ECM and the Art of War

There's a lot of people that seem to think that using ECM ships is cheating, which is quite odd when you take into account that CCP developed these ships to be used. If using them was 'cheating', then they would be removed by CCP, Eve Online's developers.

But no, using ECM ships is not cheating.  Instead, it's taking advantage of ship resources (when available) in order to gain an advantage.

"All warfare is based on deception.

1. Therefore, when you can attack, it must seem as if you can’t.
2. When moving your fleet, you must seem idle.
3. When you are near the enemy, you must make them believe you are far away.
4. When you are far away, you must make them believe you are near."

- Black Claw's Art of War

The real issue is not with ECM, but with the people that are too lazy or too stupid to learn how to deal with it. Instead of thinking about the situation and coming up with strategies on how to mitigate the effectiveness of ECM ships, they cry.  Boy, do they cry.

Every time someone complains about something in the game rather than thinking of a strategy to deal with it, I see a child who just hasn't matured enough to cope with a changing environment. Maybe they will, one day.  But for now, they throw tantrums, cry, and complain that their opponents are cheating.  Or they're gay. People that use ECM are gay, they say.

Stupid.  Really stupid.

And it's really sad when people that you once respected as being your adult equals, when confronted by ECM ships and ECM tactics, break down and cry and scream and do their absolute best to show you that they're really small children with no ability to cope or think outside the box.

I have no time for them.

The Art of War Alliance is for smart people who want to use their brain and understand how to fly smart.  Most people fly stupid, and after some recent crying and gnashing of teeth by some ex-alliance members, I've decided that we just don't want those kinds of people in our alliance. 

I've had reports that some corporations and alliances that pass through our operational areas of nullsec do their very best to avoid us, apparently because we use ECM and we cheat.  I laugh a lot when I hear these stories.

"Therefore, to fight and conquer in all battles is not supreme excellence. Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without actually fighting."
- Black Claw's Art of War

You have to remember that OUCH is the primary member of the Art of War Alliance, and OUCH is filled with noobs and carebears.  it's a great feeling to know that elite PVP corps and alliances are wary of us.

Of course, sometimes they want to fight us, and sometimes we fight them back. Sometimes we avoid them.

"It is the rule in war:

1. If our fleet is ten to the enemy’s one, surround him.
2. If five to one, attack him.
3. If twice as numerous, divide the fleet into two.
4. If equally matched, we can offer battle.
5. If slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy.
6. If unequal in every way, we can flee from them."

- Black Claw's Art of War

It amazes me how many people think that 'real PVP' is all about fighting losing battles against overwhelming odds.  You're not a real PVPer unless you repeatedly engage ships you can't win, and you avoid using ships or tactics that will help you win because you believe that doing so is 'gay'.  They're the ones that call you 'gay' or 'faggot' because your single frigate runs away from their fleet of battlecruisers.

It's amazing how much stupidity there is in Eve Online.  If we could smell in space, we would know it is filled with the aroma of stupidity, left in the wake of all those that travel the systems, imagining how 'elite' they are because they lose their ships against overwhelming odds.

The fleets of OUCH and the Art of War Alliance are commanded by people who understand the Art of War.  It's an essential element to our success, especially when our fleets are populated by pilots who are inexperienced at nullsec PVP or even to the game itself.  Most of our successes against the 'elite' are from noobs and carebears who are taught how to modify and use the environment to their advantage,

"There are five essentials for victory:

1. He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
2. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior fleets.
3. He will win whose fleet is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
4. He will win who, prepared, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
5. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the civilian leadership.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, you will gain as many defeats as victories. If you know neither yourself nor the enemy, you will always fail."
- Black Claw's Art of War

No matter what people say about our tactics, they work. And at the end of the day, if you're going to engage in battle with someone, you should be choosing to engage to win.  If you don't think you can win, why fight?  We're often engaging in guerilla warfare tactics, knowing when to fight and when not to fight.  It means we win much more than we lose.

After some recent experiences within the alliance that have been great for helping me learn new things, I've decided that any potential new members to the alliance must agree to certain expectations based on the Art of War.  If they're going to fight within the Art of War Alliance, they need to commit to learning and practicing the Art of War. And flying ECM ships to gain an advantage over your opponents is allowed and encouraged - with appropriate support and leadership, of course.   :)

I don't want any more stupid in the alliance, it leaves a bad taste.

A day in the life of OUCH's CEO

You know, there's no such thing as a typical day in my life as I manage OUCH and the Art of War Alliance, so this post is going to be more general than specific. I wrote this because it was requested of me - I'm sure they'll enjoy it, but I hope you enjoy it too.

My day starts around 6:30am when I wake up. I drag myself into the study, collapse into my comfy chair (I'm still waking up!), and check my Gmail and deal with all the emails that came in overnight, answering those that need answering, viewing interesting web pages that they might link to, or just deleting them as rubbish. I then check Facebook and see what's new. One of my friends might be sharing the latest US government outrage about assassinating Wikileaks members or torturing people they don't like, and I'll rage a little and then go and get some breakfast. I usually have muesli with yoghurt and honey and milk, and come back to eat it while I log into Eve Online.

