Why you fit points.

Back in Delve yesterday I had a couple experiences. One good, one bad.

First was a De4iant Hurricane who took a stroll through Fountain and down into Delve.

Bad idea.

Reported in intel, I switched out for a Curse and was waiting for him when he came into 5-C from ZXB. I tackled and immeidately neuted him, drones and missiles chewing at him. His Autocannons were barely scratching me when Titus Loken in a Harbinger opened up as well. The Hurricane pretty much melted, his dual reps and DC2 unable to function with no cap.

Not too long after a Drake that had previously come through on his way up to Fountain was reported inbound. Given that he was PL, he was more than likely on his way back to Delve core.

I reshipped back in 5-C to a Harbinger. After undocking I realized my mistake... my Harbinger was completely damage fit with no tank outside of an 800mm plate.

Shit.

So I warped to kee- and landed as he was, we both jumped in. The entire time I'm yelling on comms for help. I tackled him and immediately I knew I was in trouble. The Drake was HAM fit, and his first volley took my shields out.

But I held my hero tackle and 2 corpmates jumped in. The Drake started going down but I knew I was going to die. As soon as I popped the Drake warped.

WTF?!?

So the two people who actually came to help had no points. I emo logged at that point.

Points: Check intel. There was no reason people should have been arriving late in ratting ships. This guy was reported far enough in advance for like 5 minutes of preperation.

Be active. People were still ratting in surround systems when this guy came through. Failure to respond to a hostile kill is just lazy bullshit. Its almost a free killmail.

Fit a damn point. There is no such thing as too much A. Dictors B. Points

That is all.

Back up to the North Pole

Last night I watched Star Wars. Not my choice, but who was I to disagree with the lady?

Needless to say, it inspired me for PVP. So after she left I logged in and immediately clone jumped to the North. An ROL fleet was up, in the hopes of picking a fight while shooting a TCU. HAC heavy with BCs and some other support. I had my gank Harbinger, pulse fit.

We got our fights.

We moved out and started dishing out damage to the TCU in E-90. Our scout next door in HHK announced he had a Loki on scan. Immediately a prober was dispatched, but the Loki dissapeared from scan. Our scout informed us that he was popping back and forth and to be patient. Sure enough, in a couple minutes he was back. Positive hit and a warp in... and he was gone.

Damn.

Back to shooting the TCU when on comms "I got him tackled, hes aggressed!"

Apparently the Loki had gone next door and our scout tackled. He aggressed and we burned the 2j. I jumped in local in time to see him pop. I was pissed... but the Loki died insanely fast.

Look at that fit. He was ratting. But he aggressed anyways. Bad idea. Loot drop A++++ with that Pithum A-Type. We split the loot, about 45 mill apiece. Thanks, dumb Loki pilot.

Next was a little tussle in ROIR. Brutix and Cerberus along with Rapier had been following one of our latecomers trying to catch up with gang. We doubled back, caught the Brutix on the C8 gate in Roir and forced him through. He held cloak forever... and the Cerberus landed on the C8 gate as well. Cerb got pointed but instead of jumping through he started pounding our tackler. Brutix was still holding cloak watching our gang, so most of our gang jumped through to kill the Cerberus. Brutix had broken cloak and reapproached/jumped and came to us, decloaking as we were starting to hit the Cerberus. Due to lack of primary being called by anyone I mashed my PTT key and barked primary... and it cost me the Cerb kill. I rolled my eyes and finished off the Brutix.

Back to the TCU we went. By this time it was about half armor when Vlade entered system, scouting for a HAC gang of equal size to ours. We all warped to optimals to the C8 gate, with the hostile gang on the other side. Our eyes watched... we waited. They blinked. Off they warped to the ROIR gate. We jumped in and tried to snag stragglers but they were gone. I warped ROIR, there was a bubble up and a lone Scimitar on the gate, the rest of their gang was in ROIR reapproaching. I burned out of bubble and shot the Scimitar... just to piss him off. A couple of his friends jumped in from ROIR (the rest of their gang was at 0 on the other side) and I warped off.

We left C8 and went back to E-9 (which is next door) and continued to shoot the TCU. Our scout reported them coming back our way from ROIR... so we all warped to 0 on the C8 gate. Easley and I had been discussing the engagement so far and agreed we were being too careful... close range ammo with 2x Rook we had and heavier BC composition would mean a slaughter of their all HAC gang.

As their fleet landed on E-9 gate and we sat on the other side a Cry Havoc gang of 5 RRBS showed up. They sat on gate with us for a minute and not getting a reply from our FC to convo request in intel (he was tired/not paying attention) they jumped in. Thank heavens, they finally forced our hand and got us our fight.

Our scout yelled "NC is committed, come on in" and I jumped. Our FC took a little bit of time to understand and order a jump through, but he got it eventually.

I got through and primaried Zealots. Then Canes, then anything that was left. Cry Havoc lost one bs I belive. Battle report is here.

We moved back to E-9 and killed the TCU.

After the TCU died we moved back to X-7. I debated sleep (early work day) and decided to go roaming. I switched out to a Crow and took scout, so as to help this gang out.

We moved up to Deklein, and time and time again I warped in on ratting targets to find half killed spawns or the ship warping out of belt as I landed. I managed to get our gang a Crusader and Manticore kill (neither of which I got one, being the one that forced them through). In OWXT, we jumped in myself and a dictor to bubble the station.

Then the FC had like 2 other scouts jump in. I was a little unhappy with the scouting decisions. He kept saying my name wrong, and would have multiple people jumping in with me, which tends to alert an otherwise not so alert enemy. We also had a guy in a T3 keep lemming in system with me, and he didn't even have a point.

Despite these stupidities, in OWXT I scanned a Drake, warped to belt, found rats and no wrecks (the system was loaded with all types of wrecks). I immediately ran a scan for anomalies. Warping to an already run Sanctum and getting nothing, I then hit the Haven (the top two anomalies).

Jackpot.

Drake 41km off of me.

I hit MWD overheated point and had it flashing... I yelled "I have a Drake in an anom going for point".

I guess he didn't hear me over all the damn chatter on comms (it was horrible).

So as he was ordering people to prepare to depart I yelled "I have a Drake tackled in an anomaly".

"Which belt are you in?"

"I'm not in a fucking belt, I've xxx'd in fleet get in here and call points when you land!"

"Oh ok... everyone jump in and warp to PK".

Thank heavens some people ignored FC and were already in warp to me. Drake had started hitting me, and although he didn't have Warriors (or I would have been in trouble) his missiles were whittling my shields down. I held him as I entered 1/4 shields when the first HAC landed and called point. I burned off and took his drones with me, and watched as the Drake melted under the DPS from arriving gang members.

Win.

"Nice Drake Bro" in local and his pod popped.

I also added "I too, believe that anomalies are safe with reds in local" before leaving. He had almost 2 minutes to safe up with not just me (ugh) but 2 other "scouts" in local and yet he sat in that anomaly as I landed and burned the 4 seconds to tackle him.

For aspiring FCS. I do not suggest loading up your next system with anything other than 1 scout (unless you are SURE that the hostiles already have you scouted out). One red in local to the enemy is an eyebrow raiser... but usually doesn't trigger an oh shit moment. Two or more will make all but the biggest idiots safe up/dock up. You will lose kills because of it.

Also. Discipline your damn lemmings. If someone lemmings once, don't coddle but be stern. Its not tolerated. When someone does it over and over and over scream at them. Yell at them. Do whatever it takes because they are costing you kills everytime they do it into a populated system where the scout is working. I wanted to punch our resident lemming in the face last night. Sometimes the order was to hold (even for scout) and guess what, he was the first one in. With his T3 no point ship. No discipline meant he did it like 9-10 times that roam.

Anyways.

We moved back home at this point, managing no more catches. A fairly succesful evening despite the dry roam, and I went to bed happy.

That is all.

Killing in Delve

Tonight I was bringing a new Pilgrim home, with my alt in a Viator with my new Curse. I made the run through Aridia without issue, and into Delve. One jump out of NOL a neut in local showed up, and begin following. After a couple jumps he started landing on gate with me. Drake.

I led him up the pipe towrads 5-C, where Easley, Bone and Agro were waiting. Easley was sporting the usual Cane, Bone in a Vaga and Agro in a Drake. As I was moving another neut, whom I assumed was his friend/alt, also joined the chase in an unknown shiptype. I led him right into the gatecamp in 4XO... and low and behold he managed to get back to the gate and jump.

Fail.

We all de-aggressed and jumped through, and I was the first to hit the out gate... and there he was. I sat and and waited; if he started aligning out I would point him. As my compadres started landing he did... so I dropped the point on him and he jumped. His Loki friend also landed on gate at this time and jumped. I de agressed with Agro in the Drake... the Loki bounced back on the other side to us. I neuted him badly as he reapproached, but I couldn't get the scram and web on him fast enough and he got back and jumped. He cloaked on the other side. Our Vaga managed a decloak on him (?) but the hostile Drake had 5 ECM drones on Bone and his Vaga was useless. Easley kept the Drake pointed and he died just as Aggro and jumped through. Aggro got on the mail... I didn't :(


http://mavericknavy.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=33740


The Loki almost died twice. So close... but Easley rammed the gate and lost point the second time we caught up to him on the way to NOL. We'll get him next time.

We moved on and scouting, I found a Curse moving up the pipe to Fountain. He jumped right into our gang, reapproached and instead of jumping died. Apparently he had just left DICE or something... not sure. I also didn't get on this mail :(
http://mavericknavy.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=33741
We moved into Delve core and played around for a bit, then Easley got this Drake aggressed. He was Snigwaffe. We all jumped in, and as his shields were going down.... he ejected. Yes. Ejected. Like 10 seconds before he died. Ejected.

