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!

EON Magazine - Issue 20 is out!

I'm a subscriber of the EON Magazine, and as a blogger I get notified of the latest issue as it's published. The magazine's prettydamn good, so I recommend anyone that plays Eve Online to subscribe to it. It's worth it.

PEOPLE AND PLANETS

Tyrannis is here, and with it the feature they are calling Planetary Interaction. Inside the latest E-ON we have a guide to understanding how to make the most from New Eden's literal new landscape. ...But, hang on, where have all the people gone who live on all those surfaces (perhaps not so many on those lava ones)? How are we supposed to be benevolent or tyrannical when there are no insignificant proles to sell cheap electronics to in order to keep them in line? We ask whether as an attempt to breath new life into old New Eden, Tyrannis was an opportunity missed, or one soon to be realized.

STELLAR COUNCIL MATTERS

Keeping with the theme of people in EVE, we look at the work of the CSM, the volunteer body of EVE players who are elected to give CCP a players’ perspective of EVE. It's been more than two years since the first Council was sworn in, since which time our various representatives have canvassed and cajoled for important changes. We ask whether those changes have been significant enough and try to gauge the CSM from the view of those that might vote for them.

BIG SHIPS, BIG TESTFLIGHT

Motherships were once a ship to be left at home, but as the re-named and all-improved Supercarriers they have become one of EVE's most important front-line vessels. Able to provide massive support, or deal vast amounts of anti-capital damage by deploying fighter-bombers, they are almost as versatile as they are massive. Which is why we devote a massive number of pages to fitting and flying them properly.

FREE POSTER*

Free with E-ON issue #020, we are giving away another ship poster; this time it's the cruisers of the Gallente Federation that line up in a sexy pose. That's right, never again will you have to rely on 'show info' to tell the difference between a Vigilant or a Deimos, as you can see how all the hulls line up by faction or tech level, together with handy fitting and hit point information so you know just what you're up against.

*FREE for every subscriber (while stocks last). This poster is also available rolled on thicker stock.

PLUS

* ‘Fuel of your Creation’ - sequel to E-ON Issue #002 story ‘The Eighth Plague’

* The evolution of the Alliance Tournament

* How to get the best people into your corp – Insiders’ Guide to Corp Recruitment

* Interviews with CCP’s Art Director Asgeir Asgeirsson and video producer CCP Charlie

* Shar Tegral, Dianabolic and Zoolkhan are ‘In Character’

* 0.0 Report reports on 0.0 shenanigans

* Plus The Funnies, My Two Isk... …and all the latest news

Interview with a mercenary

In the past I've done a couple of interviews as Black Claw and probably my most popular post as Alexia Morgan was my interview with Duckeye. Well, it's time for another interview!

This one is with Noir Avlaa of the Sunset Jokers. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy the read.

• You used to be pirates... what made you want to move away from piracy and become a mercenary?

Romeo Blakstorm and I have both been flying with The Tuskers for a while, and a pirate's life was the life for us for most of our EVE careers. But after a while we both just felt that piracy was not the way we wanted to spend our future. Romeo left a couple of months before me to join up in a 0.0 corp, whereas I left my account to go inactive, thinking a break might make me come back and become more enthusiastic to the Yarr.

When I did come back I still found myself spinning ships in station, and Romeo was finding 0.0 no to be to his liking. I looked at my options, spoke a bit to Romeo and decided Merc life was the best way to go. We both like the PVP side of piracy, but I'd like to have a bit more freedom with my movements through space, and be able to earn more than enough ISK than I really need without an alt character, whereas Romeo's been a pirate for a bit longer than me and as 0.0 isn't to his liking then merc work, while alot like piracy, would be much better. He still gets to shoot at people, but with a paycheck and access to empire space.

• So what made being a mercenary more desireable than other proffessions, say joining up with a lowsec alliance as muscle or even roaming 0.0?

Well as I said before, I want to get paid while I shoot at people. Joining up with a lowsec alliance would seem like a restriction after being in The Tuskers, and roaming in 0.0 just seems like a silly idea to me. There may well be as many targets as lowsec but there's also alot more risk. If possible I'll always stack the odds in my favour when it comes to PVP... there are no rules, only winning. I've had a look at a lot of mercs across EVE and they have the same sort of set up as The Tuskers, but without the pitfalls involved with being pirates.

• Now you've created Sunset Jokers, how do you plan to progress into merc work?

For now we're trying to create a core set of players with various sets of skills we can meld together to create a small, effective gang. We're going to learn how each pilot operates over a reasonable period of time with roams through lowsec, probably against pirates mainly, until we're confident enough to start out properly as mercenaries.

We're looking at between 25-40 members when we're fully running, and we'll start taking contracts at around 15 members against small corporations and alliances. We'll start taking most contracts at 25 members, and expand up to 40 members maximum. We want to keep the corp large enough to be effective, but small enough as to keep a tight-knit group of players.

• You mentioned you'd be shooting pirates... Any particular reason, considering your backgrounds?

Aha, yeah, we know how pirates operate, and they flash red in the overview. We're going to be weapons free anyways, but we'd prefer to shoot reds than neutrals, purely for sec status. And pirates bring more fun to the party, if we can learn to combat pirates, which are a bit more unpredictable than most corps I've seen, then we should be fine with alot of wardecs we'll be doing.

It'd also be fun to shoot some old corp-mates :D

• Have you got any ground rules to becoming a Sunset Joker?

Well we'd like to keep things professional. We want members to have at least 5 million Skill Points, and that would need to be mostly in combat skills and be able to fly something like a stealth bomber or an interceptor. We're mostly looking for older players, people who can bring some real punch to a party.

We're definately advocating a professional attitude. We don't want any smack talk from our side of the fence. If someone is giving us lip in local, we find it better to just not respond. After all, anyone is a potential client. If we act in a professional manner, stay courteous and don't get angry then people will see it and appreciate it.

Currently we want pilots who can fly a Recons, HACs, BCs and BSes, but by all means drop us an application no matter what you can fly and we'll see if we have space for you. All pilots must be self sufficient, as we have no corp fund at the moment, nor an industry alt corp ;)

Age limit is 16+

If you're interested check out our recruitment thread - http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1336398

Join "Sunset Public" chat in EVE-Online or EVE-Mail "Romeo Blakstorm" or "Noir Avlaa"

• Ok, thank you for the interview, Noir, and I wish you all the best in your mercenary endeavours!

Thanks for the interview. :)

Teaching the Art of War

I had an idea a little while ago. OUCH teaches nullsec survival... what do people think of the Art of War Alliance teaching noob/carebear/industrial corps how to engage in operations during war?

Let me know your thoughts on such a thing, as I'm seeking 'market feedback'.

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.