Warfare & Tactics

NOTE: This is a guide mainly for new people looking to join Caldari militia.

So you have decided to enlist for the Caldari state, congratulations, here is your blue jersey. For starters, you will be tattooed with a stigma that you are unskilled noob, mission farmer who cannot find his arse if he sits on it and whose fitting skills would cause mission NPCs to blush. Worst of all, you will probably end up flying with people like Damar Rocarion (Consult your doctor if this poses a risk to your mental health) at some point.

You still want to join? Then read on, we are really not that terrible.

BRIEF HISTORY OF CALDARI MILITIA

Back when faction war started, Caldari were designated ”noob militia” which would outnumber every other militia, which would naturally attract ”l33t pvp'ers” to farm said noobs. For a while this held true, then few corporations who knew their stuff came along and put some starch to peoples collars.

In a spirit of selfless cooperation and sacrifice of countless manhours of work, Caldari militiated did something which so far no-one has repeated. Occupied and held every enemy system for over 10 months.

The troops were rocking, ships were rolling. Low-sec doomsdays happened, first ever t3 cruisers got annihilated by vengeful state and to see ”Boys in blue” in local meant you better evacuate the premises. Pilots like Unfamed II became legends.

Then we hit the shitters despite few noteworthy events and eventually lost most occupied enemy systems. Draketrain and Wolfsbrigade got it all back together somewhat, egos clashed, s.it went down and eventually Caldari militia fell to a gutter faster than a 5$ hooker gobbles down a sausage.

The inevitable doom that was Inferno patch suddenly woke people to action that cooperation was needed. Lines were held and low-sec bases secured. After Inferno expansion, added influx of plexers who were eager to profit from high-quality Caldari LP store put pressure on Gallente systems. Even some proper pvp corps were painting blue tags to their ships. Suddenly things did not seem so grim after all...

WHAT TO DO FIRST?

New guy in militia chat: Hello, I just joined militia.
Bittervet #1: SPAI!
Bittervet #2: Lol noob, whose alt you are?
Bittervet #3: Stone the infidel!

This is most likely the first thing you will witness in any militia chat. This is to be expected as spying is rampant in Eve and faction war is no different except that there is no control who can join it. So basicly it will be hard to cut it out in NPC militia corp as new player and best advice is to search for a player corporation to join (see below).

If for some reason you want to stay in NPC militia, then your best bet is to go out solo, get some kills/losses and promotions and in general, try to get spotted by one of the abovementioned bittervets. It can be hard so new player should not try to soldier on unless he already has extensive knowledge of the game. Some people like Squatdog have achieved it though so it's not impossible.

It goes without saying that hardly anyone uses eve-voice tool available and all inter-militia voice comms use teamspeak, so install it to your computer right away. Public channel is open to all but corp channels require permissions to enter.

Once you have gotten past the initial shock and unwelcoming nature of the game, you will need a base of operations. But before doing that, make sure you SET YOUR OVERVIEW NOT TO SHOW FRIENDLY MILITIA (avoids friendly fire, very important) and go to evemail and set your CSPA charge to 0, because nobody likes to pay money to get people join their fleet.

MOVING INTO LOW-SEC

Before moving anywhere, you should check the awesome Dotlan maps and get familiar with general geography of our war theatre.

Since you cannot dock just anywhere you want, basing in low-sec is not necessarily so easy. At the very least one should join an existing low-sec corporation or bring a new corporation to plant the flag so to speak. Below I will outline some areas (relevant as of 24.6.2012)

Eha - Innia: There two systems are located in north-west Black Rise. Caldari State Capturing and ]Black Rise Guerillas are located around this area. They are not too deep in low-sec though Kinakka and Akidagi routes are somewhat camped. Both offer access to Vlilirrier and Nennamaila quite easily and thus into enemy held space.

Ladistier – Old Man Star: These two systems and Vifrevaert (aka the grand plex whoring system) once formed the impregnable PERVStier of Caldari militia before it was abandoned when Space Perverts and Forum Warriors united dissolved and it's later incarnation Draketrain left Caldari militia.

Nowadays Caldari militias Bloody Ronin Syndicate and their russian pirate allies (who will kill you) live in this area and keep FDU bottled up nicely in their high-sec Villore. Nasranite Watch from Caldari State Capturing has also moved to area, housing some of the old timers of militia such as Damar Rocarion and Bad Messenger.

Okkamon: Okkamon guards entry to north-east Black Rise and is home of Templis Dragonaors alliance.

Sujarento and nearby: This area is home of Snuff box alliance who sometimes helps Caldari militia but in general they kill everyone. This area is somewhat deserted by Caldari corporations and as such is farmed a lot by gallente alt plexers and could use some presence to discourage this.

Odds and ends: Of course there are plenty of systems adjancent to low-sec FW or in low-sec which are not part of the faction war and offer places to base without worrying whether or not you are able to dock.

For example, in Placid region there is an entire ”high-sec island” in the middle of it which borders enemy agent systems like Eugales or non-fw low-sec such as Pelille, located conviniently close to enemy high-sec. In Essence region there is high-sec Actee or low-sec Yvangier to base, not to mention Aeschee.

Rule of thumb is that you can even base in enemy high-sec if the system is 0.5 since the faction navy is more or less irrelevant there for ships like drake.

GATECAMPS

Low-sec has lots of them and even the best of pilots eventually run into one with instalocking t3 boats which have 30km scram range and 100km web range. Their locations tend to be fairly predictable though, guarding bottleneck systems close to entry systems.

Most frequently camped gates are: Tama/Sujarento, Tama/Nourvukaiken (high-sec), Akidagi/Ichoriya (high-sec), Pynekastoh/Hikkoken, Kehjari/Martoh, Heydieles/Old Man star, Kinakka/Onnamon (high-sec) and Alparena/Reschard

SHIP ADVICE

In general, range is king in Caldari militia. You will want to train caracals, arty thrashers, beam coercers and heavy missile drakes among others. You will be outnumbered and very often enemy is running warfare links in their t3 alts so picking off enemy at range not going too close so they land a scram on you is recommended. While brawler boats are good in many situations, if you dont know exatly what you face, then better go with range fits.

Going over particular ship fits here (as each corp has their preferred setup) would be impractical but few rules of thumb apply. To be useful in fleets, you should first acquire ability to fly ships like Nagas, Drakes, Oracles and Taloses. Once your wallet and skill points enable it, learn skills for armor battleships (Amarr is a good default here).

Depending what your favourite race is, you can train for special ships as they are always needed and welcome to fleets. This means logistics, lachesis, rapiers, arazus, curses and lets face it, it's a rare fleet that says that says no to a falcon or rook.

Asking for ship fitting advice is recommended and is actually one of the few things militia chat is useful. Blatant trolls are fairly easily ignored.

SO WHAT WE ARE?

We are the remains of old and glorious army, now battered and still seeking their place in the world but after long decline, perhaps we are finally getting stronger again. Other militias have it easier and do not have the stigma of "lazy missioners" but Caldari have always sticked to their principles, never given up and every now and then give the others a bloody nose or at least a run for their money.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

For the State!

Reserved for possible part 5.

Another excellent FW guide.
You have always been very helpful to new FW members. +1

+1 bajillion for a really awesome guide!

*edit* bookmarking and handing out to new guys

Good job.

Nice post mate.

This is v-good, 1 tip from me

Dont afk in space

Dont A.P.

Ok thats two

:)

QQ "For the state!" 07

buuuuuuump