Rifter Drifter

Seeing as plenty of people have been offering up the contents of their hangar I thought I should probably join in. My hangar in GE-8JV contains the following ships:

• Rifter: I have about 15 of these kicking around with a couple of fits that I am trying out. They are usually just called Rifter but at the moment I have one called Freki after the alliance tournament prize and one called Agincourt after its victory over the French in Curse.
• Cheetah: Called Peek-a-boo and used mostly for probing exploration sites. My probing skills are terrible and I use the exploration sites to get some practice. Honest.
• Claw: I have two of these both confusingly called Claw and it takes me a couple of attempts to tell them apart. One is fit with an active tank and the other with a buffer tank. Not a ship I regularly solo in so the active tank ship gets more use in interceptor packs.
• Stiletto: My staple fleet ship. I currently only have one of these because they die pretty often. She’s called Point! and my fit is pretty standard for a tackle interceptor. Sometimes I like to put on explosive shield resist rigs when I’m tackling for a small gang.
• Hound: When I run frigate gangs I tend to FC from the safety of my stealth bomber. Hound is fit to be able to use torpedoes and bombs and the cloak makes it a good ship to lead from.
• Republic Fleet Firetail: Currently unassembled my Firetail is waiting for me to come up with a fit that I like before I take her out hunting.
• Dramiel: I have two of these sleek and popular Angel frigates. The hefty price tag and status as flavour of the month has put me off flying them. I should really sell them while their price is at a peak but I like having them around.
• Thrasher: This is probably my favourite ship to fly at the moment and I have seven in my hangar. Three of them are fit; one with artillery, one with autocannons, and one with an experimental setup I have yet to try. All of them are called either Sabre or Thrasher except the test one which is called Brick.
• Sabre: This is the most recent addition to my hangar and one that I am just getting the hang of flying. She’s called Sabre and has been out on a couple of gangs now.
• Rupture: Another staple and a ship I have been flying in solo a lot recently. I currently have two fit in my hangar. Freki is fit as a nano ship for pretending to be a Vagabond in and Rupture is a pretty standard armour tank fit.
• Muninn: A pretty standard sniper HAC that hasn’t been used in far too long. Named Muninn in case you didn’t spot the general theme here.
• Vagabond: Another staple of any Minmatar hangar. Eponymously named Vagabond she comes out in small gangs.
• Rapier: I haven’t actually used her in anger but she’s there for when I need her. Until then Rapier still has the manufacturer’s shrink rap on some of her controls.
• Scimitar: Because I only have Logistics IV I haven’t played with Scimitar much. She’s fit for roaming PvP gangs but I’m still adjusting the fit until I’m happy with it. I do sometimes fly logistics for alliance fleets but in those cases I use official alliance-fit logistics ships.
• Hurricane: I have just one of these called, imaginatively, Hurricane. She’s fit for damage and hasn’t seen the light of day for quite a while.
• Tempest: Machariel is my fleet fit Tempest for when DPS is the only thing we need. I prefer to fly in support roles but lately there hasn’t been any point so the fleet battleship has been brought out. Despite being a small ship pilot in general I have had fun flying Tempests in small gangs with some of my old pirate friends. I tried a nano fit but it died due to over confidence or lack of ability. Hopefully I’ll try another before too long.
• Typhoon: This is my ratting ship. I lost her predecessor due to accidentally turning off all my hardeners so this one is called Pay Attention. I don’t use her much these days because my alts provide most of my income.

As you can see, Wensley’s hangar is fully focussed on PvP. The Wolf, Jaguar, and Cyclone are noticeable by their absence at the moment but I’ll probably buy some soon. I like to be stocked for any eventuality. In general I tend to solo in the T1 ships and use the T2 variants in gangs and fleets.

The An’Har family, by contrast, have a selection of shuttles, a Prowler, and a Mastodon to their name. They’re saving up for a Fenrir but that is probably a little while away because Wensley loses ships at a phenomenal rate.

Yesterday I logged on and, with no alliance operations planned for a couple of hours, grabbed a Rifter ready to head out and have some fun at the expense of Libertas Fidelitas alliance. It was good fun and I managed to find a couple of fights in their constellation where I was able to take down an enemy interceptor or two before they could mob my Rifter. Taking T1 frigates out and fighting outnumbered is lots of fun and I will be doing plenty more of it.

