Tales from the front line #5

Please enjoy another 'tale from the front line'.

It's all part of the service

Open University loves to bubble camp.  As part of our null security survival training program, members of OUCH religiously bubble camp the same single system in Curse almost everyday.  We do it to provide basic PvP training for our students, but admittedly, we just like it.

Unfortunately, we've recently discovered that bubble camping is NOT Real PvP.  Truly, we did not know this. We don't know how this could have happened.  We were trying so hard and it certainly seemed like PvP to us.

We have learned that from the POV of our adversaries, all OUCH does is gank 'poor innocent travelers' in pods, noobships and shuttles (not to mention pvp fit dramiels, vagabonds, and cynabals) when they land in our mobile warp disruptor bubbles. We dishonorably use ECM and EWAR to score cheap kills on Real PvP pilots just looking for a good fight (and a killmail or two). We don't even fly real ships, (just cheap cruisers and frigates, and "damned cloakies"). And when a fleet of Real PvPers (in HACs and BCs) comes in, we hide instead of giving them a "good fight".

Damn.  You caught us.  Guilty as charged.  Mea culpa.

What our detractors don't understand is OUCH provides a valuable service.  We provide ready targets for solo pilots and small gangs on roams, looking for something to do.  Sometimes we fight (and kill) cruiser and battlecruiser gangs who fly all the way (or titan bridge) from their home bases to get a shot at killing noobs who don't do Real PvP.

Now, sometimes we just safe up and watch them kill our bubble. It happens. You just can't please everyone. Bubbles are cheap.

Either way, we give these pilots something to do.  Sometimes, we send them home in pods, where they can complain to their mates that Real PvPers don't use ECM.  Alternately, they go home in their ships, pausing only to call us rude names for not engaging their 6 (sometimes 20) ship BC gang with a handful of frigs and cruisers.

Either way, if OUCH didn't provide this vital service, many of our adversaries would just roam through Curse bored to tears, flying from gate to gate with nothing to do.  For these pilots, OUCH brings vitality to otherwise boring lives.

Here's feedback from interaction with some of our adversaries:

• "Don't you guys get bored doing the same stuff everyday?"
• "Everyone in Eve knows about your stupid bubble camp."
• "I'm going to have to come back and grief you everyday now."
• "Fight me, or I'll kill your bubble."
• "I still like you guys, I just hate what you do."
• "We would have owned you if it wasn't for that Blackbird."
• "You obviously don't know what a good fight is."
• "Come on kids, go to bed already."
• "You guys suck."

Sometimes we wonder if it's worth it, bubble camping a small unimportant system trying to teach new players that null sec doesn't have to be scary.  It's testimonials like these that keep us doing what we do.

And for that, we like to send a "Thank You" to all of our happy customers.

Sincerely,

Bren Genzan
Open University of Celestial Hardship

Tales from the front line #4

Please enjoy another 'tale from the front line'.

We watch, and sometimes, we learn

Open University of Celestial Hardship [OUCH] is part of the Art of War Alliance. We train newbie PvP pilots to fly and die in NPC null security space. We do a lot of bubble camping.

Bubble camping is the lazy pilot’s PvP. We hang out and shoot the bull, watching for traffic. It’s kind of like duck hunting, ‘cept the ducks can get pretty big, and more often than not, they shoot back. It’s the perfect way to break a brand new pilot into PvP. The pilots of Open University and our brothers and sisters of Art of War Alliance have gotten pretty good at killing the careless, foolish and fearless.

We’ve seen a lot of cool things in NPC null, dodging the huge BC/BS fleets travelling through on their way to battles in SOV null, dealing with the smaller BC fleets looking for trouble. We’ve been hotdropped by Black Ops gangs, and Titan bridged battlecruiser fleets. We give fights to the guys who bring just enough fleet or ship to make it interesting. We hide and wave as the large fleets barrel through looking for something to kill. They deride us when we don’t engage their bait. We try to act surprised when local lights up, and the dozen or more battlecruisers that were waiting next door jump in.

With the lull in the summer, we are trying a few new things, but we had a chance to observe several fleets camping in the systems that we normally camp. It’s pretty interesting and even amusing.

We’ve seen a decent cloaky gang, Falcon, Hound, cloaky Sabre (not too unusual ) and a cloaky Vagabond (a bit unusual) running a gate camp or two. The cloaks allow them to choose their targets, and the ‘dictor bubble holds their target hopefully long enough for the Sabre and the Vaga to overcome their targeting delays and get scrams/points/webs their prey, while the Falcon protects them and the Hound brings the DPS to let them kill medium to large sized ships. They were pretty successful.

We’ve seen a Pilgrim, Vaga, Hurricane and Drake try something similar on a bubble camp. We engaged them with a frigate/cruiser fleet, mixed it up, and withdrew, keeping all of our ships intact. They in turn commenced to camp our bubble, the lot of them, cloaked up on it in scram/web range. They could not catch our interceptor, so we unanchored and pulled the bubble out from under them before we had a chance to see if their plan was going to work.

We’ve come to understand that “Everything cloaks in Curse”. Dramiel? Yep. Cynabal? Seen it. Armageddon? You bet. Rattlesnake? Hmm… Was that last week or the week before? Pretty sure it was last week.

We’ve watched a formidable gang camp our normal hunting grounds: 3 battleships, 4 battlecruisers, 2 logistics ships and a Dramiel. Multiple bubbles to catch traffic. The battleships sat on the bubbles, the rest of the gang on a tactical to warp in to the bubble that caught the traffic. But we didn’t see them catch anything except a beating, when a medium sized battlecruiser gang filled their dance card, killing several ships without taking significant losses.

We’ve seen Strategic Cruiser boosted Nano ‘Canes, Nano Drakes (yes, plural) , Vagas, and Cynabals. If a Tengu or Loki jumps in and stays one second longer than it takes to pass through the system, we can pretty much bet on his speed fit friends arriving shortly.

We’ve seen a small gang play our game: Rifter, Thrasher, Hawk, and Blackbird camping on a gate that we’ve been known to camp. That’s a play in our playbook, and they were playing on our field. We ran a play of our own on them and sent them on their way.

We’ve seen our former blues, but still colleagues, from Eve University bring large fleets into our region. Well balanced fleets heavy on EWAR, designed to herd new pilots into a PvP experience, which is no easy task. We respect that. But they’re way too big and we don’t think that they are going to find the fight they are looking for in our region of space.

And that’s the crux of the matter. It seems that most fleets are built around bringing overwhelming force, something that other fleets might think twice before engaging. But the bigger the fleet the harder it is to find a controllable fight.

That’s the catch 22: You want to be big enough to fight and win, but small enough to get the other guys to bring you the fight. Sun Tzu would say, that the good general wants to appear weakest where you are strongest.

Open University does small gang PvP. We fly light ships in small gangs, and when people want to engage us, it’s because they think they have a chance. But we don’t fight fair. We work hard at finding advantages and exploiting weaknesses, and if we don’t think that we can handle our opponent’s 7 ship Minmatar Rush gang… well… we let them go.

“So sorry, no kill mails for joo. Joo ‘ave a nice pocking day.”

