Before I made my rather in depth ammunition post I conducted a straw poll of the #tweetfleet to see which Minmatar munition they tended to load as default. I thought that in light of the numbers revealed in my post I’d present the results of that survey.

EMP is the most popular by quite a long margin with Barrage following in close behind and phased plasma, my favourite, lurking in third. I’d be curious to see how much this has changed since my post. Maybe in a few months I’ll do another and see if its changed at all.

One of the great things about flying Minmatar ships is that you are blessed with a choice of damage types so you can try and pick apart the hole in your opponent’s tank. Of course, the Caldari have this option although because of the damage bonuses they get, its almost always better for them to chose kinetic ammo. Gallente drone ships get a choice too, but there are a lot of differences between the drone types and you only really see explosive (speed) and thermal (damage) drones on the field. With Phased Plasma, EMP, and Fusion all doing the same basic amounts of damage with the same range and tracking characteristics we Minmatar are blessed (or cursed) with real choice when it comes to ammo selection.

Let’s start this discussion of by taking a look at the damage distribution of Minmatar munitions. The plot above shows a breakdown of the damage done by the Republic Fleet variations of the various charges and also the advanced charges. For the sake of this discussion I am not going to look at range or tracking, that’s something for another time and I’m sure I’ll touch on it in the future. The obvious thing to take away from this chart is that there is basically a choice between EMP, thermal, and explosive damage with no strong kinetic option and no charge delivering a pure damage type. For the remainder of this post I am going to ignore the Hail column. This is because its range and tracking penalties make it all but unusable and in almost all practical applications it is out-damaged by the Republic Fleet variants. I will make a post with more detail on this in the future.

In the two charts above I have looked at how these munitions stack up against the raw T1 resist profile for shields and armour. Its pretty obvious that EMP is the best choice against shields and Fusion the best choice against armour. What happens if people patch up their resist hole, though?

With the EM hole patched then Phased Plasma becomes the default choice against shield tankers. Even after just one anti-EM screen reinforcer rig it is better to shoot with Phased Plasma. With two EM rigs and a thermal one things level out a touch but Phased Plasma still edges ahead so it is always a good choice against Caldari ships and other shield tankers who are likely to have patched their hole even with a single rig. That means things like Dramiels and shield Hurricanes for starters.

If we look at armour tankers then once again we see that with the explosive hole plugged, Phased Plasma becomes the best option. Because there is no ammunition choice with strong kinetic damage it doesn’t matter if they look to patch their second hole instead. So, against armour tankers that are likely to have patched their explosive hole (think dual-repair Myrmidons, battleships) then Phased Plasma becomes the best choice unless they have a thermal hardener as well.

In summary, then, Phased Plasma is an excellent ammunition choice against T1 shield tanking ships because it does excellent damage, even if they have made an effort to patch their EM hole. Against armour ships the choice is a bit more complicated and I would still usually opt for Fusion initially and then switch to Phased Plasma if you have a hard time breaking them or suspect an active hardener. For this reason I usually roam with Phased Plasma in my guns as a default load. This way I have a good chance of being able to deliver damage against any target (especially Dramiels and Sabres) that I might come across and need to fight in a hurry. Things get a bit more interesting when we look at T2 tanks, though.

Let’s start with Minmatar ships such as the Vagabond and Jaguar. These ships get a bonus to their EM and thermal resists to counter the Amarrian lasers they are designed to face. Because of this, Fusion is the best choice against a vanilla Minmatar T2 tank. In general advanced Minmatar ships favour a kiting approach and view their tank as just a hitpoint buffer so more often than not the holes are not patched. If they are though it is usually done by adding a kinetic and explosive resistance rig. Even if this is the case, Fusion is still your best ammo choice and you should load it up anyway. The only caveat that I will add here is that obviously these ships are fast and rangey so you might want to look at the extra range that Barrage offers while still having good damage if you are not confident that you will engage in Fusion range.

The Amarr are the natural enemy of Minmatar ships and as such their T2 ships have strong resistances against explosive and kinetic damage. You can clearly see how they counter-act the vast majority of the Minmatar munitions choices but they are still very vulnerable to Phased Plasma. Cruiser-sized and above ships are very likely to patch their biggest resist hole and with a single thermic hardener the advantage switches to EMP and this is a good choice against Zealots, Sacrileges, Guardians, etc.

Gallente T2 ships have very high kinetic and thermal resists making Phased Plasma completely useless against them. Instead Fusion becomes the ammunition of choice although if they opt to plug this hole then EMP takes over. A lot of ships like Ishkurs and Deimoses will plug this basic hole so I tend to always chose EMP against T2 Gallente ships.

Finally we come to Caldari who have a similar set of resists to the Gallente but with a much higher emphasis on thermal. Because of the sheer size of the EMP hole it is a very good bet that there is at least a resistance rig or two if not an active hardener covering that hole. In this case Fusion is your friend and will do surprisingly good damage.

Even more so than against T1 targets, this quickly devolves into an attempt to guess whether your opponent has filled their resistance hole or not. If you have the time then you can check the killboards and see how they fit their ships. This should allow you to pick exactly the right ammunition. What I wanted to show you here is that the choices can be slightly counter intuitive with EMP often being the best choice against Amarr and Gallente armour ships while Fusion gives you good damage against Caldari and Minmatar shield tankers.

This level of choice can be both a blessing and a curse. I was inspired to make this post by my friend Suleiman Schouaa asking what kind of ammo to load before various fights. Because I tend to roam with Phased Plasma loaded and only change when specifically needed the response was just a puzzled silence and in the subsequent fight we lost a bit of damage due to people switching out their ammo for something different. In general, though, I think sticking with Phased Plasma would have been a good choice. We would have been able to put good damage on both the shield tanking ships and their supporting Scimitars without having to switch. If it had been an armour gang then things would still have been good with nice damage against Guardians, Zealots, and other armour ships.