As I log in I look at the top left of my character picture see if there's any new messages for me. I know it's going to be an ordinary day when maybe I've got maybe 2 or 3 emails. I like ordinary days. When I see there's 10 messages or more waiting for me, I sigh and wonder who started another war.... Luckily that doesn't happen too often.

Not that war's a bad thing! To be honest, I get excited when a new war starts, because then I start yelling at people via evemails to tell them what to do as I prepare the alliance for the war that's about to unfold.

But on an average day, I continue logging in while eating my breakfast. (Well, I do that on a not so average day too, but I digress...) I wave o/ in all the channels I'm in (corp, alliance, public, blues, intel, personal, and occasionally evebloggers). Sometimes people wave back. Then there's wave parties as everyone waves. I like that.

I log on to Teamspeak but have myself in the AFK channel so I don't have to talk to anyone while still waking up, and then in Eve I check the messages that have come in. These are either enquiries about joining OUCH or the alliance, or requests for reimbursement for lost ships during training or PVP operations, or queries about training, or someone giving me intel about regional activities, or updates on what I missed out on while I was sleeping. Being in Australia, I'm usually asleep during the peak US / EU times, so I often miss out on the all the excitement. Except on weekends, when I can play during the day at the same time as everyone else. Then I can potentially join in on whatever fleet is active at the time in the alliance or with our blues. I like weekends.

I very rarely chat with anyone at this stage, unless they've private convo'd me to ask me something or tell me something. Then I'll briefly chat with them while still eating my breakfast. I try to keep it short though, because I have to get ready for work after I've done my morning Eve routine...

When I've logged in and there's 10 or more messages, I'm usually also inundated with private convo's or lots of corp/alliance chat - "OMG! WE'RE AT WAR! WHAT DO WE DO! WHAT DO WE DO!!!!! I'M A TEAPOT, I'M A TEAPOT!!" Then I have to calm people down and start issuing instructions. I write alliance mails to remind everyone (which will be for the first time for any newer members) about the alliance's Wartime Operations Policies, referring them all to the relevant forum threads so they can get the appropriate information for their wartime activities.

The senior staff have their own operational activities during war, which is usually gathering intel, establishing scouting operations, and informing everyone of what they need to do. My communications to the corp is separate to the communications to the alliance, and I remind everyone in OUCH that all PVE is banned during war, to read the forum for OUCH's wartime operations policies, and I make sure I threaten to kick them out if they continue to engage in PVE during war.

I've kicked members out for exactly that in the past, so everyone knows I take these operational policies seriously. As a result, we've had wardecs against us cancelled by aggressors because of the success of our policies. I consider them 'victories', of course, which I'm very happy about.

So after dealing with the administration of the corp and alliance for maybe an hour, I log out of Eve and check the forum, answering anything on there that I feel I can provide input on. (Sometimes I do this while still logged into Eve.) Then I prepare for work, and then head off to work. If it's a 'new wardec day', then I'm going to be late for work...

I check evemails via Eve Gate occasionally during the day, answering any queries that might come in, etc.

When I get home from work, I usually log in to catch up with the things that I couldn't do via Eve Gate. I'm usually brain-dead from work, so I just quietly chill for a while. Then there's dinner, maybe a movie on occasions, before I get back into Eve in the hour or two before downtime.

At this time it's usually pretty quiet, so I catch up on forum posts, evemails, or consider my strategies for the future of OUCH and the alliance. I occasionally talk to people that are active, answer queries about training, corp or alliance membership, communicate with blues, or - occasionally - undock and go look for a fight. I know - shocking! As if I get any time for PVP....

If we're at war, I usually do less administration and spend the time moving around highsec in a cloaked ship, antagonising the war targets with my presence, gathering intel, and occasionally waiting for the right moment to pounce. Sometimes I'll lead a fleet of members into battle, always conscious of the benefits of guerilla warfare. I treat all engagements as training operations, teaching the members about how to operate during war, and why certain tactics are important.

After downtime is just before my bedtime, but things start getting a little more active in Eve when EU players start coming online in their morning. My 2IC / Training Director usually comes on at this point, and we're often discussing training plans, PVP operations, or dicussing strategy relating to the future of OUCH and the alliance.

As the time approaches midnight, I'm often considering the day's events, taking into account strategic discussions, and then occasionally writing some alliance or corp message to communicate the evolutionary changes, training or strategy of the corp or alliance, and what those changes will mean to members. I also check the forum to see what other input I can provide, or feedback I can take from discussions to help me decide the future plans of OUCH.

One thing I've always been very clear with is my management style. I try to get people taking ownership of various areas of responsibility so that the workload of running this place can be shared. Maintaining a healthy balance between my life and this game is important to me, you see, so I don't go to the extreme with my in-game time.

This has worked out quite well over the past year, with encouraging others to take on training, answering queries from people about training regimes and ship fittings, and forum moderation. My day usually includes maintaining all those different areas, with all the people that are assisting me with them.

I consider myself a benevolent dictator. OUCH and the alliance are mine alone, and I will not let anyone else take on an in-game position that could potentially be dangerous to my position (eg. taking away my CEO role or disbanding the alliance). Everything that ends up happening is in line with my underlying strategy.

