:: the art of staying alive, by gary tzu ::

Long overlooked and mentioned only in passing by older brother Sun, The Art Of Staying Alive, by Gary Tzu is a celebration in covering your ass. You don't believe me, look it up. This ten volume compendium has saved my rear on numerous occasions. The latest battle strategy that I've been employing has been paying dividends in spades. Thanks, Gary!

Okay, so I'm fibbing a little about a fictitious series written by a non-existent persona. However I have seen the light on what battle tactics works for me and my Thorax, so I'll be sticking with it. The strategy that I've been using is nothing new by any standards, but it's something that is new to me.

Up to the point where I changed battle tactics my modus operandi has been to charge headfirst into battle, guns roaring as I look to take suckas down in a blaze of glory. In level 1 missions that generally worked, as long as you identified mobs and culled them accordingly. They were also thin on shields and armor, so it didn't take too long to eliminate your targets. Once you start on level 2 missions there was a different story. Your targets are bigger now, as they too are piloting frigates and cruisers. My cruiser, a Thorax class, wasn't lasting too long in the middle of a fray with lasers, projectiles and missiles hammering me into submission. Most times I'd warp out of the fight to repair in dry dock that often times tallied up to a hefty fee that cut into my mission profits. At that time I thought to myself, how can I perform these missions without incurring a loss?

Then it dawned on me to start being smarter on the fights. Start adjusting for optimal firing ranges with the use of tactical overlays. Keep your targets at those optimal ranges and keep your guns firing. There are two preset ranges that you could adjust for to keep an enemy at a marked distance or within orbit range.

With five hard point turrets filled I made those adjustments to what I had armed. For my primary tactic I wanted to keep a distance of 18 kilometers. This was the range that both of my long range laser turrets could reach (one could reach 20 km, but the other was at 18 km). Should my targets get close to within 3500 meters, I could then fire upon them with my two projectile turrets while simultaneously sucking their energy to add to mine with my Nosferatu turret. If there were a limited amount of targets I would change from keeping at a distance to orbiting my targets. To aid me in battle are my four drones. Because my avatar's race is Gallente, I got a bit of an offensive boost by utilizing those little robots.

With that strategy in mind I performed my first well played mission where this type of tactic was immensely helpful. As I warped in to where the targets were located I saw that there were about ten of them. As I approached the closest mob at 60 km distance I was able to target up to five of them. As they got within 30 km I sent my four drones in to start attacking the targeted ship. Once that ship got within 20 km I start firing my long range laser. As my ship got to within 18 km distance it automatically did an about face and started cruising away from my target at which time I began firing my second long range laser on the target. It didn't take too long before the laser barrage exploded my target. Once that explosion took place the next target was selected, I then hit my keep at 18 km distance key, engaged my drones and then started firing both of my lasers. With each following target, wash, rinse, repeat.

During the battle as two or three ships were destroyed more pirate ships joined the fray and they too were reduced to confetti. Before I knew it I had left a trail of carnage as over thirty ships floated as wreckage. It took considerable time to salvage whatever I could hold before warping out to claim my rewards for a successful mission. What was my lesson learned from this exercise? It's okay to duck 'n run as long as you've got the long range guns to keep the fray at a leisurely distance. Even my shields barely broke a sweat as I was hardly scathed in the bloodshed. It was another remarkable day in the neighborhood.