A Common Question then Things

One of our newer members asked a very telling question yesterday on comms. “Do the minmatar always run from a fair fight?” he wondered. The answer came back sounding like a group of Gregorian monks chanting in perfect harmony. “Yes”.

Sure, there are a select few Minmatar who are down for a 1v1 or 2v2 but most scamper away at the first sign of someone on their plex gate. I wish I could record the nightly sounds of disappointment on comms after some Minmatar destroyer ran from a rifter. I wish I could record the confusion in peoples voice when they explain how they wanted to “suicide” into a 3v1 fight to see if they could get a kill, maybe two, but instead the Minmatar warped out and left system. I would take these recordings and force the talking heads on the Minmatar side to listen to them every time they blogged or tweeted.

Now that the pendulum that is war zone control has swung back to the Minmatar side it's even worse. Last night, and I'm not exaggerating here, five Minmatar in frigs, dessys, and one cruiser ran from one destroyer. As we did a little corp dessy roam we got smack talked in local for um, pvping....

Phoenix Raid Yaken > getting a shit ton of LP. how are your LP gain going?

Kimsemus > disregard LP, acquire kills

Phoenix Raid Yaken > I value money

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Now that I've gotten that out of my system lets get down to business. I have the pleasure of FCing probably one of the best low sec corps in Eve. Over the last year and a half we have gotten pilots from other Amarr corps, null sec alliances, and noobs looking for their first kills. Many of these pilots have stuck around and blessed us with their experience and superb piloting. We use forums and in game channels to find pilots but we also use something else, something special. Combat has to be one of the best recruiting tools in eve. We have had dozens of pilots look into joining us after we killed them.

We have never been elitists assholes. After we kill someone, if they convo me I'll take it and talk to them and offer GF's. A lot of times, if they are new they have questions about what happened I will answer them honestly or help them with fitting. Sometimes they will ask if we are recruiting and I will point them at Shalee. Sure, I could troll them and lie about what happened but whats the point in that? Even if they are not interested in joining us I would rather have them not get discouraged and quit eve, its just more pvp for us if they come back. Hopefully with friends.

The pay off is fights like this http://inexile.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=16833030 . We were out on our roam last night and jumped into Ardar. The Minmatar were set up in a medium plex with a Pilgrim and Falcon presumably set up at range. With them having three cruisers, two recons and five dessy and down ships I expected a hard fight. It was not. But let me tell you what should have happened first.

1. Falcon jam put jams on all the thrashers. Over heated even off race jams will land on a lot of them
2. The Pilgrim neuts out both Coercers
3. Both Thorax’s and the Rupture were dual web fit. Dessy killers. Follow primary and kill
4. Win the fight

None of that happened. Instead they spread damage and stacked jams. What we did was very crafty and maybe a even a little underhanded. I will do my best to explain it but it may take up a lot of your time.

1. Spread points
2. Follow Primary
3. Kill

If your paying attention you can see how this all comes together(if you disregard my opening rant). We do things as a corp. We get new people in and help them out. They learn to solo and to fleet or hone their already excellent skills. We kill shit.

Finally a hearty congratulations to last weekends Corporation Tournament winners

1v1

First Place-V1triol

Second Place-Baialein

Third Place-Katerina

FFA winner Durr(really? Who puts a neut on THAT??????)

How not to do it

Until recently the FW blogosphere was rather quiet. I had not posted in almost two months, other blogs I follow were also quiet. I'm sure the holidays and vacations kept some away, but I believe the silence had more to do with a relatively quiet warzone.

After the Retribution changes and new and exciting fights that were had there was just not much to talk about. Sure Amarr took a bunch of systems and knocked the Minmatar down to tier 1 for awhile but besides that there was nothing to report. My corp and our allies settled into some nice small gang/solo pvp. I stopped running larger more focused fleets due to lack of targets.