That large bubble camp gang with the battleships we talked about earlier? They certainly had firepower, but they lacked mobility and they paid for it when the BC fleet showed up. That small gang we spoke of, playing our game? They were doing alright, and we’re sure they had scouts and a plan, but they couldn’t account for all the folks in local and it cost them a handful of ships.

For us, a 12 ship fleet starts to get complicated and a 20 ship fleet is about our limit. We balance our fleets with light and heavy tacklers, DPS, stealth and spread quite a bit of EWAR around. We’ve learned that if the fleet is too big, (or the ships are too big) people avoid you. As the ships get bigger, it becomes harder to bail out when things go bad. And if the fleet is too big, or the ships are too big, other fleets will up-ship or plus-ship so that they are bringing more than enough fleet to dominate you.

Ask any permanent Open University member how many guys the other fleet is going to bring to kill one Rifter, and you’ll get the same answer: “All of them.” That’s more than enough.

Staying light allows Art of War Alliance to be mobile and hostile. Our new guys might be flying T1 'cause they are inexperienced, but our veterans appreciate that you can fly a T1 Frigate or Cruiser and keep it fun. Killing command ships with frigates makes for great stories: you haven’t lived until you warp away after the tackle, trailing fire and smoke while your mates finish off that warship that cost 1000 times more than the ship you’re flying.

We’re not afraid to engage guys bigger than us, or in more powerful ships, but we do it on our terms. We’re fast, light and territorial killers. Like barracuda. Go small or go home.

Bren Genzan, Chief of Operations, Open University of Celestial Hardship [OUCH]

Tales from the front line #3

Please enjoy another 'tale from the front line'. This is a recent engagement that our OUCH members were involved in. I want to remind you that these professional soldiers were - only very recently - noobs and carebears. There's no shame in being new, or being a carebear, because OUCH exists to help you grow. Just like it helped the below-mentioned members grow.

Gatecrashers
It was a normal day in our favored hunting grounds, with the exception of having two bubbles (one for each gate) up due to the size of the gathered fleet. I had chosen to come out in a covert ops scout to expand my growing inventory of tactical bookmarks and provide probing support and additional EWAR to the fleet, which appeared to have sufficient tacklers for the afternoon's festivities.

The traffic that day was enough to keep things interesting, but was also primarily singles and small fleets that are a welcome sight compared to the overwhelming blobs that usually interrupt our activities. Eyes in the adjacent systems kept us well informed about our next potential customer as they approached the system, and several ended up in the bubble as a snack for the wolves gathered around it.
This continued satisfactorily for a while, but then our eyes reported ships setting up a medium bubble next door. The fleet composition was a Myrmidon with ECM support from a cloaky Blackbird. It was noted that they had placed eyes in the system we were camping as well. We coexisted for an hour or so, with occasional report from our scouts.
Then one of our experienced pilots spoke up in fleet, "You know I could fit-up a tanked Vexor real quick for bait."

This simple statement was initially met with resistance by the FC, but the tactical planning and evaluation machine had already been set in motion. Experienced pilots began offering their analysis of the situation and our potential for successfully breaking the neighboring camp. The FC was reassured of our chances and planning began in earnest, while a lone pilot docked to begin crafting the bait.
The only remaining doubt was the possibility that our potential prey might have friends beyond the gate they were camping. This was put to rest by a scouting report that there was no relief available for the unsuspecting targets beyond the gate. "Clear to grid and scan, two neuts, different corp and alliance."
While this was happening, our quartermaster was busy contracting the remaining modules necessary to bring the bait ship online. Then the Vexor undocked and made its way back to the bubble for a final debrief before departing on its perilous mission of deception and mayhem.
The final plan was to ineptly pilot the baitship across our system, falling into our second bubble. This would hopefully be within sight of the cloaked spy stationed there by our targets. Following this the bait would then slow boat to the gate before jumping into the next system and warping into their waiting "trap" and engaging the hopefully eager Myrmidon pilot and his Blackbird partner. Knowing that eyes were watching the gate, the non-cloaked elements of the fleet aligned to their gate tacs and awaited the FC's order to warp to tacs and proceed through the gate to ultimately warp to the baitship, and hopefully victory.

A forward scout had achieved a position off their bubble which would be ideal for our ECM and EWAR pilots to engage the targets with an impressive array of electronics that has tipped many a fight in our favor. Our ECM ships were directed to warp to the scout when they entered the system.
In preparation for the orchestrated chaos that was about to occur, I positioned my cloaked Buzzard at a tac which was a short warp from the gate to the neighboring system, and the targets which lay within. I watched with excitement as the order sent the baitship into our bubble just off the gate and watched as it slowly cleared the bubble and made its journey to the gate and jumped beyond.
Voice comms were eerily silent until the baitship pilot reported "in warp to the bubble... in the bubble... Myrmidon engaged!"
Suddenly comms came alive, "fleet warp to tacs, go to gate, jump on contact." The order was answered by a flurry of reports that pilots were in warp. I initiated my short warp to the waiting gate as the first ships were arriving at tacs just off the gate, and jumped as the tacklers and damage boats were hitting the gate behind me.
Upon entering the neighboring system, I initiated my warp to our scout at 50km, hoping I would be in a good position to employ my sensor dampener and tracking disruptor while engaging my cloaking device in mid warp. I could not have hoped for a better vantage point.
The rest of the fleet swooped on grid and engaged the Myrmidon as the baitship reported that its cap was dry and was rapidly loosing armor due to the Myrmidon's neutralizers. We would learn later that the Myrmidon was fitted with a full rack of neutralizers and not a single gun, relying instead on its drones to put out the damage necessary for its purposes. Being unaware of this, I decloaked, engaged my sensor booster and targeted the Myrmidon, bringing my tracking disruptor and sensor dampener online, while a friendly Blackbird and Falcon set about removing the Blackbird's ability to jam our tacklers, which were swarming the Myrmidon.
To remove any possibility of the Myrmidon escaping, an interdiction sphere was launched. This unfortunately prevented the warp out of our baitship, which was deep into structure and was subsequently lost to the Myrmidon's drones. This was our only loss of the engagement.
Meanwhile, the Blackbird who had been jammed to impotence by our own ECM pilots warped out to our dismay, only to return to the killing grounds a short while later. The Myrmidon was almost through armor at that point, but we were soon to learn that it was hull tanked! Let me say it again, hull tanked!
The Blackbird's return was a grave error on the pilot's part, as I targeted it and cut its targeting range as soon as the ship exited warp. The doomed pilot hovered in space as a Rifter disengaged from the melee below and streaked with laserlike precision to the now aligning Blackbird.

"Scram web" was nonchalantly announced over comms by the Rifter pilot, who could probably tackle a cruiser in his sleep. My vantage point, some 80km from this maneuver, afforded a fantastic view of the purple box settling into what appeared to be a slow and deliberate orbit of the now trapped Blackbird, as the statement "Blackbird is jammed" was calmly passed via comms.

Following this flurry of activity, the Myrmidon slowly melted before our combined firepower as his accomplice watched, awaiting their own turn to go up in flames.