So in conclusion I’ve just bombarded you with a vast array of choices and decisions to make but my take home message would be that in gangs at least flexibility and therefore Phased Plasma is king. If you’re not sure what to load you won’t go far wrong with it and the situations where it is a terrible choice are relatively uncommon. At the end of the day its all a game of rock, paper, scissors but remember that paper is usually a good choice. (Actually I could probably ramble on quite a lot comparing RPS strategy to Eve ammo choice so I better stop now.)

Congratulations to bonni3. The winning number was 25. Thanks to everyone who took part in this. Hopefully it will be the first of many but I do promise to actually post some content between now and the next lottery.

Thanks to Sassy B, Rifter Drifter now has a new look. There’s also a new header over at my killboard as well to tie it all in together. Overall I’m pretty pleased with the makeover but just a quick warning that this site might break from time to time as I tinker with the template files a bit more. Test servers are for wimps!

I’ve done a fair bit of FCing my nanocane roams now and there are quite a few lessons that I’ve learn over the weeks. Before now I’d done bits and pieces of FCing but it was nothing more than moving small gangs around and looking for kills. These days I feel like I’ve stepped up a bit and now I am comfortable leading a small gang into a proper fight. Over the next few weeks I hope to take the lessons I’ve learnt flying these cheap battlecruiser roams and try and turn our gangs into something a bit more formidable.

So what have I actually learnt? Probably the first thing is that if you find people fights and make sure that they have fun they will sign up for your gangs and word will spread. These Wednesday evening jaunts have gone from just a handfull of friends to pretty much everyone we know who is online joining in and several people flying halfway across Empire space for a laugh. They know exactly what they’re getting, they bring cheap clones, and we fly cheap ships but I get them a fight and more often than not we come out of it respectably even if we all die.

One thing I found that really affects how successful a roam is, is to make sure that you have a plan. When I first started FCing we would wander around aimlessly hoping to find the odd target to gank and not really hanging around much. These days I have a specific target in mind. We go to a system and provoke a fight out of people there, taking advantage of their disorganisation to get as many kills as we can. This planning involves looking at a map beforehand and plotting a route, getting intelligence on jump bridges and other local infrastructure, and making sure that there are people in space but that you’re not going to land in the middle of a massive fleet battle. There’s nothing worse than aimlessly wandering around with no real direction so get out a map, look for some targets and come up with a plan.

Part of planning is to scout out the areas you want to fight in. The odds are that the fleets you encouter will have good knowledge of the area and try and use that to their advantage. If you have a good bookmark collection then you can nullify this advantage. If they’re using bubbles to try and pull you into a close range fight then you can use your bookmarks to get your gang into a kiting or sniping position and achieve what you want to achieve. Sure, you will have a scout or two but there is nothing better than knowing the lay of the land and being well prepared. Maybe its the solo pilot in me but I like to have a fairly comprehensive bookmark library in the systems where I regularly fight. While going out and making bookmarks might seem like a very tedious task, if you do it in a combat frigate then you will surprise yourself how many fights you can get in the process. If possible get hold a of jump bridge map – these are easily found on Google – and try and avoid getting yourself stuck in a pipeline with hostile gangs on either end. If this does happen the best solution is to get the gang safe, make sure aggression timers are over, and then log off and go and do something else. Log in a scout after 15 minutes or so and see if the coast is clear. If it is make a break for it but otherwise go watch some TV and try again later. You’d be surprised how little patience defense fleets have – they want to get back to their sanctums as soon as possible.

When possible you want to force the enemy’s hand. Don’t give them time to form up an organised gang. Jump into a system and lock it down. Bubbles can catch people warping in from jumpbridges, stations, and gates. Use them to pull the enemy’s reinforcements apart. Shoot ratters and stir up trouble as fast as possible. This way you will get a disorganised response and make your life easier. The longer the enemy has to plan and prepare for your gang the more likely they are to come up with a counter and make your life hard. This is not the end of the world and by playing it carefully you can still get some kills but you need to be prepared when they come for you and make your retreat if its prudent.

Gang composition and organisation can play a large part in the success of a fight. So many fleets you encounter, especially if you’ve riled up the locals a bit, will have a hodge podge of ships with no over-reaching philosophy behind it. If you have a well focussed gang you can exploit this to your advantage whether you’re flying interceptors, battlecruisers, nanoships, armour HACs, or remote repair battleships. Know what your gang can do and fight on your terms. In the case of our nano gangs this means drawing out the enemy and picking off weaker targets. If a ship doesn’t fit what you want in your gang then get the pilot to ship into something that does. Fat and slow blaster ships have no place in a nano gang while at the same time a shield Hurricane isn’t going to add to a gang with armour logistics.

If you’re fighting outnumbered then skirmishing is a very useful tactic. Once you’ve killed the soft targets that initially present themselves you will often find that your gang has become a little bit disorganised and spread out. Don’t let people get isolated and caught on their own. Warp out, regroup, and prepare to go back for another round. If you can warp into the enemy and a different angle to your initial foray you will often catch them off guard and get more people pulled out of shape. Repeat this several times and you will minimise your own loses while getting more kills.

When skirmishing something that is vital is good warp ins. If you are fighting on a gate that is bubbled then simply warping out and then back in will often land you right in the middle of the hostile gang. In these situations it is best to have an interceptor or covert ops ship provide a ping spot so that you can warp to them then warp back down into the fight safely. Another thing that you should remind people is not to warp back into a nano gang fight at zero. In the time it takes their ship to align and warp the fleet could have easily moved 20 – 30 km and they will find themselves in the thick of the enemy. Instead get them to warp at range and they can then slowboat until the main gang catches up.

With regards to this, communication in general is an important thing. Don’t just assume that people know not to warp back into the fight, make sure that people know what their jobs are, know where your scouts are, etc.

