Alliance & Corporation Recruitment Center

Tuesday 10th September 2013

Interesting night, 7 kills, 2 losses. I started out running my advertised Shield Cruiser gang, about 13 people joined fleet for it. As we were forming up, scouts reported a Shadow Cartel frigate gang in Lamaa/Kamela. We shipped into Armor Frigates, myself in an Inquisitor. Although I was FCing the gang, I had another guy doing the target calling when necessary.

We spent 10-15 minutes racing around the Kamela area without getting a fight and then gave up and headed out on a roam towards Sahtogas, remaining in Armor Frigates. We only got a couple of jumps out when scouts again found a neutral gang on the gate that gives (Kamela/Kourm). I ordered best speed to the Kamela gate in Sosala. When we landed we found the Shadow Cartel gang there and they were flashy, which our intended targets weren't. I ordered engage, but they jumped into Kam, we follow and saw them warp off to a small plex in Kam. Their gang was slightly smaller than ours, but they had logi too and as they got into the plex first and set up, it could go either way.

We formed up on the outside of the plex and then activated together. On landing I was primaried. We had two other Inquisitors on field, but I think one was slow to arrive. I went down and baled in my pod, but the guys stood firm. The end result, 5 Shadow Cartel dead for my Inquisitor.

I reshipped into another Inquisitor and we continued the roam, again we started darting back and forth trying to catch fleeting opponents. Eventually, we caught a flashy red R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. Vexor on the Sosala gate in Kam. Now these people don't understand the word solo, they are always bait. But we were only in T1 Frigates, we attacked, eventually killed it as the blob landed and then baled losing an Inquisitor.

We went back to Huola for a 5 minute break while we sorted out our stuff, loot, reships and a couple of people left fleet at that point. I came back to the keyboard to hear a couple of pilots in Kourm chatting over a target they were hunting and I undocked. A neutral Firetail was on the undock. He yellow boxed me and then opened fire. I reported this on comms and a couple of people responded with "Undocking". I was expecting him to be popped by the dock guns, then realised that I had a suspect flag running from looting a neutral wreak on the way back to Huola. I could have docked up, but he was doing so little damage and I knew a friendly Inquisitor was undocking, so I launched and set my one drone on him instead. Reps landed, other pilots arrived and the Firetail popped.

We roamed on and caught a WT Thorax in Kamela, had some skirmishes in Aset where we lost a Vengeance for a Corax. Then tried to gank a neutral Rupture in Ardar only to find it was bait for a Shadow Cartel Cruiser blob. We baled losing a Punisher and returned to Huola. I closed down the fleet at that point.

A few people remained on Comms. Someone tackled a WT Maller in Huola, I went out in a Thrasher to help and lost it, but the Maller went down, why I choose a Thrasher I don't know.

I fitted up an experimental Firetail and got into a defensive plex in Huola. A neutral Incursus came in, I called for help expecting him to be bait, but he was in fact solo. Two friendly pilots responded, but he was dead before they landed.

I repped up my heat damage and continued in another plex. Only 'Jus' was left on comms and we were having a good old jaw as he went off in an SB to run a mission. I got completely distracted and then suddenly a neutral Kestrel was in the plex with me. Initially, I was in a bit of a panic, but I still got the first shot in and took a security hit (Grrr). I got my orbit and approach mixed up and maybe what I had selected, in short I sailed past him and allowed him to get out of scram and web range. But then he allowed me to burn back in and re-apply the scram and web. He was going down fast and must have only had 10% structure left when he suddenly disappeared from my overview. First I thought he'd popped but it wasn't right and no pod. I couldn't believe it, somehow he had got out. The only thing I can think of was that I heard Aura mention something about having no cap, I guess my scram must have shut down.

At that point his mate in a Tormentor landed in the plex again catching me totally unaware. I had about 20% armor damage, but had an Armor repper which I hadn't started as I was still low on cap. I went for it, it was real edge of the seat stuff. His damage climbed rapidly, but he was hurting me, my own armor damage reached 70% before I'd regen'd enough cap to start the repper. He popped just as the Kestrel landed in the plex. Again I went for it, assuming he was still carrying a lot of damage, but as soon as I locked him, I saw that he had no damage and must have docked up. This time I got the orbit right and he went down like a sack of poo. I couldn't believe it, one of the most satisfying fights I've ever had.

