Umm, Ok?

I got on Eve today after sleeping in late, talking to a friend on IM, getting sushi, and a very pleasant phone call. I relaxed and lounged and ate raw fish dipped is soy sauce and wasabi and I never once thought “fuck me we are down to one system!”. It just never crossed my mind. You see even though I FC for Amarr from time to time and I do feel a sense of pride and loyalty to my faction and the many friends I have made here I just can't be bothered to care about system sov.

Call it apathy if you want. It's just not something that I, or most of Amarr people I know care to much about. There was no huge cry when the Minmatar started taking all the systems. No Call to Arms to save them. If fact we used a few days after our cash out and the subsequent Minmatar plexing push to take a much needed break. I think many in the Minmatar Militia can sympathize with me here.

There was heated fights over Kamela then Kourm. After Amarr took Kourm most of the fights stayed there as the Minmatar pushed it to keep us out of Huola. This is the system occupancy fights that mattered. Once Fate and Moar Tears left FW we chose not to defend Kamela since we lived elsewhere. If you are keeping score at home there are 70 systems in the Amarr/Minmatar war zone and the fighting happened in two.

Many people have suggested that we should spread out. Put bases everywhere and plex for system control from them. It is a sound tactic. But why them were most the Amarr and the Minmatar in my timezone based in the same area? Because we wanted to fight not plex! I can not stress this enough. We live where we live for ease of access to fights. That applies to both the Amarr and the Minmatar.

After my sushi and pleasant phone call I looked at twitter to see Poetic felt the need to blog again. He seems very keen on getting a medal from CCP for controlling all the systems. Kudos to him and the Minmatar if they get a medal I'm sure many people will proudly wear it and many blogs will be written. What I don't understand is this.

“Last week I was of the mind that this medal (if we get one) will be a tad undervalued due to the remaining Amarr rolling over, giving up. But this week, I've come around to a different view of the situation. Fuck the Amarr. Even without Fweddit and Moar Tears and Lost Obsession, they still have more than enough pilots that they could have held one or two systems (nothing is a certainty, but they would have made it exceptionally difficult at the very least.) If the Amarr want to roll over like submissive dogs, then that is their choice. I'm sure there'll be the "we gave it to you" propaganda from the Amarr, but since they didn't prove they could keep total system dominance from us, their complaints are a moot and indefensible point.”

So by continuing to say what most of us have said for the last three months will be propaganda? Since when were we out to prove anything in the realm of system control? I just don't understand where this is coming from Poetic. Every Amarr I know has said for a very, very long time they can't be bothered to defensively plex. Why do you think Fate left? Why do you think so many Amarr moved to Egg? It's because we don't enjoy plexing! We want to use our time in Eve to do things we enjoy.

I think most have made it clear they consider the PVP aspect of Faction War to be the determining factor in winning or loosing. System control is mostly a PVE experience. Again two systems heavily fought over. If you see me or my fleets in Sathogas it won't be to help save it. It will be looking for a fight while the Minmatar try to take it.

 

Not PVE Blog

Is anyone else sick of the PVE talk? Forums, blogs, and local is filled with it. I'm all for the chest beating when you win a nice fight with internet spaceships. If LNA beats me down I may not enjoy the taunting and obligatory blogs that accompany it but I know the next time there is a good chance myself or my friends in Amarr can do the same. This is what should matter in Faction War. PVE should be a means to an end, a way to support the war effort. We are not miners, we are not incursion runners, we are combat pilots for fucks sake. Lets act like it!

After the recent loss of many of our friends I.Law took some time to relocate our dispersed assets back to our home base. We resumed formal corp fleets Tuesday night. They have been somewhat disappointing. I was expecting Minmatar everywhere. EM and their neutral support has been south of Dal for the first time in a long time. LNA members have been blogging about wanting to fight and in Poetics case being a down right jackass. In reality it has been rather slow.

For those of you that may read this but have not flown in my fleets I do have a few rules. I ask any links with nudity or vulgarities are labeled as such. I also ask that people lay off the sexual insults regarding our Minmatar friends. While I am no prude I want everyone to be able to enjoy themselves. Normal smack and is more than welcome of course and is even encouraged!