We laughed.

He tried to play nonchalant in local... as if everyone ejects long before their ship dies. I was tempted to scoop it... but we killed it instead.

Check out his fit:

http://mavericknavy.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=33742
We laughed again.

I got on that mail. SO I was happy.
We then headed home.
 
Not bad for an hour of playtime.
 
That is all.

CSM Results

Congratulations to Mynxee, who is the newly elected Chair of the CSM. I don't know much about the candidates or their issues, but Easley Thames did, and you can find his reaction to the results here.
To be honest, I had no idea someone even got elected that is as irrelevant to the big picture as Ankhesentapemkah. With no kills (ok, 9) and 141 losses... and comments about players serving jail time (wtf?) I'm a little worried. But Mynxee, who does have combat experience, managed to keep Ankhesentapemkah out of the chair (whew!). EVE is a PVP game. If you want to carebear and can't handle the Ninjas, the Suicide Gankers, the people who want to pew... go play WOW.


Best of luck to all of us with Tyrannis. May the downtime be short and the bugs that make more, and unexpected, downtime a rarity. Also, for the love, I pray that Tyrannis doesn't make the lag worse. I don't expect it will get better because CCP doesn't care about the lag, but please don't be worse.

That is all.

EVE Sex Talk

Hilarious Youtube Video. May have been out for awhile but just had it linked in my channel "PK's House of Love" by a NC guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG_9Itz7z7I

Warning. Mature Content.

Guess whos back?

Guess who's back, back again
Shady's back, tell a friend
Guess who's back, guess who's back
Guess who's back. guess who's back
Guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back

No, its not Slim Shady.

But EVE Newb is back (for the moment). Griefing and the Amamake Defense Force and all that good stuff is back (for the moment). His recorded tears are pretty epic. So I look forward to his stories again (while hes around).

Spectre @ EVE NEWB

Check it out.

For you lazy iPhone users... guess what, hes on the Blog Pak still.

Whats up?

The past week and a half has been spent in Delve making isk (ugh) and trying to whip into shape the new guys. I have met with success on both fronts.

Looking to return north Mid-Week... should have more fights to talk about.



Couple days ago, Anathema and Thrasher were playing around 5-C area. Anathema was uncloaked off station for a minute, Thrasher was messing around in ZXB. Went to ZXB gate and waited. Nothing happened... so I warped to a spot off grid but near the ZXB gate. I had a drag bubble off the KEE- gate and figured his Anathema eyes in system were watching me sit on the gate.

I was right.

Local bumped one and in came the Thrasher. As I was about to warp to the bubble off the KEE- gate... on grid pops the Thrasher?

Whaaaaat?

He lands at 0, presumably probed out by the Anathema who was probably right next to me. I play dead and sit there as he yellow boxes me, and then aggresses.

Bad call.

Sensor Booster lights up, my drones launch and web/point activate on him.

Gank Harbinger (3x Heat Sink 1x Tracking Enhancer) with Warrior IIs results in:

http://mavericknavy.com/killboard/?a=pilot_detail&plt_id=78530

[03:15:57] EVE System > Channel changed to 5-CQDA Local Channel
[03:24:54] Perseus Kallistratos > gf
[03:24:58] Xirxo > wheee
[03:25:21] Xirxo > Didn't think you'd be able to track. = (

Fun to some extent, but one kill a day is just not enough :(


Yesterday was fairly uneventful. I alarm clocked on op to take back a Platinum Moon Panda had killed.

It was coming out of reinforce during downtime, and despite my wants for a sleep in Sunday... I woke up and took a small RRBS gang into Fountain. On the way there our eyes in system reported Blade showing up and engaging the small Caldari tower.

He convoed their FC, who promtly replied that Blade was just there to get the mail. Ok, business is good.

Then five minutes later a Blade "diplomat" convod my eyes in system and reported they were dropping their own tower on the moon?

Ook.

So we proceeded to pound the tower with the Blade fleet. It melted quickly. Then we unanchored the mods, and dropped our own tower.

Blade left, saying that "next time its ours" or something to that effect. I shrugged.

Tower onlined, we left.

Exciting I know. Such is POS warfare.



-MVN- is looking forward to Tyrannis, but it seems we are short on the details for launch. How much? How big? Tax? Spacing? Resource amount?

Lots of questions that will be answered (maybe) on launch day. CCP style.

That is all.

The Psychology of Eve

There are two types of fleet commanders in EVE.

There are those that lead because they have played longer and know more about the ships and engagements because of tenure with the game itself. In most situations they perform admirably and can depend on predictable situations and results to win the engagement for them.

The second is the type of FC who operates on instinct. He doesn't just look at the ships and weapons. He gets inside of the head of his opponent and thinks beyond the now and to the future. He is a chess player of EVE PVP. This type of FC doesn't necessarily need to have played the game for years. Knowing the chess pieces and their capabilities is very important, don't get me wrong. But they are not the end game... merely pawns that can be used predictably and unpredictably.

The first type of FC inevitably runs into a situation that he has not seen before. This is when he falls apart (or chooses to run). Unable to think outside of the realm of possibilites he is familiar with, he is doomed to fail. These FCs are needed without a doubt. They are valuable in providing combat experience to a corp. But in situations of importance they are not as reliable as the second type.

The key to the instinctive FC is remembering that you are not fighting in a FPS. Being quicker with the mouse is not going to get you a win. You are playing a real person who thinks and has emotions just like you. You have to put yourself in the position of that pilot or FC and think, what would I do. Then you make a plan to counter that strategy. You think ahead more; what would I do after seeing what he is about to see? Then you plan the next move. Not always will these predictions come true... but more often than not they will, or they will manifest themself in a close rendition of what you had predicted.

These tactics operate not outside of having numbers or skilled pilots, but include those factors in the planning process. This does not mean that you should fight against all odds and get annihilated... this means that you can look at those odds and say, "I'm not going to kill all of them, but what can I kill and get away with".

Combined with an understanding of mechanics of the game, the ability to read your opponents and counter their moves before they have even shown their cards is almost unstoppable. This is not a talent that can be taught, it just comes naturally to some.

So for those new/aspiring FCs.... don't give up. You don't have to be an 04 toon to win at EVE.

That is all.

My Sig Banner

Much thanks to Parleion for his work on a signature for me:

"I'm a graphic designer/photographer by trade and would be glad to give a go at what you're looking for. That and I always enjoy working for ISK. If you've got any pixel height width requirements or basic ideas to play off of, awesome, if not, I can come up with a few concepts.

I absolutely love reading what you write, and, as an MH (or now WTF I guess) pet, getting to see things from the other team's perspective. More often than not, it gets me trying to buck the leadership to go a bit more on the offensive, whether they listen or not.

I look forward to hearing from you and reading more of what you've got to say."

He also would like you to know he is open for business, banners running approximately 100 mil. Just contact him in game.

I also have DarthDeaconRage of Gentleman's Club putting something together... should be interesting.

That is all.

Poll on Dominion lag.

Not a big deal. 9 (8%)

Aggravating but manageable. 9 (8%)

Serious issue needs attention. 93 (83%)

Vast majority of participants in the survey believe that the lag is a major issue.

Thanks for the input ladies and gents.

That is all.

Fight in PB

Last night I was out, unable to get on EVE until late late late.

This is the afteraction report for an engagement that took places last night, by Yasumoto

"An epic USTZ night of close-range RR BS + logistics v. the NC blob.


Summary: Vince Draken + Soho Torres FC'd RR BS + Logistics fleet that killed an offline tower and ultimately engaged multiple times an NC fleet nearly twice our size. ISK-only losses were the inverse with our fleet coming out on top. The cake was iced by Avi's golden penis mythic tale on TS at the end of the night. Haha.

http://d00m.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=6649718

Details: R.O.L.'s Vince Draken called for a RR BS + Logistics fleet to form up in X-7OMU around 00:30. Starting with a relatively small gang of under 50 pilots, we titan-taxi'd to kill an anchored tower in BDV3-T. Best guess is that we caught the WI guys during their POS erection. Read into that as you might.

http://www.mavericknavy.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=32915

Bridging back to X-7O, the same fleet minus the caps went a few hops over to X47L-Q to shoot another tower with hopes of also engaging the NC response fleet. We had scouts giving us numbers of well over a hundred compared to our 50-ish pilots. Calls went out in intel channels and the fleet swelled up to about 70 pilots.

With a couple of mexican stand-offs and failed CovOps warp-ins, we never got to fully engage the fleet around X47 or J-CIJV. We knocked off a couple of unlucky pilots. We also managed to get bombed on the X47 Gate in J-CI. Bombing a close-range RR BS gang. Um, yeah.

http://www.mavericknavy.com/killboard/?a=kill_related&kll_id=32926

Shortly thereafter, our FCs got word that the NC blob had likely bridged (my best guess) into BDV3-. We responded by heading back into X-7O and taking the taxi into BDV3, slipping into the shields of a DOOM. POS. This is there the fun really began.

We had numbers of around 70 pilots, mainly in close-range BS with a couple of HICs, some misc. support and six or seven Guardians.

The NC conventional blob, for whatever reason, went to the WW-KGD gate and our FC landed us right on top of them for good times. Target calling was very, very fast with more losses on the NC side of things. Logistics held up OK considering the opposing numbers. Warping out, we licked our wounds and repaired our fleet as best as possible at DOOM. POS.

