Yesterday we took a gang into Catch. Cypress was originally FCing, but a few jumps in and we turned around to take out a Drunk gang playing around in Delve core. Cypress had to go afk, so I took over the gang.
By the time we got back, a NEXE/Tormentum gang had crushed the invaders. Their HAC gang got bubbled and an RRBS fleet dropped on them. Game over.
So I took the gang back into Catch. 2jumps in my scout reported a cyno up. He checked it out, to find an Anshar outside pos shields.
Jackpot.
In we went, warping to the cyno at 0 and pumping close range ammo into the Anshar. The pos was manned by another Coven member, maybe an alt. Our Rapier was forced off the field immediately, as was myself and a few others. Our gang was only 20 in size... and the Anshar made it into the shields in 10% structure. It was a sad day.
Worse, I was locked up and scrambled by the POS, as I had stayed on field overheating guns to try and kill the jump freighter before it got safe. I kept spamming warp, as the pos will usually cycle targets. My shields dissapeared, as did my armor. Into structure I went, and then all of a sudden... I was warping! My Zealot got out in 15% structure.
After that botched attempt (which I credit to the POS gunner, who kept the Rapier's dual webs out of the picture) we repped and set out again. Avoiding enemy eyes, we made it into 6x7. Hostile Abaddon jumped onto our out gate... so we warped in at range and started shooting. The Abbadon was tanked extremely well, and at half armor....
he lit a cyno.
Thing is, what came through was three carriers, a Heavy Interdictor and some other random crap. I primaried the Blackbird, who died quickly. Next was the Tengu, but he was moving quickly, may have been afterburner fit, and wasn't taking damage. None of the armor tankers (including the Abaddon, who we got into structure) were worth hitting due to the massive reps they were getting. Burning off the gate to 70km off, I hoped we would get some of the hostiles to burn out after us so we could kill them. Sadly, they didn't come after, instead hugging the gate. So we bailed back to HY-
New neut in local HY-, Drake. Came to our gate. We jumped through with it, got tackle. Drake died. We got eyes on the A-8 gate, where the cyno was lit before. Carriers were gone, last few En Garde members were leaving. So into A-8 we went... didn't find much. So we went into the heavily populated system of GJ0.
Jumping in, I sent dictors to bubble the station. Jumping fleet in, we burned off gate... and watched as an Arazu warped at 70km off gate... uncloaked...
"Shoot the Arazu, shoot the Arazu!!" I yelled.
Despite a maddingly low amount of actual Snipe HACs in gang (we had 2x Dictors, 3x scimi, Rapier for scout and a bomber for backup scout-great secondaries in a gang, just not enough DPS) we had more than enough to melt the Arazu. Snipe HACs lock amazingly fast.
So the Arazu popped, but his pod warped off, which ruled out AFK. Thanks for the kill I suppose.
We warped into the station, and burned off. En Garde undocked several carriers (surprise!) and random battleships/battlecruisers. Station was bubbled while we were in warp, so we landed outside the station...
except one of my fleet members who was on a work conference call while playing. he was late.
So he landed in a bubble, and tried to burn out. He informed me on comms that he was going to die. He did.
But...
The Devoter on station that burned out to keep tackle on him... burned out a wee bit too far. Outside of rep range. We shot at him. Kept shooting at him. He turned around and was crawling back to the carriers on station when POP went the Devoter.
After playing around for a little longer on station, we moved on. No sense in waiting around getting no kills while the enemy organizes a response fleet.
We went off to Curse, and had just started having fun with the locals when over intel the cry of "carrier tackled". 14 jumps out. I asked fleet what they wanted to do, and they all voted carrier.
So off we went, burning as fast as possible. We passed by several targets in search of the capital kill. Four jumps out, he died.
DAMMIT
The fleet was pissed, as the intel from our alliance mate was scarce. First he was logged off, then he wasn't. We need help we're in frigates was the theme, yet when he hit low armor and we asked him to hold the kill... he didn't.
So four jumps out we watched our dreams pop, and were stuck with a wasted trip to Curse. I took gang home. We managed to pop a Manticore and a Hurricane on our way back.
Oh. I recently read a blog telling people to stop complaining about Incarna and Dust because its going be awesome and in 18months they will work on the problems more.
Bullshit.
In 18 months CCP will have a new pet project and still be half assing it when it comes to fixing the problems with lag. If you're a high sec dweller it doesn't matter (except Jita). If you're a carebear mining away (even in 0.0) it doesn't matter. But to those that PVP in large scale, this is not a nuisance. Its not an inconvenience. When my corpmates are losing capitals and my alliancemates are losing 20 bill supercaps to lag, I'm angry. Very angry. Hell, even when I see my enemies (yes, you guys in the NC) losing ships to bullshit lag, I'm getting angry. Telling me to calm down and to stop "whining" makes me even angrier. Do you hear me telling you your juicy tears from Hulkageddon don't have merit? Or do I sit and say, man, stop whining about PI? No. We all have our opinions. I won't judge yours since I don't know shit about planetary interaction, or mining, or any of that carebear crap. But before you remodel your house and add that new 3 car garage, the priority damn well better be to fix the rotting foundation and mold in the walls.
That is all.
July 29, 2010
July 27, 2010
Smarty Phoon. But where are the stabs?
After I got back from my evenings outings, I hopped on EVE (it was like 3am). Easley was on, as was Zaerloth (another MVN Officer, EUTZ). We took a small gang out, headed to 1-SMEB. We found nothing, moved around the area trying to jack a couple of ratters without luck. Then intel dropped a tidbit about a Typhoon on Sakht gate in 1-SMEB.
Off we went.
Easley landed first, reported the phoon in a bubble 70 off gate. We slowboated it towards him, I sent ECM drones once in range. Our Arazu decloaked and pointed him from range.
BAM BAM BAM. Smarbombs!
My ECM drones went poof.
We all burned in around 10km to get extra points on what was sure to be a warp stabbed Typhoon. Generally these disco battleships had almost or complete full rack of warp stabilizers in the lows. Combined with the Arazu 2 points, my 2 points and Easleys 3 points we figured we may be able to hold him.....
The Phoon popped drones (Valkyries II) and put them on our Arazu. I immediately locked them up and sent the Warrior IIs I had out and started dropping those drones. Zaerloth was talking on comms like he was going to die... so we got a little nervous.
Easley and I overloaded turrets and the phoon died. Really really fast. Checking the Typhoon's killmail, you can see why...
No tank. At all. 2x Cap injector tackle and MWD in mids. In lows... Overdrive, 2x Nano, 2x I-Stab, Damage Control 2 and... One Warp Core Stabilizer. His rigs were 3x Auxiliary Thrusters.
He should have warped off the moment he saw a Harbinger and Cane start burning him out.
As for Zaerloth, he was at 80% armor (with an armor tanked Arazu) when the Phoon popped. We made fun of him for acting as if he was in imminent danger of dying. Then I went to sleep...
That is all.
Off we went.
Easley landed first, reported the phoon in a bubble 70 off gate. We slowboated it towards him, I sent ECM drones once in range. Our Arazu decloaked and pointed him from range.
BAM BAM BAM. Smarbombs!
My ECM drones went poof.
We all burned in around 10km to get extra points on what was sure to be a warp stabbed Typhoon. Generally these disco battleships had almost or complete full rack of warp stabilizers in the lows. Combined with the Arazu 2 points, my 2 points and Easleys 3 points we figured we may be able to hold him.....
The Phoon popped drones (Valkyries II) and put them on our Arazu. I immediately locked them up and sent the Warrior IIs I had out and started dropping those drones. Zaerloth was talking on comms like he was going to die... so we got a little nervous.
Easley and I overloaded turrets and the phoon died. Really really fast. Checking the Typhoon's killmail, you can see why...
No tank. At all. 2x Cap injector tackle and MWD in mids. In lows... Overdrive, 2x Nano, 2x I-Stab, Damage Control 2 and... One Warp Core Stabilizer. His rigs were 3x Auxiliary Thrusters.
He should have warped off the moment he saw a Harbinger and Cane start burning him out.
As for Zaerloth, he was at 80% armor (with an armor tanked Arazu) when the Phoon popped. We made fun of him for acting as if he was in imminent danger of dying. Then I went to sleep...
That is all.
Hel Down!
Last night I didn't play EVE...
for long.
I got home from work and hopped on EVE to check buy/sell orders quickly, and to pick up an Onyx I had gotten cheap on contract. I was on the phone with a chica that wanted me to come see her, so time was sort of short.
Until in intel channels "Hel tackled" was noticed...
Jackpot.
I checked system that was linked and wha bam, only like 7j away. I joined fleet as I docked in the station my new Onyx was at and saw the cries for a cyno in fleet repeated over and over. I quickly logged on my alt in 5-C, threw her in a t1 frig with cyno and liquid ozone and moved her the 4j to get to the destination system. As I arrived I got an X, warped to at range and found a Goonswarm Hel on a pos, stuck in bubbles. It was unclear whether he had logged or not, later it seemed he had at this point. I popped cyno, broadcast and in came a crapload of caps/supercaps (including one Erebus).
The Hel instapopped.
PK was still on his way :-(
Oh well. Goonswarm Hel down, and thats what counts. Apparently he hadn't logged on in 9 months... (pregnant wife....?) and didn't get the memo that Delve isn't Goons anymore. I at least would have logged on right before downtime, or scouted with an alt, or SOMETHING.
Oh well, thanks for the kill. Easley's account of events here... (he has screenshots)
That is all.
for long.
I got home from work and hopped on EVE to check buy/sell orders quickly, and to pick up an Onyx I had gotten cheap on contract. I was on the phone with a chica that wanted me to come see her, so time was sort of short.
Until in intel channels "Hel tackled" was noticed...
Jackpot.
I checked system that was linked and wha bam, only like 7j away. I joined fleet as I docked in the station my new Onyx was at and saw the cries for a cyno in fleet repeated over and over. I quickly logged on my alt in 5-C, threw her in a t1 frig with cyno and liquid ozone and moved her the 4j to get to the destination system. As I arrived I got an X, warped to at range and found a Goonswarm Hel on a pos, stuck in bubbles. It was unclear whether he had logged or not, later it seemed he had at this point. I popped cyno, broadcast and in came a crapload of caps/supercaps (including one Erebus).
The Hel instapopped.
PK was still on his way :-(
Oh well. Goonswarm Hel down, and thats what counts. Apparently he hadn't logged on in 9 months... (pregnant wife....?) and didn't get the memo that Delve isn't Goons anymore. I at least would have logged on right before downtime, or scouted with an alt, or SOMETHING.
Oh well, thanks for the kill. Easley's account of events here... (he has screenshots)
That is all.
July 26, 2010
Yeah yeah yeah.
So this weekend I managed to log on for a few yesterday and got some "where the hell have you been" posts.
So, basically it was like this: I had to move this weekend. Which takes large amounts of time. On top of that, my family was in town. Add a night of fireworks and rides on Saturday and I am now working (sorta) with many packed boxes at my new place.
Good news is that I set up both computers as well as monitors and surround sound... priorities right?
Only real news is that late last week Easley, Casebolt, Bonecaya and myself caught this Tengu...
he was kicked from corp (Burn Eden) the next day.
Still selling that loot baby :-)
and yes, you heard right. Easley. His real life bullshit has subsided (for now) and hes back.
For his account of Tengu related events click here.
So, basically it was like this: I had to move this weekend. Which takes large amounts of time. On top of that, my family was in town. Add a night of fireworks and rides on Saturday and I am now working (sorta) with many packed boxes at my new place.
Good news is that I set up both computers as well as monitors and surround sound... priorities right?
Only real news is that late last week Easley, Casebolt, Bonecaya and myself caught this Tengu...
he was kicked from corp (Burn Eden) the next day.
Still selling that loot baby :-)
and yes, you heard right. Easley. His real life bullshit has subsided (for now) and hes back.
For his account of Tengu related events click here.
July 21, 2010
Thanatos Down
Two nights ago was... made of fail.