This was why I was so disappointed in Poetic's recent blog and corresponding Eve Forums post. We are all just people who fly internet spaceships. Why can't he insult people without focusing on their sex? Why was that even necessary? Was it to piss I.Law off? Did he think that would make us undock in battleships and sit on the Huola gate waiting to get our revenge? Poetic's display of sexism was truly pointless. He should be ashamed of himself.

Since resuming fleeting activity we have seen two things. The first and most annoying to me is stabbed and even cloaky MWD trick frigs. Dozens of them. Very annoying to hear your inty pilot call point then watch as your prey warps away.

The second is over shipping. Last night I showed my fleet to the Minmatar. Let them get a real nice look and then hung around waiting for a response. I always try to mix things up. Some nights I will try to hide part of my force to get that upper hand. other times, like last night I just lay all my cards on the table and see what comes. As I watched the Minmatar form up and head out things looked good. We wanted a fight, they were undocking so I could only assume they were looking to brawl also! Happy times all around.

We were in Shield BC with fast tackle. The Minmatar were bringing the same. Then came the Battleship. Scorch Mega Pulse or maybe even beams were not something I was looking to fight. We were pretty evenly matched till that point. Unfortunately its tank and damage projection was more than I wanted to deal with. Instead of getting a nice brawl with the Minmatar I took my fleet elsewhere.

I can't really fault the Minmatar for bringing what they did. Everyone wants to win. But if you do want the fight, and you know what the enemy has, and you have no way of evading their eyes, bring a fight they will take. I am known as a fairly conservative FC. I don't “leeroy” my fleets all that often. I like to know what I'm fighting and I like to know we have a chance to win. Ships are expensive.

Thank F&@#ing God

Thank god that's over with. I can't tell you how much I wanted to just cash out and stop caring about plexing. To be honest with you I never really cared about what level we were at or what percent of the war zone we controlled. What I did care about was getting my Corp mates and people who I fly with some isk in their bank accounts. In my humble opinion CCP really fucked up FW with Inferno. They tried to introduce some grand occupancy plans where system ownership mattered. What they got was a massive influx of LP farming alts and still the same two or three systems being fought over.

I fully expect the Minmatar to take back most of the systems and hit T5 very quickly. Not because the Amarr Militia can't stop them. We could put up one hell of a fight. I expect this to happen because the Amarr combat pilots have better things to do than defensively plex a system 15 jumps away in Metro. There is just no incentive to do it. The Minmatar Militia have the easiest time getting to T5. They have an entire region of space, something around 40ish systems that are almost inaccessible or so inconvenient to get to its not worth the time or effort to go plex, offensively or defensively(except for AFK plexers as no one goes to these systems and its safe).

So I have to ask, why the hell are there so many systems? Why, when the two Militia's live mostly within four jumps of each other are we forced to try and control 70 systems? If that number was brought down to 30 systems total and the map was made remotely fair I think we would see a increase in fighting over systems and PVP in general. This would also deter AFK frigate alt plexing. Concentrate the people you have in FW. Make every system mean something. Honestly, when was the last time you were in Eytjangard?

I fully expect the troll blogs to start up about how Amarr failed to get T5 and fell from T4 so quickly. Things like "Even with a null sec blog Amarr suck" will be tossed around I'm sure. That's ok. The Amarr Pilots knew what they were up against. A astounding number of afk plexers, a map that's so messed up Patton himself wouldn't try to invade, and a hole so deep and dark light can't escape. Amarr created a strategy, implemented it, and accomplished their goal of a lucrative cash out. There was a lot of talk about waiting to hit T5 or just cash out at T4. I was in favor of T4. A man can only bash his head against his computer desk so many times while orbiting a button before brain damage becomes a real possibility.

Once this is all over, and Amarr pilots take a much needed break from plexing, we can get back to what FW is supposed to be about. Running Missions on our Minmatar Alt's and getting space rich!