Those engagements had wet my appetite ready for the day’s main meal, part two of our attack on Providence after they rejected our truce offer. With D-GTMI secured there was a lot of talk about what we would do next. On the forums the Providence residents are expecting us to grind our way slowly through their 50 station systems. That is not how -A- do things, though. We formed up up on a titan and prepared for the order. The cyno went up and the order to jump was given. Our destination? 9UY4-H. The beating heart of Providence.

For those who don’t know it, 9UY4-H is a key strategic system. It is a crossroads at the centre of the region and provides access to three of their key empire entrance systems. It also splits the Holder alliances so that they have to pass through it in order to consolidate their forces. On top of all of this it is a key market system and losing it would be a major blow to the whole region.

The support fleet went to secure the gates as usual and our SBUs were anchored and the onlining process began. While this was happening the battleship fleet warped to they cyno jammer POS and began to take the jammer down. Once this was achieved the capital fleet jumped in and began to do their work. There was no resistance other than the odd ship that didn’t read its intel channels and the usual terribly inept bombers (this one even had a Falcon for support).

While we were waiting for our SBUs to online we got word of a CVA fleet forming up and moving towards D-GTMI. They anchored their own SBUs there and in HED-GP. Once our work was done in 9UY4-H we used our titans and jump bridge network to go back to HED-GP and purge the CVA SBUs from there and D-GTMI. This was done in time to jump back in and reinforce the station and infrastructure hub in 9UY4-H in a matter of minutes.

Now its a waiting game. The timers on both the station and infrastructure hub are very favourable for us and the week ahead should be full of good fights as CVA attempt to defend their key system. For now we will be roaming the area, locking down systems, and disrupting this key area of Providence as much as possible. Our hand is around CVA’s throat, let’s see if they can shake us off.

Edit: I forgot to mention that “Deliverance Reclaimed” station used to be Ushra’Khan’s “Unity Station”. Let’s just say that Ushra’Khan are foaming at the mouth with excitement about liberating their former home.

Last night saw possibly the most one-sided capital ship slaughter that Eve has ever seen. I really wanted to be able to write about being part of an epic battle but unfortunately that isn’t the case. Over 1650 people, with some counts as high as 1700, turned up to take part in the final battle for D-GTMI and it showed. Admirably the server managed to stay up even when over a thousand people we duking it out on the T-RPFU gate.

From my point of view the initial skirmishes on the gates and on Paxton’s staging POS went admirably. We were able to trap their capital fleet, pick off several of them, and force them to jump out of system. After this we had dominance of the system and were able to guard the gates and stop CVA from being able to get a fleet in. Eventually they made a bid for the SBU on the T-RPFU and our support fleet was ordered to warp in. Oh. My. God. It took me about ten minutes to even warp onto the grid and even then I couldn’t see anything. Once I was finally on grid I spent 40 minutes circling the gate waiting for the grid to load.

When it eventually did, just as I was about to give up, I went to work and spent the next hour tackling capitals as our fleet desperately tried to get their guns to work. Even though I could now see the enemy it still took ages for my navigation, targeting, and weaponry systems to respond to my commands.

From what I understand the CVA fleet had it even worse. Their decision to leave the system and then attempt to re-enter meant their lag was at least as bad as ours, if not worse. The final score says it all. With approximately equal numbers in local (the survivors aren’t shown and 1700 minus our 850 is another 850) we killed 28 carriers, 103 dreadnoughts, and 409 sub-capital ships for the loss of just 12 ships (3 battleships, 6 interdictors, 1 HAC, 1 interceptor, and an industrial).

I have boosted my killboard statistics but this is in no way the epic battle that we had all hoped for. As always CVA deserve credit for having the balls to jump their capital fleet back in but in retrospect it was a foolish decision and they could have avoided the heavy losses inflicted upon them. CCP Atlas was observing in system and I hope that they got some good information about the lag. Lets face it, they’re unlikely to find a better example of stress testing.

