First Blood

The other night I was carebearing it up, when 2 neuts entered system.

A crusader was on scan, and I knew that the other guy was cloaked up. So I narrowed them down to a gate, and promptly warped to 20km off the gate.

Now, I know some of you are going to say "wtf, you had no idea what the cloakie ship was, why would you risk it and engage?!"

Well, I was feeling lucky, tbh, and wanted to take the chance.

So, when I landed in my vagabond, I started locking up the ceptor, and he got a warp disruptor on me.

Then a rook de-cloaks, and proceeds to jam me to hell. I watch my shields melt, slowly but surely...

Their DPS isn't that great, and they seem to be alone- local hasn't jumped yet. While I'm jammed, I realize I'm about to lose this vagabond...Which makes me a sad panda.

Suddenly, the rook misses a jam. Now, the rook doesn't have a a scram or a disruptor, so the only thing that is holding me here is the little ceptor. I start to lock the crusader, then I'm jammed again. Fuck.

At this point, my shields are sitting at about 15%, and the ceptor is orbiting me at about 2500m.

Then the rook misses another jam. I proceed to lock the ceptor...wow, the rook misses another jam, and I get a volly off with my auto-cannons. The ceptor goes pop! Hell yes.

So, feeling bold, I lock up the rook, who has now de-agressed, and is taking heavy shield damage. I continue to pound him, until he jumps in low armor.

Decided not to push my luck, I choose not to pursue, since I have no idea what is on the other side, or if re-enforcments are inbound.

Ceptor Kill

All in all, a pretty awesome first kill. Here's to many more to come.

I was particulary impressed with the ability of my vagabond to keep up a substantial speed tank, even though I was scrammed. Probably saved my ass there. And the damage to the ceptor from that close with my auto-cannons? OMG awesome.

Fly Bold.

o7

lolwut?

I've been flying my vagabond quite a lot recently. I think I'm in love. I have made enough isk by ratting in it to pay for another already. It is extremely efficient.

In terms of PvP, I've yet to get a kill in it. I have been in several engagements, and I have dis-engaged when the russians, members of Coven or LR, or random people try to blob me. It is a bit like stepping into "god-mode" when it comes to fast moving warfare.

Unless I make a mistake, or engage a Rapier or Loki or Hughinn, it seems that nothing can slow me down, hence catch me. I know it is cheap to simply orbit at 20-25km and do about 150-200 DPS...But I'm ok with it.

Vagabond - "Joker & The Thief"

1 Nano
2 TE's
2 Gyros
1 MWD
2 Large Shield Extenders
1 Disruptor
5 220mm Auto's
1 Medium Neut

...Sexy

In other news, I have quite a few interesting engagements that have occurred over the past couple days, and when I get a few minutes extra, I'll do a write up on em. I'm about 20 or so days out of my Loki the "Enterprise", and looking forward to that.

I have an idea to use the loki as a combination of the vagabond and the rapier, so we will see how that gets put to use.

Fly smart.

o7

Bullet Diplomacy

"For business reasons, I must preserve the outward signs of sanity."
-Mark Twain

Bullet Diplomacy is my corp that I have just recently made. The name comes from my outlook on diplomacy, blues, and politics. I tend to piss a lot of people off, go against the grain, insult and disobey "superiors", and generally not follow the "rules" and the e-peen honor that goes with this game. I've found I function far better as a hermit in Eve, much like in real life. If I have to be around or associate with people, I like it to be in small numbers- and with good friends.

This has come after about 3 months of research. I'm going to be basing out of a low sec system that is near the entrance to The Great Wildlands region. The layout of the region is great for roving small gang warfare, and also provides the ability to make quite a good deal of isk via ratting or plexing. In the off time from ratting or roaming, I'm going to be honing my skills as a pirate- Which, to tell you the truth, I've neglected since I've moved out to Stain.

I plan to set up a POS near the constellation I will be doing most of my PVE activities. Nothing more than a small tower, a corporate hanger, and a ship maintenance array. I'll be keeping it quite simple, and keeping my investment down, for I do foresee my tiny little POS getting pounded by the russians who frequent the Wildlands.

I'm going to be inviting some of the pilots who I flown with in the past to be a part of this endeavor. I want to keep the numbers as minimal as possible, because small gang is truly where I have the most fun in Eve. I expect one or two friends will join me at first, then more will follow once they have left their current corps and wanna see how things are with my corp. Which is fine, since in the mean time I'll be making the iskies and honing my solo skills. Plus, a few of the guys I have flown with may be scared to have me in charge of a corp...Have you ever seen Caligula? :P

It's not going to be easy. I know this. I also know that setting up a POS without guns and without a cap fleet to back it up is basically just begging for it to be blown up. Just trust me when I say I have been watching a system for the past 6 weeks, and I am _quite_ confident that the POS will be safe, as long as I can keep a low profile...Which should be about two days max.

I'll be leaving Auner sometime in the next month or so. Nothing against them at all, I just really feel the need to stretch my wings and set up a corp and struggle and survive the hard way for myself. Perhaps some of you can sympathize.

