Slow Goings

So the past few days have been pretty bad as far as PvP is concerned; I've lost a few Rifters and won zero fights so I'm not a happy bunny right now. Admittedly three of the four losses could easily have been avoided:

1. Rifter vs. Taranis.. I had the opportunity to warp out of the belt. I chose to engage and lost though I wasn't too far off popping my opponent.
2. Rifter vs. Merlin (pilot was the #3 ranked pilot on Battleclinic). Was challenged by the #3 to a 1v1 in Arnon. Lost pitifully.
3. Rifter vs. Cormorant. Again was challenged to a 1v1 in a lowsec system. Why I accepted I don't know but I got put in my pod in 3-4 volleys.

My fourth loss was not so long ago and hasn't yet appeared on BattleClinic. I was flying an Arty fit Rifter and after having done a few test volleys at various ranges with a corpmate I ventured into lowsec with it. I soon found myself in Onne and started pinning down an Incursus on d-scan. We found each other at Onne's bright, yellow sun however seeing himself 48km away from me the pilot of the Gallente frigate warped away, presumably to jump back in closer to my ship. 

Taking the range of my guns into account and how I didn't really want to get too close I too warped out to a belt, about turned and jumped back to the sun. Nothing. What followed in the next ten minutes was a fun game of cat and mouse around the belts and planets of Onne until I landed 25km away from my enemy back at the star. Firing up my long point and MWD I started my orbit of 15km and unleashed the fury of my 250mm cannons. The first overheated volley took 80% of the frigates shields off and a sly smirk crept on my face as I waited for the next salvo to be loaded into the chamber and the firing sequences restarted. The Incursus went down to 70% or so armour and I was confident in victory now as my log was showing zero hits from the Gallente blasters. 

I'm not entirely sure how the following events unfolded, however. One minute I was orbiting my foe at a comfortable 12-14km and the next he was right in my grid at 3km and I'd been webbed and scrammed. More importantly however, his short-range blasters were destroying my pitiful, pitiful excuse for a tank. I soon exploded, leaving the Incursus at about 40% armour.

The enemy pilot and I both exchanged gfs and we chatted about how if I'd been able to keep range I would have dominated that fight. I was keen to reship though so I bid my foe to fly dangerous and returned to my home base to jump into another Rifter.

This time I've gone back to the cookie cutter autocannon, active tank fit; It's cookie-cutter for a reason.

(Though I still suck at PvP :\)