Soho took out a gang and we headed up to the new Deklein where TEST and Goons are moving into. We tried snagged a few kills on the way there, but saw no fights. TEST had 120 in system in OWXT, and we waited outside for them to come at us, but they wouldn't budge.
So, our scout reporting in gate clear, we jumped in to try and get a fight.
Scout failed...
As I loaded grid the entirety of TEST's T1 shitfit gang warped in on us.
"What the hell, in gate was reported clear!!!"
"Well they were on scan the entire time, just not on the gate"
"Fail"
We burned out of the bubbles and got what we could out, only losing 3-4 ships amazingly enough. Lesson to learn scouts... in a situation where enemy fleet is within scan range of gate... narrow your scan range. Short range directional is a damn lifesaver in these situations. It should have been no suprise to us, instead a warning however short it may have been would have made the difference.
We warped around system, including to the POS where TEST was sitting at. Almost snagged a Drake but he burned inside the POS. At this point we had about 20 left in gang... and we still couldn't get a fight. They hid in their POS.
We next hit the station, where there was a couple ships undocked. As we landed.... they docked up. Wafer started spamming the shit out of local, as the situation was kinda frusterating. To land 100 people on top of a snipe HAC gang and only kill a few = fail. To smack said snipe HAC gang afterwards for warping out... laughable. To not even try and get a warp in on them or fight with 5-6x the numbers (they didn't even have probes out, we sat in a safe spot aligned for over 10 minutes) is hilarious.
So we left.
Last night was a different story. I logged on and was on the phone with a friend when Urso asked if I was coming. I was like "to what?" and got a fleet invite. So I hopped into fleet and tagged along in a Falcon. After 8-9 jumps I finally got on comms. We moved through Deklein, popped a couple Rokhs on the way. Then we got intel from one of our advance scouts...
"I'm staring at a Thanatos whos plexing"
"which system"
"Cu9"
"We're on our way"
So we burned to one out of destination, at which point our scout dropped cloaked and tackled the Thanatos. In we went, jumping on contact into CU9 and warping to our tackler. The Thanatos was permajammed by my Falcon, until Urso got tackled on station. I was told to warp in and offer assistance... but the bubble up on station wasn't reported and I almost died. Urso got out, and I warped back in at range and jammed up the guys on the station. After the Thanatos died, we warped fleet in on those station humpers but they all docked.
OWN, to their credit, formed a response gang. As we were boxed in, Vince had no choice but to jump us into their gang.
Unfortunately, we took some losses, including both our Scimitars. Most of us made it out, and down the pipe towards X-7. Those that took losses reshipped and bridged to main gang. We ended up catching a Cerberus and an Onyx from a smaller gang that tried to escape once they realized our composition and size. The majority of their gang got out but we popped those two.
The OWN gang was nowhere to be found. But we ended up being on opposite sides of a gate with a Black Core Alliance gang. Vince instructed Falcons to jam the logstics... and we jumped into them. Holding our cloak, primary was called... then
Vince fleet aligned...
What. The. Fuck.
Guess who was primaried? Me in Falcon #1.
Falcon #2 went down next.
See the problem here is that had we aligned normally, Falcons could and would have held cloak for an additional 4-5 seconds as enemy fleet called primaries. Then the Falcons would have decloaked, spanked MWDs and burned off field. Survival, although not guaranteed, would have been much more possible. As it was I found myself aligning and was dead (even with 3 reps on me from Scimmies) within 15 seconds.
Some jackass wrote in fleet "Falcons are as disposable as dictors".
I simply stated "dictors aren't 130 mill jackass"
I actually floated in my pod for a good 15 seconds before Shanoexan and Emperor Dragonheart of Black Core Alliance completely ignored their FC who I'm sure was still calling primaries as the battle was in full swing... and decided to pod me. I really don't care, it was better than trying to fly it home.. but seriously? Wait until the battle is over before you waste the tackling Crow and the DPS Cane on a pod. It can honestly mean an extra kill (Crow tackle) or a battle difference maker (DPS Cane). Or you can get one more pod kill.... yay. If I caught any of my gang doing that I would light you up about it later on.
Needless to say the Falcon loss was... aggravating. I was in 5-C after being podded, and I plugged in a couple implants and logged for the rest of the night. A thunderstorm had just rolled through and the air was perfect for riding, so riding I went.
That is all.
Soho took out a gang and we headed up to the new Deklein where TEST and Goons are moving into. We tried snagged a few kills on the way there, but saw no fights. TEST had 120 in system in OWXT, and we waited outside for them to come at us, but they wouldn't budge.
So, our scout reporting in gate clear, we jumped in to try and get a fight.
Scout failed...
As I loaded grid the entirety of TEST's T1 shitfit gang warped in on us.
"What the hell, in gate was reported clear!!!"
"Well they were on scan the entire time, just not on the gate"
"Fail"
We burned out of the bubbles and got what we could out, only losing 3-4 ships amazingly enough. Lesson to learn scouts... in a situation where enemy fleet is within scan range of gate... narrow your scan range. Short range directional is a damn lifesaver in these situations. It should have been no suprise to us, instead a warning however short it may have been would have made the difference.
We warped around system, including to the POS where TEST was sitting at. Almost snagged a Drake but he burned inside the POS. At this point we had about 20 left in gang... and we still couldn't get a fight. They hid in their POS.
We next hit the station, where there was a couple ships undocked. As we landed.... they docked up. Wafer started spamming the shit out of local, as the situation was kinda frusterating. To land 100 people on top of a snipe HAC gang and only kill a few = fail. To smack said snipe HAC gang afterwards for warping out... laughable. To not even try and get a warp in on them or fight with 5-6x the numbers (they didn't even have probes out, we sat in a safe spot aligned for over 10 minutes) is hilarious.
So we left.
Last night was a different story. I logged on and was on the phone with a friend when Urso asked if I was coming. I was like "to what?" and got a fleet invite. So I hopped into fleet and tagged along in a Falcon. After 8-9 jumps I finally got on comms. We moved through Deklein, popped a couple Rokhs on the way. Then we got intel from one of our advance scouts...
"I'm staring at a Thanatos whos plexing"
"which system"
"Cu9"
"We're on our way"
So we burned to one out of destination, at which point our scout dropped cloaked and tackled the Thanatos. In we went, jumping on contact into CU9 and warping to our tackler. The Thanatos was permajammed by my Falcon, until Urso got tackled on station. I was told to warp in and offer assistance... but the bubble up on station wasn't reported and I almost died. Urso got out, and I warped back in at range and jammed up the guys on the station. After the Thanatos died, we warped fleet in on those station humpers but they all docked.
OWN, to their credit, formed a response gang. As we were boxed in, Vince had no choice but to jump us into their gang.
Unfortunately, we took some losses, including both our Scimitars. Most of us made it out, and down the pipe towards X-7. Those that took losses reshipped and bridged to main gang. We ended up catching a Cerberus and an Onyx from a smaller gang that tried to escape once they realized our composition and size. The majority of their gang got out but we popped those two.
The OWN gang was nowhere to be found. But we ended up being on opposite sides of a gate with a Black Core Alliance gang. Vince instructed Falcons to jam the logstics... and we jumped into them. Holding our cloak, primary was called... then
Vince fleet aligned...
What. The. Fuck.
Guess who was primaried? Me in Falcon #1.
Falcon #2 went down next.
See the problem here is that had we aligned normally, Falcons could and would have held cloak for an additional 4-5 seconds as enemy fleet called primaries. Then the Falcons would have decloaked, spanked MWDs and burned off field. Survival, although not guaranteed, would have been much more possible. As it was I found myself aligning and was dead (even with 3 reps on me from Scimmies) within 15 seconds.
Some jackass wrote in fleet "Falcons are as disposable as dictors".
I simply stated "dictors aren't 130 mill jackass"
I actually floated in my pod for a good 15 seconds before Shanoexan and Emperor Dragonheart of Black Core Alliance completely ignored their FC who I'm sure was still calling primaries as the battle was in full swing... and decided to pod me. I really don't care, it was better than trying to fly it home.. but seriously? Wait until the battle is over before you waste the tackling Crow and the DPS Cane on a pod. It can honestly mean an extra kill (Crow tackle) or a battle difference maker (DPS Cane). Or you can get one more pod kill.... yay. If I caught any of my gang doing that I would light you up about it later on.
Needless to say the Falcon loss was... aggravating. I was in 5-C after being podded, and I plugged in a couple implants and logged for the rest of the night. A thunderstorm had just rolled through and the air was perfect for riding, so riding I went.
That is all.
July 19, 2010
A Weekend of Fun!
I had a blast this weekend. Plenty of EVE combat, and some great nights with friends.
On Saturday night I went riding until 4:30am... it was great fun.
(Pictures are my friends bike with his girly, and the coolest shirt I've seen in awhile on a drunken soccer fan)
Yesterday started out with a small roam by Ursokwl. I joined up after it had started, and juding by the teamspeak chatter they had gotten a small fight and ended up getting smashed in the face.
In J-C one of our scouts picked up what could only be a plexing crew of some neuts. Domi, Drake and Cane on scan.
On Saturday night I went riding until 4:30am... it was great fun.
Yesterday started out with a small roam by Ursokwl. I joined up after it had started, and juding by the teamspeak chatter they had gotten a small fight and ended up getting smashed in the face.
In J-C one of our scouts picked up what could only be a plexing crew of some neuts. Domi, Drake and Cane on scan.
We sent a prober in, and had Ursokwl bouncing system in the vain effort to find targets. The prober started getting hits when Ursokwl started yelling "Domi at the sun, Domi at the sun get in here I've tackled him ahhhhhrghghghghghg" Ursokwl gets really excited and mumbles. I happened (luckily) to be in my Falcon.
"Cane is landing, so is Drake" I heard over comms.
This was going to be tricky... We were in 4 Dramiels, Jaguar, Claw, Sabre and... my Falcon. To take these guys, especially the Cane and Drake (who can instapop our small shit for breakfast lunch and dinner) would require pro jamming.
I delivered.
Upon landing I locked up Cane, Drake then Dominix. I was fitted with 4 racials, and at 40km range I started my jam cycles and permajammed those guys. I missed on cycle on the Drake and had to cycle the Amarr jammer to get him. Unfortunately he put 5x Hobgobilins on me in that time, but with a decent shield buffer and DC2 the thermal damage wasn't doing too much. I reassigned my two Warrior IIs and started taking the Hobgoblins down.
Cane popped, then Drake slowly went down. Last was the Dominix, who just sat there waiting to die as we ate through his tank.
We were hoping for some great faction loot... didn't get much. Ursokwl was happy with the results. I got some thanks in gang, due to the fact that without the permajamms we would have lost ships (or the whole gang) and not been able to take down all three. I'm sure the 3 pilots we popped were more than aggravated with ECM by the end of the engagement. :-)
We moved on towards Tribute and picked off this Hurricane. He was in KQK and got pushed into X47. Tried to make it back to gate, but many Dramiels make that impossible. He died as local in KQK spiked with a 30-40 man NC gang. Our conventionals bailed out, and I kept eyes as the stampede rumbled past. Ninja kill ftw!
We camped station for a bit in X-7, and I bio'd (took a nap) for a couple hours.
I joined up Soho/Twinky's gang when I woke up and off to P-2 we went. We managed a couple fights in system but the 3-1 NC man advantage wasn't enough for them to come fight. They undocked their gang twice, but each time we warped in and only managed a few kills. The best was the second time, as a few of their HACs aggressed our dictor (despite their FC instructing them not to). We managed 18-2 Kills/Deaths.
After several minutes of boredom a Loki warped in 400 above the station. Sat there. Not cloaked. Quesa probed him out immediately (probes were already out for the purpose of snagging people being sneaky). Loki sat there, and got tackled. We warped in and the Loki died in a heartbeat. Why he sat, not moving, not cloaked... I don't know. But I thank him for the kill. After another 10 minutes of no kills/fights Soho took us on a short roam.
