Frigate Lovin

So over the last few weeks I have been bringing in a small stack of Rifters, losing them nicely here or there.

Being part of the militia allows for targets at gates and stations whilst flying frigate-hulls. Yes, targets are halved as we don’t shoot our own militia but in general it has been nice to take out frigates and shoot stuffs without worrying about sentry-fire.

In some cases I have been rather careless and lost Rifters without paying attention but for the low cost of the Rifter risks can be taken occasionally.

The crappy intel-channels for our militia piped up to say there where a few Amarians repping a POS in Auga the other day after Pandemic Legion dropped some bored pilots on it. Anyway, no fleet could be mustered to go and shoot at them. So that leaves just one thing; take out a Rifter and do it myself, right?

I warped 100 clicks from the moon where the POS was based to find 2 Interceptors and 3 Scimitars doing their thing. I align the Rifter back to the Dal gate, knowing that it would never actually make it to that gate.

With the two Microwarpdrive-propelled vessels chasing my much slower Rifter I waited for the right moment, switched off my afterburner, turned around and overheated my way towards the Ares. Overheated mid-slots latched on, both scram and web, overheated auto-cannons spat hot lead, the rocket-laucher firing beyond its intended capacity.

With the Ares in structure I deactivated the scram to catch the Imperial Navy slicer that had found himself within range. As the Slicers MWD shut off the Ares erupted in a bright blue flash of victory. Regardless of the outcome I had already won the isk war.

The Slicer like any other purely gank-fit had little protection from my Rifters fury and within seconds its shield where stripped to reveal a thin layer of armour. But 2 Scimitars at the POS had burned the other direction and had warped themselves right on top of us. An eyewitness claims there where three but I cannot confirm this.

Indeed my fate was sealed; damage I did put out was immediately mitigated by the Logistic Cruisers repping abilities. The Rifter still lasted a considerable amount of time but eventually burst into a grey plume of smoke.

GF! and great fun had. I loved the smack I received from some of the ‘’Amarr-under-14-squad’’ later that day as well. Epic stuff…

Blnukem 192 ; Nashh Kadavr back to lose another ship?

Blnukem 192 ; Like a boss.

Nashh Kadavr ; dunno have you got any to lose?

Blnukem 192 ; Yes, you do.

Nashh Kadavr ; pff ares / rifter seemed a fair swap no?

Blnukem 192 ; lol you died to an ares

Blnukem 192 ; Noob

Project Rifter #1

Project Rifter

The Rifter; apparently the most coveted frigate in our universe, or so everyone keeps telling me, over and over again. For the last 46 days I have skilled up specifically for this vessel (all support skills to 4 or 5) to finally try it myself. Made famous by a lot of high profile players but non more so than Wensley, the Rifter Drifter. His Rifter guide has been a great help and I have studied it well.

Frigate hulls have really got hold of me over the last couple of months. Assault ships and faction varieties have been great fun to fly and scored me some very sexy kills. However they have come at a cost too, my average Worm, Comet, Ishkur or Enyo fit costs 30 million isk plus the hull. To give you an idea I have lost 5 Comets, 2 Worms, 5 Ishkurs and 3 Enyo’s. Yes auch… This has brought me to practise with something of a cheaper variety, and lots of them.

Enter the Rifter…



Fitting my Rifters
I have spent hours going through kill mails finding the fit that suits me best, poured myself over Battle Clinic and EFT. The first thing that struck me is that the Rifter is very versatile; the fitting options are near endless. Project mentor, Lady S, described it as a loose sock.

There are so many different options however I wanted something a little bit more of a ‘standard’ flavour, so I can really give it my all and make amendments to later versions after my first experiences. If for my style I require more tank or gank than I can make adjustments as required.

I ran a little poll on my blog to see what everyone else would recommend. Your votes are much appreciated and these are the results;

Gank or Tank Rifter?
A) 200mm Plate, DCU, SAR 26 (54%)
B) 400mm Plate, DCU, Resist Mod 2 (4%)
C) 200mm Plate, Gyro, SAR 14 (29%)
D) 400mm Plate, Gyro, Resist Mod 6 (12%)

What is your secondary weapon on your Rifter?
A) Rocket Launcher 17 (39%)
B) Nuet 9 (20%)
C) NOS 16 (37%)
D) Salvager 1 (2%)

What size Auto-cannons do you fit on your Rifter?
A) 125mm 3 (6%)
B) 150mm 25 (58%)
C) 200mm 15 (34%)


In the end I went against even my mentor’s advice and chose the following fit;



With the help of the Bastards logistic backbone I purchased 50 Rifters and the fittings as displayed above. With cargo hold essentials such as garbage, spirits, tobacco and test dummies I spent about 450 million isk.

The biggest reason I never skilled for Minmatar ships is because the ammo thing is very confusing. This is where Lady Shaniqua steps in... Over the past months we have joined forces and killed off some impressive targets, however when not fleeted Lady S is just as likely to shoot me, I guess.

I asked Lady for help on the Ammo issue, knowing that he (Lady S is a he) is a very skilled Rifter pilot. After a patient hour explaining the differences and recommending Barrage, Fusion and EMP as the minimum types to carry with Fusion loaded primarily, I went back to Jita.

I purchased 250 rounds of T2 Rage Rockets, 500 Rounds of T2 Barrage, 1000 Rounds of Faction Fusion and 1000 Faction EMP Shells per ship. Wow that is a lot of ammo…

As described in a previous post I make fitting packages for all my ships. This is what a Rocket-Rifter Package looks like;



My business-associate spend hours getting 50 Rocket Rifters in containers and then a few more hours distributing the numbered packages to my other hangars in Ardar, Old Man Star, Egghelende and Hevrice. The main bulk of the Rifter fleet remains in my home system Evati.

The plan
The idea behind Project Rifter is pretty simple; lose all 50 of them. I intend to undock in Rifters only until I run out of them, engaging anything and everything and learning from the outcome.

In the process I hope to become a skilled Rifter pilot and know the limits and limitations of this sexy thing. I shall post about my experiences and try to keep track of what happened to each vessel, what they killed and how they died.

Wherever possible I shall Fraps any fights I get into and produce a short video.

The maiden voyage.
The amount of time and effort spent on this project already has made a maiden voyage something of epic proportions. There have been a few occasions where I felt like cheating and taking one out for a spin before the last skill (Minmatar frigate 5) completed…

I ran into Venom Orchid and would have taken out a Rifter to travel the 20 jumps back to her new home together would it not have been for both our RL lives cutting our travel plans short. On another occasion I turned down a duel (what me?!) as I had no other frigates available than the Rifter. I stuck to the plan...

The maiden voyage had originally been reserved for a Celebrity Death Re-Match with Ga’len. Many months ago Ga’len pummelled me in his Rifter ‘The Bleeding Rose’. He left me the ‘The Bleeding Rose’ as a present as long as I would fight him again sometime in a Rifter. It was his gifted vessel I first strapped myself into. To my great surprise and joy his fit is near enough the same as my chosen fit! Ga’len has unfortunately retired and could not be convinced to come back for a one off CDM. His ship shall remain in my possession and will be kept safe from harm.

I thus offered for the maiden voyage to be a duel with Lady Shaniqua however with 4 hours remaining on the 46 day skill plan I buckled and undocked ‘#1RR’ to lose it mere minutes later to a Dominix and a Raven in a mission.

But that’s for the next post…

Watch this space…