Poor old Jus, came running back from his mission only to miss it all again.

Thursday 12th September 2013

Today I decided I was going to be more ballsy. No advertised fleet, so I undock and automatically start running down a defensive plex in Huola without realising that the system is already stable. I'm in my lucky Firetail which has now seen me through about a dozen engagements.

Within a couple of minutes a Daredevil is on short scan. I've got no eyes on the outside, but there are only friendlies and neutrals in system. I ask in alliance if anyone is in a Daredevil and am given one of the neutral names. He is less than 3 months old.

He disappears from short scan for a minute, then comes back and this time comes into the plex. I murder him. Although he is a different corp from yesterday's Daredevil, it is the same fit, right down to only carrying Null and Void ammunition.

Realising that Huola is stable, I move across to Kourm and start running down another plex. Another Iron Oxide pilot is in system doing the same thing. He is a recent recruit (Lemmie) and although I had intended to solo tonight, I throw him a fleet invite. We get on comms together and start talking. The plexes shut down and we decide to head over to Siseide and run some offensive plexs where we are more likely to get a fight. There is only one WT in Kourn.

I warp to the Auga gate, but while in warp 4 more WTs come into system. I land on Auga and find the original WT is sat at range in a Merlin and hold for a minute waiting to see if he will come down to me.

Lemmie reports "They are on the small plex gate... I am engaged." My first thought is that there are four of them working together, at the very least I need to know what they are in. But I can't just abandon Lemmie and know he won't last long on his own. So I warp to the gate and request more info on the enemy. He reports "There is only one of them, a slicer, trying to kite me."

'That's more like it!' I brighten up. Land on the gate and see the two of them about 30 Kms off. But before I've properly landed, another WT appears on overview in an Crucifier. I wait, he lands on top of me and I engage him instead. However, it turns out that he has got 3 TDs fitted and initially I struggle to hit him. I switch from orbit to approach and start bumping him. Damage appears on him, then two more WTs land, both in Tormentors.

Worse still, Lemmie pops, so now I'm in a 4 to 1. The Crucifier finally pops, I align to a celestial and try to burn to range, but I'm webbed and scrammed, it's not happening and I'm taking heavy damage. I resign myself to losing my lucky Firetail and prepare to warp the pod out.

Apparently the Slicer was in low armor after engaging Lemmie. He bales, presumably to get reps, inexplicably one of the Tormentors follows suit. I'm in low armor at this point, but with only one of them on me now, I turn into a close orbit and get my own TD on him while running my repper. My damage reverses, his climbs and he pops in short order. I scoop the loot from the three wreaks and return it to Lemmie back in Huola.

We go out again this time to Siseide, a few others join fleet. I'm really not in the mood to run a fleet, I'd done it the two previous nights and wanted a break. After half an hour with no action, I make my excuses and fold the fleet, then run 3 FW missions before binning it for the night.

Sunday 15th Sept 2013

I took Saturday off from Eve. Today I cooked a lovely Roast Chicken dinner for the family, it was delicious.

Logged on and got in a Novice plex in Huola. Within a few minutes a neutral Incursus came in. I was in a Firetail. I orbited at 5000m and used a range script in my Tracking disruptor. He was classic double repper fit with an Ancillary and a T2 repper. Took some killing, 12K + damage finally taken, but it was never in doubt. Easy kill.

A neutral Enyo then comes to the gate. Obviously he can't get in a Novice, he warps instead to a small plex which was also being run down by an Iron Oxide Firetail. I went over and joined the fight along with a Rifter, another easy kill courtesy of range scripted Tracking disruptors.

After that nothing, I have to say that in terms of targets, this month has been very poor for FW. It happens. Peaks and troughs, there is some indication that the Amarr are starting to come back, they took 2 systems over the last day, they own 5 now. Still a bit to do, before they can provide a decent opposition, but hopefully will pick up in a week or so. We are down to Tier 3 now so the farmers are packing up and going home that should make a difference.