We found ourselves shipping and fleeting up as needed. Things like Eve Uni or some other larger fleets strolling into our area would let us dust off our armor cruisers/BC/BS fleets and have some proper organized fun. With UK folding and LNA no longer the power house they once were our focus had to change to keep the fun rolling in.

Having the ability to put out a ping and get 50+ in fleet at a moments notice is a great thing, as long as you have something to fight. The sad thing is the US TZ Minmatar do have the numbers they need to counter us. They just don't have the organization needed.

Just the other night we ran into a 50 man fleet shooting an I Hub. There was no LNA and only a few DL in local helping. I believe the problem boils down to elitists within the Minmatar Militia. When UK needed numbers they reached out to general Militia and neutral friends. Once in a great while LNA would even come help. Sadly those days appear to be gone.

LNA has treated the rest of their own Militia so poorly they have no one to turn to. When Amarr pushed Dal, a system where dozens if not hundreds of Minmatar lived, LNA couldn't be bothered to lift a finger and try to stop us. The Euro and Russian time zone Minmatar fought tooth and nail but when they needed help their call went unanswered.

There has always been a fundamental difference between groups like LNA and my friends. We have never been elitist awoxers. Looking back at our little war zone Amarr has always been inclusive. Predator Elite, Eran Mintor, myself, and many other FC's ran open fleets. We included people in our fun. "All you can bring is a punisher? Ok get in it and undock"

The Amarr Militia has always been much more open and welcoming to new people. It has been one of our greatest strengths. We grow pilots. More importantly we make lasting friendships. If I have learned anything from watching groups like LNA  rise then fall is this; Eve is a game but it's the people around you who make it worth playing. Treat your militia friends well and with respect and more often then not they will return the favor.

Stop and Think

Last night I received an eve mail from a Minmatar FC that I respect more than a little. Earlier that night, after a little action it slowed down and I decided to watch some TV. When I hopped back on comms LNA had an RR AF fleet in Sis on the Egg gate and people wanted to fight them. I put a fleet up, asked for cruisers with webs, and because I have seen what RR AF's can do, some ECM. In a moments notice I had 25+ people in fleet. Since I was in Sis I warped to the gate, engaged the closest target and had the bulk of the fleet jump in. Points and webs were called, ships were jammed, stuff exploded. We looted the field and I stood the fleet down and went on my merry way.

I didn't think much of it until I got that mail. My Minmatar counterpart was not raging or chastising me about the fight, it was more of a reminder. If you always bring the hard counter people will avoid you. After fighting the Minmatar for such a very long time I know their habits as I'm sure they know mine. It's almost impossible to do anything in our little war zone without the other side knowing whats going on. I can clearly remember when I used to bring my fleets to Kourm area on a regular basis. At first i would sit around and see what came my way. Most times we died horribly as our opponents has time to see what we had, how we were fit, and bring the proper counter. The next stage was get in, get a kill or two maybe, and get gone before they could react. As I said before, if one the Minmatar saw me or one of mine they expected a gank and avoided us as they should till a proper fleet could form to counter, by then I would be gone.

Finally I just started avoiding the area unless I had a proper fleet with excellent intel. If I knew I could match numbers and ships we may have a go. If they couldn't match it was just us waving our e-penis around and some(mostly) good natured smack talk. Fighting LNA became more of a chore than enjoyment. The same people and the same ships in the same systems over and over. My corp and our group of friends started to do a lot more small gang stuff, random enemy's and random ships. I may go a few days at a time now without leading a large fleet from our home to spread havoc across the war zone and beyond. It seemed to me LNA was happy to do the same. Our war zone was split with Auga as the middle ground. From time to time they ventured our way or we went to them.

 A few months ago I took a destroyer fleet to Kourm looking for a fight. Once the Minmatar came out it was in a blob of SFI's that I wanted none of. A few people in fleet piped up in local and complained about bringing faction cruisers(with webs and tracking bonus no less) to kill a random mix of destroyers. One of the more vocal Minmatar(think blog here)informed us that this is not "pick and choose pvp" just because we are in destroyers does not mean they should oblige us and come fight in the same. We were on their turf and should expect to see such a reaction. I have thought about that from time to time. My response to their fleet in Sis last night was my own version of that.