You see, everyone is encouraged to give me ideas and suggestions about how they think OUCH and the alliance should operate, and while I listen to their suggestions, if it's not in alignment with the direction I want to go I will end up telling them why I won't allow it. However, if their suggestions are in alignment with my vision, then I'll allow their suggestions to evolve through discussion and planning, and become part of how we do things.

It seems to work pretty well, which I'm happy about as I have no intention of doing it differently.

Communication with other corps or alliances is part of my game too. Some people PVE, some PVP. I communicate. I love communicating, negotiating, and generally being a diplomat. I love the conversations designed to either obtain information from hostiles, or obtain friendships. When TEST alliance recently moved into our area we were almost wardec'd by them, but I managed to change that around to becoming blue with them instead. From that point on we had a wonderful relationship flying with them, being involved in roams and camps throughout various nullsec systems.

Anyway, once I've finished all my conversations in-game or in Teamspeak, finalised all the evemails I need to respond to (or initiate), and checked the forums, I usually say goodbye to everyone, go back to my Gmail and tidy that up before heading to bed. I take my iPad with me to check Facebook while in bed, browse some RSS feeds in Google Reader, and then fall asleep around midnight.

Thus ends a day in the life of the OUCH CEO.

All of the above is, generally speaking, my standard day. It certainly does keep me busy! But I've been doing that for a year now, and still loving it. At this point in time, I have no intentions of stopping - especially since more and more people are starting to get onboard to help me, which means there's just going to be less work for me. Woohoo!

Ahem. I'll go now...

Black Claw's update

Hello there, I bet you forgot about me, right? Well don't worry, I hadn't forgotten about you. I've just been busy, and haven't really felt that there's been anything really interesting to write about.

OUCH is still recruiting (when we're not at war, that is), and we have training happening on a daily basis, including roaming through nullsec to put into practice the things that the members are learning during training.

Speaking of wars, we've been involved in two wardecs this week, both due to coalition support.

Oh yeh, I should tell you about the coalition. The Art of War Alliance made some new friends over the past few weeks, and we've somewhat formalised our relationship into a 'coalition of alliances'. Since there are 3 of us, and all our names start with "A", we've called it the A3 Coalition. As good a name as any, I think....

First order of business was attempting to support each other with wardecs - if one is wardec'd, the others wardec the aggressor, so that we're all involved. Unfortunately, this had a cascade effect that made it prohibitively expensive, so we quickly learnt that won't work! We're now changing that policy to something more suitable, but I'm not going to tell you what that is. Security measures, and all. I know you understand.

I'm really proud of the fact that we're doing so well against war targets. I don't mean we're killing them repeatedly, I mean they're not killing US repeatedly. This is because of the wartime operations policies I implement within the alliance. As soon as a war starts, I initiate the policies and everything changes. We've pretty much won most of the wars we've been involved in since these polies were created.

However, I'm not going to say any more on that. If you're interested in finding out how to win your own wars that you're the victim of, then contact Black Claw in-game to discuss how the Art of War Alliance can help you.

Along the way I've been doing the occasional PVP myself, and I've learned a few new things of my own. While the Cynabal is a tough ship, it's also a shit magnet like you wouldn't believe. I've had fleets chasing me through nullsec in an attempt to kill me. I'm sure they're phoning up their friends and telling them to log on to help catch the Cynabal, 'cause people have logged in and joined in the chase. I've had fleets of stealth bombers appear out of nowhere in an attempt to blow me out of the sky. All of them failed, luckily for me.

But it made me realise that the ship gathers too much attention, and because I'm more of a solo pilot without any fleet support, I've decided to park it away at the back of the hangar. Instead, I'll use the other ships that don't get so much attention. Like the Hurricane. I've got a setup that I want to test in battle that I think is pretty cool. But I have to find the time first!

It's amazing how much time is spent in-game on corporation management, alliance diplomacy, and coalition setups. While I enjoy it all, don't get me wrong, it doesn't leave that much room for PVP'ing. Thank the Gods that at least training is sorting itself out, so I don't have to do that too.

Until next time, fly however the hell you want.

OUCH and AWA featured in EON Magazine

I was honoured to be approached by EON Magazine a number of months ago, who asked me if I minded being featured in an upcoming magazine. After thinking about it for about 0.034 seconds, I said no, of course not. So they sent me a whole bunch of questions and asked me to answer them with as much detail as I could, which I did.

The feature was published in their October issue, and it was exciting to see my words there for everyone to see! Thanks EON. :)

However, due to space constraints they had to edit out a lot of the information I sent them, so I wanted to put that information here, in my blog, so that the missing gaps were available for people to read. Please enjoy.

HOW DID YOUR AWA GET STARTED?

A long time ago, back when I first started playing Eve Online in 2006, I got the idea to translate "The Art of War" by Sun Tsu into something that was applicable to Eve Online. Ever since then I've been playing around with the Art of War theme, writing the occasional Art of War articles for my blog as well as having some of them published on various Eve-related websites. I was also featured for this on www.massively.com some time ago, but I've not completed publishing my series of articles. When I was trying to come up with a name for my alliance, it struck me that a good name for it would be the Art of War Alliance. I was surprised it was available, and snapped it up as soon as I thought of it.