Rinsing and repeating, our FC warped us back to a tactical point at the WW- gate where we ultimately engaged the NC conventional fleet again. And, in classic NC style, a cyno went up and their capital fleet jumped into the fray. Fuckers. Finishing off those conventional ships nearest our fleet, we warped off again. More skulls for the skull throne, as they say.

At some point, we bridged in a handful more conventional ships for those who died and/or podded themselves back to X-7O.

The NC then decided to use their capital fleet and reinforce the tower in which we were parked. DOOM. gunners went to work on the NC conventional fleet with our fleet holding for a planned bounce maneuver on top of the NC caps. My mind is a bit hazy on the order of events, but we ended up bringing in two titans that caught one dread with the rest of the NC fleet warping out just in time.

http://www.mavericknavy.com/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=33002

Our conventionals ended up warping up to an on-grid bounce point and back down within range of the NC cap blob, the FC called a primary and our rag-tag BS fleet engaged. Logistics, at this point, were barely able to keep our BS alive until they dipped into the POS shields. NC Carriers were taking their toll.

The titans were white knuckling their mice as the NC capital fleet was still around and the NC support fleet was dicking around the POS shields. No worries with the big toys getting into the shields.

By this time, many European pilots were logging and our numbers slimming down. This gang had been in operation for nearly five hours. NC numbers also slimmed down as they jumped their capital (and conventional?) fleets out of the system.

And yet the gang continued on to reinforce a NC tower with a titan and two SCs that jumped in to speed up the POS bashing. Fortunately Avi came onto the R.O.L. TS and graced us with a tale detailing the glory of the golden phallus.

In Conclusion: This was a good fight to have in the North. We engaged and did well against superior numbers. With a handful more guardians and light dictors as well as close-range and well tanked RR BS, we might have done even more damage. And we had fun. \o/ "

I would personally have loved to be there, but had an enjoyable time last night regardless.

Who's got skills?

So, I've not been one to use this blog for my own gain.

Up until now.

I've decided that using the Battleclinic standard signature picture thing is kinda lame (finally, after a year).

So who knows someone that can make a decent banner signature thing, or perhaps is skilled themself?

I'm not looking for spectacular, (ok maybe I am) but I would like something cool. I'm not sure what cool would be, but I'll know when I see it. I don't care if you're a Goon or PL or NC or carebear.

I'm not a rich man (PVP=Constant Brokeness) but I will pay reasonably (ISK of course).

Feel free to contact me in game, Perseus Kallistratos, or response to this post.

That is all.

Training the Troops.

My recent responsibilities in Mavericks have been to train, train train. Train newer FCs, train new troops.


Needless to say, this is a trying task.

Last night I observered a roam from one of our newer FCs, Agro Cathaldus. If you look him up on Battleclinic hes a baby in EVE. In fact, click my picture to the right if you are not on RSS or iPhone.

I'm a baby in EVE.

So I will tell you with certainty that although flying ships and skilling up opens up your playing options... it doesn't mean shit.

The head on your shoulders, your situational awareness, your tactfulness, and the ability to get in the enemies head and plan two moves beyond is what makes a good FC.

So Agro took out a small roam of BCs with a Dictor and two ceptors. I was in a ceptor (Crow) scouting ahead. We roamed up into Fountain. With that I have a confession...

I was lazy and scouting using a chat box with Agro... as I was on the phone with a girl. As I have said before... priorities. Now to be fair I was being rushed by Agro, as he wanted to get going. I should have just said no, go without me. But I didn't. He had a scout for the gang in place, so it wasn't horrendous, but I was way ahead searching for targets.

I found one.

GK Cynabal in KVN-. I jumped through, he followed. I waited session and reapporached.

He blew me up.

ugh.

Maybe the phone call did it, maybe it was unavoidable. I believe that the situation was avoidable, but once in it I was going to die.

So lesson learned, when talking in RL on the phone (which is more important than EVE), don't PVP.

So I laughed away my loss and scouted down towards YZ-LQL with my pod. I had +4s in... but meh. Found a Vengeance camping a drag bubble in 75FA off the I-C gate. No scout in I-C. Reports were of a GK gang battleship gang (5-6 strong) north aways.

Relaying this info over chat to Agro, he set up his gang in I-C on the 75FA gate. Per my recommendations he jumped in a bait Drake, which warped straightaways to the YZ gate. Drake pilot reported Vengeance followed him to YZ...

Seemed like he wanted a fight.

I was worried about warping bait right back to I-C gate, where he would get caught in the bubble. Seemed obvious to me... but he had no eyes on our gang and he seemed desperate for a kill. Why not?

Bait Drake warped back to the gate, got dragged into the bubble. Vengeance followed immediately and aggressed. Gang jumped in, burned out to the bubble.

For some reason our interceptor pilot got in close to the AF. Dumb. AF > Inty everyday, everytime. So he died. I explained to Agro in debrief... never assume your pilots are smart. So next time he will specifically instruct the ceptor to stay way out of scram/web range. No need to die stupidly.

The Vengeance died, and Agro immediately moved back up the pipe. His (and my) concern was that the bs gang would move to intercept our small gang, given that the Vengeance most certainly reported us and GK is not stupid; they know where we live and what route we would take home.

So fleet burned back to 5-C and sure enough, 15 min after the kill the GK BS gang was reported in KVN- on our gate home.

Ninja kill. Get in, get out.

The after comms chatter was a shock to me. This was the second kill for the Cane pilot... ever. For the ceptor pilot (who died) it was his first kill in -MVN-. "How do I post a killmail?".

Some of the recruits are greener than I thought. Not sure how they got in, but thats not my job. Lots of work to do.

That is all.

Delve. Cap Fight. Wish I Was There

I will quote from a secondhand source the fighting that happened yesterday, as I was working during the actual fighting:


So, earlier today PL started playing around with the IT POS in G-TT, we managed to get eyes on them and eventually they left (POS wasn't reinforced, bunch of guns were damaged).

RKK dropped ~5 Carriers into G-TT to rep, fully aware (and hoping) that PL would most likely hotdrop. We had a couple of Titan pilots online and various Supercaps logged on inside friendly POSes across Delve on the offchance that they did.

Sure enough, PL Rapier uncloaks and opens a cyno. Small bunch of PL Motherships jump through (don't have #s, 3?) and I think a couple of Carriers. In return we light our cyno, Friendlies: Two Titans, 7 Supercaps and a small number of Dreads/Carriers jump in. We point an Aeon and a Nyx, and start focusing on the Nyx.

Very quickly the rest of the hostile Supercaps warp out, leaving Nyx/Aeon there. Destromath hangs around at 300km in his Aeon, but we're focusing on the Nyx so we don't pay all that much attention. Nyx hits 60% Armor, 50% Armor, 40% Armor.

Hostile Rapier uncloaks and lights a cyno. 3 PL Titans jump in (Two Erebuses, 1 Ragnarok). PL Titans DD the Hictors we have on the field (at the time we have like, 1 normal Dictor on the field) and the Nyx warps out whilst very very low on Armor (bordering structure?).

Edit: Confirmed, Nyx was entering structure: http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...almostdown.png

I call the Rag as primary, and he starts dropping at a decent speed. Whilst this is happening we're pinging the shit out of IRC, and we have a steady stream of friendly Dreads, Carriers and Supercaps jumping in. Dyami (from the picture I've seen: http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...54/20uqszd.jpg) burns out his Hardners whilst we're primarying him, and at around 50% Shield a new cyno opens and a small'ish group of PL Carriers/Dreads jump in. At which point the decision to either keep on the Rag or switch down to Dreads was (for me), pretty obvious - and we switched over to primarying the Dreads.

Titans all warped out at this point, and the PL Motherships that had warped back in (understandably) didn't stick around as we had more people pouring into system.

Dreads seemingly stay out of siege (judging this from the incoming damage that we didn't seem to be getting) and from then it was just a case of keeping as much as possible bubbled to prevent it from warping out.

Good fight PL.

And Destromath's correction in the same thread:

our titans came in first, with moms as backup, to dd the carriers repping the pos, warped out when the IT cyno went up, and came back when we knew we had carriers coming in.

otherwise, yeah, what he said

gf to all.


So we had a first victory of sorts down in Delve. Battle report is here http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_related&kll_id=162600

I do enjoy fighting PL (even more so than in Fountain). They are (generally) professional, talented and ballsy. They excel in small gang wafare, which is where -MVN- has historically been excellent. Unlike the massive blob wafare we fought in the NC, there are many good fights to be had in Delve.

That is all.

Sansha Stuff

So I have been reading about the whole Sansha Storyline thing and find it quite interesting. I haven't been able to participate (nor do I think I will be able to) in any of the unfolding events, but its been quite a show. I look forward to reading more about it. Hats off to CCP for something positive as of late.

Still doesn't help me with my lag.

So it ends... or is it begins?

Its been a rough weekend for IT, no matter how you look at it. Atlas announced a pull out from NC. Pandemic Legion continues to harass and hot drop every moving thing in Delve. Our divided forces aren't enough to get the job done at either end.

IT lost a Titan in Delve to said PL forces.

With that being said, we still managed a fun corp roam through Curse last night. Easley commanded the op, as I was arranging cynos for corp members while tagging along on the roam.

We managed to pop a Heron and a Vagabond... nothing too exciting. Heron was caught in bubbles and died instantly. The Vagabond was also caught in a bubble and reapproached the gate, jumping through. He was bubbled on the other side and tried to burn away, but was webbed and scrammed quickly. Pop.

