Its been a few days since a relevant post, and to be honest, I haven't gotten much action PVP wise over those days.
A couple days ago we killed an NC gang roaming in Delve. I got eyes on them and tailed their gang, while a roaming gang came to help. It was pretty sloppy but we killed 2x Sleipnir, 1x Curse, and 1x Basilisk. We took some losses that didn't quite offset the kills, but were pretty dumb. I then took off solo for the next couple hours, but found no kills in Catch.
Yesterday I went on an early roam (EUTZ) and lost a Pilgrim. The reasons were multiple failures to communicate and not following basic orders. It kind of goes like this...
We were playing tag with a group that has been haning around Fountain and retreating back to low sec when confronted with an opposing force that can take them. Many faction frigates, including 4x Machariels.
The FC for the gang jumped into their camp and died... not sure how but his ceptor got killed. So I was asked to take over the gang. Not too happy (I was still half asleep) I assumed command and started what was to be a disaster. It would have been better to turn around and march home, but with our superior numbers and many friendlies in the area I assumed we would be able to take the gang (whatever didn't run).
We had them in a pipe system with one outlet, and were sitting on the outlet gate, while they were camping the pipe gate. As we landed and I jumped through, we were scouted by their neutral interceptor alt. As I was warping to where they had been, they landed on our in gate. I immediately had our gang jump through and bubble them in, instructions to reapproach.
None of them aggressed, and they all cross jumped us into the outlet system.
Damn.
So everyone jumped on through, holding cloak. Then the first bit of fail intel came in "they are aggressed".
Ok, in my head this means that I can send in forces and hit their fleet, as they are committed. They are unable to jump due to aggression and they will be unable to warp due to bubbles/points.
Unfortunately whoever yelled this over comms (lack of fleet discipline) had their head up their ass, and as I landed 15km off gate (due to the previous bubble being up), their fleet started jumping back in. Their Malediction was first in, and before I was able to warp off I was tackled. I tried to neut, but he kited me at range as their fleet came in and POP. I went.
Best part was my fleet, sitting on the other side with aggression. So I died, then my fleet came in and with no tertiary FC (I was supposed to backseat this one but the primary FC died in his Taranis before we even engaged) our fleet tried to fight Machariels burning off the gate... bad idea. We took even more losses and didn't kill a single one of them.
Looking back, you wouldn't even know that we had numbers on their gang. Nor would you know their was a blue fleet in the area as well (they didn't convo me, even though I asked in intel). Congratulations to the wretched for playing it smart.
So. Some simple things to pull from this:
1. Shut the fuck up on comms, and if you aren't sure on intel, keep shutting the fuck up. Aggression means a red box aka they are shooting you aka jamming aka anything that is aggression related. Yellow boxing means fuck all.
2. Use your head. If enemy fleet is not shooting you, they are not shooting for a reason. Think before deciding to shoot them first.
3. If you are leading a gang and there is another friendly gang in area, be in communication with that FC. If he isn't making first contact, do it yourself. To not coordinate is retarded. Really really retarded.
4. Don't FC in a Recon. You will die and Recons are expensive to replace.
5. I've said it time and time again, and am guilty of it this time. Don't assume your fleetmembers know the correct actions to take in many situations. In retrospect I should have assumed The Wretched gang would reapproach; it was the natural and intelligent thing to do, as aggressing would lead to expensive losses. Knowing this, I should have specified one individual to point/aggress and have the rest reapproach and jump with them. But I didn't, and I died (and they lost nothing) as a result.
So, being a little emo I didn't play much more yesterday. With luck, maybe some kills tonight.
June 29, 2010
June 24, 2010
Nothing to write about...
So, since CCP blueballed us for the past 24hrs, and I have no stories, I figured I would answer a question I got from an EVEplayer.
The questions was along the lines of "How did you survive the first couple months of EVE, and what are some lessons to learn?"
I look back to just over a year ago and EVE seems like a different game. I understood things in a very different way than I do now.
I guess the first thing to do when you start playing the game is to choose a path. What I mean by that is, choose what you want to focus on. PVP, Manufacturing, transportation, etc. This is hugely important, because it allows you to set a training path. One of the reasons I got off to a rocket start is that I knew I was going to play this game to shoot people or not play it at all. Coming from RTS games the action was important. I never used EVEMON until recently (and still barely at all), but I analytically planned out my training in my head. My focus was firstly on specific shiptypes that I wanted to fly and the associated skills required to fly said ships. The second was looking at said skills and saying "which ones will benefit me if trained first?"
For instance, in training Amarr recently, I trained all the skills for medium pulse and beam laser specializations and energy emission systems prior to training Amarr Cruiser V. Whats the point in a 20 day training when I can't properly fit the hull?
Look beyond the core and tertiary skills needed for ships. There are other skills that are crucial to success even though you can get into a hull without them. Flying a Drake with poor shield skills is dumb. Flying a Geddon with poor armor skills is dumb. Don't overextend the shiptypes you can fly without working on capacitor skills, navigation skills, mechanic skills, etc. Those skills are the best, because they apply to EVERY ship you fly. Don't jump the gun; often it will lead to an ugly lossmail.
Remember that just because you have chose a specific path in EVE, you are free to change at any time. Sure, its a pain in the ass, but its an option you always have. If you are a pirate and want to go carebear you can (I will make fun of you). If you are a carebear and want to go pirate, you can (I will give you props). If you are in high sec and want to move to null-sec, you can (although you may have to go through less skilled pet corps to do so).
Be patient. Patient with yourself, patient with your progress. You aren't going to jump into a major 0.0 alliance right away. You have to start low and work your way up (unless you know someone with an in). Don't get down on yourself. You are going to die. You will lose ships. The important thing is, did you learn anything when you died? If so, great, progression. If not.... think harder.
Don't mind old vets, many of whom are bitter. I've said it a million times and will repeat myself: Just because you are a new player doesn't make you bad/terribad. This may be accurate in many cases, but there are plenty of new players that are sharp and intelligent. There are also plenty of really old players who suck. The advantage tenured players have is skillpoints, which open up different hulls/weapons and allow those ships to operate more efficiently. But I have seen some crazy lossmails, with various noob ships on them killing much larger/more expensive ships.
Lastly, don't trust anyone you don't know in EVE. In most cases, don't trust anyone in EVE at all. Never give anyone money in "loans" or "returns for investment" or anything along those lines, and study every contract very carefully before accepting. EVE is allowed to run with very few rules, which makes it fun. But don't be the one getting the short stick, get the long stick. Those that have the long stick can beat other people over the head with it.
That is all.
The questions was along the lines of "How did you survive the first couple months of EVE, and what are some lessons to learn?"
I look back to just over a year ago and EVE seems like a different game. I understood things in a very different way than I do now.
I guess the first thing to do when you start playing the game is to choose a path. What I mean by that is, choose what you want to focus on. PVP, Manufacturing, transportation, etc. This is hugely important, because it allows you to set a training path. One of the reasons I got off to a rocket start is that I knew I was going to play this game to shoot people or not play it at all. Coming from RTS games the action was important. I never used EVEMON until recently (and still barely at all), but I analytically planned out my training in my head. My focus was firstly on specific shiptypes that I wanted to fly and the associated skills required to fly said ships. The second was looking at said skills and saying "which ones will benefit me if trained first?"
For instance, in training Amarr recently, I trained all the skills for medium pulse and beam laser specializations and energy emission systems prior to training Amarr Cruiser V. Whats the point in a 20 day training when I can't properly fit the hull?
Look beyond the core and tertiary skills needed for ships. There are other skills that are crucial to success even though you can get into a hull without them. Flying a Drake with poor shield skills is dumb. Flying a Geddon with poor armor skills is dumb. Don't overextend the shiptypes you can fly without working on capacitor skills, navigation skills, mechanic skills, etc. Those skills are the best, because they apply to EVERY ship you fly. Don't jump the gun; often it will lead to an ugly lossmail.
Remember that just because you have chose a specific path in EVE, you are free to change at any time. Sure, its a pain in the ass, but its an option you always have. If you are a pirate and want to go carebear you can (I will make fun of you). If you are a carebear and want to go pirate, you can (I will give you props). If you are in high sec and want to move to null-sec, you can (although you may have to go through less skilled pet corps to do so).
Be patient. Patient with yourself, patient with your progress. You aren't going to jump into a major 0.0 alliance right away. You have to start low and work your way up (unless you know someone with an in). Don't get down on yourself. You are going to die. You will lose ships. The important thing is, did you learn anything when you died? If so, great, progression. If not.... think harder.
Don't mind old vets, many of whom are bitter. I've said it a million times and will repeat myself: Just because you are a new player doesn't make you bad/terribad. This may be accurate in many cases, but there are plenty of new players that are sharp and intelligent. There are also plenty of really old players who suck. The advantage tenured players have is skillpoints, which open up different hulls/weapons and allow those ships to operate more efficiently. But I have seen some crazy lossmails, with various noob ships on them killing much larger/more expensive ships.
Lastly, don't trust anyone you don't know in EVE. In most cases, don't trust anyone in EVE at all. Never give anyone money in "loans" or "returns for investment" or anything along those lines, and study every contract very carefully before accepting. EVE is allowed to run with very few rules, which makes it fun. But don't be the one getting the short stick, get the long stick. Those that have the long stick can beat other people over the head with it.
That is all.
June 23, 2010
Downtime
Waiting for CCP to stop failing.
Two deadlines come and gone, and no update after 40 minutes of lateness on ETA for server being up.
Being late once... annoying.
Being late twice, aggravating.
Keeping your customers in the dark, infuriating.
Its days like this I wish we were back at Apocrypha. Stable and smooth. Screw PI and screw fleet finder.
Two deadlines come and gone, and no update after 40 minutes of lateness on ETA for server being up.
Being late once... annoying.
Being late twice, aggravating.
Keeping your customers in the dark, infuriating.
Its days like this I wish we were back at Apocrypha. Stable and smooth. Screw PI and screw fleet finder.
June 22, 2010
Revisiting UK
Last night I arrived home and had a brief period of time in which to play some EVE.
Lucky for me, Xoo & Co happened to be on at that time.
We staged in a system that allowed us access to the Ushra'Khan system of A-V. Lots of NPC kills had been reported, so we sent a scout to find targets.
Our scout first reported an Apoc, but couldn't get a tackle fast enough. Local was calm... suspecting the ratters were alert we layed low and scout just stayed cloaked with probes out.
Then "check check" on comms. "I have an Abaddon, Harbinger and Apoc on scan with directional in space. Checking for anomalies now"
A few minutes later "I have them I think, hold on".
We all approached our Black Ops ship, dropped cloaks and made ourselves ready.
"I found them. Holy shit, I'm in the middle of the asteroid but not de cloaked". For those that are aware, Havens and Sanctums often have a hollow asteroid at their center. Our scout landed inside, and didn't de cloak. It was a freakin miracle.
"Ok... I have Abaddon tanking, Harbinger is just flying around and Apoc is at range... kk he just warped off. Two BS left in this spawn."
"Everyone get ready, next spawn we jump in"
"OK, ok. Apoc is back. One BS left. When you jump we should primary Apoc."
"no no" I said "The Harbinger will tear up our small stuff. Primary is Harb, get points on Apoc if you can, and you point the Abaddon as we jump in."
We waited for the new spawn... and in a couple minutes it arrived.
"Bridge up jump jump jump"
In we went. Apoc warped off immediately, but Abaddon was stuck and Harbinger was stuck. Harbinger melted fairly quickly, and only got off two volleys before all our bombers got their transversals up and my tracking disruptors killed his tracking. Our Sin was already neuting the Abaddon, as the Harbinger died we switched DPS to him. His tank held for about 15 seconds before he capped out, at which point his ship also bloomed outwards in a white flash, debris spinning across space.
We scooped loot and safed. Our scout died in his Manticore... but well worth the tradeoff. The Harbinger was shit fit, but the Abaddon was nicely set up.
I smiled as I looked at the Killmails. The Harbinger pilot had been on my Pilgrim loss the day before, and the Abaddon pilot has been in Mostly Harmless up until recently. Interesting switch, I thought.
We bridged back out, and called it a night. I went out soloing, almost got a AAA-C Raven. Warped to his belt, started locking, at .34 seconds left he warped. WTB more scan res :(
Played around with a VLAST gang in Y-2ANO today before work. Set a trap with my Drake, they took the bait. Problem was the 50+ AU warp from ZXB to LBGI gates in Y-2ANO. Enemy gang bailed out when local spiked. We tried to camp them in... but they all logged off. Smart move. I went to work, and I'm pretty sure Titus brought the fleet home. Log off was the only logical choice in that scenario (we had 2 probers out), and all those E-Honor high sec folks that would have not logged off... please come visit our home constellation soon :)
That is all.
Lucky for me, Xoo & Co happened to be on at that time.
We staged in a system that allowed us access to the Ushra'Khan system of A-V. Lots of NPC kills had been reported, so we sent a scout to find targets.
Our scout first reported an Apoc, but couldn't get a tackle fast enough. Local was calm... suspecting the ratters were alert we layed low and scout just stayed cloaked with probes out.
Then "check check" on comms. "I have an Abaddon, Harbinger and Apoc on scan with directional in space. Checking for anomalies now"
A few minutes later "I have them I think, hold on".
We all approached our Black Ops ship, dropped cloaks and made ourselves ready.
"I found them. Holy shit, I'm in the middle of the asteroid but not de cloaked". For those that are aware, Havens and Sanctums often have a hollow asteroid at their center. Our scout landed inside, and didn't de cloak. It was a freakin miracle.
"Ok... I have Abaddon tanking, Harbinger is just flying around and Apoc is at range... kk he just warped off. Two BS left in this spawn."
"Everyone get ready, next spawn we jump in"
"OK, ok. Apoc is back. One BS left. When you jump we should primary Apoc."
"no no" I said "The Harbinger will tear up our small stuff. Primary is Harb, get points on Apoc if you can, and you point the Abaddon as we jump in."
We waited for the new spawn... and in a couple minutes it arrived.
"Bridge up jump jump jump"
In we went. Apoc warped off immediately, but Abaddon was stuck and Harbinger was stuck. Harbinger melted fairly quickly, and only got off two volleys before all our bombers got their transversals up and my tracking disruptors killed his tracking. Our Sin was already neuting the Abaddon, as the Harbinger died we switched DPS to him. His tank held for about 15 seconds before he capped out, at which point his ship also bloomed outwards in a white flash, debris spinning across space.
We scooped loot and safed. Our scout died in his Manticore... but well worth the tradeoff. The Harbinger was shit fit, but the Abaddon was nicely set up.
I smiled as I looked at the Killmails. The Harbinger pilot had been on my Pilgrim loss the day before, and the Abaddon pilot has been in Mostly Harmless up until recently. Interesting switch, I thought.
We bridged back out, and called it a night. I went out soloing, almost got a AAA-C Raven. Warped to his belt, started locking, at .34 seconds left he warped. WTB more scan res :(
Played around with a VLAST gang in Y-2ANO today before work. Set a trap with my Drake, they took the bait. Problem was the 50+ AU warp from ZXB to LBGI gates in Y-2ANO. Enemy gang bailed out when local spiked. We tried to camp them in... but they all logged off. Smart move. I went to work, and I'm pretty sure Titus brought the fleet home. Log off was the only logical choice in that scenario (we had 2 probers out), and all those E-Honor high sec folks that would have not logged off... please come visit our home constellation soon :)
That is all.
June 21, 2010
Drops and Deaths
Yesterday was a rollercoaster.
Started off with a bridge into an Ushra'Khan system of A-V. Our scout pointed a Raven and in we bridged. Second point was called from our Tengu... I started my neuts and burned towards him for the short point.
He warped.
Now, I am not the best carebear type out there... but I do realize that a Raven's lows usually have Ballistic Controls, Cap Recharge rigs and maybe a DC2 for that edge on resists.
But not stabs.
This guy had at least two, and I am genuinely curious if that was all or if he had more. So while he fails hard at ratting, it saved his ass this one instance.
The Dominix that was still running a Sansha Sanctum after 5 hostiles jumped into system wasn't as lucky. We warped in, pointed him and started pounding. He kept his reps up... until my neuts capped him out. Then his Dominix no longer had the green glow of armor repping... and blossomed into a fireball.
Local started slowly emptying... due to our presence. We were in a dead end constellation with one exit, and I assumed we were camped in.
So we Cov Ops bridged out.
About 4 jumps away we holed up, no one in local. Our scout at the end of the dead end constellation reported a lone Sabre in local. He started locking our Cov Ops scout, who bailed. I assumed he had backup, but that my Pilgrim and the Tengu that was with me would be able to drop him quick enough.
I was wrong.
I jumped in, and was immediately bubbled. He didn't even know what I was in, but bubbled. Second chance for me to be smart, and reapproach gate. But instead I decloaked, scrammed him and started neuts and put Hammerheads on him. Tengu jumped through and started hitting him as well. I started getting nervous when his tank didn't break immediately. I aligned out and kept neuting him, Tengu did the same.
He was sitting at about 10% shield when local spiked. Lots. Tengu warped out, and I kept burning out of the bubble. I kept my drones on the bastard, and he followed me out of the bubble. Neuts started dropping all around me, all in fast tackle. It was the gang that had been camping us in the dead end constellation.
As the Sabre exploded I pulled my drones in, and started aligning out. I misjudged the align time with a 1600mm plate and trimarks and cut it to close. Pointed by a Jag... and seconds later by the entire gang my Pilgrim exploded. I vainly attempted to point and neut a Crow so my Warrior IIs could get him before I died, but a ?rail fit? Demos and Cynabal took me down very quickly.
Looking back, I should have ignored the Sabre or brought more of the gang in. The fit wasn't unorthodox, but I didn't expect a DC2 in the lows. That and our Tengu was probe fit and cov ops fit. Which means 3 launchers. Shit DPS.
I re shipped and headed back to the gang, a bit angry.
Next target was a ratting Raven we found in a dead end constellation. Same story, scout drops cloak, points pops cyno and in we come. Raven died insanely fast.
We bridged out of system and the scout started moving towards our next constellation of targets. On the way there, however, he yelled on comms "I've got a Navy Vexor on the in gate!"
Quiet.
"See if he will agress. If he does pop cyno and point and we will come." I said.
"He warped to the outgate"
"Follow him! Same plan"
So in my scout went, after the Vexor. This time scout decloaked and pointed him. Vexor immediately aggressed and in we went. Scrams were on, neuts were on and he started dying. We shot him over and over, but bombers with torps are not pro against cruiser hulls, and without webs (we really needed a Rapier) he made it back to the gate in structure. Funny enough, this guys buddy in a Vagabond jumped into us right before his buddy jumped out. I was 2km from getting a scram on him, but with no scram, no Rapier and no neut range bonus (I love my Curse) he burned off the gate.
Damn.
But good old Xoo.... yeah his scout had jumped through to keep from dying. So it was waiting on the other side of gate... and pointed the Vexor as he jumped through. Vexor put drones out and aggressed, obviously thinking an easy kill. Xoo's scout was doomed. Right?
Wrong. Xoo popped another covert cyno and in came the Redeemer. Immediately Vexor de aggressed and reapproached the gate, but I was already in system along with the Redeemer (I had started de aggressing before the others in case he actually made it to the gate, which he did). With neuts preventing reppage, armor damage from the gang and Xoo's Redeemer pummeling him, the Navy Issue Vexor exploded. I was working my way back from that damn Pilgrim loss.
Gang disbanded at that point. I played with the Vagabond a bit more, but without long range webs and with my tracking disruptors it was a stalemate. He may have won in the long run, but after a couple minutes of playing around, him at 10% shield and me at 50% armor I took a momentary lapse of his point and warped off.
Static and myself, not ready to call it a night, hunted for another hour or so. We only got one kill... but it was worth it. We were searching a dead end constellation in Tenerifis when I entered a system with one neut in local. NPC kills in system were moderate over the past hour, and only 7 belts. Gate was 60AU from center of system.
I mentally gave up at that point but picked the middle belt and warped to it. As I neared the solar cluster I picked up a Raven on scan....
Eyebrows up.
I narrowed directional and picked out the planetary cluster in front of me... Still on scan.
As I flew past the planet and the lone belt loomed in front of me... he was still on scan with drones out.
Jackpot.
I landed in belt 13km off a Raven with rats in belt. I immediately de cloaked and overheated scram.
"Static get in here, warp to me!" In Static came.... "damn what a long warp" he commented.
Tank on Raven wasn't too bad... his reps were quite strong. Static landed and started dropping torps. My neuts finally did their job, and the shield repping stopped. His shields literally collapsed, armor and structure melted. As he entered armor he logged off.... but that didn't matter. The Raven exploded, and his killmail revealed an X-Large Shield Booster, two Ionic Field Accelerators and... a warp core stabilizer. Thanks heavens for a short point!
As we scooped the loot and were warping to the out gate, our friend logs back in. This is the transcript from the conversation:
[06:13:54] cabdog > :(
[06:14:04] Perseus Kallistratos > when u log bro
[06:14:07] Perseus Kallistratos > 15 min agro timer
[06:14:16] cabdog > my kid was ratting
[06:14:24] cabdog > he freaked out
[06:14:25] cabdog > lol
[06:14:32] cabdog > then came to get me
[06:14:38] StaticViolence > =(
[06:15:09] cabdog > i doubt he would have shot at u so no agro timer
[06:15:22] Perseus Kallistratos > when you get shot at it starts
[06:15:46] Perseus Kallistratos > unless he ctrl Qs before
[06:16:18] cabdog > he is 10
[06:16:26] Perseus Kallistratos > man
[06:16:33] cabdog > so brain doesnt work that fast
[06:16:36] Perseus Kallistratos > lol
[06:16:53] StaticViolence > its too bad his daddy uses him as child labor
At that point he left local, and we headed home. Good times.