I don't feel bad for bringing the appropriate fleet to counter the enemy. It's my understanding that I had a reputation for running away for a long time. I never saw it as running, more of me trying to be a smart FC. If I see a fight, and know we have no chance of winning why should I fight? Ships are not free, they take isk and time to replace. If I believe we have a chance at victory, or taking down as much as we will lose I take the fight no questions asked. I just want to be smart about it.

Learning to FC is one thing, earning peoples trust is another. I want pilots to think that when they fly with me, even though they may die, it will be worth it. In the end no one cares if they lost a ship as long as they had fun doing it. I told Shalee the other day nothing annoys me more than getting kited to death so when I solo I pick and chose my targets. I'll fight any AF or even a DD in my trusty thrasher and I'm ok with it if i lose. If I get caught by a 7k a sec hookbill that just orbits me at 25k for two min while he chips away at me i wont be happy on my pod ride home.

At the end of the day we all just want a good fight.

Rise of the Cruiser

With Retribution came ship re balancing. The biggest benefactor to these changes were by far the T1 cruisers. Long before the expansion launched our theory crafters buckled down and spent some time exploring the possibilities these changes would bring. The day Retribution went live we had ships in place and a fleet doctrine ready for trial by fire. That fire came quickly. The SFI blob was in for a surprise.

The first test of our new doctrine did not come in a medium plex as I expected it to but on a gate. Our cruiser fleet with T1 logi met a Minmatar fleet in Huola. The time spent in EFT was well rewarded. Even though the Minmatar brought Guardians we quickly dispatched them. They tried again with more guardians, cruisers, ahacs, BC, and even BS but our fleet held. Both fights we took little to no losses.

We then punished UK for their lack of foresight. More brawls where our cruisers and T1 logi decimated the field.

I knew that the Minmatar would quickly catch on and around day three they did. At the same time UK and LNA overcame some of their differences and decided that we were a bigger threat. It just so happens that took place in Isbrabata, one of the new gate systems. It's nice to see they really did make a big difference. The Minmatar pinched our fleet on a gate and we had to disengage, very well played by them.

We have had many cruiser fights in the last week or so. We have won many but also lost a few as the Minmatar brought more numbers, coordination, and caught up on fits. Even though these fights are T1 hull cruisers there is much more depth and strategy to them then most would realize. What happened last night in Kourm should have made it clear to anyone who was on field that Faction War plex fighting has changed forever.

The first engagement of the night was in Ezzara. We were set up in a medium plex. LNA/UK/Defiant Legacy and to come into us. Primaries were called and ships started dieing. Both sides had substantial amount of Logi. The Minmatar had 7 and Amarr had 6, all T1. We had the advantage of being set up with a few Black Birds at range and a few more tricks up our sleeves so we won the fight pretty handily. 27 ships destroyed to 9 lost. From there we went back to Kamela and got ready for round two.

A medium plex opened in Kourm and both sides made their moves for it. What followed was the longest fight I have ever been part of. Almost an hour and a half of constant fighting. The Minmatar forces did not skimp on the Logi. I believe they had brought 10 and we had also brought our fair share. After both sides took some initial losses Logi chains were set up and reps were almost impossible to break for both sides.

I found myself calling rifters primary just to have something to kill. Both sides tried to Alpha ships before reps could land. Some times it work but mostly it didn’t. Both sides used damps to slow the lock time of logi but with so much on field it was damn near impossible to damp it all out. The Minmatar even brought in a ECM burst super tanked vexor to break our Logi's lock. To top this all off there was a group of awoxing/pirating caldari militia killing both sides as they tried to reship. They got rewarded by a War Dec from Fweddit and I.Law for their actions.

The point finally came where I could no longer break any targets. I asked if we had anything else, anyone else to bring on field but the answer was no. I made the choice to break off and regroup. Only one or two people were pointed and left to die.