Chatted with some alliance called Waterboard, who brought a large gang down from camping Doril. Easley ordered a logoffski in station. One of the Waterboard guys didn't like us "running" from an uneven fight.

Funny enough, we bailed out after 20 min of logoffskiing.. and most of the elements returned to Delve. Easley and I played around and ran into a Gentlemans Club gang... who we enlisted and went back to Hemen, where the Waterboard guys hang out. Same people insulting us for not engaging... didn't engage.

hahaha.

So bottom line is, insulting people in local for not engaging is dumb since you wouldn't engage a gang with heavier composition and more numbers than you no matter how bad they suck.

On the Atlas note (http://www.kugutsumen.com/showthread.php?6187-Northern-Conflict-12-5-2010-Onwards-(Who-let-the-dogs-out!)/page23) I find this amusing. There may be some Atlas readers of my blog, and please don't be personally butt hurt by the following. But it must be said.

Atlas didn't do much for the campaign.

Their numbers were combined Atlas/GC at all times. Neither force was fully committed to the effort from the get go. H-W finally showed some true numbers but too little too late. Bobby was around for about a week during the entire conflict. Not having your leader in a time of war is bad news. The notable Atlas conflicts involved the annihilation of a 200 man HAC gang and the annihiliation of a large cap fleet. Not great press or morale boosters. Bobby personally blames everyone else. Thats not to say bad decisions weren't made at the Alliance Leadership level of the SC, but hard to blame decisions that were made in your absence. But he beat the e-peen energy stick for his people to make their pull out less of downer by tossing all the blame on everyone in a recent mail I linked above. The bad FC decisions (pulling out leaving allies high and dry when they should stay, and getting annihilated when they should have pulled out), the bad turnout, and the lack of leadership. So... happy trails back to Angel Cartel space.

Red Overlord, Initiative, and White Noise all committed wholeheartedly to the effort. -A- didn't arrive until later, and was starting to ramp up as the H-W failure happened. Too little too late.

So then next saga should be interesting. Will NC come down to Delve? I believe they will, but in partial numbers and with low motivation (maybe high initially). Fighting away from home in Dominion is a nightmare. Taking sov in Dominion is a nightmare. Black screens in Dominion is a nightmare. Plus, all our carebear stay at homes will be around to bolster defense numbers.

Should be interesting...

Stealth Bomber = Glass Cannon

I spent little to no time on EVE, as Friday night meant other things to do.

But I did hop on for twenty minutes after work. Upon loggin in I read/responded to EVE mails. A report of red in 5-C, PL in a Hound. Also reported he had a friend in a Cynabal logged of next door in KEE-.

Intriguing.

I warped to the KEE- gate in a Harbinger and jumped through. Red in local, PL. Cynabal on scan from my gate.

Very intriguing.

I slowboated back to the gate and sat there. My plans for the evening called my phone, so I picked up and started chatting, while reporting the intel. Then the Cynabal landed on gate. Yellow box. "I got to go, see ya soon" I said to her. Priorites... right?

Cynabal tried to bump me off, I avoided the bump. Moving assets into position, I had friendlies in M2 on the Kee- gate, as well as a couple tacklers in 5-C enroute to the KEE- gate. Then his buddy in the Hound jumped in. Initially cloaking... about 20 seconds later he decloaked, locked up and immediately started torping me. I lit my SBo and started locking the Hound and Cynabal.

"Hound aggressed!" I announced. Boom, local spiked as my boys came in. I dropped my Warrior IIs and started chewing the Hound up. Whether due to miscommunication or whatever, the Cynabal didn't aggress. Hound died quickly, then DPS switched to Cynabal. He jumped. Tackler on other side grabbed him... we de aggressed and spammed jump. As we were jumping through, report was our tackler had to warp. I loaded grid to see the Cynabal 40km off of me. I started burning for him... but he warped at 30km.

At this point the girl had arrived and I had to dock up immediately or risk RL aggro.

Priorities, right?

I'll get the Cynabal later. Hound kill was good enough for the moment.

That is all.

Thanks for the bubbles!

Thanks for the bubbles was Quesa's trademark phrase two nights ago when we were in H-W. We took a ceptor and Dramiel gang to system that, just a few hours before, was completely lagged out.

As much as we have been laughed at for bringing that type of gang out to play, its highly effective. It is the only thing that the NC blob numbers can't counter directly.

On the way there we ran into a small group of NC. One was in a Mega, the other two were Hurricane and Flycatcher. Hurricane and Heretic kept reapproaching and jumping, and our forces were divided between the gates. Local spiked in one of the systems and we bailed... Mega in structure, Cane in armor, Heretic in half armor.

Ugh.

We moved on, scout jumping into H-W. Reports were that the gate was heavily bubbled. Arazu and Hurricane on gate. We went for it. A Rapier decloaked, and we scattered a bit. Arazu cloaked and ran, while Hurricane tried to burn off. He had been sitting the bubbles, and it cost him. Boom.

We warped to D7 gate and held there for a bit. We ended up killing an Omen that warped at range... as 100km for a Dramiel is a blink of an eye.

As our IT KB is down atm :( I will post from Battleclinic. Yes I know that requires a login.

This Drake that jumped in from D7T and was stuck in the bubbles. He tried to reapproach but Drakes are slow and he was webbed and scrammed . This was epicly fit. I'm not sure what he was fitting for... maybe incomplete ratting setup? 2x Invuln 1x Heat Dissipation with an empty low and no highs... so I figured he was going to jet cans at us for DPS or something.

After he died we killed another Drake. This Drake had been sitting in the bubbles on the D7T since before we arrived, even watched his fellow Drake friend die. Assumed bait. After staring at it for five minutes we decided to go for it anyways. His fit was pretty standard... except for the cap booster. In my opinion, sacrificing tank for more cap is dumb. But hey, what do I know?

Another jumper was this Myrmidon, who surveyed our gang and tried to reapproach with no joy. Pretty standard mixed T1/T2 fitting seemingly based on skill limitations. Not sure why he spent the money on trimarks but not rolled tungsten plates...

After a dry spell we moved back to camping the MSHD gate. First we killed this Cane found on the gate. Shortly thereafter we had a Flycatcher land on the bubbles in line with the station. We killed him insanely fast. He didn't even have time to bubble anything, just died. As he was popping directional filled up with hostiles. We burned off and sure enough, a medium sized fleet drops in the anchored bubbles in line with station.

We laughed in local for minute, chiding NC for their "bait ship". Whether or not he was bait was never verified, but it seemed that way. Better to use a ship that can tank... and have a couple cloaked Rapiers nearby to catch stragglers.

After dancing around their gang we warped back to the D7T gate. Killed another Omen and another Drake. This Drake... well... all I can say is dumb. The Drake was completely unfitted. Perhaps he planned to fit in H-W... but he jumped into a hostile system with active enemies and no scout. He deserved to die. And boy did he die quick.

Comedy moment of the evening was shortly after the Drake kill. We were trying to scan down a Cerberus that was near the gate when a shuttle appeared on directional scan. We readied to kill the shuttle, and when he landed... surprise. He decloaked a bomber that was sitting on the edge of the anchored bubbles, presumably warping in from the station just like the shuttle did. Fail. They both died.

We picked off another bomber, a Thrasher and another Cane before heading home. Bomber was fit with a cloak and MWD, nothing else... I guess it was night of the fail fits.

All in all we spent around 2 hrs in H-W bouncing around and killing things that were bubbled on the gates. There was some banter in local, most of it friendly. A couple notable exceptions were some guy from OWN... who was told to shut up by his "OWN" leader in local ~lol~ and a guy from Defy. Hats off to the MM and Rage gentleman who know how to properly banter in local.

So despite not re-reinforcing the station a few hours earlier, we still managed to have some fun.

As for yesterday, I was limited on EVE. Day off from work meant motorcycle rides, poker, running/lifting and I did see Robin Hood last night. Enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

That is all.

Better Luck Next Time

The last few days have seen us pull out of H-W. The op was unsuccesful in securing H-W. That being said, it did allow for other victories elsewhere. Those, however, don't help the morale that was lost during the operation.

What went wrong you ask?

Several things.

In my original work up of the plan with Manny we called for the operation to start on a Friday morning USTZ (Euro Prime). This would allow first reinforcement timer to come out while the weekend was still going on. This didn't happen, and the operation kicked off on a Sunday. Not sure why.

The original plan also called for enough committed numbers to keep the system filled with allies, much like Atlas did to RA back in the day. This also didn't happen. Not enough people stayed logged in after the initial assault. The key was holding initial numbers. NC ended up doing just that, with everyone and their mothers alts logged on even if they were in station when the reinforcement timer neared 0. Someone snidely commented on the last post asking since I approve of the logoffski how I felt about the "logonski". I simply replied that it was a valid tactic. I guess the person didn't realize that that was the whole point of our operation to begin with... so obviously I approve of both the logoffski and logonski.

Nice try.

The last and most important issue was that short of the first day, there wasn't enough cooperation going on between alliances. The blame falls on leadership for this one. The NC has an advantage in that although they are seperate alliances, they all form up under the same fleet and same comms consistently. Well practiced and second nature, the lines between alliances don't really exist. For IT & Allies this has been a very new experience... and the idea of just jumping onto allies comms and their fleets isn't first nature. It showed. Sure we had some major victories during the H-W conflict. But in the end we had to pull out, and allies lost some supercaps doing so. Not exactly the morale booster I had in mind.