That is all.
Started off with a bridge into an Ushra'Khan system of A-V. Our scout pointed a Raven and in we bridged. Second point was called from our Tengu... I started my neuts and burned towards him for the short point.
He warped.
Now, I am not the best carebear type out there... but I do realize that a Raven's lows usually have Ballistic Controls, Cap Recharge rigs and maybe a DC2 for that edge on resists.
But not stabs.
This guy had at least two, and I am genuinely curious if that was all or if he had more. So while he fails hard at ratting, it saved his ass this one instance.
The Dominix that was still running a Sansha Sanctum after 5 hostiles jumped into system wasn't as lucky. We warped in, pointed him and started pounding. He kept his reps up... until my neuts capped him out. Then his Dominix no longer had the green glow of armor repping... and blossomed into a fireball.
Local started slowly emptying... due to our presence. We were in a dead end constellation with one exit, and I assumed we were camped in.
So we Cov Ops bridged out.
About 4 jumps away we holed up, no one in local. Our scout at the end of the dead end constellation reported a lone Sabre in local. He started locking our Cov Ops scout, who bailed. I assumed he had backup, but that my Pilgrim and the Tengu that was with me would be able to drop him quick enough.
I was wrong.
I jumped in, and was immediately bubbled. He didn't even know what I was in, but bubbled. Second chance for me to be smart, and reapproach gate. But instead I decloaked, scrammed him and started neuts and put Hammerheads on him. Tengu jumped through and started hitting him as well. I started getting nervous when his tank didn't break immediately. I aligned out and kept neuting him, Tengu did the same.
He was sitting at about 10% shield when local spiked. Lots. Tengu warped out, and I kept burning out of the bubble. I kept my drones on the bastard, and he followed me out of the bubble. Neuts started dropping all around me, all in fast tackle. It was the gang that had been camping us in the dead end constellation.
As the Sabre exploded I pulled my drones in, and started aligning out. I misjudged the align time with a 1600mm plate and trimarks and cut it to close. Pointed by a Jag... and seconds later by the entire gang my Pilgrim exploded. I vainly attempted to point and neut a Crow so my Warrior IIs could get him before I died, but a ?rail fit? Demos and Cynabal took me down very quickly.
Looking back, I should have ignored the Sabre or brought more of the gang in. The fit wasn't unorthodox, but I didn't expect a DC2 in the lows. That and our Tengu was probe fit and cov ops fit. Which means 3 launchers. Shit DPS.
I re shipped and headed back to the gang, a bit angry.
Next target was a ratting Raven we found in a dead end constellation. Same story, scout drops cloak, points pops cyno and in we come. Raven died insanely fast.
We bridged out of system and the scout started moving towards our next constellation of targets. On the way there, however, he yelled on comms "I've got a Navy Vexor on the in gate!"
Quiet.
"See if he will agress. If he does pop cyno and point and we will come." I said.
"He warped to the outgate"
"Follow him! Same plan"
So in my scout went, after the Vexor. This time scout decloaked and pointed him. Vexor immediately aggressed and in we went. Scrams were on, neuts were on and he started dying. We shot him over and over, but bombers with torps are not pro against cruiser hulls, and without webs (we really needed a Rapier) he made it back to the gate in structure. Funny enough, this guys buddy in a Vagabond jumped into us right before his buddy jumped out. I was 2km from getting a scram on him, but with no scram, no Rapier and no neut range bonus (I love my Curse) he burned off the gate.
Damn.
But good old Xoo.... yeah his scout had jumped through to keep from dying. So it was waiting on the other side of gate... and pointed the Vexor as he jumped through. Vexor put drones out and aggressed, obviously thinking an easy kill. Xoo's scout was doomed. Right?
Wrong. Xoo popped another covert cyno and in came the Redeemer. Immediately Vexor de aggressed and reapproached the gate, but I was already in system along with the Redeemer (I had started de aggressing before the others in case he actually made it to the gate, which he did). With neuts preventing reppage, armor damage from the gang and Xoo's Redeemer pummeling him, the Navy Issue Vexor exploded. I was working my way back from that damn Pilgrim loss.
Gang disbanded at that point. I played with the Vagabond a bit more, but without long range webs and with my tracking disruptors it was a stalemate. He may have won in the long run, but after a couple minutes of playing around, him at 10% shield and me at 50% armor I took a momentary lapse of his point and warped off.
Static and myself, not ready to call it a night, hunted for another hour or so. We only got one kill... but it was worth it. We were searching a dead end constellation in Tenerifis when I entered a system with one neut in local. NPC kills in system were moderate over the past hour, and only 7 belts. Gate was 60AU from center of system.
I mentally gave up at that point but picked the middle belt and warped to it. As I neared the solar cluster I picked up a Raven on scan....
Eyebrows up.
I narrowed directional and picked out the planetary cluster in front of me... Still on scan.
As I flew past the planet and the lone belt loomed in front of me... he was still on scan with drones out.
Jackpot.
I landed in belt 13km off a Raven with rats in belt. I immediately de cloaked and overheated scram.
"Static get in here, warp to me!" In Static came.... "damn what a long warp" he commented.
Tank on Raven wasn't too bad... his reps were quite strong. Static landed and started dropping torps. My neuts finally did their job, and the shield repping stopped. His shields literally collapsed, armor and structure melted. As he entered armor he logged off.... but that didn't matter. The Raven exploded, and his killmail revealed an X-Large Shield Booster, two Ionic Field Accelerators and... a warp core stabilizer. Thanks heavens for a short point!
As we scooped the loot and were warping to the out gate, our friend logs back in. This is the transcript from the conversation:
[06:13:54] cabdog > :(
[06:14:04] Perseus Kallistratos > when u log bro
[06:14:07] Perseus Kallistratos > 15 min agro timer
[06:14:16] cabdog > my kid was ratting
[06:14:24] cabdog > he freaked out
[06:14:25] cabdog > lol
[06:14:32] cabdog > then came to get me
[06:14:38] StaticViolence > =(
[06:15:09] cabdog > i doubt he would have shot at u so no agro timer
[06:15:22] Perseus Kallistratos > when you get shot at it starts
[06:15:46] Perseus Kallistratos > unless he ctrl Qs before
[06:16:18] cabdog > he is 10
[06:16:26] Perseus Kallistratos > man
[06:16:33] cabdog > so brain doesnt work that fast
[06:16:36] Perseus Kallistratos > lol
[06:16:53] StaticViolence > its too bad his daddy uses him as child labor
At that point he left local, and we headed home. Good times.
That is all.
June 19, 2010
Black Ops
Many people in EVE have Black Ops. These are usually hangar queens that never get used. There are some that do get used, and they usually get used like battleships.
They aren't.
Thats like using a 1958 Bentley as your daily driver to work. You just don't do it (Unless you're Tony Montoya).
Unfotunately many do, and it results in comical loss mails like this Widow we killed in Yong awhile back. He jumped in low sec, our eyes saw it and he warped to the Biphi at 100km and cloaked. Not sure why, but thats what happened. So 10 ships start burning towards his cloaked Widow. Now remember, Black Ops cannot fit covert ops cloaking device. So they can't warp cloaked.
After a couple minutes we decloaked his Widow and he died. Quickly.
Pointless.
But he didn't lose a 100 million (tops) Scorpion. He lost a 1 bill (probably more with faction loot) battleship.
So last night we used Black Ops the right way.
We roamed into Catch, our Cov Ops scout looking for targets. We had a wonderful cov ops gang and a dictor for the normal system to system jumping. It was uneventful until Xoo reported two Paladins and deadspace wrecks on scan.
Hot damn.
He dropped probes and started getting hits. In 20/20 hindsight he should have just warped to anomalies but he scanned it to 100% and warped to it at range.
Paladin on grid and in range.
We decloaked in our system and got on Xoo's Redeemer. He decloaked his Cov Ops and pointed the Paladin. Bridge went up, in we went. Paladin didn't even have time to destroy our scout before my tracking disruptors were on him, making his turrets useless. The Redeemer was given the go ahead to jump through, but before he could lock the Paladin it popped. The rats were hitting him hard, and his reps just couldn't keep up. His loot drop was crap too.
I ended up having to leave at that time, and handed the reigns off while I went out for good times with chill brosefs on sport bikes :)
Its ok though, two Paladins in one week works for me.
Black Ops possess the special ability to generate a covert ops bridge. Similar to a titan bridge, but it can get into cyno jammed systems, the covert cyno does not show up on scans, it lasts 1 minute (30 seconds for covert recon) and uses much less fuel to light. They are basically a workship, and should only be jumped into combat when area is completely secure and their safety is guaranteed. Due to their inability to warp while cloaked they can be easily caught as compared to their smaller brethren in stealth bombers, recons and T3s. When used correctly, however, they provide the ability to hot drop unsuspecting targets with great success. Dirt Nap Squad and Elitist Ops are two notorious Black Ops runners, with experienced players and skilled toons to make things happen.
They aren't.
Thats like using a 1958 Bentley as your daily driver to work. You just don't do it (Unless you're Tony Montoya).
Unfotunately many do, and it results in comical loss mails like this Widow we killed in Yong awhile back. He jumped in low sec, our eyes saw it and he warped to the Biphi at 100km and cloaked. Not sure why, but thats what happened. So 10 ships start burning towards his cloaked Widow. Now remember, Black Ops cannot fit covert ops cloaking device. So they can't warp cloaked.
After a couple minutes we decloaked his Widow and he died. Quickly.
Pointless.
But he didn't lose a 100 million (tops) Scorpion. He lost a 1 bill (probably more with faction loot) battleship.
So last night we used Black Ops the right way.
We roamed into Catch, our Cov Ops scout looking for targets. We had a wonderful cov ops gang and a dictor for the normal system to system jumping. It was uneventful until Xoo reported two Paladins and deadspace wrecks on scan.
Hot damn.
He dropped probes and started getting hits. In 20/20 hindsight he should have just warped to anomalies but he scanned it to 100% and warped to it at range.
Paladin on grid and in range.
We decloaked in our system and got on Xoo's Redeemer. He decloaked his Cov Ops and pointed the Paladin. Bridge went up, in we went. Paladin didn't even have time to destroy our scout before my tracking disruptors were on him, making his turrets useless. The Redeemer was given the go ahead to jump through, but before he could lock the Paladin it popped. The rats were hitting him hard, and his reps just couldn't keep up. His loot drop was crap too.
I ended up having to leave at that time, and handed the reigns off while I went out for good times with chill brosefs on sport bikes :)
Black Ops possess the special ability to generate a covert ops bridge. Similar to a titan bridge, but it can get into cyno jammed systems, the covert cyno does not show up on scans, it lasts 1 minute (30 seconds for covert recon) and uses much less fuel to light. They are basically a workship, and should only be jumped into combat when area is completely secure and their safety is guaranteed. Due to their inability to warp while cloaked they can be easily caught as compared to their That is all.
June 18, 2010
In Game Hellos
Recently Eveoganda (http://eveoganda.blogspot.com/) wrote an article referencing all the hellos and messages in game he receives due to his "celebrity" status.
I too, am not always at my computer while logged in. While I don't autopilot (even in Empire IT is constantly war decced) ever, I do AFK cloak in hostile systems or afk while docked. Occasionally I don't respond to a hello, but I do see it when I get back to computer. Even the few guys who try and troll me in local... thanks for the attention :)
I have an approximation of hits to this blog using web browsers (100 and 150 hits a day as my tracker says), but have no idea when it comes to RSS feeds and Capsuleer. I can only assume many of the better written blogs on the blog pak see similar numbers.
That is all.
I too, am not always at my computer while logged in. While I don't autopilot (even in Empire IT is constantly war decced) ever, I do AFK cloak in hostile systems or afk while docked. Occasionally I don't respond to a hello, but I do see it when I get back to computer. Even the few guys who try and troll me in local... thanks for the attention :)
I have an approximation of hits to this blog using web browsers (100 and 150 hits a day as my tracker says), but have no idea when it comes to RSS feeds and Capsuleer. I can only assume many of the better written blogs on the blog pak see similar numbers.
That is all.
Blog Banter Stuff
Welcome to the eighteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than me, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
On May 6th 2010, EVE Online celebrated its 7th Anniversary. Quite a milestone in MMO history, especially considering that it is one of the few virtual worlds out there to see its population continually grow year after year. For some of you who've been here since the very beginning, EVE has evolved quite a lot since its creation. With the expansion rolling out roughly twice a year, New Eden gets renewed and improved regularly. But, how about you the player? How has your gaming style evolved through the years or months since you've started playing? Have you always been a carebear, or roleplayer? Have you only focused on PvP or have you given other aspects of the game a chance - say manufacturing. Let's hear your story!
---
So. I reached one year on EVE less than a month ago. I joined the game with one purpose in mind.
Shooting other people.
Since my clone was created, my training has been oriented towards one purpose. To kill. Now thats not to say that I was much of a killer early on, I certainly seemed to die more often than kill at the beginning of my EVE career. Moving to 0.0 within 2 weeks of starting this game was a true baptism by fire. I lost quite a bit as I learned the harsh realities of living in a nullsec environment. I joined eve with X.E.N.O. Corporation. They played Homeworld 2 during its prime, and that is where I joined up with them. After HW2 died I switched to various other games, including Company of Heroes. As that died I looked for a new game, and tried the 2 week trial of EVE. Within those two weeks I was hooked.
I started out in Venal, Deklein as a pet corp of Mostly Harmless. OWN Alliance, as it was called, lost favor in the region and was expelled to NPC Space several weeks after my move to 0.0. due to a "Civil War" of sorts with De4iant. There OWN slowly died, as corps left and losses mounted. They seem to be back on their feet as a small NC entity and I have fought elements of their alliance during the last northern campaign. X.E.N.O. ended up leaving and moving to Gallente High Sec looking for a fresh start. Unfotunately it took us a couple months to find a new home. During this time I had trained up to fly battlecruisers quite effectively and found my love for piracy. Unfortunately X.E.N.O. had too many carebears and not enough PVPers. We eventually got a start in Insmother with Veritas Immortalis, a pet alliance of Atlas. Basing out of N7-BIY, we saw moderate action. Then the turning point arrived in my Eve life. A friend of one of X.E.N.O.'s Directors invited us to join the Mavs. A corp of Atlas at the time, it was an opportunity of a life time. I immediately dropped my roles and joined up. Shortly thereafter Veritas was destroyed by Red Alliance, but I had already bailed out. I had found my PVP paradise. Between the action with Red Alliance and our vacationing terrorizing CVA and all neutrals in Emsmek and Domain Regions. This was all fine and dandy, but once RA was gone Atlas was... boring. Then we held a vote and made a decision that put Mavs on the line once again. We joined IT.
Sir Molle invited our corp to bolster the weak US Time Zone of IT Alliance. We held a vote and the vast majority of Mavs wished to join that fight. Contrary to Atlas Reports, we gave notice to Bobby Atlas that we were leaving. This didn't stop him from going emo when we did leave, and although we were set blue for the Northern Campaign, Atlas is still less than happy with the Mavericks having been "poached" by Molle. Low even for Bobby Atlas, he trapped quite a bit of assets in Insmother when he surprise reset the Mavs (Thanks to those members of Atlas who helped us get our stuff out!) We staged out of Syndicate and hit PLs moons, then launched the full scale invasion of Fountain. It was awesome to take the PNQ system shortly before dominion launched, as it gave us a foothold on the region. I still remember the taunts "you've only got one station, one system". Now we rent Fountain and own Delve.
I have a couple alts, both PVP oriented as well. One is a supercap alt, the other is a covert ops alt (very handy for large scale fleet battles for scouting/warp ins and outs/cyno popping).
I carebear infrequently and with great distaste. I won't knock (too hard) those that do, but I can't see the challenge in shooting computer ships that have no intelligence.
Looking back at my early days of Drakes and Caracals, it almost seems a different game. I did/do get a pang of nostalgia when in Pure Blind/Fade/Deklein :)
That is all.
On May 6th 2010, EVE Online celebrated its 7th Anniversary. Quite a milestone in MMO history, especially considering that it is one of the few virtual worlds out there to see its population continually grow year after year. For some of you who've been here since the very beginning, EVE has evolved quite a lot since its creation. With the expansion rolling out roughly twice a year, New Eden gets renewed and improved regularly. But, how about you the player? How has your gaming style evolved through the years or months since you've started playing? Have you always been a carebear, or roleplayer? Have you only focused on PvP or have you given other aspects of the game a chance - say manufacturing. Let's hear your story!
---
So. I reached one year on EVE less than a month ago. I joined the game with one purpose in mind.
Shooting other people.
Since my clone was created, my training has been oriented towards one purpose. To kill. Now thats not to say that I was much of a killer early on, I certainly seemed to die more often than kill at the beginning of my EVE career. Moving to 0.0 within 2 weeks of starting this game was a true baptism by fire. I lost quite a bit as I learned the harsh realities of living in a nullsec environment. I joined eve with X.E.N.O. Corporation. They played Homeworld 2 during its prime, and that is where I joined up with them. After HW2 died I switched to various other games, including Company of Heroes. As that died I looked for a new game, and tried the 2 week trial of EVE. Within those two weeks I was hooked.
I started out in Venal, Deklein as a pet corp of Mostly Harmless. OWN Alliance, as it was called, lost favor in the region and was expelled to NPC Space several weeks after my move to 0.0. due to a "Civil War" of sorts with De4iant. There OWN slowly died, as corps left and losses mounted. They seem to be back on their feet as a small NC entity and I have fought elements of their alliance during the last northern campaign. X.E.N.O. ended up leaving and moving to Gallente High Sec looking for a fresh start. Unfotunately it took us a couple months to find a new home. During this time I had trained up to fly battlecruisers quite effectively and found my love for piracy. Unfortunately X.E.N.O. had too many carebears and not enough PVPers. We eventually got a start in Insmother with Veritas Immortalis, a pet alliance of Atlas. Basing out of N7-BIY, we saw moderate action. Then the turning point arrived in my Eve life. A friend of one of X.E.N.O.'s Directors invited us to join the Mavs. A corp of Atlas at the time, it was an opportunity of a life time. I immediately dropped my roles and joined up. Shortly thereafter Veritas was destroyed by Red Alliance, but I had already bailed out. I had found my PVP paradise. Between the action with Red Alliance and our vacationing terrorizing CVA and all neutrals in Emsmek and Domain Regions. This was all fine and dandy, but once RA was gone Atlas was... boring. Then we held a vote and made a decision that put Mavs on the line once again. We joined IT.
Sir Molle invited our corp to bolster the weak US Time Zone of IT Alliance. We held a vote and the vast majority of Mavs wished to join that fight. Contrary to Atlas Reports, we gave notice to Bobby Atlas that we were leaving. This didn't stop him from going emo when we did leave, and although we were set blue for the Northern Campaign, Atlas is still less than happy with the Mavericks having been "poached" by Molle. Low even for Bobby Atlas, he trapped quite a bit of assets in Insmother when he surprise reset the Mavs (Thanks to those members of Atlas who helped us get our stuff out!) We staged out of Syndicate and hit PLs moons, then launched the full scale invasion of Fountain. It was awesome to take the PNQ system shortly before dominion launched, as it gave us a foothold on the region. I still remember the taunts "you've only got one station, one system". Now we rent Fountain and own Delve.
I have a couple alts, both PVP oriented as well. One is a supercap alt, the other is a covert ops alt (very handy for large scale fleet battles for scouting/warp ins and outs/cyno popping).
I carebear infrequently and with great distaste. I won't knock (too hard) those that do, but I can't see the challenge in shooting computer ships that have no intelligence.
Looking back at my early days of Drakes and Caracals, it almost seems a different game. I did/do get a pang of nostalgia when in Pure Blind/Fade/Deklein :)
That is all.
June 17, 2010
Fights. Against Goons. Oh, and Deadspace Loot.
Yesterday was my day off, and that allowed me to catch a fleet op to help Initiative save a CSAA. We temp blued Atlas for the op and got a fight from Goons. I was already lurking 3j away from the op, (from our festivities the night before) so I had no excuse to not show.
Let me tell you. Pilgrim is not a pro ship for large fleet activites.
We got our fight in RF6T. 800 in local, lag was pretty bad. I helped out tackling some stuff at various planets, as my range and limited DPS combined with small tank made it a bad idea to be on grid with the heavy hitters. Battle report can be found here. We killed 127 for 26 losses.
Initiative warped capitals (including titans) to the gate, it was quite a sight. Enemy fought in system at a few locations, including a belt, with smaller skirmishes elsewhere (which I mainly was involved in). Then they bailed next door... and got caught again. Battle report for GM-0K7 can be found here. 80 ships killed, 37 lost.
The killer is that the majority of the enemy losses were battleships, while IT/INIT losses were mainly BCs with some HACs. Not too shabby. Atlas reset us back to neut later that day :)
After that we headed home, and I went out for errands and such. Later on I came home and took a small group out. I was in a Pilgrim, Assasin in a Pilgrim, Titus in a Vengeance and Xoo in his trusty Heretic. Off we went, no solid destination or plan in mind.
In YZ9 we found a Drake missioning. I had him on a narrow directional and a good aproximation of range. We had tacklers in each neighboring system, and Xoo went to switch out for a prober. Then Assassin yelled "hes here!!!"
I immediately warped to the 319- gate and held, Assassin reporting the Drake tackled but reapproaching quickly. I knew we needed bumps and scram/webs to keep him from ping ponging.
