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Burn Curse

Let me tell you a bit about the day shift in A4D this week. Much of the focus has been on burning. On Monday I managed to set my head on fire in real life and had a couple of days in hospital so my activity has been down on usual. EU killer-in-chief, Thabela, missed our one decent fight of Sunday afternoon by setting his food on fire and causing the evacuation of his apartment building. My other partner-in-crime Alex has been (Elvis voice and curled lip) a hunka hunka burnin’ love since his better half moved in and this distraction must have been the cause of his pimp Machariel dying in a fire on Thursday http://www.appetite4destruction.net/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=35674. To be fair we went to engage a much smaller gang who then executed a well-structured tarp and got their rightful spoils.

Whilst all the real-life drama has unfolded everybody’s favourite Rab C Nesbitt double Mauldrid and the lovely Faldybanny (answers on a postcard) have been permanent fixtures, griefing visitors to K-Q and employees of CCP in their spare time. They have been ably assisted by Juddah, who is a professional Yorkshireman (says what he likes and likes what he bloody well says) and a regular contributor to the camping action and only slightly more active on comms than Incorr, who as we all know is Stephen Hawking’s sister. She did bring a smile to my somewhat mangled face when I noticed she had named her Cormorant ‘Fish Breath’.

Day shift on Saturday was a bit slow just taking the odd unwary traveller. Now they say NPC space is the home of small gang PvP but apparently CVA were not on that mailing list. In excess of 110 of them made a slow procession through our patch. Lone Drake jumps in and reapproaches, the remaining 109 sit on the other side of the gate under the noses of our scouts before jumping in. They got a near perfect score of 5.9 from the A4D judge, for the beautifully executed fleet warp to the next gate, where the charade is repeated. They instapop our large bubble and move on. If only they had been drawn against some anchored entity in the tournament they might have been able to make this some sort of open top bus parade. This went on for about 45 minutes as they meandered up and down the pipe without finding anybody to fall for their tarp. They scurried off minus a Thrasher as a AAA gang was spotted coming up from the south.

Evidently they didn’t get the memo either as they brought 90+ to Curse in search of a gudfite. Their fleet warping was disappointing in comparison and as a bonus they had a couple of fat asthmatic kids with them asking in local if they could borrow an inhaler. This one didn’t heed the warnings and was snagged at least a couple of systems behind the fleet http://www.appetite4destruction.net/killboard/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=35776.

The Sunday afternoon camp was a bit hectic. Whilst we enjoy the challenge of trying to kill every ship that travels through K-Q, we do love a scramble fleet. That’s where we are all in small stuff and dash to station to ship up to more substantial stuff to counter a threat.

We spotted eight or so Assault ships with a couple of Cynabals headed up the pipe. Some reshipped and some didn’t. The light stuff was already out of the bubble as we got back from station, and as we milled around a battle cruiser gang jumped in. It wasn’t pretty as we were not in the right ships or even all together and our beloved poster of inappropriate images, Bullmastiff, lost a Cyclone. Those who could, got out, and we went back and avenged the loss with a Cyclone from Gunboat Diplomacy who thought we blobbed him, but hey, opinions are like backsides.

In all the confusion a Xenon Prime gang was spotted. We went and change for the only ships you absolutely positively have to have in A4D, the shield battle cruiser. Where charged the gate and engaged at which point we realised that only the mute Incorr had a properly fitted ship. We got out apart from a couple and went back in the proper gang. Buoyed up by their earlier success and by the fact they had brought a battleship Xenon expected a similar result. One of the Basilisks got jammed, the cap chain evaporated as did the reps on Incorr. Not for the first time a plucky Essex lass went down. Alex logged in halfway through the fight and buoyed up with his success from Thursday (see above) warped a Machariel to the gate and cleared the drones. Logistics re-established the fight went badly for the visiting Russians and it all ended a bit like the recent European soccer championships where spectacular early success ultimately fizzled out in the face of determined and organised opponents. http://www.appetite4destruction.net/killboard/?a=kill_related&kll_id=35813 shows most of the action and before you complain, try opening in a new window.

