Entry: nine hundred one.
It's been quite some time since I released a public log. In all fairness, I've done little of note, simply whiling away the days in station. That said, I've become tired of the current reading material, and have in fact simply not even skimmed over ninety-five percent of the posts. They've honestly been garbage according to my taste.
I hold no illusions about my own product. I'm nowhere near as popular as them. I'm most likely held in contempt to what I'm calling garbage.
With that out of the way, I can move on to some more matters of note.
First off, Red Overlord and Against All Authorities have been spreading this rather nasty and outright false rumor that Cascade Imminent is failscading. This is apparently due to neither group knowing what we as an alliance are doing or planning to do, and in Red Overlord's case, some amount of animosity as well. Having access as I do to some of the internal goings-on within our alliance, I can safely say that as of right now, no, we are not failscading. We are simply waiting for other players to make their moves before we make ours. As an example, we were set to deploy to Delve, right up until some of the CFC alliances and corporations staged nearby for the rumored assault on the South.
Item number two is about the health of our alliance. We've lost some corporations, most notably and recently Chaotic Tranquility [CTQ] because they attempted to overthrow the holding corporation for the alliance after being in the alliance for all of fifteen days. From the grunt point of view, I hardly ever saw them, and what little interaction I did have was generally unpleasant.
We've also gained corporations, however. The newest additions that I'm aware of since MODRO and V3R are New European Regiment and Zebra Corp. Zebra Corp has gained some recent notoriety from an excellent podcast they put out at www.crossingzebras.com. Since they moved in a week to two weeks ago, I've had the chance to fly and interact with some of their members, and overall have had a positive experience with them. I've not had much interaction with NER, and I'm not sure why, but the little I have had has been positive as well.
Item three is combat activity. We haven't been deployed since Curse, which I believe was three to four months ago at this point. We've had quite a few roaming gangs and some backstabs from the neighbors, but overall it's provided some much needed combat activity aside from the roams. It's my opinion that this amount of combat activity has severely slowed the atrophy that has been occurring where action is concerned, but it isn't halting or reverting it. We need a deployment, and soon, before we become fat and lazy in our space. This ties in with the first item, however, so there's not much to be done about it.
Number four is a more of a recognition shoutout than anything else. Of all the alliance level FCs aside from Archie and their own, MODRO has said that Jason Erquilenne, a member of my own corporation, is the only FC that is good. That news was fantastic in my mind, and just makes me happier about the fact that I snagged him while he was still new to the capsuleer life.
I don't care that they didn't say anything about me. I'm not an alliance level FC. If I weren't a recruiter, I would probably have gone for it, but I can't manage both tasks. Jason tends to ask me to be second in command when he FCs roams, though he can't for alliance level fleets because of the command structure, and that's good enough for me. Just be aware that you shouldn't always primary him since he isn't always leading fleets.
Finally, I've been rather busy when not active as a capsuleer. Everyone knows how those responsibilities go, and it's just the way things work. I will say that I've been putting my time to good use however, trying to find ways to better myself and my situation in ways that exclude spaceships. I haven't yet sorted it out, but I'm hoping to rather soon with two fantastic opportunities on the line.
With all of that laid out, I hope to resume some semblance of normalcy soon. Let me be frank about the public logs I follow though: it needs to get better. It needs to focus more on spaceships, on politics, on strategy, all of the things that make this life worth living. It needs to deviate from its current crash course of rage, phallic waving, retorts, tinfoil hattery, and blatant misinformation via terribad journalism. There has been too much focus on tweetfleets, podbanters, blog banters, podsides, etcetera, and it is at a point where it not only ceases to be interesting, but drains the life from everything important.
I'm not going to say community isn't important. I am going to say that the community sometimes gets out of hand and has to come back to its senses. This is one of those times.
Computer: terminate recording.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
It's not all wins
Entry: eight hundred eighty-nine
I certainly did not win at all today.
What started out as a two man idea to roam became a seven man corp roam consisting of two assault frigs and five battlecruisers.