Support ships can play a surprisingly important role in combat. Well, maybe not so surprising, but at least impressive. So far I have flown without any logistics ships and this has really limited our potential. While we have been able to fight outnumbered against gangs with recons and logistics, we always take losses. With a couple of Scimitars in gang our combat ability would be greatly improved and we would be able to take out more the heavy tackle that came our way. Likewise my own gangs would be improved by the addition of a Lachesis. Quite often we are taking people down only for them to burn back towardss teir gang and escape our points, allowing them to warp away. The long points provided by a Lachesis would allow it to keep people on the field while at the same time operating away from any enemy tackle. Interceptors and interdictors provide other useful combat support.

On the one occaision where I ran a nano gang with a Loki in support it was incredible. The bonuses to speed, agility, and above all point range made it so much easier to outrange the enemy gang and keep them on the field long enough to die. Our tacklers were able to snag people from much further out than they expected and all was good with the world. Now, I don’t like invulnerable T3 ships but they are a tool that is available to us and one we’d be foolish not to use. Because I don’t have a T3 alt of my own – even if I did I don’t like dual boxing in combat, never mind when FCing – I am currently looking at training command ships. While these can’t provide the same bonuses as T3s they do allow you to fit a very solid tank and that means you can FC from the front line rather than in a safe spot. With logistics in gang you can also provide very tempting bait for the hostiles.

One thing that I often find myself doing in a gang is trying to solo the opposition, or at least fight them like I was solo. In some ways this is the right thing to do, an FC should be in a combat ship so that he can see what is in range of the gang and how primaries are going down. However you have to think of yourself not just as one ship but as several. Another side to this card is that it is not advisable to FC from a scout ship or a tackle position. In the former case it means you are away from the main gang and not on field should a hostile fleet run into them. You can’t backseat FC, no matter how much you think you can. Also, if you die then you leave the fleet without any ability to make decisions. Not because you are amazing and pricesless but because you are unlikely to have been making intel repors so the other potential FCs in gang have no basis on which to make decisions. Similarly in a tackle ship you will often be away from the main gang or even sitting in a pod fairly quickly. Have trusted people in support roles and lead your fleet from the centre.

Scouting is a pretty vital part of any gang. There are many ways to do it and no one in paricular is right. Its up to you to decide how you want to do it. The most traditional ways of doing it are to send either a covert ops ship or skirmishing interceptor out ahead – this is my preferred method, but some people like to scout with bait battleships or heavier tackle. When we are running a remote repair gang around lowsec we often send plated battlecruisers ahead as heavy tacklers, knowing that we can support them with repairs when they need it. Just make sure that your scout is providing you with good, clear intelligence and, ideally, knows how to negotiate gate camps. The more intelligence that you have, the better your decision making will be.

This leads me to my final point: be decisive. Don’t worry about making the wrong decision, the most important thing is just to make a decision at all. If you make a mistake you can always issue a new command but don’t dither. Hesitation could not only cost you a fight but also will reduce people’s confidence in you. After the fight is over there is plenty of time to review the decisions you made and I would heartily advise you to do this. Whether you watch a FRAPSed video of the fight, run through it in your head, ask people in your gang, or write up a report for your blog, make sure you question your decisions and ask what you did right and what you could have done better.

Well, not quite my final point. FCing is good fun. It is rewarding in its own right but its amazing how many people you will meet through running gangs. Don’t be the person who sits in chat channels asking if there is a gang up. Be the person forming the gang. You don’t need to take out a gang of HACs or T3s to have fun. Tell people your not experienced and to bring something cheap and you’ll be surprised how many will ‘x’ up and how supportive they will be and tolerant of any mistakes. In the words of a 20th century sportswear brand: Just do it!

Something seems have clicked with me lately. Since the turn of the year I’ve started to get much better at finding fights. My Wednesday night roams have stopped being hapless wanderings with the occasional gank and instead turned into good fights, almost guaranteed.

I didn’t write up last week’s frigate roam but suffice to say that we went into Pure Blind and had a good fight on the station in D2-HOS until Pandemic Legion ruined our fun. While we waited for people to reship I managed to lose the rest of our fleet to obvious bait in RQH-MY. After that we were joined by Laedy and did an uneventful loop through Pure Blind and Cloud Ring before calling it a night.

Last night we formed up in Egbinger with speed-fit battlecruisers and an interdictor. The plan was to poke my friends Republic Alliance in M-MD3B and see what they would bring to fight us. In 9SNK-O our scout reported a gang of Drakes with Scimitar support. They were either at a safe spot or running a site of some description so I decided to ignore them and move on in the hope that they would give chase. As we jumped into 6WT-BE I got word that they were doing exactly that and when our gang landed on the SL-YBS gate I got them to align away. The hostile gang soon appeared on my directional scanner. “Microwarp drives on, burn out to 40 km and then cut them.”

As I hoped the hostile gang landed on our gate at zero. “Bubble up. Rapier is primary.” The fight was on and their Rapier went down almost instantly. The next primary was a Scimitar which we also dropped pretty quickly. One of our Hurricanes hadn’t got far enough away from the gate and was tackled and killed while their second Scimitar jumped out. The plan now was simply to kite the heavier Drakes and their lone Hurricane and pick off what we could without getting scrambled. Primaries were called as they burnt out to us and then turned back to safety but we didn’t manage to take any of them down. Unfortunately a couple of mistakes keeping range and a bit of over-eagerness from our interdictor pilot meant that we lost a couple more battlecruisers and were unable to get the DPS we needed to take out the Drakes with a Scimitar on field. We were two T2 cruiser kills up for the loss of three of four battlecruisers and I decided to disengage and head back for people to reship.

It was a good fight and most of our losses were due to over enthusiasm. They had more DPS ships and logistics on field and yet we still came out on top. Our inexperienced Flycatcher pilot placed a good initial bubble to keep them on the gate but unfortunately got a bit eager and jumped back in to try and bubble their second Scimitar. This bubble meant that people warping back to the fight got caught in it and died to the hostile gang. Far be it from me to criticise another interdictor pilot considering my own terrible record and we all have to start somewhere. After all the whole point of these gangs is for everyone to learn how they work. Back in the safety of the station in Egbinger we chatted about what we could have done better, reshipped and re-equipped everyone and then set out again looking for more trouble.

