Rambling and Cruisers

I have returned to the land of EVE online after a three month hiatus.  As I mentioned in a prior post my return to Eve and FCing is going to focus on PVP activities and not system control type things.  I have had some good fun in my short time back including a hilarious fight against an awoxing Caldari corp where we teamed up with Late Night Alliance,  a Minmatar group.

When you can cut out the bickering and squabbling over system control you tend to look upon your enemies in a better light.  You can give a GF in local,  win or lose, and really mean it.  That does not mean I'm going to suicide my people into a shitty situation just to get a brawl though,  I still have my standard of course :p.

I have been wanting to try some new things out for fleets.  Different doctrine ideas I have heard of or cooked up in my head.  Running armor cruiser fleets,  while extremely effective and cost efficient,  does tend to get boring.  But here I have a problem.  At one point I knew what most of my Alliance and allies could fly and what was available in their hangers.  Now it's more of a crap shoot.  I can tell people ahead of time to have xxx ships ready but It feels like a waste of isk and effort for them if they do get this specific ship with a specific fit then it sits for months before the opportunity to use it arises.  With many new pilots around,  many of them newer, it's almost impossible to get 10-20 people into specific fits or have the ships available for them to use.  If they can use it.

The other thing people want to do it get into something bigger than a cruiser from time to time.  Pre Inferno battle cruisers were the ships of choice.  Around the third of the cost of a Battleship they had the damage,  tank, utility,  and most importantly,  versatility.  If I was running a brawling armor fleet made of Harbingers,  Hurricanes,  and Brutix but all you had was a Drake?  Sure come along just warp in at range and start that missile spam!  The only reason people used a cruiser was because they were new and didn't have a BC yet.

I have gotten to use BC's a few times since my return and they are still a blast.  Even using T1 logi, BC's put out enough DPS and they get hit hard enough to make a fight interesting unless your bring way to much logi with you.  But then you're not even looking for a fight are you?

Today while browsing the Eve forums I noticed a post about PVP becoming too expensive and that is really where I got the motivation and idea to blog.  You can read the post,  it's mostly trolling the OP but what Eve online forums post isn't?  https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=280391&find=unread

Your back?  OK,  I'll continue.
When I first started flying full T2 fit Harbingers around two and a half years ago they cost about 60 million isk,  today they are approaching 100 million isk.  An Abaddon went from 250 million to 335 million.  That is quiet the increase if you ask me.  Is it an unsustainable amount of isk?  Well actually it is for most players.  Low sec has very limited isk making opportunities. Smaller corps and alliances don't have ship replacement programs.

We do have the income available to us through FW but how the system is currently set up you have to plex an insane amount to pay for a few BS loses if your side is down in T2 or lower.  If the PVP landscape was that of a few years ago where pirate and militia groups roamed low sec in battleships and battle cruisers I honestly don't think pilots could sustain the losses incurred without other forms of income.  I lost four Harbingers one weekend on the Huola Kourm gate pre Inferno.  They were good fights and not stupid losses,  fleets fights.  Today that would be 400 million isk.  That's a LOT of plexing most people just don't have the time for if they want to have any life and still do some pvp.

So today we run cruisers.  We have logi to minimize losses.  We scout better.  We don't blind jump that gate if we can avoid it.  While we desire to fly bigger ships more often the risk involved in doing so limits the opportunities I have to tell people to ship up.  FW and low sec in general has turned into the land of the cruiser and down and that kind of makes me sad.

Overdue Update

For those who don't know I've been on a pretty lengthy Eve break. The reasons behind my leave of absence are quite varied. With both of my parents being diagnosed with cancer within a month of each other(they are both on the mend now) I had some IRL srs things to deal with and stressing over internet space ships was not on my priority list.

In addition to that Amarr had finished a rather large war zone push. I ended up Fcing/planning/coordinating way more of that than I should have. Shalee asked me to help take one system in the back of Metro to keep the Minmatar from getting a medal and I agreed. Our offensive went so well we kept the ball rolling and with the Amarr Militia working like a well oiled machine(for once)we rolled on finishing up with the capture of Arzad.

Arzad was kind of the proverbial straw for me. I've said it a million times but I will say it again, I care not for war zone control. The weekend we took Arzad I woke up to find the offensive pretty much stalled. Iron Oxide was dug in hard and ripping the split attacking forces to pieces. I took over the Fweddit fleet and merged in a few other fleets to blob IO into docking up. The fleet swelled to over 100 people and at that point you are not FCing, you are babysitting. The combat was non existent. The Minmatar tried to take advantage of people not listening or paying attention. Getting ganks in new plexes before I could have the right number of people in the right ships in a plex.

There is no glory in blobbing a system. Many systems we took that way were hollow victories. Earlier in the year we fought over Dal for almost a month. That victory was sweet, but that was the exception. The majority of systems I have help take were either blob fest or “didn't want that system”.

So I took a break. I played Kerbal Space Command, Minecraft, Sins of a Solar Empire, and hell I even played Lemmings. Anything BUT Eve. I've enjoyed my time off only logging in to talk to people and load skills. I was still on comms talking to my friends and playing other games with them.

Today I bought the motorcycle I've been pondering on for almost a year. I have plans to ride down Highway One, see the Red Woods, maybe take a trip down to Yosemite. But as I told Shalee today, I may end up back in Eve before too long. When I got home I checked the forums and saw this http://i.imgur.com/KcFiDLG.jpg . I went from thinking about playing Eve to hating Eve again. It was like a light switch being flipped in my head.

(right here I wrote a rant about FW mechanics, how I can't be bothered caring. I cut it out because it put a sour taste in even my mouth)

If I do come back to Eve I never see myself leading 100 man fleets again. I don't see myself dropping dreads on the Huola gate. I think those days are behind me. I truly believe I have reached the top of my game as an FC. I was never a great FC, I was just good enough. People like Pinky and Rina made me better than I was. Maybe someday soon the Minmatar will get to bitch about an Almity fleet again, but there is a good chance its going to be a hell of a lot smaller in numbers and ship size!

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.