What next? I'm not sure. We are still in the theater of operations. We are still fighting. NC jumpbridge systems are switching back to NC hands, but must wait 35 days before JBs can be put back up. Although some can be re-routed, not all can perform from alternate systems. Moons come and go.

The dissapointing part is that same sentiment shared by military commanders since the dawn of civilization; when the political elements supercede the military elements, things go wrong. Or in Layman's terms, when the recommendations are twisted to suit a political agenda and end up failcascading. Best recent example is Somalia and President Clinton. Most US are familiar with the situation... whether from news or the book "Black Hawk Down" which was turned into a well known movie. Operations were sanctioned to take out Somali warlords, in particular one in Mogadishu. Serious limitations were set by Washington DC, from officials far away with little perspective on the actual fighting and a political agenda. Those constraints limited and forced the hand of the ground forces into compromising positions, but with no adjustment in the goals. As such, military personnel died and were captured.

All in all, there were some good fights. There was also epic glitching and blackscreening. There was no skill involved in this fighting (from either side). It was simply who had the most people in fleet and active. The real winners were the small gangs that would go into H-W and score lemming kills. Those were fun, and were usually found USTZ. A glimmer of sunshine in a dark situation.

That is all.

New Poll--Vote!

I have a new poll up on the site.

"Should fixing blackscreen be a CCP priority?"

A. Not a big deal.
B. Aggravating but manageable.
C. Serious issue needs attention.

Lets hear it folks.

That is all.

Solo Falcon

So as I was reviewing my postings... I realized I had forgotten to share an awesome morning experience I had a couple weeks ago. In reviewing I remembered that what had started as a good morning ended with me losing a Falcon when FC ordered warp to an outbound gate to engage a gang... without realizing said gate was bubbled. Both Falcons died, a Daredevil died, while the majority of ceptors and all Dramiels in our gang got out.

Needless to say I emo logged for the rest of the day.

But I had fun with said Falcon earlier in the day. So the story I shall share.

So I woke up April 28th, later in the morning. No work, happy day.

Decided to head down this pipe/dead end constellation that had lots of carebears in it. I threw some heavy pulse lasers on my Falcon (horribad, right?) and rolled down said pipe. I snooped around this area, which is populated by Vanguard and Spacemonkeys Alliance. I noticed some hauler traffic jumping through a gate... repeatedly. More than 1 hauler. In fact 4 were moving something somewhere.

Jackpot.

I set up shop in UC3H on the 6GWE gate in Pure Blind. Watched Ittys and Badgers go out. First one that came back was an Iteron IV. Boom. Empty. Damn.

I had warped off gate after killing the Itty IV for fear of repercussion. Yet my directional stayed empty, and no bump in local. Wow.

With that kill I now knew that the product flow was out of system, and all the haulers on the way back in would be empty. I had also observed one of the haulers, an Itty V, was using an off gate warpin. He would warp to that spot, then down to the gate I was sitting at, and out. I was intrigued by this, and after the second time I headed towards the spot. He came back through and filled up again, warping to the spot a third time. he was only 50 off now (instead of 200) and I reset my bearing (which was very close to right on). After traveling the distance needed I stopped and waited.

After five minutes he came back through, warped off. I waited. Five minutes later I picked him up on scan... shortly after he landed. 5k off of me.

Hot damn.

I decloaked, locked him up, pointed while switching to Imperial Navy Multis for max damage. It took over a minute for him to die, but die he did.

The Iteron V was loaded. No need for that plex now, I was set for another month or two. I grabbed as much as I could of the small expensive stuff and warped to a safe, jetting a can. I warped back for a second load and was bringing that to my can when Leykk saw my killmail in Maverick Command and asked if I wanted help with loot. I responded with an absolutely and over he came in a cloaky hauler. I went back for a third load and found an Iteron IV trying to scoop loot. So I killed it too.

Still no enemy response.

Leykk arrived and loaded up with everything but the POS mods. I warped him to my safe and he took the can contents too. Back home we went; I gave Leykk some of the loot and thanked him for his help. Nice spoils, for a couple hours of sneaking. I am now training for Curse/Pilgrim. Plan to do more solo work with those ships, as Falcon is pretty limited in solo capability. Didn't stop me from having fun with it.

That is all.

Holy Lag

Yesterday was an example of lag at its best. With local (attempting to climb) around 2000, repeated incidents of blackscreens, node crashes, rewind repeats and the ever popular I tried to cyno out of the system but instead appeared at a random location in same system were prevalent. The ugly I logged in at a pos and find myself out of the shields (no bump) reared its head from time to time as well.

This affected SC far more noticeably than NC for the H-W station timer. How/why? NC logged everyone on. Alt's, Scout's Miner's... everyone. Many of these were in the station not doing anything but taking up space in local. Sucks, yeah. Valid, yeah. At the peak, about 1/3 of local was friendy and 2/3 were hostile (best estimates able to be seen in the bloody mess). Were 2/3 active hostiles? Probably not. But there was no way to tell. NC mails had requested everyone log in and stay logged in even if it was docked in station. Easy enough to do, and it worked. Reinforcements to make an even fight were unable/unwilling to jump into that shitstorm. I don't blame them.

SO... instead they went around PB and got to work. Taking advantage of the NCs complete committment to H-W we killed 2 highends, reffed 4 highends, killed 1 small miner, killed 2 IHUBS + TCU's, and one TCU.

Some of these were in key jump bridge systems.

So in spite of the horrible situation (for all NC and SC) in H-W, we made gains elsewhere.

Pertaining to the horrible lag in H-W and my previous emo post about CCP being retarded... I had this comment left (on the emo post) which I want to share with you all:

"Nitor1013z said...

CCP Atlas in H-W9TY System.
We told him to fix lag.
He told us to stop spamming local chat.
Says enough for me."

Enforcing the rules. I can only hope that he was there to oberve the lag as well... but part of me thinks that the only reason he was present is because some smartass filed a petition for flooding local. I (we) may be overly pessimistic, but can you blame me (us)?

Quick tip in laggy situations? Minimize local window. Not like its useful for anything but trolling during a fight.

More tips? Turn brackets off. Have target only overview up (which you should already have done). Turn graphics and effects down and off. Turn guns to manual. These simple tricks can help quite a bit...

They don't however, keep you from blackscreening and dying. A whim and a prayer is all you have with that bullshit.

That is all.

Thoughts Lead To Anger for PK

As I was thinking about the battle reports from yesterday I found my blood pressure rising slightly.

Why?

Because many of the losses on each side yesterday, both NC Caps and the Atlas Titan, were directly attributed to fail mechanics on CCPs side.

When I first started playing EVE sometimes the node would crash. It sucked balls but everyone was kicked off and you went and got food or did something else until it came back up. Then you would re form and get back to business.

Not anymore.

Now you have bullshit blackscreening which means you have no fucking clue what the hell is happening to your ship. Some of your fleet has overview, some do not. No matter how many times that shit happens, its going to happen again. PL had it happen in Fountain. IT has had it happen in Delve. CVA screwed themselves with it twice. Atlas got nailed with it yesterday in H-W and in early PB with 200 HACs. Yet people still think they can try and login/load/jump into absolute lagged systems and still manage it, possibly based on thought processes from earlier/non-fail releases of EVE. I'm sure today when the H-W station comes out of reinforce the same thing is going to happen.

Now if I'm in a little crap ship I don't really care all that much. In a HAC/BS I am gonna be agitated at the loss but its going to be ok. Capital... I'm going to be seriously pissed. Supercap... emo rage quit the game. Bottom line is that FCs/Pilots should expect this kind of bullshit lag. Count on it. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. We shouldn't have to do this... but right now its necessary.

The thing that blew my temper top is the fact that CCP hasn't done shit. "Call in your battle ahead of time to reinforce the node". Screw you. About half the time we can predict when/where we are going to get a big fight. But why should we have to try and plan our fights? We never used to. So CCP is going to push ahead with Tyrannis which is all great and everything... but haven't fixed the lag issue. I think the priorities are a bit skewed concerning the direction CCP is heading. You need take care of baseline coding issues before injecting a crapload more into they system. Yet all I see is "new lag test" bla bla bla. We're in the middle of a huge scale war. Go park a damn CCP ship in H-W right now for your test. Pretty sure you will get some good data to sift through while you plan for Tyrannis. Maybe even find a way to fix the issues.

For those who park in empire, run small scale gangs and warfare... I know. No big deal. You have it good and haven't experienced issues... except maybe those occasional jumps where you are in an empty (near empty) system and take 30 seconds to load system anyways. My favorite is the times when you take so long to load the system you have e warped off the gate. Annoying as shit when you are trying to travel somewhere... and theres nobody in local. But I'm off track. What I'm saying is that although it doesn't affect everyone in EVE... it affects a good part of the population. Namely 0.0 dwellers. And its not just a nuisance, its affecting warfare in a game changing way. At the very least, revert back to the old system. You were either logged in or not. Being lockable/shootable while staring at a black screen was non-existent, perhaps a nightmare that caused us to wake in a cold sweat.

Losing a Titan or a cap fleet because you are blindfolded with your hands tied behind your back while the other team is kicking your nuts in is not fun. And we all play this game... yeah, because its fun. So CCP... please, fix your shit. Soon.

That is all.

Don't Be Stupid In Lag.

I wasn't able to get on EVE yesterday at all, due to staying late at work. I had heard rumours of an Atlas titan go down while there, and I had confirmation later on that it was true.

NC massed enough forces to retake H-W (for a period of time), and were reinforcing POS' when an Atlas Leviathan was put into armor on one of those POS'. He made it into the shield in armor, but logged back in to blackscreen when he should have stayed logged off. Although he couldn't see nor had control over the ship itself, his ship was lockable in space and drifted out of the POS shields.

