Exequror Cargo Frigate

Back in early July, I posted my massive common sense fail that resulted in the loss of an Iteron V loaded with about 1B in cargo. What was especially stupid about that loss was that the bulk of my cargo hold was empty. The Iteron V cargo hold is massive, especially when the ship is fitted with expanded cargo holds and cargo optimization rigs. I had far more space that I needed for the cargo I was hauling.

Following that loss, I took a long look at my hauling activities. The first thing I looked at was whether or not I could have survived that attack if I had been fitted differently. The answer is yes. If I had just about any small improvement to my shield defences (Adaptive Invulnerability Field IIs, Shield Rigs, etc), I could have survived the first salvo. That's because an alpha Tornado's volley hits for about 12.5k dps, while an Iteron has about 15k ehp. The Tornado would not likely have fired again because it would have been destroyed by Concord. Of course, the Tornado could have had another ship with it. Given that I'd be deep in structure from that first hit, I could have been killed by a much smaller ship (cruiser maybe?).

The second thing I looked at was the required cargo capacity for my hauling activities. Do I really need 38k+ m3 of cargo space? The answer is no. The items I've been trading are small, but valuable, which means that even with 1B ISK worth of cargo, I don't need nearly the amount of cargo space I have in an Iteron V.

So I started looking at other ships. My thinking was to look at shield cruisers or battle cruisers. Shield-tanked ships rely on their mid slots for shield related modules, so that would leave my low slots free for cargo extenders. Depending on how much tank and cargo I have after fitting these modules, I could install shield or cargo rigs to make up whatever I was missing.

I fired up PyFa (a Python version of EFT, which in my opinion, is a better fitting tool that EFT), and started looking at ships. Bingo! The Gallente Exequror.

The Exequror is a heavy cargo cruiser. It's base cargo capacity is 600m3, but it's increased by 10% for each level of the pilot's Gallente Cruiser skill, for a total of 900m3 at level 5. With cargo extenders, its capacity can reach 1700m3, far more than I'll need for my regular trading. If I don't need that much capacity, I can increase it's defensive capabilities by fitting either Nanofiber Internal Structures (NIS) for shorter alignment time (which is always helpful for faster navigation), or even warp stabilizers if I ever decided to head for low/null sec.

This leaves my rigs and mid slots free for shield modules. With the usual loadout of shield extender modules and rigs, and adaptive invulnerability fields, this ship has an effective HP level of just over 30k.

Initially, I had put Dual 150mm railguns in the high slots. However, I tried to kill a few rats for a mission I was running, and I couldn't do enough damage to break their tank. This is not a combat ship. I switched to my Caracal to finish that mission, but it got me thinking if I couldn't put something more useful than guns in the high slots. Since this ship was designed to carry cargo and survive attacks, I decided to try for more defensive modules in the highs: cloaking device and a medium energy neutralizer.

Finally, I added a flight of Vespa EC-600 ECM drones. These would be helpful in breaking the lock any ship may have on me.

It's a very tight fit, but it works. I've been flying this fit for about two months now, and I haven't had any issues with cargo capacity, and I only occasionally have to fit a single cargo expander. Most of the time I fly with NIS installed for quicker movement around Empire space.

It's not the sexiest of ships, but it does its job well.

[Exequror, Agility fit]

Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II

Improved Cloaking Device II
Medium Energy Neutralizer I
Modal Electron Particle Accelerator I, Antimatter Charge M
Modal Electron Particle Accelerator I, Antimatter Charge M

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I

Vespa EC-600 x4