I think it lends well to the theme of OUCH, teaching nullsec survival. A theme I'm thinking about at the moment, but yet to implement, is having the alliance available to teach corporations the 'art of war', or how to survive wardecs. Where OUCH teaches individuals how to survive in nullsec, AWA might teach corporations how to survive wars. I've survived two major wars so far in the past four years, and even won two wars against pirates, forcing them out of the area they were inhabiting, so I feel like I have a small amount of experience to draw upon as I work out how I'm going to move forward with this idea. I'd like to incorporate Sun Tsu's Art of War into what I teach within the alliance.


OUCH WOULD APPEAR TO BE THE FOCUS OF THE ALLIANCE. TELL US ABOUT WHY YOU SET UP OUCH?

Towards the end of 2009 there was some discussions within the Eve blogging community about Eve University, and how it was difficult for new players to get to learn the game because of politics and elitist attitudes. On December 2 I made a blog post that said:

"Here's a tip for the new players:

The best University is in 0.0 space. Suck it up, gather your belongings, and head out to the Open University of Celestial Hardship (O.U.C.H.)* and you'll learn more there than you could ever possibly imagine...

* Just in case you're wondering, O.U.C.H. is not a real university. It's more like the 'School of Hard Knocks', but O.U.C.H. sounds better than S.H.K...."

From that off-the-cuff bit of satire sprung an idea. The next day I started using Google Wave to invite discussions on the idea of a corp that provides nullsec survival training. By 14th of December, OUCH was brought into existence as a real corp providing nullsec survival training. We had donations of ISK and material resources, and was invited to join an alliance that would help provide support. We officially opened on December 29th, and started accepting applications. Within a month we had over 100 members. It was an exciting beginning!


WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF THE OTHER CORPS IN THE ALLIANCE?

I'm currently very relaxed about alliance membership, as right now it's simply about three things: 1) getting numbers into the alliance, 2) providing industrial support to OUCH, and 3) facilitating further PVP training or operational activities.

Any corporation that wants to join AWA is made to understand that as far as we're concerned, the only requirement we have of them is that they continue their normal operations that they did before joining the alliance. Being in the alliance allows them to participate in training or PVP operations in lowsec and nullsec should they want to, or allows them to build ships and fittings for OUCH and the alliance - again, should they want to.

We've just recently got a corp that wants to focus on wormhole PVE operations, and another that plans on using a wormhole POS as base of operations for PVP raids into lowsec and nullsec, so they're planning on working together. These corps, and the industrial member corps, not only benefit from being able to join in on OUCH's training and PVP operations, but OUCH members benefit by being able to join in on the operations of these other member corps as well.


WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE ALLIANCE AS A WHOLE?

When I formed the alliance my original plan was that we'd have our own sovereignty in nullsec by the end of 2010. However, I've come to understand that I might have been a little hasty with such lofty ambitions. For now, the alliance is simply to bring together a bunch of like-minded corps who want to have some fun doing their own thing under a common banner.

Member corps know that the focus of the alliance is with OUCH and nullsec survival training. All members understand that alliance activities and operations revolve a great deal around OUCH's operations and goals.

As we move forward, I'd like to see some very strong corps join the Art of War Alliance with a strong commitment to help the alliance obtain and hold our own sovereignty in nullsec. When that happens, then I can start working with the CEO's of such corps with plans on achieving this. Until then, we're just out for some relaxed, casual fun with the focus being on teaching people how to survive in nullsec and get more kills than losses. I operate on the principle that 'if you build it, they will come'.


WHAT WOULD A CORP MEMBER GET FROM THEIR TIME IN OUCH THAT THEY WOULDN'T GET FROM EVE UNIVERSITY?

When I first started discussing the idea of a nullsec survival training corp on the Eve forums, I was ridiculed by a number of people, particularly by some Eve Uni 'enthusiasts'. It was their opinion that in order to start up a training corp of my own that I should join Eve Uni to see how the 'professionals' did it. That seemed ridiculous to me. The whole point behind OUCH was to move forward with my idea of what nullsec training should be like, not what Eve Uni thought it should be. I thought it was sad that my invitation for discussion on the forums quickly sank into such fanatical outpourings of negative emotion, but it only reinforced in me to provide something different to what Eve Uni does.

To my understanding, there was a lot of political infighting and strangled policies last year which caused the problems amongst new members not being able to get any appropriate training. Since I established OUCH, however, Eve Uni's leadership changed and I believe it's been for the better. I was approached by their new CEO and we had a great discussion about mutual goals and beliefs, and we're blue and friendly with each other.

However, I believe that Eve Uni still only provides highsec PVP training, but their biggest problem is the number of wars that they're involved in, which forces them to almost always be operating under wartime operations policies. This really screws things up for free and easy PVP training in highsec, as they always have to hide from war targets looking for easy kills against the noobs.

