Barleguet Conjugal Visit

This week's Friday roam we went somewhere different - sunny Barleguet.

Roaming lowsec is fun. You get to set your safety red (if it already is not, in which case, you are a sissy), shoot whatever you can shoot when you or they jump gate, and maybe die in a fire. However, you can spend four or five hours roaming around to die horribly for no kills, or get no kills. The former is as much down to Titan bridges and derp as skill, and the latter is down to luck, the phase of the moon, or whether or not a football game is on.

As Johnny Twelvebore said, often the 'élite' of EVE will roll about in a T3-AHAC-Guardian blob and hug a gate or station to avoid Scenario 1 altogether and preserve their precious killboard ratio.

This is why we chose Barleguet - we could guarantee a fight, because Brave newbies play the game to get fights (even if they get a drubbing) and the philosophy of the corp is not to sweat their killboard ratio. Which is actually a really good thing considering what it is. Brave Newbies removes from the roam the disappointment of spending hours looking for non-existent fights, or getting blueballed by chickenshit elite PVPers (looking at you Hagilur).

The other intriguing thing which drew me to Balreguet was that Brave Newbies aren't completely newbies any more. They don't all just grab the first ship they can afford, right-click hangar, select all and choose 'fit to ship'. They are rolling a Rail Thorax / Scythe fleet comp, and it is pretty beastly especially at a ratio of 1.2 Thorax per Scythe (plus cutlery).

We brought a Gold Fleet comp with a few hangers-on; 3 Augorors, 3 Omens, 3 Arby, 4 Ruppy, BB Vengeance, Keres, Wolf, Lachesis for tackle and 'heavy scout' provided by Goat Sects in the Tempest.

We met in top belt and did OK. We were facing 6 Scythes, 10+ rail Thorax, a couple of Caracals and a couple of BB plus frig tackle (which was irrelevant) and a Dram pilot who was at pains not to get within 57km of my Lachesis.

The problem we faced was really the Ruppies. They only really push out 270 gun DPS versus the 400-450 of the Rail Thorax, which also gets better tracking and maneuverability (shield fit). If we'd gone solid Gold Fleet with the beam Omen, we'd have doubled our DPS. Beams and Rails, overpowered? I ask you.

Secondarily, we can do our EWAR a bit better. They use Scythes because, for noobs, setting up cap chains is too hard, confusing and time-consuming. Therefore, Ospreys are out and Scythes are in.

However, the tally of kills would have been significantly higher but for a period of really, really shit lag. We'd split their fleet on a gate and landed just after the bulk of their 35-man blob had warped off, and were in position to catch their stragglers stumbling through. But do you think we could get our points to activate even after 4 seconds of lock? No. A major frustration.

At the end of the night, we came out about even, if a little ahead. A few tweaks with our fleet comp, and maybe a little more numbers, and we'll be saying 'gf' more.