It's been pretty quiet these days, as our corner of space becomes more and more active with blues. PVP is harder to come by; I mean you can go to Fountain Core and play undocking games with Panda Team or whats left of SOT if you want. What I mean is the good fights are harder to come by.
Thanks to all of you who voted on my "Do you feel bad for Goonswarm" poll. Overwhelming responses to no and heo no. Not a single yes.
Last night I got my first taste of blood in a few days. I was ratting in Delve when one of our pilots who had been scanning in a cov ops 12 jumps away announced he had found a ratter in a Raven. Having no point I told him to follow the ratter, who apparently had no problem going about his business with a neutral in system. There was a friendly ratter in a Tempest in system as well-I told him to get out and stay out.
A few of us started burning towards the destination system praying that the guy wouldn't get wise and leave. He didn't. The order was for everyone to hold one out and I would warp in and get the tackle (as I was in Tengu and could stay cloaked up until landing--too late for him). We had a Sabre and Abbadon buring towards the destination as well. I was 2j out when I heard an oops. The Sabre somehow had his destination incorrect and jumped into the system. Furious, I yelled at him to warp to the cov ops and drop a bubble. Too late. The ratter finally woke up and warped to a safe. Our trap had failed.
I vented for a minute and told everyone to GTFO of system. Dropping probes I scanned him down in about a minute. Warping to his location I sighed in dissapointment as he wasn't there. Smart guy was bouncing safes. I scanned again and got another 100% hit. Warping to the sig you can imagine my surprise when there he was... in the belt again ratting. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. This was less than 5 minutes after we had tried to gank him. At this point he deserved to die for being stupid. I dropped cloak and within 5 seconds had him pointed. I called for everyone to jump in and warp to me. He locked me up and started hitting me with EM cruise. I laughed as he was doing 60 per volley, which barely scratched my shields. We held him until everyone was on the mail and popped that Raven. It was a very... interesting fit. We also got his pod.
Sad when a kill like that satisfies me. As for the rest of the night it was back to ratting and making iskies. Right now we are building up wallets and sov before we deploy for our next campaign. It won't be too long now before we are wading through corpses and amniotic fluids once more. I figure I should enjoy this peaceful time, but all I can think about is getting out there and curb stomping some fools. All in good time.
That is all.
February 16, 2010
February 13, 2010
Fittings. They make or break.
Last night we were chasing a Claymore through Fountain. He was with Zenith Affinity, and we hate ZA. He ended up jumping into a neutral gate camp. They killed him and our tackle Crow.
The neutral gang had 2x Drake, 2x Hurricane, 1x Heretic.
We (the gang) weren't far behind. Tengu, 2x Onyx, Drake, Zealot, Arazu, and Hurricane.
Naturally I jumped one Onyx through to get aggro and bubble their fleet. He did just that. Gang jumped in. 5 seconds later Onyx died. It blew my mind but we continued the fight. Second Onyx jumps in and bubbles up. They, of course, primaried Zealot and then Arazu. They both melted. It was slow going but we turned the tide and took both Drakes and a Hurricane.
Looking at the engagement we lost. We held the field but we lost. Upon further review I realized why it was a failcascade experience.
The Onyx was not fit correctly. Not even close. The DPS that gang was putting out could not break our Drake's tank (he was primaried after Zealot and Arazu went down). That told me there was no way our Onyx should have died. At all. Him going down that fast meant they no longer had to decide whether to change primaries once we jumped in (even deciding that and executing that change of target would have taken time) or they would have continued shooting the Onyx. Either way we could have concentrated DPS and dropped one of them before they had a chance to figure it out.
Hictors are supposed to be bullet sponges. Unfortunately he had no rigs (core defence purgers?) only 2 LSEs and damge mods in the lows instead of shield power relays... Sad day.
So guys. If you are going to fly a ship, make sure to fit it correctly. I understand their are variations to ships but you should know their role. Hictors are supposed to tank. Zealots are for DPS. Falcons are for jamming. Etc etc etc. When you deviate from a hulls intended role you will (generally) be a really expensive killmail.
That is all.