This time we moved down to Skarkon planning to burn quickly through to LXQ2-T and then on into Etherium Reach to visit my new best friends, DEM0N HUNTERS. For this second leg we were joined by Suleiman in his artillery-fit Hurricane, Sard in his Jaguar, and most importantly a gang-boosting Loki. Actually, I say the Loki was the most important thing but actually the fact that Sard had joined us meant that it was time to fire up the RANSM Disco Comms so we could party to a seemingly endless list of Haddaway remixes while we roamed. The journey out to LXQ2-T was uneventful and I held the gang in Paala while we waited for stragglers. Sitting in lowsec seemed silly and, at Ariartus’ suggestion, I got the gang to jump back into LXQ2-T to camp the bubbles that had been left there. Almost the very second we decloaked an Ishkur warped into a bubble that was set to catch from the station and the gang vapourised him. It looks like our timing was perfect because he dropped some very tasty loot. I could pretty much lose our entire fleet twice over and still finish up on efficiency now, assuming the killboard’s assessment of the damage control’s value is accurate. We chased a couple of others around the system to no avail before Sard joined us and we started back on our way.

EOA-ZC and AD-5B8, both entry systems, were empty so I set course for L-HV5C, home of DEM0N HUNTERS. We landed on the gate and I sent a couple ahead to check out the station and try and get anyone sat their interested in us. At the same time I gave Sard a small bubble and asked him to anchor it on the station in line with the jump bridges at planet 2. As an aside, if you are roaming the north and want to do something similar then you can use the NC jump bridge map to find good targets. While we waited on the in gate a Hurricane cross-jumped us but we were unable to tackle it on the other side. We were sure to have been scouted by now so I got the whole gang to jump in. An Enyo warped to our gate at range and we burnt for him. I don’t think he was expecting our Loki-boosted point ranges and got a bit of a surprise when two Hurricanes pointed him from 35 km or so away.

Sard’s bubble was anchored by now so I got the gang to warp to the station where a Hyperion and Drake were hanging around on the undock. A couple of Thanatoses had been sighted but they had either docked or jumped. We set up tackle around the bubble and hung around to see if something would warp in or whether they would burn away from the safety of the station to chase us off. It didn’t take long for our bubble to catch something (I forget what) but it warped off before Sard could get tackle. A Hound decloaked and tried to bomb the gang around the bubble in what proved to be a fatal move. With these two down I got the gang to spread out and moved to a pounce spot where we could warp to the bubble or station without getting caught should a gang warp in on us (I learnt that lesson last week).

I don’t know if they probed our location or it was just a lucky warp but a Tempest warped to within 40 km of myself and Avan. He picked me as primary and I kept my distance but Avan was able to get point and the rest of the gang soon warped in on top of him. He was at least 200 km from his friends on the station but no-one came to save him other than an Ares that burnt for us too late and managed to avoid Sard’s attempt to tackle him.

By now we were a bit spread out and I was concerned that they might have probes on us. Their gang was warping out to a safe spot somewhere and it looked like they were preparing to warp on top of us. By now local was climbing pretty steadily and I’m not sure where it eventually topped out but reports varied between 40 and 70. I didn’t want us to get caught with our pants down so I warped the gang to a planet at range to get us together and asked our T3 to see if he could probe down their staging location. He reported hits and I got him to warp us in a 20 km on a Rapier.

As we came out of warp it turned out that their gang was on the station again and most of them had docked except for a Thanatos and Hurricane. Once again I called for the gang to burn away from the station and our path took us right past the two hostiles. There was no way we were going to break the Thanatos but the Hurricane made a good target and with extended point range we could stay clear of any neutralisers the carrier had. The Hurricane melted and a Drake came to join the Thanatos. As we put damage on the Drake my overview exploded with a battleship gang warping in. Time to bail!

Rather stupidly I kept trying to warp to planet 1 but we were already there. I burnt away from the gang to safety, though. Suleiman was less lucky and he found himself jammed and tackled. He had made good distance from the battleship gang, though, and they seemed to be fit with close range weapons so I got the gang to warp to him and align out with him. We began clearing their light tackle and managed to score our second Rapier of the night. In exchange they killed zombie’s Hurricane when he warped to Sulei at the same time as their battleship fleet did a miniwarp to their fast tackle and Myst’s Flycatcher. Here’s the full battle report.

By now they had numbers and ECM on the field and we had removed pretty much all of the soft targets. Rather than have our gang die needlessly in a glorious fireball I decided it was time to get out and we burnt full speed for the safety of Akkio where we docked up with no problems. A small gang set up to try and catch us should we come back but by the time I sent a scout to find out their composition they had left.

At this point I was pretty much ready to just log off and call it a night but Sard pointed out that we might as well move back towards Egbinger and get people home while we had the numbers. You could tell it was late now and that a few of us, myself included, had had a drink or two because we all set off in different directions according to our autopilot. We got everyone on the right track only for me to become seperated again because I had instinctively followed the shortest route back through LXQ2-T while the pirates I was with had opted for the lowsec route.

On the LXQ2-T I found a Hurricane and two Vexors who locked me up and seemed interested. The Hurricane was sensor-boosting and I decided it was worth trying to engage them without my gang in support. I jumped in and burnt off the gate. They followed and the Hurricane gave chase but soon gave up. I turned my ship and headed for the Vexors, playing it cautious. I got one tackled and the second Vexor came for me while the Hurricane warped to a pounce spot. At this point I decided to play it careful. I didn’t want to get scrammed and instead chipped away at the cruisers with Barrage from range. Being cruiser-sized Vexors are pretty nimble and they can pack a mean armour tank. They kept slipping out of my grip and Sard and the gang jumped in just in time to get a tackle on one that had got out of my point range. This Vexor died and the other two bailed. In retrospect I should have gone in close on the Vexors with fusion loaded. I would have been able to melt them and get away from the Hurricane rather than nearly failing to kill any of them if it hadn’t been for my friends.