The Drake jumped back into YZ9 and immediately started reapproaching, Titus got a web from his Vengeance on him, and I overheated scram. He was still moving at a decent clip, and damage was slow going given our weak DPS composition. Slowly he crawled back to the gate...
I had Assassin hold DPS and wait, to tackle him on the other side. Then Titus got a huge bump on him... knocking his momentum. For those who are unaware, a webbed target does not slow down; the web simply slows your engines capabilities, similar to a boat that cuts its engines and continues drifting. His MWD burst before the scram hit was carrying him into the gate slowly... until Titus slammed into him. He must have been about 2k tops out of jump range when he stopped moving... webbed and scrammed and capped completely out. Then Titus rammed into him again, sending him moving off the gate. Webbed does not decrease the effectiveness of bumping... in fact, it makes it pretty wicked considering the pilots engines can't compensate at all for the bump. He kept getting bumped, and slowly went down until the Drake bloomed into a white ball of fire...
We held his pod for ransom of 100 mil. At first he said "who do I send it to"... but after 10 seconds of nothing I asked where our 100 mill was and the typical "I don't have any isk" popped up in local. We gave him his pod express at that point.
Off we went to Catch, happy over our pro kill. I was scouting when in 25S I found several neutrals. I scouted and found nothing. Hit the outgate, was about to call fleet in when.... gate fire new neut!
I sat and waited... Ferox decloaked. He locked me up and I started a tight orbit around the gate. I looked at his ship and saw blasters, so I switched out tracking scripts to range scripts and waited. Sure enough, about 15 seconds later he opened fire. His damage was pretty damn good, as he was right on top of me. I dropped point on him and tried to burn away. My scripts helped, but he was still hurting me as my guys landed on gate.
I had covered instructions for dictor and Xoo executed perfectly. He hit the out gate and bubbled, then jumped through. He reported neuts in local and kept scan open. The Ferox de aggressed, as I though he would, and jumped through. Xoo got him on the other side, but damn that Ferox was quick! Xoo had to bubble twice to keep him from getting away before we finally jumped in. he was burning way off gate... until Xoo got a scram on him real quick, and Titus webbed. After a struggle, the Ferox finally died. We offered GFs in local and moved on.
Up towards Hy- and got a couple pod kills, but nothing special. I had to leave soon, and Xoo wanted to scout so we started burning home. We got to FAT and were holding on the outgate when Xoo said something about a Paladin.
Comms grew very quiet.
"You found a Paladin?"
"NO I'VE GOT A PALADIN!!"
"Holy shit! Jump jump jump warp to Xoo"
Xoo reported he had him bubbled, then he got one shotted. Ouch.
We landed on a bubbled Paladin. On the warp in, McKipper (Paladin pilot) said in local "Help". Comical. We immediately pointed the Paladin and started the neuts. I was nervous, as local had about 10 neuts in it and this guy was in a Marauder. His tank was holding, dropping only a little, as local spiked.
Uh oh.
I checked the bar and noticed all the new people were little blue stars. I smiled as Colonel Sharpe's name was at the top of the local bar. Sharpe's roam was out, I had completely forgotten about it. Time flies while in small gang action.
"Paladin tackled in 11-1 Sharpe, need DPS"
Their fleet was more than happy to help drop the Marauder. I asked for the loot to be contracted to my dictor pilot for his hero tackle. Xoo was beaming on comms, and that was before Colonel Sharpe brought the loot to 49-U and contracted it to him. "I've got a present for you" he had said.
With no killmail posted yet we weren't sure what he was talking about until Xoo accepted the contract... True Sansha Heat Sink, Ammatar Navy Large Armor Repairer, Centum A-Type Energized Thermic, Centum A-Type Energized Reflective Membrane. We gave Xoo 50 mill for the Heretic and split the rest between us four. Thanks to Colonel Sharpe for the help on the kill and the loot scoop. Sorry my guys couldn't make your roam, my Euro guys were up till 3AM already and I had evening plans. Thanks to Xoo for that epic scouting/tackle.
We popped a Drake trying to zip through our constellation (bad idea btw). Great day though, that Paladin was sweet and tasty.
That is all.
Let me tell you. Pilgrim is not a pro ship for large fleet activites.
We got our fight in RF6T. 800 in local, lag was pretty bad. I helped out tackling some stuff at various planets, as my range and limited DPS combined with small tank made it a bad idea to be on grid with the heavy hitters. Battle report can be found here. We killed 127 for 26 losses.
Initiative warped capitals (including titans) to the gate, it was quite a sight. Enemy fought in system at a few locations, including a belt, with smaller skirmishes elsewhere (which I mainly was involved in). Then they bailed next door... and got caught again. Battle report for GM-0K7 can be found here. 80 ships killed, 37 lost.
The killer is that the majority of the enemy losses were battleships, while IT/INIT losses were mainly BCs with some HACs. Not too shabby. Atlas reset us back to neut later that day :)
After that we headed home, and I went out for errands and such. Later on I came home and took a small group out. I was in a Pilgrim, Assasin in a Pilgrim, Titus in a Vengeance and Xoo in his trusty Heretic. Off we went, no solid destination or plan in mind.
In YZ9 we found a Drake missioning. I had him on a narrow directional and a good aproximation of range. We had tacklers in each neighboring system, and Xoo went to switch out for a prober. Then Assassin yelled "hes here!!!"
I immediately warped to the 319- gate and held, Assassin reporting the Drake tackled but reapproaching quickly. I knew we needed bumps and scram/webs to keep him from ping ponging.
The Drake jumped back into YZ9 and immediately started reapproaching, Titus got a web from his Vengeance on him, and I overheated scram. He was still moving at a decent clip, and damage was slow going given our weak DPS composition. Slowly he crawled back to the gate...
I had Assassin hold DPS and wait, to tackle him on the other side. Then Titus got a huge bump on him... knocking his momentum. For those who are unaware, a webbed target does not slow down; the web simply slows your engines capabilities, similar to a boat that cuts its engines and continues drifting. His MWD burst before the scram hit was carrying him into the gate slowly... until Titus slammed into him. He must have been about 2k tops out of jump range when he stopped moving... webbed and scrammed and capped completely out. Then Titus rammed into him again, sending him moving off the gate. Webbed does not decrease the effectiveness of bumping... in fact, it makes it pretty wicked considering the pilots engines can't compensate at all for the bump. He kept getting bumped, and slowly went down until the Drake bloomed into a white ball of fire...
We held his pod for ransom of 100 mil. At first he said "who do I send it to"... but after 10 seconds of nothing I asked where our 100 mill was and the typical "I don't have any isk" popped up in local. We gave him his pod express at that point.
Off we went to Catch, happy over our pro kill. I was scouting when in 25S I found several neutrals. I scouted and found nothing. Hit the outgate, was about to call fleet in when.... gate fire new neut!
I sat and waited... Ferox decloaked. He locked me up and I started a tight orbit around the gate. I looked at his ship and saw blasters, so I switched out tracking scripts to range scripts and waited. Sure enough, about 15 seconds later he opened fire. His damage was pretty damn good, as he was right on top of me. I dropped point on him and tried to burn away. My scripts helped, but he was still hurting me as my guys landed on gate.
I had covered instructions for dictor and Xoo executed perfectly. He hit the out gate and bubbled, then jumped through. He reported neuts in local and kept scan open. The Ferox de aggressed, as I though he would, and jumped through. Xoo got him on the other side, but damn that Ferox was quick! Xoo had to bubble twice to keep him from getting away before we finally jumped in. he was burning way off gate... until Xoo got a scram on him real quick, and Titus webbed. After a struggle, the Ferox finally died. We offered GFs in local and moved on.
Up towards Hy- and got a couple pod kills, but nothing special. I had to leave soon, and Xoo wanted to scout so we started burning home. We got to FAT and were holding on the outgate when Xoo said something about a Paladin.
Comms grew very quiet.
"You found a Paladin?"
"NO I'VE GOT A PALADIN!!"
"Holy shit! Jump jump jump warp to Xoo"
Xoo reported he had him bubbled, then he got one shotted. Ouch.
We landed on a bubbled Paladin. On the warp in, McKipper (Paladin pilot) said in local "Help". Comical. We immediately pointed the Paladin and started the neuts. I was nervous, as local had about 10 neuts in it and this guy was in a Marauder. His tank was holding, dropping only a little, as local spiked.
Uh oh.
I checked the bar and noticed all the new people were little blue stars. I smiled as Colonel Sharpe's name was at the top of the local bar. Sharpe's roam was out, I had completely forgotten about it. Time flies while in small gang action.
"Paladin tackled in 11-1 Sharpe, need DPS"
Their fleet was more than happy to help drop the Marauder. I asked for the loot to be contracted to my dictor pilot for his hero tackle. Xoo was beaming on comms, and that was before Colonel Sharpe brought the loot to 49-U and contracted it to him. "I've got a present for you" he had said.
With no killmail posted yet we weren't sure what he was talking about until Xoo accepted the contract... True Sansha Heat Sink, Ammatar Navy Large Armor Repairer, Centum A-Type Energized Thermic, Centum A-Type Energized Reflective Membrane. We gave Xoo 50 mill for the Heretic and split the rest between us four. Thanks to Colonel Sharpe for the help on the kill and the loot scoop. Sorry my guys couldn't make your roam, my Euro guys were up till 3AM already and I had evening plans. Thanks to Xoo for that epic scouting/tackle.
We popped a Drake trying to zip through our constellation (bad idea btw). Great day though, that Paladin was sweet and tasty.
That is all.
Been Awhile.
Between iPhone 4 pre order launch and a day off from work, no entries. Been awhile, I know.
Three nights ago was a night that pissed me off, and made me happy as well.
Started off with an alliance roam. Short range BC/HAC/Recon. Went through Period Basis and into Stain. I was catching up to gang and missed out on an Ishtar kill... and continued. Caught up with gang, and FC set destination to HED-GP. Scouting was going ok... but one of the scouts kept losing comms/disconnecting. Thats a problem.
SO after about 40j we reached the Catch/Curse gateway of U-QVWD/OSHT (OHSHIT). We were holding one out of U-QVWD and scouts reported a gang of decent numbers on our in gate inside U-QVWD(Note: No numbers or shiptypes reported). He reported them warping off to OHSHIT gate.
FC ordered everyone through and to the OHSHIT gate. Order was to hold on the OHSHIT gate. Scout reported "a lot of people in local" inside OHSHIT. (Still no information on the gang that had been in U-QVWD we were following.)
My shady alarm went off. So I typed in fleet (so as to not break fleet comms) "how many is a lot? 10-20-30?"
...
No answer from scout. In fact, FC was asking for more information and wasn't getting it.
Finally he spoke up. "They're engaging me and burning off the gate at 60-70km now"
I didn't like this one bit. I asked in fleet "Are they in snipe HACs... or what?
Still no response.
This was whack. We had "a lot" of people next door, and a gang of similar size and unreported (not unknown) composition burning off of a gate. Obviously they wanted a fight, and thought they could win. Burning off the gate led me to believe we were jumping into a snipe gang, which is exactly the lemming shit that Soho gets up north and rapes with his snipe HAC gangs.
But.... order to jump through is given and jump we do. Remember, we are in short range BC/HAC/Recons... so loading grid I see all hostiles 90km or so away. I think one or two guys in our gang can even hit that far.
"burn at them, get tackles" was the order. I finally knew what it felt like to be on the opposite side of the rape train HAC gangs that I had killed repeatedly up North. Our dictor died burning at their gang with no transversal.
Local was also around 80... 90.... hmm. We had about 25 in our gang, and about 30 enemies on the gate burning off. I was getting more and more worried.
Then grid started spiking with neuts. Landing on our in gate at 0. I was in a Curse and had been reapproaching gate, but wasn't at 0 yet. As the first few neuts were jumping through (presumably to catch anyone trying to bail through the gate back to U-QVWD) I spammed warp to planet 2. I was at 1/2 speed (so close) when a dictor dropped a bubble.
Shit.
By this time another 20-30 neuts had landed on the gate at 0. I burned out of the bubble... locked up the ceptor that was tackling me... uh oh lots of yellow boxes all of a sudden.
Then my shields, armor and structure dissapeared.
I was sitting in my egg in space cursing this retarded, avoidable scenario but managed to warp my pod out. This was a relief, as I had a full set of +4s in.
Lessons to remember... first off, scouts need to report ACCURATELY. If that doesn't happen, FCs need to ASK or REPLACE THE SCOUT. "A lot" in local is bullshit. Solid numbers: "60 in local and rising". That information may have saved our losses.
Shiptypes! Composition is as important as how many. Jumping 100 short range bcs into 30 Snipe HACS at 70km is going to lead to 100 BC lossmails.
What are the enemy ships doing? When they have you scouted, you have advantage in numbers and yet they are going to fight you, they have either A. A very dumb FC or B. A Wild Card you don't know about that will rape you.
In this case it was option B, as they had only part of their force skirmish with us. Sadly, they didn't even hide the rest of their fleet next door or anything; it was sitting local with us and landed on the gate when we committed.
Lucky enough for us, most of the gang was buring out towards their skirmish force and didn't get bubbled.
Battle report shows the Reckoning/Primary gang losing an Ares. We lost Deimos, Vagabond, Curse, Pilgrim and a Sabre. Ouchy ouchy.
My anger at the situation was extreme, however. Over an hour wasted, 40 some odd jumps covered for no kills and an expensive Curse loss that was completely avoidable. I dropped a -1 Curse in fleet and docked at a station. Emo logged and went for a motorcycle ride and gym visit.
The FC was new, not one of ITs FCs but there were several leadership including me in the roam. Later discussion in FC channels revealed he was newer to IT and was thought to have been more experienced than he was.
Later that evening (after the emo was done) I hopped back on and ninja'd my pod back to 5-C. I decided to seek retribution and took my Pilgrim back to Catch. Easley met me there and we started lurking around. In WLAR-J I found an Armageddon ratting, on scan with wrecks. I warped at 10km (this avoids decloaking off asteroids and usually puts you close to the target without decloaking on him).
I spammed 5 degree scan as I was in warp... he stayed constant to the belt. Landing in the belt I saw rats and.... bam! Armageddon 17km off of my cloaked Pilgrim. I approached slowly (plated Recon FTW) and at 11km decloaked and started spamming lock while I spanked my afterburner. Decloaking delay was short but seemed like forever. I had overheated the scram and finally got my lock and my point reached out and snagged him. I set a nice tight orbit and turned on my neuts, dropping Hammerhead IIs as well. His shield was already gone and his tank appeared to be holding... for now.
He had 1 battleship and 3 frigate rats on him.. and he was still repping but I was starting to win. There was one other neut in local but he was UFO. Still, I spammed 360 directional just to be sure nothing was going to drop on me. My tracking disrupors kept me safe, speed script loaded and working like a champ. Easley was burning to help out, and the Geddon was at 75% armor when Easley entered local. He warped to me and got in close on the Geddon. Combined with my drones and his guns/drones he Geddon started dropping... slowly at first. Then he capped out, which was apparent as his remaing armor just dissapeared. Structure was short lived, and bam, down he went.
We checked the loot and got excited. Check out the Armageddon Mail. Nice drop for us... very nice.
No more kills that night, but the Geddon made me feel better :)
That is all.
Three nights ago was a night that pissed me off, and made me happy as well.
Started off with an alliance roam. Short range BC/HAC/Recon. Went through Period Basis and into Stain. I was catching up to gang and missed out on an Ishtar kill... and continued. Caught up with gang, and FC set destination to HED-GP. Scouting was going ok... but one of the scouts kept losing comms/disconnecting. Thats a problem.
SO after about 40j we reached the Catch/Curse gateway of U-QVWD/OSHT (OHSHIT). We were holding one out of U-QVWD and scouts reported a gang of decent numbers on our in gate inside U-QVWD(Note: No numbers or shiptypes reported). He reported them warping off to OHSHIT gate.
FC ordered everyone through and to the OHSHIT gate. Order was to hold on the OHSHIT gate. Scout reported "a lot of people in local" inside OHSHIT. (Still no information on the gang that had been in U-QVWD we were following.)
My shady alarm went off. So I typed in fleet (so as to not break fleet comms) "how many is a lot? 10-20-30?"
...
No answer from scout. In fact, FC was asking for more information and wasn't getting it.
Finally he spoke up. "They're engaging me and burning off the gate at 60-70km now"
I didn't like this one bit. I asked in fleet "Are they in snipe HACs... or what?
Still no response.
This was whack. We had "a lot" of people next door, and a gang of similar size and unreported (not unknown) composition burning off of a gate. Obviously they wanted a fight, and thought they could win. Burning off the gate led me to believe we were jumping into a snipe gang, which is exactly the lemming shit that Soho gets up north and rapes with his snipe HAC gangs.
But.... order to jump through is given and jump we do. Remember, we are in short range BC/HAC/Recons... so loading grid I see all hostiles 90km or so away. I think one or two guys in our gang can even hit that far.
"burn at them, get tackles" was the order. I finally knew what it felt like to be on the opposite side of the rape train HAC gangs that I had killed repeatedly up North. Our dictor died burning at their gang with no transversal.
Local was also around 80... 90.... hmm. We had about 25 in our gang, and about 30 enemies on the gate burning off. I was getting more and more worried.
Then grid started spiking with neuts. Landing on our in gate at 0. I was in a Curse and had been reapproaching gate, but wasn't at 0 yet. As the first few neuts were jumping through (presumably to catch anyone trying to bail through the gate back to U-QVWD) I spammed warp to planet 2. I was at 1/2 speed (so close) when a dictor dropped a bubble.
Shit.
By this time another 20-30 neuts had landed on the gate at 0. I burned out of the bubble... locked up the ceptor that was tackling me... uh oh lots of yellow boxes all of a sudden.
Then my shields, armor and structure dissapeared.
I was sitting in my egg in space cursing this retarded, avoidable scenario but managed to warp my pod out. This was a relief, as I had a full set of +4s in.
Lessons to remember... first off, scouts need to report ACCURATELY. If that doesn't happen, FCs need to ASK or REPLACE THE SCOUT. "A lot" in local is bullshit. Solid numbers: "60 in local and rising". That information may have saved our losses.
Shiptypes! Composition is as important as how many. Jumping 100 short range bcs into 30 Snipe HACS at 70km is going to lead to 100 BC lossmails.
What are the enemy ships doing? When they have you scouted, you have advantage in numbers and yet they are going to fight you, they have either A. A very dumb FC or B. A Wild Card you don't know about that will rape you.
In this case it was option B, as they had only part of their force skirmish with us. Sadly, they didn't even hide the rest of their fleet next door or anything; it was sitting local with us and landed on the gate when we committed.
Lucky enough for us, most of the gang was buring out towards their skirmish force and didn't get bubbled.
Battle report shows the Reckoning/Primary gang losing an Ares. We lost Deimos, Vagabond, Curse, Pilgrim and a Sabre. Ouchy ouchy.
My anger at the situation was extreme, however. Over an hour wasted, 40 some odd jumps covered for no kills and an expensive Curse loss that was completely avoidable. I dropped a -1 Curse in fleet and docked at a station. Emo logged and went for a motorcycle ride and gym visit.
The FC was new, not one of ITs FCs but there were several leadership including me in the roam. Later discussion in FC channels revealed he was newer to IT and was thought to have been more experienced than he was.
Later that evening (after the emo was done) I hopped back on and ninja'd my pod back to 5-C. I decided to seek retribution and took my Pilgrim back to Catch. Easley met me there and we started lurking around. In WLAR-J I found an Armageddon ratting, on scan with wrecks. I warped at 10km (this avoids decloaking off asteroids and usually puts you close to the target without decloaking on him).
I spammed 5 degree scan as I was in warp... he stayed constant to the belt. Landing in the belt I saw rats and.... bam! Armageddon 17km off of my cloaked Pilgrim. I approached slowly (plated Recon FTW) and at 11km decloaked and started spamming lock while I spanked my afterburner. Decloaking delay was short but seemed like forever. I had overheated the scram and finally got my lock and my point reached out and snagged him. I set a nice tight orbit and turned on my neuts, dropping Hammerhead IIs as well. His shield was already gone and his tank appeared to be holding... for now.
He had 1 battleship and 3 frigate rats on him.. and he was still repping but I was starting to win. There was one other neut in local but he was UFO. Still, I spammed 360 directional just to be sure nothing was going to drop on me. My tracking disrupors kept me safe, speed script loaded and working like a champ. Easley was burning to help out, and the Geddon was at 75% armor when Easley entered local. He warped to me and got in close on the Geddon. Combined with my drones and his guns/drones he Geddon started dropping... slowly at first. Then he capped out, which was apparent as his remaing armor just dissapeared. Structure was short lived, and bam, down he went.
We checked the loot and got excited. Check out the Armageddon Mail. Nice drop for us... very nice.
No more kills that night, but the Geddon made me feel better :)
That is all.
June 14, 2010
Kills. Lots of Kills.
Saturday night I went roaming with ROL in Pure Blind. In typical fashion Kula Kain brought out a response fleet.
We decimated it in KQK. They had a few more pilots, but it was a pretty even fight (number wise).
The again in O-Y.
Kula Kain died 3x. Rapier, Broadsword and Tempest. Lost Minmitar Cruiser V. But props to him for bringing the fight.
Basically the fights were all about dictating range and the engagement. The enemy fleet would jump in and get bubbled with the HACs burning off the gate. We would have had several more kills, but our dictor pilot (luv him) was stoned and drunk. That being said he still did a damn good job, and didn't die the entire night. But his bubbles were...... creatively placed? :)
We also caught this Abaddon. Our scout tackler kept him locked down for a good minute or two while we came to back him up. We gave the scout the Dark Blood EANM that dropped.
