Loving it up in Faction War

So far I'm loving being in faction war. I was in faction war 4 years ago but that was when the twins were just newborns and I was alone in Eve and simply plexing for standings. Now that I'm joining fleets and attempting to PvP more than plex, I'm having a great time. With Pirates on one side of me
and a hostile faction on the other, there is plenty of opportunity for fights.

Last night I saw a war target plexing in my current base of Heydieles. He was in a minor plex so I grabbed my artillery Thrasher and warped in. There he was in a Thrasher about 85 km off orbiting the beacon... but there was also a neutral Thrasher only 20 km away from my warp in. He engaged and the fight was on. I tried to open up range and kite him but he was faster and autocannon fitted so he got in close and killed me. I reshipped to a tough Daredevil but he was gone (turned out he fought an Ishkur about 15 minutes later and died and I got some undeserved credit).

I warped the Daredevil into the plex and tried to make a run at the war target in the Thrasher who was still plexing but he warped off. I left system and came immediately back and warped to the plex to try and catch him on the way in, but again he was too far and warped off. However, while I was activating the acceleration gate I saw two neutral Hookbills land on the gate. I wasn't ready to throw my Daredevil at them so I reshipped to a Thorax cruiser and warped to the plex gate again. I wouldn't be able to go into the plex, but I was hoping to catch the Hookbills unawares.

Well, the Hookbills did warp in and I gave a run at them but they decided to not fight me and warped off before I could resolve a lock. But as I turned to get back into position three neutrals warped in and I crapped my pants: A Dramiel, Daredevil, and a Kestrel.

I tried to run but aligning and speeding up took too long and they pointed me. Oh well, I thought, I guess I'm in a fight.

I tried to shoot at the Dramiel first but his transversal was too high, so I simply let my EC-600 Vespas work their magic on on the Daredevil and I targeted and webbed the Kestrel figuring to remove his glass cannon DPS first. He went down in a hurry and then I turned my to the slower Daredevil. I was losing armour at a fast clip but the ECM drones slowed the incoming DPS. I overlooked my heating and burned out my point which is too bad because the Daredevil was taking a beating from my web and blasters and decided to bug out. That left me and the Dramiel.

I could not hit the Dramiel even with the webs on while my scram was burned out and I had no nanite paste. So I told the ECM drones to do their magic and hoped while my structure was slowly eaten away. At 23% structure, the point dropped and I wasted no time in warping off. Not the best kill I've ever had, but one of the closest calls. Good fight!

* * * * *

This morning I was coming back from a roam I was on after the fight above (stuff happened, but nothing worth recording) in my own Dramiel when I got a wave in local from a war target named Boge who hangs out in the Ninveah channel. I wasn't looking for a fight but he challenged me to a 1v1 and I am loathe to turn those down. I docked to drop off some loot to an ally and saw Boge in a Merlin. Hmmmmm.... no other war targets or neuts in local so he's not ganglink boosted, in a Tech I frigate, and he still wants to fight me in my Dramiel? He's either very confident or very ready to die... smells like a trap.

But I undock and charge at him anyways. What kind of pseudo-celebrity would I be if I ran from every suspicious fight? I used my MWD to get in close and then switched to afterburner one I got my web on him. I only had one drone in the bay, the other three left behind last night in a quick retreat. He tried to open up range between us, confirming my suspicion that he was kiting fitted and wanted to fight me out of my optimal range (his fit with rails, web, scram, and dual props supports this theory) but my webbed afterburner Dramiel was faster than his webbed afterburner Merlin (especially when I have low grade Snake implants) and I was able to keep very close so that my autocannons and drones burned through his non-existent defenses before he could get through my small armour tank and with 50% armour left on my ship the Merlin exploded and good fights were exchanged.

Loving faction warfare, come join us.