We moved around Deklein, attempting to find targets of opportunity during the Goon transition. For those who are unfamiliar with EVE politics, TCF is moving out to Venal and resetting some entities for "good fights". Goons are taking over, and are setting up infrastructure and such. We warped to an onlining POS with a small fleet around it, hoping to get some kills. We managed to pop the Onyx (I didn't get on the mail) as the POS came online, bouncing our dictors out and keeping the remainder of the Goons safe. They had a decent gang in the elsewhere in the area but it remained elusive and refused to engage.
As we were going to call it a night, Soho got really quiet... then really excited (his girly voice giggle etc.)
He informed us there were targets to be killed, including caps, but it would take a bit of time to get set up. That being said, he needed a cyno that would die. I volunteered.
So off the fleet went, to a dead end pocket off the radar to wait. I moved my covert ops alt into position, avoiding various camps. Soho kept a convo open with my alt, giving me instructions.
Then go time came. I jumped into target system and warped to target moon. I landed on grid with dreads and carriers. Dreads were not sieged, and I was reported in hostile intel, but they continued shooting the POS. I moved into position, and Soho kept yelling at me to hurry. There were no warpable objects next to them so I slowly moved up.
Soho's demands for promptness grew more and more urgent (I'm sure he had intel I didn't) but I was just moving into point range of the first dread (outside point range of the rest) when he asked "PK are you there yet". I informed him that yes, I was at the edge but many of their ships were 45-60km off still.
"Thats fine just light it!".
So I did.
In came a Titan and almost a dozen supercarriers as well as some conventional carriers.
The Titan got one DD off, killing one Moros. That was it.
"What the fuck PK, shitty cyno" Quesa commented.
My temper boiled. I had informed Soho of my location, he chose to pop cyno despite my concerns that most ships were out of point range. End of story.
"If you have a problem with cyno placement, ask the FC" was all I said. Had it been me I would have waited till I was smack dab in the middle of their forces. But I wasn't in command nor was I going to question Soho when he told me to light and broadcast. For all I knew the hostile fleet was about to warp out.
Quesa later apologized for getting emo. I didn't get on the mails, as dual boxing slowed down my main and he was half a jump behind fleet when the drop went down. We did kill this Raven that tried to leave system... not sure why. He melted to our snipe HACs.
I logged off and spent some time with a friend of mine the rest of the night :-) She actually watched the hot drop (had a few questions about it, but had no idea what was going on), but I needed to log ASAP as she drove down to watch a movie and.. uhmmm... yeah.
Remember, when FC tells you to do something, you do it. What happens afterwards will be an accurate gauge of whether you fly with him/her again. But when in fleet do it. For all I knew (as stated before) the enemy fleet was about to leave and the only option was to pop cyno right then. I gave him the information he needed to know to make his decision. After that you follow your orders. Too often people who think they are smart (sometimes they are) second guess the FC. Guess what? You may be making an assumption on what you see, but the FC often has other facts and intel coming in you don't know about. So you give him facts, let him make a decision and stfu. Simple.
That is all.
July 18, 2010
Black Ops FTW
I was working this evening. But Xoo took a gang out... this is his report, enjoy.
----------
Well at 22:00, I formed up wih Cyp in x-7 to go harrass some WS with bombers and such, Cyp was quickly able to get some friends and we had roughly 6 bombers, a falcon(my cyno alt) and my redeemer.
We made our way to a fuel depot for the BO in range of WS space, after bridging the fleet there, and the cyno falcon proceeded to I-U, almost getting a drake on route
On route to I-U, static + Cyp informed us of hulks and orcas on scan and such, and the falcon went straight in and started scanning. Had a typhoon on scan and directional gave put him at an anom with drones out. Droped combat probe to pick up all anoms easily, but there where a lot.
After roughly, 10-15mins? found the typhoon at sun with sensor boosters running, watched him a bit suspecting bait, and he then warped back to his anom. Static warped with the falcon cloaked on grid in the anom, and I watched as he stayed aligned to station...
As soon as his speed dropped, falcon tackled and opened cyno, in came 4 bombers with 5th on grid alrdy, and then face melting
Cyp then went ahead and took charge of setting up bombers on bridges and the BO got into I-U
Didn't really catch anything on bridges, rifter + myr were trying to decloak our bombers, and falcon scout almost had hurricane and geddon in anoms.
Bit later Static reports he has some ship in D-6 or something, I kinda ignore him, he then says he has a tengu possibly running anoms next door to it in HHK, and everyone elses excitement makes me move the cyno alt (tbh, I thought was waste of time)
After 3 bridges, fleet was sitting 2 jumps outta HHK in bridge range of it and on the jump bridges trying to bomb, while Static and my alt tried to find this tengu
Static had alrdy determined that it was between 2 belts on a planet, so I dropped probes, but couldn't get higher than 25%
So, we assumed unprobable tengu in safe spot...but he was afk hopefully
It first started really after warping to the one belt, we saw he was roughly 800,000km away in-line with a moon. So Static started warping back and forth between me and the moon creating bookmarks
We had easily taken it from 800,000km down to 250,000km in about 5 mins, but the rest was really hard.
For about 2 hours, me and static (static doing most of warping) sat there bouncing between bookmarks and trying to make some new ones closer to him, getting as close as 37,000km. After a long while, we finally got lucky when I made a BM 19,000km away, and 1 min later had a bookmark 1,100km away!
At this point in time, ppl were kinda teasing me and static on coms, with Dylan constantly asking how it was going, knowing we were getting a bit frustrated
So, when we got him 1,100km away, we found him on 5 degrees, and started burning
It was aweful! The cap on the falcon was so unstable, and pilgrim only had an AB, thus I could only pulse my MWD for 2-3 cycles, then cloaked and capped up, wanted to bring redeemer in cause that be stable, but needed to still bridge ppl in.
So pretty much, we thought tengu was afk now, due to us being on scanner within 1000km while MWDing
After, I dunno how long (I lost all sense of time, it became a kinda obsession I think for me and static), had him at 350km on scan infront
then I panicked,
He wasnt on direction suddenly, I swept and swept, but nothing
Seems that the burning just kind of moved us 'around' his grid, and easily found him again, although kinda panicked, didn't wanna tell static we lost him...
But even better now, he was directly inline with a belt, o static warped to belt then 100km to me, and
'Holy shit! I'm on grid with him!'
just joy, I cant tell you guys how that felt xD
So I warp to belt then 100 to static, and 70km away, and then static warps back and hes 20km
I warp falcon back out to come back,
static says 'Hes gonna decloak me! burning right at me!'
I scream 'NO NO NO NO NO! DON'T!'
but static knew what he was doing, and although the tengu was aligned, he just came from the front and bumped him, then tackled
Falcon landed on grid as he tackled, and tried to jam, but he had 2x ECCM....
Cyno up, +3 bombers and +1 redeemer, -1 tengu
Redeemer barely got on...cause I dont know HOW, but even with rly only 4 other ppl shooting him and me SHOUTING ON COMS 'wait for redeemer to get on', ppl still insist on shooting, dunno how that happens with so little ppl....
Same for pod, I probed pod down and warped fleet, saying constantly 'wait for everyone', but theres always a selfish cock that wants to whore....
But he died, and good loot too, 2 hours well spent imo, was damn fun
so, tl ; dr?
-1 typhoon
-1 tengu
+1 pilot whos gonna wake up pissed and thinking we used hacks
+1 epic kill of the year
EDIT: Dylan was the asshole who did nothing to work for that kill, mocked us on coms, then proceeded to KM whore"
-----------
Nice report Xoo.
----------
Well at 22:00, I formed up wih Cyp in x-7 to go harrass some WS with bombers and such, Cyp was quickly able to get some friends and we had roughly 6 bombers, a falcon(my cyno alt) and my redeemer.
We made our way to a fuel depot for the BO in range of WS space, after bridging the fleet there, and the cyno falcon proceeded to I-U, almost getting a drake on route
On route to I-U, static + Cyp informed us of hulks and orcas on scan and such, and the falcon went straight in and started scanning. Had a typhoon on scan and directional gave put him at an anom with drones out. Droped combat probe to pick up all anoms easily, but there where a lot.
After roughly, 10-15mins? found the typhoon at sun with sensor boosters running, watched him a bit suspecting bait, and he then warped back to his anom. Static warped with the falcon cloaked on grid in the anom, and I watched as he stayed aligned to station...
As soon as his speed dropped, falcon tackled and opened cyno, in came 4 bombers with 5th on grid alrdy, and then face melting
Cyp then went ahead and took charge of setting up bombers on bridges and the BO got into I-U
Didn't really catch anything on bridges, rifter + myr were trying to decloak our bombers, and falcon scout almost had hurricane and geddon in anoms.
Bit later Static reports he has some ship in D-6 or something, I kinda ignore him, he then says he has a tengu possibly running anoms next door to it in HHK, and everyone elses excitement makes me move the cyno alt (tbh, I thought was waste of time)
After 3 bridges, fleet was sitting 2 jumps outta HHK in bridge range of it and on the jump bridges trying to bomb, while Static and my alt tried to find this tengu
Static had alrdy determined that it was between 2 belts on a planet, so I dropped probes, but couldn't get higher than 25%
So, we assumed unprobable tengu in safe spot...but he was afk hopefully
It first started really after warping to the one belt, we saw he was roughly 800,000km away in-line with a moon. So Static started warping back and forth between me and the moon creating bookmarks
We had easily taken it from 800,000km down to 250,000km in about 5 mins, but the rest was really hard.
For about 2 hours, me and static (static doing most of warping) sat there bouncing between bookmarks and trying to make some new ones closer to him, getting as close as 37,000km. After a long while, we finally got lucky when I made a BM 19,000km away, and 1 min later had a bookmark 1,100km away!
At this point in time, ppl were kinda teasing me and static on coms, with Dylan constantly asking how it was going, knowing we were getting a bit frustrated
So, when we got him 1,100km away, we found him on 5 degrees, and started burning
It was aweful! The cap on the falcon was so unstable, and pilgrim only had an AB, thus I could only pulse my MWD for 2-3 cycles, then cloaked and capped up, wanted to bring redeemer in cause that be stable, but needed to still bridge ppl in.
So pretty much, we thought tengu was afk now, due to us being on scanner within 1000km while MWDing
After, I dunno how long (I lost all sense of time, it became a kinda obsession I think for me and static), had him at 350km on scan infront
then I panicked,
He wasnt on direction suddenly, I swept and swept, but nothing
Seems that the burning just kind of moved us 'around' his grid, and easily found him again, although kinda panicked, didn't wanna tell static we lost him...
But even better now, he was directly inline with a belt, o static warped to belt then 100km to me, and
'Holy shit! I'm on grid with him!'
just joy, I cant tell you guys how that felt xD
So I warp to belt then 100 to static, and 70km away, and then static warps back and hes 20km
I warp falcon back out to come back,
static says 'Hes gonna decloak me! burning right at me!'
I scream 'NO NO NO NO NO! DON'T!'
but static knew what he was doing, and although the tengu was aligned, he just came from the front and bumped him, then tackled
Falcon landed on grid as he tackled, and tried to jam, but he had 2x ECCM....
Cyno up, +3 bombers and +1 redeemer, -1 tengu
Redeemer barely got on...cause I dont know HOW, but even with rly only 4 other ppl shooting him and me SHOUTING ON COMS 'wait for redeemer to get on', ppl still insist on shooting, dunno how that happens with so little ppl....
Same for pod, I probed pod down and warped fleet, saying constantly 'wait for everyone', but theres always a selfish cock that wants to whore....
But he died, and good loot too, 2 hours well spent imo, was damn fun
so, tl ; dr?
-1 typhoon
-1 tengu
+1 pilot whos gonna wake up pissed and thinking we used hacks
+1 epic kill of the year
EDIT: Dylan was the asshole who did nothing to work for that kill, mocked us on coms, then proceeded to KM whore
"-----------
Nice report Xoo.
Irony
As I was writing my last post, irony struck.
DOOM lost a Nyx in P-2.
From Kugu's:
"fail lapse in judgement / click, 2 moms down
edit: aoen safe. Nyx down.
199 involved on the nyx gill, hot damm. Talk about coming out of the wood work.