In Love and War

I had thought to write this before the recent flurry of blogs and forums post but Susan's most recent tirade finally got me to put pen to paper(or fingers to keys as it where). Susan Black recently wrote "While I never, ever intend or strive to single out people for personal attacks that go outside the bounds of game-play, some of what I say is taken very personally.". What Susan may fail to understand is that we invest large amounts of time into Eve and singling people out in game is almost the same as a personal attack against them. Most people don't respond too well when you write a poem implying that they are a witch.

If you were to take a little time and go though her old blog posts you would see she spends a lot of time and effort singling people and corporations out. She repetitively insulted Individuals,

"If you want something different --something less, where GMs try to make things a little less hard, and a little more fair, then I suggest you go back to playing WOW.".

"In the midst of all this cowardice, the Amarr have attemted to paint a picture to the rest of EVE of an elite, underdog Amarrian force, overpowered by the tyrranical regime of Minmatar bullies. In a post truely made up of "lies and tears" on Sovereignty Wars, Amarr pilot Almity attempts to portray his corporation as an elite small group depending on the advanced tactics of 'guerrilla' warfare."

Corporations,

"This was seen this weekend when the Amarr (specifically Smurfsbrigade) abandoned their ships in a station and ran home in pods ",

"Some of the arguments they gave were uncannily close to what I’ve heard I.LAW members say in the past"

"As far as his Fwedditer Interviewees go, someone's been drinking the Amarrian Bitter-Vet Kool Aid. I'm kinda disappointed."

"Even though many considered this a surrender by Wolfsbrigade"

And the entire Amarr Militia,

"Amarrian ‘vet’s’ are whining about “why I hate Faction War”

"Honestly, I used to feel kind of embarrassed by the Amarr, and the picture of incompetence they were painting to the rest of the EVE community."

"The Last few months have been very eye opening, as Amarr Militia veterens who were once thought to be hardened warriors have been reduced to the ranks of whining, sniveling juveniles. In an uprecedented show of tears--rivaling even those of the ongoing Hulkageddon--the Amarr have literally bathed the streets of their abandoned home systems with a salty flood of incompetence."


She continues on by saying "I sometimes wonder if these people—these Amarr, (I realize that often a very few tend to loudly contribute to the overall perception of their Faction) will ever realize that their personal attacks, their local spamming and threats have little effect. I wonder when people will realize that entire blog posts ranting about how I am a liar and should ‘suck it’ just makes the writer thereof look petty and immature, and doesn’t really inspire remorse on my part, or even much of a thought beyond what I write here.".

If someone looks petty and immature it is you Ms. Back. Almost every blog or forum post is in response to a specific attack from you. People have every right, and will exercise that right, to respond to the vile and insulting things you say.  I for one will not turn another cheek when you insult my friends as you so frequently do. I will blog and post and rebut what you say. This is how things are done.

I do find it funny how any response to Susan is labeled as "crying", when any Amarr pilot posts on the forums they are "cry babies". Susan spends the vast majority of her time blogging about how the Amarr suck. Should she be surprised when she get a negative response to that?

"I grow incessantly frustrated and disgusted with the growing argumentum ad hominem stance of people like Shalee Lianne, and others"

Shalee's recent blog post was in defense of her friends and her Militia. She did not say, or call Susan anything that Susan did not say first. Shalee and her blog were attacked by Hans(CSM) for doing so. When did it become ok to lob insults but not to rebut them? Does Susan expect a free pass? Should the entire Amarr FW community let her spout her hate speech and toss insults at anyone who dares to speak up? Fuck no. It infuriates me that Susan is playing some sort of victim here. Being the aggressor the vast majority of the time she should expect a healthy dose hate filled back lash.

"Contrary to what anyone in Faction War might tell you, it’s not just about getting good fights. There are extreme elements of camaraderie and loyalty that you will not find anywhere else in this game."

Susan and I agree on this point. While I do enjoy the good fights I'm here in FW because of the friends I've made. I don't like it when my friends are insulted and demeaned. I can only assume Susan Black feels the same way. I hope Shalee will use her extremely popular blog to keep countering Susan Black's hate filled rants. She has every right to post op-ed's in defense of her friends and Amarr, it is her blog after all(looking at you Hans).