The neutral gang had 2x Drake, 2x Hurricane, 1x Heretic.
We (the gang) weren't far behind. Tengu, 2x Onyx, Drake, Zealot, Arazu, and Hurricane.
Naturally I jumped one Onyx through to get aggro and bubble their fleet. He did just that. Gang jumped in. 5 seconds later Onyx died. It blew my mind but we continued the fight. Second Onyx jumps in and bubbles up. They, of course, primaried Zealot and then Arazu. They both melted. It was slow going but we turned the tide and took both Drakes and a Hurricane.
Looking at the engagement we lost. We held the field but we lost. Upon further review I realized why it was a failcascade experience.
The Onyx was not fit correctly. Not even close. The DPS that gang was putting out could not break our Drake's tank (he was primaried after Zealot and Arazu went down). That told me there was no way our Onyx should have died. At all. Him going down that fast meant they no longer had to decide whether to change primaries once we jumped in (even deciding that and executing that change of target would have taken time) or they would have continued shooting the Onyx. Either way we could have concentrated DPS and dropped one of them before they had a chance to figure it out.
Hictors are supposed to be bullet sponges. Unfortunately he had no rigs (core defence purgers?) only 2 LSEs and damge mods in the lows instead of shield power relays... Sad day.
So guys. If you are going to fly a ship, make sure to fit it correctly. I understand their are variations to ships but you should know their role. Hictors are supposed to tank. Zealots are for DPS. Falcons are for jamming. Etc etc etc. When you deviate from a hulls intended role you will (generally) be a really expensive killmail.
That is all.
February 11, 2010
The Joy (and sorrow) of being an FC
Last night I took out a small gang (10-15 ships depending on the hour) and we roamed Delve and part of Fountain. There were no targets to speak of, except a small ex-Goon gang in NPC Delve. Those guys are like cockroaches and scatter once the light turns on. As soon as we leave they come back out and try to gank idiots. Unfortunately we lost a Damnation last night to that gang. For some reason he was traveling around un scouted with intel reports of that gang and their composition. Idiocracy.
Reflecting back to our roam up to Detroid a few nights ago I can see a change in my mental state when it comes to EVE. Rather than being the biggest whore when it comes to killmails, I am valuing the success of the gang now. Whether I get my crew out alive, and whether the gang is succesful on kills rather than my own individual stats. I often miss out on kills simply because I am planning the next step, scouting, or just not in an appropriate ship for the situation. More often than not I will fly a cloaking ship, whether it be a Tengu, Manticore, Falcon, or in large alliance POS bashes (50+) a Buzzard. This allows you to see the action and continue calling targets whereas if you are in a bc or bs there is the chance you will go down (if the enemy knows you are the FC this will be assured). You don't want to be floating in a station listening on comms as your fleet goes down because there is no head on the body of the fleet anymore.
My own personal fun comes in solo runs or 2-3 man gangs. I am finding the hunt is much more intense then, as the prey is the predator-more often than not he is hunting you at the same time. Blobbing is not on the table, tactics + fits + skills = success in those situations.
I'm finding that many of our pilots in -MVN- are out of practice. Instructions to hold on gates while scout is sniffing around system for targets are being ignored with lemming jumps, scattering the prey. Standard decloaking tactics with ceptors + bubbles are being ignored. Ships like HICs and DICs and ECM are severly undersupplied, whereas Amarr DPS boats are in abundance. One Falcon could ruin our day, and anything smaller than a Cruiser will get away without a bubbler. Its time to get back to the basics and refresh the older guys in corp. For the newer guys its time to slap them into shape.
I'm thinking of taking our next gang to Providence... Perhaps I will see some of you there.
Reflecting back to our roam up to Detroid a few nights ago I can see a change in my mental state when it comes to EVE. Rather than being the biggest whore when it comes to killmails, I am valuing the success of the gang now. Whether I get my crew out alive, and whether the gang is succesful on kills rather than my own individual stats. I often miss out on kills simply because I am planning the next step, scouting, or just not in an appropriate ship for the situation. More often than not I will fly a cloaking ship, whether it be a Tengu, Manticore, Falcon, or in large alliance POS bashes (50+) a Buzzard. This allows you to see the action and continue calling targets whereas if you are in a bc or bs there is the chance you will go down (if the enemy knows you are the FC this will be assured). You don't want to be floating in a station listening on comms as your fleet goes down because there is no head on the body of the fleet anymore.