Off to H-W we went. No carrier this time, a few kills on station. After 30 minutes NC organized, idiots in fleet got caught (not aligning, following orders). So we left. NC jump bridged in front of us, we got another fight. Seven kills for one interceptor loss.
At that point NC were reshipping and adding fleet numbers, so we left. Not too shabby for a night.
As fleet was winding down, a Myrmidon undocked from X-7. He warped J-C, Quesa in a Sac followed. I brought my snipe Zealot, and a couple random blues came along as well. We tackled him on the outgate, and he was webbed and held off gate. I landed at 0... immediately started burning away.
Then three things happened. Quesa had to bail out. Local bumped by one neut. Friendly Curse, Ceptor and Stealth Bomber joined the engagement.
Good, right?
Not really. New neut was in a Gila. His spawn location on the gate was 13 off of me. Despite my 60km distance to the Myrmidon, this Gila was on top of me. Then the Myrmidon warped off... in structure. Pretty bad huh. It gets worse.
Gila immediately primaries me (logical). He is scram fit, and probably faction scram fit. My MWD turned off and he close range. My zero tank fit starts taking damage, and I light him up. I take comfort in the Curse and ceptor that are neuting and killing him as my Zealot explodes and I warp my pod off. Then Quesa starts laughing in local... but not a happy laugh.
"Did the Gila die?"
"You expect the same people who let a Myrmidon get away to hold onto a Gila?"
So grats to the GK Gila who got me. Fail to a damn Curse and Ceptor who fail at life.
Yesterday I took an RRBS gang out to Aridia. Nabbed a Maelstrom going gate to gate, not a bad fit on that one at all.
Then I tackled a Drake in a belt ratting. This was funny for two reasons. First, I was baiting/scouting in a Geddon. Not the fastest of ships, and I warped to station before picking him up on scan and warping to hsi belt.
Second, I was scram fit. He didn't burn away, warp away, or move away from zeron in his belt when I came into local.
So I tackled him, called in gang. I had him at 10%s shields when gang landed. Everyone put drones only on him so we could killmail whore.
Then he ejected and warped off. Our Guardians kep the Drake alive while we voted whether to kill or scoop. Vote was overwhelming for kill, so pop the Drake went.
We kept roaming, through Fountain back to Delve. Nothing much going on.
Killed a Huginn in 5-C not long after, however. Him and his Vagabond buddy came on in. An RKK ceptor gang tried to hero tackle the Huginn in ZXB, but died when the Vagabond came to help. But the Huginn got caught in pull bubble and tackled. Another RKK Taranis died, but so did the Huginn. First -A- roamers I've seen in our system. Good times
It was getting late, but I decided to take the Pilgrim out and see if I could find any targets in Aridia. To my surprise, I encountered an Abaddon two jumps out of Sakht. I followed him as he trecked into Delve, almost had him pointed in A-E (I was scram fit) but couldn't burn to him in time to get the scram on him. Couple Dramiel buddies got him in Pr-... but he was stabbed. WTB Dictor?
At least 2 stabs, and I'm guessing he had more. This meant no tank, but also meant without a dictor it would be hard to catch. He jumped Pr- and same thing happened... then he dissaperaed. We assumed he warped to a celestial and cloaked. Dramiels got bored and left, I stayed cloaked with some MVN friends next door. Then he appeared on scan, and on grid! I had been warping to celestials near the station at 100 and burning towards 0... and had given up and warped to the station at 100. Abaddon was 40 off of me and burning at the station fast. No way to get in range cloaked, no time to warp in cloaked and no time to decloak and burn at him.
Damn.
He docked and logged. Oh well. I retired and played some Bad Company 2.
On a side note an admin closed my scrap heap thread. It was trash anyways, a few people read blog entries, dropped random insults and insulted MVN, IT, Me, etc. Thanks for the attention and the hits (although hits only went up from ~150/day to 170). Once again I will reiterate: Your player age is no indication of intelligence or PVP capability. Your skillpoint level is no indication of intelligence or PVP capability. Your combat record is helpful and can give a trend, but is not a bible of capability. This works both ways, both for new people and for really old people.I can now say that forum posters are some of the most bitter people in EVE. Usually nobodies or once was individuals who can flex their internet spaceship muscles and put down anyone and everyone. Couple of GK guys, forum warriors at their best... while camping Fountain NPC core :) A retired Goon who doesn't play EVE anymore :) My favorite was a Cry Havoc guy... I laughed. Oh and the PL guy who cheated at EVE. Quite a peanut gallery. Keep it up guys, hope you're still reading!
That is all.
We decimated it in KQK. They had a few more pilots, but it was a pretty even fight (number wise).
The again in O-Y.
Kula Kain died 3x. Rapier, Broadsword and Tempest. Lost Minmitar Cruiser V. But props to him for bringing the fight.
Basically the fights were all about dictating range and the engagement. The enemy fleet would jump in and get bubbled with the HACs burning off the gate. We would have had several more kills, but our dictor pilot (luv him) was stoned and drunk. That being said he still did a damn good job, and didn't die the entire night. But his bubbles were...... creatively placed? :)
We also caught this Abaddon. Our scout tackler kept him locked down for a good minute or two while we came to back him up. We gave the scout the Dark Blood EANM that dropped.
Off to H-W we went. No carrier this time, a few kills on station. After 30 minutes NC organized, idiots in fleet got caught (not aligning, following orders). So we left. NC jump bridged in front of us, we got another fight. Seven kills for one interceptor loss.
At that point NC were reshipping and adding fleet numbers, so we left. Not too shabby for a night.
As fleet was winding down, a Myrmidon undocked from X-7. He warped J-C, Quesa in a Sac followed. I brought my snipe Zealot, and a couple random blues came along as well. We tackled him on the outgate, and he was webbed and held off gate. I landed at 0... immediately started burning away.
Then three things happened. Quesa had to bail out. Local bumped by one neut. Friendly Curse, Ceptor and Stealth Bomber joined the engagement.
Good, right?
Not really. New neut was in a Gila. His spawn location on the gate was 13 off of me. Despite my 60km distance to the Myrmidon, this Gila was on top of me. Then the Myrmidon warped off... in structure. Pretty bad huh. It gets worse.
Gila immediately primaries me (logical). He is scram fit, and probably faction scram fit. My MWD turned off and he close range. My zero tank fit starts taking damage, and I light him up. I take comfort in the Curse and ceptor that are neuting and killing him as my Zealot explodes and I warp my pod off. Then Quesa starts laughing in local... but not a happy laugh.
"Did the Gila die?"
"You expect the same people who let a Myrmidon get away to hold onto a Gila?"
So grats to the GK Gila who got me. Fail to a damn Curse and Ceptor who fail at life.
Yesterday I took an RRBS gang out to Aridia. Nabbed a Maelstrom going gate to gate, not a bad fit on that one at all.
Then I tackled a Drake in a belt ratting. This was funny for two reasons. First, I was baiting/scouting in a Geddon. Not the fastest of ships, and I warped to station before picking him up on scan and warping to hsi belt.
Second, I was scram fit. He didn't burn away, warp away, or move away from zeron in his belt when I came into local.
So I tackled him, called in gang. I had him at 10%s shields when gang landed. Everyone put drones only on him so we could killmail whore.
Then he ejected and warped off. Our Guardians kep the Drake alive while we voted whether to kill or scoop. Vote was overwhelming for kill, so pop the Drake went.
We kept roaming, through Fountain back to Delve. Nothing much going on.
Killed a Huginn in 5-C not long after, however. Him and his Vagabond buddy came on in. An RKK ceptor gang tried to hero tackle the Huginn in ZXB, but died when the Vagabond came to help. But the Huginn got caught in pull bubble and tackled. Another RKK Taranis died, but so did the Huginn. First -A- roamers I've seen in our system. Good times
It was getting late, but I decided to take the Pilgrim out and see if I could find any targets in Aridia. To my surprise, I encountered an Abaddon two jumps out of Sakht. I followed him as he trecked into Delve, almost had him pointed in A-E (I was scram fit) but couldn't burn to him in time to get the scram on him. Couple Dramiel buddies got him in Pr-... but he was stabbed. WTB Dictor?
At least 2 stabs, and I'm guessing he had more. This meant no tank, but also meant without a dictor it would be hard to catch. He jumped Pr- and same thing happened... then he dissaperaed. We assumed he warped to a celestial and cloaked. Dramiels got bored and left, I stayed cloaked with some MVN friends next door. Then he appeared on scan, and on grid! I had been warping to celestials near the station at 100 and burning towards 0... and had given up and warped to the station at 100. Abaddon was 40 off of me and burning at the station fast. No way to get in range cloaked, no time to warp in cloaked and no time to decloak and burn at him.
Damn.
He docked and logged. Oh well. I retired and played some Bad Company 2.
On a side note an admin closed my scrap heap thread. It was trash anyways, a few people read blog entries, dropped random insults and insulted MVN, IT, Me, etc. Thanks for the attention and the hits (although hits only went up from ~150/day to 170). Once again I will reiterate: Your player age is no indication of intelligence or PVP capability. Your skillpoint level is no indication of intelligence or PVP capability. Your combat record is helpful and can give a trend, but is not a bible of capability. This works both ways, both for new people and for really old people.I can now say that forum posters are some of the most bitter people in EVE. Usually nobodies or once was individuals who can flex their internet spaceship muscles and put down anyone and everyone. Couple of GK guys, forum warriors at their best... while camping Fountain NPC core :) A retired Goon who doesn't play EVE anymore :) My favorite was a Cry Havoc guy... I laughed. Oh and the PL guy who cheated at EVE. Quite a peanut gallery. Keep it up guys, hope you're still reading!
That is all.
June 13, 2010
another angry man
SO. From the 5 pages of posting on my thread, it appears GBBS is more of a club for people who think they are cool and their buddies who they think are cool too, and less of a place to gather EVE political info. That and apparently someone didn't like my last post, I got this message:
U MAD BRO?
Band of Brothers / KenZoku / IT Alliance have a long history of being terrible posters, and generally causing shit on GBBS. You post a thread in Eve General, without doing any research into how to get GBBS access and you expect to be treated with respect? Please. Have respect for the forums and they will have respect for you (or maybe not, because you're a filthy '10 but you know what I mean).
Glad you enjoyed your stay. You can go back to farming Sanctums in Delve or whatever it is you do, 'cause you certainly don't PVP.
Toodles,
Soffles.
I laughed pretty hard at this guy. Hes right though, I love farming sanctums and never PVP
:-)
That is all.
Oh... and Sofia on Battleclinic
U MAD BRO?
Band of Brothers / KenZoku / IT Alliance have a long history of being terrible posters, and generally causing shit on GBBS. You post a thread in Eve General, without doing any research into how to get GBBS access and you expect to be treated with respect? Please. Have respect for the forums and they will have respect for you (or maybe not, because you're a filthy '10 but you know what I mean).
Glad you enjoyed your stay. You can go back to farming Sanctums in Delve or whatever it is you do, 'cause you certainly don't PVP.
Toodles,
Soffles.
I laughed pretty hard at this guy. Hes right though, I love farming sanctums and never PVP
:-)
That is all.
Oh... and Sofia on Battleclinic
June 12, 2010
Scrapheap Challenge
For the past two months I have waited to get access to Scrapheap Challenge's GBBS. This would give me access to 0.0 Corp/Alliance political sections.
Never got it.
Posted a thread in the general section asking what the hold up was and got many emo, angry flaming responses from bitter people. http://www.scrapheap-challenge.com/viewtopic.php?p=1261509#1261509
"GBBS needs less faggots posting, not more. Especially '10s."
"If you need to ask for it you don't deserve it."
"The last thing gbbs needs is IT useless faggots posting propaganda bullshit. Go with king, aj regard and the rest of the retards that turned k.com into shit."
"insert random emo post here"
Needless to say I was less than impressed. Despite the differences historically/politically with PL and Goons, Kugu's forums is more impressive these days. Sadly dissapointed. Ignorant and bitter armchair generals... I'm the first to say that your age plays a minor role in your ability to play EVE intelligently. Especially when they're looking at your registration date. I was unaware that signing up for EVE meant you should immediately go register on every EVE forum.
Oh well. Scrapheap can go fuck itself. I'll use it like I have in the past, for so-so ship fitting advice.
That is all.
Never got it.
Posted a thread in the general section asking what the hold up was and got many emo, angry flaming responses from bitter people. http://www.scrapheap-challenge.com/viewtopic.php?p=1261509#1261509
"GBBS needs less faggots posting, not more. Especially '10s."
"If you need to ask for it you don't deserve it."
"The last thing gbbs needs is IT useless faggots posting propaganda bullshit. Go with king, aj regard and the rest of the retards that turned k.com into shit."
"insert random emo post here"
Needless to say I was less than impressed. Despite the differences historically/politically with PL and Goons, Kugu's forums is more impressive these days. Sadly dissapointed. Ignorant and bitter armchair generals... I'm the first to say that your age plays a minor role in your ability to play EVE intelligently. Especially when they're looking at your registration date. I was unaware that signing up for EVE meant you should immediately go register on every EVE forum.
Oh well. Scrapheap can go fuck itself. I'll use it like I have in the past, for so-so ship fitting advice.
That is all.
How To Be A Better FC
Last night I didn't do much on EVE. I was on for about 30 min before going out with friends, namely seeing The A-Team. Funny movie, and Jessica Biel is foxy.
That being said, I do have something to talk about concerning EVE.
In my Corp recently there has been quite a bit of chatter in chat and on our forums regarding how to FC and become a better FC. Even in my open channel I have had some of the same questions from random New Eden dwellers. So here are some tips and ways to get better at leading your roams succesfully in PVP.
The first is probably the easiest. Go on roams with a good FC. Instead of numbing your mind and following orders like a robot, however, you are actively gauging the situation and making your own decisions as if you were FCing. When the FC gives orders that are similar to yours, congrats. When they differ, mentally (or physically) write them down for later. Agro has been learning quite a bit in our corp as of late doing exactly that. Often I will get "why did you do this" or "why didn't you do that". I'll give him my reasons and the lightbulb turns on.
Take out roams yourself. Obviously be smart about shiptypes and route planning. If you are taking out your first roam, don't choose HACS and Recons and go to Detorid, or Delve. More than likely you will make a mistake (no offense) and your entire gang will die. This tends to hurt your reputation among the corp/alliance, more so due to the high isk loss suffered by the gang members than anything. Instead, choose T1 Frigs/Cruisers, even T2 Frigs if your guys want to take them out. Choose a less populated part of space, like Fountain or Drone regions and find targets of oppurtunity. Those roams are always fun (even for me) and if your gang is annihilated the loss is minimum. So is the loss of confidence in you from your guys. These work best if you have an experienced FC with you, especially as scout. Have a convo open with this individual, so they can give you pointers and tips without speaking on comms and undermining your authority.
When not FCing in a gang... scout. Scouting is just as important as FCing. The scout can save the gang with early warning of trouble. The scout gets the gang targets. He is the eyes of the FC. A shitty scout = a blind FC. Your intel makes decisions for the FC more times than not. He's just the one that says it on comms and is responsible if things go south. Its a good stepping stone for a newbie FC, and it makes you engage your brain... unlike many gang members who get stuck in a zombielike trance. Those idiots are usually the same ones that lemming into a system and give away the gang presence to a potential target. I am guilty of this myself at times, like the last alliance roam into Providence. I was folding laundry during most of the travel :) That being said I didn't lemming, instead falling behind the gang half a jump... but better late than lemming.
Talk out scenarios with the FCs and experienced members of corp during downtimes, gate camps, carebearing, etc. Beware, however... scenarios are great but there is NEVER a cookie cutter A = B situation. Combat is fluid, and there are always variables that make the situations different. Even exact numbers, shiptypes, pilots, and location can vary decisions (not that that ever happens) due to new patch nerfs/changes. But these scenarios can better enable you to make sound decisions in the future.
Study ships.
Huh?
Yes, study ships. While at work, or bored or whatever, go to EVE Wiki and look at the ships. First off, know what different classes mean. Second off, know what ship types belong to each class. Thirdly, know what each ship has bonuses too. Lastly, with time/experience/discussion with colleagues know what each ship typically fits. This helps in engagements, as you know (in a general sense) what a ships hole is for tank, strength is for DPS, etc. All of these are important because each ship, even in the same class, is different. For instance, I would not tackle a Zealot in an interceptor (unless I'm feeling suicidal) as his tracking and range will eff me up. But I would tackle a Cerberus in a ceptor... even with faction/precision loaded I can hold him long enough for my gang to arrive and finish him off. Yet both are HACs. In my godlike Tengu I will tackle most things except Pilgrims/Curse's. Why? Because his neuts will eff my tank, despite a cap booster. On the flip side, when engaging a Tengu its safe (usually) to assume that hes active tanked. Why? Because he can absorb a crap ton of hit points that way... and if he passive fits it he might as well have bought a Drake for a tenth of the cost. These are common sense things to me.... and probably to many of you. For newer pilots it is not... and understanding the common mechanics of your opponents can get you kills and prevent losses. Knowledge is most certainly power.
Know your terrain and regardless of your familiarity... keep DOTLAN open. This helps on many levels. Easley Thames wrote an article on this subject called Knowing the Neighborhood. Basically, knowing the terrain allows you firstly to know the inhabitants. This can help you gauge situations, such as: Will this guy have buddies nearby? Is this an active time zone for the inhabitants? Am I stuck in a pipe? Where will a counter attack come from? Do I have bookmarks/offgates/safes? Although nothing is certain... most things are predictable. For instance... Drone regions are largely Russian. Therefore I can safely assume that roaming through around 4am Moscow time will be safer than 4pm Moscow time. There will still be targets... but far less chance of getting blobbed and dying in a horrible fire. When familiar enough with an area you may even know individual pilots and are familiar with them.
Keep Battleclinic open next to DOTLAN and look up pilot names. Sure stats don't mean everything, but you can see what kind of ships they fly and standard fittings they use. Take kill #s and k/d ratios with a grain of salt, however. Even take pilot age with a grain of salt. The Insterstellar Brotherhood of Gravediggers pilot I solo'd (and Easley solo'd later that day) was an old toon with lots of kills. But he got most of those kills camping high sec gates and killing 0.0 wartargets who are stupid enough to travel through high sec, often on autopilot. Not a great indicator of actual skill. But always remember, the moment you disrespect your opponent he will punch you in the face. Opponent can be one pilot, or one FC of an opposing gang. My personal philosophy is to assume your enemy is very smart. Plan on it. More often than not he isn't and will suck. But, if you don't treat him with respect and he is smart, what may have been a killmail can mean a lossmail for you or your men.
Practice makes perfect. All of the above work best with frequency. Get out as much as you can. Stop carebearing and start killing. And NEVER treat PVPing like PVEing. Tanking is different, fittings are different, opponents are different. Practice helps with all of the decision making... and most importantly, it helps make these decisions quickly. Hesitation is about as bad as you can get, best case it loses you a kill. Worst case it gets everybody killed. Both are bad. Hesitation can be from lack of confidence, or overthinking a situation. With practice its like riding a bike... eventually you just make the decisions without having to think.
Once you start getting to the more experienced side of things... experiment! Typical fittings, typical gangs, typical anything is.... typical. Expected. Predictable. Try something new. Use common sense... like active shield tanking Amarr battleship gang is pure fail. But try new things that make sense. Your opponent will undoubtedly be unprepared for new things, as they are new. I recommend this for lols and fun times.
Feel free to talk to me, or other visitors to PK's House of Love. I've noticed more and more visitors, and I welcome questions and have questions of my own. If I don't respond right away, don't get butt hurt. I am probably focusing on something at the time :)
That is all.
That being said, I do have something to talk about concerning EVE.
In my Corp recently there has been quite a bit of chatter in chat and on our forums regarding how to FC and become a better FC. Even in my open channel I have had some of the same questions from random New Eden dwellers. So here are some tips and ways to get better at leading your roams succesfully in PVP.
The first is probably the easiest. Go on roams with a good FC. Instead of numbing your mind and following orders like a robot, however, you are actively gauging the situation and making your own decisions as if you were FCing. When the FC gives orders that are similar to yours, congrats. When they differ, mentally (or physically) write them down for later. Agro has been learning quite a bit in our corp as of late doing exactly that. Often I will get "why did you do this" or "why didn't you do that". I'll give him my reasons and the lightbulb turns on.
Take out roams yourself. Obviously be smart about shiptypes and route planning. If you are taking out your first roam, don't choose HACS and Recons and go to Detorid, or Delve. More than likely you will make a mistake (no offense) and your entire gang will die. This tends to hurt your reputation among the corp/alliance, more so due to the high isk loss suffered by the gang members than anything. Instead, choose T1 Frigs/Cruisers, even T2 Frigs if your guys want to take them out. Choose a less populated part of space, like Fountain or Drone regions and find targets of oppurtunity. Those roams are always fun (even for me) and if your gang is annihilated the loss is minimum. So is the loss of confidence in you from your guys. These work best if you have an experienced FC with you, especially as scout. Have a convo open with this individual, so they can give you pointers and tips without speaking on comms and undermining your authority.
When not FCing in a gang... scout. Scouting is just as important as FCing. The scout can save the gang with early warning of trouble. The scout gets the gang targets. He is the eyes of the FC. A shitty scout = a blind FC. Your intel makes decisions for the FC more times than not. He's just the one that says it on comms and is responsible if things go south. Its a good stepping stone for a newbie FC, and it makes you engage your brain... unlike many gang members who get stuck in a zombielike trance. Those idiots are usually the same ones that lemming into a system and give away the gang presence to a potential target. I am guilty of this myself at times, like the last alliance roam into Providence. I was folding laundry during most of the travel :) That being said I didn't lemming, instead falling behind the gang half a jump... but better late than lemming.