We started our roam at 2G-, and after ganking a hurricane made our way over to PNG space. Unfortunately, we hit a snag, that being a scout Brutix for a thirty man Drake fleet.
People are getting crafty these days, I tell ya.
Where I messed up was trying to burn past the PNG fleet even though they were waiting on our outgate on a pipe. I seriously underestimated PNG's capabilities, and in short order they chased us down through their space and killed the majority of us. Surprisingly, they knew I was FC. I say this is a surprise because I was FCing a fleet that contained an alliance FC in it. I won't say there were spies, but I guess Hak knows me better recently for leading fleets than Jason.
So, long and short of the experience: I whelped the fleet trying to burn past a fleet four times bigger than my own. I would never have encountered this experience had I been in frigates or destroyers though, so the experience, while grueling, is still a positive one in a twisted light.
Computer: terminate recording.
I certainly did not win at all today.
What started out as a two man idea to roam became a seven man corp roam consisting of two assault frigs and five battlecruisers.
We started our roam at 2G-, and after ganking a hurricane made our way over to PNG space. Unfortunately, we hit a snag, that being a scout Brutix for a thirty man Drake fleet.
People are getting crafty these days, I tell ya.
Where I messed up was trying to burn past the PNG fleet even though they were waiting on our outgate on a pipe. I seriously underestimated PNG's capabilities, and in short order they chased us down through their space and killed the majority of us. Surprisingly, they knew I was FC. I say this is a surprise because I was FCing a fleet that contained an alliance FC in it. I won't say there were spies, but I guess Hak knows me better recently for leading fleets than Jason.
So, long and short of the experience: I whelped the fleet trying to burn past a fleet four times bigger than my own. I would never have encountered this experience had I been in frigates or destroyers though, so the experience, while grueling, is still a positive one in a twisted light.
Computer: terminate recording.
Monday, June 11, 2012
It's the little things...
Entry: eight hundred eighty-seven.
I'm really loving this small gang PvP stuff.
Jason and I took out a Jag (long point and scram), paired with my new favorite Brutix: The Power. We roamed north to SAD-AD, then started heading for R6-, the entry system for Ethereal Dawn's ratting operations.
For maybe five minutes, nothing was happening in R-6, Jason was trying to find a fight in there while I was pounced above the R6- gate in 2G-. After five minutes of him failing to get anything, a neutral jumped into 2G- from the 9F- gate. I ordered Jason to get to gate while I warped down. Shortly after, a PNG-A Drake landed, full red on my overview, and jumped through as I tried to lock him.
He jumped right into Jason. Jason grabbed point while I jumped in and burned for him, eventually landing a scram. My full rack of Neutrons with Void ripped into the Drake as Jason warped out and back to recover his shields. By the time he got back, however, the Drake was down.
Let's hear it for The Power! YEAH!!!
The Drake did put me down to seventy percent armor though, so we headed back to SAH- to repair before we got camped in. A short break later, we came back to find a few neutrals passing through. Before docking in SAH-, we had chased them a system past SAH- into EX-. Since they were back, I guessed that they were going to G-Q.
As it turned out, I was right. Jason landed on gate with a Damnation and held. As I was landing on the G-Q gate he pointed the Damnation, forcing him through with me to the other side of the gate. Once he decloaked, I got a scram on it and two Hounds decloaked, one of which threw a bomb at me. Jason managed to snag one of the Hounds while I worked on the Damnation, literally sitting on it at zero and whaling on it. The pilot, to my great surprise, ejected! I couldn't turn my guns off fast enough, and two overheated volleys took the command ship from half armor to wreckage. Jason finished off the bomber shortly after that.
We took another break. It was turning out to be a great night for us.
After we came back, we headed up to R-6 again, just to see if we would get lucky again. We didn't, and after ten minutes of hanging around, we headed north to F9-, where again we hung around for ten minutes hoping for something. Again, we were unlucky, so we set destination to D-IZT9. On our way there, we encountered a gatecamp on the 9F- gate in 2-G, forcing us to gatecrash and return to SAH- for repairs and refuge.
