Crane Versus Hulk, Outcome Inconclusive
Posted by: Marlenus, in Salvage Notes, Today In IronfleetToday I espied a Hulk mining into several jetcans. So I hopped in my Crane transport and went to get some ore.
I’d flipped the first full jetcan of Veldspar into an Ironfleet can when the Hulk woke up and launched five drones. I responded with heavy missiles, and after things began to settle, it was clear that I could tank the drones for a very long time but not forever, and that the Hulk could probably tank me for longer than that, but again, perhaps not forever. So I resolved to blow up some drones.
Reloading with precision missiles…
Start over. After cussing out my crew for failing to stock up on precision missiles, I went back to shooting heavy missiles at drones. And the hulk pilot began micromanaging his drones, pulling them in after I had begun to hurt whichever one I was shooting at. But I was battering them each time, and he was running out of drones with armor and structure left.
Finally, I popped a drone. By now I was at about half shields and about half cap, and beginning to think that (if he did not have another set of drones in the bay) I could turn my attention back to pounding on the hulk.
Which is when his corpmate in a Drake warped in and began unloading heavy missles onto me in 7-missile volleys from point blank range. Time to go!
My Crane is a stout ship, but it’s just a hauler, and we were already low on shields. The second volley hit me just before I hit warp, and I got away with a substantial dent in my armor. It’s questionable whether I could have weathered volley number three, and number four would have been certain death.
Of course I came back in a stealth bomber to see if I could defend the Ironfleet can. And, indeed, the Drake did not seem to be fitted with a full Drakish tank, as I was able to beat well into its shields until it chose to leave. But the hulk pilot came back in an armor-tanking battleship that I could not scratch, and there was no more that I could hope to accomplish with the ships available to me. We danced a bit and I launched a lot of missiles for the pleasure of the noise, but in the end, I had no choice but to blow up the Ironfleet can (full of veldspar!) to keep it out of enemy hands, and then return to my hangar.
Conclusion, tentative: If the Hulk pilot had failed to get backup, I might have been able to take him.
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February 19th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
It’s sad that we don’t run into you anymore at AC-ME. You know the story of the Big Bad Wolf?
I think I know why nobody keeps telling the story of the 3 little pigs after the wolf is out of the picture.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I’m working out of Kaimon these days, you guys led me there in one of your fake corporate moves, and I like the pickings there a lot better than the ones in Isaz, so I stayed.
I don’t know if you’re claiming to be the pigs or the wolf, so I guess your analogy has failed in its purpose.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Combat Cranes FTW.
Nicely written too. Adding this to my list of blogs. Keep it up.
Flashfresh
February 27th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
*sigh*
The analogy is perfect. It’s going to ruin it but I’ll spell it out for you anyway.
ACME was the 3 little pigs (young corp with multiple players mining their own business).. you’re the big bad wolf (you stole our ore and declared war on us)… the pigs lived on, but it’s a boring story now that the wolf isn’t around anymore to make things exciting.
I’m not sure how you could see yourself as a victim in this story. You stole ore and dec’d war on a young mining corp. I suppose you did hide inside stations a lot though.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:56 pm
LOL, your facts are so bad it obscured your analogy.
I didn’t declare war on AC-ME, remember? I declared war on INDY, AC-ME’s big bad wolf alliance. And of course AC-ME wasn’t “minding their own business”, they encouraged one of their best combat members to leave the corp and declare war on Ironfleet, and then flew intel missions in support of the war against Ironfleet. AC-ME was hardly the poor little victim minding its own business — the military trouble AC-ME got, AC-ME asked for.
Of course I never claimed to be a victim. But I can’t say I spent much time camped in stations (I’m not sure how it’s “hiding” when everyone can see you), either. Except for the one memorable day when a big INDY squad camped me in before I ever logged on, I spent the whole war in space, rarely docking at all except to swap ships. I don’t know where you were at the time, but you’ve obviously been reading the wrong propaganda since.
Speaking of propaganda, everything I’ve written in this post is detailed on this blog in excruciating length, if anybody else is curious. Written from my viewpoint, true, but I haven’t yet failed to publish anybody else’s commentary on my narratives, so curious readers should be able to get a pretty clear picture of the facts.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:42 am
Marlenus buddy,
We need to spar again. Bring Miss Iron and Ted to! That was a lot of fun. I’ll see if I can find my com padre (can’t remember his name though) to join in. It’ll be like old times!
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Murdock, that WAS fun. Your little friend in the Amar newbie ship was actually pretty funny, I don’t remember his name though. :(
Miss Iron and Ted haven’t been online a lot — I guess I need to start another war, eh? But I’ve been busy, and much of my limited gaming time lately has been going to setting folks on fire in Team Fortress 2.
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:37 am
hehe, team fortress pyro seems to suit you :)
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:39 am
P.S. what’s your steam name?
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
LOL, pyro does indeed suit me, I don’t have twitch-gaming skills so I just find a big wad of enemies and light them all on fire. My kill / death ratio sucks but it’s good for the team, it’s amazing how much being lit up en masse seems to stall and delay enemy advances.
Or I play a (bad) medic when the animating spirit of Miss Iron tires of being a heavy with no medic support. Apparently bad medics are like bad sex — there’s such a thing as a bad medic, but it still looks good to somebody with no medic.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:12 am
lol, that’s exactly my style, I usually play pyro and switch to medic from time to time. Lately grew fond of sniper and scout too :)
March 20th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Come on marlenus, its time you get on more on EVE, that little lamp next to your pretty face just keeps glowing red. Ill pop by in Kaimon if you go online, so i can watch you hunt the barges.. just for the fun of it…
..and to the propaganda bit, im kinda dissapointed on a small detail that you forgot, me and spakiec was damn close of popping your SB in isaz, have you already forgotten?
/Casp
March 25th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Been traveling and suffering bad internets, but I’m getting settled down again, so should be online more soon.
There were a number of close calls in the the stealth bombers. Basically, it’s a “close call” anytime somebody gets within locking range of that thing, which you guys (meaning AC-ME / INDY generally) did at least half a dozen times. But, to be honest, I don’t remember anybody getting through my shields that didn’t get blogged about here. So, I guess I have forgotten, in the sense that I don’t recall the specific incident you’re talking about. Sorry!