I locked the Myrmidons pod as it was expelled from the wrecked ship and tagged it briefly with my tracking disruptor, before reengaging it on the immobile Blackbird, just for the hell of it. Ultimately, the Blackbird pilot's pod escaped, perhaps due to the time they had to prepare their escape. The real prizes however, lay burning at our feet.
The fleet then set about looting the wrecks and cleaning up, while I engaged my engines and reengaged my cloak, delighting in the excitement of the hunt and the success of the operation. Afterwards, we set a course back to the bubble we had left unattended in our system, while leaving the bubble placed by our prey intact and unmolested. It was a good day.

I hope I have accurately portrayed the events of the engagement in such a way as to give credit to the intentionally unnamed pilots who made it all possible. These pilots are the reason that I came out to null, and are the primary reason why EVE and OUCH are providing the best online gaming experience I have had in twenty years of online gaming. Many thanks.

Tales from the front line #2

I proudly bring you another 'tale from the front line'. This is a recent engagement that our OUCH members were involved in.  I want to remind you that these warriors were - only very recently - noobs and carebears, just like you probably are. There's no shame in being new, or being a carebear, because OUCH exists to help you grow.  Just like it helped the below-mentioned members grow.

Please enjoy:

‘Maelstrom's in the Bubble’
I log onto Teamspeak after logging off for a short break from EVE to see nine killers in the PVP OPS 1 channel.  So I  drop down to the channel to see what’s going on. “Maelstrom on D-Scan” is called out, seconds later “Second Maelstrom on D-Scan” is announced.  I immediately begin logging into EVE.
I hear primary being called and pilots calling out points all the time I’m frantically trying to log into game only to find myself in [CENSORED] station instead of the system of the engagement. Jamm’s are announced on both battleships.
“He’s shield boost tanked” is called out. I immediately begin assessing the situation in my head as I wait for session change to be able to change ships. Another pilot announces “We don’t have enough DPS to break the tank!” I select my Sacrilege to bring the pain…
As I undock I call to my fellow capsuleers to hold onto them, I’m on the way with more DPS. As I’m warping to the gate I’m going over the info that has been given out in my head when I realize that comms are eerily silent. I hit the gate and jump on contact calling it out over comms. Once on the other side I warp to a tactical bookmark, and then with gritted teeth into the fray I warp.
As I'm locking the primary still our comms are pretty silent.  My ship acquires a lock and I unleash hell. At this point I go into combat mode and the military trained part of my brain engages and assumes control. I begin asking for reports from out ECM pilots and begin assuring we have points on both BS’s.  The flow of information begins again, I smile.
“+1” is announced over comms.  “Any relation to the Mael’s?” I ask.
“No, we have a rifter on D-scan” is the reply.  The gears in my head begin to spin even faster now. Do I let the Rifter go and keep my focus on the battleship? Or do I feed him to the the blood-frenzied sharks currently swarming the battleships? A few heartbeats later I decide. This is our system - intrusion will not be tolerated by a single rifter.
I call for two of my best tacklers to move to the bubble and greet our new guest when/if he arrives.  A few seconds later “Rifter in the bubble!” is called.
“Grab him” I call, and almost immediately the tacklers respond with their confirmations of tackle. They have been trained well.  I quickly give orders for two of my pilots to hold the battleships and for everyone else to get on the Rifter. “KILL IT” is the order given after I receive the confirmation that all free pilots are on him. He pops almost instantly and his pod is scrammed quickly thereafter. Not wanting to waste time I call for the pod to be killed without waiting for everyone to get on it, and give orders for everyone to get back on the primary Mael.
The Maelstrom's shields begin to very slowly melt way when he engages his shield boosters again. Concern on whether or not we can break his tank is voiced in comms. Seeing how much shield is being boosted I realize that he must be dual boosted, which means he’s running a cap booster. “He’s using a cap booster with charges and they cant last forever.” I assure my pilots over comms.  Sure enough, his boosting amountv soon cuts in half which means he’s dropped down to one booster. His cap charges are running low. His shields begin to dissipate at an increased rate and before long he is in armor.  As his structure begins to quickly bleed out I call for my tacklers to prepare to grab his pod and for the rest of my fleet to switch primary to the second Mael upon the first's destruction. The Maelstrom explodes in a glorious ball of fire, but unfortunately his pod escapes.
Having tasted blood my pilots descend up the second Maelstrom like a pack of rabid piranha. And his tank doesn’t seem to be quite as strong as the first. It begins melting at a much faster rate. When intel reports that a small fleet consisting of interceptors, Dramiels, and a Flycatcher have landed on the gate next door with a Dram jumping into our system. “Stay on target” I call out, “Dram on D-scan” calls out another.
Decision time again, I quickly assess our situation and decide to not and try to get a tackle on the Dramiel unless he attempts to engage us first. We are so close now to bringing down the Maelstrom that I need every bit of DPS we can muster to pop it before this fleet jumps in on us.
“Dram in the bubble” is called. I watch as it quickly turns and begins burning for the gate, “He’s bugging out,” I call out over comms.
“Fleet jumping into system,” reports our scout next door just as the Maelstrom drops into structure.
“Bring him down now, we're about to have company!” I demand over comms, and like the vicious killers they are, they comply. The Maelstrom pops just as the fleet is identified on D-scan. “Warp to tacs” (tactical bookmarks) command is given out and all pilots warp off to safety with zero losses. We decide to give the incoming fleet a free pass while we reload and let the adrenaline run its course out of our system.
While I know this is not a AAR (after action report) in its true form and more of a narrative from my POV, it gives an account of what I saw and my emotions during the engagement.  I am extremely proud of all the pilots involved in these kills. An extraordinary job was done by our ECM pilots who kept our opponents jammed for the majority of the battle. All fleet members followed orders precisely and quickly. While I am aware that my spelling, grammar, and just general use of the English language is frighteningly horrible I hope you enjoy this account as much as I did. I am a proud member of Art of War Alliance and look forward to killing with you all again.

Takedown of a Cynabal

Just recently, some of our guys had a great time taking out a neutral Cynabal in nullsec. Below is the action report from one of the OUCH fleet members. (I've taken the liberty to censor some sensitive information.) This is an example of what our OUCH members are doing out there:

The [CENSORED] gate bubble in [CENSORED] was slow. Very slow. So slow that the FC had asked the fleet if a roam would be more fun. Just as fleet members were considering the roam or logging for the evening, intel comes in from [CENSORED]: Neutral in system.....Cynabal on scan.

I keep open on another computer several webpages, one of them is an eve-wiki page. I quickly look at Cynabal and see this:
Fast. Really fast. Faster than a Vagabond due to # of low slots + base speed.

25% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret rate of fire
10% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret damage per level
10% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret falloff per level

Hmm. As one of the fastest ships in our little camp with a scram (the other being [CENSORED] in his Incursus), I am going to share primary tackle duty. Noting that there is no bonus to tracking speed, I felt that if he came into the bubble, we could hold him and I could stay under his weapons if I kept the afterburner on.

He lands on the [CENSORED] gate in [CENSORED] and enters are system. We wait. "Cynabal on D-scan" is called out. And then he lands 5km from me. The fight is on.