Who knows what’s next for us. There’s still plenty of mopping up to do in Querious and Delve and our leadership have to decide how far to take our punishment of LFA and their allies. One thing is for sure. There will be more epic fights in the future, even if its just the Provibloc trying to liberate D-GTMI. I also look forward to getting the chance to do some more small gang and solo roaming in the future. Its been a while…

Life in Catch has been incredibly hectic over the last couple of days and I haven’t had much time to write about it. Yesterday was no different. You’ve probably read by now that yesterday was a pretty hectic day in the southern areas of Eve. I’m not going to talk about the politics of it, there are other people better able to do that. Instead I’m going try and tell the story of what happened from my point of view.

I woke up to be greeted by a Jabber message reading “Goons Sov is down get in FLEET NOW”. I quickly scrambled into my ship and dashed through Empire space to catch up with the main fleet. The Goons had anchored TCUs in all of the systems that had dropped sovereignty and the race was on to kill them all before they came online. By the time I caught up we had already dropped the TCUs in I1Y-IU and ED-L9T, both station systems, and we were heading for H74-B0. While we were rushing around IT were engaging the Goons in 1-SMEB, leaving us free to roam at will. Unfortunately CCP didn’t have the same idea and we spent about 20 minutes stuck in K-L690 with the gates refusing to let us out. After a stuck petition filed on behalf of the whole fleet had failed to free us up we were about to give up. Suddenly the gates opened again and we were able to charge down to H74-B0 and take down the TCU there.

Our next strategic objective was J-LPX7, home to GoonFleet’s capital fleet and their construction yards. By now our fleet was at approximately 90 with battleships, logistics, and some support. While the battleships began work on the TCU our support camped the station and gates. A seemingly innocuous looking badger undocked. Was it an evacuation? Apparently not because a cynosaural field went up and two carriers were able to jump in before we could kill it. The carriers dropped another cyno and more jumped in until there were approximately forty in system with us. Our small fleet couldn’t stand against this force and we opted to go next door and kill the TCU in F-TE1T instead. Once the F-TE1T TCU was down we moved back to J-LPX7 and began working away there again. Another cyno went up and the Goon capitals jumped in again. This time we were agonisingly close to victory and some excellent bubbles from our interdictors kept the hostile carriers at bay long enough for our fleet to do its job and then get out.

By now we had been at it for several hours and had taken down Goon TCUs in five systems. We had a date with some Libertas Fidelitas TCUs back in Catch after down time and it was decided to head home read for that. Just as we turned back we got word that IT Alliance were in NOL-M9 engaging a goon capital fleet with the full might of their own forces. Never ones to skip an opportunity to kill carriers we set course to NOL-M9 and made it in time to take part in the last five carrier kills and take down the TCU. There wasn’t enough time to make it home and the fleet docked up in 319-3D, one of Delve’s NPC stations.

When the server came back up from downtime we quickly logged the fleet back on and made all haste from 319-3D back to GE-8JV, our own staging system. Along the way we were able to take down two further TCUs and fleet numbers were growing all the time. The second of these TCUs was taken down just seconds before it came online. Excellent work from all. Once back in GE-8JV we took a minute to reorganise and then set out to kill LFA’s final sovereignty claims in WD-VTV and F9E-KX. CVA and friends had set up a camp on the F9E-KX gate in D-GTMI to cover their evacuation so we decided to go in and bust it. As soon as our force jumped in the camp scattered but we didn’t have time to hang around and interfere with their preparations. Our TCUs and SBUs in Querious were coming online and it was time to go back and take the stations.

After another frantic dash we were back in I1Y-IU and the station was under attack. By now we had mustered sometime approximating our full strength and a mass fleet of capitals and sub-capitals was laying into the station for all it was worth. It turned out we had left some of our logistics arm behind in 319-3D and I agreed to run back in my Stiletto and scout them out while the fleet did its thing. The run out was pretty uneventful until 319-3D itself where I ran into a Goon camp with a Devoter, Arazu, Rook, Huginn, and Drake guarding the gate. There was no way I was going to be able to get our stragglers out through the direct route. I took a few minutes to make some bookmarks around the system while I investigated alternative routes. Eventually I found a route out through NPC Delve with the only problem being that it passed through PR-8CA an active system that borders NOL-M9. While I scouted the route I ran into some IT Alliance scouts and after a quick intel exchange I decided that this was the best way home. Back in 319-3D I undocked the straggling fleet and warped them to an insta-undock bookmark I’d made. With them safely out of the station I began to scout them out of the system and through the journey home. We passed through a few systems with plenty of hostiles and neutrals logged in but there was no effort made to camp us in and we were soon moving towards the main fleet at full speed. Before the station fell we made it back to I1Y-IU and rejoined the main fleet.