After two hours of martial arts training I was dragging major arse last night. I crawled in the house around 8:15, jumped in the shower, and hung out with my wife until she was sick of me and banished me to my fortress of solitude. I logged into Eve around 9:45 and had a couple people ask about “the roam”. To be honest I didn’t know about “the roam”, you might have well asked me information about “the Easter Bunny”, or a “Rainbow Colored Unicorn”

Since I was ignorant of all things roamish, I decided to take two of my favorite peoples with me on a short 3 man roam of my own. We decided that we would be douchey and take 1 Crusader (Corwyn), 1 Brutix (TylerJames), and one d-bag Falcon (Sygma). As we were leaving, Shinob joined us in a second Falcon making our gang truly flaming.

Since WRG had a scout in RMOC, they scattered before we even hit the Hemin gate. We systematically went through each system…Hemin, Jorund, Utopia; Nothing. About that time we had a few people ask if we had left yet and although we had, we decided to go pick the guys up. We jumped into Hemin, and caught some of the WRG ships on scan and a Harbinger; by chance we all landed on the RMOC gate at the same time.

By this time Cal7 had caught up with us and we now had a Brutix and Talos and two Falcons. Although the neutral Harbinger jumped into RMOC, the WRG guys elected not to have a three way. I don’t blame them, they would have lost. That was our first kill of the night a Harbinger that we caught and ganked.

After entering our home system, we had people logging in left and right asking about “the roam”, by this time Taang and the Six Pack guys were on and wanted a proper gang so we reshipped. The decision was to go in an armor gang, so we jumped in our uncharacteristically large 20 man armor gang. Our destination: Dawson’s Creek (Wicked Creek).

About 4 jumps in, we figured out that all of us were slow as hell and as usual we forgot to bring a tackler or scout. Since we all know AB Zealots make the best tacklers, like an idiot I volunteered. We uneventfully traveled down the pipe until we finally found people in Q-K. I scanned down a few ships but they were in a POS so I moved to the out gate.

The rest of the gang jumped in and asked, “Sygma was that Cyno up while you were in here?” I said no because of course because I had turned beacons off a few days ago. The gang decided to warp to the Cyno. Wouldn’t you know it, all the ships that we had on scan were outside the bubble. The first ship we killed was the Cyno Rapier, then a Myrmidon and a Hurricane. By this time all the ships were scurrying back into the POS shields. Once we verified that no one was warp scrambled, we continued on our journey.

By this time I am thinking I am a scouting GOD, I jumped into a system and see a Malediction sitting on my gate. I locked him up and he tackled me. I kept shooting at him thinking that they may have a gang coming but it never happened. As the Malediction hit armor he aligned out, I overheated my warp disruptor and popped him at 32k. Once he left local, the rest of the gang jumped in and we warped to our destination system.

I jumped in and scanned only a Ferox near their station. I warped to the Ferox and started to scramble. He didn’t aggress, he just docked. They then undocked an Armageddon….he then docked. I start to align back toward the gate when a Hurricane warps within 20k and starts firing. I locked him up and return fire. I call the troops in and we dispatch the hurricane.

We realize we only have about 15 minutes but we decide to visit 5Q65 on the way home. The five jumps were relatively uneventful, not much was happening. I jump into the destination system and find 20 large bubbles on the gate. So I burn out of the bubbles at 575mps and scan a carrier in space with fighters out. I do an anomaly scan and notice there is only one Haven.

I warped to the Haven at 0 and find the Chimera there warp scrambled by rats….helpless. I get the tackle and a half hour later my backup arrives after they burn through the bubbles. Thank you Angel Thugs…Thank you stupid carebears.