Talk out scenarios with the FCs and experienced members of corp during downtimes, gate camps, carebearing, etc. Beware, however... scenarios are great but there is NEVER a cookie cutter A = B situation. Combat is fluid, and there are always variables that make the situations different. Even exact numbers, shiptypes, pilots, and location can vary decisions (not that that ever happens) due to new patch nerfs/changes. But these scenarios can better enable you to make sound decisions in the future.
Study ships.
Huh?
Yes, study ships. While at work, or bored or whatever, go to EVE Wiki and look at the ships. First off, know what different classes mean. Second off, know what ship types belong to each class. Thirdly, know what each ship has bonuses too. Lastly, with time/experience/discussion with colleagues know what each ship typically fits. This helps in engagements, as you know (in a general sense) what a ships hole is for tank, strength is for DPS, etc. All of these are important because each ship, even in the same class, is different. For instance, I would not tackle a Zealot in an interceptor (unless I'm feeling suicidal) as his tracking and range will eff me up. But I would tackle a Cerberus in a ceptor... even with faction/precision loaded I can hold him long enough for my gang to arrive and finish him off. Yet both are HACs. In my godlike Tengu I will tackle most things except Pilgrims/Curse's. Why? Because his neuts will eff my tank, despite a cap booster. On the flip side, when engaging a Tengu its safe (usually) to assume that hes active tanked. Why? Because he can absorb a crap ton of hit points that way... and if he passive fits it he might as well have bought a Drake for a tenth of the cost. These are common sense things to me.... and probably to many of you. For newer pilots it is not... and understanding the common mechanics of your opponents can get you kills and prevent losses. Knowledge is most certainly power.
Know your terrain and regardless of your familiarity... keep DOTLAN open. This helps on many levels. Easley Thames wrote an article on this subject called Knowing the Neighborhood. Basically, knowing the terrain allows you firstly to know the inhabitants. This can help you gauge situations, such as: Will this guy have buddies nearby? Is this an active time zone for the inhabitants? Am I stuck in a pipe? Where will a counter attack come from? Do I have bookmarks/offgates/safes? Although nothing is certain... most things are predictable. For instance... Drone regions are largely Russian. Therefore I can safely assume that roaming through around 4am Moscow time will be safer than 4pm Moscow time. There will still be targets... but far less chance of getting blobbed and dying in a horrible fire. When familiar enough with an area you may even know individual pilots and are familiar with them.
Keep Battleclinic open next to DOTLAN and look up pilot names. Sure stats don't mean everything, but you can see what kind of ships they fly and standard fittings they use. Take kill #s and k/d ratios with a grain of salt, however. Even take pilot age with a grain of salt. The Insterstellar Brotherhood of Gravediggers pilot I solo'd (and Easley solo'd later that day) was an old toon with lots of kills. But he got most of those kills camping high sec gates and killing 0.0 wartargets who are stupid enough to travel through high sec, often on autopilot. Not a great indicator of actual skill. But always remember, the moment you disrespect your opponent he will punch you in the face. Opponent can be one pilot, or one FC of an opposing gang. My personal philosophy is to assume your enemy is very smart. Plan on it. More often than not he isn't and will suck. But, if you don't treat him with respect and he is smart, what may have been a killmail can mean a lossmail for you or your men.
Practice makes perfect. All of the above work best with frequency. Get out as much as you can. Stop carebearing and start killing. And NEVER treat PVPing like PVEing. Tanking is different, fittings are different, opponents are different. Practice helps with all of the decision making... and most importantly, it helps make these decisions quickly. Hesitation is about as bad as you can get, best case it loses you a kill. Worst case it gets everybody killed. Both are bad. Hesitation can be from lack of confidence, or overthinking a situation. With practice its like riding a bike... eventually you just make the decisions without having to think.
Once you start getting to the more experienced side of things... experiment! Typical fittings, typical gangs, typical anything is.... typical. Expected. Predictable. Try something new. Use common sense... like active shield tanking Amarr battleship gang is pure fail. But try new things that make sense. Your opponent will undoubtedly be unprepared for new things, as they are new. I recommend this for lols and fun times.
Feel free to talk to me, or other visitors to PK's House of Love. I've noticed more and more visitors, and I welcome questions and have questions of my own. If I don't respond right away, don't get butt hurt. I am probably focusing on something at the time :)
That is all.
June 11, 2010
Wormholes and Roaming -A-
As mentioned in the previous post, yesterday was my day off. So I played EVE lots, as the weather was crappy (no motorcycle rides).
First order of business is always checking mail. I had one from Titus, one of my Euro LTs. Apparently we had a wormhole leading to Fade open in 5-C.
Hmmmmm.
He also said he wanted to roam it but didn't have enough people online. Unfortunately there was no bookmark on contract. So I took out the Tengu and scanned it down. Wormhole was nearing end of life but Xoo insisted a few hours were left. Got a couple in fleet and started evacuating some ships out of X-7. Xoo took his Redeemer out, and I scouted in a Manticore with an officer mod. Couple of pucker moments, but we got the 6j to the wormhole and safely back in Delve.
I took another trip, this time picking up Haakmed in an Apoc while I got my Harbinger out. Xoo scouted in a dictor while my alt picked all my mods and a couple ships up in a Viator. This time we enocuntered targets, and pursued. Evoke had an active gang in the area as well, and we chased down a small frig gang. Hard as we tried we couldn't get a bubble on them, and Pax Sex of Dead Terrorists was in pursuit as well. I opened a convo with him and we attempted coordination.
Pax was in a Drake, and we caught up with the gang. I one shotted an Imicus (big whoop I know, it was the only one too slow to warp) and warped next gate. Jumping right into a bubble with Pax. Vengeance was in bubble aggressed on Pax, and Pax was wailing on it. Machariel was 300 off the gate, but I figured I would get my shots in and get out since the Machariel wasn't helping his Vengeance buddy. We killed the Vengeance, then I deaggressed. Machariel warped in and started shooting me... I was confused, as he had waited this long and I assumed he would have started shooting Pax before I even entered system if he was actively participating. So down I went before I could get out. I was pretty pissed and told Pax I was down. He was like "how did you die?". "The Machariel". "Oh hes blue to me". "Thanks for passing that long".
So I help kill a neut, and get killed because of standings issue. Had the Machariel been actively aggressing I would never have aggressed the Vengeance. But he wasn't because Pax was friendly to him. So... Mr. Machariel... fuck you for not seeing I was helping your buddy.
That being said I was a neut and I would have shot to, but Mr. Pax, it would have been appreciated to pass my good intentions along to your buddy.
So I picked up a Curse and bugged out right before the NC fleet came into X-7 and started their hour long camp. We moved to the wormhole and jumped out. Haakmed and Xoo got a couple more kills with the Evoke fleet while I was picking up my Curse.
Needing to make up 20-30 kills for that Harbinger loss, I formed up a small gang in X-7. Curse, Taranis and Drake. We jumped back through the wormhole with the intention of hitting targets in Fade. Ten minutes in Haakmed piped up "uhhh, the wormhole just dissapeared".
Damn.
So I decided to head home, 36 jumps. Off we went. We avoide one hostile gang, and continued moving. No targets to be found. We even went through one system with 20 in local... the only active ones in space were found in various POS' all around the system. Had they formed up or coordinated in any way we would have been heavily outgunned and outnumbered. No response though.
Just before Cloud Ring my cloaky alt scout reported a new red just after she jumped in. She cloaked up off the in gate and waited.
Vagabond. hmm.
"K guys. Ranis will point. If he aggresses, we get him, if he burns off, we get him, if he reapproaches, Drake and Curse will jump with him and hope to point on other side."
Lucky for us, the Vaga aggressed me immediately. He had 180 Auto's, and was hitting me for close to nothing. My 3x Medium Neuts ripped into his cap, and he was still motionless. Alt next door reported another MM in local... Rapier. He jumped in as the Vagabond was in half shield and had started trying to move finally. If the Rapier had been smart, he would have double webbed our Taranis and popped him, or bugged out, or done something. Instead, he sat there for a few seconds, then slowly reapproached. I locked him up and dropped a point on him and one of my neuts. Vaga was dying now, and once he hit armor it was over. He exploded in a ball of fury, and we focused on the Rapier. He started dropping extremely fast... then jumped out. Another MM in the next door system... also a Rapier. They both came through shortly after, cloaking and warping off. I offered my customary "Nice Vaga bro" in local.
After hitting me for crap damage the Vagabond had switched to the Taranis. The Ranis pilot iniitally was worried and was going to disengage, but wasn't getting hit at all. We laughed when we looked at the mail... the Vagabond had Barrage loaded. Tracking penalties FTW!
We returned home without incident.
Last night we went on an alliance roam. Scouting was a problem. We had two scouts and the FC just couldn't keep track of them. Those scouts were also not very good at communicating. Often they would go silent and take way too much time to respond. As I have mentioned before, scouts are crucial. Especially in hostile space. We did have 40 in fleet, which is decent numbers. Half of those were Mavs.
The one fight we got into... we got lucky. Brick Squad had a HAC/BC/Recon gang. Our scouts missed them (somehow). Ended up being us on one side of the gate, them on the other side. Hesitation from the FC, as he didn't have the intel until someone spoke up "they are on the other side of the gate!!!" "I need help" from one of the lemmings that had already jumped through. We lost a tackler in the engagement (doesn't show in battle report, it was an RKK guy who hasn't posted his lossmail). We ended up smashing the Brick Squad for one reason: numbers. We had overwhelming numbers. Their fast movers got away but they left behind the slower guys. Battle report here.
You may ask, why am I whining? We won, right. This is true. But neither side had scouts in position, and we basically ran into eachother. We won because we had more people. Thats it. We got lucky; that they didn't run away and we had more people. You should never have to keep asking "where is my scout", "where is this scout again". You should always know where your gang is, where your scouts are, and have a DOTLAN map open. Especially where we were, in -A- space, where response gangs are common and 40 in fleet doesn't make you untouchable by any means. If you are going to be a scout, you need to SPEAK UP. Don't assume the FC has ESP and knows whats going on. You are his eyes. If you can't handle this, don't scout.
We also got an Absolution kill. He undocked into our gang and didn't dock up in time. Maybe moved early, maybe bugged, who knows. Wasn't a kickout station.
The roam kept going and going, and people started complaining that they needed to go to sleep. It had been 2-2.5 hrs since we left... so the FC took us to high sec so we could log if needed. Agro and I headed to Yong instead of staying with the rest of the fleet, as they were going to bio for like 10 minutes and head home. Got a couple easy kills in Yong and logged for bed. Better day than the one before.
That is all.
First order of business is always checking mail. I had one from Titus, one of my Euro LTs. Apparently we had a wormhole leading to Fade open in 5-C.
Hmmmmm.
He also said he wanted to roam it but didn't have enough people online. Unfortunately there was no bookmark on contract. So I took out the Tengu and scanned it down. Wormhole was nearing end of life but Xoo insisted a few hours were left. Got a couple in fleet and started evacuating some ships out of X-7. Xoo took his Redeemer out, and I scouted in a Manticore with an officer mod. Couple of pucker moments, but we got the 6j to the wormhole and safely back in Delve.
I took another trip, this time picking up Haakmed in an Apoc while I got my Harbinger out. Xoo scouted in a dictor while my alt picked all my mods and a couple ships up in a Viator. This time we enocuntered targets, and pursued. Evoke had an active gang in the area as well, and we chased down a small frig gang. Hard as we tried we couldn't get a bubble on them, and Pax Sex of Dead Terrorists was in pursuit as well. I opened a convo with him and we attempted coordination.
Pax was in a Drake, and we caught up with the gang. I one shotted an Imicus (big whoop I know, it was the only one too slow to warp) and warped next gate. Jumping right into a bubble with Pax. Vengeance was in bubble aggressed on Pax, and Pax was wailing on it. Machariel was 300 off the gate, but I figured I would get my shots in and get out since the Machariel wasn't helping his Vengeance buddy. We killed the Vengeance, then I deaggressed. Machariel warped in and started shooting me... I was confused, as he had waited this long and I assumed he would have started shooting Pax before I even entered system if he was actively participating. So down I went before I could get out. I was pretty pissed and told Pax I was down. He was like "how did you die?". "The Machariel". "Oh hes blue to me". "Thanks for passing that long".
So I help kill a neut, and get killed because of standings issue. Had the Machariel been actively aggressing I would never have aggressed the Vengeance. But he wasn't because Pax was friendly to him. So... Mr. Machariel... fuck you for not seeing I was helping your buddy.
That being said I was a neut and I would have shot to, but Mr. Pax, it would have been appreciated to pass my good intentions along to your buddy.
So I picked up a Curse and bugged out right before the NC fleet came into X-7 and started their hour long camp. We moved to the wormhole and jumped out. Haakmed and Xoo got a couple more kills with the Evoke fleet while I was picking up my Curse.
Needing to make up 20-30 kills for that Harbinger loss, I formed up a small gang in X-7. Curse, Taranis and Drake. We jumped back through the wormhole with the intention of hitting targets in Fade. Ten minutes in Haakmed piped up "uhhh, the wormhole just dissapeared".
Damn.
So I decided to head home, 36 jumps. Off we went. We avoide one hostile gang, and continued moving. No targets to be found. We even went through one system with 20 in local... the only active ones in space were found in various POS' all around the system. Had they formed up or coordinated in any way we would have been heavily outgunned and outnumbered. No response though.
Just before Cloud Ring my cloaky alt scout reported a new red just after she jumped in. She cloaked up off the in gate and waited.
Vagabond. hmm.
"K guys. Ranis will point. If he aggresses, we get him, if he burns off, we get him, if he reapproaches, Drake and Curse will jump with him and hope to point on other side."
Lucky for us, the Vaga aggressed me immediately. He had 180 Auto's, and was hitting me for close to nothing. My 3x Medium Neuts ripped into his cap, and he was still motionless. Alt next door reported another MM in local... Rapier. He jumped in as the Vagabond was in half shield and had started trying to move finally. If the Rapier had been smart, he would have double webbed our Taranis and popped him, or bugged out, or done something. Instead, he sat there for a few seconds, then slowly reapproached. I locked him up and dropped a point on him and one of my neuts. Vaga was dying now, and once he hit armor it was over. He exploded in a ball of fury, and we focused on the Rapier. He started dropping extremely fast... then jumped out. Another MM in the next door system... also a Rapier. They both came through shortly after, cloaking and warping off. I offered my customary "Nice Vaga bro" in local.
After hitting me for crap damage the Vagabond had switched to the Taranis. The Ranis pilot iniitally was worried and was going to disengage, but wasn't getting hit at all. We laughed when we looked at the mail... the Vagabond had Barrage loaded. Tracking penalties FTW!
We returned home without incident.
Last night we went on an alliance roam. Scouting was a problem. We had two scouts and the FC just couldn't keep track of them. Those scouts were also not very good at communicating. Often they would go silent and take way too much time to respond. As I have mentioned before, scouts are crucial. Especially in hostile space. We did have 40 in fleet, which is decent numbers. Half of those were Mavs.
The one fight we got into... we got lucky. Brick Squad had a HAC/BC/Recon gang. Our scouts missed them (somehow). Ended up being us on one side of the gate, them on the other side. Hesitation from the FC, as he didn't have the intel until someone spoke up "they are on the other side of the gate!!!" "I need help" from one of the lemmings that had already jumped through. We lost a tackler in the engagement (doesn't show in battle report, it was an RKK guy who hasn't posted his lossmail). We ended up smashing the Brick Squad for one reason: numbers. We had overwhelming numbers. Their fast movers got away but they left behind the slower guys. Battle report here.
You may ask, why am I whining? We won, right. This is true. But neither side had scouts in position, and we basically ran into eachother. We won because we had more people. Thats it. We got lucky; that they didn't run away and we had more people. You should never have to keep asking "where is my scout", "where is this scout again". You should always know where your gang is, where your scouts are, and have a DOTLAN map open. Especially where we were, in -A- space, where response gangs are common and 40 in fleet doesn't make you untouchable by any means. If you are going to be a scout, you need to SPEAK UP. Don't assume the FC has ESP and knows whats going on. You are his eyes. If you can't handle this, don't scout.
We also got an Absolution kill. He undocked into our gang and didn't dock up in time. Maybe moved early, maybe bugged, who knows. Wasn't a kickout station.
The roam kept going and going, and people started complaining that they needed to go to sleep. It had been 2-2.5 hrs since we left... so the FC took us to high sec so we could log if needed. Agro and I headed to Yong instead of staying with the rest of the fleet, as they were going to bio for like 10 minutes and head home. Got a couple easy kills in Yong and logged for bed. Better day than the one before.
That is all.
No One to Fight, No One to Shoot.
So yesterday was my day off. As such, no blog entry for you guys. Why? Because I was roaming.
Two nights ago I took a gang down to Querious. Nothing. Up to Fountain. Nothing. Up to Syndicate... we finally got a fight from some guys. I was scouting in a Nano Drake, had my gang a system away. Followed a Dramiel, got the tackle and web, called the gang in. They jumped into the adjacent system, and were inbound to the gate I was sitting on the other side of when my local popped 1. Then two. Then three and four... and 5,6,7,8. I'm not sure how many they had in gang for sure but when I saw a Tempest and logistics on scan I knew I had to GTFO. Elite28 in his Cane had already jumped in. "GET THE HELL OUT", he warped off. Rest of the gang safed up in next system as I started deaggresing.
Dramiel had been doing shit for damage, which is to be expected. My Drake had 80% resists and 22,000 shield hitpoints... so I was doing ok. They put most of their DPS on me and I still had time to jump through. Dictor jumped with me... and I thought I was effed. But he must have been single bubble fit as he didn't drop one right away... and he must have only had a scram since 17km off of me and I didn't get insta pointed. As he burned at me to get into range, off I went. We played hide n seek in the constellation before bailing out. Elite28 was left behind as we moved out, so we waited for him. Problem was, his internet had been crapping out all night. So he wasn't on comms. But we waited... until the enemy scout found us. So we burned... and safed up as the scout caught up. Elite logged back on and was behind us and the enemy gang. I told him to follow carefully, as the gang was occupied with us.
Then he logged off again. It was aggravating. Someone from the hostile gang (Rote Kapelle) piped up in local "Read your blog, hope to read about this tomorrow".... "only kill we got was your Cane". I checked killmails and didn't see anything from Battleclinic, but had a sinking feeling as I wasn't able to get him on comms. As gang left, we started moving home. Two hours of roaming and nothing except a gang we couldn't take. Eventually Elite logged on, but still wasn't on Vent. He caught up and sure enough, was in an egg. Finally got on comms after we yelled at him... "I was warping to an outbound gate when internet crashed, logged back on in a pod". He was pretty pissed. Elite is a good solo pilot, which is why I trusted him to survive. Unfortunate it was.
So, Rote Kapelle, theres your shout out. You killed a logged off Cane at a gate... and missed the rest of the gang. They were hard to catch though, as I had them scatter. But me.... I should have died. Hands down. You had many people on the gate and no one jumped with me except your dictor. Not sure why he bubbled on land on the first side, as I was already pointed. If he had bubbled the other side I would have died. But thanks for bringing a fight. First and only one all night, minus the normal fags in 4-C (Cloud Ring) who sit on station and undock a carrier when you aggress (had happened earlier. tanked 4 guys and the carrier long enough to dock up).
Yesterday was much more fruitful... I shall write about it next.
That is all.
Two nights ago I took a gang down to Querious. Nothing. Up to Fountain. Nothing. Up to Syndicate... we finally got a fight from some guys. I was scouting in a Nano Drake, had my gang a system away. Followed a Dramiel, got the tackle and web, called the gang in. They jumped into the adjacent system, and were inbound to the gate I was sitting on the other side of when my local popped 1. Then two. Then three and four... and 5,6,7,8. I'm not sure how many they had in gang for sure but when I saw a Tempest and logistics on scan I knew I had to GTFO. Elite28 in his Cane had already jumped in. "GET THE HELL OUT", he warped off. Rest of the gang safed up in next system as I started deaggresing.
Dramiel had been doing shit for damage, which is to be expected. My Drake had 80% resists and 22,000 shield hitpoints... so I was doing ok. They put most of their DPS on me and I still had time to jump through. Dictor jumped with me... and I thought I was effed. But he must have been single bubble fit as he didn't drop one right away... and he must have only had a scram since 17km off of me and I didn't get insta pointed. As he burned at me to get into range, off I went. We played hide n seek in the constellation before bailing out. Elite28 was left behind as we moved out, so we waited for him. Problem was, his internet had been crapping out all night. So he wasn't on comms. But we waited... until the enemy scout found us. So we burned... and safed up as the scout caught up. Elite logged back on and was behind us and the enemy gang. I told him to follow carefully, as the gang was occupied with us.
Then he logged off again. It was aggravating. Someone from the hostile gang (Rote Kapelle) piped up in local "Read your blog, hope to read about this tomorrow".... "only kill we got was your Cane". I checked killmails and didn't see anything from Battleclinic, but had a sinking feeling as I wasn't able to get him on comms. As gang left, we started moving home. Two hours of roaming and nothing except a gang we couldn't take. Eventually Elite logged on, but still wasn't on Vent. He caught up and sure enough, was in an egg. Finally got on comms after we yelled at him... "I was warping to an outbound gate when internet crashed, logged back on in a pod". He was pretty pissed. Elite is a good solo pilot, which is why I trusted him to survive. Unfortunate it was.