My own personal fun comes in solo runs or 2-3 man gangs. I am finding the hunt is much more intense then, as the prey is the predator-more often than not he is hunting you at the same time. Blobbing is not on the table, tactics + fits + skills = success in those situations.
I'm finding that many of our pilots in -MVN- are out of practice. Instructions to hold on gates while scout is sniffing around system for targets are being ignored with lemming jumps, scattering the prey. Standard decloaking tactics with ceptors + bubbles are being ignored. Ships like HICs and DICs and ECM are severly undersupplied, whereas Amarr DPS boats are in abundance. One Falcon could ruin our day, and anything smaller than a Cruiser will get away without a bubbler. Its time to get back to the basics and refresh the older guys in corp. For the newer guys its time to slap them into shape.
I'm thinking of taking our next gang to Providence... Perhaps I will see some of you there.
February 10, 2010
Humor for a Change
Many of you have probably seen this picture. With Cov Ops Cloaking they actually can move now... but it still brings a smile to my face.
The Hunt
Last night we had a corp roam up into Detroid. We started off in Delve and worked our way up there. For many it was a breath of fresh air after all the logistics we had been doing over the past few days.
We started in off in Outer ring in the wonderful little NPC pocked of 33FN and NM-OEA. We picked up a couple Drakes and a Merlin kill by baiting one of our Drakes on the gate. Fail tackling/bubbling led to a Drake getting away from that fight (should have been 3) but hey, for some of these guys it had been months since they were in small gang action (we had about 15 people).
We then headed up to 4c-, where we gangked a Drake on station. He had a Crow for support and we lost a Taranis to the Crow, which scrammed the Ranis and the Drake hit it. He should have burned away or popped the Crow... but you live and learn. I talked with him about it and next time the right decision will be made. The neuts actually undocked a Chimera with the Drake in low shield, but the carrier couldn't lock up the Drake in time to save him. I ordered the fleet out of the system as soon as the Drake undocked. My thoughts were that the 20 something neuts in local would mobilize soon enough, and with fighter support I didn't want to chance it. As we were jumping out the neuts from NM- started coming in local as well. Ninja kill executed perfectly.
We burned up through Cloud Ring without much more than a Drake kill. That poor guy jumped right into our gang, as our scout reported him coming down a pipe. He had no chance.
Once we hit Detroid we hit a bit more traffic. We ended up getting a Lachesis and Sacrilege, and lost our Sabre pilot in the process. I consider that a bargain, and the loot we got from our roam more than paid for both losses. We had bubbled up one end of the pipe when we got two neuts in local. They came in through the other end and landed in our bubble. The Lachesis was first and popped. A Curse burned through the bubble and jumped through, and the Sac tried the same but we got webs on the guy and he melted.
At this point it was on to YA0 and 2-4CRW. These were the first station systems I had been in when I came out to 0.0 10 months ago. I still had bookmarks and such, and the memories surfaced of my baptisms by fire. Seems like a lifetime ago (EVE lifetime) that I was the noobish pilot with his first Drake in the big leagues of 0.0.
Well we found no fights in the area, and let me say the guys were playing quite a bit of marco polo in local. I mean it took some of them 2-3 min before they realized there was a neut in local and shut up. Quite entertaining. One of them even said safe up reds inbound etc. after I (I was scouting at this point) was in system.
We set course for home and had a fairly uneventful trip. We hit a Tempest that jumped right into our fleet and the guy just melted. Turns out he wasn't fitted at all. This kill was in Fountain on the edge of a regional gate to Cloud Ring. We tried to come up with ideas on how this guy was traveling in an unfit Tempest and came up empty. Only somewhat feasible idea was he used to have docking rights in one of our stations, and had a Tempest there. With no fitting services and not wanting to travel to Fountain Core which is constantly camped with randoms, he tried to ninja it home. Unfortunately for him my gang was in position to gank him.