Took a trip over to Dal in my Firetail, found a Vengeance running a plex. Not a good fight for a Firetail, but so hungry for a fight I went for it. Lost, podded back to Huola.

Finished the day converting LP to goods and getting them to market. Also treated myself to a Cane Fleet Issue and brought it into Huola along with a Prophecy.

Tuesday 17th September 2013

No advertised fleet, nearly didn't log on Trant, had stuff to do on my trading alt. However, I got on line to check and process new applications and decided to run the current Novice plex in Huola. One of our regular FCs was on line, he formed a fleet and a couple of us got in it for mutual support. A couple more joined, a small skirmish occurred in Kourm, I rushed over, but it was over by the time I arrived, with 3 kills for 1 loss. A few more people joined, then a Test Cruiser gang was reported in Auga. We found that the alliance had two fleets up and we folded them together, got into Armor Cruisers, myself in an Augoror and went to Kourm. We fought on the Auga gate, nice fight, we lost a Thrasher that was out of range of our reps and took down 8 Test cruisers, podding 5 of them.

We went on a roam of the area and ganked a few things down, including an Industrial which got me on the grieving board. The pilot was podded too and had a 600M pod.

An Amarr Frigate gang, the vets from yesterdays were back in a plex in Kamela. We got into Armor frigates and went after them. Another great fight, we were better organised this time and won the battle, but only after losing our logi wing. 5 losses to 14 kills. Unfortunately I was one of the first down and only got on one kill.

I reshipped into a Navitas as another frigate fight with a neutral gang, shaped up in Huola. After a bit of warping about, we finally engaged them in a medium plex. They primaried the logi and it was touch and go, everyone of us were driven to deep armor before we could pull it back, but reps held and we slaughtered them. Their logi wing went down and then they baled leaving behind two AFs that had been tackled.

A great night, only slightly disappointing that out of about 40 kills I only featured on 7 of them, the result of being in Logi all night.

Thursday 19th September 2013

Boring night, took out an Armor Frigate roam. We got a few ganks, I got on 3 T1 Frigate kills and a pod. Called it early. After three good nights, I guess the Warzone needs time to respawn.

Sunday 22nd September 2013

A generally good day for me, it had it's frustrations. However, you need to understand that I like loot. In particular I like the challenge of finding and recovering loot that is either abandoned or on a hostile field.

Anyway the day started out with me cooking the Sunday lunch. That was a let down to be frank. I went for one of these chicken roasts in a foil tin affairs. I've had them before but this was poor. In addition I didn't cook the Roast potatoes long enough and they weren't quite crispy enough.

But onto the important stuff, I logon about 3.30pm and get into a novice plex. Immediately I find a wreak full of T2 loot, good start. I put my cyno alt cloaked up outside the plex and presently I see a neutral Incursus land at range. I'm in a Firetail. He thinks about it and then starts approaching the gate. I change ammo and reset my orbit, I go to put a tracking range script in my tracking disruptor and find I haven't got one. Must have chucked it in the hanger with the last lot of loot. Nevermind a Firetail should still murder an Incursus.

Just as he reaches the gate, another Incursus warp in. The first Incursus immediately bales. The second Incursus has a suspect flag running, but he also lands at range and doesn't approach. So he spoiled the fight, but wasn't interested in one himself. Why do these people bother? Don't they know how to use the directional scanner? The plex closes and I go back to station, drop off the loot and pick up a tracking range script, this I fit as I'm hoping to be able to engage one of the Incursus.

He remains sat there so I warp back at a hundred and land 50 from him, he bales. I decided to move onto another novice plex but I mess up and warp to 100. I start burning in. The suspect Incursus also warps in at 100 landing 50 kms behind me. I turn back expecting him to bale, but this time he engages. He is in a buffer tanked, blaster, really stupid fit. I start to murder him, then no less than 6 Ventures warp in, they land at the gate about 50 kms off and start burning out to us. I assume they are together, think about getting in close and finishing the incursus, but at that stage still didn't know his fit had no reppers and thought he was just bait repping me. I align out, break out of his scram range and warp off. But they weren't together, they catch and finish him off. I end up top damage dealer, but it is still another solo fight spoiled.