So, Rote Kapelle, theres your shout out. You killed a logged off Cane at a gate... and missed the rest of the gang. They were hard to catch though, as I had them scatter. But me.... I should have died. Hands down. You had many people on the gate and no one jumped with me except your dictor. Not sure why he bubbled on land on the first side, as I was already pointed. If he had bubbled the other side I would have died. But thanks for bringing a fight. First and only one all night, minus the normal fags in 4-C (Cloud Ring) who sit on station and undock a carrier when you aggress (had happened earlier. tanked 4 guys and the carrier long enough to dock up).
Yesterday was much more fruitful... I shall write about it next.
That is all.
June 9, 2010
Carrier Tackled in H-W!
I got a mail from a fan in the NC... he sent me this tidbit, which I found amusing. So I figured I would share it with all of you.
"That carrier was shouting in our intel channel that he was being attacked outside of the H-W station. Everyone just told him to deaggress and dock up...little did we know he was actually at a POS. People obviously formed up a fleet and undocked to see...nothing. He was called a spy in intel and everyone forgot about him. Several minutes later he said "thanks for the help guys, I just lost my carrier" and the responses went something like "stfu spy, go diaf"
Although you're red to me I enjoy reading your blog...to be entirely honest I try to avoid your gangs like the plague, mainly because I dont want to be publicly humiliated on your blog . I did lose my triple SeBo, killmail whoring harb to Soho the other day though. haha. Fly safe!"
I also fount this on Kugu's posted by GreenDaemon:
"we have a lot of retarded carrier pilots who think h-w is still jammed... if you can kill more of those idiots, it would be appreciated. (since i'm the fool who fuels em from time to time)"
For those who are wondering he was responding to a post by Leeroy Jenkins:
"http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=171827http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=171827
Used H-W jump bridge... NC must have lots of LO to burn."
Not much sympathy for that carrier pilot.
That is all.
"That carrier was shouting in our intel channel that he was being attacked outside of the H-W station. Everyone just told him to deaggress and dock up...little did we know he was actually at a POS. People obviously formed up a fleet and undocked to see...nothing. He was called a spy in intel and everyone forgot about him. Several minutes later he said "thanks for the help guys, I just lost my carrier" and the responses went something like "stfu spy, go diaf"
Although you're red to me I enjoy reading your blog...to be entirely honest I try to avoid your gangs like the plague, mainly because I dont want to be publicly humiliated on your blog . I did lose my triple SeBo, killmail whoring harb to Soho the other day though. haha. Fly safe!"
I also fount this on Kugu's posted by GreenDaemon:
"we have a lot of retarded carrier pilots who think h-w is still jammed... if you can kill more of those idiots, it would be appreciated. (since i'm the fool who fuels em from time to time)"
For those who are wondering he was responding to a post by Leeroy Jenkins:
"http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=171827http://www.killboard.it/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=171827
Used H-W jump bridge... NC must have lots of LO to burn."
Not much sympathy for that carrier pilot.
That is all.
Alliance Tournament.
Easley loves the Alliance Tournament. He watches youtube habitually. I think its pretty cool, but didn't make predictions. I'm catching up on the fights at work, using Youtube with no audio. Still fun to watch though.
-A- won their fight. Easley had picked them to win as well. They had 3x Tengu that went the distance, where Perihelion brought a BC gang to the fight. -A- took losses when they could have won the fight quicker; they primaried Drakes over Cyclones. I'm a believer in the tank of the Drake... and I know the Cyclone CAN have an awesome active tank. But all active tanks rely on cap... and when you're cap is gone you die. So after primarying Drakes, they switched to Cyclones and those died much faster. This removes DPS from the field. But it was a good fight.
Hydra Reloaded thrashed Agony. Agony brought 3 Daredevils, 2 Proteus', and 3x Daredevils as well as an Oneirous and EOS. Hydra brought 2 Sleipners, 2 Canes and a bunch of bombers. It should have been more of an even fight than it was. Agony immediately lost a Daredevil. The EOS was primaried and almost went down before reps caught up. Then the other 2 Daredevils died. The two Vigilants agony had melted next. Then a Proteus, EOS, until the Proteus was all that was left. Then Hydra self destructed all their ships and gave the match to Agony.
Hmm. Well whatever I guess.
Lawn v Arbeitaholics was a joke. Lawn worked them badly. I can't say whether Lawn will go far, as Arbeitaholics were less than impressive. But grats as they move on.
Atlas destroyed Intrepid crossing. I thought it would be a close fight... but it wasn't. Intrepid got worked.
Bane took out Unaffiliated in what was an alright fight. As soon as I saw ship compositions I new Unaffiliated would lose. Not enough DPS... Tengu, Nighthawk, 3x Drake... not enough firepower. Rook almost instapopped, Thrashers flashed dead and then the Basilisk was primaried. With the Bhaalgorn Bane had... it was dead soon. Neuts on logistics = pain. Bane then took on the Drakes. I personally would have gone with the Tengu, as the neuts would have made short work of it, but at this point it was already over. Congrats to Bane.
Majesta took the match against Beyond Virginity. Majesta brought Tengus, Command Ships, and a Scimi. Beyond brought out 2 Widows and 3 Rooks... The Rooks died quickly, then the Scimitar. The Widows just didn't have the ability to hit the Tengu's or the Sleipnirs with enough of a punch. Congrats Majesta. This was the first match Easley got wrong :)
Panda got beat. Not bad, but they got beat. I was really looking forward to this match, but was honestly a bit dissapointed with it. I expected better from Panda.. but I feel they didn't bring enough DPS to the field. Nighthawk, 3x Tengu, a Drake... epic tanking but its not who takes the longest to die. Its who doesn't die. Congrats to Brick Squad.
Circle of Two faced off against Indecisive Certainty. As soon as I saw the Drakes, Curse, etc. I called Circle of Two. I love the Curse. I fly the Curse. But in a controlled environment, you will be primaried after ECM. You will die. The Bhaalgorn is a much more effective neuting ship in the tourny in my opinion, as it can tank, deal DPS and neut. Congrats to Circle of Two.
Cry Havoc v Plutonix. This was a crazy match. As soon as I saw ship composition I thought dang, Plutonix is gonna take this one. I wanted Cry Havoc but I didn't think it was going to happen. Then the match started... and Cry Havoc raped Plutonix. Plutonix failed horribly... they lost ships like flies. Grats Cry Havoc... Plutonix needs to practice more.
CVA v Darkside was interesting to see. I called Darkside from the get go, but I had my moments of pause during this match. This biggest thing I couldn't figure out was once the two Rooks died from CVA (and why did it take so long for them to die) and the Maelstrom's (Darkside had 3) were free to fire.... they didn't primary the Drakes (CVA had 3). The Maelstroms were hitting the smaller ships for shit... and would have been much more effective taking down the Drakes. The Drakes were killing off Darkside's smaller ships and were saved until last. I do understand that Drakes don't do massive damage, but neither do Maelstroms with artillery on small targets with high transversal... just saying. But congratulations to Darkside for moving on. CVA guys... I'll see ya in Yong.
PL vs Dead Terrorists.... wow. I saw similar compositions up top on the heavy ships, but PL went for more destroyers while Dead Terrorists went pirate faction frigates. I don't like pirate faction frigs in the tournament. Their ability to dictate engagement and warp off when needed is moot.... better to spend the fitting points on other stuff. Combined with PL's discipline meant that Dead Terrorists were annihilated. Congrats to PL.
Noir vs Death from Above was crazy. I was expecting Noir to take it, but they didn't. The Death from Above composition was a good match for Noir and they used it well. It was a good fight, but not well played by Noir.
Morsus Mihi v Dystopia Alliance was the most exciting fight so far. It wasn't until 5 or 6 minutes in that I had an idea of how it might turn out. Not sure about the Blackbird... but the ECM approach (3x Rooks, 2x Widow) has been pretty succesful. But Dystopia managed to focus fire well and taking down the Basilisk that MM had was the game changer. After that it was downhill. But props to both for a great fight, and I look forward to seeing Dystopia.
Electric Monkey Overlords v Leguinea Romana was intriguing from the start. The first thing I noticed was Dominix's, which had been unseen as of yet. I also noticed an abundance of T3 on Electric Monkey. This fight was just ridiculous. I had no idea how it was going to turn out, but the three Cruors Leguinea had were intriguing. Combined with the natural neuting power of the Dominix I figured that would tip in the favor of Leguinea. I was right. It was a long and awesome fight but in the end the neuts won.
Electus Matari v Veni Vidi Vici. Wasn't too familiar with either entity. Immediately I saw the heavier ship composition of Electus Matari and thought they would take it... but was interested to see how Veni and the Curse would play in on the match. Immeidately I noticed that Veni didn't focus fire well, and Electus did. Electus primaried the Scimitar and dropped it very quickly. Veni killed the Griffins... but that wasn't much of a game changer. Veni then lost their curse, and it was down to the slugfest of the larger ships... To which Electus had numerical advantage and logistics. Great job logistically by Electus. Their Sleipner survived while taking down a Nighthawk and the opposing Sleipner. From there it was downhill, as the 3 Drakes and the Dramiel died. Props to Electus.
Erebus Alliance v RED.OVERLORD. First thing I noticed was lack of logistics for Erebus. That and their Ishtars... all 3 of them. Matched up against 3 Machariels and 3x Dramiel/3x Daredevil... I knew ROL was going to take it. Take it they did. No contest. It was a rape train. Pop, pop, pop. Congratulations ROL on decimating your opponent.
Day 2
Eve Engineering v R.A.G.E. I noticed EVE Engineering went heavy with 2x Rattlesnakes... but apart from the Dominix the rest of their gang seemed weak. I immediately picked RAGE for this one. Of all the small, low point ships to choose... Kestrel? Caracal? Catalyst? It went just as I thought, with RAGE stomping them hardcore. Massacred. I will congratulate RAGE... but WTF EVE Engineering?
Honourable Templum of Alcedonia v WE FORM VOLTRON. I looked at the screen and said "Voltron will stomp". They did. Composition was beautiful, Alcedona composition horrible. 'Nuff said.
HUN Reloaded v The Tusker Bastards. I had to root for the Tuskers. Sure, HUN lives in Fountain. But I chat with Tuskers all day on the blog channels and such. I was confused by 2x Rook... but then armor tanking heavy hitters. Guardian was logical for those... but the Rooks were sure to die fast. And they did. Slowly but surely HUN Reloaded took the fight. Congrats HUNs.
Huzzah Federation v THE R0NIN. My first thought was Huzzah is going to win this one. Just seemed to be the better matchup. That was until it became apparent that they couldn't focus fire to save their lives. It was horrible. So congratulations to Ronin... I didn't like your composition but it worked well this match.
Important Internet Spaceship League v Monks of War. I looked at compositions and immediately decided Internet Spaceships went with too few high point ships. However, their DPS was impressive as they started on the Widow... but Monks focused fire and killed a Nightmare in exchange for that Widow. I noticed a lack of focus fire, which allowed the Monks to keep a Machariel alive. But once the second Machariel died... it was downhill. Congrats to Monks.
Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate v The Wrong Alliance. I liked the matchup. IAC had Cynabals and Vagas. Lots of speed. Wrong had lots of tank, 3x Nighthawk 3x Drake. Against some other teams I would hvae said not enough DPS. But IAC looked to be in trouble with all the missiles. Which they were. They got worked. Grats to Wrong Alliance
Ivy League v SOLAR FLEET. I immediately decided ECM was going to win or lose this match. 3x Vindicator is heavy DPS, as is 2x Golem. I was understandably confused when Solar Fleet didn't primary the ECM, even more so when their DPS was spread around. Then it seemed to settle on a... Golem? It seemed to be poor judgement from a Solar. But then Ivy League did the same thing, and didn't focuse fire. Those Vindicators got point blank on the first Golem and boom, he was dead. I was disgusted with both teams at this point... the fight just seemed to be very sloppily executed. Solar then picked up momentum and started focusing and coordinating more and just decimated Ivy League at the end. Grats to Solar for pulling it together and beating Ivy.
Manifest Destiny. v RAZOR Alliance. Did't know where this one would go. Piloting skills would be very important in this match... quirky composition on both teams. The 3x Sleipners proved to be just too much, both Manifest Curses went down fast, leaving only 3x Proteus and a couple Dramiels to try and deal with the rest of the RZR team. One Sleipnir died, but there was still too much on the field including the RZR Scimitar. The comments on the Youtube video by RZR made me balls hide though. Too much gaylove talk. Gratz RZR, but relax.
Mos Vape Heavy Industries v Paisti Syndicate.
WTF?
Both teams were made of fail. Mos Vape had random tankers, shield and armor. But at least they had heavy hitters. Paisti went Nighthawk... Curse, 3x Ishtar, Rook? But Vape lost all their AFs early on (piloting ability fail), and the speed of Paisti (piloting ability too) meant they stayed alive and kept drones alive and on the larger ships of Vape. Congrats to Paisti for taking that one.
Negative Ten. v Soldiers of Thunderstorm. Liked the Matchup. Negative had the BC thing going on, combining speed and firepower but lack of tank. Soldiers had one Dominix... and some T3s. If the Brutix's could get in close and the Canes could keep their speed up... they could take it. Negative immediately primaried a Proteus and managed to slowly take it down. The Negative logistics team did an excellent job keeping their BCs alive. Amazing job. Soldiers primaried a Cane (maybe thinking shield tanked) and found a nice armor buffer... and weren't able to break it. Then the second Proteus went down, and I knew it was over. I was impressed with Negative Ten. Congatulations.
Old Intentions v Ushra'Khan. Immediately I thought, damn Old Intentions with RRBS might do the trick. Tracking all the BCs would be a little difficult but the rep chain should keep their BS alive. Right? Just primary the Raven, which those BS would kill fast, and work on the rest.
Wrong.
No remote reps. They primaried the Basilisk. Then a Sleipner. The Raven stayed alive, and rained torps on their BS. For those who understand the power of a torp Raven... you can see my confusion. Torp Raven's can do massive DPS on battleship sized targets, especially with a painter. It was also the easiest thing for the Geddons to hit. No RR and their logistics dead, Old Intentions went down. Bad decision making, as UK didn't do anything special. Their Raven was alive at the end, and was the difference maker. Congrats to UK.
OWN Alliance v The G0dfathers. Sorry to all those NC OWN readers.. but I called Godfathers from the get go. They are pretty pro small gang PVPers... and OWN isn't anything I have been impressed with since I started my 0.0 experience in Deklein with them. But what should have been a bit more even of a fight was a freak slaughter. Grats to Godfathers.
Pitch Black Legion v The Kadeshi. Pitch Black just didn't seem to have the firepower up front. The match proved very interesting, but in the end the 3x Rooks and Stealth bomber core didn't have what was needed. Closer than I thought it would be but well played by The Kadeshi.
Rote Kapelle v Silver Twilight Enterprises. Wasn't really a fight. Rote Kapelle had good composition, Silver Twilight didn't. Game over. Grats to Rote Kapelle.
Snatch Victory v THE SPACE P0LICE. What should have been a great fight was... well... sad. Snatch got destroyed. Nice job Police.
T o r m e n t u m v The Star Fraction. Immediately noticed the heavy DPS on the Machariel from the bombers. Also, Tormentum taking no damage, which can only mean a great job buy the Rook pilots. This continued for the whole match. Excellent target calling, logistics and ECM by Tormentum.
Looking forward to next week.
-A- won their fight. Easley had picked them to win as well. They had 3x Tengu that went the distance, where Perihelion brought a BC gang to the fight. -A- took losses when they could have won the fight quicker; they primaried Drakes over Cyclones. I'm a believer in the tank of the Drake... and I know the Cyclone CAN have an awesome active tank. But all active tanks rely on cap... and when you're cap is gone you die. So after primarying Drakes, they switched to Cyclones and those died much faster. This removes DPS from the field. But it was a good fight.
Hydra Reloaded thrashed Agony. Agony brought 3 Daredevils, 2 Proteus', and 3x Daredevils as well as an Oneirous and EOS. Hydra brought 2 Sleipners, 2 Canes and a bunch of bombers. It should have been more of an even fight than it was. Agony immediately lost a Daredevil. The EOS was primaried and almost went down before reps caught up. Then the other 2 Daredevils died. The two Vigilants agony had melted next. Then a Proteus, EOS, until the Proteus was all that was left. Then Hydra self destructed all their ships and gave the match to Agony.
Hmm. Well whatever I guess.
Lawn v Arbeitaholics was a joke. Lawn worked them badly. I can't say whether Lawn will go far, as Arbeitaholics were less than impressive. But grats as they move on.
Atlas destroyed Intrepid crossing. I thought it would be a close fight... but it wasn't. Intrepid got worked.
Bane took out Unaffiliated in what was an alright fight. As soon as I saw ship compositions I new Unaffiliated would lose. Not enough DPS... Tengu, Nighthawk, 3x Drake... not enough firepower. Rook almost instapopped, Thrashers flashed dead and then the Basilisk was primaried. With the Bhaalgorn Bane had... it was dead soon. Neuts on logistics = pain. Bane then took on the Drakes. I personally would have gone with the Tengu, as the neuts would have made short work of it, but at this point it was already over. Congrats to Bane.
Majesta took the match against Beyond Virginity. Majesta brought Tengus, Command Ships, and a Scimi. Beyond brought out 2 Widows and 3 Rooks... The Rooks died quickly, then the Scimitar. The Widows just didn't have the ability to hit the Tengu's or the Sleipnirs with enough of a punch. Congrats Majesta. This was the first match Easley got wrong :)
Panda got beat. Not bad, but they got beat. I was really looking forward to this match, but was honestly a bit dissapointed with it. I expected better from Panda.. but I feel they didn't bring enough DPS to the field. Nighthawk, 3x Tengu, a Drake... epic tanking but its not who takes the longest to die. Its who doesn't die. Congrats to Brick Squad.
Circle of Two faced off against Indecisive Certainty. As soon as I saw the Drakes, Curse, etc. I called Circle of Two. I love the Curse. I fly the Curse. But in a controlled environment, you will be primaried after ECM. You will die. The Bhaalgorn is a much more effective neuting ship in the tourny in my opinion, as it can tank, deal DPS and neut. Congrats to Circle of Two.
Cry Havoc v Plutonix. This was a crazy match. As soon as I saw ship composition I thought dang, Plutonix is gonna take this one. I wanted Cry Havoc but I didn't think it was going to happen. Then the match started... and Cry Havoc raped Plutonix. Plutonix failed horribly... they lost ships like flies. Grats Cry Havoc... Plutonix needs to practice more.
CVA v Darkside was interesting to see. I called Darkside from the get go, but I had my moments of pause during this match. This biggest thing I couldn't figure out was once the two Rooks died from CVA (and why did it take so long for them to die) and the Maelstrom's (Darkside had 3) were free to fire.... they didn't primary the Drakes (CVA had 3). The Maelstroms were hitting the smaller ships for shit... and would have been much more effective taking down the Drakes. The Drakes were killing off Darkside's smaller ships and were saved until last. I do understand that Drakes don't do massive damage, but neither do Maelstroms with artillery on small targets with high transversal... just saying. But congratulations to Darkside for moving on. CVA guys... I'll see ya in Yong.
PL vs Dead Terrorists.... wow. I saw similar compositions up top on the heavy ships, but PL went for more destroyers while Dead Terrorists went pirate faction frigates. I don't like pirate faction frigs in the tournament. Their ability to dictate engagement and warp off when needed is moot.... better to spend the fitting points on other stuff. Combined with PL's discipline meant that Dead Terrorists were annihilated. Congrats to PL.
Noir vs Death from Above was crazy. I was expecting Noir to take it, but they didn't. The Death from Above composition was a good match for Noir and they used it well. It was a good fight, but not well played by Noir.
Morsus Mihi v Dystopia Alliance was the most exciting fight so far. It wasn't until 5 or 6 minutes in that I had an idea of how it might turn out. Not sure about the Blackbird... but the ECM approach (3x Rooks, 2x Widow) has been pretty succesful. But Dystopia managed to focus fire well and taking down the Basilisk that MM had was the game changer. After that it was downhill. But props to both for a great fight, and I look forward to seeing Dystopia.
Electric Monkey Overlords v Leguinea Romana was intriguing from the start. The first thing I noticed was Dominix's, which had been unseen as of yet. I also noticed an abundance of T3 on Electric Monkey. This fight was just ridiculous. I had no idea how it was going to turn out, but the three Cruors Leguinea had were intriguing. Combined with the natural neuting power of the Dominix I figured that would tip in the favor of Leguinea. I was right. It was a long and awesome fight but in the end the neuts won.
Electus Matari v Veni Vidi Vici. Wasn't too familiar with either entity. Immediately I saw the heavier ship composition of Electus Matari and thought they would take it... but was interested to see how Veni and the Curse would play in on the match. Immeidately I noticed that Veni didn't focus fire well, and Electus did. Electus primaried the Scimitar and dropped it very quickly. Veni killed the Griffins... but that wasn't much of a game changer. Veni then lost their curse, and it was down to the slugfest of the larger ships... To which Electus had numerical advantage and logistics. Great job logistically by Electus. Their Sleipner survived while taking down a Nighthawk and the opposing Sleipner. From there it was downhill, as the 3 Drakes and the Dramiel died. Props to Electus.
Erebus Alliance v RED.OVERLORD. First thing I noticed was lack of logistics for Erebus. That and their Ishtars... all 3 of them. Matched up against 3 Machariels and 3x Dramiel/3x Daredevil... I knew ROL was going to take it. Take it they did. No contest. It was a rape train. Pop, pop, pop. Congratulations ROL on decimating your opponent.
Day 2
Eve Engineering v R.A.G.E. I noticed EVE Engineering went heavy with 2x Rattlesnakes... but apart from the Dominix the rest of their gang seemed weak. I immediately picked RAGE for this one. Of all the small, low point ships to choose... Kestrel? Caracal? Catalyst? It went just as I thought, with RAGE stomping them hardcore. Massacred. I will congratulate RAGE... but WTF EVE Engineering?
