The Blunder of Pandemic Legion OR How to lose an Erebus to a bunch of faction warfare noobs

The Erebus in Question

It finally happened.

I suppose I must start at the beginning. As of late (the last two weeks, more or less), the mighty Pandemic Legion alliance, for reasons unclear and largely chalked up to boredom in their little home in 0.0 space, decided it was in their best interests to take a field trip and squat in our faction warfare space, and when I mean our, I mean they have proven to an irritation for both Amarr and Matari forces in the area. They have a certain predilection for sitting around in very expensive, powerful ships, shooting what they can but generally being blue-balled by the residents of the area, as they are even more overbearing than the Amarrians. You may recall from an earlier post the loss of my Rupture to a gatecamp of Titans - same guys. Anyway, being as out-of-place as they were here, it was really only a matter of time before they'd do something so stupid it would be trolled upon by everyone in Eve. Thus, the aforementioned Erebus. In giving due credit, it was almost entirely pulled off by the Amarr, and mostly the Wolfsbrigade Corporation at that. Us Minmatar were too occupied with rolling about in fits of laughter to consider sending ships of our own. This might indeed by the first time in living memory when Wolfsbrigade's firepower and numbers, widely considered outsized for faction warfare, came into its own and presented them with a fun challenge. PL, in their infinite wisdom, had camped the Osoggur/Amamake gate, infamous for its gatecamps, in an array of capital and large ships. What went down next seems to be pretty straightforward. The faction warfare group pounced on the camp with their own array of carriers and dreadnoughts.

Battle ensued...

By the end, PL had managed to lose the 70 billion ISK Erebus, as well as 4 carriers and a Pilgrim, totally a whopping 133 billion ISK. Despite having lost many more ships, including over three dozen capital ships, the fw fleets losses were only 2/3's that of Pandemic Legion's. Looting, as well as raging and massive flaming in local chat ensued. The true victory though, in my humble opinion, was that a legendary alliance like Pandemic Legion could be brought low by a pile of riff-raff in faction warfare space (however well-equipped that riff-raff might have been). It is hoped, with the loss of a ship costing more than $2500 USD, that the otherwise venerable Pandemic Legion will consider carefully about whose space it chooses to encroach on.

Signing off,

Ed

Yoda on Faction Warfare

4 Titans and a Hurricane

Last night, in a moment of crass decisiveness, I FC'd a small fleet. It has been a while since I had to look after any fleet - I usually prefer being a scout - but, in a sudden move, we all wound undocked in cruisers outside the station in Huola. As luck would have it, a particularly badly fit Abaddon unsafely far off the Otelen gate, which we quickly pounced on, as well as the Crusader accompanying it. Buoyed by this early success, I directed the fleet into Kourmonen, where a horde of Titans was found camping the Kamela gate. We thought, in our little cruisers, that we'd go rubberneck this oversized collection of Pandemic Legion vessels sitting around on a gate in low-sec.

Things began to deteriorate.

First off, embarrassingly, this happened. Then this happened to Dakuri. Not quite the sort of thing I wanted to happen in my fleet. We reshipped, and, avoiding the PL blockade, jumped into Lamaa. Dakuri, being the optimistic guy he is, had come back in a Hurricane. Shortly after arriving in Lamaa, this happened to Dakuri. Then this happened to Degnar's Arbitrator. Having now lost 4 ships, in the midst of confusion and the general scattering of the fleet, I ordered everyone to get safe.

My fleet op was over. And only 2 jumps from our start.

In hindsight, there were a few things I had failed to take into account, in the latter losses, the particular eagerness of the Amarr to, as always, engage with overwrought ships, and the dangers of rubbernecking (just as in real life, it can result in accidents). The others generally determined that it was just bad luck, but it was perhaps a reminder about how long it had been since I'd FC'd last, and how quickly, in faction warfare, you can get completely steamrolled as a result of a single bad decision.

Next time, I'll go rubberneck in a shuttle.

Sigining off,

Ed

Captain's Log

Captain's Log: Edna Ironsides
Dead Horse (Hurricane-Class Battlecruiser)
High Orbit over Huola III

It would appear in recent days that the Amarr/Caldari coalition have finally got their panties above their ankles again, and reclaimed space from the Gallente and Minmatar. A handful of star systems occupied by Matari forces have finally been reclaimed by the Amarr, including Raa and Sifiliar, and would seem to indicate that the Amarr are in fact capable of organising themselves once in a blue moon. Huola, however, remains comfortably in Matari hands (it helps that we have a bunch of keeners who live to de-contest the system). Along the Caldari/Gallente front, 6 Caldari star systems that have long been held by Gallente forces were finally reclaimed and the Gallente system of Oicx (you try and figure out how it should be pronounced), was captured by the Caldari. Meanwhile, efforts by Wolfsbrigade to have a POS in the Kourmonen star system resulted in a resounding roflstomp of said POS, much to the chagrin of ranking members of the Amarrian forces. I suspect that we may see a degree of persistance from the Amarr, what with their POS build and system recapturing, but sceptics within the ranks of the Late Nite Alliance, and the Matari militia generally, find this doubtful over the long-term. It may, in the very least, be a continued source of good battles and mangled bits of golden armour floating through space.

Signing off,

Ed

Rifters, Grifters & Shitters

This is a Rifter.

For most of us serious about the PvP-related activities in this game, this is THE ship to start out in. It's tank is reasonable, it's firepower (with T2 autocannons) is acceptable, and its quick. The number of people in the Eve Community who have espoused the virtues and useful ways to fit this little frigate are numerous and legion (just google "how to fly a Rifter"), so I won't be bothered in enumerating the technical aspects of it. For my part, I still use these a lot, partly because I have stacks (20 or so) of them sitting in my hangars, but also because, to offer a critical opinion of myself, I'm still a little shit at PvP. Maybe a lot shit. However, the point I'm trying to make, for the benefit of those new to Eve (there are always a lot you), you really do need to go out and just lose these ships. Buy 50 of them. ASSUME at that point that they're already destroyed, you just don't know it yet, and proceed to undertake every way you could engage an enemy ship that you can imagine. On Stations. On Gates. In Asteroid Belts. In plexes, 200km off a planet, in high-sec (if you're like me), in low-sec and null. By the time you watch the bright light explode off the 50th ship, if you haven't learned anything about PvP in Eve Online, either A)stop. Uninstall the game and walk away. or B)Take up mining. At this juncture, I've lost about 30, and I like to think that if nothing else, I know how to NOT die by this point.

In other news, the Elections of the 7th Council of Interstellar Management are underway. For those of you that don't know/haven't got a clue, the CSM is effectively the representatives of the Eve's player base to CCP, the game's developer. They are effectively a focus group for the developers. Now, because I am in Faction Warfare, and I am never impartial. If yohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifu are reading this, and live in high security or low security space, vote for Hans Jagerblitzen. He is something a local celebrity in the faction warfare space that I frequent near Rens, and whether or not you know anything about him, the issue at stake here is that we, those of us who do not live in null-sec, need to have a voice on the Council, and quite frankly Hans' ideas are easily the most coherent and concise of any candidate claim to represent us, and we need to combat the hegemony of the null-sec interest groups, whose ideas tend to dominate the CSM and Eve generally. If you want to know more about what he's about, look here. If you are already a paying account member of Eve, and have yet to vote, go here. Do it. Do it now. And hope to God/the Celestial Spaghetti Monster, that he wins. A win for Hans is a win for all of us (who aren't fetishistic about null-sec).

Signing off,

Ed