We took another break, and came back to a PNG Pilgrim. Jason tackled it as I landed on the outgate back to Detorid, so I warped back and engaged, ambivalent about my chances of killing it before getting neuted out. It was a bit of a standoff: I was neuted out, but had the Pilgrim into armor in what appeared to be a shield fit, and Jason was at the mercy of drones if he stayed. We deaggressed on station and docked up. It's unfortunate, but a single Pilgrim is a perfect counter for our two-pilot gang.
With three wins and two losses, three kills and zero deaths, we decided to head back home before things devolved. It was already op success, why ruin the roam? All in all, it was quite the good roam.
Computer: terminate recording.
I'm really loving this small gang PvP stuff.
Jason and I took out a Jag (long point and scram), paired with my new favorite Brutix: The Power. We roamed north to SAD-AD, then started heading for R6-, the entry system for Ethereal Dawn's ratting operations.
For maybe five minutes, nothing was happening in R-6, Jason was trying to find a fight in there while I was pounced above the R6- gate in 2G-. After five minutes of him failing to get anything, a neutral jumped into 2G- from the 9F- gate. I ordered Jason to get to gate while I warped down. Shortly after, a PNG-A Drake landed, full red on my overview, and jumped through as I tried to lock him.
He jumped right into Jason. Jason grabbed point while I jumped in and burned for him, eventually landing a scram. My full rack of Neutrons with Void ripped into the Drake as Jason warped out and back to recover his shields. By the time he got back, however, the Drake was down.
Let's hear it for The Power! YEAH!!!
The Drake did put me down to seventy percent armor though, so we headed back to SAH- to repair before we got camped in. A short break later, we came back to find a few neutrals passing through. Before docking in SAH-, we had chased them a system past SAH- into EX-. Since they were back, I guessed that they were going to G-Q.
As it turned out, I was right. Jason landed on gate with a Damnation and held. As I was landing on the G-Q gate he pointed the Damnation, forcing him through with me to the other side of the gate. Once he decloaked, I got a scram on it and two Hounds decloaked, one of which threw a bomb at me. Jason managed to snag one of the Hounds while I worked on the Damnation, literally sitting on it at zero and whaling on it. The pilot, to my great surprise, ejected! I couldn't turn my guns off fast enough, and two overheated volleys took the command ship from half armor to wreckage. Jason finished off the bomber shortly after that.
We took another break. It was turning out to be a great night for us.
After we came back, we headed up to R-6 again, just to see if we would get lucky again. We didn't, and after ten minutes of hanging around, we headed north to F9-, where again we hung around for ten minutes hoping for something. Again, we were unlucky, so we set destination to D-IZT9. On our way there, we encountered a gatecamp on the 9F- gate in 2-G, forcing us to gatecrash and return to SAH- for repairs and refuge.
We took another break, and came back to a PNG Pilgrim. Jason tackled it as I landed on the outgate back to Detorid, so I warped back and engaged, ambivalent about my chances of killing it before getting neuted out. It was a bit of a standoff: I was neuted out, but had the Pilgrim into armor in what appeared to be a shield fit, and Jason was at the mercy of drones if he stayed. We deaggressed on station and docked up. It's unfortunate, but a single Pilgrim is a perfect counter for our two-pilot gang.
With three wins and two losses, three kills and zero deaths, we decided to head back home before things devolved. It was already op success, why ruin the roam? All in all, it was quite the good roam.
Computer: terminate recording.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Shark vs Shark
Entry: eight hundred eighty.
Intel came across for the area: there was a neutral in 46DP- in a Hurricane. It appeared he was alone, and it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I grabbed my Hurricane, uncertain if I would make it in time before he left. I was already in 0-G, so it was a short three jumps away.
I tend to think of Hurricanes as sharks: Vicious and brutal powerhouses of destruction. At the scent of blood they come running. When facing a prey of equal or lesser size, it does its best to get right on top of it and rip it to shreds. My fit reflects this well I think:
Hurricane:
Highs:
6 425 mm autocannon II
1 medium smartbomb, (for clearing enemy drones)
1 medium energy neutralizer II
Mids:
2 Large Shield Extender II
1 Experimental Microwarpdrive I
1 Warp Scrambler II
Lows:
1 Damage Control II
2 Nanofiber Internal Structure II
3 Gyrostabilizer II
Rigs:
2 Medium Anti-Em Screen Reinforcer I
1 Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Drones:
5 EC-300 Hornet I
Tell me that that doesn't resemble a shark.
