School Daze #49

 Dear Wairua,

I had your uncle over, last night, for some sqozsh and cigars, toasting your successes and wondering what kind of mistakes you'll make. Also got us reminiscing about some of the bung mis-adventures we've had over the years, leading up to the treasure trove of cracker advice for you.

While Katsev mines and builds stuff these days, but from a wee Amarrian lad, he always wanted to pilot a battleship. After he had first joined the mining corp, he trained up the basic skills to run a battleship, and after two months of non-stop yakka in his Procurer, he bought and fitted out an Amarr battleship; an Apocalypse. He cruised out of Jita with the biggest smile on his face, and set a course for Waira (I didn't join him up here until months later). He got in-system, and thought it a beaut idea to hit an asteroid belt and test out the big guns on some local ratbags.

He warped into the belt at 0 Km, and not 10 seconds later, was being scrammed, webbed, and neuted by a mob of ratbags from the Guristas Forward Operating Base (FOB) that he had, just at that moment, remembered were in Waira. It was a long and painful death, his mega beam lasers totally munted against the swarming frigates and cruisers, as they slowly pulverized his mean as ship to smithereens. He had owned that Apocalypse for all of 45 minutes. Six hundred million ISK, two months of mining profits, up in smoke.

Thankfully, one of his more-experienced corpmates came and cleared out the rats so he could salvage the wreck, and pulled out 2 turrets, a coating, damage control unit, and the microwarp drive. He hasn't flown a battleship since.

By now, you can spot heaps of the mistakes, many I've made and warned you about as well. Just because you can fly something does necessarily mean that you should. Get solid on all the tech that goes into the ship before you buy, fit, and fly it. Sim out your dream ship, and train up all the skills until you can handle the jandal. Goes without saying that situational awareness is crucial, and also having some mates nearby to call for help.

Have a good week, and I think you'll squiz your uncle down there before the end of the month. Yeah, he's got a odd sense of what makes sweet as R&R, but he likes it.

Yours,

Dad