The next few hours were spent capturing the stations in I1Y-IU (now known as I1Y Evil Thug Memorial), ED-L9T (ED Fix HQ), and H74-B0 (H74iti Sov Earthquake Memorial). The former residents offered no resistance and we captured all the station unopposed. Our work for the afternoon was done and the fleet took a couple of hours to stretch its legs and take a break. It had been a very long and exciting day already.

Next on the menu was another fight in D-GTMI. The infrastructure hub was exiting its second reinforcement cycle and we needed to destroy it before the Providence residents could destroy any of our SBUs. While we had been busy in Querious the CVA-aligned forces hadn’t been slacking either. The jump bridge and cyno jammer were both online again and they were ready for us. Because we couldn’t jump straight into D-GTMI and hadn’t had time to get our forces in ahead of the showdown we needed to come up with a different plan. In the end the decision was taken to jump our combined fleet (-A-, U’K, and Systematic Chaos) into the neighbouring system of FSW-3C. The defending forces saw our cyno beacon and moved their fleet to the FSW-3C gate ready to repulse our attack. The plan was simple, break in and take down their fleet and let our super capital fleet that was in system take down the jammer so we could bring in our conventional capital fleet too.

We warped to the gate and jumped into a grid with 250 or so set up ready for us. We aligned to the station and burst MWDs to get out of the bubble on the gate. For me the lag on jump in was terrible. It took me ages to even load system and then once I was in it took another age to load the grid. Once I found my bearings I burnt to safety and surveyed the battlefield. Primaries were being called in the enemy fleet but we didn’t yet have any bubble on them so my first order of business was to get in the thick of things and give the interdictors something to warp to. I burnt to the secondary that was being called and settled into an orbit with my disruptor on. Hopefully the ‘dictors would see me in place and if not then at least I could keep this battleship in place until it was taken down. Unfortunately I was able to do neither and a Rifter came in and tackled me. With a warp scrambler and stasis webifier on me I thought that my fight was over. I aligned myself away from the field and crossed my fingers. However, it seemed to be my lucky day. In high lack situations the important thing to do is to turn off auto-repeat on your guns and fire them a single round at a time. Even like this you can’t fire at full pace but at least you don’t get stuck with your gun cycling and not firing. By doing this I was able to eventually kill the Rifter one shot at a time. During the eternity that this seemed to take I was also tackled by a Vengeance and Crow but they both lost interest. The Rifter eventually went down but I then spent several agonising minutes being tackled by the ghost of my former foe. Eventually I warped off grid and in the reduced lag made sure that all my modules were ready to go again.

Fearlessly I warped back into the thick of things and began to go about my work. With the battle now raging around me it was time to go back to basics and I went to work making sure that their tackle and light support was removed from the field. After each successful tackle I had to warp off the field and let my modules recover before returning to the fray. Eventually their tackle went down and it was time to make sure that their remaining battleships and battlecruisers didn’t leave the field. It was a bloody and intense fight and eventually -A- held the field with the enemy dying, retreating, or logging off. Unopposed we destroyed the infrastructure hub and a fair few POS services. Our killboard currently says that we were able to kill 165 ships for just 29 losses, largely due to excellent work by our logistics wing. The fact that we had superior numbers (our capital wing wasn’t in the gate fight) definitely helped us win the fight but I think the key telling factors in our engagements with CVA and co are that we are used to operating in high lag situations and know how to get the most out of them. We are also very well organised with clear, central leadership that means we have a focussed and prepared fleet on the field for all engagements.

Whatever the reason that we won I would like to say thank you to all involved. It was a truly epic slugfest against opponents who turn up every day to defend their system despite the overwhelming amount of firepower that we can put on grid. During last night’s engagement we fielded 10 titans and 13 of the recently revamped super carriers. I think that despite all the bad press around Dominion the changes to super capitals have achieved their objectives and they are now useful tools that provide previously unimaginable amounts of damage on the field. The days of them cowering under the protection of cyno jammers are over it seems, but I digress. Once the fight was over there were plenty of heart-felt good fights exchanged in local and I’d like to say thanks to all the guys who said hello to me in the aftermath. I hope you like the report.

