Vengeance vs Vengeance, Again

Yesterday, I jumped back to Amarr for some reason that I cant remember right now. Something to do with blueprints that I left behind, I think. Anyhow, I had my brother log in and help me and I convinced him to go on a roam with me and attempt to find a retriever to gank. Sadly, this roam was a bust, 15 jumps and not a single retriever or covetor. A group of 4 Macks and an Orca were in an icebelt, but meh, I didnt want to risk shooting it and not killing at least one in my Thrasher.

Being a busted roam, I distracted my bro with the pretty backgrounds and explained that the nebulae way over there was where Amarr is and its where we we had our base. He was in awe. I then explained that we werent too far from the EVE gate and he could check out the history on it and maybe even go there someday. Thats his goal for tomorrow. Small step towards playing more, woo! Also found out he wants to be an industrialist. Somewhat sad, but I explained the steps involved and the skills he would need to work towards. Also showed him a bit of exploration, but my probing skills arent top notch, so I pointed him towards a few videos. Now that the wasting of time is over with....

After waiting literally all day for my jump clone timer to go away, I jumped back to Heild and got into my Anathema to go probe down some missioners a few systems over. I didnt get far into probing (Bosena), as someone said a caracal was in Heild now. Well, I want an above class kill, so I hurried back to Heild and got in my Vengeance. The moment I undocked, I got the update that the Caracal disappeared from scan and left system. Well shyt.

Being lazy right now since several people in system, I warp straight to the plex and run into another Vengeance. He was a lil bit away and I didnt feel like slow boating it. Warping to the sun at 100km and aligning back to the plex, I pulled up his kb. 30-ish wins, 10-ish losses. Not a bad record, but none of his losses that I saw were a Vengeance. Maybe I just didnt look far enough, I just pulled up the first killboard I saw in google search. Yes, I dont know the best way of doing this yet, but Im working on it.

Noticing he warped on grid, I just warped to the plex again. I wasnt done reading about my soon to be opponent. A little bit of excuses given in local to buy me a moment extra, I allow him to scan me back at the plex and he warped in at 50km. We slow boat to each other, me practicing my manual flight, no shits being given. (thanks Jester). I know the tank of a Vengeance is a tought nut, so I wasnt worried bout mine or his. I was worried if I had enough ammo to outlast his supply.

As we lock horns, webs and scrams were traded. While making my approach, I pre-heated my launchers. With Thermodynamics 4 trained, I am able to let them go quite a bit longer now. Eating into each others shields, I win the race hitting his armor first. It seems he is havign trouble getting mine and I notice he's not using rockets, but autocannons. Well, that'd be why he wasnt hurting my armor at all. Being the sporting person that I am, I close range and stop manual flight, setting orbit to 500km. This keeps me at roughly 1500-1800m with my AB going and him orbiting also. Lazy, I know, but w/e.

This did two things; both of which I wanted practice against anyways. It kept me within his nos range and allowed him to do more damage to my armor, letting me practice pulsing my repper. My cap skills are pretty decent, and my fit is very much cap stable, so for me at this time, it was a "practice this and get it right" moment. With my guns overheated, I get him to about half armor, and they are 30% damaged. I needed to outlast this guy, so I turned off the OH and he repped to full surprsingly quick. Guess he overheated his repper =P

Then came the fun moment: A Rifter jumped in at 70km. Well, he wasnt my friend, so I assumed my opponent had called in backup. I then did the same, asking for a friend in corp chat to come. Luckily, the Rifter was far enough away that I had plenty of time and wasnt too rushed. I also wasnt too worried about the additional dps the Rifter would put out. I felt it'd be good practice with module management. Soon enough, the Rifter was within range, shooting me. Another surprise moment in this fight was when my opponent in his Vengeance turned off his nos and put it on the Rifter. His guns also stopped shooting me and I was getting shields back, even though the Rifter was shooting me.

Well, this changed things! Too late though, as my corpmate was already undocked and on the way. Switching my launchers to the Rifter also, I turned up the heat and blew him away. I had a lock on the pod and I hit the scram, but damnit all, he still got away a split second after. Lol'ing at him local for joining on a fight only to be teamed up on, he docked up.

With the distraction disabled, our teamwork was now finished and we started firing back at each other. Sadly for my opponent, my corpmate was on his way in his Rifter. And this time, there wasnt going to be a mutual unspoken agreement to kill the interloper. With the added dps from the second R1fta pilot, my opponent eventually succumbed. GF's were had in local and nice pirate-y words exchanged. Good fight imo, but had I not had assistance, I would probally still be fighting this guy. The tank on both our Vengeances is just that good when fighting an equal opponent. During our after fight local convo, I found out my corpmate was not going to engae at first, but rather watch. That is, until he got fired at; the he joined in.

Things I learned here: Its more fun to be on the winning side of someone calling in help. I feel bad for doing so, but only because the first interruption wasnt a friend of his. I made a call for help when I felt it required to even things out a bit. Had I not called for help, I dont know how the fight would have gone had they both teamed up on me instead of us on the rifter, but I think I didnt think before calling for assistance. I dont want to rely on that if shit hits the fan, so I need to asses my situation better during the heat of a fight. On a good note, the rush of comabt is an amazing high and I am able to focus on the fight while in this state now. Not completely, obviosuly, but enough to multitask with things outside the fight, like smack talk in local and call for help in corp.

I need to be looking for an above class kill though. Ive been limiting myself to looking only for other t1 and t2 frigates. For now though, Ishkurs are on my ignore list of fighting.