Kills 1 Recon, 6 Battle Cruisers, 1 Carrier
Losses 0

Cal 7 Poops his pants.
Once you engage a Logistics gang without logistics, you will find that you only make that mistake once. With two Logi’s a fleet is “engagable”, with three…not so much, with four forget about it. Last night we had a fairly strong gang with 4 Guardians, Typhoon Fleet, 4 Canes, 4 Stabber Fleet, Damnation, Curse, Deimos, Sacrilege. Not an easy gang to match up to.

Our goal was simple; we were actively looking for a similar sized 401k, AAA or even BBB gang. We set waypoint to D87 because it looked like BBB might be active. Unfortunately for us Brushie Brushie Brushie was not active, most were AFK. That is ok, I still respect them they just didn’t have the numbers to engage us. We were a little too high powered a gang for Curse. We would have to go elsewhere.

Although our eventual destination was HY- we decided to visit HED-GP first. We were being ghetto with the Typhoon Fleet Issue of Cal 7 leading the way. He jumped into HED and didn’t see anything. He warped to the Keberz gate and landed in a warp bubble. He instantly said, jump in, warp to Cal…hurry hurry hurry. Some douche alliance had 15 stealth bombers sitting there pounding on him.

By Cal 7 overheating his Armor Hardeners he bought himself enough time until the guardians arrived and repaired his armor to full. Luckily Chribba’s playhouse was available to repair the massive amounts of structure damage still on the Typhoon. On top of that they have a great coin operated laundry so Cal could wash the giant turd that he shat while waiting on reps.

We decided to go to HY to see what trouble we could get into. Heck we even might run into a 401k gang if they haven’t already cascade failed. When we arrived in Catch not much was happening; Legio Astartes refused to form up, AAA was too disorganized to form up, and En Garde was too scared to form up (of course this is all total BS, but it makes for a better story). Nothing…

We decided since we were in a fairly large fleet, we decided to set waypoint to proviblob space. We knew we were going to fly into the Lions mouth, but we didn’t care…Cal 7 was scouting and he would die LONG before we would. When Cal jumped in, he noticed 25 in local but none were on scan. He warped to a planet near the out gate and landed right in the middle of 20 T1 Cruisers. Cal shrilled like a school girl and called us in.

The Cruiser gang had enough Electronic Warfare that they jammed out Cal pretty fast and he never managed a lock on to anything. Once we spiked local the cruiser gang decided it wasn’t the fight they wanted and they got safe. Although Cal had taken no damage, he did leave a giant skid mark in his backup pair of underwear. True story.

We moved down the pipe to checking every little corner of Providence giving CVA enough time to form up. While doing so, we sent scouts into surrounding systems. I was assigned to a gate very near Tigerpr0n. Since Tiger landed on his gate first, he jumped in and said “Oh My God, Navy Mega on gate”. Since I hadn’t jumped in to my system, I warped to his gate and sat there just in case the Mega jumped.

Tigers job was to engage and either wait for him to red box, or let him jump into me where I was waiting. The gang had 77 AU to get to us. Luckily for Tiger, the Mega was afkish. The guy came back just in time to see himself enter structure. He red boxed Tiger; the rest of the gang jumped in and dispatched the Megathron. But even better was that we managed to get a lock on the Pod that ended up having High Grade Slaves; SCORE. Ironically enough Cal soiled himself once again.

CVA did manage to get a fairly sizeable gang up, and were waiting at a POS when we were leaving. We warped to their POS and engaged a Warp Scrambling Battery, but they didn’t want to play. I don’t blame them. Although they had POS guns and a similar amount of DPS, they didn’t have Logi or the 3x numbers that CVA requires to engage anything. Pax Amaria this.


Kills 1 Navy Megathron, 1 Warp Scrambling Battery
Losses 0

"a place in A4D where you are free from having to deal with being part of a larger political entity, free from flying in blobs, free form Sov warfare [...] My fellow A4D members look forward to hearing from you and I know once you see what we have to offer...you will see it our way. "Alliances have no meaning"" -- Sygma; Preaching the good sermon.

You said it brother. Now it's time to get back to killing.