Later I'm on commes while docked up in Huola and hear another solo pilot (Zen) report that there is a big fight kicking off on the gate that gives (Kourm/Kamela). His intel is a little sketchy, but I undock in my Firetail. There on the undock is a wreak, which is white to me, about 8 kms off. There is also a neutral Algos on the undock. Automatically I start burning for the wreak. The Algos yellow boxes, I yellow box him back and continue. Reach the wreak and scoop the contents. He immediately red boxes (titter). I scram and web and start shooting, but largely watch him get torn apart by the dock guns, they do 83.11% of the damage. Again I scoop his loot.

Meanwhile Zen is more forthcoming about the fight on the gate that gives. A blue gang is engaging a pirate gang. There are caps and BS on field. The blues are losing, but they may take down a Nidhogger and a Machariel first. I dock and jump into a Tristan. I'm intending to go and just try and wh*ore onto the kills, but I don't want to risk anything valuable if the fight has no chance.

As I warp over, Zen reports the Nidhogger almost down, I thought I'd missed it but land and get on it with plenty of time to spare. I do 2284 (0.39%) of the damage. The pirate are our old opponents R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. and they have some stuff on the field, in addition to the Nid, they have a Phoenix, 10 BS, a Legion, an Absolution and at least 5 BCs and HACs. Smile and Wave are their main opponents in a much inferior force. What is left of them bale after the Nidhogger goes down, but it isn't obvious to people outside their fleet that they had gone, or maybe they just all died. Another more committed pilot from Iron Oxide warps in with a Cane and dies instantly. Meanwhile I'm orbiting the battle at 20, locking all the pirates up and shooting them a couple of times each. I'm trying to work out who is primary as is Zen, but then we realise that the mass of blues still on the field are just abandoned drones. It is just me and Zen taking this lot on. Zen dies, but they can't catch me, although a Zealot chases me around for most of the time I'm on field, barely dinting my shields. Eventually I pull my drones and warp off.

I bring my cyno alt over and cloak him up 200 kms off the gate. Eventually the pirates jump out, leaving a mass of drones and loads of wreaks unlooted on field. I warp Trant in and out about 10 times and haul off around 70M isk worth of loot, mostly T2 drones. Pirates, WTs and friendlies pass through the gate. Shadow Cartel come sniffing but leave disappointed. I get yellow boxed a few times, but nobody dares agress.

I solo the rest of the day. I lose a Firetail to what I guess was an Arty, dual prop, web and warp disruptor fit Jaguar. I managed to sling shot him and get tackle on eventually, but I just couldn't get in under his guns before he took me down. I fitted up another Firetail and went out and killed a Punisher who exchanged GFs with me before I podded him. Then I killed a classic dual rep fit Incursus. He came to my plex gate at 100 but didn't fancy it and warped to a medium, but I saw him do this on my alt. I warped Trant to the medium at 100 and landed 20 from him. He choose to engage and the moment I got tackle on I knew he was dead. It took a while and 10,056 damage, but I kept him at arms length with a range scripted disruptor on him. He never even got me into armor. Afterwards he convo'd me for advice and was horrified to hear that I was active armor fit. Lol.

Tuesday 23rd September 2013

Security Status -4.6207

I clone jumped to my old NPC null sec home in Stain and started ratting back my security status. All did not go well, got distracted by a private convo as I was going through a gate and met a Sabre on the other side, fumbled the ball, lost my Purifier and got podded to boot.

Fortunately the first thing I'd done on arrival was set my medical clone to a local station. I had spare Purifiers available and even implants. Was up and running again in short order. Total loss was about 80M for the ship, pod and clone upgrade. Made 94M ratting over that night and the next.

Jumped back to Huola at the end of Wednesday night.

