Alliance & Corporation Recruitment Center

Mell, have you been reading my forum?

Part 2

The Zealot thought that was joking and laughed at my 30 DPS, but within a few seconds our entire fleet was on the gate, Cal Jumped in and pointed the Zealot, and started hitting him. He sat there a minute or two absorbing the damage until he realized that he probably should do SOMETHING. He red boxed me and sealed his fate. We found little else and headed back to see what 3B.

When we arrived in AAM, I scanned down a 9-11 man Jagged alliance gang. Although it could have been a fairly even fight, the range on their tier 3 BC along with their Huginn would have not been good for us. We decided that we would take a pass as we would have lost quite a few, and visited 3B in D87. However, I would keep an eye on that BC gang as they were between home and us.

3B was not active so I once again scouted our gang home. They tried to be sneaky but we had scouts in every system both ways, so we were on to their tricks. We made it in to K-QWHE as they were trying to back track to our gate. We reshipped and came out. We decided on the standard Drake Logi fleet as they had a lot of DPS and a Falcon. They elected to take their 8 Battle cruiser and not engage. Their Falcon couldn’t jam our logistics it seems.

Since half the fleet was logging out and I was still wide-awake, I suggested to the other three active pilots that we bubble camp…gulp. I really didn’t care about camping, as I hate bubble camping. But since I wanted to chat with my guys I thought why the hell not. We set up in full Frigate gank mode and killed a Hurricane. We were just shooting the ****, when our scout picked up some moron in a Vindicator running through 8G.

We had about 2 minutes to react. Although there is more than one way to skin a cat as we could have came in a neut fleet, a battleship fleet, we could have brought caps, or tracking disrupted him, we decided to try it with 1 Kitsune, 1 Sentinel, 2 Cyclones, and a Thrasher. Our goal was to kill him with less than 200million isk worth of ships.

Since this douche bag thinks he shite doesn’t stink, we decided to show how average he really is. We kept him jammed and tracking disrupted the entire fight and webbed and scrammed by the Thrasher and Cyclones, he died in about 7-10 minutes. Of course he whined in local, told us how horrible we were, how lucky we were and that eve was broken, he even said how bored he is with eve and that he may quit.

I guess that dude finds fun in the differently than A4D. We have only one rule with pvp, honor a 1v1. Other than that gank them, fight them, bait them, bubble them, kick them in the shin, I don’t care…KILL THEM. This guy just doesn’t like what we do. It’s not my fault he came to the wrong place and fought the wrong pilots. I kind of feel sorry for him; his rage in local did indicate possible suicide.

Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255

100 Freaking Jumps

At one point in time or another, a lot of A4D were lowsec pirates, we tried to manage our sec status by engaging pirates, but at the end of the day we would shoot anyone if it was worth our time. Mauldrid and Mahes Ra decided that we hadn’t been on a Low Sec roam for a while and that we should go. Since my sec status was in the positive for the first time in years I figured….why not.

All of the corp. was invited although it was NOT mandatory. But I figured it could be worth a laugh or two. And to be honest, having an Aussie Scout and the Scottish FC calling each other colorful names were definitely worth my time. It started off with the intention of sitting on the Mifrata gate with the opportunity to perhaps kill a freighter. And of course the anticipation of doing something different soon turned to our rendition of “Are we there yet”.

We decided to do a roam, although we were slow and not prepared for a moving gang, we decided to throw caution to the wind. Of course we didn’t bring anything fast because most of us were setup to simply tank sentries all day. So we were stuck with a nano HAM drake as our fastest ship…ooops. Needless to say it although it was fun, we didn’t find many fights as we were scouted…we did however manage to get a few kills.

Although we had 2 Mammoth Kills, 1 Hurricane, 1 Rupture, 1 Prowler Kill the highlight of the day came from a guy from Nulli Secunda that didn’t honor his 1v1 agreement. He agreed to a 1v1 vs Mahes and then the guy warped in a Cynabal and a bomber to the fight….so we blobbed the **** out of them killing the Drake and Bomber. After I left, the gang continued on getting another 4 kills.

11 Kills 0 Losses

RECRUITING ANNOUNCEMENT: We are approaching 100 members. To keep the small corp. feel we are going to keep it under 100. We do have some inactive members that we will be evaluating and this may open up some slots, but we do not want to go over 100.