Boom.

Thanks ccp. We salute you.

On that note when the system is lagged to hell, don't log back in. Its just not worth it.

So we killed a bunch of their capitals (in no lag, to bad FC decisions for the most part) and they popped a Titan. Iskwise, it should have been tit for tat. Due to the ridiculous fit the Titan ended up being worth significantly more than one would expect. Both comments on my last post show the titan killmail.

With luck I should be off work early today, and get some fights this afternoon/evening.

That is all.

Battle Report

Got the following from Kugu's forums (take it with a grain of salt) but it seems pretty accurate.

"15W
We had a fight of about 90 vs 90 here with the NC support fleet. They jumped into us in 15w while we were set up on the gate and it was bubbled up. The fight from the start was heavily favored in our direction and after a small skirmish 5-10 minutes, the enemy fleet warped out and we used this window to get into H-W. Our fleet in H-W set up with capitals and subcapitals on the gate as we burned towards H-W. Upon jump in the SC and NC were already duking it out. The capitals were fighting out on the gate while the subcaps were 250km off the gate duking it out. We had a 3-4 minute load screen until we were able to join in.

http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_related&kll_id=158578

H-W:

We had about 90+ capitals fighting it out with unknown number of NC capitals. Each side had super caps on the field. I am unsure of the subcap numbers for each side but it did look like we were heavily out gunned in this category. We duked it out for quite a long time off the gate with minimal sucess. The lag was terrible and took forever to apply damage, each side did a good job on warping out when being targeted. Also each side failed at bubbling, the SC was not able to get good bubbles on the enemy fleet in the beginning while the NC didn't have any on us.

Towards the midway of the fight, our capitals were killing the NC capitals at a very fast pace while our sub caps struggled. The subcap fleet was too spread out and we needed a regroup badly. After about a few minutes of chatter we were able to regroup on a common point and the damage was quite noticable on the NC fleet. We forced them to warp out and regroup. At this time our capitals were still fighting the NC's caps, we had a few of their super caps tackled but had to concentrate on the remainder of their cap fleet.

After about two or so minutes the NC sub-caps warp down on our capitals. We follow right behind them and start slugging it out. At this point our side was getting some good bubbles and we were managing to kill some. Even tough we were killing them, I think our fleet was going down much faster, we were heavily outnumbered in BS and support ships and we needed back up badly. Luckily at this point in time our capital fleet managed to kill the last of their dreads/carriers, but unfortunately the NC super caps got out. Our own capital fleet warped on top of the NC BS while we concentrated on their support. After a while we forced the NC to their pos and we held the field on the MSHD gate in H-W.

As some of our people looted we noticed that there were multiple NC capitals outside the docking range in H-W. We warped our subcaps on them and fight ensued. We managed to kill what didn't warp out on the station sub cap wise, there were abut 4 capitals outside the station and one of them was 350km off of it. We started to kill the capitals because it was a race against time since the capitals logged out when we started to shoot them. After about 10-15 minutes we managed to kill 3 of them while the other diapered (dissapeared).

KB IT perspective: http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_related&kll_id=158578

Atlas KB: http://a-kills.com/?a=kill_related&kll_id=369848

-A-: http://a-kills.com/?a=kill_related&kll_id=369848

GC: http://www.gentlemen-in-space.com/ki...d&kll_id=66447

MM: http://kb.morsus-mihi.org/?a=kill_ba...-10%2015:26:00

I wasn't able to find a good perspective from the NC united KB due to it being %&$#$# atm. Maybe when it is fixed or something.

Note: While we were duking it out with the NC, ROL/Init + other allies were killing towers and reinforcing stuff all over the place"

Good times.

That is all.

You Just Got Trolled

Yesterday, during one engagement I lost two ships. No, I'm not sad. It happens. Through a combination of events, I seem to get primaried frequently. Still not complaining. The little red channel commander button on TS means spies list you on the first to die list. Combined with a somewhat known blog and a really big mouth in local, I die a lot. Which is why I fly cloakies in large fleets more often than not these days (and if you are one of the FCs it is smart anyways).

After my last post, I did think of a funny story with no real PVP insight to share with you all relating to these losses. The first loss was a Manticore, which was lost due to our fleet jumping into the enemies fleet (we were aware and looking for a fight). With lag + bubble + fast movers I was decloaked and killed rather quickly. So I reshipped into a Harbinger I had fitted in X-7 (in retrospect another cloaky would have been more intelligent but I was short on time) and moved back to the fight.

Once in Ki- local (again) I joined up with the fleet which was pounding on the ihub. The ragtag NC fleet had been smashed pretty good, the remnants of which were floating around the system. A 40ish man gang of Solodrakban (Goons) was zipping around in frigs and had decided to join the fight. I am sorely dissapointed in the quality of Goon fighting and the quality of Goon smack in local these days. I trolled the shit out of them in system... feeling quite proud of myself. Even up to the point they warped their ceptor gang on top of our fleet, along with the remnants of the NC fleet. We were departing system as the i-hub had just finished getting put into reinforce, and guess who their primary was?

ME!

Dramiels and Ceptors all warped to me at 0. Harbinger was insured, I got the pod out (even though I had no implants) and I laughed even harder. The point of trolling is to get a reaction.

I would say I got one.

So I suppose there is a lesson in this little story. If you troll local succesfully (or unsuccesfully), you will up your chances of dying first.

EDIT: Also, Easley provided a bit more in depth view of our initial steps in H-W. They can be found at:
http://couldhavetakenitsolo.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/my-call-to-arms-the-seige-of-h-w-has-begun/

That is all.

I Can and Will Complain

I have very little to write about, sofar as current EVE events go. Last night NC made a mediocre push for control of the system. As much as I can tell from secondhand reports (with me being at work right now) it seems we have taken control of the system once again.

That being said I want to emo rage for a minute.

To all those that are in the EVE Blog Pak and don't write. Or write little piddly posts about "I haven't played much", or "I'm taking a break", or "try out this other video game".

Either step up or step down.

Now I understand there are those that are on vacation, or have had a family emergency and such. But if its long term or you are just done playing EVE... just step down and give it up for someone who will devote more time to the blogging community. The readers deserve it.

To all those that have been writing through thick and thin, I thank you. Even if it is about carebearing crap :), you are writing and its about EVE. I know there are people who love/need/want that information just as much as the PVP bit I do.

Emo Rant Over.

That is all.

A Bold Move

As fighting is intense atm, I shall keep this short.

Last night we took a small inty/Dramiel gang out. Tackled a carrier in TXME- who was ratting in an anomaly.

After 20 min the Chimera died. Funny enough, the guy ejected into a Curse right before dying. His "escape pod".
The Curse died too. It was pretty damn funny.

We headed back shortly thereafter due to formup for major fleet, but managed to pop 2 Myrmidons on the way.

Giant CTA was forming up. I went for a short ride on the R6, and upon coming back I joined fleet. First cyno went up and we jumped. This was the IT composition at the time:

Heavy on capitals. Allies were all formed up and ready for the target.

What was the target you say?

The Hornet's Nest, as Soho always called it.

H-W


A few days ago Paik from -A- and myself held a long conversation in a command channel discussing various tactics to go about catalyzing this conflict. We came up with a jab to the the throat as the best way to raise morale for our forces while killing it for the enemy. We had soft agreement from other allies in the command channel who watched Paik and I feed off each other's excitement with our similar thoughts and feelings. Atlas agreed to commit, as did some other allies. I can't/won't go into specific details, but the next day I ran it by The Man (Molle). I left it in his hands, and it culminated in the siege of H-W that began last night for me (morning for you Euro guys).

We feinted with SBUs in a system far away, and the NC fleet found itself way out of position when we laid the cards down on the table. Into H-W we went, with little opposition. On NC comms they basically shat themselves when TS spies reported back our destination. We cyno'd into system with caps and subcaps and got to work. Taking down all the offline placeholding small towers was cake. Staging POS's were put up and the H-W station was bubbled.

For those who know history/have been around for awhile in game...

Pr- anyone?

Tyrannis: Ascension

Five Years Ago...

Victor sat on the living room floor in front of the holovid player. As he did every evening since he had turned 8 several years before, he watched the Interstellar News with rapt attention. The special report had him mesmerized, as a Concord representative detailed the new regulations concerning capsuleer engagement on worlds across New Eden.

"Grandpa, what does this mean?" he asked.

His Grandfather rested his hand gently on Victor's head and looked over from his chair. Victor looked back at his Grandfather. His wide, bright blue eyes darted back and forth between his Grandfather's eyes, not missing the scars on his Grandfather's left cheek.

"Son, everything is going to change".

His Grandfather's stories of combat from forgotten wars were never far from his mind. His own father had died during the recent Gallenti/Caldari Empyrean War. Living with his grandfather and mother was trying at times; his mother was never home, the two jobs she held were barely enough to keep food on the table and pay for the rent that kept creeping upwards. Victor attended school at a run down building a few kilometers away, his free time spent reading anything he could get his hands on. It was never enough, and he craved more.

Victor would become entranced when reading about ships, battles, anything that involved the Immortal Capsuleers. He kept his thoughts to himself; his father had had the same visions of immortality when he joined the Caldari Navy. Those ended suddenly when the Drake Class vessel he was on went down with all hands (minus the Capsuleer of course) near Luminaire. Any talk of Capsuleers upset his mother greatly; his Grandfather had already made his position on interstellar conflict clear with frequent smacks to Victor's head.