In skills news, I'll be in a vagabond and muninn in about 2 days. Which I am absolutely freaking psyched for. Shortly after that, I'm going to be hopping in my Loki, which I have already dubbed the "Enterprise"...Yeah, I know. I've already purchased the ship, as well as the core sub-systems I'll be using for PVE and transport. You can probably guess that it has a cov-ops cloak and the interdiction nullifier. I'll be purchasing a few different sub-systems for the Loki, that way I can experiment and play around...And hell, if I make enough isk with the Enterprise, I may be able to get a second Loki. No, I don't have a name for it yet.

Oh yeah, I wanted to hear what you guys thought of my banner. That was my first attempt at using Photoshop, and I am quite happy with it. Simple, to the point, and still in your face. If you were wondering, "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned" is the title of a Rancid song...I feel that it summed up my philosophy thus far in Eve.

Throw up some comments if you are interested in being a part of Bullet Diplomacy, have any suggestions or warnings, or just want to say hi. Yeah. That is all for now.

What Are You Willing To Lose?

When I logged in last night, I decided it was time to get some blood on my hands. Too much carebearing has left me quite thirsty for pew. I rallied the troops (Jaxen, Kippz) and set off to the unknown.

I was flying a hurricane, Jaxen in a Blackbird, and Kippz was in a Stabber. We traveled about 15 jumps, and were waiting at a gate to jump through. All of a sudden, local +1. A vagabond de-cloaks, and starts targeting me and burning away. He gets a comfortable orbit of about 25km set around me...and the local jumps by 3.

Fuck.

2 more vagabonds un-cloak, as well as a rook. Fuckfuckfuck.

I give the order to warp out, and Jaxen get swiftly blown up. Kippz and myself make it out. We all rendezvous in a safe, and wait till the enemy gang passes. I find a station system near us with a giffin + fittings for Jaxen, and he gets fitted up and we continue our roam.

We end up in Esoteria. Basically, if you've never been there, it's dead. Very dead. I choose a route back home, and we start back that way. About 8 jumps from our home, a huginn and a ishtar start following us.

After about 3 jumps of them following us, I give the order to re-approach the gate, and engage. Unfortunately, Jaxen and Kippz were already on their way to the next gate. I decide to try and stall the huginn and ishtar, to give them enough time to escape. This decision was made the second I realized Jax and Kippz were planning on running, and not engaging.

Well, the huginn decides to jump into the system, and I follow him. The ishtar was hot on my heels. I burn towards the huginn, and open up with my 425mm Autocannons. The ishtar jumps in shortly after, and makes short work of my hurricane. I tell my two corp mates to get the hell outta dodge, as my pod goes boom. I wake up in a fresh clone, and the night is brought to a close.

What I learned- A vagabond in Stain is bait. Always. This will be the last time I fall for it.

Make sure your fleet is on the same page as you. Make sure that everyone is thinking like you are, or at least know what the FC is thinking. Make sure your fleet is willing to go out on a limb, take risks to get a kill.

It seemed as if Jax and Kippz were scared to engage the enemy. At one point we had the chance to try and hunt and kill a tengu, but neither of them were willing to give it a shot. I've seen tech 3 cruisers killed by two BC's. If you don't test your limits, and push them, you end up content with them. I'm not ok with my limits. We were in tech 1 ships with mostly tech 1 fittings.

Now, I realize that 3 people does not make a big fleet, nor does it give the normal "fleet" vibe of "FC said this, we do it". There is more room for discussion. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.


Not a good night for PvP. Maybe tomorrow will hold better things.

Till next time,

Fly Dangerous- And push your limits...You never know what you can and can't do until you try.

On Interceptors and Badly Fit Cov-Ops...

Yesterday saw me logging back into eve for the first time in about a week. It was a good feeling.

Started off the day with some ratting in my Wolf. Yes, I rat in a AF. It keeps me amused.

After a couple hours of doing the tedious grind that is ratting, I went and bought myself a new interceptor, another stiletto. IMO, it is one of the better ceptors, but I could be biased lol. I enjoy the 3/4/3 slot layout on it, and I find it fulfills the role of a interceptor quite well.

I have encountered 2 schools of thought on interceptors. The first is my personal favorite when it comes to piloting these little ships. It consists of orbiting the target at about 20-25km, keeping the target from warping away by having a warp disruptor trained on him. I typically fit up a buffer tank, a Small EMP Smartbomb, and a couple guns to take care of the drones that always end up chasing me. I rig the ship so that I can perma-run my MWD, and I usually have a tracking disruptor or a sensor dampner or a sebo running as well.

The second school of thought basically entails getting up in the targets grill (500m-1000m) and webbing and warp jamming him to hell. This is a great way of flying a ceptor, and it is certainly one of the most impressive. I've seen a incredible tank on a claw, that stood up for a very long time versus a HAC our fleet was engaging. My main complaint with this method of flying is that the ceptor pilot usually ends up dying. For me if I am flying a interceptor, if I get in web or scram range, I have screwed up. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple interceptors who are very adept at this style of flying, I just can't willingly throw away a tech 2 ship, unless the target is really, really juicy.