The roam lasted almost three hours, and was an obvious success. We lost one Taranis and one Sabre (they saved their pods). We killed 4 Drakes, 2 Noob ships, 5 capsules, Lachesis, Sacrilege, Hound, and Tempest. Feels good to be taking out the corp roams again, after all the huge laggy fleet battles we have been fighting.
Today we ran numerous corp ops, to help pay for upgrades for our new systems. We ended up running into a Black Wings of Kartok in a Vagabond, named Gengis Khan. He likes to chat in local, and was running up through Delve trying to get into Fountain. We ended up trapping him in ZXB, a pipe that leads into fountain. He had shot at our hictor and had aggression, and logged off with the agression. Noob. I had a sisters launcher on my Tengu and probed him out in a few minutes. We then proceeded to all point the Vaga sitting in space, and popped him. He may not talk as much in local with us now. Oh well.
We started in off in Outer ring in the wonderful little NPC pocked of 33FN and NM-OEA. We picked up a couple Drakes and a Merlin kill by baiting one of our Drakes on the gate. Fail tackling/bubbling led to a Drake getting away from that fight (should have been 3) but hey, for some of these guys it had been months since they were in small gang action (we had about 15 people).
We then headed up to 4c-, where we gangked a Drake on station. He had a Crow for support and we lost a Taranis to the Crow, which scrammed the Ranis and the Drake hit it. He should have burned away or popped the Crow... but you live and learn. I talked with him about it and next time the right decision will be made. The neuts actually undocked a Chimera with the Drake in low shield, but the carrier couldn't lock up the Drake in time to save him. I ordered the fleet out of the system as soon as the Drake undocked. My thoughts were that the 20 something neuts in local would mobilize soon enough, and with fighter support I didn't want to chance it. As we were jumping out the neuts from NM- started coming in local as well. Ninja kill executed perfectly.
We burned up through Cloud Ring without much more than a Drake kill. That poor guy jumped right into our gang, as our scout reported him coming down a pipe. He had no chance.
Once we hit Detroid we hit a bit more traffic. We ended up getting a Lachesis and Sacrilege, and lost our Sabre pilot in the process. I consider that a bargain, and the loot we got from our roam more than paid for both losses. We had bubbled up one end of the pipe when we got two neuts in local. They came in through the other end and landed in our bubble. The Lachesis was first and popped. A Curse burned through the bubble and jumped through, and the Sac tried the same but we got webs on the guy and he melted.
At this point it was on to YA0 and 2-4CRW. These were the first station systems I had been in when I came out to 0.0 10 months ago. I still had bookmarks and such, and the memories surfaced of my baptisms by fire. Seems like a lifetime ago (EVE lifetime) that I was the noobish pilot with his first Drake in the big leagues of 0.0.
Well we found no fights in the area, and let me say the guys were playing quite a bit of marco polo in local. I mean it took some of them 2-3 min before they realized there was a neut in local and shut up. Quite entertaining. One of them even said safe up reds inbound etc. after I (I was scouting at this point) was in system.
We set course for home and had a fairly uneventful trip. We hit a Tempest that jumped right into our fleet and the guy just melted. Turns out he wasn't fitted at all. This kill was in Fountain on the edge of a regional gate to Cloud Ring. We tried to come up with ideas on how this guy was traveling in an unfit Tempest and came up empty. Only somewhat feasible idea was he used to have docking rights in one of our stations, and had a Tempest there. With no fitting services and not wanting to travel to Fountain Core which is constantly camped with randoms, he tried to ninja it home. Unfortunately for him my gang was in position to gank him.
The roam lasted almost three hours, and was an obvious success. We lost one Taranis and one Sabre (they saved their pods). We killed 4 Drakes, 2 Noob ships, 5 capsules, Lachesis, Sacrilege, Hound, and Tempest. Feels good to be taking out the corp roams again, after all the huge laggy fleet battles we have been fighting.
