The Excitement of Battle

Now this post has been written waiting to get published from basically half an hour after  the engagement happened but I was wary of publishing it because  it will provide my enemies with some meta game advantage but I thought that as hardly anyone reads it I would publish  & the fact that I rarely get the chance to FC I think it is safe to do so.

Right so let me set the scene for you Myself, Wraph & Julian where sitting chilling in the Corp office generally just pissing about waiting for the next war to go live. Stupid Yulai convention stopping us from just murdering these grief tards. Anyway as the war went live the comms panel lit up it was one of our intelligence agents(really just a capsuleer with a booster habit to keep up we paid for info) told us that Double Tap alliance where fleeting up. It looked like these ass holes wanted to fight. A twisted dark smile spread across my face as I told the others the good news.

So we had our IA follow them & let us know what was happening, fleet comp, numbers etc etc. He reported back to me that there where 10 of them in total 2 x hurricanes, 2 x Cynabals, 2  x Ishkurs, 1 x Rapier, 1 x Dramiel & 1 x Scimitar. We were heavily outnumbered with just the three of us about the rest of the guys enjoying a well deserved break spending their hard earned ISK on cheap drink, fast women, potent boosters & anything that could be gambled on though not necessarily in that order. Julian came up with the idea of using RR Battleships & I then decided that we would try to ambush them on a gate. Our IA told us that they were two out of Sobaseki where our HQ is just now so I decided that we would get on to the Viesto gate in Soba & surprise them when they jumped in.

PAUSE

Right so a little background info about me, my PvP & FC'ing experiences. Basically this would be the first engagement that I would have to FC so saying I was a little nervous is an understatement especially against a bigger & probably more experienced fleet. I had only really started to PvP when I joined The Condemned & Convicted & the only time I had FC'd was the night before on a roam when we caught a loan Interceptor.
Although I knew that Julian & Wraph could both hold their own if I totally fucked up it made it that little bit easier to do.

RESUME


So we landed on the gate & started to orbit at 500m to ensure we had some transversal velocity granted not much in a battle ship but some is better than none. Our IA happily informed us that he was in a Guardian Logistics ship & would be happy to give us some reps for payment. He also managed to wangle up an Oneiros pilot form thin air that we were eternally grateful for. The idea was we were going to spider tank their damage until we could not handle it any more & then get reps so that we could keep the Logistics pilots safe as possible & not use them if that was possible.

We were sat on gate waiting for the enemy to jump in but several minutes passed & nothing happened. So we organised another IA to go in & take a look, just as he got into system all the ships except the Scimitar jumped in. The Rapier was called as primary but soon burned out of range next up was a Hurricane class battle cruiser. We managed to point, web & start to melt it, they had called Jullian primary in his Armageddon class battleship but we were easily spider tanking their damage. Then all of a sudden every single one of them had deployed ECM drones on us & they started to break our locks so the Logistics were called into play.

Thankfully they had not managed to jam all three of us at once & the first Hurricane was kept pointed & it eventually went down.

Hurricane One

By this point all my medium armour maintenance bots had went down so I thought lets play them at their own game & I deployed a wing of ECM-300's. The Dramiel must of been on drone duty as it popped a couple of my ECM drones. After the first Hurricane had went down the only other ship in range was the Hurricane as the rest had pulled range & started to kite us as they should of.

PAUSE

 But this is where I think they made the mistake they started to split their DPS as I was now being attacked by 1 Cynabal, the Hurricane &  1 Ishkur instead of focusing their fire onto one target to kill it they split their DPS which is the worst thing you can do in a fleet engagement especially when the enemy Logistics can rep your whole fleet's DPS no problem.

RESUME


The second Hurricane started to melt a lot faster & you will see why in a minute. This is when the Scimitar jumped in it immediately pulled range from us. Just as the second Hurricane went down.

Hurricane Two

The Rapier, Dramiel, 2 x Cynabal & 2 x Ishkur had tried to get our logistics. I ordered everyone to warp out as the Logistics where not pointed just webbed. So the three battleships start to warp just as one of our Logi pilots calls out he is now pointed. So we warp back in & primary an Ishkur which starts to melt rapidly but just MWD's out of range. The rest of their gang start to scatter to the wind at this point.