Security Status now -2.3987 - I could actually get into Rens now if I wanted to. I emphasis 'IF' and 'WANT'

Saturday 28th September 2013

Didn't play Friday. Had to go into work Saturday afternoon, but finally got back to Eve that evening. Initially very quiet. I ran a couple of plexes in Huola and then stopped for a couple of hours. I came back and had a listen in comms, while thinking about binning it. At that moment a friendly pilot reported having a WT Hyperion tackled at the Huola gate in Kourmonen. I report I'm coming in an SFI, but he asks me to bring tackle as the guy hasn't aggressed yet and is likely to jump to Huola. So I undock in my trusty Firetail. Another pilot (Ambo) reports he is bringing a Vigilant, which I have to say I thought was very bold of him. As I'm in warp, I establish that there is another alliance frigate with the Hyperion, but he has held off aggressing. So perhaps I should have brought the SFI afterall? Too late now.

Myself and Ambo land on the Kourm gate and wait. The Hyperion surprisingly red boxes on the guys on the other side, no other War Targets are in Kourm local, none are in Huola local, so we jump in and engage. We shoot away his shields and then start eating into his armor. He reps it back. Then a neutral (non flashy) gang land on us, consisting of two Deimos, Myrmidon, Brutix and another Hyperion. The WT Hyperion had tackled our Vigilant and they go straight for the Vigilant. As Ambo is a flashy, they don't even pick up a suspect flag. The rest of us in frigates can't do anything. Ambo goes down, but I stay on the WT Hyperion figuring they will turn on him next. Instead a couple of them turn on me, I'm in a Firetail and not even flashy and this BC/HAC/BS gang shoot at me rather than the WT Hyperion, we were well suckered.

I'm webbed and long pointed, but they can hardly hit me. I burn out of web range, then long point range and go to a perch bookmark over the gate. A Biohazard (blue) cruiser fleet warp in and engage the neutrals, some of whom are now flashy after shooting at me. I warp down while calling on comms what is happening, the others come back including Ambo, now in a Kestrel. I lock up all the neutrals and the WT Hyperion, see the Mymridon taking the damage and shoot at him, next the Brutix, then the WT Hyperion. All three die. I can't see any of the others taking damage, randomly pick one and start shooting.

"Your security status has just been lowered." Aura tells me. Crap, I'd fired on one that hadn't gone flashy, the gate guns are going to fry me. I immediately warp to a random bookmark and get out in low Armor. I turn around and warp back, it is all over. I loot one of the wreaks and warp to a station in Kourm to drop it off, then warp back to get more. All the wreaks are empty but there are a few drones left. I see a group of five Ogre IIs about 50 kms off and head for them. Grid empties of people except me and a neutral Slicer. He long points and starts shooting me. Of course I'm still carrying a Suspect flag. His DPS is weak though and he stays at long range. I continue onto the Ogres and scoop them up. Then turn back to the gate and start burning into it. A flashy Incursus lands between me and the gate, a guy I had killed a few days earlier. The Slicer though bales. I lock up the Incursus and engage, telling people on comms what is happening. I get a response from the guys and to be honest take my eyes off the ball. Although, I'm orbiting at 4000m I don't change the tracking script for a range script and he must have null loaded. He gets me into structure before I wake up, then friendlies arrive and kill him. I end up top damage, but really I should have treated it as a solo engagement and done a lot better.

After a little break I return to running plexes in Huola. The same Incursus pilot comes to my plex, he is in a new Incursus and I'm in the same Firetail. I change to the Range script this time, change my ammo and set my default orbit to 4000. He comes in and I murder him.

A bit later, I'm running another plex, only this time I'm in a Slasher. The plex closes and I warp to the station. However, before I land a WT Tormenter enters system and warps to the plex gate. I land, turn around and warp back. He is at range, but we burn towards each other and mutually engage. I get under his guns and murder him. He was only a few weeks old, had a decent fit apart from a MWD, but he didn't launch his drones, not that it would have made any difference. I caught his pod, gave him a GF in local then podded him, 51M Isk pod.