When I got to 77S8- I heard he was aggressed in ZO-P5K. I was still two jumps out, and was burning like a madman. Thankfully, when I got to the system and warped to the outgate, he was still there in one piece. The aggression, as it turned out, was due to an anchored bubbled on the outgate into Red Overlord space.
We locked each other up immediately, overheating everything. He put a point on me, and in short order I put a scram on him. At first he didn't seem to realize the situation he was in, but as he started to take more damage than me, he started trying to bug out. I saw his drones on me and lit my smartbomb, trying to take out his flight of Warrior II's. Because I was right on top of him, my smartbomb was also doing a little bit of extra damage to him.
He entered structure as I was hitting low armor. I could taste the panic from him, my frenzied bloodlust was increasing, but he was pulling range due to my bad piloting. As he hit low structure, my scram dropped, I capped out, and two of my six guns burnt out. Thankfully, I was still in high structure, and he was itching to get away.
He warped out. I was frustrated with the kill having slipped away. I was in medium structure when he warped out. My hull was on fire, my prey had escaped.
Still, it was a fantastic fight between two sharks.
Computer: terminate recording.
Intel came across for the area: there was a neutral in 46DP- in a Hurricane. It appeared he was alone, and it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I grabbed my Hurricane, uncertain if I would make it in time before he left. I was already in 0-G, so it was a short three jumps away.
I tend to think of Hurricanes as sharks: Vicious and brutal powerhouses of destruction. At the scent of blood they come running. When facing a prey of equal or lesser size, it does its best to get right on top of it and rip it to shreds. My fit reflects this well I think:
Hurricane:
Highs:
6 425 mm autocannon II
1 medium smartbomb, (for clearing enemy drones)
1 medium energy neutralizer II
Mids:
2 Large Shield Extender II
1 Experimental Microwarpdrive I
1 Warp Scrambler II
Lows:
1 Damage Control II
2 Nanofiber Internal Structure II
3 Gyrostabilizer II
Rigs:
2 Medium Anti-Em Screen Reinforcer I
1 Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I
Drones:
5 EC-300 Hornet I
Tell me that that doesn't resemble a shark.
When I got to 77S8- I heard he was aggressed in ZO-P5K. I was still two jumps out, and was burning like a madman. Thankfully, when I got to the system and warped to the outgate, he was still there in one piece. The aggression, as it turned out, was due to an anchored bubbled on the outgate into Red Overlord space.
We locked each other up immediately, overheating everything. He put a point on me, and in short order I put a scram on him. At first he didn't seem to realize the situation he was in, but as he started to take more damage than me, he started trying to bug out. I saw his drones on me and lit my smartbomb, trying to take out his flight of Warrior II's. Because I was right on top of him, my smartbomb was also doing a little bit of extra damage to him.
He entered structure as I was hitting low armor. I could taste the panic from him, my frenzied bloodlust was increasing, but he was pulling range due to my bad piloting. As he hit low structure, my scram dropped, I capped out, and two of my six guns burnt out. Thankfully, I was still in high structure, and he was itching to get away.
He warped out. I was frustrated with the kill having slipped away. I was in medium structure when he warped out. My hull was on fire, my prey had escaped.
Still, it was a fantastic fight between two sharks.
Computer: terminate recording.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Blob plus One : battlereport
Entry: eight hundred seventy-nine.
Battle report:
Took out a small roam, meant for corp only, but opened to alliance just in case. Final fleet composition came out to a five double nano whelp canes and an instacane plus myself in a triple TD, sixteen hundred plate, triple trimarked Arbitrator.