OUCH provides nullsec survival and basic PVP training. Training and operations in highsec are rare to nonexistent for us. A number of our members and trainers live in lowsec and nullsec, and as for myself, I'm a -9 security status pilot/pirate who just stays in lowsec as much as I can.

The 'celestial hardship' part of our name is true. We don't protect people from the harsh realities of life in lowsec and nullsec. In fact, we push them into it.

War? In nullsec you're ALWAYS at war. Every day, every minute, every second, you're doing everything you can to stay alive. If you see someone who's not blue, you can be guaranteed they're looking at you as a potential target. Unless they're flying a PVE or industrial ship, in which case they're looking at you with fear, knowing THEY'RE likely to be the target.

OUCH teaches people how to survive in nullsec. Simply put, Eve University just doesn't teach that. They teach highsec PVP, whereas we teach nullsec survival. We cater to different niche areas of training.

What Eve Uni teach would actually complement what we teach. The two aren't mutually exclusive, but can go together. What you learn in Eve Uni can then be applied in nullsec once you learn how to survive out there.

Of course, we also teach some basic PVP, but we teach it in T1 frigates and cruisers. Using cheap and expendable ships and items, we throw our members into the deep end and they learn from practical experience. We provide theory and instruction, but the experiences are real. OUCH members learn from getting their asses kicked by hostiles out there in nullsec. Repeatedly. But our motto encourages this. We don't pussy-foot around. We don't have tissues for people to wipe their tears. We shove them into a ship, and get them out into nullsec. As they die, they learn, and the more they die, the more they learn.

There's a reason we're called OUCH!


WHAT ARE YOUR RELATIONS LIKE WITH OTHER LEARNER CORPS AND ALLIANCES IN EVE?

Apart from Eve Uni, we have no relationships with other learner corps and alliances. We've pretty much mostly kept to ourselves. We provide a niche service and as far as I know, no other corp or alliance in Eve Online provides dedicated nullsec survival training 'for noobs and carebears' like we do. Obviously there's a lot of corps and alliances in nullsec that provide PVP training, but they also expect their members to have already learned some basics of nullsec survival before they've joined.

There's been a couple of corps I've heard of who also provided training to some extent, but my approaches to them were ignored, so nothing ever evolved to the point of even discussing any kind of relationship.

We don't mind being alone, with few blues. It just means there's more targets to practice against.


YOU HAVE VERY LOW ENTRY REQUIREMENTS - VIRTUALLY NONE, IT SEEMS - IS THAT EVER A PROBLEM?

I've tried to maintain strict security policies in line with the 'open university' theme. Everyone is welcome, and there are no security or reference checks. We used to have free ships and items, which most members were grateful for. But it's been the few idiots that come along and decide to take everything they can for themselves that have slowly caused an evolution in the availability of free ships for our members.

By evolution, I mean we no longer provide free ships or fittings. Instead, we provide cheap ships to corp members, and the ships are built by corp members who are looking to make a little bit of money and support OUCH at the same time. We're also just starting to develop a program of providing pre-fitted T1 ships / fittings for members to buy as a package deal, jump in and then lose them in combat.

And that's when our ship reimbursement program comes into play. Every time a member loses a ship, all they need to do is send me an evemail with the killboard link of their loss and OUCH reimburses them for the value of the lost ship. Combine that with their insurance payout and they can actually afford to buy another ship with fittings and maybe even come out with a profit!

So our ways of supporting our members have had to evolve to cope with the selfish, greedy blackhearts that think it's a great idea to steal donations from the corp, and screw things over for as many people as they can.

But we'll never increase our entry requirements. All that's required is a commitment to learn how to survive in nullsec. We no longer provide access to corp hangars, and no one person ever has access to anything more than the ships available for a cheap price via corp contracts.

When people find they can no longer steal from us, or they're unable to gain any kind of selfish benefit, they quickly move on. They're not the kinds of people we want in the corp anyway, so they're quickly weeded out without much effort at all.


WHAT IS YOUR OWN PERSONAL ROLE WITHIN THE AWA (ARE YOU DEMOCRATIC, AUTOCRATIC, ETC) AND HOW DOES YOUR ALLIANCE OPERATE INTERNALLY (WHAT DIVISIONS, ETC)?

The alliance is about 3 months old, and I'm still building it. As per some of my comments above, with it being a casual and relaxed organisation, there's no 'divisions' as such. Instead, we have the member corps making their various operations available to other members of the alliance.

I run OUCH and the alliance like a 'democratic dictatorship'. All CEO's and Directors of member corps are invited to be on an Executive Council. Everyone can tell me what they think is best, and if I have an idea, I present it to corp or alliance members for feedback, discussion, criticism and suggestions for improvement. The ultimate decision rests with me, but I take note of what people are saying, and I'm willing to change my plans according to better ideas, or significant rebellion against my own ideas.

At the end of the day, while I have a vision about where I want to take AWA and OUCH, I'm aware that it's much better to tread softly than to bash heads.


COULD YOU LIST WHO THE MAIN DIRECTORS ARE AND WHAT THEIR ROLES ARE?

Black Claw. And.... my alts.

And... oh wait... no, just me.