I got back to Egbinger with no further incident although I did try to take down a Taranis with two Vagabond friends under sentries but burnt out my guns which were already pretty heavily damaged from the LXQ2-T fight so he got away safely to his surprise. The others roamed Molden Heath a bit more and while I was still on comms managed to kill a Daredevil and a couple of battlecruisers. Good work guys.

It was an excellent roam and I think we’ve all got used to fighting these kind of numbers in nano ships now. We did excellently in Geminate and got some really good kills without managing to make any major mistakes. Hopefully the patience of people who have flown and died with me is being rewarded and I am stopping making silly mistakes and getting much more decisive in these fights. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and I am no longer nervous about leading these and really looking forward to next week’s roam. Thanks guys!

Its taken a little while to get used to Gunpoint Diplomacy’s Griefwatch killboard. At least the guys at Battleclinic have finally taken the annoying Flash away and made something that works in the new ingame browser. It took them long enough.

One thing that the Griefwatch board does that Eve-kill doesn’t is it has a little leaderboard on the front page. I’ve been enjoying climbing my way up through the ranks and a key moment for me was when I passed Raxip Elamp‘s alt in RANSM, Lt Graham. Of course, friendly banter being a large part of life in RANSM, I couldn’t help but needle him a bit about it. This happened about the same time that Raxip discovered the dual web Caldari Navy Hookbill fit and began to start getting some very nice kills in the static Angel plexes around Molden Heath. Overnight he passed me again and then the following day I once again took the lead. In just a couple of days a healthy competition grew and we began to race each other up the killboard.

Yesterday was a good day for both of us so I thought I’d share how I’ve been roaming, finding targets, and going about fighting them.

I base out of the Egbinger system in Molden Heath because we have a good corporate office there, a complete set of station services, and direct access to Great Wildlands. It is this access that I’ve been using to go out and get good fights. M-MD3B is home to Republic Alliance (RE-AL) and their NRDS partners in Great Wildlands who base out of the Thukker Tribe station. There is usually a good number of them in local and they can be relied upon to bring out a gang when hostiles (i.e. me) appear in system. Of course, that gang usually outnumbers and outguns me but therein lies the fun.

When I first warped to the station in my Wolf yesterday to check things out there were a few Drakes, a Myrmidon, and a Griffin hanging around. A played around with them for a while and decided to try and get the Griffin alone and see if he would miss a jam on me and give me time to melt him. It turns out he didn’t and got a scram on me as well. Cue a bunch of Drakes undocking and pounding me. Thankfully I was close enough to dock up before my structure gave out.

A bit later I undocked again and found an Ishkur and Rifter on the station. I pulled the Ishkur away from the undock, loaded EMP, and prepared to go to work on him. When I was happy he was far enough away I turned my ship around, fired up my MWD and started to cycle up my guns. Lock. Scram. Overheat. The Rifter burnt into range as well and I activated my armour repairer to keep up with the damage. First the Ishkur and then the Rifter melted under my guns and I was able to loot up and dock before any support came to ruin my fun. Good fight, guys.

With the loot dropped off and my Wolf repaired I undocked again and this time saw a Stiletto and the Griffin on the station. My plan was simple, try and pull the Stiletto away, kill it and make my escape. I began moving into position and trying to pull people apart. The Griffin warped off and then a few seconds later warped back in about 15 km from me. He got his jam off again and I tried to burn away from him to warp out to safety. Unfortunately for me, not only did he have a warp scrambler but also a microwarp drive, he closed in and got a scram off before I warped away. Scrambled, jammed, and miles away from safety I had no choice but to watch as the locals melted my helpless Wolf.

I keep a good stock of ships in my hangar so that when this happens I can ship up again and head straight back out without having to dwell on my loss. Rather than head back to M-MD3B where they had had time to prepare for me and knew what to expect (a mistake I am guilty of making pretty much every day) I decided to mix it up a bit and go and explore elsewhere. Transolar Works have been having an immense amount of fun chasing DEM0N HUNTERS in Geminate so I decided to take a leaf out of their book and set my destination for L-HV5C, the only station system in DEM0N HUNTERS space and made my way out there, taking care to avoid BWF-ZZ where there are good and regular camps.

The journey out was uneventful but once in system I hung around on the station to see what would happen. There were 31 people in local and no ships on scan so it was pretty likely they were all docked. People began to trickle out of the station, mostly in what looked to be sniper battleships. They hung around on the undock and seemed unwilling to move away from the safety of the station except for one Hawk who warped off the undock and began to hang around at range from the station. I continued to move around casually and watched to see what he would do. Initially he was about 200 km from the station and I didn’t want to risk him providing a warp in for the guys sitting on the undock so I let him close on me until I was happy he was no longer in warp range. Once again I span my ship round, loaded EMP, and burnt for my victim. He tried to kite me but the Wolf’s falloff bonus was up to the challenge and I was able to carry on hitting him. A Megathron at the station had opened up on me with named railguns but was doing little in the way of significant damage. The Hawk packs a pretty mean shield tank and my capacitor was being strained by the incoming rockets. I finally broke his shields but by now I was beginning to bleed into structure and it took some good management of my armour repairer to keep my ship together. He finally exploded while I was at about half structure and I quickly looted the wreck and then warped off to repair my armour and patch up my horribly burnt weapon systems. Another excellent fight.

Once my ship was back in tip top fighting condition (except for some hull damage and the fact I didn’t have enough nanite paste to repair my rocket launcher) I warped back to the station to see what was going on there. There were some more ships hanging around on the undock. The Megathron had been replaced by an Armageddon and Cerberus while a Merlin and Harpy buzzed around as well. The Harpy was flown by the Hawk pilot and he obviously wanted a rematch, wasting no time in burning for me. I was pretty happy with my range so I allowed him to close on me, pulsing my MWD occasionally to try and draw him away from the Merlin a little bit. Once again I overloaded my autocannons and bombarded him with rounds of Republic Fleet EMP. This time the fight was far more one-sided and the Harpy’s shields melted under my fire. My big problem was that I was that volleys from the Cerberus’ heavy missile launchers were starting to tear into me and have a real affect on my tank. The Merlin was closing in and ideally I’d be able to turn my attentions to him after the Harpy went down but I was low on capacitor and the Cerberus wasn’t going to go away any time soon. Instead of escalating I bookmarked the Harpy’s wreck and warped away to safety, coming back later to find the wreck unlooted. Excellent. With no nanite paste left and no stations to dock at I set course for Empire and headed back to drop of my loot, fix my ship, and grab some more paste.