It takes almost 4 seconds for me to get a lock once he became vulnerable. "Scram!"...."Web!".... a few more calls came out. I am about 6-7km or so, well within my scram range and web. Afterburner is on. Drone: out. I start to apply damage. Shield buffered. Going to be a long fight.

FC calls out "Drones. Target drones". I quickly hit my drones tab and target the Hornet EC drones he has. I switch damage over.

During this whole time, our quarry has targeted me and had begun shooting and applying a neut. I watched my capacitor run dry. It didn't take long. Once I slowed, his 425 Auto IIs caught up with me.

"[CENSORED], get out of there", called our FC. I was into structure now. With the neut, I didn't have the ability to warp away. Once I started aligning, my transversal was gone. No warp, no transversal...*poof*.

I was spamming warp already, so my pod zipped out (he didn't have a point, but I didn't want to be an easy target). As I left the field, the FC called out that the Cynabal's shields were gone. The ship didn't last much longer after that, nor did his pod. No one else in our fleet was lost. 17,500+ damage was delivered first class.

In essence, we traded a student-fit Incursus for a 170 Million ISK Cynabal. It was a good deal.


Lessons:
1. Know what you're going up against. It helps to have cheat sheets if you're memory is as alcohol-damaged as mine.
2. Speedy frigs can be effective.
3. Neuts suck.

I do want to thank those in the fleet last night. What a crew! And especially the FC [CENSORED]. I really appreciated [CENSORED]'s precise and calm FC-ing. A real pro.

Tales from the front lines

The below is what I hope to be the first of a series of 'tales from the front lines'. These are stories written by members of OUCH about their experiences out there on the front lines of nullsec combat. If you like what you read, maybe you'd like to join us

I'm a relatively young combat pilot, on the staff of a non-profit null security space survival corporation. Our job is to train pilots of various levels of experience to be unafraid of living in null sec, and to give them the skills they will need to move on in their careers as combat pilots. We have decided to do that by "maintaining a blockade in null sec, interdicting traffic bound for Empire".

Blockade duty is boring: Sometimes you fight, sometimes you run, but mostly you wait. And wait. And wait some more. And it seems like nothing is going on. Then BAM, a stealth bomber decloaks in the bubble, or a small T2 gang jumps in come in and tries to gank you, or a large gangs sweeps through and your gang runs to your safes, your skirts flapping in the wind. Sometimes, you don't see a soul for hours, and you ask yourself, "Isn't there something better that we could be doing?" It seems to be a lot more fun to be in the small gang looking for a bubble camp to break, or the large gang sweeping through null looking for a battle. But then I look at it from our adversaries point of view.

* * *

A member of a neutral alliance based a half dozen systems away lands in a bubble and loses his ship. He tells his corpmates that there is a camp in system N1-4U2. An hour later, another guy gets caught in the bubble and he complains about it to his mates. After a couple of days of this, there are a bunch of people in that alliance that really are annoyed that their travel been restricted. A few of them head over to N1-4U2 to "teach those guys a lesson". They pop one or two ships but they don't get away clean, the campers kill the bait. The next day, they attack the campers using the same tactic, but the cowards don't give them a fight. They kill the bubble and leave. The campers put up a new bubble, and later that evening, kill another alliance pilot.

Days later, the bubble camp is up again and a recon ship lands in it. The campers web and scram and take the ship quickly down into armor. Then local comes alive: stealth bombers and recons appear from nowhere, lock and kill several of the bubble camping fleet. They just got hot dropped by a Black Ops gang, who are very pleased with themselves for the battlecruiser kill they got today. That will surely teach the campers not to be so predictable. But hours later, those stupid noobs are back, camping the same gate in N1-4U2.

On the weekend, the alliance organizes another raid, a dozen ships. They scout N1-4U2 with a cloaked ship for an hour, bring in their fleet and the campers run off to safes like a bunch of screaming girls. The only casualty in the contest is a Mobile Small Warp Disruptor. The fleet leaves, and the campers set up another bubble.

Meanwhile, the alliance from the system next door, they jump in and engage the campers every day. Sometimes they get kills, sometimes they get killed, but most of the time, they just kill the bubble, smack-talk a bit and move on. Our campers look forward to them coming by to visit, and put up a new bubble.

But a few of the members of the big alliance down the street decide that something must be done about this camp. They get a recon ship and station it spying on the camp and wait for the opportunity to implement their plan. A fleet stages in at the closest POS: cruisers, recons, HACs and battlecruisers, ready to take on a camp of, well, pirates from their point of view. They closely orbit one of the largest ships in the game, an Erebrus. They are ready.

The recon uncloaks and lights off his cyno and 20 cruisers and battlecruisers jump in and destroy a 6 ship frig and cruiser fleet in seconds. They cheer, and pat themselves on the back, sending a clear message to these pirates:

Your scouts cannot protect you. We can take you, without warning, anytime we want. We own you.

A few hours later, they get word from one of their corpmates: The bubble is back up in N1-4U2. Don't those noobs ever quit?

They put out an advisory to their alliance: N1-4U2 is permanently camped. Proceed with caution. Various members place dedicated scouts in system, alts to log in and check the system status. Some place cloaked alts and leave them up for hours at a time. They are not the only corporations to do so.

All of them watch and gather intel. They fly through in big fleets. They fly carefully when solo. They change the way they operate to avoid this camp when they remember. When they forget, they end up in the bubble and more often than not, in their pods. N1-4U2 becomes a very popular system. The pilots of the region start to learn that they can find a fight there if they want it, but if they go overkill, all they'll find is a bubble.

* * *

I'm just one pilot, in a small alliance. We've got a handful of experienced combat pilots, teaching brand new players how to fly and die in null. We fly mostly T1 Frigates and Cruisers. We're nobody special, yet what we are doing, playing our Eve, affects hundreds, maybe thousands of pilots as they fly through a small "useless" system in a quiet region of NPC space.

Proceed With Caution. That's a snapshot of the Eve PvP dynamic. No TCU required.

Action Report - 13 Feb 2011

This is the first of a planned series of reports based on 'after action reports' that OUCH / AWA members write on our forums. I decided to share them with you all, to showcase the ongoing adventures that members of OUCh enjoy.

So a small fleet of about 10 pilots got bored with camping a bubble (a common operational activity in OUCH) and went out on a roam through Curse and Catch, flying a mix of frigates and a destroyer, and including some equipped for e-war.

They spent a while travelling around before arriving at some nullsec space owned and inhabited by blues, and ended up deciding to go back home. This was when the action began...

They encountered The Initiative who engaged the rag-tag fleet of frigates with their Vagabond, Dramiel and Ishkur. After the dust cleared, OUCH had lost 4 of their frigates and the destroyer, but the other guys had lost their Ishkur and Dramiel. Not a bad exchange...

So the small fleet re-shipped and had a few skirmishes here and there with nothing substantial, but then were escorting a 'blue' freighter when it was ambushed by A4D and lost.

Lessons were learned, mistakes were acknowledged. And the learning goes on.

Is your corp looking for new recruits?