Mind you, these two flying styles are not concerned with dog-fighting (ceptor vs ceptor) flying. That is a whole other topic, one I will cover one day.

Anyway, after I got the stiletto fit up, there were a couple of neuts who poked their head into our end of Stain. Now, this is a bad idea for them. There are a large number of blues at our assistance at any given time, and we know our area quite well.

Jaxen and myself sat on a gate we knew a neut was coming through for the better part of 10 minutes. He was in a Thrasher, and I was in my stiletto. We knew the neuts were either flying a crucifier (a Tech 1 frigate) or a Cheetah (cov-ops).

Well, not long after the ten minute mark, the Cheetah pilot jumped into local. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally broke his gate-cloak, and tried to make a run for it. Luckily, I had a Sensor Booster running on my ceptor, and insta-locked him. Now that he was pointed, he did the smart thing and tried to burn back to the gate. Unfortunately for him, Jaxen and his Thrasher made _very_ short work of his cov-ops ship.

Doh!

To everyone- Don't ever ever ever fit up a cov ops ship like this. Or, if you do, please fly by my constellation so I can promptly blow it up. There should be 2 nano's in the lows. Possibly even a warp core stab. The mids are...ok. Highs are fine. The lows are the reason this pilot died. Had he had on 2 nanofiber internal structure tech 2, and a WCS, then he would have lived. The MWD/Cloak trick is vital for up-and-coming cov-ops and stealth bomber pilots to learn.

After that kill, I grabbed my cane and headed off to work on a 6/10 plex. Gotta bring home the bacon. Tommorrow I plan on heading back up to the Curse region and flying with some old corp mates from OUCH...Should be a blast, as usual.

Fly smart...And FFS please fit your ships properly.

o7

Coming Down to Earth

So, after a 5 day vacation at a music festival up in the mountains, I'll be logging back in tonight. (Yes, for anyone who cares, the festival was awesome- Near 60 Bands playing everything from Bluegrass to Electronica. Lot's of alcohol and illicit substances contributed to an excellent week.)

In game politics between ADC and OUCH seems to be a bit skewed, so I guess it will be up to me to mediate. I was only able to _barely_ monitor the dealings via evegate on my phone...reception was crappy, and left me desperately wanting to log on and settle all of this. The main complaint I have with leaving the Art of War Alliance is the number of friends I have in there.

I realize that we are nearly 55 jumps away from the AWA home base in the Derelik Region, but Jump Clones have served me quite well. At the drop of a hat I will be able to participate in the Corp that I have come to know and love.

Even if ADC leaves the alliance, I intend on continuing to fly with the many great pilots and friends with OUCH- Even participating in a war, that may or may not be happening soon. More on that later.

On another note, I'm about 30 days out from a vagabond, a ship that I have wanted to get in since I saw it. Here's the setup I'm thinking-

2x TE Tech II
2x Gyro Tech II
1x Nanofiber Tech II
1x Named MSE
1x MSE Tech 2
1x 10mn MWD Tech 2
1x Warp Disruptor Tech 2
5x 220mm Tech 2 Autocannons
1x Smal Energy Neut (For ceptors and fast frigates)
5x Warrior 2's

Basically kite the target at 20-25km, let the drones do the work of working on smaller ships, and lay down the pain from a comfortable distance. We will see how this works out.

Fly Dangerous.

o7

Shameless Recruiting Post

Towards the end of December of 2009 I downloaded and fell in love with EVE. I immediately decided that I wanted to be a pirate, and focus my efforts on PvP. That decision was the easy part. The devil was in the details of learning the ins and outs of my chosen profession and the art of PvP and null sec survival.

I started following Black Claw's blog, and the Open University of Celestial Hardship (OUCH) was brought to my attention. I applied to join, and the rest is history. :)

In all of my travels of New Eden, I have never found such a good group of pilots. There is a sense of camaraderie there, a incredible teaching/giving spirit, and the willingness to help out each other.

I learned, slowly but surely how to fight, how to die, and eventually how to start getting some kills. I learned how to survive in null sec, and how to work as a fleet. I cut my teeth as a fledgling FC, and eventually became a competent small gang leader. Along the way, I forged friendships with pilots who I will stay in contact with for the rest of my EVE life-time.

If any of you are interested in learning PvP, learning how to survive in null and low sec, or just simply interested in doing all of the above with a stellar group of pilots, I HIGHLY recommend OUCH to you.

They provide a free frigate program, so you can learn without laying your own isk on the line. Free classes, roams, and modules. There are all time-zones represented there, so there is always someone to fly with.

I recently left OUCH to pursue more advanced small gang warfare, but my heart will always be with that corporation.

It is one thing to promote a corp while you are in it, but when people will recommend a corp after they have moved on, that's when you know something good is going on there. :)

If you are interested in joining up (there are no minimum skill point requirements, nor any excluding factors of any kind), feel free to contact Black Claw or Alexia Morgan in game. Just shoot em a mail. Or you can join the open university channel at ouch-uni. Just poke your head in and ask questions, or just say hello. They will love to see you and talk with ya.

I sincerely hope you look into OUCH if you are interested, and if you do, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Good hunting, and fly dangerous.

o7