Epic Day Yesterday
Will the tier 1 Frigates getting a bump we decided to take out a group of el cheapo crap to see what kind of trouble we could get into. As we were getting ready, our neighbors asked us if they could tag along…and wouldn’t you know the gang kept growing. Although we were initially happy to get our standard ten ships, we were quickly up to 20 tier 1 frigates: Slashers, Executioners, and Griffins, plus some random ships.

Since we were running with tons of ECM and Tracking Disruptors and flying extremely cheap, we were going to hell bent on taking no prisoners. We were in it to win it and THAT is what we did. Even though we weren’t really all ready, we had about ten or so hanging around in VOL-MI waiting on the rest to show up. Our scout hawked down a Retribution which was accompanying a Talos, Drake and Hurricane. The Cane Bailed and left his buddies to fend for themselves. Although we lost a couple Slashers, we killed the Retribution and Talos.
2 Kills (Talos, Retribution)
We went to visit Initiative where they had snipers waiting for us; we chased down one of the Naga’s sitting at a snipe. Although they warped in more, they realized that they made a grave error and warped off.
1 Kill (Naga)

We were giddy as can be, we just managed to kill two tier 3 ships with a bunch of crap. We decided to head to HED-GP and see what trouble we get into. There was a bait maelstrom on the gate set up to aggress people so a bomber group could bomb…although we managed to kill a Thrasher and Incursus, we lost a couple to bombs…ironically the bombs cost more than the ship they killed.
2 Kills (Thrasher, Incursus)

We then set waypoint to the Honey Hole (HY-RWO). We call it that because the kills are just SO sweet. Our scout jumped in and tackled a Legio Astartes Rapier. We swarmed, jammed, killed and laughed. We then set waypoint to the Honey Hole part 2 (BUZ-DB). We had hit En Garde’s radar; they were setting up for us. They had a few Drakes, Hurricanes, and some support. We started off by killing their bait Drake as he was aggressed. Next was a perma -jammed Hurricane, then a Rifter, then another Drake, and another Drake. The rest jumped out and ran away.
Kills 4 (3 Drakes, 1 Hurricane)

By this time, Legio Astartes had enough time to form up. And form up did they did, they brought 1 Rokh, 1 Typhoon Fleet, Phobos, 8 Drakes, Caracal, and 3, 4 support. Not only did they decide to go heavy, they went heavy with the ECCM. We couldn’t jam anything. The fight started at 23:41 and ended at 23:51. Ten minutes of carnage.

At first we only had the Fleet Typhoon on gate, so we called him primary. It was fairly obvious that it was bait, but we didn’t expect them to bring as many as they did. We jammed what they could, but our Griffins of DOOM were mostly ineffective although they did buy us enough time to kill quite a few before the majority of our fleet died. I would list the losses but Slashers and Griffins aren’t worth my time.
Kills 7 (Caracal, Anathema, Ishkur, Rokh, Stabber, Cormorant, Drake)

Although I don’t hide the fact that I despise all alliances I do appreciate them when they fight out numbered. By the time all pilots have caught up to us, we had 27 frigates in our gang. This is NOT the usual gang we tend to be in, but this was during a time zone overlap period and we flew with our neighbors. Special thanks go out to the Art of War guys for tagging along with our merry band of misfits. Without their Griffins, we would not have had this many kills.

ANNOUNCEMENT: We are currently at 96 members, although we are in the process of removing dormant toons and removing alts, we do not want to go over 100. That being said, if you are interested in Joining A4D there isn’t much time…100 means we are closed until a slot opens up.

A4D Prizes: We handed out 5 Logistics ships in July for the top 5 scorers in A4D, although I ended up in 6th place I was happy to pay out to the guys who passed me up. They are superb pilots and deserved everything they earned. Congrats to Mellivora Capensis, Bullmastiff, Dirty Sansha’s, Tigerpr0n, and Thabela.

Although this month’s prizes aren’t nearly as flashy as last month, as a corp. we tend to undock Drake Fleets to counter blobs that go by. It’s not the best ship in the world, but it is functional and cheap. I am considering giving out 10 Drakes to the top ten scorers but that is subject to change. I wouldn’t mind handing out Oracles or Tornados, or Talos, or Stabber Fleet Issues….but nothing is concrete yet.

On another note, I want to give accolades to my guys that slaughtered everything while I was out. They killed ANOTHER Vindicator a Legion, Astarte, and a slew of other things. It is an honor to fly with this merry group of miscreants.