When we started the roam, I ordered that Jason and Killie take point, acting as a two man gang instead of having the normal interceptor scout for a bigger gang. I felt that if they acted in this fashion, possible targets would be less likely to run. Eventually, on our way to a blob on the map, Jason and Killie jumped into a gatecamp in PUZ-IO. This camp consisted of a Cynabal, Rapier, Pilgrim, Curse, Falcon, and Drake. The Falcon and Pilgrim were initially cloaked and possibly off-field, the Drake was off-field.
I told Jason and Killie to hold cloak, then fake a gatecrash to draw aggression. Once that happened, Jason called jump and the rest of our gang landed. I called points on the Rapier, eventually driving it off since we weren't able to kill it. The Falcon decloaked while the gang pushed the Rapier out and I set my TDs on the Cynabal. Temujin pushed the Falcon off field with his instacane. I immediately called the Cynabal primary next, Jason warped out with shields gone, and after he left the field the Drake landed and aggressed with the Curse. I didn't mean to bait tank with my medium armor repper, but it looked like I was going down. I managed to jump out before entering structure, and the rest of the gang killed the Drake and Curse.
Everyone did what they were supposed to do and did it right. Only downside was lack of scrams. With the scrams, the Rapier, Cynabal, and possibly the Pilgrim would have died as well.
After that conflict, the rest of a roam was a bust, right up until we got to a system in the Kalevala Expanse where Black Legion was shooting some structure. I had called Jason and Killie to warp to the cyno and gank it, costing Jason his cane. I did not realize who was in local, neither did I take into account that they should check dscan at a nearby celestial first. My frustration at the lack of fighting drove me to this silly error, needlessly costing us a cane.
Overall, the roam was a still a success, in terms of ships and ISK, but it wasn't as perfect as it could have been by far. On a side note, the Arbitrator performed fantastically in its role. I took almost zero damage from the Cynabal, and I'm certain Jason was able to stay on field as long as he was because I was TDing the Cynabal so heavily.
Computer: terminate recording.
Battle report:
Took out a small roam, meant for corp only, but opened to alliance just in case. Final fleet composition came out to a five double nano whelp canes and an instacane plus myself in a triple TD, sixteen hundred plate, triple trimarked Arbitrator.
When we started the roam, I ordered that Jason and Killie take point, acting as a two man gang instead of having the normal interceptor scout for a bigger gang. I felt that if they acted in this fashion, possible targets would be less likely to run. Eventually, on our way to a blob on the map, Jason and Killie jumped into a gatecamp in PUZ-IO. This camp consisted of a Cynabal, Rapier, Pilgrim, Curse, Falcon, and Drake. The Falcon and Pilgrim were initially cloaked and possibly off-field, the Drake was off-field.
I told Jason and Killie to hold cloak, then fake a gatecrash to draw aggression. Once that happened, Jason called jump and the rest of our gang landed. I called points on the Rapier, eventually driving it off since we weren't able to kill it. The Falcon decloaked while the gang pushed the Rapier out and I set my TDs on the Cynabal. Temujin pushed the Falcon off field with his instacane. I immediately called the Cynabal primary next, Jason warped out with shields gone, and after he left the field the Drake landed and aggressed with the Curse. I didn't mean to bait tank with my medium armor repper, but it looked like I was going down. I managed to jump out before entering structure, and the rest of the gang killed the Drake and Curse.
Everyone did what they were supposed to do and did it right. Only downside was lack of scrams. With the scrams, the Rapier, Cynabal, and possibly the Pilgrim would have died as well.
After that conflict, the rest of a roam was a bust, right up until we got to a system in the Kalevala Expanse where Black Legion was shooting some structure. I had called Jason and Killie to warp to the cyno and gank it, costing Jason his cane. I did not realize who was in local, neither did I take into account that they should check dscan at a nearby celestial first. My frustration at the lack of fighting drove me to this silly error, needlessly costing us a cane.
Overall, the roam was a still a success, in terms of ships and ISK, but it wasn't as perfect as it could have been by far. On a side note, the Arbitrator performed fantastically in its role. I took almost zero damage from the Cynabal, and I'm certain Jason was able to stay on field as long as he was because I was TDing the Cynabal so heavily.
Computer: terminate recording.
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