PAUSE


Now I was the only one within point range of the Ishkur but with all the excitement of the battle, the fact that I was FC'ing & winning I might add. I got all excited & forgot to activate my point. To be fair though it was 4am here in the UK so I think all things considered I can be forgiven this time

RESUME


So Wraph had the Dramiel pointed but with all our light drones dead & our big battleship guns we could not hit it even after it had been webbed. We let it go as the rest of his gang had peaced out by now & could of been coming back in anything. I warp the fleet to a little safe spot in space that I like to hide out in when the need arises. There were GF's exchanged in local & some light hearted banter between us & them. After our session timer had cooled down I warped us back to station to get out of our pods & back into the Corp HQ to wait for the next set of fools who think that if they outnumber us they out gun us.

So basically that was my first experience of having to FC a small fleet battle but I must say I loved every fucking crazy ass hectic minute of it. Even as I write this I am still shaking with the adrenaline that is being pumped through my body I am absolutely wired. I was going to go to sleep but I don't think I will be able to now. It was a sheer baptism by fire made all the sweeter that we got a victory against the odds of a rather experienced opponent. Now as I am only learning to FC I say learning really I am just watching & listening to the awesome FC's we already have & trying to emulate them as best as possible but so far I think it's working. So I'll wrap this up with a FUCK YEAH & look forward to FC'ing more fleets in the future

Keep Tanking & Ganking
WatsonMayte

Ship Inventory

As I was cleared for docking into Caldari Navy Logistic Support station in Sobaseki my neo com flashed. It was that inbred pompous twat of a hanger manager wanting to see me about my ship inventory. Some garbage about me having to sign it off as correct. All seemed a bit fishy to me& being a merc there is a lot of guys who wouldn't mind setting me up if you know what I mean. So I get docked up & out of the pod the only thing I want to do is get a shower but this jobs worth is desperate for me to sign this off. He thrusts a data pad into my hands so I start to scan down it I realise I have a lot of ships just waiting to get into some Pew Pew with. All the ships were colour coded to do with T1, T2 & Faction ships as if I didn't know what my ships where.

To/ WatsonMayte here is a list of your ship types in our hangers as per required by Article 3 sub-section C of our docking rights.

[Frigate Class Hulls] 

Rifter x 3

Imicus

Kitsune

Buzzard

Manticore x 2

Hyena

Stiletto

Dramiel

Zephyr

[Cruiser Class Hulls]

Rupture x 2

Stabber x 2

Stabber Fleet Issue

Cynabal

[Battlecruiser Class Hulls]

Hurricane x 2

Ferox

Drake (ratting fit)

[Battleship Class Hulls]

Typhoon

Tempest

This guy doesn't seem to be going away & he has this look like he is desperate to ask something. So I say to him "do you need ot want something?" He looks startled by how brash I am but I really don't care I can't be arsed with him today. He says he was just wondering about the pirate ships that I have as they are frowned upon by such good stations such as the Cal Navy provide simpletons like myself. I just told him that I have pirate contacts & we were to leave it at that.

So basically I am going to talk about these ships & what I use them for & how I fit them & how some of my corp mates fit & fly them in up coming blog posts hopefully with a small story like the one above.

P.S The stories may suck to begin with but I'll stick with them unless people really hate them so let me know what you think.

PvP, ISK & Spaceships

Firstly I am going to talk about the PvP I have been doing since I last blogged. Then I shall talk about my current financial state & what I am going to do to remedy that. Finally I will talk about the spaceships I am flying just now plus the spaceships I hope to be flying in the not so distant future.