Honourable Templum of Alcedonia v WE FORM VOLTRON. I looked at the screen and said "Voltron will stomp". They did. Composition was beautiful, Alcedona composition horrible. 'Nuff said.
HUN Reloaded v The Tusker Bastards. I had to root for the Tuskers. Sure, HUN lives in Fountain. But I chat with Tuskers all day on the blog channels and such. I was confused by 2x Rook... but then armor tanking heavy hitters. Guardian was logical for those... but the Rooks were sure to die fast. And they did. Slowly but surely HUN Reloaded took the fight. Congrats HUNs.
Huzzah Federation v THE R0NIN. My first thought was Huzzah is going to win this one. Just seemed to be the better matchup. That was until it became apparent that they couldn't focus fire to save their lives. It was horrible. So congratulations to Ronin... I didn't like your composition but it worked well this match.
Important Internet Spaceship League v Monks of War. I looked at compositions and immediately decided Internet Spaceships went with too few high point ships. However, their DPS was impressive as they started on the Widow... but Monks focused fire and killed a Nightmare in exchange for that Widow. I noticed a lack of focus fire, which allowed the Monks to keep a Machariel alive. But once the second Machariel died... it was downhill. Congrats to Monks.
Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate v The Wrong Alliance. I liked the matchup. IAC had Cynabals and Vagas. Lots of speed. Wrong had lots of tank, 3x Nighthawk 3x Drake. Against some other teams I would hvae said not enough DPS. But IAC looked to be in trouble with all the missiles. Which they were. They got worked. Grats to Wrong Alliance
Ivy League v SOLAR FLEET. I immediately decided ECM was going to win or lose this match. 3x Vindicator is heavy DPS, as is 2x Golem. I was understandably confused when Solar Fleet didn't primary the ECM, even more so when their DPS was spread around. Then it seemed to settle on a... Golem? It seemed to be poor judgement from a Solar. But then Ivy League did the same thing, and didn't focuse fire. Those Vindicators got point blank on the first Golem and boom, he was dead. I was disgusted with both teams at this point... the fight just seemed to be very sloppily executed. Solar then picked up momentum and started focusing and coordinating more and just decimated Ivy League at the end. Grats to Solar for pulling it together and beating Ivy.
Manifest Destiny. v RAZOR Alliance. Did't know where this one would go. Piloting skills would be very important in this match... quirky composition on both teams. The 3x Sleipners proved to be just too much, both Manifest Curses went down fast, leaving only 3x Proteus and a couple Dramiels to try and deal with the rest of the RZR team. One Sleipnir died, but there was still too much on the field including the RZR Scimitar. The comments on the Youtube video by RZR made me balls hide though. Too much gaylove talk. Gratz RZR, but relax.
Mos Vape Heavy Industries v Paisti Syndicate.
WTF?
Both teams were made of fail. Mos Vape had random tankers, shield and armor. But at least they had heavy hitters. Paisti went Nighthawk... Curse, 3x Ishtar, Rook? But Vape lost all their AFs early on (piloting ability fail), and the speed of Paisti (piloting ability too) meant they stayed alive and kept drones alive and on the larger ships of Vape. Congrats to Paisti for taking that one.
Negative Ten. v Soldiers of Thunderstorm. Liked the Matchup. Negative had the BC thing going on, combining speed and firepower but lack of tank. Soldiers had one Dominix... and some T3s. If the Brutix's could get in close and the Canes could keep their speed up... they could take it. Negative immediately primaried a Proteus and managed to slowly take it down. The Negative logistics team did an excellent job keeping their BCs alive. Amazing job. Soldiers primaried a Cane (maybe thinking shield tanked) and found a nice armor buffer... and weren't able to break it. Then the second Proteus went down, and I knew it was over. I was impressed with Negative Ten. Congatulations.
Old Intentions v Ushra'Khan. Immediately I thought, damn Old Intentions with RRBS might do the trick. Tracking all the BCs would be a little difficult but the rep chain should keep their BS alive. Right? Just primary the Raven, which those BS would kill fast, and work on the rest.
Wrong.
No remote reps. They primaried the Basilisk. Then a Sleipner. The Raven stayed alive, and rained torps on their BS. For those who understand the power of a torp Raven... you can see my confusion. Torp Raven's can do massive DPS on battleship sized targets, especially with a painter. It was also the easiest thing for the Geddons to hit. No RR and their logistics dead, Old Intentions went down. Bad decision making, as UK didn't do anything special. Their Raven was alive at the end, and was the difference maker. Congrats to UK.
OWN Alliance v The G0dfathers. Sorry to all those NC OWN readers.. but I called Godfathers from the get go. They are pretty pro small gang PVPers... and OWN isn't anything I have been impressed with since I started my 0.0 experience in Deklein with them. But what should have been a bit more even of a fight was a freak slaughter. Grats to Godfathers.
Pitch Black Legion v The Kadeshi. Pitch Black just didn't seem to have the firepower up front. The match proved very interesting, but in the end the 3x Rooks and Stealth bomber core didn't have what was needed. Closer than I thought it would be but well played by The Kadeshi.
Rote Kapelle v Silver Twilight Enterprises. Wasn't really a fight. Rote Kapelle had good composition, Silver Twilight didn't. Game over. Grats to Rote Kapelle.
Snatch Victory v THE SPACE P0LICE. What should have been a great fight was... well... sad. Snatch got destroyed. Nice job Police.
T o r m e n t u m v The Star Fraction. Immediately noticed the heavy DPS on the Machariel from the bombers. Also, Tormentum taking no damage, which can only mean a great job buy the Rook pilots. This continued for the whole match. Excellent target calling, logistics and ECM by Tormentum.
Looking forward to next week.
June 8, 2010
Ganked and a Carrier Kill
So yesterday, I was talking on the phone and autopiloting my alt in a Viator through high sec when the unexpected happened.
I got suicide ganked.
Now, immediately I know you all are saying you idiot why would you autopilot. Well, I was in a Viator, it was tanked moderately and I did't have much in my hold. Some pulse lasers, frequency crystals and... oh sonofa... I had a freighter skillbook for a corpmate in there I had forgotten about. I'm guessing that tipped the scale to a worthy suicide gank target. The drop was about 150 mill... still on the light side of things but he payed with ship and sec status.
I looked up the culprit and bawked... -10 sec status.
What. The. Fuck.
Apparently a pirate can board a ship in space, from a friend/alt/Orca and warp to a gate and gank somebody.
Now, I am not against suicide ganks. In fact I have done it at the Jita 4-4 a couple times. But I pay for it with a ship and sec status. To have the ability for a known outlaw to continue suicide ganking in high sec with no punishment (he can recoup the cost of his ship without a problem) is retarded in my opinion. When I have ganked (or even pirate) I have to work at ratting to regain the ability to play in Empire again. Some may agree, some may disagree, but I believe that someone should have to have the sec status to gank in high sec.
Anyways, I got over it relatively soon, and hauled my stuff in a tanked Iteron V (autopiloting again). I told my corpmate to get his own book and clone jumped to X-7 for a roam.
Joined up just as a snipe BS gang was leaving X-7. The NC fleet had a decent number of logistics with a snipe bs core composition. Soho/Vince had formed up a snipe HAC gang to counter, but fleet was only about 50 strong with a few logistics. I jumped into a Zealot and warped at snipe range to J-C gate with the rest of fleet, waiting on the NC to try and get us. They were in J-C smacking our scout in local... though I'm not sure why. 100 snipe bs vs 50 snipe HACS. BS with heavy logistical support. I would take that fight in a heartbeat.
They didn't.
They left J-C and started burning towards H-W. We burned behind in an attempt to catch stragglers. We got one. A Megathron was caught in J-C on the out gate. He was pointed, and a few started aggressing him while the rest held for his impending jump next door. Bumping ensued... and he was bumped out of jump range.
We laughed.
As soon as he was out of jump range and webbed/scrammed/immobile we all let loose. The Megathron melted instantly.
I'm still getting used to the Zealot, but I am very impressed with their damage. Long range is impressive. Short range is ridiculous. No tank, but lots of damage. We had about 16 Zealots in fleet.
After the Megathron died we kept moving. We hit H-W and assumed our station snipe spots. It wasn't long before Quesa scouted out a target in system. "Carrier just jumped in using the jump bridge!" he said.
Soho gets very excited, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. X up in fleet... guys warp to Quesa now, warp to Quesa, tackle the carrier tackle the carrier. Short range ammo, load short range ammo".
We landed on the jump bridge pos in a bubble. A Thanatos sat motionless in space, in the middle of the bubble. We all aligned out and started punishing the Thanatos. The firepower glimmered on the screen, raking his armor, then his hull. Our Cov Ops popped, as did a dictor... but it was well worth the fireworks as the carrier exploded. We popped the wreck and warped off the jump bridge pos. I dropped my customary "Nice Thanatos bro" in local... the rest of the fleet spammed "BFF".
The smack in local, which until then had been quite substantial, immediately subsided. It was funny... their gang comes to X-7, we organize, they leave. We chase them, and their numerically superior, shiptype superior fleet runs.
2:1 Odds
BS:HAC
Many Logistics:Few Logistics
I'm sure many of their fleet members wanted to fight, but their FC was less than confident. Yet once we reached X-7 they pointed fingers and dropped lines like "ROL are afraid" "DOOM are pussies" and "SC always runs" in local.
I was understandably confused.
The chatter in local was now "shut up in local", "go home".
I dropped a "We want Kula Kain" in local... Vince cracked up on comms and instructed everyone to copy and paste it repeatedly in local.
Unfortunately we didn't get Kula Kain. Nor did we get any fight at all. We popped couple ships on station, but moved out and headed home to X-7 before long. A ceptor gang in UMI- safed up as we traveled through, but that was it.
The gank in high sec was a downer, but the carrier kill more than made up for it. ISK wise, I'm doing quite well these days. I move 100 mill of goods daily to sell in Delve... passive income FTW. The loss set me back a few days but I'll move on... The Nyx becoming more and more of a reality.
That is all.
EDIT: Received this as a comment today:
"o7 You got a bit of your intel wrong, we were using CR BS's. So I facetiously called you out on that, as well as posted WI. side of the story.
Keep up the blog, and nice kill on the carrier.
~TheJaguar "
I got suicide ganked.
Now, immediately I know you all are saying you idiot why would you autopilot. Well, I was in a Viator, it was tanked moderately and I did't have much in my hold. Some pulse lasers, frequency crystals and... oh sonofa... I had a freighter skillbook for a corpmate in there I had forgotten about. I'm guessing that tipped the scale to a worthy suicide gank target. The drop was about 150 mill... still on the light side of things but he payed with ship and sec status.
I looked up the culprit and bawked... -10 sec status.
What. The. Fuck.
Apparently a pirate can board a ship in space, from a friend/alt/Orca and warp to a gate and gank somebody.
Now, I am not against suicide ganks. In fact I have done it at the Jita 4-4 a couple times. But I pay for it with a ship and sec status. To have the ability for a known outlaw to continue suicide ganking in high sec with no punishment (he can recoup the cost of his ship without a problem) is retarded in my opinion. When I have ganked (or even pirate) I have to work at ratting to regain the ability to play in Empire again. Some may agree, some may disagree, but I believe that someone should have to have the sec status to gank in high sec.
Anyways, I got over it relatively soon, and hauled my stuff in a tanked Iteron V (autopiloting again). I told my corpmate to get his own book and clone jumped to X-7 for a roam.
Joined up just as a snipe BS gang was leaving X-7. The NC fleet had a decent number of logistics with a snipe bs core composition. Soho/Vince had formed up a snipe HAC gang to counter, but fleet was only about 50 strong with a few logistics. I jumped into a Zealot and warped at snipe range to J-C gate with the rest of fleet, waiting on the NC to try and get us. They were in J-C smacking our scout in local... though I'm not sure why. 100 snipe bs vs 50 snipe HACS. BS with heavy logistical support. I would take that fight in a heartbeat.
They didn't.
They left J-C and started burning towards H-W. We burned behind in an attempt to catch stragglers. We got one. A Megathron was caught in J-C on the out gate. He was pointed, and a few started aggressing him while the rest held for his impending jump next door. Bumping ensued... and he was bumped out of jump range.
We laughed.
As soon as he was out of jump range and webbed/scrammed/immobile we all let loose. The Megathron melted instantly.
I'm still getting used to the Zealot, but I am very impressed with their damage. Long range is impressive. Short range is ridiculous. No tank, but lots of damage. We had about 16 Zealots in fleet.
After the Megathron died we kept moving. We hit H-W and assumed our station snipe spots. It wasn't long before Quesa scouted out a target in system. "Carrier just jumped in using the jump bridge!" he said.
Soho gets very excited, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. X up in fleet... guys warp to Quesa now, warp to Quesa, tackle the carrier tackle the carrier. Short range ammo, load short range ammo".
We landed on the jump bridge pos in a bubble. A Thanatos sat motionless in space, in the middle of the bubble. We all aligned out and started punishing the Thanatos. The firepower glimmered on the screen, raking his armor, then his hull. Our Cov Ops popped, as did a dictor... but it was well worth the fireworks as the carrier exploded. We popped the wreck and warped off the jump bridge pos. I dropped my customary "Nice Thanatos bro" in local... the rest of the fleet spammed "BFF".
The smack in local, which until then had been quite substantial, immediately subsided. It was funny... their gang comes to X-7, we organize, they leave. We chase them, and their numerically superior, shiptype superior fleet runs.
2:1 Odds
BS:HAC
Many Logistics:Few Logistics
I'm sure many of their fleet members wanted to fight, but their FC was less than confident. Yet once we reached X-7 they pointed fingers and dropped lines like "ROL are afraid" "DOOM are pussies" and "SC always runs" in local.
I was understandably confused.
The chatter in local was now "shut up in local", "go home".
I dropped a "We want Kula Kain" in local... Vince cracked up on comms and instructed everyone to copy and paste it repeatedly in local.
Unfortunately we didn't get Kula Kain. Nor did we get any fight at all. We popped couple ships on station, but moved out and headed home to X-7 before long. A ceptor gang in UMI- safed up as we traveled through, but that was it.
The gank in high sec was a downer, but the carrier kill more than made up for it. ISK wise, I'm doing quite well these days. I move 100 mill of goods daily to sell in Delve... passive income FTW. The loss set me back a few days but I'll move on... The Nyx becoming more and more of a reality.
That is all.
EDIT: Received this as a comment today:
"o7 You got a bit of your intel wrong, we were using CR BS's. So I facetiously called you out on that, as well as posted WI. side of the story.
Keep up the blog, and nice kill on the carrier.
~TheJaguar "
June 7, 2010
I love low-sec.
Yesterday I received a message from Altair, one of my corpmates. He stated that we needed a vacation.
I agreed.
So we went to the Maverick Navy's longtime vacation spot, Yong. Tash-Murkon region. Now inhabited by the exiled CVA.
RRBS was the order of business, and we started out with 4. Our Onyx pilot went to Amarr to buy and fit his ship... and my alt scouted the Emperor station undock while he bought and fitted. Sure enough, our Orphanage friends had a Tengu and a Harbinger on the undock. So he sat in station, while 2x Geddon and a Mega burned towards Amarr from Yong, some 10jumps or so. We had to leave Bonecaya behind in his Mega, as his sec status doesn't allow for high sec travel.
I sat my alt on the undock and we stacked up on the Amarr gate. I watched as an Anzac Cov Ops undocked. I just tried to look through IT Alliance lossmails to find it... and got too frusterated with the stupid losses I was seeing and gave up. How people lose a Cov Ops in high sec is beyond me. The fact this Anzac guy got podded too... ridiculous. For the record, this was not a kick out station.
Anyways.
We undocked the Onyx and sure enough, Harbinger insta locked and insta pointed our Onyx. Tengu joined in on the fray, but kited our Onyx well out of point range.
We jumped into system and warped to Guis in his Onyx... which wasn't tanking as well as I had hoped. At least thats the way he made it seem on comms. As we landed, we locked him up for reps and found him to be holding at 25% shields... not too bad. Titus in his Geddon disconnected while in warp. So my Geddon and Altair's blasterThron were all there was. Tengu kited but stayed out of point range. If I had gotten my web/scram on him he would have died. Harbinger tanked well enough, but two short range battleships with webs and scrams mean no transversal. So the Harbinger popped. I would suggest, once again, that if you are going to triple trimark your Harbinger that you put on a plate of some sort. 1600mm would work well for station camping, giving you enough time to deaggress (more often than not). 800mm is also an option. The trimarks give you a percent bonus, so if your base armor is only x, that multiplier is much less effective than if your armor is Y.
So we moved back to Yong and begun the ever famous prowling and camping.
Our first kill was this Brutix. Completely gank fit, only one rig (?). He didn't even try to reapproach and died extremely fast.
Then the fun began.
An Armageddon jumped in from our next door pipe of Biphi. We watched him with eyes as he landed... and jumped. Immediately he was pointed by our Hictor. His warp core stab was useless, as the infinipoint kept him locked down.
Expecting an interesting fight with possible reapproach (as Geddons are known for tanking ability), I had Altair hold dps. Once we got his ship scrammed and webbed and he still wasn't trying to reapproach, Altair engaged. The Geddon dropped ridiculously fast, and check out his fit. 7x Cargo Expanders? 1x Warp-Core Stab? My personal favorite was the shield booster.
I'll say it again. Ignoring your ships bonuses and natural resists is really dumb. The Geddon is meant to be an armor tanker. To shield tank one... active shield tank one... with no boost to resists that are horrible for shields as it is. Which means it ended with him popping and the loot drop being really large. I had my alt pick it up in her hauler. Local chat picked up, as the gentleman we had ganked expressed anger in local. Apparently it was a not his ship, and he was transporting two weeks of loot. I didn't tell him it was crap loot, merely offered to contract it back to him for 10 mill. He actually accepted, and we concluded our business transaction. He then asked what he could have done differently.
We all expressed different opinions, but the gist was: Get a Viator and never fly a bastard fit Geddon like that ever again.
He thanked us for our time and departed. I popped an empty hauler... and we tried to kill a CVA Zealot that came through from Mamet. Our hictor got him, but he reapproached and none of our battleships had the scan res to get him on the other side. He left and we resumed our business.
I think we pissed off CVA, which is no new thing. What was new is that their bait ship slow boated into Yong, while our eyes in Mamet watched their 25 man RRBS/Logistics/all else gang stack up on the Biphi gate.
We laughed and safed up in local The CVA gang moved into Biphi and sat on the Yong gate. We were safed and aligned full speed to the station, just waiting off GCC. Didn't want station aggro if we could avoid it. We new they had a prober out, and we saw probes. He was horrible, however, and it took well over 5 min for him to probe 3 battleships out that were 2,500 kilometers above the gate.
I almost shat myself laughing when one of the Guardians went GCC, repping one of the CVA battleships who was solo tanking gate guns after GCCing one of our guys. This was made even more hilarious when one by one, all the CVA Guardians went GCC as their rep cycle infected GCC like a virus. One by one they all went flashy red and warped off gate. I was in tears.
When their cov ops finally found us, he fleet warped himself and a CVA Harbinger to our safe, and we initiated warp to the station as soon as they appeared on grid. Local spiked as all the CVA jumped in to get us.
We laughed more.
I instructed everyone to dock in station. We could have logged off, but the station was so much more cozy, and I didn't want to make all the e-honor people angry (har har har). So instead we docked and bio'd for 30 min. CVA camped system with 30 people in bs, for awhile, then moved to Gemodi and back. Aurelis, the leader of CVA, was kind enough to grace us with his presence. We dropped line after line on him in local, but he didn't give us the reaction we wanted. In fact, CVA didn't say a thing in local, which is different from the old power bloc. Not even an Amarr Victor. I guess losing all your space, all your friends, gives you a little less to say.
As they left we contemplated hitting a straggler Tempest, but decided against it. Our 5 man gang was too vulnerable to counter. I noticed a Navy Geddon in their gang and mentioned something about CVA only bringing out their pimp ships while large gangs.
As soon as CVA was out of Biphi we got back at it. We waited for quite some time, until a new neut appeared in Biphi.
The name looked familiar, and when the scan showed up I remembered. Armageddon Navy Issue. He landed on Biphi, and our hictor pointed him. All but our Drake jumped through and burned at him, but only the Onyx aggressed. We figured that he would A. jump into Yong or B. Pop a cyno and CVA would come pouring. CVA had done that time and time again to us, dropping 30 man bs gangs and several carriers. So the option B. became very plausible when the Geddon aggressed our Onyx. His fate sealed, ours undecided, I jumped our Drake in from Yong and the order to take him down was given. I had everyone passively align towards a celestial in case a cyno went up.
The cyno never happened.
In fact, the Geddon dropped like a rock. His armor tank went so fast that the possibility for ransom came and went in seconds. Combined with our fear of a cyno it wasn't until later that we thought about the money we could have made. Oh well.
The Navy Geddons Killmail says it all. I wanted to cry for that ship, similar to seeing the Ferrari get blown up in an action movie. It felt wrong for someone to buy a beautiful ship like that and mutilate it. One empty rig slot, 3 empty lows. Large shield booster in the mids... two Geddons in a row trying to shield tank. At least the first guy had fitted out all his slots. I wanted to scream at the Navy Geddon pilot. Instead, he screamed at us.
[00:51:55] GoMg JoeE2 > ASSHOLE BASTARDS
[00:52:00] Titus Loken > gf
[00:52:01] Perseus Kallistratos > nice navy geddon bro
A proper fit Navy Geddon should/could have tanked us long enough to get out. He may have taken our HICtor down. He would have been ballsy but sane to engage.