I'll add a touch of content for the readers. Last night a MS fleet incapped all their guns on the pos, camped the bridges, then incapped em. Some caps had went to p=2 pos maybe to rep, don't know. MS/Avatar saw a gank chance. For some reason or another the Aeon ended up in a belt, wtf?, and got tackled by a HIC.
NYX came in to assist, nueted the HIC out, Aeon warped, NYX was miss aligned and didn't insta warp, got bubbled again. Aeon entered warp back to help NYX that came to help him, at that time NYX nuted out his tackler and warped out safe, but Aeon was already back on it's way. NYX came back. Rest is history."
Cool that DOOM uses them and gets tons of kills. But that reward entails risk, and sometimes the bear gets ya. Although mis warping to a belt, and then getting your corpmate killed saving you. Sucks."
That is all.
DOOM lost a Nyx in P-2.
From Kugu's:
"fail lapse in judgement / click, 2 moms down
edit: aoen safe. Nyx down.
199 involved on the nyx gill, hot damm. Talk about coming out of the wood work.
I'll add a touch of content for the readers. Last night a MS fleet incapped all their guns on the pos, camped the bridges, then incapped em. Some caps had went to p=2 pos maybe to rep, don't know. MS/Avatar saw a gank chance. For some reason or another the Aeon ended up in a belt, wtf?, and got tackled by a HIC.
NYX came in to assist, nueted the HIC out, Aeon warped, NYX was miss aligned and didn't insta warp, got bubbled again. Aeon entered warp back to help NYX that came to help him, at that time NYX nuted out his tackler and warped out safe, but Aeon was already back on it's way. NYX came back. Rest is history."
Cool that DOOM uses them and gets tons of kills. But that reward entails risk, and sometimes the bear gets ya. Although mis warping to a belt, and then getting your corpmate killed saving you. Sucks."
That is all.
July 17, 2010
Impunity
Last night I logged on for a brief period of time before drag races at the track, and afterwards (at like 3am).
The first stint gave us an insane Orca kill. I am thinking the might have cried a little when it popped.
As we roamed around P-2 without retaliation, we dropped capitals on the field and uncapped all the guns on one of the JB POSs in system. We then camped it for 30 minutes, but only managed a Curse kill coming through; we did kill a Typhoon and a few others coming to the jump bridge.
I took my Zealot to the station as the main fleet camped the jump bridge. I lost a Pilgrim as no tackler was on the undock... I two shotted him into armor and he warped. So we got a Dramiel to tackle on the undock. Sure enough, a Claw undocked. He broke his session timer early and my Zealot instalocked him (1100 scan res). I 3 volleyed his ceptor from 80km and thanked him for the kill. Session change kept his pod from undocking, and the Dramiel kept it from warping... so he took the pod express.
After a couple hours of dancing around P-2 without any kind of retaliatory fleet we left. We had danced around supercaps and met no resistance. We were outnumbered 3-1 in local and met no resistance.
I camped a drag bubble for an hour after the drag races that night... got 3 kills:
Hound
Helios
Anathema
Helios was transporting goods, and I got a very nice loot drop from it. The Anathema... well... he was a point tackler for a gang, which killed me :(
I was sitting on the edge of the bubble, 1 new red in system. Not from my gate, so I knew he was incoming.
He didn't arrive immediately, and my 6th sense tingled... but I was falling asleep and didn't care too much. Then a second red entered system. Shortly after a Drake was on scan... at that point I said "hmm, I should prolly safe..." but I also knew I could take a Drake one on one.
Then the Anathema de cloaked right next to me and pointed me. I knew I was in trouble and immediately popped the Anathema, but Drake had landed and pointed me and local was spiking. I tried to jam the Drake with ECM drones but his buddies were landing...
So, I started on the Zealot, which I naturally assumed to be weakly tanked. It wasn't, and I had him at 2/3 armor when I died. Not what I would have wanted, but I killed lots with the Harbinger (even for last night) and it died with honor.
That is all.
The first stint gave us an insane Orca kill. I am thinking the might have cried a little when it popped.
As we roamed around P-2 without retaliation, we dropped capitals on the field and uncapped all the guns on one of the JB POSs in system. We then camped it for 30 minutes, but only managed a Curse kill coming through; we did kill a Typhoon and a few others coming to the jump bridge.
I took my Zealot to the station as the main fleet camped the jump bridge. I lost a Pilgrim as no tackler was on the undock... I two shotted him into armor and he warped. So we got a Dramiel to tackle on the undock. Sure enough, a Claw undocked. He broke his session timer early and my Zealot instalocked him (1100 scan res). I 3 volleyed his ceptor from 80km and thanked him for the kill. Session change kept his pod from undocking, and the Dramiel kept it from warping... so he took the pod express.
After a couple hours of dancing around P-2 without any kind of retaliatory fleet we left. We had danced around supercaps and met no resistance. We were outnumbered 3-1 in local and met no resistance.
I camped a drag bubble for an hour after the drag races that night... got 3 kills:
Hound
Helios
Anathema
Helios was transporting goods, and I got a very nice loot drop from it. The Anathema... well... he was a point tackler for a gang, which killed me :(
I was sitting on the edge of the bubble, 1 new red in system. Not from my gate, so I knew he was incoming.
He didn't arrive immediately, and my 6th sense tingled... but I was falling asleep and didn't care too much. Then a second red entered system. Shortly after a Drake was on scan... at that point I said "hmm, I should prolly safe..." but I also knew I could take a Drake one on one.
Then the Anathema de cloaked right next to me and pointed me. I knew I was in trouble and immediately popped the Anathema, but Drake had landed and pointed me and local was spiking. I tried to jam the Drake with ECM drones but his buddies were landing...
So, I started on the Zealot, which I naturally assumed to be weakly tanked. It wasn't, and I had him at 2/3 armor when I died. Not what I would have wanted, but I killed lots with the Harbinger (even for last night) and it died with honor.
That is all.
July 15, 2010
Running around Fade and Pure Blind
Last night saw lots of action with EVE. I first took a gang to Fade, in the hopes to go pick off some targets and meet up with a bomber squad in the area.
It failed.
Upon entering Fade from PB we saw increased activity from Wildly Innapropriate. My sixth sense tingled, as we were scouted out by a WI ceptor and Anathema.
We entered CR-1FM and had a red enter local right afterwards. As I was scouting, I had gang ALIGN to the out gate and the dictor drop a bubble. I was nervous as this was the fourth Wildly Innapropriate toon we had seen, they weren't bailing and seemed interested in us. For them to be interested in us after knowing our complete gang meant A. They are really retarded coming after us with 4 ships, (one ceptor, one cov ops and 2x UFO's) or, and more likely when dealing with the NC, they had a large force nearby.
So when that new red in CR-1 local landed on gate in an Absolution and dropped a "oh crap" in local, I didn't buy it. In fact, I was 99% sure this fool was a giant worm on a hook.
We bit anyways.
"Burn out of the bubbles, shoot the Absolution!"
So we shot the Absolution. Local spiked. I yelled for everyone to warp. The Absolution tackled one of our ships, either our Oneiros or Harbinger. As we were warping off a ceptor came in and tackled the other ship. I'm not sure who failed, as only one ship (the one pointed by the Absolution) should have died. Regardless, we lost 2 in that system. Local spiked to reveal a 25 ish man WI gang; we jumped into P-33 and then DW- in an attempt to escape the situation. The WI gang proved to be quite speedy in composition, forcing a ctrl-q on jump in O-C.
All of us logged succesfully, before reds entered system. After 20 minutes of WI poking around and trying to be sneaky (our Dramiel pilot was watching) we logged back in. Somehow (I am guessing just slow to act, either in logging or burning prior to logging) one of our Drakes logged back in in a pod.
Sad day, I wasn't happy.
We headed home, through P-2. On our way back our scout reported a Viator jumping out through our out gate. He jumped with and bubbled, and we landed and came through as well. He held cloak, broke cloak, got de cloaked by our Dramiel and died. Unfortunately for us his Viator was empty.
With that kill our motivation was up a bit, and we decided to check out the Spacemonkey's Constellation of UC3. On jumping it R-D our Dramiel tackled a Proteus on the out gate. We flooded local and warped to the UC3 gate... he jumped through as we were landing. We followed and found ourselves surrounded by a shit ton of bubbles. It was ridiculous. 4-5 smalls around the gate along with a couple larges which defeated the point of the smalls. There was also a sucker bubble (large) in line with a couple of the other gates in system.
We reapproached the in gate and I spanned directional. Lots of crap on scan, but no stations which meant lots of POS trash. The 25 in local made me nervous, and I contemplated the next course of action when the Proteus finally de cloaked, Cotcodec in his Dramiel instapointed him.
"Do we take him?"
I thought for a split second.. "Fuck it. Light him up."
So we did. His Proteus burned up in a ball of blue flame, his vain attempt to burn out of the bubbles stunted by our Dramiel's short point. Cotcodec came through for us again. My cheers at the kill turned to sadness as I viewed the fit. It reminded me of a post I had made a month or two ago about waiting to fly new shiptypes until they can be fitted correctly. His Proteus was a burning example of that advice in action.
The 25 Spacemonkey's were quiet. I had us all sit on the gate at 0, in the middle of the bubbles. We put the dictor next door to keep eyes.
And we waited.
and waited...
and finally, about 8 minutes after the Proteus died, they came. A mix of battlecruisers, ceptors, t1 frigates, Phobos, Dominix, and even a Caracal Navy Issue. They landed at the edge of the bubble, started locking us, and I had us jump out. We aligned off, and waited....
"they're just sitting there"
So, they didn't want to chase. Lame.
We moved back to X-7 and I took a break before grabbing some bombers, and we went back to UC3H. StaticDestruction had stayed behind, looking for targets in his ceptor, but found himself at a disadvantage as the now riled up Spacemonkeys tried to catch him. Back we went, and into UC3H. Cotcodec solo'd a couple of frigates who burned at him stupidly, but the locals had a much heavier composition. A DOOM gang was moving out, and I convo'd the FC, Azzma, and explained the situation. Glitterbomb was already en route due to our intel reports and entered local shortly after. Azzma was brining Dramiels + Bombers.
In they came, and the Spacemonkey gang ran. Not sure why, but they ran. They jumped into KDV-DE and warped... except the Hurricane Glitterbomb pointed in his Dramiel.
"Help guys, he has me scrammed. KDV gogogo" Glitterbomb yelled over comms.
We landed and jumped, but it was too late, and Glitter's Dramiel popped. Static held point and was targeted next. Bombers (including me) burned off the gate spewing torps, and the Hurricane entered armor... which was slow going. Urso held a tight tackle and switched to high damage. Staticdestructions ceptor exploded... and overview flooded with the angry Monkey's.
"Bail bail bail!" Azzma yelled/
Urso, being Ursokwl, stayed and continued pumping rounds into the Cane, which was now in structure. Homegrown and myself, at 40km, continued lobbing torps from range, as they enemy fleet started taking potshots at us. Small sig + range = win and eventually.... the Hurricane exploded. Urso managed to gtfo, not sure how but he did. Unfortunately, a Malediction and Dramiel for a Hurricane is not a good trade. In fact, its horrible. Glitter was angry, and logged shortly after. Static almost got his pod out, and re shipped. I'm not sure why Glitter went for a short point on the Hurricane, as he was aggressed and not burning off the gate... but he did and the Hurricane, fit with the scram/web combo I love so much, got the Dramiel and killed him.
We played around for a few more minutes before moving on towards Fade. Not much to be found and killed; Moa, Caracal. But on we went, and found an Absolution sitting outside a station. So we started shooting it, weren't really breaking his tank at all. Then a Falcon warped to station at 0. I sighed, wished we had a bubble.
Until the Falcon aggressed one of our Dramiels with a jam cycle. We had already all locked him out of hope, and so we lit him up. He had jammed our Dramiel with point... but out of humor and desperation I had aligned and spanked my MWD at him. As I hit 40km I released a single bomb and peeled off (MWDing after your own bomb is a bad idea). The bomb sailed straight and true....
and detonated right on top of the Falcon.
