More Links, Tears, and the End of an Era

I started out this month with a loss taking on an Algos. Not one of my finest moments but I was bored. I also somehow fumbled getting my pod out, aligned and spamming warp before I died. Oh well, had to happen sooner or later.
I went back out that night and caught an Executioner next door in Jov. I afked a bit and came back to a report of a Caracal in a belt, we blobbed him.
The next day I had a fight with a Tusker who's success against me has been 0. He/She finally won one against me. I went back next door and refit with a web instead of TD and undocked to try it out, catching a militia Atron and then shortly after the Tusker who's success against me is limited. Web is better than TD against railgun Incursus :)
I logged the links on afterwards, this was the last weekend of POS links so I pretty much left them logged on the entire weekend after this. The rest of the day was me against Tuskers in 1s and 2s. I find it pretty interesting that a group can have a Loki at their POS at times then whine when someone has a Tengu in system :) I let an Incursus catch me, then come back with a friend, Merlin - Merlin is not a match for a linked Hawk. I had family over for some BBQ and played with nephews and grand kids (I am an old dude) Then after the festivities I undock and sit around for a bit and "get caught" again by a Firetail. Who then comes back with a Tormentor and Hawk. I was unable to keep the Tormentor and Hawk held down so a corp mate comes in to help. The Tusker Tormentor warped off when Comet lands leaving the Hawk to die alone.
Monday sees another day of POS links, by this time the Tuskers are angry and won't some out to play. :) I undock to carry on my mission to kill Ventures and catch one in a Belt. I make a trip next door where we chase a kiting Tristan around till one of us and he dies. I go afk for a bit of breakfast and come back to see a mission plex open. I hastily warp to the plex and almost catch the Manticore on the gate but follow him in so he can't cloak. Manticore goes down and I nab his pod, I did not realise until later that a corp member was following on this one
A bit more AFK for family stuff finds me back at the computer. Rixx had undocked his Moa for some fun with a few random cruisers that came to Hevrice. He "misclicked" and agressed in front of the station to take station guns and cruiser DPS. I dock up and grabd the first thing that came to mind. Maelstrom time! The cruisers do not last long under the fire of 2 Maelstroms and some assorted other stuff, Caracal, Thorax and Rupture go down one right after the other.
Some more AFK and I undock a Slasher, Slasher cannot stand up against a Tristan and Incursus. I undock the Hawk again to go play around a bit when a corp mate announces a Caracal at a medium. Caracal does not last long.
I decide to take another Slasher out for a roam around the neighborhood. It was a slow day for a Labor Day Monday in the US. I manage to catch an Executioner in a Plex then played Cat vs Mouse with a Slicer. He was set up in a plex but being Slicer vs Slasher I had no interest in being Kited so I found a plex and sat at 0 on the warp-in. He wanted the fight and came at me, he got hard tackled and nueted and did not last long.
I came back to Hev and was about to call it a night when a large gang of Random frigs and dessies came in. I sat in a plex and waited for them. I managed to kill 3 Atrons out of their gang of 8 assorted crap before the Hawk went down. A bit of smack talk was exchanged in local where they were bragging about killing my Hawk :) gf gf gf. I had fun and was interested in Round 2. I fit up another Hawk and undocked, they were set up on a plex gate. I messed up on the warpin and managed to DIAF without killing anything. All in all I had fun and would do again. I can understand how they could get so excited though, seriously, killing a Hawk, with only 8 dudes, I would be proud as pie.
Last kill of the night was another Venture, he was angry, called me a jerk. I apologized and explained he had no mining permit. Good fun was had.

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Another interesting development; Tuskers are angry over the POSed links. :) I find this very interesting. When ST-FR first formed the Tuskers would regularly have their loki links POSed up. A gang of experienced PVPers using every advantage fighting a group of fairly new pilots with some experienced pilots mixed in. They had fun, we had fun. The tables get turned and I had fun, apparently they did not. :) It really is fairly simple, check DSCAN, see Tengu in a POS and engage at your own risk. I know I do, I also do not whine about it later. Tis a game kiddos, have fun. The Tuskers also thanked the "Scope Gang" for killing the Hawk they "couldn't be bothered to kill", that "always runs from even a single Tusker in a frigate". huehuehuehue. All Good Fun, even before the links weekends I was not doing too bad vs them :)

No matter, I am actually looking forward to trying out some of the newly balanced command ships, I was always kinda miffed that I spent all that time on Command Ships 5 to have T3 cruisers be better at links for a shorter time investment. Those changes along with the long range medium weapon buffs and the HAC "balancing" should bring some interesting new meta to the game. It is probably a good time to start brushing up on my kiting skills.
One of the fixes I am really looking forward to is the improvements to the sound engine for the game and better memory handling on session changes. Before the last expansion I rarely had any issues while multiboxing. Since the last expansion there is always some serious choke on the pretty new session changes. I hope that goes away. Along with scout alts and other support stuff one must keep ones market orders going to afford Hawks :)