This fool was a dumbass to engage with that fit. Worst case, he starts hurting one of our ships.. we warp off. Whats he gonna do, point us with a mean glare?
For Agro's perspective of the Geddon kill, click here.
We had a jump in Drake from Shousran (high sec). He sat on the gate for a few minutes in Shousran, and my bait Iteron sat their with him. On a hunch, I jumped in the bait Iteron, and sure enough, he followed presumably thinking it was safe (or with bad intentions). Sadly, our dps and his MWD let him get back to gate in time. He sent us fan mail:
From: Tom Gerard
Sent: 2010.06.07 01:24
To: Titus Loken,
You almost defeated the power of the drake... =P
almost gave me a heart attack =P Did the itty get away?
Titus responded that no, we had killed the Iteron.
From: Tom Gerard
To: Titus Loken,
Aww shucks =P
Let me thank you for the warm reception, good to see BoB back out there one way or another, Keep up the good work, and I hope to hear more legendary feats from the folks of IT =)
-- Tom Gerard
Legendary feats? I hope so. Lately we haven't done much that can be considered special. But thanks anyways, Tom Gerard came through later on... in a pod.
At this point my eyes in Shousran reported a Gila on gate. He jumped into Yong and warped to the Biphi gate. We all jumped through and engaged, except our Mega. Our Drake had logged off (wife Aggro), which was unfortunate. The Gila reapproached and our Mega we had left in Yong was unable to point him in time, and he warped around a bit before jumping into Shousran again.
We waited for awhile with no kills, getting discouraged a little, when local spiked a couple guys related to the Gila. A Celestis and a Falcon were poking around. My sense picked up... as CVA and pets had been moving assets through Yong into Mamet/Misaba/R3 area. Kheram is frequented by pirates, but Yong has/had been pretty safe since Mavs have been at war. These guys seemed to be related to Core Factor (CVA Ally) but I wasn't sure.
My heart skipped as the Gila jumped into Shousran, and glancing at my eyes in Shousran I saw an Orca landing on gate. "Holy shit! Orca landing in Shousran, warp Shousran!" I yelled. Quickly I realized the Orca had landed on the gate... and was super bouncing off of it at tremendous velocity. "Hold warp, hold warp, warp to off grid Shousran!" Too late. Avi in his Geddon had already warped to the gate at 0.
Everyone else had warped to the off grid spot of Shousran, but Avi landed at 0 and tried to warp off. The Orca was slowboating the 14km to the gate after his bounce subsided. Key was SLOWboating.
Unfortunately for us at this time, the Gila jumped back into Yong, probably checking out the other side. He saw Avi in the Geddon on gate (trying madly to gtfo) and reapproached, jumping back into Shousran.
Then the Orca logged off.
DAMN!!!!!!!!
But I still held hope, against all hope, that we still may get lucky. I kept everyone at an off gate spot, fully aligned to the Shousran gate.
And so we waited.
After 15 minutes, the Gila showed up on gate. I sat there with my eyes and watched intently. Yong local jumped one as the Falcon pilot came in from Biphi or Gemodi. I now operated under the assumption that the Shousran gate in Yong was being watched.
And so we waited. This time I figured that dumb people would still be dumb. I'm always amazed at how bad people are at this game; I always assume intelligence but am continually dissapointed. There are those that are good, and being prepared helps when fighting those smart players. But they are far and few between. This isn't meant to be a cocky statement, as IT and MVN have their share of lemmings too. Just... reality.
So we waited and watched for about 10 minutes when Shousran local bumps one. The Orca pilot.
Excitedly I whisper on comms, as if the enemy can hear me, "Guys he just logged on, get ready". Of course they were already in position, fully aligned to the Shousran gate. Sure enough, Orca lands close to the Yong gate...
He sat there for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was about a minute. Not moving. Gila was at 0 on the gate. I waited, staring at the Orca.
He moved!
Transversal slowly picked up, and the Orca rotated on its axis, its engines burning brightly. Slowly the speed ticked up and the Orca moved towards the gate. Ten kilometers, nine kilometers... he slowly crawled towards the gate.
The Orca slowly approached the gate and I barked orders. "Everyone hold alignment. Orca will be primary, all turrets will stay on the Orca. If Falcon shows, he will be primary with drones only, turrets will stay on Orca. Gila will be tertiary." These simple instructions, although common sense, would make sure we executed the next few minutes flawlessly. As the Orca reached jump distance, the Gila jumped into Yong.
About 10 seconds after Gila jumped, Orca jumped. The moment he clicked the jump button his Orca died. It didn't matter if he logged off, tried to reapproach, opened a cyno. He was dead.
"WARP TO THE GATE!" All battleships warped at 0 to Shousran. Orca immediately decloaked, as did the Gila. I locked up the Orca and immediately started tearing into his shields, then armor. My colleagues did the same. I also locked up the Gila, and immediately punched my MWD at him. The Orca was racing through armor and leaking structure when I got into scram range of the Gila. I immediately activated my short point on the immobile Pirate Faction Cruiser. Altair, like minded, had closed the distance to the Gila and put a web on him. The Orca, now in structure, was dying. His numerous structure hit points only delayed the inevitable. Avi, with the kill of the Orca impending, turned his guns on the Gila and promtly three shotted the cruiser, killing it mere seconds before the Orca exploded in a violent flash of light. After a few seconds two yellow wrecks were all that remained, one enclosed by a giant husk of what was once an Orca. The Falcon landed on gate as the ships exploded... I locked him and he wisely jumped through into high sec.
Exuberant, we posted the killmails and began our analysis. "We're the fuckin Maverick Navy, bitch, don't you ever mess with us!" he yelled over comms. Avi gets very excitable and takes great pride in the corp he built over the past two years. In local he merely wrote "Well, that was fun".
I'm not sure how something like that could happen, but I'm happy we were there. There are six members of the same corp in local. One has GCC. There are 5 battleships and one Heavy Interdictor within a 3000km scan of the gate. What could possibly allow you to think that you will get a Gila into low sec and through with a Falcon and Gila as escorts? Looking at the fits, let me add to that: Unfitted Orca and fail freaking fit Gila. Why the Gila didn't bug out, I don't know. Perhaps he was dual boxing, perhaps he was stunned. His hesitation allowed for a scram and web to make up his mind for him.
Happily we waited out GCC and docked up. Agro was taking out a roam in 30 min, so I disbanded fleet and started the long treck home in my Buzzard. No jump clone available and I was in +4s.
On the way back through Aridia I chatted with Spectre (EVE NEWB) in Ami. They had just ganked somebody when I entered local, and I offered a "gf" in local, which blended with all the other "gfs". I mentioned his lack of posting as of late, to which he responded that crocheting has become his most recent hobby. The conversation continued, evolving into clubbing seals and other nonsense. I eventually offered my farewells and moved on, but I did drop a mail to him expressing that, on a more serious note, I missed his postings.
We left 5-C on a roam that lasted about an hour. Let it be known, Sunday night (USTZ) is a horrible time to roam. There were no targets. Nothing. I logged for the evening, almost falling asleep the last few jumps home.
All in all, a great day of pirating. Nice to bring my sec status down a bit... although its still in the +2s. A few more vacations to Yong will take care of that.
I've been steadily noticing a trickle of people joining the Aggressive Tendencies chat channel. Feel free to join and chat it up. I have guys from neutral corps, friendly corps, hell even the NC in there. Join "PK's House of Love".
That is all.
I agreed.
So we went to the Maverick Navy's longtime vacation spot, Yong. Tash-Murkon region. Now inhabited by the exiled CVA.
RRBS was the order of business, and we started out with 4. Our Onyx pilot went to Amarr to buy and fit his ship... and my alt scouted the Emperor station undock while he bought and fitted. Sure enough, our Orphanage friends had a Tengu and a Harbinger on the undock. So he sat in station, while 2x Geddon and a Mega burned towards Amarr from Yong, some 10jumps or so. We had to leave Bonecaya behind in his Mega, as his sec status doesn't allow for high sec travel.
I sat my alt on the undock and we stacked up on the Amarr gate. I watched as an Anzac Cov Ops undocked. I just tried to look through IT Alliance lossmails to find it... and got too frusterated with the stupid losses I was seeing and gave up. How people lose a Cov Ops in high sec is beyond me. The fact this Anzac guy got podded too... ridiculous. For the record, this was not a kick out station.
Anyways.
We undocked the Onyx and sure enough, Harbinger insta locked and insta pointed our Onyx. Tengu joined in on the fray, but kited our Onyx well out of point range.
We jumped into system and warped to Guis in his Onyx... which wasn't tanking as well as I had hoped. At least thats the way he made it seem on comms. As we landed, we locked him up for reps and found him to be holding at 25% shields... not too bad. Titus in his Geddon disconnected while in warp. So my Geddon and Altair's blasterThron were all there was. Tengu kited but stayed out of point range. If I had gotten my web/scram on him he would have died. Harbinger tanked well enough, but two short range battleships with webs and scrams mean no transversal. So the Harbinger popped. I would suggest, once again, that if you are going to triple trimark your Harbinger that you put on a plate of some sort. 1600mm would work well for station camping, giving you enough time to deaggress (more often than not). 800mm is also an option. The trimarks give you a percent bonus, so if your base armor is only x, that multiplier is much less effective than if your armor is Y.
So we moved back to Yong and begun the ever famous prowling and camping.
Our first kill was this Brutix. Completely gank fit, only one rig (?). He didn't even try to reapproach and died extremely fast.
Then the fun began.
An Armageddon jumped in from our next door pipe of Biphi. We watched him with eyes as he landed... and jumped. Immediately he was pointed by our Hictor. His warp core stab was useless, as the infinipoint kept him locked down.
Expecting an interesting fight with possible reapproach (as Geddons are known for tanking ability), I had Altair hold dps. Once we got his ship scrammed and webbed and he still wasn't trying to reapproach, Altair engaged. The Geddon dropped ridiculously fast, and check out his fit. 7x Cargo Expanders? 1x Warp-Core Stab? My personal favorite was the shield booster.
I'll say it again. Ignoring your ships bonuses and natural resists is really dumb. The Geddon is meant to be an armor tanker. To shield tank one... active shield tank one... with no boost to resists that are horrible for shields as it is. Which means it ended with him popping and the loot drop being really large. I had my alt pick it up in her hauler. Local chat picked up, as the gentleman we had ganked expressed anger in local. Apparently it was a not his ship, and he was transporting two weeks of loot. I didn't tell him it was crap loot, merely offered to contract it back to him for 10 mill. He actually accepted, and we concluded our business transaction. He then asked what he could have done differently.
We all expressed different opinions, but the gist was: Get a Viator and never fly a bastard fit Geddon like that ever again.
He thanked us for our time and departed. I popped an empty hauler... and we tried to kill a CVA Zealot that came through from Mamet. Our hictor got him, but he reapproached and none of our battleships had the scan res to get him on the other side. He left and we resumed our business.
I think we pissed off CVA, which is no new thing. What was new is that their bait ship slow boated into Yong, while our eyes in Mamet watched their 25 man RRBS/Logistics/all else gang stack up on the Biphi gate.
We laughed and safed up in local The CVA gang moved into Biphi and sat on the Yong gate. We were safed and aligned full speed to the station, just waiting off GCC. Didn't want station aggro if we could avoid it. We new they had a prober out, and we saw probes. He was horrible, however, and it took well over 5 min for him to probe 3 battleships out that were 2,500 kilometers above the gate.
I almost shat myself laughing when one of the Guardians went GCC, repping one of the CVA battleships who was solo tanking gate guns after GCCing one of our guys. This was made even more hilarious when one by one, all the CVA Guardians went GCC as their rep cycle infected GCC like a virus. One by one they all went flashy red and warped off gate. I was in tears.
When their cov ops finally found us, he fleet warped himself and a CVA Harbinger to our safe, and we initiated warp to the station as soon as they appeared on grid. Local spiked as all the CVA jumped in to get us.
We laughed more.
I instructed everyone to dock in station. We could have logged off, but the station was so much more cozy, and I didn't want to make all the e-honor people angry (har har har). So instead we docked and bio'd for 30 min. CVA camped system with 30 people in bs, for awhile, then moved to Gemodi and back. Aurelis, the leader of CVA, was kind enough to grace us with his presence. We dropped line after line on him in local, but he didn't give us the reaction we wanted. In fact, CVA didn't say a thing in local, which is different from the old power bloc. Not even an Amarr Victor. I guess losing all your space, all your friends, gives you a little less to say.
As they left we contemplated hitting a straggler Tempest, but decided against it. Our 5 man gang was too vulnerable to counter. I noticed a Navy Geddon in their gang and mentioned something about CVA only bringing out their pimp ships while large gangs.
As soon as CVA was out of Biphi we got back at it. We waited for quite some time, until a new neut appeared in Biphi.
The name looked familiar, and when the scan showed up I remembered. Armageddon Navy Issue. He landed on Biphi, and our hictor pointed him. All but our Drake jumped through and burned at him, but only the Onyx aggressed. We figured that he would A. jump into Yong or B. Pop a cyno and CVA would come pouring. CVA had done that time and time again to us, dropping 30 man bs gangs and several carriers. So the option B. became very plausible when the Geddon aggressed our Onyx. His fate sealed, ours undecided, I jumped our Drake in from Yong and the order to take him down was given. I had everyone passively align towards a celestial in case a cyno went up.
The cyno never happened.
In fact, the Geddon dropped like a rock. His armor tank went so fast that the possibility for ransom came and went in seconds. Combined with our fear of a cyno it wasn't until later that we thought about the money we could have made. Oh well.
The Navy Geddons Killmail says it all. I wanted to cry for that ship, similar to seeing the Ferrari get blown up in an action movie. It felt wrong for someone to buy a beautiful ship like that and mutilate it. One empty rig slot, 3 empty lows. Large shield booster in the mids... two Geddons in a row trying to shield tank. At least the first guy had fitted out all his slots. I wanted to scream at the Navy Geddon pilot. Instead, he screamed at us.
[00:51:55] GoMg JoeE2 > ASSHOLE BASTARDS
[00:52:00] Titus Loken > gf
[00:52:01] Perseus Kallistratos > nice navy geddon bro
A proper fit Navy Geddon should/could have tanked us long enough to get out. He may have taken our HICtor down. He would have been ballsy but sane to engage.
This fool was a dumbass to engage with that fit. Worst case, he starts hurting one of our ships.. we warp off. Whats he gonna do, point us with a mean glare?
For Agro's perspective of the Geddon kill, click here.
We had a jump in Drake from Shousran (high sec). He sat on the gate for a few minutes in Shousran, and my bait Iteron sat their with him. On a hunch, I jumped in the bait Iteron, and sure enough, he followed presumably thinking it was safe (or with bad intentions). Sadly, our dps and his MWD let him get back to gate in time. He sent us fan mail:
From: Tom Gerard
Sent: 2010.06.07 01:24
To: Titus Loken,
You almost defeated the power of the drake... =P
almost gave me a heart attack =P Did the itty get away?
Titus responded that no, we had killed the Iteron.
From: Tom Gerard
To: Titus Loken,
Aww shucks =P
Let me thank you for the warm reception, good to see BoB back out there one way or another, Keep up the good work, and I hope to hear more legendary feats from the folks of IT =)
-- Tom Gerard
Legendary feats? I hope so. Lately we haven't done much that can be considered special. But thanks anyways, Tom Gerard came through later on... in a pod.
At this point my eyes in Shousran reported a Gila on gate. He jumped into Yong and warped to the Biphi gate. We all jumped through and engaged, except our Mega. Our Drake had logged off (wife Aggro), which was unfortunate. The Gila reapproached and our Mega we had left in Yong was unable to point him in time, and he warped around a bit before jumping into Shousran again.
We waited for awhile with no kills, getting discouraged a little, when local spiked a couple guys related to the Gila. A Celestis and a Falcon were poking around. My sense picked up... as CVA and pets had been moving assets through Yong into Mamet/Misaba/R3 area. Kheram is frequented by pirates, but Yong has/had been pretty safe since Mavs have been at war. These guys seemed to be related to Core Factor (CVA Ally) but I wasn't sure.
My heart skipped as the Gila jumped into Shousran, and glancing at my eyes in Shousran I saw an Orca landing on gate. "Holy shit! Orca landing in Shousran, warp Shousran!" I yelled. Quickly I realized the Orca had landed on the gate... and was super bouncing off of it at tremendous velocity. "Hold warp, hold warp, warp to off grid Shousran!" Too late. Avi in his Geddon had already warped to the gate at 0.
Everyone else had warped to the off grid spot of Shousran, but Avi landed at 0 and tried to warp off. The Orca was slowboating the 14km to the gate after his bounce subsided. Key was SLOWboating.
Unfortunately for us at this time, the Gila jumped back into Yong, probably checking out the other side. He saw Avi in the Geddon on gate (trying madly to gtfo) and reapproached, jumping back into Shousran.
Then the Orca logged off.
DAMN!!!!!!!!
But I still held hope, against all hope, that we still may get lucky. I kept everyone at an off gate spot, fully aligned to the Shousran gate.
And so we waited.
After 15 minutes, the Gila showed up on gate. I sat there with my eyes and watched intently. Yong local jumped one as the Falcon pilot came in from Biphi or Gemodi. I now operated under the assumption that the Shousran gate in Yong was being watched.
And so we waited. This time I figured that dumb people would still be dumb. I'm always amazed at how bad people are at this game; I always assume intelligence but am continually dissapointed. There are those that are good, and being prepared helps when fighting those smart players. But they are far and few between. This isn't meant to be a cocky statement, as IT and MVN have their share of lemmings too. Just... reality.
So we waited and watched for about 10 minutes when Shousran local bumps one. The Orca pilot.
Excitedly I whisper on comms, as if the enemy can hear me, "Guys he just logged on, get ready". Of course they were already in position, fully aligned to the Shousran gate. Sure enough, Orca lands close to the Yong gate...
He sat there for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was about a minute. Not moving. Gila was at 0 on the gate. I waited, staring at the Orca.
He moved!
Transversal slowly picked up, and the Orca rotated on its axis, its engines burning brightly. Slowly the speed ticked up and the Orca moved towards the gate. Ten kilometers, nine kilometers... he slowly crawled towards the gate.
The Orca slowly approached the gate and I barked orders. "Everyone hold alignment. Orca will be primary, all turrets will stay on the Orca. If Falcon shows, he will be primary with drones only, turrets will stay on Orca. Gila will be tertiary." These simple instructions, although common sense, would make sure we executed the next few minutes flawlessly. As the Orca reached jump distance, the Gila jumped into Yong.
About 10 seconds after Gila jumped, Orca jumped. The moment he clicked the jump button his Orca died. It didn't matter if he logged off, tried to reapproach, opened a cyno. He was dead.
"WARP TO THE GATE!" All battleships warped at 0 to Shousran. Orca immediately decloaked, as did the Gila. I locked up the Orca and immediately started tearing into his shields, then armor. My colleagues did the same. I also locked up the Gila, and immediately punched my MWD at him. The Orca was racing through armor and leaking structure when I got into scram range of the Gila. I immediately activated my short point on the immobile Pirate Faction Cruiser. Altair, like minded, had closed the distance to the Gila and put a web on him. The Orca, now in structure, was dying. His numerous structure hit points only delayed the inevitable. Avi, with the kill of the Orca impending, turned his guns on the Gila and promtly three shotted the cruiser, killing it mere seconds before the Orca exploded in a violent flash of light. After a few seconds two yellow wrecks were all that remained, one enclosed by a giant husk of what was once an Orca. The Falcon landed on gate as the ships exploded... I locked him and he wisely jumped through into high sec.
Exuberant, we posted the killmails and began our analysis. "We're the fuckin Maverick Navy, bitch, don't you ever mess with us!" he yelled over comms. Avi gets very excitable and takes great pride in the corp he built over the past two years. In local he merely wrote "Well, that was fun".
I'm not sure how something like that could happen, but I'm happy we were there. There are six members of the same corp in local. One has GCC. There are 5 battleships and one Heavy Interdictor within a 3000km scan of the gate. What could possibly allow you to think that you will get a Gila into low sec and through with a Falcon and Gila as escorts? Looking at the fits, let me add to that: Unfitted Orca and fail freaking fit Gila. Why the Gila didn't bug out, I don't know. Perhaps he was dual boxing, perhaps he was stunned. His hesitation allowed for a scram and web to make up his mind for him.
Happily we waited out GCC and docked up. Agro was taking out a roam in 30 min, so I disbanded fleet and started the long treck home in my Buzzard. No jump clone available and I was in +4s.
On the way back through Aridia I chatted with Spectre (EVE NEWB) in Ami. They had just ganked somebody when I entered local, and I offered a "gf" in local, which blended with all the other "gfs". I mentioned his lack of posting as of late, to which he responded that crocheting has become his most recent hobby. The conversation continued, evolving into clubbing seals and other nonsense. I eventually offered my farewells and moved on, but I did drop a mail to him expressing that, on a more serious note, I missed his postings.
We left 5-C on a roam that lasted about an hour. Let it be known, Sunday night (USTZ) is a horrible time to roam. There were no targets. Nothing. I logged for the evening, almost falling asleep the last few jumps home.
All in all, a great day of pirating. Nice to bring my sec status down a bit... although its still in the +2s. A few more vacations to Yong will take care of that.
I've been steadily noticing a trickle of people joining the Aggressive Tendencies chat channel. Feel free to join and chat it up. I have guys from neutral corps, friendly corps, hell even the NC in there. Join "PK's House of Love".
That is all.
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