PvP
I have done quite a bit of PvP since the last time I posted most notably there have been several solo encounters most of which I have lost but I have learned something from each one which is a plus. As always we have had Merc work to do thanks tour growing reputation & hard work of our CEO. (Shameless plug but if you are looking for a professional Merc group contact BlackCamper of The Condemned & Convicted mention my blog sent you to him & he may even give you small discount lol) In other breaking news I have been promoted to the rank of FC not because I am the best combat pilot but because I have a good understanding of game mechanics & a willingness to learn also I'm not afraid to make decisions even if they are bad decisions. I was always told that the worst decision anyone could make was no decision at all.So make sure you have your ship insured before we roam as it may not come back in one piece.

Our current war against Armada Ministry Federation could not have went any better we destroyed them in high sec they then retreated into their WH. Which was promptly shown to us by their CEO after he was given a beating in high sec he ran straight for it. All of this happened after he sent a mail to his Corp saying he was restricting access to it as he knew we were actively seeking it. So after we found it we went in & ransacked the place.Destroyed their tower, their ships & ultimately their morale. As of writing this blog I know of at least 28 of AMF have left the alliance although quite a number of them have left & joined the Corp set up by the Alliance CEO's alt BusyDogg Synaptic Recall. Garrdogg is his main & from the moment the war started he has made bad decision after bad decision. He has used his members as a meat shield to scout out his stuff from the WH while ordering others to stay & defend the POS. He left all of his members stuff in the WH but somehow managed to get all his ships & stuff out. He ordered his PvP division to go up against a superior force & waits till they have been beaten many times to call a retreat. Basically what I am trying to say is the man is a coward, he encouraged smack talk before the war,he tried to smack talk us when he managed together his stuff out the WH but now he has been forced to leave the alliance & create a new Corp with his alt he hasn't got much to say. So this is to you GarrDogg Mr Docked Up Local Smack Talker.

YOU SIR ARE A TRUE HERO OF EVE
Garrdogg

ISK
Interstellar Kredits & my current lack of them. Right now I have a little over 81 million in my wallet. Though I do have enough ships to sustain Meroe a while providing I don't lose the all within a week of burning glory. The reason I have so little & can only afford to run on account right now is because I had to pay back a loan to a bitter vet friend of mine to the sum of two & a half billion. Basically when I started to PvP I used my second account to generate my ISK but now since that is gone for the time being I shall be pausing the training Que on WatsonMayte & creating to PI/Indy toons on this account. I shall begin these new characters in just over three days when Minmatar frigate 5 finishes training. While I am training up these other characters I will be taking a small break from PvP to run missions to gain enough capital to get my PI up & running. Once I have my second account up & running again I am going to be looking into booster production & creating a second combat character. I also plan to try & get into T2 production & inventing to help supplement my income I may even join an indy Corp as long as they don't find out who my main is I think I should be ok.

Spaceships

Now to the most important part of the blog the toys I use. As it stands I prefer to fly small ships frigates & cruisers mostly but I do not hesitate to jump into something bigger if the situation demands for it. Currently my favourite ships to fly are the Rifter, Rupture, Stabber, Stabber Fleet Issue & the Dramiel. I have used all the ships I just mentioned there on solo Low Sec PvP roams & to my greta surprise the only ship I could get a fight in was the Rifter. I only took the SFI & the Dramiel out to see if I could entice someone into a fight. Maybe I am roaming the wrong areas or maybe I just need to get into some small gangs & see what we can find who knows for sure but the only certainty is that I will keep solo roaming & trying to get into some solo PvP action just because it is fun win lose or draw I enjoy it & thats what matters.

I have been trying different set ups for the Rifter & I have to say the set up I enjoy the most is the Arty Rifter kiting your target at 15+ km while tearing away at their shields & armour is much to my liking. The only problem I find is that I need to pay much more attention to the orbital sling & the target getting out of point range. Next on my hit list are all of the Minmatar T2 frigates most notably the Wolf, Jaguar & Hyena all of which IMO will make excellent solo frigates if flown right. I will be reviewing all three in the coming months.

In the cruiser hulls I am planning on getting a Cynabal as soon as I can afford it then I shall be training for T2 cruisers I have not really spent a great deal of time looking over them but I am sure I will be able to find one or two that take my fancy.

Keep Tanking & Ganking

WatsonMayte