Keep the corp membership low? But that means you might actually have to get to know one another, build trust, and develop teamwork.

That's crazy.

BEING A RELENTLESS COMPETITOR

Most people think that to have a great corp, you must have great leaders. Well that is true. To have a great corp you must have great players. The only way for that to happen is to have trust and respect for each other in corp. And those players must develop themselves into leaders. The leaders of a great corp set standards and expectations, at a high level, for the corp. Whether its efficiency, how you conduct yourself, your conviction, and/ your dedication to becoming a great player. Whatever it is, a leader defines what he expects from you to be a part of that team. If you, as an individual don't buy into the system and do your part, then you will never have a great corp.

If you have two guys, and one is a high achiever, and the other is mediocre, then the two will never get along. You will never have the respect and trust, to have that great corp. With that being said, if you allow that to exist in your corp, then you will never achieve greatness.

How do you achieve that? You achieve it by your positive energy in trying to achieve a goal that's important to you. To be the best player you can be and helping the ones around you to be the best they can be. Now that's positive attitude.

If your gonna be a leader, the first thing you need to do is, you have to have a vision of what you want. So you have to know what you want to accomplish. The second thing you need to do, is to have a plan, of how you are gonna get there. What are you gonna do? How are you gonna create an example for the other players in your corp, so that your corp accomplishes the things they are capable of? Everyone has to buy in and everyone has to do it together. It cant be done unless everyone has the same mindset and dedication. And the last thing, is that you as individuals have to be responsible for your own dedication and self determination. That means you are accountable for yourself and what you do. Leaders define what they expect from you as an integral part of the corp. Your responsibility is to be accountable to it.

You must have the discipline to do what your supposed to do, when your supposed to do it, the way its supposed to be done. If you cannot do that, then your probably are not gonna be successful at anything you choose to do. Its accountability. If you cannot be accountable for yourself , then how can the rest of the corp ever depend on you? We cant, because that person isn't dependable. Its a part of who you are. From the time you woke up this morning until the time you go to bed, you have had to make decisions. Most of the time you know what the right decision is. You don't always do it , because someone you know is doing the wrong thing and it might be one of your buddies. But to be a leader, you must always make the right decisions. Because the right thing will never fail you. You will always be successful. There are no shortcuts.

You have to be a competitor. You never give up. You always continue to compete. You never show your frustration. You keep coming. You have the mindset that they cant kill you. That's relentless. When your a relentless competitor. When you keep coming, you play smart, you come at them with a plan. The enemy starts thinking these guys are crazy, they don't stop. It doesn't matter what we do, they are there with a different approach. It doesn't matter if we beat them in a fight. They are right back with a different plan, a different tactic. Giving the same kind of effort , the same kind of intelligent game play every time. Relentless. It doesn't matter who you are playing against, because you are relentless in the effort that you give, the intensity that you play with, the sense of urgency you play with, and how you go about playing the way you do.

Our number one goal should be, to have everyone in curse not want to fight us. I want everyone in curse to say, I hate fighting A4D. Because why? Because of the way that the corp competes in the game. You cant get in their head. You cant get them frustrated. Even if they make a mistake, they are right back at you the next time. And they will never show there disappointment in what they do. They are gonna persevere. They are gonna be persistent and relentless in the way they fight. That is how you have success, because most corps cant do that. You create a tremendous advantage for yourself when you do that.

What I'm talking about doesn't take a huge amount of intelligence. It takes attitude, decisions and a commitment. This all leads up to one thing. Pride in your performance. Wanting to be the best player you can be and not being satisfied until you accomplish that. It doesn't matter what role you play. Be the best at it. Be the best logistic pilot ever, the best tackler ever, the best damn solo artist ever. That's it.

You can't have great victories unless you overcome adversity. Because, adversity is what makes it a challenge. Somebody tells you to do something, someone sets a standard of how your gonna do it, you understand it, its defined, and then you show you have the ability and accountability to do it that way. Always coming back, always playing the next play, no matter what happened on the last play, you can play the next play like it has a history and life of its own. You can compete just as hard, with just as much effort, with just as much discipline you execute what your supposed to do, when your supposed to do it, and how its supposed to be done, every play of the game. Thats being a relentless competitor. That's A4D.

So, who are you? Are you relentless?