Victor looked back at the holovid while images of stellar battles danced in his imagination. His bright mind was already planning his future, which would get him off the backwater planet he currently called home


Three Years Ago

The past two years had gone by so quickly for Victor. It wasn't long after that night in his living room that the Immortals came to his planet. His Grandfather had been right, everything changed for Victor the evening the sky thundered and the ground shook. A deep core mining facility set up near his small town. Every day a transport would come and take the minerals to the headquarters on the other side of the continent. Young Victor would sit on a hillside and watch as the transport came and went like clockwork. His Grandfather would have given him the back of his hand if he had known, but his health had slowly deteriorated and he was bed ridden more often than not. The mining facility had little impact on his hometown; the few workers were from off world and the facility was quiet with the exception of the daily transport run.

The routine all changed for Victor, as fate (or was it destiny?) had other plans for him. Victor was running the trail his feet had worn in after months of use that led to his lookout. He was running late today, his teacher had kept him after for not paying attention in class. In his mind, Victor had no reason to pay attention to the coursework. It was all too easy, and daydreams of huge engagements preoccupied his thoughts. Regions like Pure Blind, Tribute, and Deklein played across his mind.

As he neared his spot he could hear the thundering in the distance as the transport began its descent. He was going to miss the landing! His heart pounded as he frantically scrambled to get into position. The thundering slowly turned to a roar. It was so close! Victor turned his gaze upwards to see the giant ship as it neared. He didn't see the fallen tree that crossed his small trail, entranced by the flashing lights of the transport instead. His right foot caught the tree squarely, and it sent him flying. His body stumbled and fell, his momentum carrying him off the path and down the hill. He tumbled, out of control, as various branches, rocks and bushes cut and bruised his body. He finally came to rest, yards from the fence around the facility. His vision faded in and out, his body burning and aching. He tried to move, but instead he screamed as the pain in his back sent white hot shards of pain through his body. The throbbing in his ears grew louder and louder, in time with the pain pulsating through his back. As he lay immobilized, his vision slowly turned red. The last thing he heard was voices and pounding footsteps before his vision turned black.

Victor woke up to an unfamiliar setting. He laid on a bed in a sterile gray room. The wall to his left was covered with instruements and monitors. The bed to his right was empty except for his clothing, which was tattered and splotched with blood. He was wearing a grey and black jumpsuit that was a little large for him, and made of an unfamiliar fabric.

Victor sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"Son, you are lucky to be alive" an unfamiliar voice boomed from the doorway. Startled, Victor looked up to see two men glide into the room. One wore the same jumpsuit he did, and had calloused hands and grey hair. The other wore a black outfit that seemed to mold to his body, and had a piercing gaze that bored right into Victor.

"You're back was broken and you were bleeding something awful, but our medical bots were able to fix ya up good as new," said the grey haired man. He offered a hand to Victor, helping him to his feet.

"Names Ray, I run this mining site. This hear is Thorgon, he runs the transport ship," offered Ray. Victor's eyes darted from Ray to Thorgon, who only offered a short nod.

"Mind telling me what brings you out this direction?" asked Ray.

"I-I-I-I..." stammered Victor. "I watch the ships come and go" he finally managed the words.

Ray let out a deep chuckle, and Thorgon's face curled, ever so slightly, into a smile.

"So you like the ships, eh?" boomed Ray. Victor nodded his head.

"Well you should be more careful running along them cliffs. Next time you may not be so lucky." Ray motioned towards the door. "Lets get you home before your folks get worried".

Victor cautiously walked into the hall with Ray close behind. The hallway was walled with plexiglass, offering a spectacular view outside. The transport vessel was even larger than he imagined, bots below scurrying hither and thither with canisters and crates. From the countless days of watching from afar he could tell the transport was about to leave.

"Would you like a ride?" said a deep voice from behind him. Victor quickly turned to see Thorgon looking down at him.

"A r-r-ride?" Victor responded, hesitation evident in his voice.

"Yes. I make the run to our command and control facility in less than an hour, from there you can see many more ships. I can bring you back later this evening in a shuttle," Thorgon continued.

Victors eyes grew wide with realization. "Yes!!" he almost shouted.

"Follow me then" said Thorgon. Victor followed him through the facility to the crosswalk that led to the transport. He couldn't help but notice the metallic gleam from the back of  Thorgons head. He had seen pictures, movies and read numerous books about the pattern he now saw. The mark of a Capsuleer! Once inside, Thorgon escorted him to an obervation room, with chairs and a massive obervation window.

"From here you should have a good view," Thorgon commented. "I have to control the ship from elsewhere, but I think you'll be fine." Victor nodded, and Thorgon left the room. Victor turned his attention to the fantastic view laid out before him.

Within a few minutes the ship thrummed as engines fired up. Slowly the ship lifted off the ground, the facility growing smaller. As forward momentum took over, the transport moved over the small mountain peaks Victor had played on all his life. He could even pick out the small spot he had watched from, so far below. His town flashed by as the transport picked up speed, chasing the setting sun westward. As it had done two years before, the world for Victor changed once again. Even the smack his Grandfather was sure to give him once he got home couldn't change destiny.


The Present...

Victor's face pressed against the plexiglass as the Merlin class frigate entered the atmosphere of home... another run, another 10,000 ISK in his pocket. He was getting good at everything spaceships, but inside he was never quite satisfied. The spaceport of Kiskonen appeared on the horizon and grew closer, lights glowing in the dusk.

A memory of the past surfaced in his mind. The memory was that of the first night he saw the spaceport on his home planet of Kiskonen, thanks to Thorgon. It made the daily transport run boring in comparison. He had been amazed at all the different vessels there, coming and going. But now the spaceport seemed so small and insignificant.

After hundreds of visits around his world, Thorgon was transferred to the Border Zone to take command of a military vessel. It was then that Victor started taking trips on ships operating between various planets in his system. His mother was too busy too notice, his grandfather was completely immobile. Victor watched, learned and took odd jobs on various ships. Every once and awhile Victor would get a message from Thorgon, but they were few and far between. His skills grew at amazing speeds as he soaked up all the knowledge he could. His eyes never strayed far from the stars, even whilst among them.

Shortly after turning seventeen, Victor was disembarking the small frigate on Kiskonen when a hard looking man in a nondescript military uniform approached him. His eyes were a dull blue, his face an emotionless mask. The setting sun cast a shadow over his face.

"Whats your name, boy?" the man asked in a gravelly voice.

"Victor, sir." Victor responded, staring straight at the man. Years of life experience had drained away the timidness that he once had.

"My name is Major Lawrence. I was told I could find you here by a Capsuleer named Thorgon. I've been working with him for the past year. He recommended you as a candidate."

"A candidate for what?" Victor inquired.

"To roam the the stars as a Capsuleer. Should you pass testing, you will bypass normal training and be placed under my command for Special Operations..." Lawrence paused for a moment before continuing
.
"Are you interested?"

Victors heart skipped a beat as his mind raced.

"Yes sir."

"Good. Sort yourself and meet me in one hour," Major Lawrence pointed across the tarmac to a vessel Victor immediately recognized as a Falcon Class Recon "in front of the my ship. Don't be late."

Victor nodded his understanding and the Major crisply turned and headed towards his ship. Victor felt like he was dreaming as he ran to his small storage locker in the spaceport hub. He emptied the contents into his duffel bag, which didn't take long. He stopped on his way out at a comms unit, and left a short message to deliver his farewells for his Grandfather and Mother. He left them with a simple message detailing his absense for an unknown period of time. All was well, he told them, and would be in touch when he could.

Without further delay he raced through the spaceport to the proper terminal and walked out onto the spaceport tarmac. The sun had almost set now, and he raced through the various ships to the Falcon. As if on cue, a boarding ramp dropped as he approached. At the top of the ramp was the silhouette of the Major, waiting for him. Victor marched up the ramp into the Falcon, the ramp closing behind him.

He followed the Major to the command center of the Falcon. The command crew worked silently as they passed. Victor took a seat to the side out of the way, taking it all in. After a minute he looked over at the Major, who had been watching Victor.

"You can wait here," Major Lawrence said. "The crewmembers will get you what you need during our journey." With that he turned and departed, presumably to take up residence in his Pod.

Within a minute the Falcon came to life, almost silent in its operation. The starport dissapeared below them and the firey orange sky soon gave way to the now familiar blackness of space. The view shimmered as the Falcon's cloak engaged, and the Recon ship aligned for warp. Victor didn't look back at his planet; instead his gaze ascended to the stars as the warp drive engaged.



Tyrannis: Ascension
By Perseus Kallistratos

Short but Sweet

Last night I went and lifted for the first time in almost two weeks. For some of you who lead a sedentary life, this doesn't mean much. I pride myself on being in peak physical condition. Funny part of taking a vacation... your motivation to do anything but be lazy drops like a rock. So vacation is over, and old habits continue. Endorphines FTW.

After the gym and some excessive high speed motorcycle riding, I logged onto my beautiful EVE.

A fight was just finishing up in Dp- (3j out of X-7). Massive losses for the NC response fleet for very little losses on our side. Molle was calling it a wrap as I arrived on scene. USTZ ftw :(

As I was surveying the POS the remnants of the NC fleet were hiding in, Atlas/-A- warped in on said POS and started trying to bump ships out. Too funny. After a few minutes of bumping (with no success) all allied forces started pulling out. I was sitting on the POS in my Manticore wondering what fun I could have after missing the big event. Then over comms "Drake tackled 3V8". I burned over to find a Drake pointed. I decloaked and started lobbing torps at the Drake. Other blues appeared in short order, and the Drake popped. Apparently the Drake had been trying to loot the numerous wrecks on field. Oops.