I learnt a long time ago with past corps I've been in, and an alliance I once took over, that if I have others sharing the control, then I have no control. So I now make sure I keep all the control. This baby's mine, and if people don't like it, they don't have to be part of it. It's that simple.


IN WHAT ECONOMIC SPHERE DOES YOUR ALLIANCE OPERATE IN? HOW DOES YOUR ALLIANCE PRIMARILY MAKE MONEY (AND WOULD YOU SAY YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL)?

Make money? Hmmm... Maybe I'll get back to you on that once we start making money....


WHAT ARE YOUR POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS WITH THE FRONTIER (O.O) ALLIANCES AND THE CORE EMPIRES? AS A "NEWB" ALLIANCE YOU MUST BE LOOKED DOWN UPON?

Mostly hostile. We have more reds and oranges than we do blues. Our standings scheme is simple: reds are those who actively seek us out, looking for the easy kills against our noobs, and oranges are those who are known to be hostile but we should simply be cautious around. But anyone not blue is a target to us, as we operate on a NBSI (not blue, shoot it!) policy.

I think the ones who we've made red to us are probably the ones that think it's a great idea to hunt out the noobs for the easy kills. I'm not sure that achieves what they want to achieve, since that's what OUCH is all about - the more we die, the more we learn, and the better we become. They're helping us, rather than hindering us.

Some of those who are orange to us have actually learned to respect us. There's a lot that can be done with T1 frigates in nullsec, and some of the local inhabitants have learnt to be very cautious if OUCH members are around. I like that a lot. And some even run in fear. I like that a lot too.


IN WHAT REGION(S) OF SPACE ARE YOU BASED AND WHAT IS LIFE LIKE THERE?

Our highsec location is Derelik, which is right on the border of Curse, a nullsec region that is NPC-owned. We chose this spot because there are less gate camps controlling entry into nullsec, which makes it just that little bit safer for noobs and carebears to use as they learn how to operate in nullsec. With less focus on 'chokepoint' ownership from the nullsec inhabitants, it becomes more like lowsec but with nullsec PVP tactics, and that makes it an ideal environment for nullsec survival training.

One of the goals I have is to 'own' our area of NPC-nullspace, simply by our presence. I want dozens and dozens of OUCH members in the nullsec systems that joint with lowsec, so that WE 'own' the chokepoint. I think that would make it a lot more interesting and exciting to provide the nullsec survival training that we do. We would base ourselves in nullsec, instead of where we're currently based (lowsec and highsec).

Life in our little area is still quite interesting. Because it's on the edge of nullsec, we still get some of the nullsec corporations hanging out in our area and providing some tension. And of course, there's a corp that are all flying battleships and simply engage in large-ship PVP in lowsec, and ignore our T1 frigates buzzing around. Occasionally large fleets of nullsec alliance pilots fly through on a roam, and we all dock up and wait for them to pass by. Life is great.


HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR COLLECTIVE COMBAT ABILITIES AS AN ALLIANCE?

Well, if 1 is a bunch of noobs that have no idea, and 10 is a fleet of Titans, then we're probably about 2.5. Our killboard has a lot more green than red, which is nice to see when I wake up every day.


UPON WHICH MEMBERS WOULD SAY YOUR ALLIANCE MOST DEPENDS, AND WHY?

Apart from myself as the alliance leader, I'd say there's no single members at this stage that the alliance depends on. We're still growing, and I'm sure such dependencies will come in time. Just not right now.


WHAT ARE YOUR LONG-TERM GOALS FOR THE ALLIANCE AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ENSURE IT SURVIVES BEYOND THE OTHERS?

To own our own sovereignty in nullsec, so that we can have a nullsec base of operations where our members can hang out in, learn nullsec survival and PVP, and have some safety to go ratting or do missions in the nullsec systems that we own.

For AWA to survive in order to reach its goals I follow a simply philosophy: NEVER SURRENDER. Always push on, no matter what.

The only reason corps and alliances fail is because their leadership quits. If you don't quit, your goals WILL be realised. You just have to keep striving for them.


WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR 3 OR 4 MOST SIGNIFICANT MILITARY OPERATIONS TO DATE (COULD YOU STATE WHAT REGIONS THEY TOOK PART IN, WHEN, WHO THEY WERE AGAINST, A BRIEF SUMMARY OF HOW IT ERUPTED, WHAT HAPPENED AND HOW IT CONCLUDED)?

1. When I created OUCH I joined an alliance at its executor's request. He wanted to support OUCH's goals, and after much discussion I joined with him. However, I think it was in January that our membership of that supporting alliance fell apart. The alliance executor decided he wanted to move the alliance to a different region, and follow a different goal. He tried to hijack OUCH and pull it out from under me. His manipulation of OUCH members led to about 20% of our members at the time leaving OUCH and going with him instead of staying with OUCH.

2. Two weeks after OUCH's departure from that alliance, we had war declared against us by some unknown highsec griefing corp that seemed determined to destroy us. We'd never encountered them at all until they declared war, but they told me they had a budget for the war, and their excuse was that we had been seen flying with a previous enemy of theirs. Sounded like mercenaries to me, and I thought their excuse was pathetic, since they weren't attacking their 'enemy', only the weak corp (us) that had been seen flying with them....