Almity

After Action

Here in I.law we have been doing some thing we call an After Action Report for a while now(Shalee's idea!) I figured I would share last nights report with you all. Enjoy!



We formed up around 0100 eve time In Egg and rolled out Nano BC down. The Minmatar had a gate camp on Kourm Kam so we went the back way to pick the rest of the fleet up in Kam. Once we were assembled we went to fight the camp but Fweddit fleet showed up at the same time and the minnies ran. A Neut Pirate fleet showed up to help the Minnies but they would not come close enough to gate to fight. Got a few kills then moved on.

http://ilaw.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13910006
http://ilaw.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13909720

We roamed up Sosala way and got a few kills.

http://ilaw.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13909842
http://ilaw.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13910030

Arayar was vulnerable and intel told us they were trying to form a fleet to hit the bunker. We went up to see what they had and the fun began. We warped onto the ihub and spread points getting a few nice kills including a Damnation. A few more warped in(fail intel on their part) and we killed them. After coming in and out of system they hit the bunker again. I had us warp back in but they ran as we jumped in.

After we landed at the bunker someone opened a Major plex and I had us warp to it. The Minmatar landed a few min later and we slaughtered them. We lost a falcon and a dessy. Falcon was my fault as I thought they would try and go into the plex and not die horribly on the acceleration gate.

We decided to run a Minor plex and camp a gate hoping they would come back. After the Minor plex failed to decontest the system and the enemy fleet was reported in Oyo I decided it was time for us to intercept. Before we could go far a scout reported Baha off station possibly afk in a Drake. He was and he died in a fire! His pod must have been afk also.

http://ilaw.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13910412

Before we even left local the Minmatar came back to Arayar. After debating for a few sec if we wanted to jump our nano fleet into an armor Cane fleet we said fuck it and went in. Drakes broke cloak before the lighter stuff and falcons warped off to come back at range. Canes melted in seconds once the rest of the fleet decloaked. We killed four Canes, a ruppy, BB, Arbi, and some smaller stuff while losing 4 frigs.

Battle report for that whole thing. Almost 3bil killed and 300mil in losses.

http://ilaw.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13909964

We took a break then headed back to Kourm area. Got intel of a Muninn camping Kam gate at range so we sent 2manno to get a tackle. He did and it died.

http://ilaw.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13910817

Since the Minmatar packed it in the for the night we went on a roam up Metro and we were rewarded by a pirate Tengu jumping into our fleet.

http://ilaw.killmail.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=13910920

We went all the way up to Resbroko and got a few kills. A Scorp jumped into us and we went GCC. I am so used to flying with people who know the rules of GCC I kind of forgot to tell the newer people. Few people died to gate guns but nothing expensive.

http://ilaw.killmail.org/?a=kill_related&kll_id=13911169

We called it a night soon after. Was a great fleet overall with some great kills. Our inty pilots were kicking ass and we got a few very nice pods. Good job all!

What's in a Name?

It's was not an easy choice. Even in a game your grow attached to things. I have spent the last two years in the Amarr Militia and it grew on me. I can't help but feel a little sad we may soon be parting ways. It is almost like an era is coming to a close.

Since before Inferno launched a small group has been very vocal about the repercussions of the changes made to Faction War(a few very well known and respected Minmatar included). Many of these people were shouted down and said their doom and gloom predictions would never come to pass. Some predictions have not came to pass. The docking issue is a pain in my ass as an FC but we are able to work around it. The incentive to join the winning side has pulled many more pilots into the Minmatar fold but we still win many of our fights.

While the Amarr has gotten combat pilots, many of them seasoned veterans the Minmatar have pulled a 1,700 pilot lead. They have gotten many PvE pilots, enough to pressure every Amarr held system. The doom and gloom people predicted this. The winning side will keep winning. The availability of easy Isk ensures this. Farming Minmatar LP with an afk alt in a T1 frigate is safer than mining in high sec.

At the start of Inferno I honestly didn't give this too much thought. I figured it would be more for us to kill. After a few weeks the gravity of the situation started to sink in. With so many new and dedicated Minmatar plexers any system we flipped was just a pile of isk for them to flip back. Meanwhile the Amarr Militia had little reason to defensively plex. Hours spent in a system to try and hold it would just increase the Minmatar wallet size.

