'm gonna be looking for a C2 or C3 that has a static C3. This would seem to be the best option at this point for making the most isk. Especially since I am having a friend join me for this next stint in w-space. He will also be bringing a Tengu. We'll see how a gang with two Tengus and a Domi does vs. how I did with one drake and a domi.

If I find the WH described above I believe that I will set up the med POS. A WH like that has the potential to be a much more permanent home. Wish me luck in my search...

What a DAY!

I certainly did not know when I logged on today how much adventure I was going to have. Some good. And some not so good.

Let's start with the not so good. Needless to say, I had my first WH experience with PVP. I have had my fair share of fights in K-space, but it certainly feels like a different animal in a WH.

So I log on to find a Tengu and a bunch of wrecks showing up on d-scan. Start looking for him. Within a minute or so the Tengu dissappears off scan. A few minutes later a Drake shows up and the wrecks start dissappearing. Fishy. Nobody in there right mind uses a Drake as a salvage boat. I finish scanning down the ship, which I really need to get better at btw, and find him slowly flying towards the last wreck....at 50 m/s. Fishy. I in my cloaked cov ops open up a convo with him. After a few minutes of talking, and playing tough guy, I fall for his I'm-an-ignorant-WH-noob routine. I basically tell him to leave my sites alone and he flips me the proverbial space bird.

So I BM'd the wreck he was moving to and when he was about 20 km away I warp back to my pos (having already logged Ant in the Domi) and switch out the cov ops for the trusty ol Drake. I then fleet warp to the wreck. When I show up on his wreck...my first sign that I had made a stupid mistake was that he didn't warp off. No. Instead he sped up. Right at me. And out of the ether uncloak 3 buddies. Eff...

The Domi got primaried and both of my ships were ecm'ed by the Falcon they had brought along. They also had a vagabond and the drake plus one other ship I didn't mark down. They scrammed the domi right away and I was able to warp bob in the Drake back to the POS. But while watching the Domi tank like nobody's business...I started to get my hopes up. I WARPED BACK!! (p.s. that was the second mistake) I was very impressed with the domi's ability to tank and I don't know that they would have been able to break it but it just so happens that I got disconnected. Yeah. It's all about timing right? First time in weeks that I DC'd and it had to be then. So it takes me at least 2-3 min to log back on and by that time the domi was done and the drake was on the way out. When I DC'd the domi's reppers had shut off. Kinda hard to tank with no repping AND no buffer. I quickly warp Ant's pod back to the pos and decide there's no hope for the Drake. So I eject and warp to the pos before they can lock me.

Scratch one Domi and one Drake.

So after I run back to the POS to cry inwardly, I continue my conversation with the pirate. Turns out that he's a 'nice' pirate. He even gave me some tips on how to gank ppl with my POS. What a nice guy. hehe

After they ganked me and took all of the loot from my ships they left the system..never to return.

So, instead of emoragequitting I decided to hit the lo sec exit and see where it came out. Turns out it was within 10 jumps of Amarr so I ended up taking the time to take both ant and bob out to replace their lost ships. Much isk and *sighing later, one new drake and one new domi back at my POS.

So let's get on with the good adventure for the day. I mentioned in a previous post how I was going to explain my next venture soon. Here it is. I've decided to upgrade to a Medium POS. While the small POS offered me the ability to not care too much if I lost it, I felt vulnurable. After the encounter with the pirates I could only hope that they wouldn't come back to completely wipe me out of the system. Fortunately that wasn't their game.

Over the course of the last few days I've been collecting items for my new WH kit. This one wouldn't fit in an Itty V so I've decided to involve my Orca in this venture. I wouldn't normally risk it in W-space but I can now afford to replace it if it is lost (thanks WH :).

So after I flew my new Drake and Domi into my WH I went back out with my cov ops to scout for Roblakov in the Orca. Got it in np. Was a little frightening waiting for the huge thing to make it into warp at the lo sec gates though...ughh...

I actually just finished setting up my POS and am almost done disassembling the small. My POS is a version of the classic 'dick star' and is certainly more of a detterent than the small ever was.

So tomorrow will be a day of site clearing and hopefully I will learn from the mistakes of my fail pvp actions and benefit from the added feeling of security from the Med POS.