DEM0N HUNTERS were fun to fight and pretty cool in local chat and private conversations so I decided to go back and see what else they had to offer. So far they hadn’t shown any signs of bringing out a counter to my Wolf so I thought it was safe to chance it again. On my way back I slowed down a bit to make myself some tactical bookmarks and got bogged down hunting for some ships I saw on scan in EOA-ZC. First to catch my eye was a Imperial Navy Slicer that showed no signs of wanting to fight and eventually got safe in a POS. Shortly after a Dramiel popped up and I decided that it was worth trying my hand. We cross warped each other a few times initially, he was obviously looking for me too, but I eventually managed to get him to land in a drag bubble with me. I hit approach, pulsed my MWD to get as close as possible and began to unload phased plasma into the pirate frigate’s shields. He used his speed to burn out to what he thought was a comfortable range at 6 – 7 km but once again the Wolf’s falloff bonus played into my hands and he was taking serious damage.

As his shields failed and I got my hopes up a second Dramiel landed and burnt into combat range. While this was going on a Hurricane warped to the gate but rather than getting involved jumped through to the other side. With his shields and armour gone the first Dramiel burnt out to safety and warped while I turned my attention to the second Angel frigate. He took a pounding as he had got to point blank range and the fact his friend had warped out obviously spooked him, he too burnt away to the edge of scram range and then beyond. I was having real issues with my capacitor and my assault frigate’s structure was barely holding it together. Occasional bursts of my repairer gave my damage control some light relief but I had reconciled myself to losing this ship. But I wasn’t in the bubble and I wasn’t scrambled. I began hammering the warp command while praying I could get a final cycle of repairs in. “Warp drive active,” announced my computer and with 10% hull integrity I was away to safety. It seems that the Hurricane had re-approached the gate and decided to get involved because he finished off one of the Dramiels and I got credit on the killmail. Thanks Kharagor.

Once again I repaired my ship and decided that I liked Geminate far too much to consider leaving just yet. I began to burn back towards L-HV5C when I saw first of all Morel Nova (aka Podcat) of Genos Occidere in local and then a Vengeance on scan. I waved at Morel who didn’t respond, damn him, and set off in search of the Vengeance. It was on a nearby gate and locked me up as soon as I landed. Excellent. I returned the lock and added a scrambler of my own, once again using my MWD to get in as close as possible before he had chance to pull range. Rounds of phased plasma spewed from my autocannons and he returned fire with rockets and a scrambler of his own but the incoming damage was puny compared to the speed that I was ripping through him. The gate loomed alongside us and the night sky was lit up by the flash of a gate activation. And another. And another. And yet more. Oh crap. A Cynabal and Vagabond locked me up and began shooting but the Vengeance was still going down and going down faster than I was. It was a race and one that I looked to be winning. Until a Rook and Falcon decloaked, that is. Once that happened the end was pretty inevitable and obviously not that much fun for me. Still, if I’d been in those recons I would have done my best to get on the mail and save my gang mate too so I can hardly blame them. Not really a good fight, though.

At this point I took a break and went off to do some other things. I’d already wasted more time that I’d intended to but at least I had added 74 points to my killboard total to move comfortably ahead of Raxip. Unfortunately I had also told him where I was going to find kills and he set off for M-MD3B in his modified Hookbill. The bastard got lucky too and my nemesis in the Griffin failed to get off his first jam resulting in instant dismissal to add to the Buzzard, Claw and Dramiel that he killed on the same jaunt. Lucky git. Unfortunately for Raxip the curse of the Griffin struck back later, though, and extracted revenge on him. Still, those kills were enough for him to regain the lead. This was turning into a good competition for sure.

When I logged on again later that night there was a gang starting to form up with the Molden Heath regulars. I thought it would be fun to bring something different and grabbed a Vexor and tagged along. As usual comms were relaxed and jocular and we were soon spread all over the place with a rag bag of ships and no-one really having any idea what was going on. Well, I had no idea at least. I’d ended up in Skarkon and, seeing it was empty, decided to check out L4X-1V to see what was there. A Dramiel and Sabre were on scan at one of the out gates with 6 guys in local. I scanned the Dramiel and Sabre down to a gate with a sling bubble and, assuming they’d be separated, warped to the gate at zero from an oblique angle leaving me alone with the Sabre. Of course my trap senses were tingling but I was in a drone ship so, even if jammed, webbed, sensor damped, and neuted to hell and back by the inevitable recons I should at least be able to drop the Sabre and be happy with myself.

The Sabre returned my lock and I quickly had him webbed and scrammed with my light neutron blasters doing their thing. A flight of damage drones popped out of my cruiser and set about the light interdictor. Things were going well and his shields melted under the onslaught. Of course a Rapier, Falcon, and two bombers decloaked but I was confident that the Sabre was going down and when I looked at my overview he was the only one with a point on me. Excellent. As well as that he was in structure and I prepared to make my getaway by aligning out. The Sabre’s armour was gone now and he was in structure. The second the targetting box disappeard from my overview I recalled my drones and began to hammer warp.

“External factors are preventing you from warping.” What? This cound’t be right, the Sabre was dead and no-one else had me pointed. It was then that I noticed the Sabre was not dead and that I’d lost my lock because of the Falcon getting a jam on me. Ah crap. By now the Dramiel also had be scrambled and my death was inevitable. If I’d left my drones out I would have at least got myself a Sabre kill but now even though I dropped them again there was no kill to be had and I needlessly lost my first Vexor. That was annoying, to say the least. Oh, just for the record, people using Falcons have no grounds to smack people who use alt scouts, not that I do.