Many people have asked me why I haven’t been updating our recruitment post; we have hit our recruiting limit. We only have x number of Trial accounts at one time. In a nut shell, every time we get an infusion of new blood, the ignorant sh!t starts. The new guys start by getting a lot of kills early, and then they think it is so easy they force the fights and end up losing lots of ships.

This is what happened last week….WOW. Our monthly board went from almost 86% down to 82% in two days. Luckily I think we have the issue solved, but we aren’t really recruiting right now. So if you DO want to be a part of A4D, I suggest that you 1) had better be too good to pass on. 2) OR too good to pass on. Don’t worry, recruiting is not normally closed very long, we just have to acclimate the new guys on how we do things.

Now…for Yesterdays Fights.
I logged on early yesterday morning, to say hello to my fellow A4D members, I was working from home so I really couldn’t do anything, just chat every now and then and station spin. While station spinning the guys ended up grabbing two pods worth 2.78B (Wookkie868) and 1.55B (Alexey 777)... WOOT.

The first fight of the day started next door in Hemin, We had a couple Incursus, a Griffin, a Slicer and a Dramiel. A couple retirement club guys jumped into us, a Talos, Vengeance, and Loki. The Loki warped away so it was obviously gang bonuses, the Talos locked up our Griffin and single volleyed it…that means no jams….oops. I managed to get under his guns, and started chewing away his shields while the other guys were tracking disrupting. We managed to take out both ships with only a couple losses.

Since we had some luck with that we decided to head out and do it again. This time we ran into a bigger gang and ended up losing all 5 ships to a stabber fleet, Enyo, falcon, and something else. For some reason, half my gang decided to aggress an un-aggressed ship on the gate, thus splitting our DPS and sealing our fate. Hopefully we don’t fail at pvp 101 next time. So we went back and built even more Tier 1 frigates.

This time we managed to avoid a 40 man initiative blob, and avoid the same group that kicked the bejesus out of our frigates last time…eventually ending up at the honey hole. I managed to find and hold on to a Drake for all of 9 seconds before being popped. I didn’t mind taking one for the team as they warped to the gate, jumped in and tackled the Drake….only to have our Griffin popped a third time and then 5 more Drakes warp in. Same fate, we died.


That was enough frigate fun for the day as my lunch hour was over, Later in the day we managed to engage in a three way against K162 and an Initiative gang. The Initiative gang had 3 super dominix and a lot of support, where the K162 gang was all shield nanofiber fit. For the first time in years we undocked battleships and decided to engage with DPS and Neutralizers.

Although we killed 3 Domi’s, Ashimu, Stabber Fleet, we ended up losing a Tempest, Oracle, and a Guardian. All and all it was a great fight and those are hard to find sometimes. Thanks to Pandoralica for bringing it. That was fun.

What type of corp are we anyway? Do we gank? Yes. Do we fight? Of course. Do we suicide in empire? Affirmative. Do we pirate..hell if I know. If you are worth killing, we kill you. So what type of corp is A4D? We are a collection of players that do not care about politics, we do not care about sov, we don't care about cap fights, we only like to get that kill mail without losing ships unnecessarily. That is the A4D way.

No idea if we are still recruiting or not but I thought I would still post about a roam last night from our late night US time zone crew. I logged in to comms to hear a battle cruiser roam forming up. I always love it when it times out like that. But then again that is pretty common for me since joining A4D last year. Lots of activity with camps and roams in both 0.0 and empire at times. But I digress. In about 10 minutes everyone is undocked and pointed toward the out gate. Our fleet consists of 5 battle cruisers, 1 cynabal and a slasher. We reach the in gate to 1 jump out of destination when our scout reports a fleet of about 20 waiting on us at our destination. Here is where I will say why I love this corp. I have been in corporations that would say f that , let's pick a new destination. Bringing me full circle to why I love this corp....The question was asked and in almost complete unison the reply was let's engage. How do you not love that? So that is what we did. Did we hold the field? No. Did we get more kills? No they got 5 of us and we got 4 of them. Did we win the isk war? Yes. Was it fun? Hell yes. Here is a link if curious: Battle Linkage

A couple nights ago a gang I had never seen in curse before came rolling through our home system brawling for a fight. We threw together a fleet quickly to chase them and see if we could get a fight. They were willing to oblige us. We ended up loosing this fight but we went back to re-ship and engage again. They were not as willing now that they were down a couple of ships and understandably so. But I told all of that to say this: In local one of their guys said "you guys rock...we are coming back here again". There is no better compliment than those of your enemies.