Sometimes it is USTZ and sometimes it is EUTZ and there is Australia but that's 80 people in Eve so what the hey. We've had a bit of fun recently on the graveyard shift, which is drunk or insomniac North Americans, early rising Euros and our Canadian living in New Zealand (I'm guessing he's REALLY into scenery).

It is mostly chilled out and all about killing some stuff and shooting the breeze. If you are lucky you might catch Cal7 in one of his loquacious moments and get an in depth analysis of just how awesome he is. If you are even luckier you will get to see how awesome he can be. Yesterday I logged in to find the 'mericans getting back off a roam and bumping into an En Garde gang hilarity ensued http://killboard.appetite4destruction.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=36284. (This will allow you to see our super-duper new killboard courtesy of Angela Constantine) shortly after a Loki jumped followed by an Absolution. We engaged and he died. All Bull could say about it when he logged on was "no rep".

We got bounced by a group of Russians who separated me from my beloved Sabre and gave me the opportunity to refresh the clone. Whilst it looks like we were only visited by dumb individuals there are also the gangs which roam around in this quiet time with far too much to get gudfites. Gwyn'bleid (the only Welsh-Russian I know) persists in rolling his Machariel and lots of support up and down the pipe and not getting fights.

We had the Hashishin Cartel roll through. First a Rupture, then the scout sees eight more Ruptures. And seven Thorax. And two Sabres. And a Rapier. And a Lachesis. And FOUR Guardians. And a Falcon. And some assorted light tackle. They were nice about it but disappointed we wouldn't fight with 5 people. 7am in Curse.

Well its all part of the mission statement that We, here at A4D, are constantly striving to deliver an outstanding visitor experience, whatever the time of day

"I'm a firm believer in luck, and I've found that the harder I work, the luckier I get."
Thomas Jefferson

I say this because yesterday we killed a Tengu like 73m away from the undock of a station, Unlucky Tengu and a cloaked person in local opined that we get all the breaks. Yeah we were lucky to get him so close to the undock but finding him in the six stations, getting fast lock ships with webs, bumping him and warping in the 90% web Vigilant all helped to get the kill.

Scouting the approaches to our system to ensure we had the right ships to catch this Dumb Tengu and kill him was not just luck. Our luck does extend to some poor decisions by certain individuals as to their choice of ships to sashay round o.o solo in, Pretty dumb Maelstrom, Even dumber Tempest, and Now you see me, now you....oh wait. Throughout the day they just kept on coming in their t2 frigates and battlecruisers.

Now we didn't have it all our own way and got spanked a bit by Podbased Lifeforms but when you sit back on your rocking chair in the Autumn of your life, reflecting upon your time, there will be days that are good and days that were bad. When I am in that rocking chair I will look back on yesterday and think that it was most definitely one of the good days.

Faction Friday in K-QWHE

Well the mood in A4D was a bit subdued as I logged on this morning as the USTZ had been kerb stomped by a Moros and some morons bringing shield ships to an armour gang. It didn't lift too much on an impromptu early morning/very late night roam around Catch and several other regions I had only seen on Dotlan. It was really good to tag along with Bull, Sygma and Cal7 as they are excellent pilots and Dirty Sancha's came along too. We only got a Drake and a Rifter but it was fun.

The morning drifted by with only a couple of nothing kills and then we had a single Stabber Fleet Issue hot dropped by a ten man gang (there were Basilisks and other nonsense) he'd actually escaped the initial drop and got probed down at a short safe, as I said Dirty Sansha's came along too.

After a brief interval for a light lunch we resumed our activities. We were failing miserably to catch a very quick Navy Slicer when a Daredevil was spotted in RMOC. We rushed the gate and bubbled as he came in he tried to run but wasn't nearly fast enough. It turned out he was a bit of a piñata and I bet the pod was worth an ISK or two. We spotted a Purifier and between me and my buddy Reemos we managed to de-cloak and pop him. Evidently he had seen the earlier kill and decided to bring a similar fitting in his cargo hold.