By now it was midnight and what I hope you will agree was a hectic day was drawing to a close. The Goons had just finished a State of the Goonion address and rumour had it that they were planning a mass breakout from J-LPX7. IT Alliance had set up a camp and of course we were going to go along and join in the fun, even if it was suicidal to do so. We moved to our new station system H74-B0 where an IT titan met us to provide a bridge into J-L. After an hour camping J-L we received word that the Goons had decided to change their plan and I decided to head back home with some others who had worn themselves out after a long day of fighting.

So there you go. A day in the life of a typical interceptor pilot in a typical null sec alliance. It just wasn’t exactly a typical day. After all that excitement I am glad that I get the chance for some well deserved rest and a chance to catch up on reporting my adventures. I think a couple of days of peace and quiet will do me good but I’ll be back for the final showdown in D-GTMI. Fly reckless, guys!

PS – I did have the second part of my null sec politics article written but because of recent changes I am going to have to start it again.

One thing that a lot of people say about nullsec warfare is that it is just composed of fleets of battleships with people pressing F1 – F8 to activate their guns. Whoever brings the most ships wins. Something that I have learnt over the last couple of weeks is that this just isn’t true. There is far more to fleet engagements than that and yesterday we had a fight that showed it in fine style.

Since we reclaimed sovereignty in SV5-8N, CVA have announced that they are expanding their Operation Deliverance to include the systems in the UX3-N2 constellation. Holding HED-GP and SV5-8N is of strategic importance to us and with these two systems we effectively control the constellation and cut off their access to WD-VTV and 9KOE-A. CVA and friends recognise this and have launched another assault on SV5-8N. They had successfully anchored their sovereignty blockade units and put our infrastructure hub into reinforced.

We formed up in GE-8JV and prepared to titan bridge into SV5-8N to defend our claim. We formed up in a POS without incident and I even managed to snag a kill on a cheeky bomber that decloaked 100km from the station. (Damn that Megathron sneaking onto my mail.) When everything was ready we warped to the infrastructure hub and began to engage a CVA fleet with approximately equal numbers. We were able to destroy 97 of their ships for just 26 losses of our own. Our killboard doesn’t include Ushra’Khan’s losses and I can’t find a battle report there just yet. I know I’ve ignored some of our losses, more about that later.

So how did we inflict such huge damage in what was an approximately evenly matched fight. The answer is simply that our fleet composition was better. In order to explain I need to talk about the idea of fleet composition. A large fleet in most cases consists of a main force made up of long-range battleships. These are the ships-of-the line in Eve and they can switch between long range or close range ammunition. They are designed to focus fire and blast through targets in just a couple of volleys. In order to do this the enemy fleet needs to be kept of the field and so the next most important part of the fleet is the tackle which is made up of interdictors (light and heavy) and to a slightly lesser extent interceptors. Using bubbles and warp disruptors these ships lock down the enemy’s battleships and keep them on the field.

Sticking with our naval analogy, a battleship fleet will usually align to a celestial once it lands on the field. Ideally this will be a safe POS but it might be just a planet or even the sun. If a ship starts to take damage it will try to warp out to this celestial and then return to the field. Upon its return it will broadcast for the logistics ships to repair any damage and bring it back to full fighting strength. Unlike a regular remote repair fleet this needs to be done because once a ship is called as the primary target it often only has a few seconds before it is destroyed.

So now we have a fleet with battleships forming the main line of battle, interdictors holding the enemy in place, and logistics repairing any wounded ships. What else is there? Well, we need a way to get our opponent’s tackle ships away from our fleet and this is where the support arm of our fleet comes into play. Support is usually split into light and heavy varieties with light support being interceptors and other frigates and heavy support battlecruisers and HACs. The support fleet’s job is primarily to remove any enemy tackle from our fleet and then to protect our own tackle by engaging the enemy’s support. If the enemy tries to flee the field interceptors will often be used to tackle battleships so they cannot warp out and also to provide warp ins for our own interdictors.

And that’s not all. On top of this there is also a squad of scouts who are providing intelligence on enemy movements and reinforcements. They provide warp in points for the main fleet so that they can engage the enemy at their preferred range and a whole variety of other duties on top of this.