One of the biggest issues that corps have is recruitment. The Eve Online forums have a very popular and effective recruitment section, and you do your best to qualify your potential recruits by specifying exactly what you're looking for. But then you've got a lot of time spent on recruitment interviews, where you ask questions of the applicant about what they're looking for, what their experience is, and why they're looking for a new corp.

Along the way you're trying to guage what kind of person they are, how you feel about them, whether you think they'll fit into your corp or not. Usually an API key is necessary to help you feel comfortable about who they are and what their motivations might be, although this is never guaranteed either.

OUCH's graduate placement program

We're going to start a new program within OUCH now that we've got our training department moving ahead in full swing - the placement of graduates with those corps out there who are keen on not having to qualify or interview their recruits.

You see, those people who have graduated from OUCH have already been qualified for you as fine, upstanding citizens of Eve. They've joined OUCH to learn nullsec survival and PVP. They've gone through 11 modules of nullsec survival and PVP training, have at least 10 real kills on their killboard, and proven themselves fit to traverse large expanses of nullsec without being killed.

What does an OUCH student have to achieve to graduate?

In order to graduate, our students have to complete the following training modules:

Basic PvP

1. Overview settings

2. EVE client ESC settings

3. EVE client interface

4. Bookmarking

5. D-Scan

6. Tackling

7. Weaponry

8. Fleet Ops

9. Hunter/Prey

Nullsec Survival

1. Travelling through Nullsec

2. Bubbles: Mobile Warp Disruptors and Interdictor

During their training, they will be involved in fleet operations within OUCH, our alliance, or with our blues, to practice what they're learning. They need to get at least 10 kills to count towards their graduation.

Once they've completed the modules, they than have to travel across 15 nullsec systems in a T1 frigate. They then have to travel back, so a total of 30 jumps through nullsec. They cannot be killed during the test, and they have to take screenshots at certain points that show their ship, the time, and the system. They have 5 hours to complete this test.

When they have satisfactorily completed all the graduation requirements (this includes a review by senior staff to ensure they have completed their training requirements in a meaningful way), they are given a decoration which they can then proudly display that says they are a Graduate of OUCH.

So how does that help me as a CEO or recruitment officer?

Graduates of OUCH have done the hard yards to learn how to survive and engage in PVP in nullsec. They have proven themselves to be fit and capable members of any nullsec corp or alliance. Admittedly their training has been in T1 frigates and cruisers, but once they've done the basics they're free to start flying T2 ships like stealth bombers and interceptors, etc, as they continue to work on their skills for more advanced ship combat.

* OUCH graduates are unlikely to be looking for a quick buck via corp theft. Any pilots of 'unsavoury disposition' are weeded out during training.

* They're not going to require basic training on how things work in nullsec.

* They're not going to waste a lot of your valuable time asking stupid questions.

* They're familiar with effective 'wartime operations policies' for highsec wardecs.

Would you like to know more?

Contact Black Claw in-game or via a reply below this post. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Where do I sign up as a corp for your placement program?

Again, contact me and we'll discuss it. What we'll need is your corp name, contact details, and a description of what the corp does and what would be expected of OUCH graduates who might want to join your corp.

This information will be put on our forum for graduates to see, and anyone that wants to join participating corps will be able to follow up with your nominated contacts.

We would expect that you have at least 20 active members in your corp to make it worthwhile for OUCH graduates to join you if they're interested.

I'm not a CEO or recruitment officer, but I'd like to join OUCH and do this training!

All pilots of any age or background are welcome to join us. Join our public channel OUCH-UNI if you want to ask any questions, or contact Black Claw via evemail. Alternatively, just join us. We'll accept your application as soon as possible, and get you started with your nullsec survival and PVP training as soon as you're able to.

You want epic? I'll give you epic

Yesterday morning in Eve I was involved in the most epic battle of my gaming experience. Let me share the story with you….

The fight started with about 10 of us in cruisers and frigates, camping a bubble and gate in nullsec. Our fleet consisted of the Art of War Alliance, and some guys we were newly blue with. We attacked a small fleet of ships that came through the gate, killling probably 5 of their cruisers. Then another of their fleet jumped in, a Dominix battleship that quickly dropped a cynosaural field, which opened a jump bridge with a system far away. Suddenly two supercarriers appeared!

Yes, our frigates and cruisers killed some cruisers, so they use a cyno-battleship to hot-drop supercarriers against us. Firstly - what a bunch of losers! Secondly - we fled the battlefield, withdrawing to tactical bookmarks.

But then another alliance (Bat Phone) very quickly heard about the supercarriers nearby their own roaming fleet and jumped in and started tackling the Dominix and supercarriers so they couldn’t get away. The Dominix was primaried and warp bubbles went up, but the supercarriers were repairing the Dominix (maybe 'cause it was their way home?). The call went out in local for people to bring battleships or capital ships, and soon enough the Dominix was destroyed. Then the supercarriers became the target of this small-ish fleet that thought we would 'give it a go'.

We rejoined the fight ourselves, offering our assistance as best we could. I was flying a Pilgrim, which is a combat recon ship and good at sucking a target’s capacitor dry, so I was one of the ships doing that against the supercarriers.

Initially there were probably 30 of us, but within 10 minutes there were ships and fleets and alliances coming from all corners of the region. There were phone calls made to people to get them to get in the game ASAP! The supercarriers were repairing each other so that the combined fleet against them was hardly scratching their shields.

A Rapier appeared and dropped another cyno, and a carrier appeared before the cyno and Rapier were destroyed. The carrier immediately added its repair capabilities to the supercarrier that was taking the most damage, but within a minute it was destroyed by our fleet.

Then the pilot of the most damaged supercarrier logged off but the ship was stuck in the bubble for 15 minutes. The other one managed to slowly crawl out of his bubble and warped off, but then came back again to continue repairing his buddy, who disappeared once his 15-minute log off timer was up (your ship stays there for 15 minutes even if you logged off, IF your ship is being attacked and can’t warp off).

So now all attention was given to the supercarrier that had come back, and more warp bubbles went up around it. Someone called out for Titan pilots, and soon enough a Titan appeared on the field to add its firepower against the remaining supercarrier. By this time there was almost 100 pilots in this system in NPC nullsec – a system that rarely gets more than 20 or so. Neutrals passing through were stopping to watch the awesome sight, and we were all too busy to worry about targeting them.

Meanwhile, in the middle of this huge capital-ship battle, there’s me in my little Pilgrim, sitting off the supercarrier at about 7km, doing my bit to neut the hell out of it. The artillery fire, autocannons, lasers, missiles, torpedoes and huge explosions from almost a hundred combatants were lighting up space all around me. It was truly awesome.

Eventually the supercarrier was killed, unable to survive the combined forces of around 85+ ships against it, ranging from frigates, many battleships, capital ships and a Titan.

In the aftermath, everyone agreed in local that the system was now blue, and no one would attack each other. The supercarrier wrecks were looted, and over the next 20 minutes everyone started drifting off, back to whatever it was they were doing before the supercarriers arrived. The watching neutrals moved on.