After the fight many of us sat around on comms and chatted about what will probably go down in Amarr/Minmatar history books as one of the greatest fights ever. Ideas were tossed around about what we could have done and what we can do next time. I mostly sat there with a smile on my face listening to the chatter. It's not often you get to FC a fight like that.

A Birthday Party and Bitter Vet's

I.Laws one year anniversary is today. The Corporation itself has been around longer but a year ago it became the home of Shalee, Ryven, Kato, Phione, Czech, Snape, Joni, and myself. Since then many others have joined and left us. It's been a hell of a year. We survived our “CEO's” bio mass, a massive corp theft, and a few long distance moves. While there were whisperings and serious talk about leaving the Amarr Militia we stuck to our guns and saw it through. I'm very proud of what we have accomplished in the last year and look forward to the next! Thanks to all who helped make this thing a success.

I make mistakes every day. In real life and in Eve. The important thing is I also learn from them. As our large fleet activity went down and small gang stuff went up I started watching the kill board like a hawk. I've always been a numbers guy even though I hate math. I liked to look at the fits and the damage taken and all the other little things. Also, it's fun to see how much isk you cost the other guys after a fight. As time went on I started looking at that corporation efficiency number a little too much. After one of our newer members lost a few surprisingly expensive frigates I almost went off the deep end.

I've always looked at our kill board as the worlds first look into our corporation. When I want information on a pilot or their corporation I look them up on Eve Kill or Battle clinic. While this won't give you their complete biography reading the dust cover is better than nothing. So when I see “wtf” losses on our own kill board I cringe a little. I put the fleets I FC under the same scrutiny. Even more so if I'm honest. This is where the bitter vet syndrome starts to kick in.

I started taking losses to personal. I blamed myself for not getting my people fights. Everything that went wrong was my fault. Luckily I had Shalee to talk me off that ledge. For those of you that don't know her very well she is one of the kindest and sweetest persons you will ever meet. She also gives great advice and is willing to listen to me bitching about whatever. After I started getting a little burnt out she suggested I take a break from FCing and I did. When something popped up I would go for it but besides that I relaxed and did solo and small gang stuff. I forgot how much fun that could be.

After some time just blowing some stuff up without all the frustrations and stress that can come from FCing it felt good to get back into the chair. This past weekend has been a blast. It culminated in a six hour fleet yesterday that started on our home station in Egg. About twenty war targets must have thought they were being cleaver camping our undock in a mix of BC down ships. Fweddit had just put a fleet up and a few of us I.Law guys decided to join in the fun. RTSAvalanche of TMFED was already outside poking them with a stick when we undocked a few armor BC. I told my pilots to hold aggression until the Vagabond red boxed. He did and I called for the fleet to undock. Many of the war targets were spread out and out of point range but we grabbed what we could. It was a beautiful site watching almost thirty purple boxes explode from inside the station.

Since we were already in a fleet and in a killing mood we went on a nice roam. We went up metro and got a few kills then came back down once we got word that LNA was messing around in Kourm. A Caldari fleet was asking for help but they welped into the Minmatar before we were ready. We picked off a Cyclone at the sun then set up in our cruisers in a Major plex. Even though we out numbered them by about ten they had two falcons and were in BC's compared to our cruiser fleet. Setting up in a plex was to negate the Falcon issue. After a while they didn't come to fight so we set up on the Houla gate. After a small wait they came into us in mostly armor BC's. We had a nice little brawl and we held the field for once. It felt good calling a larger fight again. I really do get a feeling of satisfaction watching(mostly) focused fire and a primary dropping like it should.

I told Shalee one night, during one of my “bitter vet” conversations that leading a fleet can have dizzying high's and terrible lows. You really do feel responsible for the outcome either way. I can't tell you how good it felt, how my hands shook from adrenaline when I baited out a minmatar carrier and killed it. I also find it hard to explain why I almost fall into a depression when I make mistakes and get us slaughtered. What I do know is that I need to find a balance. I can never be a“didn't want that fleet anyways” kind of person. There has to be a happy medium. Care enough to get people the fights and kills they want while not suiciding them while not emo rage logging every time I lose a fight.

