Preparing For Wildfire

"Two things I've learnt lately.  One -- don't get jammed.  And two... Stationary ships don't react well to fourteen hundreds."

- John Rourke, Clear Skies 2

This weekend I decided to play in high sec instead of exploring low sec.  But that doesn't mean I'm abandoning my goals in low sec.  That's because I worked on doing the Minmatar level 4 epic arc, Wildfire.  I mentioned in my goals for this year that the level 4 epic arc mission gave both a nice boost in Minmatar faction standings plus the RSS Core Scanner Probe, which has a greater scanning strength than the Sisters Core Scanner Probe but at the cost of having 1/4 the flight time.

Preparing to do Wildfire also gave me a chance to work on ship fittings, another goal I have for the year.  I like my fit for my command Hurricane but I've never liked what I came up with for my Maelstrom.  When I bought my first Maelstrom I came up with this fitting.

My first effort

I don't remember exactly how I came up with this fit.  I think I went to Scrapheap Challenge and tried to adapt an auto-cannon fit into a long-range artillery fit.  But a year-and-a-half later I've learned a lot more skills so I decided to do a little theory crafting and revamp the fit.  I came up with this fit.

My Wildfire Fit

I had a couple of criteria for this fit.  First, I wanted to fit 1400mm Howitzer Artillery IIs.  I've always wanted to use them ever since the first time I watched Clear Skies.  Next, I wanted to fire out to my maximum range using the close range ammunition.  I almost accomplished that with a maximum range of 92 km including falloff by fitting a Tracking Enhancer II.  I also wanted a much tougher buffer tank just in case anyone ever decided to gank me in high-sec.  I'm not sure why they would because the most bling I put on my ships is tech 2 fittings, but this is Eve.  I definitely accomplished that.  I don't have a cap booster but this ship is designed to fight from distance, with drones and the command Hurricane providing close-in anti-frigate and anti-cruiser support.  Using the afterburner to dictate distance from the heavy ships should allow me to just pulse my shield booster.

Because Wildfire leads players on a journey through the Minmatar Republic and Ammatar space, I decided to use my Orca as a mobile base.  If the ships don't fit in the ship maintenance hanger I'm not taking them.  So in addition to the Maelstrom which doesn't fit in an Orca, I'm taking the command Hurricane, my salvaging Thrasher, a cargo Probe and a Cheetah.  In other words, nothing I either don't have at least two of or a ship I can't afford to replace.  I'm leaving the Noctis behind which means salvaging will take a bit longer, but I'd rather do that than make multiple trips between systems shuttling ships back and forth.

Hopefully by this time next week I will have completed the mission chain and returned to low-sec.  I have a couple of new ideas I want to try out and maybe having those faction probes will help out a bit.