We were all feeling very cheery as we sifted through the faction leewts and divvied up the spoils when my long range scout spotted a solo Russian Vargur a few jumps out. I ran to the gate in my trusty Heretic and kissed it goodbye as we waited for it to jump. In it came, I bubbled and ran away trying to get off a whoring shot. He disappeared. Comms went mad. "He cloaked, he cloaked" as we rushed back above the gate in a re-enactment of the Russian Fleet hunting the Red October. Four long minutes passed as we searched for him. Bubbles went up and collapsed when suddenly Reemos again got the pro de-cloak. Our prey posted the following in local [14:08:27] Kazmaminers > неудачники пока пока. According to Google it means bye bye losers. It was at this exact moment he was hit with multiple webs and scrams and not an inconsiderable amount of DPS. We were in close as a cloaky Marauder was going to take about a week to lock a frigate. The ship died and moments later the pod went the same way.

I spoke earlier this week about people making poor choices of solo ships in 0.0 and of good days. It would appear that I was too hasty in my judgement. Everybody knows a Vargur with no propulsion mod makes the best transport in Curse and this was a much, much better day.

Darwinism

The other night one of my scouts watched a covert ops ship warp into the OUCH bubble in 8G. Now I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he was one of the four people left in the Greater Curse area who didn't know that Bren and his crew regularly have a catch bubble from VOL-MI. More to the point if there are 16 in local in a pipe line system it might be worth not warping straight to the out gate.

Having decided against coming in from an angle he was duly separated from his Cheetah or whatever, but props to this plucky individual he got his pod out and warped back the way he came. Moments later his pod warped into the bubble which had seen the demise of his ship. Somewhat surprisingly OUCH didn't get a point on him (damn that uncloaking delay on the Falcon) and he again warped off.

Well I thought to myself, once bitten twice shy is probably not the family motto for this chap who was now ranting in local about space vermin and questioning both the marital status of everybody's parents and the sexual preferences of those involved in his ship loss. To be honest he wasn't doing himself any favours. It is usually better to say nothing and have people think you are an idiot than say things which removes all doubt.

As he warped a third time straight into the bubble which was now patrolled by an insurance Heretic his fate was sealed. In a flurry of Anglo-Saxon oaths he was dispatched. At one stage as he got his pod out for the second time I had adopted the default British stance of supporting the plucky underdog. As he was finally podded I thought, you know what fella that was exactly what you deserved as you are stupid and there is no cure for that. Darwin was right about the survival of the fittest and elimination of the weak.

This morning I was reminded of the ideas of Darwin as we killed a Thrasher which an unwary traveller had decided was the best protection of a fairly expensive pod. It's not a secret that K-Q is often camped and I suppose the same merciful release was provided to his alliance mate seven minutes later. Gotta love intel channels.

Pinch, Punch, First of the Month

Round here we have a tradition the on the first morning of the month you can go up to people pinch them on the arm and then punch that arm. If it's your wife it is normally a light tap, if it's your mate then you can just back up the Buick and hit him as hard as you can.

I logged on and found the awesome friend of A4D, Cal7, fitting up a Sentinel out of sheer boredom. I spotted a couple of cloakies a couple of jumps out. I went with a Heretic and Cal came with the Sentinel. SG1A was at the in gate shooting some rats and the Loki jumped in. He was nullified and I wasn't close enough to bubble anyway. A few seconds later a Tengu de-cloaked. More in hope than in expectation I tried to lock him as I bubbled. OMG I got lock. Cal7 and I ran to get a scram on him and started shooting. He was leaking shield as SG tried to get in range. At half shield he started to hit me hard as SG started putting on the hurt. As I bailed I bubbled for the pod and he died.

Spidey senses must have been tingling all over A4D as all sorts of people started logging on. The kills just kept on coming including one epic fight with a Cynabal who bounced from one side of the gate to the other and he died as I was in deep structure.

More than 20 kills before downtime - PINCH,PUNCH - FIRST OF THE MONTH