Why Do I Even Bother?

For months on end, night after night, my fleets clashed with the Minmatar in the triangle of doom (maybe death is better than doom?) Epic battles from thrasher free for alls in minor plexes to the only capital fight in US TZ for the last eight months.

After Fweddit and MT left for Caldari space I changed how and what we flew. Mostly smaller faster ships. We roamed the war zone looking for little fights, brawls, and ganks. You may be surprised in how little we found.

After a few roams all over the war zone, some nights going as much as sixty jumps without killing more than a rifter I was bored, burnt out, and hating Eve. I got this way a few times. I wanted a fucking fight! But since LNA is lazy and all they do is sit in triangle of death night after night you have to go into them. Below Im going to detail what happens when I take a fleet to kourn area.

Step 1 Form fleet, get 8-12 pilots.

Step 2 Pick ships.

Step 3 Shake your head as half the people can't fly what you need.

Step 4 Roam down to Kourm area and bait the gate camp.

Step 5 Kill a few things. 

Step 6 Either hang around waiting for LNA to forum up or leave.

Step 7 Fight LNA (Late Night Alliance) blob and die in a fire.

This is how it goes almost every time. I guess I have a reputation for running away now as Susan Black and Gritz like to point out. But what are my options? I can't get my guys a fight anywhere but around Kourm. When I do chose to fight in Kourm I'm almost always outnumbered and out shipped. The Minmatar base there. They see what we have and ship accordingly.

We can either take a fight we have little chance of winning or leave. Either option is not very appealing to me. Last night I asked for drakes and canes. I got about half the fleet into the right ships. The rest was kitchen sink. When LNA finally came to fight they had almost all BC's and matched my numbers. They also had links and we did not. I ended up welping half of my fleet and we got three kills.

Later on LNA did an amazing thing and came over to Sisiede. We had been playing around with a few neutrals and killed their Vagabond. A war target Vexor landed at the sun and we killed it but not before one of our BC's was pointed and local spiked by around ten war targets. Some pleasant local banter followed where I was told I always run away. I mentioned the numbers and reshipping issues. To that Susan Black told me to get more people.

Believe me we have been trying. We are getting new pilots. Unfortunately many just don't have the Skill Points to fly what I need to effectivly fight the Minmatar head to head. There are just not that many pilots with the skills and wallets needed that want to join Amarr.

Every night I ask how many pilots are online in both Militias. The average is about sixty Amarr and 240 Minmatar. Last night I.law had 9 pilots online. The entire Amarr Militia had 38! We had about a quarter of the entire militia online in our Corp. Add in alts and Afk people and it was probably closer to half.

So why do I bother getting fleets up? I know we won't find much on a two hour roam. I know I can't fight in Kourm area effectively. We get more kills hunting in small packs in the Dal cluster. What is the point of even trying to do an organized fleet?

To answer my own question, because I need to. Because people like fleets. Because when people apply to I.law they want to roam and fight and have fun. Because there is always that off chance we will run into another roaming gang and have a good fight.

I don't give two shits what the Minmatar think. They can tell everyone I run away. They can think we are not trying to grow our corp. They can think we are scared to fight them. They can talk shit all they want. The simple fact is when we had even numbers we dominated the Minmatar fight after fight.

To the best of my knowledge I am the only US TZ Amarr FC left that runs even semi open fleets. There is just no one left. There is no back up I can call. There are no other corps or FC's I can ask for back up. When you see me and my fleet out and about that is it. That's everything I can get. Every single person I can beg, borrow, or steal to toss in a ship.

I may be a shit FC. I may welp my fleets almost every time I try to pick a fight in Kourm these days. I may end up burning out completely and spend all my time mining. I just want to have fun. I just want the pilots who risk their ships with me almost every night to enjoy the game. That is why I bother.

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.