I was sitting there probably for an hour afterwards, cloaked, watching pilots moving around, looting the wreck, taking photos, salvaging.... Blues, oranges, reds and neutrals – today, for a short while, everyone was blue.

It was awesome.

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.

The Adventures of the Cynabal

I joined in on a nullsec bubble camp with some corp mates the other day. I asked them about the neutrals in local, and they said they weren't sure about them, but they hadn't seen anything. I was hesitant to join in on the camp without adequate intel, but the corpmates were flying frigates and cruisers, so I figured it was ok.

So there I was, at a tactical bookmark a few hundred km from the gate and bubble, aligned so that I could quickly go to warp and arrive at the bubble to join in any attack against someone who might get stuck in it. Suddenly, 5 ships appeared (my fleet members don't show in the overview) and they were all within 20km of me while I was still 200+km from the gate and bubble.

Whoah! I said to myself. An ambush! They were all stealth bombers, and they all released their bombs. Explosions lit up the darkness, and I was happy I was aligned and moving, otherwise the damage would have been far more extensive than just 60% of my shields! I tried going to warp, but nothing happened, so I quickly activated my MWD and burned away from them at 2.7km per second. Their next volley of bombs was unable to catch up to me, and once I got out of their point range, I then activated my warp drive and got away.

Cursing to myself about my corp mates lack of intel, I told them what happened and said something like "Screw you guys, I'm going home!" But politely, of course. :) I wasn't going to sit on a bubble camp with my Cynabal and wait for more stealth bombers to sneak up on me.

So I was heading back home and jumped into a nullsec system, only 1 jump from my lowsec destination and discovered a small fleet of ships gathered around me on the gate. There was probably about 8 to 10 of them, including some interceptors, some battlecruisers, and some miscellaneous T2 ships.

Immediately my heart rate went up, and I was saying to myself "shitshitshitshit..." My brand new Cynabal hadn't even been blooded yed, and now here I was in the middle of a gate camp. I'm sure they were eagerly waiting for me to decloak from the gate, because you don't gatecamp in nullsec without having a scout on the other side. They knew what I was flying, and they wanted it on their killboard...

I took stock of the situation. No warp bubble - thank the Gods for small mercies. Every single one of them was within 12km of me. Hmmm... it was going to be hairy.

I aligned for the lowsec system and then quickly pressed F1 for the cloak, quickly followed by F2 for the Microwarp Drive. It did exactly as I hoped, and made the ship invulnerable while both modules were active, each of them struggling for dominance and preventing the surrounding ships from being able to get a lock on me.

All they could do was watch me cruise through their midst until the MWD completed its cycle and I quickly deactivated the cloak and then clicked on 'Warp to'. The Cynabal immediately went to warp and escaped the gate camp. I could imagine them all screaming at each other on their voice comms as I warped away from them. "He used the cloak+MWD trick - he's obviously gay! He's super gay! Why couldn't he have let us kill him! What a loser!"

I exited the system and docked up in lowsec... I can tell you that my hands were shaking from the adrenaline rush. I had to hold my hot cup of tea with both hands as I waited to calm down!

But then there was the next threat....

When I left highsec and entered lowsec earlier, on my way to the nullsec bubble camp, about 10 'reds' (known hostiles) saw me flying across the lowsec system. As I arrived at the gate to jump into the next lowsec system, 4 of their battleships arrived with me. As I jumped through, I could see maybe 5 more arriving at the gate. On the other side, once my screen cleared, I could see 4 or 5 of these 'reds' appearing in local, and I quickly activated my warp drive to flee the gate's proximity and make my way to the station where I docked and waited for them to leave.

They eventually left, and when they did I made my way into nullsec. But now I was back, and their scout obviously alerted them of my presence, because local began to spike with 4 of them jumping in. I suspected that they might have had a couple camping outside the station, with the rest of them waiting near the gate that went back towards highsec. That's what I would have done... There was no way I was undocking right now.

As it was, with a corp mate acting as a scout of my own, I determined that even though they eventually left the system (leaving behind a scout), and left the next system (leaving behind another scout), that it was probably a trap.

So I undocked in my pod and made my way back to highsec safely, where I got myself another cup of tea and relaxed, thinking about my day's adventure.

I've come to understand that the Cynabal is a shit magnet, and it attracts all manner of shit wherever it goes. People go to great lengths to try and kill a Cynabal, so to say that I was happy to have survived my day's adventure is probably an understatement. I was ecstatic!

See you in space.

Wars, POS bashings, and PVP action!

OUCH has been busy!

I've been busy running OUCH and the Art of War Alliance (AWA) and even playing the game as well (shocking!), so doing blog posts has been a distant second place in terms of priority. But I'm back. Not sure how long it will be before the next post, but I'll try to make it more often than I have been!

We've been busy lately. Every day there's been training operations that include corp members playfully dueling in highsec to learn all about ship fittings, PVP roams or bubble camps in nullsec for the action and extra training, and just a couple days ago a highsec war to allow us to clean up an abandoned POS.

Our first lowsec POS bash!

On Saturday we had a test run into lowsec to destroy the tower of an abandoned POS and clean up the nearby modules. Over 14 hours we had quite a few alliance members turn out for the fun of it all, but it took so long because the turnout was sporadic at best. But it was eventually destroyed.

The fun part of that was doing it in lowsec... Everyone had to have cloaks on their ships so that they could hide if hostiles entered the system, which didn't happen too often, thankfully. It was important to have scouts watching the entry points, but we didn't have enough for that AND the battleships/stealth bombers, so we had the 2 most dangerous entry points covered and had scan probes on the other 2 gates.

Between 4-15 pilots in in a single lowsec system over 14 hours - without incident. Phew! And right next door to us was a hotzone, but none of the regular pirates and pvp'ers in that system ventured next door, so they never noticed the bunch of trainees in battleships. :)

Our first war!

Well, not our first war, but the first war we declared against someone else...

The feedback about the POS bash was so positive that I decided to go find an abandoned POS in highsec, and research the corp to determine their activity. I found a large abandoned tower with about 240 million worth of modules and did some research to find that the owning corp was last active in February and the POS in question had been taken offline by a single pilot in August.

I immediately had the alliance declare war on them, sent the alliance and evemail to announce what was going on and provided instructions to the alliance on where it was and what was needed to attack it.

The war became active yesterday, and I got home from work about 2 hours after. There was already an alliance fleet in place that had been hammering it as soon as they were able to, and I (as Alexia Morgan, since Black Claw can't go into highsec in ships...) joined in with my own Armageddon battleship. It took about 7 hours for the fleet to destroy this large tower, and then I went to get the hauler to pick up the modules.

Lots of fun for all! I was excited that every alliance pilot who came online joined in on the POS bash. Very cool!

And another corp joined the alliance after seeing what we were doing in local... I think they got excited about being able to bash POS's too, and wanted a part of the action.

Do you want a part of the action too?

If you're an individual that's looking for an exciting place to learn PVP and nullsec survival, join OUCH. The corp is full of great, laid-back guys that you can sit back and have some fun with and learn how to be a whole lot better at Eve than you are. Join the channel 'OUCH-UNI' in-game and have a chat to me or some of the guys that hang out in there.

