That’s how the Dark Knights of Deneb describe themselves and I got to see it first hand yesterday as the Against All Authorities alliance went into full time war mode. Tired of sitting around doing nothing but killing Sansha agents the leadership decided that it was time that -A- showed its PvP chops again and I was lucky enough to be there for the very first move of the campaign.
As the server came up yesterday a call to arms flashed up. CVA had placed a Territorial Claim Unit in F9E, an unclaimed border system. We are keen to keep those systems neutral and I got my first taste of alliance combat when I joined the response fleet in my Stiletto. Our task was simply to guard the outgoing gate and because no response force showed up it turned out to be a very easy task. The TCU was taken down without issue and the fleet stood down again.
After an hour or so off duty an new CTA took place. This time the full might of my alliance along with our friends in Ushra’Khan and residents in AAA Citizens formed up. Our fleet went all the way from my humble interceptor, through light support and fleet battleships, to dreadnoughts and carriers. The target was 49-U6U, a GoonSwarm system that borders Catch. The invasion of Querious begins here.
Once again I boarded my Stiletto and went down to our staging system with the rest of the fleet. We jumped into 49-U6U and the support squadron was dispersed to the various gates in system while we anchored our Sovereignty Blockade Units. Once the SBUs were safely anchored and the onlining process began we set up bubbles and began gate guarding duty while the battleship fleet worked on the cynojammer. I was sent into 8QT-H4 to warn of incoming hostiles and tackle anyone I could. Before I left I was able to get onto the killmail of a Rifter that got caught in our bubble. Things were pretty quiet in 8QT. While the main fleet did their thing I was able to get tackles on a Broadsword and Devoter that tried to evade our main camp. Much later on I snagged a Coercer and had a little scuffle with a Hound that was part of the Goon bomber wing trying to harass our fleet.
After four hours our objectives were complete and the fleet stood down. Everything in the system had been reinforced and we had set up our staging areas. The timers that we had are mostly for the middle of the night as far as I am concerned but we will see what unfolds. Watch her for more reports from the frontline.
I actually really enjoyed flying with the big fleet. It was cool to be part of something that affects the whole game but also I really enjoyed flying my interceptor. It was something I’d been doing more in The Tuskers and the light support battle that goes on around the main fleet is as important as any other. Without us hostile fleets can get into system and our battleship and carrier fleets rely on our protection.
PS: I’ve just noticed that Podded! podcast’s very own Dillon Arklight came and helped out on the Coercer kill. There are plenty more bloggers and podcasters in this war that I should get to fly alongside.
Related posts:
January 10th, 2010 at 12:05 am
Glad you enjoyed it!
January 10th, 2010 at 3:23 am
Sounds like your new bag does not disappoint.
January 10th, 2010 at 3:26 am
You make this sound like a lot of fun. I look forward to more war-reporting.
January 10th, 2010 at 11:31 am
I love interceptors for lowsec work, but this . . . this is when the little demons really do shine. I like the idea of separate tackling and guarding squads, neat stuff, glad you're having a blast!
Romeo.
January 10th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Glad to see your enjoying your 1st weeks in 0.0 wensley.
but aways in the most freindy of ways
Been reading your blog for a while now and when i seen you where moveing close by iv been very keen to see how you get on
I hope to be shooting AT you soon
Fly safe
Zama118
January 10th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Flying tackle is absolutely awesome. Lots to learn but the principles are very much the same as lowsec except that fights can happen anywhere so interceptors are a crucial part of protecting the incoming gates and things. Much more fun than just shooting primaries in a fleet battleship.
January 10th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Likewise, mate. I've had a couple of fun gangs in Provibloc space these last few days. Don't think you're not going to pay for putting up those TCUs
January 10th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
uurrrghhhh dont say the word "TCU" they make me feel sick at the mo
i have a headace off all the conga lines had to make for them ones in f9e
January 10th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I want to shoot you but couldn't load grid for ages. Eventually grid loaded, shot a Raptor, warped off, DC'd, and now don't dare try and log in. 750 or so on unreinforced node in F9E
January 10th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
yer im not there at the moment in an alliance meeting
750 dam! yer fights in 0.0 can get really crazy real fast
i always hate that feeling you get when you log off and not sure that when you log back on you will fall in to a bubble or i get no gird load as fleet is so large (and well you know what happens then)
Do you know how to keep the grid loading in a big fleet fight? (closeing local, overveiw etc…)
i seem to be starting a convo on your blog i hope you dont mind lol
January 10th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Mind? That's half the point of writing the thing! I did not know about the closing window trick. It seems that all of a sudden it just started to load for us but I was still getting some pretty funky behaviour. By close do you mean minimise or just the ctrl+tab thing?
January 10th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
yer its a problem with large fleets you can only reduce the funky behaviour (funny as heck when your FC starts calling targets that dont exist)
anyway the closeing Chat rooms trick: i find (some will not with agree) that if you minimise local, minimise overview and close all your chat room you dont need also turn off the blink on chat rooms. the grid (or even system) will load faster then once you got grid load open overveiw (and local if you need it) start shooting away
also alts and large fleets really bring in the strange juice duno why even if they not in the same system if i have an alt on things will really mess up.
anyway i found after doing all this (plus the other stuff like brackets and turning off effects) i load system/grid much faster than any of my proviblob freinds.
well i hope this infomation helps i hate to see people not being able to shoot me in the face