After the Falcon pilot's pod warped off, he said one sentence in local...
[07:04:30] arjun > was that the bomb?
Unfortunately for me, as I peeled off, I got one volleyed by the Absolution. Shit happens, and I gladly made the exchange for a Falcon.
Rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Good times.
That is all.
It failed.
Upon entering Fade from PB we saw increased activity from Wildly Innapropriate. My sixth sense tingled, as we were scouted out by a WI ceptor and Anathema.
We entered CR-1FM and had a red enter local right afterwards. As I was scouting, I had gang ALIGN to the out gate and the dictor drop a bubble. I was nervous as this was the fourth Wildly Innapropriate toon we had seen, they weren't bailing and seemed interested in us. For them to be interested in us after knowing our complete gang meant A. They are really retarded coming after us with 4 ships, (one ceptor, one cov ops and 2x UFO's) or, and more likely when dealing with the NC, they had a large force nearby.
So when that new red in CR-1 local landed on gate in an Absolution and dropped a "oh crap" in local, I didn't buy it. In fact, I was 99% sure this fool was a giant worm on a hook.
We bit anyways.
"Burn out of the bubbles, shoot the Absolution!"
So we shot the Absolution. Local spiked. I yelled for everyone to warp. The Absolution tackled one of our ships, either our Oneiros or Harbinger. As we were warping off a ceptor came in and tackled the other ship. I'm not sure who failed, as only one ship (the one pointed by the Absolution) should have died. Regardless, we lost 2 in that system. Local spiked to reveal a 25 ish man WI gang; we jumped into P-33 and then DW- in an attempt to escape the situation. The WI gang proved to be quite speedy in composition, forcing a ctrl-q on jump in O-C.
All of us logged succesfully, before reds entered system. After 20 minutes of WI poking around and trying to be sneaky (our Dramiel pilot was watching) we logged back in. Somehow (I am guessing just slow to act, either in logging or burning prior to logging) one of our Drakes logged back in in a pod.
Sad day, I wasn't happy.
We headed home, through P-2. On our way back our scout reported a Viator jumping out through our out gate. He jumped with and bubbled, and we landed and came through as well. He held cloak, broke cloak, got de cloaked by our Dramiel and died. Unfortunately for us his Viator was empty.
With that kill our motivation was up a bit, and we decided to check out the Spacemonkey's Constellation of UC3. On jumping it R-D our Dramiel tackled a Proteus on the out gate. We flooded local and warped to the UC3 gate... he jumped through as we were landing. We followed and found ourselves surrounded by a shit ton of bubbles. It was ridiculous. 4-5 smalls around the gate along with a couple larges which defeated the point of the smalls. There was also a sucker bubble (large) in line with a couple of the other gates in system.
We reapproached the in gate and I spanned directional. Lots of crap on scan, but no stations which meant lots of POS trash. The 25 in local made me nervous, and I contemplated the next course of action when the Proteus finally de cloaked, Cotcodec in his Dramiel instapointed him.
"Do we take him?"
I thought for a split second.. "Fuck it. Light him up."
So we did. His Proteus burned up in a ball of blue flame, his vain attempt to burn out of the bubbles stunted by our Dramiel's short point. Cotcodec came through for us again. My cheers at the kill turned to sadness as I viewed the fit. It reminded me of a post I had made a month or two ago about waiting to fly new shiptypes until they can be fitted correctly. His Proteus was a burning example of that advice in action.
The 25 Spacemonkey's were quiet. I had us all sit on the gate at 0, in the middle of the bubbles. We put the dictor next door to keep eyes.
And we waited.
and waited...
and finally, about 8 minutes after the Proteus died, they came. A mix of battlecruisers, ceptors, t1 frigates, Phobos, Dominix, and even a Caracal Navy Issue. They landed at the edge of the bubble, started locking us, and I had us jump out. We aligned off, and waited....
"they're just sitting there"
So, they didn't want to chase. Lame.
We moved back to X-7 and I took a break before grabbing some bombers, and we went back to UC3H. StaticDestruction had stayed behind, looking for targets in his ceptor, but found himself at a disadvantage as the now riled up Spacemonkeys tried to catch him. Back we went, and into UC3H. Cotcodec solo'd a couple of frigates who burned at him stupidly, but the locals had a much heavier composition. A DOOM gang was moving out, and I convo'd the FC, Azzma, and explained the situation. Glitterbomb was already en route due to our intel reports and entered local shortly after. Azzma was brining Dramiels + Bombers.
In they came, and the Spacemonkey gang ran. Not sure why, but they ran. They jumped into KDV-DE and warped... except the Hurricane Glitterbomb pointed in his Dramiel.
"Help guys, he has me scrammed. KDV gogogo" Glitterbomb yelled over comms.
We landed and jumped, but it was too late, and Glitter's Dramiel popped. Static held point and was targeted next. Bombers (including me) burned off the gate spewing torps, and the Hurricane entered armor... which was slow going. Urso held a tight tackle and switched to high damage. Staticdestructions ceptor exploded... and overview flooded with the angry Monkey's.
"Bail bail bail!" Azzma yelled/
Urso, being Ursokwl, stayed and continued pumping rounds into the Cane, which was now in structure. Homegrown and myself, at 40km, continued lobbing torps from range, as they enemy fleet started taking potshots at us. Small sig + range = win and eventually.... the Hurricane exploded. Urso managed to gtfo, not sure how but he did. Unfortunately, a Malediction and Dramiel for a Hurricane is not a good trade. In fact, its horrible. Glitter was angry, and logged shortly after. Static almost got his pod out, and re shipped. I'm not sure why Glitter went for a short point on the Hurricane, as he was aggressed and not burning off the gate... but he did and the Hurricane, fit with the scram/web combo I love so much, got the Dramiel and killed him.
We played around for a few more minutes before moving on towards Fade. Not much to be found and killed; Moa, Caracal. But on we went, and found an Absolution sitting outside a station. So we started shooting it, weren't really breaking his tank at all. Then a Falcon warped to station at 0. I sighed, wished we had a bubble.
Until the Falcon aggressed one of our Dramiels with a jam cycle. We had already all locked him out of hope, and so we lit him up. He had jammed our Dramiel with point... but out of humor and desperation I had aligned and spanked my MWD at him. As I hit 40km I released a single bomb and peeled off (MWDing after your own bomb is a bad idea). The bomb sailed straight and true....
and detonated right on top of the Falcon.
After the Falcon pilot's pod warped off, he said one sentence in local...
[07:04:30] arjun > was that the bomb?
Unfortunately for me, as I peeled off, I got one volleyed by the Absolution. Shit happens, and I gladly made the exchange for a Falcon.
Rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Good times.
That is all.
July 14, 2010
Spectre's Thoughts on Low Sec
Spectre recently wrote an in depth post on low sec and possible revamps that would make it a much more awesome place. I'm taken aback because most of his posts are giant trolls and pirate comedy (which I love beyond all else) and this serious, thoughtful message is highly unusual.
Why would Spectre put that much time and though into a post?
Because CCP has, despite numerous requests, declined to do jack squat sofar as low sec is concerned. "We have no intentions to chagne low sec in the next 18 months bla bla bla"
Apparently a first person shooter and a broken planet mining expansion are more important than the bread and butter of CCP.
Anyways, read his post here.
That is all.
PS Spectre, write more stuffz.
Why would Spectre put that much time and though into a post?
Because CCP has, despite numerous requests, declined to do jack squat sofar as low sec is concerned. "We have no intentions to chagne low sec in the next 18 months bla bla bla"
Apparently a first person shooter and a broken planet mining expansion are more important than the bread and butter of CCP.
Anyways, read his post here.
That is all.
PS Spectre, write more stuffz.
July 13, 2010
Signature
New Signature, compliments of DarthDeaconRage of No Mercy Corp.
A spectacular job, delivered in PNG format for best application.
You can contact DarthDeaconRage in game for your own customized signature, prices vary. He also does banners for forums and killboards.
Thanks Darth!
You can contact DarthDeaconRage in game for your own customized signature, prices vary. He also does banners for forums and killboards.
Thanks Darth!
July 12, 2010
Back to the North
Yesterday was great. Joined up with a DOOM gang flying out of X-7. We flew to P-2, looking for a fight. After about 20 minutes of deliberating we got one.
It was smashing.
52 Ships killed, 4 ships lost. Battle report can be found here.
Basically, NC brought in a two prong force. Force A undocked from the station, Force B warped in. We knew where the warp in was from, and had a cloaked dictor bubble their ingress point, dropping them in perfect sniping range. This led to a rape train. The undocked forces were largely able to dock back up.
This continued for some time, with warp ins and warp outs by both fleets. I had to log off, as I was going for a ride and to see a movie with two girls I know :)
I logged off next door to P-2 for a few hours. When I got back I logged in and... wtf? Soho's fleet was in system. Local cleared 30 seconds later, and I searched adverts, found his gang and joined it. Destination was P-2, apparently gang had just reformed and my timing was perfect.
We engaged again, severely outnumbered this time, and due to fail warp outs we lost a few. Battle report here. 22-42 in #s, we killed 7 and lost 4. We bailed out, as the engagement wasn't going to well due to range. They bailed to RORZ- for an op, and we chased for a couple jumps but weren't able to get the advantage so we started moving back to P-2.
Then our scout reported a local spike in our next system... not red, but neut.
"Who is it?"
"Spacemonkey Alliance, they're coming your way".
We burned off gate into snipe spots and waited patiently. No definitive scout was to be had, and their entire gang jumped into us... and held cloak in that ever awesome "oh shit" moment.
They broke cloak and... died.
A few managed to reapproach and bail but the rest died horribly. Battle report here. Wafer lost his Heretic chasing after the NC gang... but it does show as a loss on this battle report. In reality we took no losses in the engagement. We played around for a little longer, but called the gang shortly after annihilating SpaceMonkey.
Fun night, good FCing by Soho. Glad to be back at the party scene.
That is all.
It was smashing.
52 Ships killed, 4 ships lost. Battle report can be found here.
Basically, NC brought in a two prong force. Force A undocked from the station, Force B warped in. We knew where the warp in was from, and had a cloaked dictor bubble their ingress point, dropping them in perfect sniping range. This led to a rape train. The undocked forces were largely able to dock back up.
This continued for some time, with warp ins and warp outs by both fleets. I had to log off, as I was going for a ride and to see a movie with two girls I know :)
I logged off next door to P-2 for a few hours. When I got back I logged in and... wtf? Soho's fleet was in system. Local cleared 30 seconds later, and I searched adverts, found his gang and joined it. Destination was P-2, apparently gang had just reformed and my timing was perfect.
We engaged again, severely outnumbered this time, and due to fail warp outs we lost a few. Battle report here. 22-42 in #s, we killed 7 and lost 4. We bailed out, as the engagement wasn't going to well due to range. They bailed to RORZ- for an op, and we chased for a couple jumps but weren't able to get the advantage so we started moving back to P-2.
Then our scout reported a local spike in our next system... not red, but neut.
"Who is it?"
"Spacemonkey Alliance, they're coming your way".
We burned off gate into snipe spots and waited patiently. No definitive scout was to be had, and their entire gang jumped into us... and held cloak in that ever awesome "oh shit" moment.
They broke cloak and... died.
A few managed to reapproach and bail but the rest died horribly. Battle report here. Wafer lost his Heretic chasing after the NC gang... but it does show as a loss on this battle report. In reality we took no losses in the engagement. We played around for a little longer, but called the gang shortly after annihilating SpaceMonkey.
Fun night, good FCing by Soho. Glad to be back at the party scene.
That is all.
July 10, 2010
Ambush Ambushed!
Last night I got home from work late (like every other damn day this week). Thunderstorms outside meant no riding. So I started a fleet, with intentions to move some assets for guys to a new staging area.
Until Kuzzi mentioned a wormhole in ZXB-. That went straight to low-sec Metropolis.
Jackpot.
So we took an RRBS gang out to play. The wormhole went to Frerstorn, and from there we camped a low sec pipe. I played pro bait, with my cov ops alt looking for targets elsewhere.