As you can see there’s a lot going on within the context of a battle. Under the direction of its fleet commander the main line of battleships is trying to apply its damage to the enemy fleet as effectively as possible while all around it a battle for space superiority is waged between the support fleets. In close engagements it can be the outcome of this support battle that determines the overall result and for me it is the most exciting part of the battlefield.

On top of all this there is the possibility of auxiliary wings such as a bomber squad that can harass the enemy fleet. In SV5-8N the goons brought in a fleet of about a dozen stealth bombers. In a single bombing run they were able to destroy 30 of our battleships as we cleaned up the field. That’s more than we lost in the entire engagement with CVA. Used well these auxiliary skirmish elements can turn the tide of a battle and I have to admit that the Goons are very good with them.

In Dominion the fun is added to by the fact that there are a range of strategic objectives around the system and the battle can move from gate to gate as the two fleets fight for superiority. You can then get multiple allied fleets on the field and then communication and teamwork comes into it. I hope you can see now that this is far more than just pressing F1 – F8 and I haven’t even touched on capital ship engagements.

So if we look at the SV5-8N fight again, how did we win it? Tidying up the numbers a bit we had 110 ships on the field and CVA had about 95 and a dozen Goon bombers. However CVA’s fleet was composed of just 31 battleships and an enormous 44 battlecruisers while we had a much heavier fleet with 70 battleships providing a huge amount of firepower. Looking at the lossmails for our side you can see that the CVA fleet was firing almost randomly with both battleships and battlecruisers firing upon our support and heavy fleet. Our own fire was much more focussed with our battleship wing focussing on their opposite numbers while our support took their tackle off the field. Because of this superior discipline we held the field, held the enemy down, and were able to bring all of our damage to bear.

A final thing worth bearing in mind as a difference between the two fleets is that we expect our pilots to bring a fully T2-fit ship to the field. We need our fleet to be operating at maximum efficiency. Browsing through some of CVA’s losses shows that while the majority of their battleships were T2 fit a lot of their support fleet wasn’t and that limits their effectiveness.

I hope I’ve been able to convince you that huge fleets aren’t boring, monotonous, and predictable affairs. There are plenty of roles in the fleet that will challenge you and keep you on your toes. Of course, we need people flying the big guns but if you haven’t done it I recommend getting into an interceptor, interdictor, or bomber and have a look at the battlefield in a whole new light.

As I have already mentioned, Libertas Fidelitas alliance have decided to try and claim sovereignty in our back yard. This simply will not do. While we don’t want to pay for those systems we sure as hell don’t want our enemy to have them so it is time to take them back. Over the last couple of days we have been planting Sovereignty Blockade Units in the various systems and the ProviBloc have been doing their best to destroy them. Today was no different and the fleet assembled to re-contest WD-VTV and F9E-KX. The SBUs were deployed before down time and the fleet was assembled ready to defend them once the servers came up. While we waited we took a road trip to D-GTMI and made a nuisance of ourselves. I wandered ahead to MH9C-S where I found a hostile fleet. After getting confused about the orders being given I leapt in to tackle a fleet of 3 Harbingers, 3 Drakes, a Hurricane, and a Vigil. Of course, I wasn’t supposed to be making the tackle, just watching them, and when I realised my mistake I did what I do best, I ran away with 37% structure left.

When the server came back up a ProviBloc fleet was waiting for us and the first part of the engagement took place on the F9E-KX gate in SV5-8N. Their fleet jumped into our waiting camp where the support fleet did a fantastic job of tearing them apart. 46 ships were killed for just 3 lost, an excellent result and the field was littered with wrecks. (I should point out that only -A- losses are reported on our killboard, not those of other fleetmates.) I lost my Stiletto to a separate engagement where I decided it was a good idea to fight a combat-fit Crusader in my tackle-fit interceptor. Some of the ships I was tackling took offence at my impertinence but because we weren’t in a bubble I was able to escape with structure damage for the second time in a day. I’m making a habit of this.