So there you have it. A day solo hunting in Great Wildlands and Geminate is a pretty action packed experience. I got some good kills, had some excellent fights, and got on the wrong side of ECM three times. This is the life of the solo PvPer. It can be frustrating but then again the adrenaline of a good fight is unlike anything else in Eve and it is the life I have chosen.

Of course, the key point of all this is that Raxip and I are now slugging it out on the killboard. If the adrenaline of fighting outnumbered wasn’t enough to spur me on to greater lengths and better fights then a bit of healthy competition certainly is. Something tells me that we’ll be pushing each other to greater feats of combat over the coming weeks and both enjoying the game far more because of it. Right now the scores stand at Lt Graham 715 points with me trailing at 696. The race to 1,000 killboard points is on, Raxip Elamp, and its going to be a hell of a ride getting there.

By the way, Raxip writes an excellent blog and you should read it. I’m not usually a fan of Eve fiction but Rax’s little snapshots of New Eden always make excellent reading.

Oh, if you need more inspiration than this to get you out there and shooting then check out the final two parts of the Frigank series F7 and F8 as well as Zach Donnell’s excellent Who You Gonna Call 3 and Shiroi Okami’s Freestyle.

I don’t know how many of you guys read my corpmate, Miura Bull’s, blog Brutor Bullfighter but if you don’t I would like to point you in the direction of what promises to be a truly brilliant series of guides for roaming PvPers: The Solo Combat Pilot’s Guide to Good Roaming #1. In his first post Miura describes, in exquisite detail, a short roam around “Amamake Town & District”. It is most definitely worth a read and keep you eye out for additions to the series.

I’ve been living in Molden Heath for a little while and been getting to know my way around the place. Now I think I’m ready to share with you my unofficial guide for tourists and hitchhikers. I’m sure there will be things that I’ve missed or got wrong but hopefully with some feedback and corrections I’ll be able to improve this.

Molden Heath is a fairly small region in Minmatar Space. It was originally laid aside by the Minmatar Elders as a neutral ground between the tribes. However it neighbours the Thukkers in Great Wildlands and the Ammatar Mandate in Derelik and has not really been developed because of this. The event in Molden Heath’s history was the battle in Ennur where the Amarrian Empire won a phyrric victory against the defending rebels at the cost of crippling their capital fleet. This battleground is now known as the Golgothan Fields.

The heart of Molden Heath is the high security cluster of systems around Teonusude. Teonusude itself is home to the region’s main market hub which, considering the size of the region, is kept very well stocked and competetively priced. This is helped, in part, by the fact it is a mere five jumps from Rens. One great thing about Teonusude is that the market station has an instawarp undock to the Bosena gate. Perfect for outlaws to get their shopping done. Because of its low security status, plentiful asteroids, ice belt, and manufacturing facilities Teonusude is also a very popular mining system. The Republic Fleet operate many stations in this cluster and there are level 3 and 4 mission agents in Gelfevin and Gulfondi. These mission hubs and associated manufacturing facilites keep good secondary markets running in both these systems. Unlike the popular mission running hub of Emolgranlan these systems are relatively quiet and free from scavengers and griefers making them good places to make ISK in peace.

There is a secondary cluster of high security systems in the Besateoden constellation centred upon Eldulf. Eldulf is home to three Vherokior Tribe stations and is another hub for mission runners with two high quality level 4 agents. The final high security system in the region is Kattegaud where you will find an Angel Creo-Corp Mining 2/10 complex.

The main attraction of Molden Heath, though, is the low sec loop that runs round the system. This ring of systems is the backbone of the region and provides an excellent basis for roaming pilots in search of danger and adventure. There is plenty to draw people to the area including Angel Creo-Corp Mining static complexes in Heild, Hrober, Altbard, and Hedaleofarber. As well as these static fixtures there are level 5 Republic Fleet agents in Klingt and Istodard. Hedaleofarber, Half, and Istodard also have level 4 agents. For those willing to take the risk of operating in low security space there are plenty of opportunities to make a living in the area and, of course, plenty of targets for pirates to hunt. In particular the high security border systems of Atlar, Oddelulf, and Bosena provide good fights and targets alongside the 2/10 static in Heild.

The final notable feature of Molden Heath, and one that appeals to me, is its good connections to null security space. Egbinger connects to B-VIP9 in Great Wildlands and Skarkon borders L4X-1V in Etherium Reach. From B-VIP9 it is five jumps to M-MD3B, the heart of Republic Alliance’s NRDS operation in Great Wildlands. The other nearby access to Great Wildlands is via Khabi in Derelik that links to 7Q-8Z2, a frequently camped system, and this makes another good loop for roamers. L4X-1V is just three jumps from LXQ2-T and close to good access to Geminate and The Forge low security space which itself links back to Molden Heath through Metropolis. Lots of possibilities for roaming without having to embark upon 40 jump adventures.

In general Molden Heath is home to a collection of small to medium-sized PvP entities. The big exception to this is Dark-Rising, an ex-IT alliance corporation, whose 437 members live in the pocket surrounding Istodard. The majority of the gangs found in the area are formed of battleships and battlecruisers and from time to time organised gatecamps with logistics support are to be found. There is a healthy amount of frigate combat to be found around the area because of the number of static complexes and there are several people who specialise in this kind of fighting.

First of all I just want to congratulate Jade and Jayne on the success of the Lost in Conversations podcast. It is a really good feature and I hope you guys keep it up. Jayne has invited me to join in several times due to timezone problems and occaisionally my own hectic schedule I have been unable to take part so far. I hope to do so soon, though, and join the excellent roster of guests that they have.

This week’s episode is the highlight of the series so far in my opinion and, although I couldn’t be there to talk part myself I’d like to kind of cheat and add my own thoughts to their conversation in this post. If you haven’t already I recommend that you go and listen to this weeks’ episode now.

