Of destroyers and microwarp drives

Humm, going to have to mix up my fit on the Thrashers now. Now that I've lost a destroyer in combat and it's up on the KB for all to analyze, it's time to go over the fit and discuss the pros and cons of the destroyer fits. Here is the kill and here is the associated loss.

I'm going to go in a bit of detail with this small engagement we had inside a plex last night. As part of a bigger roam, we found a minor installation in Kamela. The FC ordered frigates into the plex to sit on the button while larger ships did other undisclosed thing. In support of said operation, since I was in a T1 destroyer, I volunteered to go in the plex with the two rifters after picking up some stray drones from a previous fight.

I get into the plex and immediatly charge towards the Amar NPC ships. My T2 guns and faction ammo make quick work of the npcs. And we quickly get on the button. This is where I failed in getting a proper tactical setup in the plex. What I should have done is sent the 2 rifters to sit on the warp in point. Not doing so probably cost me my Thrasher as the fight would have gone much better that way. We get a 2nd wave of NPCs and they go down ultra fast since they are well within my optimal and I've got an anti-inty fit Thrasher.

After that we get notified from the ships sitting on the warpgate that we have an incoming Coercer. Sure enough a Coercer shows up at about 60km. Now this is a problem as that's outside of my targeting/attack range. At this point my only thought is that he'll be able to pick off the Rifters quite easily, so there's no choice, I kick the MWD and charge at him hell bent for leather. At this point I'm calling for the rifters to try and get a tackle but they seem to be falling behind me. I also get notified that there's another friendly frigate incoming to help. I'll have to inquire but I suspect at least one of them was afterburner fit instead of MWD. I hit my targeting range and start laying in the fire just as the Coercer opens up as well.

At this point the fight becomes very predictable. Both dessies are T2 fit, but the Amarr is more gank setup than the anti-inty fit I've got going so sure enough he's breaking my tank (if you can call it that) faster than I'm breaking his. But he was in structure as I go down so I was definitly laying down the hurt. I'm spaming warp as my fine destroyer goes down in flames arround me and sure enough I get my pod out. Also probably because the help from the gate had arrived and one of the rifters managed to get on the Coercer so the Coercer pilot had other things to deal with.

Before I get to the place I had warped off to, I get the news that the Coercer got poped as well. We thought we had the pod as well but nope, it got away. All in all a prety good fight for one who's start was as messed up as it was.

The good news is that we managed to get all the loot from both destroyers. They were contracted to me. With the insurance and the salvaged T2 modules this means my total losses were on the order of about 1 mil at the end of the fight since I can sell his T2 modules to replace the T2 modules I had lost. So that although it was a prety even fight on the win/loss column, holding the field and getting the salvage put this solidly in the win column for the Matari side.

The point here is that I'm in FW to learn so time to draw some lessons from this fight. Note for future plex attacks/defenses when in destroyer:

1. After you take care of the npc's make sure there are tacklers on the warp in point.
2. Bring long range ammo as well as anti-inty ammo and a range script, not just a tracking script.

In hindsight the fight could have gone better. I could have ordered the frigates to sit on the warp in point and I could have had a better ammo/sensor mix. With a pure T1 fit Thrasher that is range limited anyways, I should have sent a Rifter to the button (preferably an MWD equiped one), put the other on the warp in point and motered to a point between the button and the warp in point to hopefully have both places in range. Live and learn.

On a side note, there is no real reason not to use a MWD on a destroyer inside a plex. The enemy is going to hit you and your natural sig size means it'll be for full damage - might as well take advantage of the tactical mobility the MWD provides. I am loath to change the anti-inty fit too much as it will reliably get hits on inties going 6km/s+ at arround 10km with it's sweet spot being arround 20-30km. But I'm definitly going to add some tremor ammo for those plex situations.