As the weeks after Inferno's launch turn to months something must be done. A war is expensive. When I ask for a certain ship type for a fleet and people are no longer able to afford those ships or even the potential loss of that ship something is wrong with the system. As the Minmatar printed their own isk for almost a month riding the coat tails of the Goons then control enough systems to coordinate an effort to raise their control level to three or four as they please the Amarr struggle to make any isk at all.

Missions are not viable. LP made from kills and plexing won't pay for much at level one. Capturing systems to see them flipped back a week later and add 20 billion Isk into the enemy’s wallet is not a solution. How do we keep fighting? How can we make the Isk we need to pay for ships and fittings? We turn Caldari!

Susan Black blogged about it, she was wrong, but what else is new? Shalee posted on SovWars the real version of what we plan. We will join the Caldari Militia but stay and fight the Minmatar. We will get Cladari LP for killing Minmatar and capturing their plexes. The Cladari love to plex(god knows why) and have enough systems to reach a higher war zone control level. Why not play the system? Nothing changes but our Militia chat, current war targets will remain war targets. Where we live and fly and fight stays the same. It's a win win for us.

I feel like we were pushed to this point by broken game mechanics. We don't want to leave Amarr Militia. We want to stay and fight but with almost no Isk coming in how long could we pay for our war? There are times in life where you must make difficult choices. Risk losing the war to keep flying under a certain banner or change in name only to keep up the fight?

Been a Long Time

Its been a very, very long time my friends. As I sat on the undock of Kourm V and camped LNA in one of their home stations I could not help but smile. Will this be a sign of this to come? Was it a one night deal? I don't know but it was sure fun as hell!

The night started out asking around seeing who was doing what. Strayshot was leading a plexing fleet so I decided to put up a roam. Nano Battle Cruisers down was the order of the day. Most nights we get around 10-15 pilots. We do our “elite gorilla pvp” and roam and have fun. I was surprised to see the numbers I was getting. More and more kept joining and soon we were pushing 30 people in fleet.

We roamed around looking for anything to kill. It seemed every Minmatar we could find was running for their life to avoid our BC blob of doom. Hmm, so that’s how it feels to be on the other side of the blob. After some looking we found a Goon Swarm fleet in Egg but since we had just taken a little break it was taking some time to rally the troops again.

The Minmatar also found the Goons and were headed their way. We decided to let them start hacking into each other then crash both their parties. The goons were in RR Domies with a few other BS/BC. The minnies where in mixed BC mostly. Once the Minnies jumped into Amamake we jumped Auga and headed to the gate.

Once the fight was confirmed top belt Amamake I jumped us in and we warped to 0 of the belt. The Minmatar had been kiting the RR Domies and were about 50k off us when we landed. I called for the fleet to burn into them and spread points. I was rather surprised to see a Vaga burn right into my fleet. It died in a fire. Ok we will take that. We pointed everything we could and Fweddit's Arty Thrasher fleet landed on field. Lots of stuff died and we took no losses. Amarr Victor! Er Big Plays!!!

After waiting out our GCC timer we roamed around looking for anything to kill. We got word LNA had a gate camp in Kourm on Kamela gate so we decided to break that up. They ran. Our scouts informed me they warped to Kourm V. I sent Kato in a cane to see if they wanted to play but they would not red box him. Once the fleet landed they docked.

“So guys want to camp them in?” “Hell yes!” was the response from the fleet. Camping LNA in their home station on a Saturday night. If you told me a month ago we would be doing that I would have never believed it. Local was full of scams and Susan Black quotes. It was good. We decided to call it a night and headed to Kam to dock up.

LNA started to come back out but we were losing a lot of people. Sorry LNA I'm not that dumb. They had seen our fleet comp for over an hour and we were losing a lot of people. If they wanted to fight now its because they had an ace up their sleeve.

I enjoyed last night. We only got one real fight and it was pretty one sided but that's not the point. Amarr worked together very well. Many different corps and Alliances working together in the proper ships to control the entire war zone. I hope we can do this again from time to time.