I wasn't familiar with the area--just looked at DOTLAN for jumps and took it from there. With the gang holding one behind I found a couple unsavory types in Hadozek. Playing the stupid noob, I went to a belt in my Armageddon and started ratting. Phobos on scan, I figured I would be taken. I couldn't even hit the rats they were so small, so I sicced my drones on 'em. I found the Phobos with my cov ops alt sitting at a station. Sure enough, he was an outlaw.
After a couple minutes of pretend ratting in the belt, he warped in at range on my Armageddon. By range I mean 70km off. I sat for a couple seconds, then pulled my drones and warped off to a planet at 0, in the hopes that he would land on top of me. Instead he warped back to the station.
I sat at the planet for a good 5 minutes within scan range of that station... but he didn't bite. So I warped back to the belt. Sure enough within 30 seconds the Phobos landed right on top of me.
I immediately pulled in my Warriors, started locking the Phobos, popped Hammerhead IIs and was already pointed by the Phobos when I finished locking him.
Scram + Web for the win. I switched to Imperial Navy Multifrequencies, and the Phobos started hitting me. My shields evaporated quickly, but once he hit the triple plated 2x EANM armor tank... his damage stopped. I called the gang in, and the Phobos' buddy in a Stabber landed in belt as well. I put my drones on him, but as my gang landed he burned off and warped away. The Phobos, however, could not retreat, and exploded in a ball of flame.
While this was going on I found a camp in the system of Evati, several jumps away. I moved the gang next door and scouted them out with my cov ops alt. 2x Hurricane, Drake, Broadsword, Harbinger, Dominix, Geddon. Well within our ability to take, especially since they were tanking gate guns. I saw a UFA Abaddon jump warp to the Evati gate... and jump through. I waited, and the pirate gang jumped with him... Yes! He was not friendly with them and this was our moment to attack, as they were aggroing an Abaddon, taking GCC and tanking gate guns!
I jumped in and warped to the out gate in Evati, landing amidst the pirate gang and the Abaddon. Sure enough, warnings flashed as the Abaddon was engaged. I called the gang in, and they warped to me. I aggressed one of the hostile flashy battleships. It was then that local started spiking with UFA. That UFA Abaddon that had warped into the pirate camp must have been bait.
"No one aggress, no one aggress!! All reps on PK!!"
At this point the pirate gang was dead, warped, or dying. I was pointed and deagressing, my gang put all reps on me. It wasn't enough to stop me from dying though, as hostile Abaddons filled overview and a UFA Archon was now on field. I popped, and Psycho was primaried next. Our reps were enough to keep Psycho alive as he de aggressed and he jumped through to safety of Todifraua. The rest of our gang jumped with him, except for our Onyx. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details but apparently he had aggro for some reason and he died. A Dominix jumped through with the last 3 battleships and I was worried he would point one of our guys but he warped asap. Up until this point I was a bit fuzzy on what had happened but as I scouted the aftermath with my cov ops alt I realized the truth: I had warped in at what I thought was an opportunity but instead was a UFA trap that happened to be bigger than ours (because of the Archon). What I would have given to have this fight closer to our space; two of the RRBS pilots in our fleet were titan pilots (on alts of course). The UFA laughingly left their Archon on gate for 5 min, presumably while it was capping up. If only we had a few more pilots in gang.
Had I engaged a few minutes before... perfect. A few minutes after... perfect. But we got in the middle of a 3-way clusterfuck.
I do look upon the experience as us getting lucky as well; we only lost my "bait" Armageddon and an Onyx. Had the UFA pilots been smart and had a tackler or two de aggress and wait on the other side they would have killed more. Had our pilots not listened distinctly to my orders... they would have died. So, as angry as I was at the outcome, I was pleased our gang wasn't annihilated.
We safed up, and watched as the Archon jumped out and the UFA gang moved on. As our exit gate cleared on both sides we moved back to the wormhole. We tackled a Maelstrom on the way home... but even double pointed he still warped. So he had at least 2x Warp Stabs in the lows. Laughable, but it did work as our Hictor died :(
I logged off in 5-C with a few apoligies to our gang for the unsuccesful roam. Psycho offered this phrase though "It could have been worse; you saw an opportunity and took it without hestitation. Thats what good commanders do. Sometimes it goes South, and thats when you learn".
I was still pissed, but I appreciated the effort.
That is all.
Until Kuzzi mentioned a wormhole in ZXB-. That went straight to low-sec Metropolis.
Jackpot.
So we took an RRBS gang out to play. The wormhole went to Frerstorn, and from there we camped a low sec pipe. I played pro bait, with my cov ops alt looking for targets elsewhere.
I wasn't familiar with the area--just looked at DOTLAN for jumps and took it from there. With the gang holding one behind I found a couple unsavory types in Hadozek. Playing the stupid noob, I went to a belt in my Armageddon and started ratting. Phobos on scan, I figured I would be taken. I couldn't even hit the rats they were so small, so I sicced my drones on 'em. I found the Phobos with my cov ops alt sitting at a station. Sure enough, he was an outlaw.
After a couple minutes of pretend ratting in the belt, he warped in at range on my Armageddon. By range I mean 70km off. I sat for a couple seconds, then pulled my drones and warped off to a planet at 0, in the hopes that he would land on top of me. Instead he warped back to the station.
I sat at the planet for a good 5 minutes within scan range of that station... but he didn't bite. So I warped back to the belt. Sure enough within 30 seconds the Phobos landed right on top of me.
I immediately pulled in my Warriors, started locking the Phobos, popped Hammerhead IIs and was already pointed by the Phobos when I finished locking him.
Scram + Web for the win. I switched to Imperial Navy Multifrequencies, and the Phobos started hitting me. My shields evaporated quickly, but once he hit the triple plated 2x EANM armor tank... his damage stopped. I called the gang in, and the Phobos' buddy in a Stabber landed in belt as well. I put my drones on him, but as my gang landed he burned off and warped away. The Phobos, however, could not retreat, and exploded in a ball of flame.
While this was going on I found a camp in the system of Evati, several jumps away. I moved the gang next door and scouted them out with my cov ops alt. 2x Hurricane, Drake, Broadsword, Harbinger, Dominix, Geddon. Well within our ability to take, especially since they were tanking gate guns. I saw a UFA Abaddon jump warp to the Evati gate... and jump through. I waited, and the pirate gang jumped with him... Yes! He was not friendly with them and this was our moment to attack, as they were aggroing an Abaddon, taking GCC and tanking gate guns!
I jumped in and warped to the out gate in Evati, landing amidst the pirate gang and the Abaddon. Sure enough, warnings flashed as the Abaddon was engaged. I called the gang in, and they warped to me. I aggressed one of the hostile flashy battleships. It was then that local started spiking with UFA. That UFA Abaddon that had warped into the pirate camp must have been bait.
"No one aggress, no one aggress!! All reps on PK!!"
At this point the pirate gang was dead, warped, or dying. I was pointed and deagressing, my gang put all reps on me. It wasn't enough to stop me from dying though, as hostile Abaddons filled overview and a UFA Archon was now on field. I popped, and Psycho was primaried next. Our reps were enough to keep Psycho alive as he de aggressed and he jumped through to safety of Todifraua. The rest of our gang jumped with him, except for our Onyx. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details but apparently he had aggro for some reason and he died. A Dominix jumped through with the last 3 battleships and I was worried he would point one of our guys but he warped asap. Up until this point I was a bit fuzzy on what had happened but as I scouted the aftermath with my cov ops alt I realized the truth: I had warped in at what I thought was an opportunity but instead was a UFA trap that happened to be bigger than ours (because of the Archon). What I would have given to have this fight closer to our space; two of the RRBS pilots in our fleet were titan pilots (on alts of course). The UFA laughingly left their Archon on gate for 5 min, presumably while it was capping up. If only we had a few more pilots in gang.
Had I engaged a few minutes before... perfect. A few minutes after... perfect. But we got in the middle of a 3-way clusterfuck.
I do look upon the experience as us getting lucky as well; we only lost my "bait" Armageddon and an Onyx. Had the UFA pilots been smart and had a tackler or two de aggress and wait on the other side they would have killed more. Had our pilots not listened distinctly to my orders... they would have died. So, as angry as I was at the outcome, I was pleased our gang wasn't annihilated.
We safed up, and watched as the Archon jumped out and the UFA gang moved on. As our exit gate cleared on both sides we moved back to the wormhole. We tackled a Maelstrom on the way home... but even double pointed he still warped. So he had at least 2x Warp Stabs in the lows. Laughable, but it did work as our Hictor died :(
I logged off in 5-C with a few apoligies to our gang for the unsuccesful roam. Psycho offered this phrase though "It could have been worse; you saw an opportunity and took it without hestitation. Thats what good commanders do. Sometimes it goes South, and thats when you learn".
I was still pissed, but I appreciated the effort.
That is all.
July 7, 2010
Alliance Roam
So I have a confession to make.
I'm afraid of committment.
By that I mean I'm afraid of anything that keeps me tied down to a specific time or date or takes away my freedom in any way, shape or form.
So this causes me some issues, as other IT FC's take gangs out that have been advertised on the forums for days. Me, on the other hand, take impromptu fleets out. This tends to lead to participation being slightly lower than other roams. But I love the freedom to be able to go out with friends/girls (being summer this mainly means motorcycle rides) without worrying about internet spaceship friends getting butt hurt. I firmly believe that real life should and always will take priority.
That being said, I do think that I owe the alliance mates of mine some more roams. I think too many I come across as a stuck up MVN FC who only takes MVN out on roams. On the contrary, they are the ones that most recognize me and get in my gangs.
So after our Morsus Mihi crushing (and the turnout of alliance members to that gang), I decided to take a gang out. We had just under 30 fleetmembers (nothing like wartime numbers but decent for a roam) and half were -MVN-. NEXE and DICE were the mainstay of the alliance members.
I ended up taking us out into Catch of course. We first encountered a couple neuts in SVM-. I got a convo from an alliance member in system who informed me they were in a Raven and Dominix and were coming from a wormhole he had a bookmark too. I got him in fleet as quickly as possible and warped tacklers to the wormhole but we were too late. The ships had left local, and when we entered the wormhole we found them all at a POS.
On we went, into Catch. The first 15 jumps I had a dictor scouting us. We first snagged a Hulk and Pilgrim in GJ0. We blitzed system and our bubblers went straight to station, bubbled as they landed. The Hulk landed just off station-and he paid for it. The Pilgrim landed a couple minutes later, decloaked while landing for whatever reason. He got pulled into the bubbles, and cloaked up after landing. Unfortunately for him, we had a bead on his location before he cloaked and our ceptors got the decloak and he died.We also killed a Caracal who jumped into system, our dictor was on gate and snagged him.
After about 5 minutes of killign we left system and headed to JBY6. Same drill, but our bubblers were just a little too slow. Caldari Navy Raven and Typhoon landed on station, Raven docked but Typhoon had to burn for about 15 seconds. We were too slow.
We moved on to Curse, and I took the lead in my Harbinger in an attempt to pick fights. I was largely unsuccesful. I had one chance to pick a fight with Outbreak (who are now part of -A-) in the form of a Dramiel. He got a little too close on the Utopia gate, and I tackled him with scram and web.
Surprise!
But... PK fails. I forgot to turn on MWD to keep up with him and he escaped in 1/4 armor in what should have been an easy solo kill.
Not only that, but his "backup" never showed up... and before I could pick a fight with an Outbreak Ishtar they scouted my fleet and the gig was up.
We moved on to Waterboard, and got a whole lot of nothing. Just one Manticore.
We moved on through Curse, and instapopped a Cheetah from Ivy League, who dropped some Sisters' probes. We also killed a TEST Rifter and Burst.
Not as good as the corp roam the night before, but we were a larger gang and attracted more attention and were slower to move. We didn't get killed by -A- though, and for that I am thankful.