With the gate cleared and our objectives in SV5-8N complete the order was given for the support fleet to jump into F9E-KX. ProviBloc were waiting for us on the gate and once the battleships had jumped into system we were unleashed on the waiting forces. Once gain -A- and allies held the field having forced ProviBloc away with 37 kills to our 24 losses. While the numbers might look unfavourable, most of our losses were tackle ships who made the ultimate sacrifice. This time I was no so lucky as before and I lost my Stiletto but not before I made a few tackles. CVA and friends had been successful in taking down one of our SBUs so we were unable to contest the system. A replacement was sent for and at the same time I headed home in my pod to grab a Hurricane. By the time I got back the SBU was onlining and the field was ours.

At this point I stood down. As far as I know the rest of the fleet regrouped to head down to 49-U6U and save our POS there that was coming out of reinforced. Life is never dull when you’re flying multiple wars. I’ve now lost a grand total of three Stilettos while recording 92 kills on the alliance killboard. Flying tackle is a whole lot of fun! I must get into a Sabre soon…

Before I go just a quick “Hi!” to Katsutro and Izzybella who were in my fleet this morning. Also shout outs for Gilad Ayn and Mansai who I’ve been flying with, too. Gilad and Izzy are ex-Tuskers and someone deep in these pages is a post about taking Katsutro out for his first ever PvP when we went on a nullsec roam. If anyone’s hanging around in Catch, Providence, or Querious and fancies a chat drop into the Rifter Drifter channel in game and say hello. Of course, you’re more than welcome to drop by if you’re elsewhere in Eve too.

Our original incursion into 49-U6U was pretty uneventful with a few kills at the gates but no major resistance from GoonSwarm. Last night was very different. A moon mining POS and their Infrastructure Hub both came out of reinforced in the early hours of the morning.

After an afternoon shooting more of the Swarm’s infrastructure in system we reformed in good time for the main assault. There were almost 700 people in system with about 600 friendly and 100 hostile including the usual Goon bomber squads. As before the support squad was sent to guard the gates while the capital fleet did its thing. After a couple of hours the Goons opened two cynos in ultra deep safes (600+ AU) and bridged in their carriers and support. By now there were about 1000 people in system and the lag was pretty heavy.

Goon carriers were reported outside of their shields – repairing their POS, I assume – and the fight was on. I was watching the gate in one of the neighbouring system and it took me several minutes to jump in and then a further couple to load the grid once I arrived. This was my first major fleet fight and I’ll be honest with you, I pretty much went to pieces. The adrenaline kicked in and I was literally all over the battlefield doing nothing much of use. It took me about 10 minutes to realise that I had my orbit command set to 40 km so every time I tried to tackle something I immediately got out of warp disruptor range. After a few minutes I calmed down and began to get the hang of what I was doing. It was about then that somebody started shooting at me and I tried to bail.

No such luck, I was frozen in my ship even though it had been destroyed. I sat there for about 15 minutes looking at my ship with no structure and watching its shields recharge despite it obviously being destroyed. Eventually the server relented and I got an insurance mail. A few minutes later I was sat in my pod looking at my corpse and watching my pod shields recharge. What the heck was going on? Probably half an hour after I was initially shot and with the Goon fleet beaten back into their shields I finally woke up in my new clone. It looked like we inflicted heavy losses but so many killmails are missing (including my own and anyone I actually did tackle) that it is impossible to judge the full scale. With their POS repaired the Goon force withdrew ready to reship and return for the fight at the infrastructure hub.

Frustrated by a combination of my own ineptness and the fact that I’d been frozen out for so long I decided to call it a night and get some sleep (not that I was able to, but that’s a different matter). A second fight took place with both fleets dashing around the system trying to take out each other’s strategic objectives. While I don’t know the details Against All Authorities and our allies held the field and were able to initiate the second reinforcement cycle on the infrastructure hub while keeping our own SBUs alive. It looks like the week ahead could be filled with many more fights. Hopefully next time I’ll be able to actually contribute something useful to the battle.

In other news Libertas Fidelitas took advantage of our presence in Querious to anchor and, this time, successfully online territorial claim units in WD-VTV, SV5-8N, 9KOE-A, and F9E-KX. These are all former -A- systems that were allowed to lapse when the new sovereignty system was introduced. Just because we were unable to stop LFA making this claim doesn’t mean that we won’t be responding. They’ve also been entertaining themselves in HED-GP during our absence. As the meme says, this will be dealt with…

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.