Vince of ROL had a small gang up, so I joined up with them after re shipping to a Falcon. Our target: a HAC/BC gang reported in the X-7 area.

We chased them up through J-C, X47, KQK and O-Y before they doubled back into KQK. We jumped back in to KQK, and our scout reported them 200 off the O-B gate. We warped to the O-B gate at 0 and bubbled ourselves (no aggro meant we could jump if needed). The NC gang sat 200km above the gate.

We waited.

In local, being the smartass I am, I typed "I TOO, LOVE STARING CONTESTS". Their gang and our gang were equal in size and composition.

The NC gang was full speed aligned off at this point, and our prober had a warp in on them. As if on que, they threw up a bubble inbetween our fleet and theirs... damn. We warped our dictor off gate and aligned him back to the NC gang... Their gang aligned down to the gate... our bubble dropped and we aligned up to them.

Intense, I know.

Vince made the call. "Dictor warp to (scout) at 0 bubble on land. Beatiful timing had their bubble drop a second later. Our dictor landed on their gang, which was in a nice little ball. He bubbled and bam, we warped right at them.

Primaries were called, our dictor died, and 3x Curse and my Falcon made the dictor the only casualty for our side. We annihilated them to be quite honest. For our dictor loss we took down 2 Zealots, 2 Feroxs, Flycather, Muninn, Curse, Harbinger, Phobos and an Onyx.

The rest of their gang managed to bug out. GFs were said in local, and Vince took us home. He went to bed, and I decided that I would retire early as well, given early work the next day.

It was a short but eventful evening for me, thanks to Vince Draken for the good fight.

That is all.

A Relevant Post for All

I was recently reading through Easley's past entries in his blog (that he recently started) when I came across his post "Why Attack The NC?" I shall post the text minus the pictures here, as it is an accurate account of our internal politics concerning that decision.

Why Attack The NC? As a member of IT Alliance, The Maverick Navy has been very busy fighting the Northern Coalition. The Maverick Navy also participated in the MAX campaign, which was the last major BoB/IT-run offensive against the North. Unlike the MAX campaign, which began with a long string of convincing victories for the Band of Brothers alliance, this war has been a struggle with gains measured in inches from day one. While the differences between MAX and the current campaign will be the topic of many future posts, I would like to take a moment to first examine the reason we are in this war to begin with. Some players may be unsure why IT Alliance and its allies in the south would bother attacking the Northern Coalition (NC) in their homeland after only recently recapturing our own space from Pandemic Legion, Sons of Tangra, Goonswarm and Zenith Affinity. While some of our opponents charge that IT Attacked the north “because everyone else was set blue,” this charge is provably false by a simple examination of in-game standings. We have enemies elsewhere, and many of our current war-fighting comrades are only temporary partners (by mutual preference). Among our temporary allies is Atlas, the alliance that The Maverick Navy formerly belonged to. We threw away our comfortable position in the Southeast to aid IT Alliance in their bold campaign against the coalition that previously had driven them out of their space following the “Hargoth” disaster. Bobby was not pleased with our withdrawal, but after a controversial internal vote, our CEO decided to take the plurality decision as a mandate for change. It would also be a mistake to completely ignore the existence of long-time foes like Pandemic Legion and Goonswarm (now SOLODRAKBANSO) simply because they are currently not major sov-holders. In the case of PL, the lack of attackable space is probably more of an advantage than a weakness, as recent events have shown. We were not “out of enemies” by any means, nor had we been at peace for very long. What some fail to understand is that most southern alliances share a common vision for New Eden. We want our world to be a brutal, tribal war-zone. Consider what the “new Providence” created by -A- has become. Instead of a shelter for inept carebears, the region is now a proving ground for tough-but-small groups like Agony, Noir, Daisho, Star Fraction and others. Just as before, it is a utopia for small-scale pvp, but without the hand-cuffing of players by religious zealots. Isn’t it interesting that the formerly-NRDS alliances in Providence, save for those who stay to plan their re-conquest of the region from low-sec, have chosen to move to the north and join the NC? Some say it is purely for revenge against their attackers, but my sense is that it has equally if not more to do with the security and “defensive” posture of the north. IT Alliance, formerly the Band of Brothers alliance, has a long and complicated history that I will not tackle in this post. However, one common string in our past has been a strong preference for aggression. Northern alliances, with some exceptions (most notably Razor) are defensive groupings of players who (again – this is a generalization) tend to see the ideal organization of New Eden as a Starfleet Federation of sorts, ripe for peaceful exploration and development. If IT and Atlas are like Pinky and the Brain, plotting to “take over the world” each night, then the North is like Jerry from Tom & Jerry, a cheese (ore) hungry rodent that always manages to foil its attackers plans, sometimes by enlisting help from a mean bulldog (and in this current war that would be Pandemic Legion). I’m being a little unfair to many of the northern entities, I will concede that at the outset. However, I genuinely do see a difference in the goals and behavior of the NC and the current “Southern Coalition.”

Hats off to Easley for his thoughts.

That is all.

A Short Roam with BLAST

Last night I hopped on EVE for a bit, to a waiting JC timer of 12 hrs. Which meant I would be in Delve for the evening. So I debated whether or not to try and hunt PL or rat. I hate ratting, so I was thinking hard on the latter when a friend from BLAST, Etag, convod me asking for intel on PL movements in the KFIE-/Delve Core area. I gave him what I had and he asked if I would like to come along on a roam. I responded in the affirmative, and as they were coming through 5-C on the way to Delve Core I hopped onto their comms and tagged along.

We headed straight to KFIE- and played games with PL on the station. I may not have love for PL but I do have respect for them. We had the potential for a Rapier kill on station... but the only one who could have caught him and kept him locked down was scouting elsewhere... and our Arazu (also MVN) had fighters on him and had to warp out. Our FC wasn't happy with my Arazu pilot, Coldures, but it was the right thing to do. No use risking an Arazu loss for a Rapier kill (if you are in the proper, non selfish FC mindset). So we played around on station for a bit (warning bells were going off), and one of my two corpmates in gang got popped. His fault really... he was in a bomber and got decloaked by the station. Readers remember, different stations have different docking ranges. Those that are massive undocks mean that you may PHYSICALLY look like you are far away from the station while in reality you are close/on it. As soon as that range ticker gets to 2000m you are decloaked.

I had mentioned my thoughts/opinions on our current course of direction of travel before entering KFIE-. Namely that messing around in the hornet's nest had messed up a few gangs recently. The response was somewhere along the lines of "I'm FCING this gang".

Ook.

We left KFIE- and went down to 319- (also NPC delve). Tried to bait a Drake on station... who let us know in local he was aware of the 7 guys next door. Fail.

Back to A-E we went (2j away from KFIE-) where a Tempest had been reported. My suggestion to pursue was met with approval (afterall we had been roaming for 20 minutes with 1 loss no kills). Aside from that hint, I kept my thoughts and opinions to myself and played along with the gang. I did volunteer to scout, Easley style. Whats Easley style, you ask? When you take a juicy target (not a damn tackling ship which is a dead giveaway) and pick a fight with someone who can kill you. With the gang holding next door in 1DH I warped to the station and 6Q gate, playing tag with the Tempest. He aggressed at a snipe spot 70km off the gate, but warped off when Coldures in his Arazu entered local. We played a bit on the station and I warped back to the 6Q gate. Sure enough he showed up on scan... and there he was. He landed 70km off the gate and bam, nailed me with a volley of 1400 arty. Big hit took my Harbinger to 90% armor. I started an orbit on the gate and the next volley barely nicked me but still did decent damage.

"Cold, you in point range?" I had instructed Cold to follow me to the gate, and burn up towards his last snipe spot. I figured the Tempest would be using the same warp ins. He was. "Yeah, I am in point range" Cold replied. I watched another volley of 1400s miss me and was waiting for Cold to decloak and point the Tempest when the BLAST FC yelled into comms "JUMP JUMP JUMP WARP TO PERSEUS GO GO!"

Sonofabitch. He called me Perseus.

and...

Cold had yet to decloak and point the Tempest. Later discussion revealed that he was 18km off at the time of local spike, but was closing to 10km for a scram + disruptor (3pts) in case the Tempest was stabbed or planned to burn off with MWD. The case for stabs was valid, as the Tempest was being very ballsy.

As soon as local spiked Cold cursed loudly on comms and decloaked. He dropped his point on the Tempest and... sure enough the Tempest warped off. My only words on comms were "you blew it, you jumped the gun". Coldures simply said thanks for the fleet, dropped comms and fleet and headed home. Those who know Cold understand how angry he gets. In this instance, I couldn't blame him. No point was called, no instructions by scout (me) were given. FC blustered a bit and simply stated "I thought you said you had him pointed".

Meh.

I was sad at losing a bomber for no kills and wasting 30 min of my life. I was mad at waving my ass in the breeze while an Arty Tempest wails at me, praying for no wrecking shots while our tackler moved into position. For nothing. I repped in 5-C for free but rolling around in half armor is less than ideal.

Their FC wasn't too apologetic. Etag convoed me afterwards and dropped me a "thanks for coming, sorry bout the Tempest". I responded "Sall good no worries. Just as long as he learns from his mistakes". I don't really know if that is going to happen but one can hope. I worry, as I saw no reservation (acceptance) of mistakes, which means its less than likely that changes will occur. But hey, not my deal nor my worry.

That is all.