If you're the CEO of a corp and you're sick of having griefers declare war against you and you want some alliance protection, we can't guarantee to protect you, but we CAN guarantee that you'll learn how to operate effectively during war. The Art of War Alliance teaches member corps how to operate effectively if wardec'd, allowing you to continue PVE operations even while at war, and how to deprive an experienced enemy of kills without having to sit in station all day!

If that interests you, then add me to your watch list and chat to me about it when you see me online next, or send me an evemail and I'll get back to you.

Ships. Lots of ships!

Over the past few months I've been continuing the training plans for Alexia Morgan and Black Claw so that they can fly bigger and better ships. I'm currently cross-training them both for Heavy Assault Cruisers and Recons for all races. That's a lot of ships....

Alexia can now fly all HAC's and Recons for all races except Caldari, but I'll wait for a while before working on getting the Falcon.

I recently got excited about Hurricanes, so after Alexia's current training finishes for a Broadsword (Heavy Interdictor for nullsec operations) I'll be training her up to achieve Elite status for all the Hurricane certificates and using that as much as I can. It feels like a cruiser to fly, but is more powerful. And I like how it looks like an Empirial Star Destroyer...

Ships that go boom!

Black Claw has been doing a lot of station camping. Those cyno alts, they keep getting in the way! They're like tempting hors d'euvres, just sitting there waiting to be eaten. And so Black eats them. With extreme violence. He just can't help it. While camping a station waiting for a juicy frigate or industrial, the cyno alts just sit there. And so they pop.

It's funny. I had Atlas Alliance form a fleet to hunt Black Claw (and failed) because I was bothering their cyno alts. Even though they had 60+ kills against OUCH, compared to OUCH having killed 15 of their pilots, they still got offended...

See you next time!

Ransoms

Last night, I scanned down a Hulk sitting in a belt. The pilot was about 10 months old, and there were no other pilots in the system. I'd just come from another system, and that was dead too, so it was unlikely this guy was bait.

At first, I couldn't believe it.  It was as if someone had left me a treasure chest and it was unlocked. Surely there's a catch, right?

In local, the pilot said hello, and asked me who I was hunting. I stayed silent.

I warped into his belt at 0km, only to find the Hulk mining, 54km away.  Damn!  So I started moving my Ishkur towards him, but he was already aligning for warp. I target locked him, but before I could get within disruptor range, he warped out.

In my bio last week, I placed the following:

If you think I'm hunting you, you're probably right.

Pay me ISK, and I will leave you alone.

Pay me enough ISK, and I might even help you out.

Pay me nothing... well, you'll pay, one way or another.

So I said to the guy in local, "5 million ISK and I'll leave you alone."

A few seconds later, my wallet flashed. Surprised, I checked it. I mean, he got away - why would he be paying me after the fact?

He'd paid me 4.7 million, saying that was all he had.  Sure... But I accepted it.  What's 300k between hunter and prey?  Nothing.

So here I am, sitting back in my pod - at a safe spot - laughing to myself.  I'd just ransomed someone who had gotten away.

Sure, I had every intention of continuing to hunt them down, and I know they were paying me so I wouldn't - but I never expected it to work!

I engaged the pilot in conversation, and he was happy I was so friendly. (Ummm... I'd just ransomed you...)  I gave him some tips about mining in lowsec, and how to avoid this kind of thing happening again.

When my criminal timer faded away, I farewelled him and left the system.

I'll be using this more often. :)

If you're reading this and you see me in local, it's in your interests to pay me to move on. You'll be able to continue doing what you're doing without me harrassing you.  Sure, you'll have others to watch out for, but you won't have to worry about me for 24 hours.

The alternative, of course, is that I hunt you down and destroy your ship, which will cost you a lot more than what I cost. Or even if you get away, I will continue to hunt you and disrupt your operations, and cost you money through wasting your time.

So pay up. Everyone's happier as a result.  :)

Boy, they have it easy in 0.0

I just realised something... Those people out there in 0.0 space really do have it easy!  

Let's look at life in 0.0 space for pilots - they're not pirates, 'cause they can't break the law if there's no laws...

1. They don't have to worry about sentry guns, and can go anywhere, and engage anywhere
   
2. Everyone not blue is an enemy, so they know who to avoid. See #3
   
3. They fly around in fleets, so they've always got the protection of their friends
   
4. The most dangerous spots are the main entry points into 0.0 space, which are often protected by alliances. Everywhere else is safer than highsec. See #2 and #3

That's about it, really.  Life is pretty easy for 0.0 pilots...

Let's look at life in lowsec for pirates:

1. They have to worry about sentry guns, limiting options for engagement
   
2. Low security status prevents them from going everywhere
   
3. Everyone not blue is not an enemy, but they're all targets.  See #1
   
4. They fly around solo, so they have to rely on their skills and their wits. See #1
   
5. Every lowsec system is dangerous. See #1
   
6. After attacking someone, they have to wait out a 'criminal timer' which forces them to sit in a safe spot. See #1
   
7. Fleets of pilots from 0.0 space roam around lowsec looking for excitement, since 0.0 is so boring. This only makes the pirates bored, as they wait for these fleets to move on before getting back to their piracy
   
8. Accidentally jumping into highsec when chasing someone not only gets grief from #1, but from CONCORD too
   
9. There are soft targets and hard targets. Making a decision about who to engage can be a real nightmare!
   
10. Lowsec pilots are hated and feared... No one cares about 0.0 pilots
    

So now you can see that they really have it easy in 0.0.  The real men? The real warriors?  They're in lowsec.

So next time you see a flashy red pirate, give them a salute before they attack you. Give them the ransoms they ask for. 

You can't imagine the stress they're going through, and they need your support.   Help a pirate today. 

Another first

For the first time in my 'career' as a pirate, I have fought and beaten a member of the Foundati0n alliance. They're a bunch of antipirates operating in and around the Molden Heath area. Their usual modus operandi is to fly around in fleets, because they're afraid of decent fights.

I was sitting at a gate this evening when Lord Xibalba warped in with his Rupture. I waited for him to jump through the gate, as they so often do when they're alone, and me being flashy red and all. But he didn't jump.

With a smile, I target locked him and activated my drones. I was flying my Brutix battlecruiser this time, and released a world of hurt on him. He was firing back, of course, and even released his own drones. And then the gate guns decided to unleash a world of hurt on me too, and even though I was fitted for gank instead of tank, I was able to tank those damn guns long enough to see the Rupture pop. I didn't bother popping the pod, as I just wanted to get out of there.

I recalled the drones and activated the 'warp to' to get the hell out of there. By the time I warped off, I was down to about 20% armor, and 3 of the drones failed to get back into the drone bay in time. I should have gone for the pod as well, since I had time, but what the heck...

While sitting in a safe spot waiting for the criminal timer to count down, I could hear the crew throughout the ship celebrating their victory over a Foundati0n member. I let them party, smiling to myself as I enjoyed the victory too.

After the 15 minutes passed, I warped to a station and docked, repairing the armor. I spent another 20 minutes talking to some fleet mates, and then undocked and went to the next system over.