The key is to know when to hold, and when to burn. Sitting in a station system like GJ0 got us kills, but the moment we entered local the clock was ticking. Gangs get burned in Catch because they dick around for too long, and give time for response gangs to form and get in position to drop on them. Idling in empty systems, moving through unexpected routes of travel and burning through areas where you know the enemy has eyes on you can be crucial to keeping you in the advantaged position that an attacker needs to survive. The element of surprise is huge.
Know who is friends with who. Who shares intel, who will form gangs together. Region jumps always help, but even in regions there are certain people who just don't pay attention. Always check local and see who the neuts in local are. For instance, there is no reason the Hulk in GJ0 should have died. His own alliance had eyes on our fleet 2jumps away. Yet he waited until local spiked to try and safe up.
Like I said, we didn't get the best or number of kills that the MVN roam the previous night had netted. But we didn't get annihilated like the IT gang the night before... and I can tell you which gangmembers logged off happier with their ships intact :)
That is all.
I'm afraid of committment.
By that I mean I'm afraid of anything that keeps me tied down to a specific time or date or takes away my freedom in any way, shape or form.
So this causes me some issues, as other IT FC's take gangs out that have been advertised on the forums for days. Me, on the other hand, take impromptu fleets out. This tends to lead to participation being slightly lower than other roams. But I love the freedom to be able to go out with friends/girls (being summer this mainly means motorcycle rides) without worrying about internet spaceship friends getting butt hurt. I firmly believe that real life should and always will take priority.
So after our Morsus Mihi crushing (and the turnout of alliance members to that gang), I decided to take a gang out. We had just under 30 fleetmembers (nothing like wartime numbers but decent for a roam) and half were -MVN-. NEXE and DICE were the mainstay of the alliance members.
On we went, into Catch. The first 15 jumps I had a dictor scouting us. We first snagged a Hulk and Pilgrim in GJ0. We blitzed system and our bubblers went straight to station, bubbled as they landed. The Hulk landed just off station-and he paid for it. The Pilgrim landed a couple minutes later, decloaked while landing for whatever reason. He got pulled into the bubbles, and cloaked up after landing. Unfortunately for him, we had a bead on his location before he cloaked and our ceptors got the decloak and he died.We also killed a Caracal who jumped into system, our dictor was on gate and snagged him.
After about 5 minutes of killign we left system and headed to JBY6. Same drill, but our bubblers were just a little too slow. Caldari Navy Raven and Typhoon landed on station, Raven docked but Typhoon had to burn for about 15 seconds. We were too slow.
We moved on to Curse, and I took the lead in my Harbinger in an attempt to pick fights. I was largely unsuccesful. I had one chance to pick a fight with Outbreak (who are now part of -A-) in the form of a Dramiel. He got a little too close on the Utopia gate, and I tackled him with scram and web.
Surprise!
But... PK fails. I forgot to turn on MWD to keep up with him and he escaped in 1/4 armor in what should have been an easy solo kill.
Not only that, but his "backup" never showed up... and before I could pick a fight with an Outbreak Ishtar they scouted my fleet and the gig was up.
We moved on to Waterboard, and got a whole lot of nothing. Just one Manticore.
We moved on through Curse, and instapopped a Cheetah from Ivy League, who dropped some Sisters' probes. We also killed a TEST Rifter and Burst.
Not as good as the corp roam the night before, but we were a larger gang and attracted more attention and were slower to move. We didn't get killed by -A- though, and for that I am thankful.
The key is to know when to hold, and when to burn. Sitting in a station system like GJ0 got us kills, but the moment we entered local the clock was ticking. Gangs get burned in Catch because they dick around for too long, and give time for response gangs to form and get in position to drop on them. Idling in empty systems, moving through unexpected routes of travel and burning through areas where you know the enemy has eyes on you can be crucial to keeping you in the advantaged position that an attacker needs to survive. The element of surprise is huge.
Know who is friends with who. Who shares intel, who will form gangs together. Region jumps always help, but even in regions there are certain people who just don't pay attention. Always check local and see who the neuts in local are. For instance, there is no reason the Hulk in GJ0 should have died. His own alliance had eyes on our fleet 2jumps away. Yet he waited until local spiked to try and safe up.
Like I said, we didn't get the best or number of kills that the MVN roam the previous night had netted. But we didn't get annihilated like the IT gang the night before... and I can tell you which gangmembers logged off happier with their ships intact :)
That is all.
Defense Fleet turned Offensive
Yesterday was my day off from work, so I hopped on and started ratting (I know, I know).
It didn't last long.
Reports of a Panda team gang on the way came in, and we formed up a defensive fleet. They moved through our home system of 5-C and into KEE-, before turning around and moving into ZXB- (on the way back to Fountain).
We ambushed them in ZXB-.
They bounced around ZXB- for a few before moving into Y-2ANO. We played games, killed a Cov-Ops, while they killed our dictor. I tried to explain to our dictor pilot how you can bubble and jump without being held up by aggro timer but I don't think he understood.
As we were in Y-2 word came in through intel that a Morsus Mihi gang that had been traveling through Delve was making its egress through our constellation. I made the call that if the Morsus Mihi gang continued towards us we would disengage from Panda, due to Panda's Composition and unwillingness to engage.
The blast gang moved into position in 5-C on the ZXB- gate. The MM gang was now effectively sandwiched. After a couple minutes their scout jumped 5-C, and of course spotted the BLAST camp on the gate. For reasons unknown (as I don't believe they knew of our 15 man gang in LBGI-) their gang warped 5-C gate. I can only guess they saw the BLAST fleet and thought they could take it. The moment my Rapier reported them warping to 5-C gate I jumped us into Y-2ANO and went to ZXB- gate. As we were landing I reported the movement to the BLAST FC. My plan was for the MM gang to jump into 5-C, and we would follow. BLAST would hold/bubble them, and any that reapporached would get killed by us coming in behind. If they all aggressed we would jump in and slaughter.
Plans always have a way of not working out. In this case, the BLAST FC decided to jump INTO them in ZXB- without informing me. Lucky for us, they all aggressed (or they could have jumped right into 5-C and run). So in we went into ZXB- and warped to the 5-C gate. We all landed amongst the MM gang, who continued to duke it out. My Armageddon lit another cyno, and in came three carriers :)
BLAST lost a Raven (which would have been avoided had they communicated better) and MVN lost our scout Rapier (he warped with the MM gang to the 5-C gate at range... but got de-cloaked by a MM ship that also warped in at range. Sucks, but what ensued was worth it. 2x Vagabond, 3x Harbinger, 2x Cane, 1x Hound. Battle report here. Their Curse and Rapier got out... but everything else got smoked.
We ended up chasing the Curse all the way to to NOL-, along with his Rapier buddy. The Curse died in AJ, ping ponged between our pursuing force and a small blue camp that waited for him. Rapier moved on, to fight another day.
With my blood lust only partially quenched, I decided to stand down the fleet and take an alliance roam out.
That is all.
It didn't last long.
Reports of a Panda team gang on the way came in, and we formed up a defensive fleet. They moved through our home system of 5-C and into KEE-, before turning around and moving into ZXB- (on the way back to Fountain).
We ambushed them in ZXB-.
I had an Armageddon with a cyno fitted, and they took the bait. Unfortunately for us, their gang was Machariels/Vagabonds/ a Curse/Ceptors. Very fast. We didn't catch anything.
They bounced around ZXB- for a few before moving into Y-2ANO. We played games, killed a Cov-Ops, while they killed our dictor. I tried to explain to our dictor pilot how you can bubble and jump without being held up by aggro timer but I don't think he understood.The MM gang was battlecruiser heavy, and jumped into 5-C. They had a Vagabond scout, and a small blue gang was pursuing. I got a convo from the BLAST FC who was pursuing them. Their gang rolled right through 5-C and into ZXB- (a pipe system leading to Fountain). Our Rapier was sitting next to them in ZXB-; they were all on the Y-2ANO gate. We were in LBGI- on the Y-2 gate waiting for them...
The blast gang moved into position in 5-C on the ZXB- gate. The MM gang was now effectively sandwiched. After a couple minutes their scout jumped 5-C, and of course spotted the BLAST camp on the gate. For reasons unknown (as I don't believe they knew of our 15 man gang in LBGI-) their gang warped 5-C gate. I can only guess they saw the BLAST fleet and thought they could take it. The moment my Rapier reported them warping to 5-C gate I jumped us into Y-2ANO and went to ZXB- gate. As we were landing I reported the movement to the BLAST FC. My plan was for the MM gang to jump into 5-C, and we would follow. BLAST would hold/bubble them, and any that reapporached would get killed by us coming in behind. If they all aggressed we would jump in and slaughter.
Plans always have a way of not working out. In this case, the BLAST FC decided to jump INTO them in ZXB- without informing me. Lucky for us, they all aggressed (or they could have jumped right into 5-C and run). So in we went into ZXB- and warped to the 5-C gate. We all landed amongst the MM gang, who continued to duke it out. My Armageddon lit another cyno, and in came three carriers :)
BLAST lost a Raven (which would have been avoided had they communicated better) and MVN lost our scout Rapier (he warped with the MM gang to the 5-C gate at range... but got de-cloaked by a MM ship that also warped in at range. Sucks, but what ensued was worth it. 2x Vagabond, 3x Harbinger, 2x Cane, 1x Hound. Battle report here. Their Curse and Rapier got out... but everything else got smoked.
We ended up chasing the Curse all the way to to NOL-, along with his Rapier buddy. The Curse died in AJ, ping ponged between our pursuing force and a small blue camp that waited for him. Rapier moved on, to fight another day.
With my blood lust only partially quenched, I decided to stand down the fleet and take an alliance roam out.
That is all.
2 Roams, Win and Fail
A couple nights ago I took a corp roam into Catch and Curse. It was quite succesful, given we took only one loss.
First kill was blitzing QETZ-. Alexey Ritter was always in an Apoc. We blitzed the system, and low and behold our ceptor landed in belt with him and we got him. I had tried to kill this guy for the past two weeks everytime I went into Catch, so I was happy when his Apocalypse exploded in a blaze of white light.
I then moved over towards Curse, to mess with the Waterboard pilots. Jumping into their home system of YKE4-, I found a small TEST Alliance gang on the gate... half in pods. Apparently they had tried to go pick a fight with Waterboard and got spanked. We killed some of what was left with their gang, including a Thorax and an Ishkur.
I was still in YKE4 as the TEST guys jumped into RMOC- and died. I warped to station and found a Curse. He burned at me, and a slew of ships started undocking. Hurricane, Harbinger, Tempest Fleet Issue, Damnation, Arbitrator and a few others. I called the gang in and we started engaging. My Harbinger lived due to our pro armor logistics, and we almost killed the Cane, then almost the Damnation and then they undocked a carrier.
Ugh.
So we decided to bail. Only point they had on us was from the Arbitrator. So we killed it. They popped our Harpy. The rest of us made it out. How, I'm not sure. Fail tackling. Thankful for it though, and we continued on our way.
We swung back through Catch and blitzed a few systems. In 6BPS- we snagged a Raven. We held him until everyone was on the mail, and then pop went the Raven.
Not bad for a nice corp roam.
As we returned to Delve we encountered a cloaky gang of -A- camping SVM. So we gathered a couple more alliance guys and I went in with my Harbinger, while our fleet sat on the jump bridge. I jumped into SVM and sure enough, Sabre de cloaked and dropped bubble. A couple seconds later an Arazu and SB decloaked, Arazu tried to damp me but I was too close. Way too close. I scrammed and webbed him, while focusing fire on the Sabre. Sabre got out in 1/4 armor, but I was intent on the Arazu. The bomber was 60km off of me, way out of range. I started taking down the Arazu when two T3 cruisers decloaked. One was sitting at 60km, the other was close. I debated closing the distance to try and scram the bastard but decided to hold the Arazu, as my armor started to break I called gang in. The T3s vanished, but the Arazu died.
Not long after an alliance roam went out. We killed a couple ships including this Drake, but the gang ended up dying horribly during this engagement. We jumped into an Importan Internet Spaceship gang, which had 3x our logistics about 2x our numbers. It ended badly. I was in my Crow, and burned off fast to avoid certain death. About 7 of us survived that engagement, and we worked our way back home.