Monday 30th September 2013

Quiet night, I pulled together about 5 guys in an ad-hoc frigate gang in order to take a fight in a novice plex in Kourn. 5 of them, it looked like it would be a good fight. We entered the plex and then it seemed their FC panicked and ordered a bale at the last second. They left their most expensive ship, a brawling Hookbill, tackled.

So after that we roamed loosely about the local area and got a few more cheap kills. Then I derped us on a Daredevil which had an Exequror and Augoror supporting it. We lost 4 frigates then, including my Slasher.

We went back in cruisers, but they had baled. However, a lone Goonswarm Augoror warped into us and died pretty senselessly.

There were a couple of largish Amarr Frigate gangs about, but they wouldn't engage us while we were in Cruisers. We shipped down, but only four came back out. We went looking and ran into the same Frigate gang that we had initially tried to engage, now six strong against our four. I jumped into them and burned back to gate hoping to get a couple aggressed and then split them. They yellow boxed, then ran away.

Disbanded the fleet shortly afterwards. Later I soloed a Condor in a plex in Huola.

The Ashimmu from yesterday came out of the cooker. I offered it to alliance members for 135M and it was snapped up.

The month ended for me on 139 kills for 19 losses. That is the second worst (full) month I've ever done in FW, out of 16 months in it (Worst: last March 133/7. Best: last May 576/68). However, the Amarr are definitely bouncing back and Fweddit have just announced they are coming back to them, so next month should be a good one. It is definitely more fun when we are on the back foot.

Wednesday 2nd October 2013

An advertised Armor Gnosis roam was arranged for the night and around 12 of us reported in for it. Small stuff in plexes in Kourm forced us down into frigates, but again it was difficult to get an engagement, although we did gank down a couple of Caracals on the gates. The FC got us back into Gnosis and we set off again. We ganked a Thorax in Vard and was treated to the most obnoxious abuse in local from the pilot. Then we arrived at the Gulmorgod gate in Amamake. A largely neutral gang of cruisers landed on us and initally we engaged one of them only to have them jump through the gate. But our scout on the other side reported them burning back to the gate. They had logi as did we, it had the prospects of a good fight.

However, they had blues in their number. A complicated diplo chain was set up through the scout and we tried to work out whether we were friends or not. In the middle of this a Shadow Cartel gang of 9 or 10 Tornados warped in at range. We jumped into the neutral/blue gang and everything went to crap. The FC called do not engage, then when they engaged us, he called primary and then changed his mind. I asked 'should we warp out'. 'That might be a good idea' he conceded and I warped out at that point. We lost 3 Gnosis, a Curse and an Exequror, but they were later reimbursed by the blues.

We waited for the reships to rejoin and then continued on a roam about Metro. A couple left fleet at that point and we were down to 6 Gnosis, 2 Exequrors and 2 Intercepters. Nothing in Metro. We came back through the Bleak Lands, ganked a Caracal in Sahtogas and then continued into Tannakan, at this point I got distracted by the Caracal wreak and fell a little behind. The fleet jumped into Anka and tried to engage an AF gang on the other side of the gate. They cross jumped and found Lory in a Gnosis still in Tannakan. Lory has a sec status of -9.9 and thinking the rest of our fleet was aggressed in Anka they went for the gank. They red boxed on him at the exact second that I landed on grid. In addition several of our pilots particularly the logi were not aggressed and jumped back. They were tough nuts to cracks as they were spider tanking, but once committed they stayed in the fight till the end. Gradually we overwhelmed the first couple and eventually killed 5 Vengeance's and an Enyo.

We moved back to Huola and the fleet was partially disbanded. However it was suggested that if people were up for it, to run plexes in Kourm and Huola as there was pressure there. In the skirmishes that followed I got on an Executioner pod kill, a Thrasher, Tormentor and then a great fight with a Comet against my Firetail. I effectively soloed him, but a friendly pilot in a Stiletto arrived at the end and tagged the kill. By then though I'd shot down all (6) of his drones and was in a stable orbit with range control. It was done and dusted. We podded him to boot, probably the Stiletto got the initial tackle so I'm glad he joined the fight.

To my surprise I ended the scrappy night with 20 kills (5 of them pods) for no losses.