The first question that Jayne asks is who do the guests think was the most infulential upon Eve in the last year. The answers split pretty predictably with most of the attention going to Pandemic Legion for their third successive Alliance Tournament victory and influence upon nullsec warfare and Mynxee, chairwoman of the current CSM. I would pretty much agree with these two categories but I think the whole CSM deserves credit for the stand that they have taken and the tangible benefits that we are already feeling based upon their first two summits with CCP. Its good to see the CSM finally proving its worth not only to CCP but also the capsuleer community and hopefully the quality of this term will motivate people to apply, campaign, and turn out to vote so that we can continue to effectively lobby CCP for the improvement of our game.

There were a couple of points made that I would disagree with. The first was Jayne saying that he thinks IT alliance deserve to be part of this list because of their arrival back in Delve. Maybe this is tainted by my own personal experiences but I don’t think that IT alliance as we know them know is anything like the Band of Brothers of old. No longer are they a collection of high skilled, dedicated PvP pilots but instead they have modelled their new persona on the success of the Northern Coalition and in particular the Goons. I mean heck, if calling themselves Clowns isn’t an almost direct reference to Goons I’m not sure what is. Anyway, I am not sure that if it hadn’t been for Goons being Goons and losing Delve IT would have been able to reassert themselves. The most recent conflicts in Fountain and Catch have shown IT fail to support their friends and renters and at the time of writing both regions are in the process of falling. Add to this the debacle of the Kitchen Sink Coalition invasion of the north and I wouldn’t nominate them for a top spot this year.

The other exception that I took was Hallan’s comment that Pandemic Legion had failed to achieve anything significant because they were not holding space. I guess this assertion depends on how you measure success in New Eden and sovereignty is definitely one very popular metric. However when I think of the elite PvP organisations in Eve I do not think of a single sov-holding entity. Be it Pandemic Legion as they are now (and I believe they really didn’t want those stations), Triumvirate in its many incarnations including NCdot, Genos Occidere, or any other that you care to name, their PvP performance and influence on military campaigns has been exceptional compared to their numbers and the forces they have faced. Pandemic Legion this year have been instrumental in the fall of Atlas, The Initiative’s conquest of Catch, and the Drone Russians defense of their lands. They at one point held all of the Technetium moons in one of the most valuable regions of the cluster, and they did all of this while inflicting massive losses on the fleets sent to stop them. They have developed innovative tactics and, once these tactics have been adopted by the rest of Eve, demonstrated highly successful counters. Yes, they are publicity whores and trolls for the most part but there is no denying that their influence upon the sovereignty map has been enormous regardless of whether or not they have appeared on it.

While I’m on this topic I think its worth saying that another group that has really stood out this year is Genos Occidere. I know that at least a couple of months back they were the big thing and everyone has been sucking up to them and saying how wonderful they are but I say this as much from personal experience instead of just “Oh my God, its Garmon!” During Against All Authorities’ war against Providence it was Genos that provided the only real resistance. Their small gangs, rarely numbering more than a dozen, not only regularly locked down our logistics through HED-GP but also terrorised key ratting systems and engaged our full fleets with almost total impunity. Not bad for a bunch of pirates who had taken to raiding Providence and farming the weak residents. I’m sure there have been many others who have stood out in similar ways but the sight of a Genos Machariel gang jumping into your gate camp is a truely pant-filling experience.

After discussing who had had the most influence there was then a discussion about the failure of the year and this time it was Goons for losing Delve and CCP for the publicity disaster of the Tyrannis patch. As far as I am concerned Goons will be Goons and always are their own worst enemy and while I never experienced quite the rage that Tyrannis and subsequent blunders provoked in some, I did get frustrated but CCP’s actions over the last few months and especially the roll-out of Incursion have made up for a lot of that in my mind. Once again I think this is tainted by personal experience but I agree with Angus DeMcoy (AKA Filthy Roleplayer) that the biggest failure of the year was CVA’s disasterous loss of Providence. I have written about this at great length explaining why I personally think that the pride of one or two individuals was put before roleplay and I know plenty of people out there, including more than one blogger, are still bitter about the way that CVA treated their allies. That said, I think it is good to see a resurgent CVA trying to reclaim Providence, even if it is only half-heartedly, but I still think they have lost any semblence of the zealous fanatics they are supposed to be and instead proven to be power-hungry egomaniacs at the cost of the community they fostered.

The final topic of conversation was the coming Sansha incursions and I have to admit I started to turn off a bit here because there was a lot of talk of World of Warcraft and other things that I know nothing about. I am not ashamed to say that I am a terrible carebear – heck, yesterday I lost an AFK-fit Ishtar to a level 3 mission because I forgot to turn its tank on – non-consensual PvE is something that I have absolutely no interest in. I rat and run missions just to make ISK to keep me and my friends in spaceships to PvP in. However, especially now I am back in lowsec, the PvP opportunities presented by incursions do interest me and I wouldn’t be surprised if you see me poking around any in the Molden Heath area. Hallan made a really good point here that if incursions are added and then subsequently ignored like factional warfare has been then this is a bad thing. The idea of the Sansha spending the next 3 years invading is a bit galling. Personally I hope that CCP have used their Carbon philosophy here (by the way, has anyone else found it humourous that CCP name their method library after Apple’s own obselete library set?) and that the routines used to create incursions can also be used for invasions by other pirate factions and possibly more excitingly to invigorate factional warfare.

So, there you have it. Even though I wasn’t able to be there I found the podcast thought-provoking enough that four hours after listening to it I felt compelled to sit down and write my own responses to some of the questions Jayne asked. I know I’ve been a bit verbose here but such is the nature of sitting down and writing rather than being in a conversation. Hopefully one day soon I’ll be able to actually take part. Until then keep up the good work, guys.

Oh, one thing though, please do not ever play that GTC advert again because I was on the brink of stopping listening at that point. Thanks for the plug, though!