Today we ran numerous corp ops, to help pay for upgrades for our new systems. We ended up running into a Black Wings of Kartok in a Vagabond, named Gengis Khan. He likes to chat in local, and was running up through Delve trying to get into Fountain. We ended up trapping him in ZXB, a pipe that leads into fountain. He had shot at our hictor and had aggression, and logged off with the agression. Noob. I had a sisters launcher on my Tengu and probed him out in a few minutes. We then proceeded to all point the Vaga sitting in space, and popped him. He may not talk as much in local with us now. Oh well.
February 8, 2010
Thoughts on Aurelis' Interview
For those who haven't read it...
Aurelis' Interview
The part I like is that he waffles on several points. Especially the part about -A- helping out during the hacking and disbanding. -A- did help. Its a fact. Yet that point is skimmed over and left untouched. The part where he explains CVA's intentions with the invasion is also very ambiguous. All in all it seemed like he was backpedaling.
Whining about spies was hilarious. Everyone uses spies in EVE. High Sec, Low Sec, Null sec. Its part of the game mechanics. As if CVA doesn't have any intelligence in operation.
My personal favorite was the rant about how Dominion favors the attacker. Ridiculous. Ludacris. With the way the timers are set up, the multiple reinforce timers, and the ability to have it come out (+/- a few hours) in your time zone, there is no way it favors the attacker. Without the Goonswarm lack of funds, it would have been a nightmare establishing a foothold in Delve. 49-U was a bloodbath because the attacker had to jump into system that was defended and the grid loading issues led to slaughters. CVA is losing because they are inadequate. Their ships are not standardized. Their tactics are inferior. Their FCs lack experience. It has NOTHING to do with Dominion favoring the attacker. With a smart command, correct shiptypes and numbers that CVA has already shown it can field, they could very well have defended D-GTMI and the failcascade. Fail tactical decisions caused them to lose those battles. Who warps their capital fleet to a gate? Who chooses to jump into the system they need to be defending instead of having a presence there and logging off at POS's? Who brings battlecruisers and HACs to a snipe bs fight? Obviously -A- doesn't.
My rant is over. Feel free to leave comments, I invite contructive criticism. Please take the poll concerning Dominion as well. I have changed the background as many of you requested, with luck it should be much easier to read now.
Aurelis' Interview
The part I like is that he waffles on several points. Especially the part about -A- helping out during the hacking and disbanding. -A- did help. Its a fact. Yet that point is skimmed over and left untouched. The part where he explains CVA's intentions with the invasion is also very ambiguous. All in all it seemed like he was backpedaling.
Whining about spies was hilarious. Everyone uses spies in EVE. High Sec, Low Sec, Null sec. Its part of the game mechanics. As if CVA doesn't have any intelligence in operation.
My personal favorite was the rant about how Dominion favors the attacker. Ridiculous. Ludacris. With the way the timers are set up, the multiple reinforce timers, and the ability to have it come out (+/- a few hours) in your time zone, there is no way it favors the attacker. Without the Goonswarm lack of funds, it would have been a nightmare establishing a foothold in Delve. 49-U was a bloodbath because the attacker had to jump into system that was defended and the grid loading issues led to slaughters. CVA is losing because they are inadequate. Their ships are not standardized. Their tactics are inferior. Their FCs lack experience. It has NOTHING to do with Dominion favoring the attacker. With a smart command, correct shiptypes and numbers that CVA has already shown it can field, they could very well have defended D-GTMI and the failcascade. Fail tactical decisions caused them to lose those battles. Who warps their capital fleet to a gate? Who chooses to jump into the system they need to be defending instead of having a presence there and logging off at POS's? Who brings battlecruisers and HACs to a snipe bs fight? Obviously -A- doesn't.
My rant is over. Feel free to leave comments, I invite contructive criticism. Please take the poll concerning Dominion as well. I have changed the background as many of you requested, with luck it should be much easier to read now.
I hate carebearing
Still doing the carebear thing. Running plexes and the like, getting my ships bought and fit. The Tengu is proving to be most expensive. Hoping to get the corpmates a roam tonight, real life allowing. Shooting NPCs is, for the record, extremely dull and boring. The only excitement is the potential for really expensive loot drops.
Thats is all.
Thats is all.
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