Better scouting would have probably helped avoid that engagement, but the gang was looking for a fight, and got one. It would have been more fun had they not had so many logistics -- those prevented us from getting almost any kills.
That is all.
First kill was blitzing QETZ-. Alexey Ritter was always in an Apoc. We blitzed the system, and low and behold our ceptor landed in belt with him and we got him. I had tried to kill this guy for the past two weeks everytime I went into Catch, so I was happy when his Apocalypse exploded in a blaze of white light.
I then moved over towards Curse, to mess with the Waterboard pilots. Jumping into their home system of YKE4-, I found a small TEST Alliance gang on the gate... half in pods. Apparently they had tried to go pick a fight with Waterboard and got spanked. We killed some of what was left with their gang, including a Thorax and an Ishkur.
I was still in YKE4 as the TEST guys jumped into RMOC- and died. I warped to station and found a Curse. He burned at me, and a slew of ships started undocking. Hurricane, Harbinger, Tempest Fleet Issue, Damnation, Arbitrator and a few others. I called the gang in and we started engaging. My Harbinger lived due to our pro armor logistics, and we almost killed the Cane, then almost the Damnation and then they undocked a carrier.
Ugh.
So we decided to bail. Only point they had on us was from the Arbitrator. So we killed it. They popped our Harpy. The rest of us made it out. How, I'm not sure. Fail tackling. Thankful for it though, and we continued on our way.
We swung back through Catch and blitzed a few systems. In 6BPS- we snagged a Raven. We held him until everyone was on the mail, and then pop went the Raven.
Not bad for a nice corp roam.
As we returned to Delve we encountered a cloaky gang of -A- camping SVM. So we gathered a couple more alliance guys and I went in with my Harbinger, while our fleet sat on the jump bridge. I jumped into SVM and sure enough, Sabre de cloaked and dropped bubble. A couple seconds later an Arazu and SB decloaked, Arazu tried to damp me but I was too close. Way too close. I scrammed and webbed him, while focusing fire on the Sabre. Sabre got out in 1/4 armor, but I was intent on the Arazu. The bomber was 60km off of me, way out of range. I started taking down the Arazu when two T3 cruisers decloaked. One was sitting at 60km, the other was close. I debated closing the distance to try and scram the bastard but decided to hold the Arazu, as my armor started to break I called gang in. The T3s vanished, but the Arazu died.
Not long after an alliance roam went out. We killed a couple ships including this Drake, but the gang ended up dying horribly during this engagement. We jumped into an Importan Internet Spaceship gang, which had 3x our logistics about 2x our numbers. It ended badly. I was in my Crow, and burned off fast to avoid certain death. About 7 of us survived that engagement, and we worked our way back home.
Better scouting would have probably helped avoid that engagement, but the gang was looking for a fight, and got one. It would have been more fun had they not had so many logistics -- those prevented us from getting almost any kills.
That is all.
July 1, 2010
Crow Down
Been extremely busy with work, and motorcycle riding :) in the beautiful weather.
That being said we did a roam a couple nights ago, Altair as FC and me as scout. Our roam took us into Catch, where we unsuccesfully tried to catch any of the numerous macro ratters. We went into Curse and stirred up the PL nest that has been set up there, but only got a Taranis. Rapier ftw, and I was scouting so I didn't got on the mail. As a scout I'm okay with this, its part of the job.
Next, we caught 2x Dramiels coming through one the pipes in Curse. First one got through, but the second died in a ball of fire. The Waterboard Dramiel tried to burn off instead of reapproaching, which was a bad call. Once again, I was out front reporting the fast movers coming through, so I didn't get on the mail, but I'm sure my fleet appreciated the kill.
I jumped into Hemin with the fleet jumping into RMOC- and an Ishkur landed on gate as I was warping off. I cursed my poor timing, landed on the Jorund gate and immediately warped back to RMOC-. I cursed again, louder this time, as a Manticore decloaked off gate as I was warping. I would have solo'd the bastard had I been a little slower initiating warp back to the RMOC- gate. As luck would have it, however, I landed in a short range sucker bubble on the RMOC- gate and sure enough, Mr. Ishkur was chillin at the edge of it. I made like I was burning for the gate and the yellow box turned red immediately. I kicked in my MWD and dropped a point on him, setting up a 15km orbit (which ballooned into a stable 21-23km orbit) running a cool 4300m/s speed. He popped drones, which couldn't keep up with me, and called the fleet in.
Local spiked with -MVN- and in they came. Immediately the Ishkur pulled in his drones, but I was still pointing him and the gang melted his Ishkur quite quickly. We sent him on his way via -MVN- Pod Express and moved on.
Next system with targets was Doril. I jumped into system and there was a neutral Rupture on the gate. I had my dictors following me, gang 1j behind. I held cloak, and a alliance mate in a Vagabond landed on gate with me. There were also 2 more alliance members in system in unknown shiptypes and locations. Deeming this to be a winnable fight and with 2 dictors on the other side (and incoming gang) I aggressed.
I had often seen Arty Ruptures in Curse so I started a tight close orbit, and was shocked to see damage from Autocannons flash across my screen. After two volleys I was in deep armor, and I burned way off gate as I entered structure.
"He's aggressed, hes aggressed, get the fuck in here" I yelled on comms. My two dictors jumped in, gang was still in warp to Doril gate. Meanwhile, our friendly Vagabond sat on the gate wanking or something. My dictors jumped in and bubbled, the Heretic was almost instapopped by the Rupture (not sure, transversal maybe).
The Vagabond? Yeah he was still sitting at 0 not doing anything.
I went back in for a quick tackle to try and hold the bastard as our gang was landing and initiating the jump into Doril, but my shields were still low and with no armor my little Crow went pop.
Rupture warped off as local spiked with my gang. My little pod sat on the gate, and I was extremely pissed off that the Vagabond either AFK'd on gate or just sat and watched as two alliance mates died. I would have been less surprised had it been just a blue, but this was my alliance. The other 3 hostiles in system weren't on scan and could not have brought anything on the Vagabond that he couldn't have killed or burned away from.
I dropped my dischord in local: Perseus Kallistratos > fuckin vaga sat on the gate and watched me and one of my dictors die.
I received no response in local, and re shipped to a Harbinger I had in Utopia. We moved home through Catch and had no further contacts or kills. Sir Kerry told me in Command to look at general alliance chat. I had to laugh at what I saw:
[05:19:32] Sir Kerry > sonic little help for pk woulda been kwl
[05:20:26] Altair2552 > sonic really
[05:21:39] Sir Kerry > Perseus Kallistratos > fuckin vaga sat on the gate and watched me and one of my dictors die
Finally a response:
[05:27:25] 50NiC > stfu srsly....u jump into a system and then ran with ur frickn Heretic into a rupture and now its my fault u died.....
[05:29:36] 50NiC > i fail so hard (I can only assume that was sarcasm)
I laughed at him. No, not his fault, directly. But I doubt he was in Curse for the sightseeing.
Bottom line, when you have a tactical advantage regardless of other neuts that may be in a system, and you are in the fastest and perhaps best HAC in the game right now, you take the kill. That Rupture would have died extremely fast with a Vaga and two dictors on him. My Crow would have added its measley DPS but before any response from the Ruppies friends could have been mounted he would have died. But instead, he sat... and sat... and did nothing.
Was I wrong to have assumed he would help? I don't think so. I think this particular gentleman was lacking in balls/intelligence/willlpower, and the average EVE PVP'er (especially one playing around in Curse) would have helped.
That is all.
That being said we did a roam a couple nights ago, Altair as FC and me as scout. Our roam took us into Catch, where we unsuccesfully tried to catch any of the numerous macro ratters. We went into Curse and stirred up the PL nest that has been set up there, but only got a Taranis. Rapier ftw, and I was scouting so I didn't got on the mail. As a scout I'm okay with this, its part of the job.
Next, we caught 2x Dramiels coming through one the pipes in Curse. First one got through, but the second died in a ball of fire. The Waterboard Dramiel tried to burn off instead of reapproaching, which was a bad call. Once again, I was out front reporting the fast movers coming through, so I didn't get on the mail, but I'm sure my fleet appreciated the kill.
I jumped into Hemin with the fleet jumping into RMOC- and an Ishkur landed on gate as I was warping off. I cursed my poor timing, landed on the Jorund gate and immediately warped back to RMOC-. I cursed again, louder this time, as a Manticore decloaked off gate as I was warping. I would have solo'd the bastard had I been a little slower initiating warp back to the RMOC- gate. As luck would have it, however, I landed in a short range sucker bubble on the RMOC- gate and sure enough, Mr. Ishkur was chillin at the edge of it. I made like I was burning for the gate and the yellow box turned red immediately. I kicked in my MWD and dropped a point on him, setting up a 15km orbit (which ballooned into a stable 21-23km orbit) running a cool 4300m/s speed. He popped drones, which couldn't keep up with me, and called the fleet in.
Local spiked with -MVN- and in they came. Immediately the Ishkur pulled in his drones, but I was still pointing him and the gang melted his Ishkur quite quickly. We sent him on his way via -MVN- Pod Express and moved on.
Next system with targets was Doril. I jumped into system and there was a neutral Rupture on the gate. I had my dictors following me, gang 1j behind. I held cloak, and a alliance mate in a Vagabond landed on gate with me. There were also 2 more alliance members in system in unknown shiptypes and locations. Deeming this to be a winnable fight and with 2 dictors on the other side (and incoming gang) I aggressed.
I had often seen Arty Ruptures in Curse so I started a tight close orbit, and was shocked to see damage from Autocannons flash across my screen. After two volleys I was in deep armor, and I burned way off gate as I entered structure.
"He's aggressed, hes aggressed, get the fuck in here" I yelled on comms. My two dictors jumped in, gang was still in warp to Doril gate. Meanwhile, our friendly Vagabond sat on the gate wanking or something. My dictors jumped in and bubbled, the Heretic was almost instapopped by the Rupture (not sure, transversal maybe).
The Vagabond? Yeah he was still sitting at 0 not doing anything.
I went back in for a quick tackle to try and hold the bastard as our gang was landing and initiating the jump into Doril, but my shields were still low and with no armor my little Crow went pop.
Rupture warped off as local spiked with my gang. My little pod sat on the gate, and I was extremely pissed off that the Vagabond either AFK'd on gate or just sat and watched as two alliance mates died. I would have been less surprised had it been just a blue, but this was my alliance. The other 3 hostiles in system weren't on scan and could not have brought anything on the Vagabond that he couldn't have killed or burned away from.
I dropped my dischord in local: Perseus Kallistratos > fuckin vaga sat on the gate and watched me and one of my dictors die.
I received no response in local, and re shipped to a Harbinger I had in Utopia. We moved home through Catch and had no further contacts or kills. Sir Kerry told me in Command to look at general alliance chat. I had to laugh at what I saw:
[05:19:32] Sir Kerry > sonic little help for pk woulda been kwl
[05:20:26] Altair2552 > sonic really
[05:21:39] Sir Kerry > Perseus Kallistratos > fuckin vaga sat on the gate and watched me and one of my dictors die
Finally a response:
[05:27:25] 50NiC > stfu srsly....u jump into a system and then ran with ur frickn Heretic into a rupture and now its my fault u died.....
[05:29:36] 50NiC > i fail so hard (I can only assume that was sarcasm)
I laughed at him. No, not his fault, directly. But I doubt he was in Curse for the sightseeing.
Bottom line, when you have a tactical advantage regardless of other neuts that may be in a system, and you are in the fastest and perhaps best HAC in the game right now, you take the kill. That Rupture would have died extremely fast with a Vaga and two dictors on him. My Crow would have added its measley DPS but before any response from the Ruppies friends could have been mounted he would have died. But instead, he sat... and sat... and did nothing.
Was I wrong to have assumed he would help? I don't think so. I think this particular gentleman was lacking in balls/intelligence/willlpower, and the average EVE PVP'er (especially one playing around in Curse) would have helped.
That is all.
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