That war lasted two months, and moved from highsec, to lowsec to nullsec. We transferred the 'battlefield' locations into areas that we had a more even footing by allowing others to get involved on our side. Eventually, after 2 months of sustained war, they cancelled the wardec and moved on.

I was very proud of OUCH members for holding on during such a period. At the end of that 2 month war I went from about 140 members to 130 members. We lost some, we gained some, but in the end we survived their attempts to destroy us.

I always wondered who paid them to seek out OUCH's destruction. I'm sure it wasn't the alliance executor who tried to hijack OUCH and then steal all the members for himself....


WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? IF NOT, COULD YOU MAKE ONE UP, PLEASE?

"You're going to die. A lot. But along the way you'll learn how to die less."

PROMOTIONAL POST - Nullsec Survival Training

Hello everyone! Black Claw is back.

I know, you didn't even know I was gone, did you. Well, I wasn't... I've just been vewy, vewy quiet. This post is a 'promotional post'. I'm going to be doing them every now and again, as part of my ongoing advertising and recruiting campaigns.

Catching up on past events

Over the past 6 months OUCH has experienced a lot of challenges and changes.

We started out with all the best intentions of making things easy for noobs and carebears to get involved in nullsec survival training. We even had trainers! Except that things went pear-shaped pretty quickly, when my primary trainer and partner decided he wanted to hijack OUCH for his own purposes and go do other things. Our 'breakup' was messy, and he manipulated a number of OUCH's members to follow him. My only joy was that after a month or two he quit playing Eve, and I'm still here.

*dances*

A highsec griefing corp wardec'd us and we ended up being at war for two months. At the end of it, I was happy that I still had about 130 members, having started with 140 members at the beginning of the war. Some had gone, some had joined, but stability and morale was maintained. A great achievement, as far as I was concerned, with a war that had gone for 2 months, even venturing into lowsec and nullsec. They ended up canceling their wardec when it became obvious that they were starting to get more significant losses because they had to follow us into lowsec and nullsec, where the war became more even and non-involved parties could join in and assist.

I fully believe they were paid by a 3rd party to destroy OUCH, and I'm happy they failed. Destruction of a corp or alliance comes from a loss of will at the leadership level. There's no way I'm EVER going to let anything or anyone destroy OUCH.

Highsec griefers are cowards. They wardec noobs and carebears who can't fight back, and then brag about how good they are based on their killboard. Pathetic. I despise such corps and pilots that enjoy that kind of thing. They're even worse than whinging carebears, and that's saying something!

Where we're at now

Some of the issues I've had over the past 6 months in is attaining and retaining trainers. I've found that a lot of qualified and experienced players either prefer training in highsec, which means they go to Eve-Uni, or if they're nullsec experienced, they prefer actually playing in major nullsec corps and alliances, rather than training a bunch of noobs and carebears.

And fair enough too. This is a game, after all, that they're paying to play, so I can understand that they might want to just play the nullsec game than teach others how to play it. People with my vision and enthusiasm seem to be few and far between.

But it's not stopping me. Instead, I've had to evolve the training methods so that OUCH can continue its goal of providing nullsec survival training to people that want to learn.

So this is how it works now. There's a lot of guides and tips that have been generated over the past 6 months, that provide detailed instructions on how to travel around and survive in nullsec, how to enhance skill training, how to fit ships, how to engage in combat, and how to make money. It's a wealth of information available in a single location, and accessible to all members of OUCH at all times of the day!

At the same time, as members practice what they're learning they can band together with other members who are online at the same time, and work together on practicing what they're learning. The more experienced members take on ad hoc training roles as they use their own experience and knowledge to help the newer members learn as well.

What's in it for members?

You're probably wondering what's so special about OUCH then, if all we do is provide written material that you can find elsewhere on the net. Well, apart from the fact that we make it easier to get that information by having it in one location for OUCH members, we don't JUST provide written material for people to read. We also provide:

• Friendly and supportive environment.
  Our friendly and supportive members encourage new members to fleet up with them and get involved in nullsec survival training and PVP operations, as well as always be on hand to answer questions that new members might have.
• OUCH pays you to lose your ships!
  We encourage PVP training and operations, and every time you lose a frigate, we'll pay you the ship loss value. Along with your insurance payout, this will allow you to keep buying new frigates and fittings for as long as you want.
• Graduation week.
  Once a month we provide a nullsec survival test for students. This is starting 1st of August, and will be the 1st week of every month. If they pass the test, they graduate and receive a Graduate of OUCH decoration that lasts with their character forever. If they fail the test, they can do it again next month. If anyone gets 3 kills during their Graduation Test period, then they'll receive an Honours Graduate of OUCH decoration.
• Reimbursement policy for all members.
  Students are reimbursed for their frigates lost during training and PVP. Graduates are reimbursed for lost cruisers, and Trainers are reimbursed for battlecruisers lost during fleet operations (eg. taking a small fleet out for training or PVP).
• Become a trainer.
  All members who have graduated can have the opportunity to become Trainers. This means that not only will their destroyed cruisers be reimbursed (as a Graduate), but so will their battlecruisers if they take a fleet out for training or PVP. To be a trainer all you need to do is organise and host a training session once a week on whatever it is that you're good at. (You'll need to take me through a training session first for final approval.)

