DURKA DURKA DURKA

So I had an interesting problem. Thanks to my limited play-time lately, I had an unrigged Typhoon whose insurance was close to running out. It seemed a shame to just let it expire so I fitted it up for what we in Agony call a 'DURKA'. Here is the fit...

[Typhoon, DURKA Typhoon]
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
'Halcyon' Core Equalizer I
'Stoic' Core Equalizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I
Warp Core Stabilizer I

Large Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
Large Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I
Large Azeotropic Ward Salubrity I

Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I
Large 'Notos' Explosive Charge I

[empty rig slot]

The idea for this ship is pretty simple. Fly into the middle of an enemy fleet, let off the smart-bombs. Blow up any small ships within 5km, and warp off laughing at the ships pointing you.

So I took my ship on a little roam and managed to come across an OUCH gatecamp in Doril. It took two tries but eventually I managed to kill a Rifter and an Incursis. Much fun :). The next day a frigate gang came running through our home system of Hemin. They crashed into our camp on the RMOC gate and warped away to planet 4. I followed, landing just a couple of seconds too late. If I had arrived 5 seconds earlier I would have taken out their entire fleet :(. I started to chase after them but the server crashed and I couldn't find them when it came back up.

Going a little deeper into curse I came across a NI4NI gang and proceeded to smart-bomb their dramiels and sabre. Regretably nothing popped :(. I tried baiting them again and they managed to keep distance while dropping a bubble on me. No amount of warp-core stabilizers could save me then and I soon went down becoming 45 million isk richer.

A DURKA ship is something all tacklers should be wary of. Most Agony PVP-BASIC classes seems to come across one or two laying in wait hoping to pop 30 lightly tanked frigates in one shot. The trick to avoiding being wiped out is to keep out of 5km range. Also it can be a good idea to either fit a ship scanner or simply check for turrets on the model. If you come across a Geddon with no turrets you can be pretty certain that it is fitting smartbombs.

Admittedly one DURKA is pretty limited. At most I could take out a lightly tanked frigate. However in combination they can be rather devastating. There is a great video (I posted about a couple of months ago) where a handful of DURKA ships took out an Armour HAC gang.

So be careful out there of Battleships and for gods sake check for turrets before giving recon to your fleet to engage at 0. You just might find yourself in the middle of a fireworks display.