But wait... what's that? Oh, it's the wreck of the Rupture I destroyed, along with a few drones sitting motionless around it - including 2 of the 3 drones I'd lost! So I grabbed them, along with 2 surviving Warrior drones from the Rupture, and then continued on my way.

I was happy.

I think I'll keep flying this Brutix around for a while.

Taking it for the team

Sitting at a planet, my fleet mates talked about the Rupture that they spotted on scan. I saw it on my scanner too, and started to check the nearby gate to see if it was there. Suddenly it appeared. Not on my scanner, but right nearby, and flashy red too!

It was 24km away from me. I started to move towards it, target locking it, engaging the warp disruptor so it was locked down. It didn't try to escape, and only came closer.

I was very busy initiating combat, but managed a quick "xzzxxx" in the fleet comms.... it was only supposed to be 'xxx', but my fingers got excited!

"On my way!" said the fleet mates, just as the Rupture released its drones. Damn drones...! I knew they'd be the death of me, but I released my own drones and then set about targeting his to try and eliminate them.

Unfortunately, the Rupture and his drones were too powerful for me, and even though my own drones managed to get the Rupture heavily into armor, my ship once again exploded around me.

I warped the pod away just as my 2 fleet mates arrived, and they finished the job I'd started.

I'm starting to rethink using an advanced Tech 2 ship in PVP... looking at the killmail, the Rupture's cost was just over 11 million ISK. Looking at my loss, it was valued around 23 million ISK.

These figures are extremely conservative, but it's obvious that I'm losing out in the money competions... The ships I'm flying are too expensive for the targets I'm fighting.

I bought an Ares. It's a snazzy looking ship, and it's got some nice tackling bonuses. For 13 million, it's cheaper than an Ishkur, and should be a little bit better at tackling, so I'll be experimenting with that.

It's all so new...

I'm now at -5.5 on the security meter, which means I'm permanently flashy red. Between you and me, this has created an entirely new gaming experience!

Now, when I see people at a gate or station, they try to target lock me because the sentry guns no longer work in my favour. This means that every gate is a potential 'gate camp' by anyone who's there, who might want to take the opportunity to attack me.

I've been an outlaw for about 24 hours now, and I've had only a couple of random people trying to attack me at gates I've been passing through. I avoided them very quickly, because I was surprised they were trying to attack me. The consequences of being an outlaw is still very new to me, and I've got to adjust to it.

I've also discovered another interesting aspect of all this.

Fear.

People are afraid of me now. They run and hide, or dock, or quickly leave the system. They call in reinforcements, and they try to hunt me down.

This is just fantastic! It really creates such new and exciting experiences, where I am more the hunted than the hunter.

Tonight was an incredibly exciting time. I entered a system where there were a dozen others in it, in an out-of-the-way, deadend system. I started chatting with one of the locals, who turned out to be an alt of someone who talked to me about my blog last week. They informed me that the local antipirate protection they had, had advised them to hide in their POS, and reinforcements were on the way. I thanked them for this intel, talked a couple more minutes, and then turned my Ishkur towards the only gate leading out.

On the other side, the excitement began.

There were about 5 heavily armed and powerful ships being flown by the antipirates - all of them waiting for me, camping the gate. My heart rate began to increase. These people wanted ME!

So I quickly ran their camp, heading for a gate that happened to be in front of me. They were in hot pursuit, and I arrived at the gate around the same time they did. I jumped through, along with them - and found even more ships on the other side of THAT gate!

Laughing at the excitement, I activated my warp drive towards a distant asteroid belt, running their second gate camp. As soon as I hit the belt, I realigned and warped off to another gate. They had pre-empted my course, however, and had already arrived at this gate, with some of them jumping through to again try and catch me on the other side.

I jumped through anyway, not having much of a choice, but confident of my abilities to laugh in the face of such danger.

On the other side there were 3 of them, waiting for me to uncloak, and I again warped off to a distant belt, followed quickly by another gate.

This time I lost them, and I jumped into a system that was empty of their presence. I quickly docked, choosing safety over the constant danger of being 'on the run'. But none of them jumped into the system, and I managed to take a breather and calm myself down.

That was an awesome experience, and very enjoyable! It was even more exciting than actually getting a kill!

Being a pirate is different to anything I've experienced before, but it's so much more enjoyable too.

Being the hunter or the hunted has just increased in intensity.

The Art of War - Tactical Dispositions

Chapter 1: Laying Plans
Chapter 2: Waging War
Chapter 3: Attack by Strategem

To prevent our own defeat is up to us, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy themselves.

What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.

He wins his battles by making no mistakes. Making no mistakes is what establishes the
certainty for victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.

The skilful fighter puts himself into a position which makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy.

The victorious strategist only seeks battle after he knows the victory has been won, while he who is destined for defeat first fights and then looks for victory.

The greatest leader cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to method and discipline.

Thus it is in his power to control success.

Blobs

It's only a blob when you're the victim.

When you're the aggressor, it's a superior tactical engagement.

And so it begins

What begins?

My venture into true piracy.

Tonight a group of us went hunting. We didn't really find anything, but towards the end of it all, there were a couple of bored pilots sitting at a gate - in their pods. They were taunting one of my fleet mates, who was a carebear friend from a far distant region. He'd decided to join us for the hunt, since he was in the area, and he stated that he would indeed attack neutrals and flashy reds.

So he's sitting at the gate in his Huginn, bantering back and forth in local with these two bored pod pilots. They wanted him to kill them, but he was stating he only killed pirates.

Meanwhile, I'm at a safe spot, also bored, since we hadn't found any targets. I was in my Ishkur, and I got sick of the banter in local.

I warped to the gate and target locked one of the pods, orbiting it at 500m. I activated my Damage Control, and then clicked on a distant asteroid belt and aligned myself to it. This was so that once I began firing at the pod, I could quickly warp away from the gate guns as soon as the pod was popped.

So I started firing as my ship began moving towards the far distant asteroid belt, my glance darting back and forth between my shields and the pods'. Nothing was hitting me yet, and I had only got the pod down to about 5% structure before I was out of range (about 6,000m) and not hitting it.

Frowning, I checked my systems. Nope, not a single hit from the gate guns. Shrugging, I turned the Ishkur back for another pass at the pod, which was still sitting there with his friend, also in a pod.

I quickly finished the job, and the pod went POP! And THEN the gate guns started firing. So I clicked on warp to, only realising after I slowed down and realigned that I should have selected another object in the OTHER direction.

But I managed to warp that tough little Ishkur away from those gate guns, with 95% of my structure remaining.

In local, the surviving pod pilot was still taunting my fleet mate.

"Black Claw is the man! You, however [fleet mate] are a pussy!"

And the guy was right. I've got to train my friend to stop being a carebear....

My security status went from -3.6 to -4.7. You know what that means? It means I can't go into highsec any more. No more trips 'across the border' to grab ships and equipment. It's a damn good thing that I spent the past week transporting all of my highsec assets into lowsec.

But... the really exciting thing is... I feel like I'm a real pirate now! I can't go into highsec. I'm 0.3 points away from being an OUTLAW!

This is so exciting!