If you're interested in finding out more, join the public channel OUCH-UNI and say hi and ask all your questions. We welcome anyone and everyone.

The future for OUCH and the Art of War Alliance

For OUCH

We're only going to get bigger and better. We have about 120 members at the moment, after I recently culled a number of members who haven't logged in for over 3 months, and there's room for PLENTY more. The more people we get, the more opportunities there'll be for training and PVP action. OUCH will become a force to be reckoned with. Not only will its newer members be going "OUCH!" from the pain of losing their ships, but so will our targets!

Graduation Week is the first stage of providing reward and recognition for our graduates. As we develop this, we will also provide more advanced courses that include Covert Ops, Intelligence Gathering, Scouting, Fleet Command, etc etc. All course graduates will receive appropriate decorations that show all the galaxy that they've graduated their relevant courses.

For the alliance

The Art of War Alliance (AWA) will be a haven for corporations that want to be part of what OUCH stands for, to facilitate training or be involved in training, or to provide industrial support and PVE operations.

AWA welcomes any corp that wants to come onboard. We have no sovereignty or POS's at this stage, so there is no requirement for 'calls to arms' (CTA's) that many other alliances demand of their members. We're very casual, very friendly, and very supportive. Being in the alliance means that your corp's members can become involved in our nullsec survival training, PVP operations in lowsec and nullsec, and even involve themselves in PVE activities or industrial operations.

Any type of corp is welcome, we have no restrictions (except for mercenary corps or highsec griefers!). We want corps who are focused on manufacturing, wormholes, exploration and scouting, covert ops, even piracy. Everyone is welcome!

Contact us

Contact me if you want to talk about how your corp can be involved.

An update on OUCH and its nullsec survival training

/begin advertisement

OUCH Nullsec Survival Training

OUCH is a casual training corp that provides nullsec survival training to anyone that's interested in learning how to survive the deep, dark depths of the galaxy, where the only security is what you can provide for yourself.

Trainees become members of OUCH, the Open University of Celestial Hardship, and get to learn from first-hand experience how to survive.

Our motto is:

"You're going to die. A lot. But along the way you'll learn how to die less."

We don't teach you with theory and stories over a campfire. We teach you by taking you out on real operations, where you join up with others in OUCH and go roaming around space looking for a fight.

Along the way you'll be taught all about

• safe spots
• PVP tactics
• ship fittings
• lowsec and nullsec survival
• avoiding gate and station camps
• avoiding warp bubbles and understanding how they're used
• escaping from gate camps and warp bubbles
• fleet operations and etiquette

And so much more. There's about 150 members in the corp at the moment, with quite a few active at most times (but particularly US peak time), so there's often something going on.

We also have a ship program that provides members with free frigates from the corp hangars. New members have to ask for a ship, but once they get some kills under their belt, they get free access to the hangars so they can take what they need, when they need it.

Contact me if you're interested in learning how to survive in lowsec and nullsec. I'd be happy to chat with you about it.

/end advertisement

Real Life

Wow, I've been pretty busy... but not in Eve. Like everyone else, real life gets in my way too, on occasions. The past few months has been such an occasion. But I'm sure you don't wan to hear all about my real life. :)

I've logged in to the game every day, maintained the corp and talked to members, replied to evemails, maintained the alliance and talked to other CEOs... Everything is going well, but I just haven't been involved that much.

Top Killers

I'd like to give a big shout-out to the top 10 members of OUCH (as of this writing) for their PVP activities in the month of May so far:

Pilot - Kills

1. Miss Teri - 65

2. Crorono - 20

3. Jaxen Griolin - 10

4. Bren Genzan - 9

5. Ailee Ross - 9

6. GRERNANDEZ - 8

7. Contes - 8

8. Black Salamander - 5

9. ColdCutz - 3

10. KIppz - 2

I'm really proud of them, as well as everyone that joins OUCH for training and then gets involved in PVP operations and roams... The best training is simply from getting out there and doing it. All those in the Top 10 list above, they're all getting out there and just doing it.

Art of War Alliance

Some time ago I started up the Art of War Alliance (AWA) for a few reasons.

1. To bring together various corps that want to provide support to OUCH, and have everyone operate under the one banner
2. To allow for OUCH graduates to potentially leave OUCH but stay in the alliance and continue providing their support
3. To start the ball rolling to become a dominant power

So far there's about 6 corps in the alliance, but I plan on having quite a few more as time goes by. The more we get involved, the stronger we'll become.

If you're the CEO of a corp looking for an alliance, and you'd like to be part of what OUCH is doing without having to leave your corp, then contact me to discuss joining the alliance.

For the time being, everything is casual. Alliance membership does not have any requirements other than to continue doing what you've always been doing. Membership in the alliance is mainly to have support from other members, or to join in on ad hoc operations that members might organise.

It's to have fun, without getting too serious. There's plenty of time to get serious in the future, but that will all be part of our steady growth.

Contact me if you'd like to join the alliance.