So last night was one of my Wednesday evening gangs and all was set to go as usual. We were going to form up in Hurricanes and Drakes and go visit our friends in Geminate. I got logged on nice and early and opened up the map to see what was happening. There was the usual hot spot in O2O-2X and a few hot spots around Geminate and Vale of the Silent. All in all it looked like things were good. Then my connection died.

I came back on and we began to form up. Various amounts of messing around, people arriving late, and general faff later we finally got underway. Sa’Haira reported a wormhole linking Molden Heath to Melmaniel but by the time we arrived in Kadalina it had already been collapsed, thwarting my plan to go west. Unfortunately the situation in Geminate was changing pretty rapidly and the hot spots looked just to be fleet form-ups. By now there were about 1,000 people in one system and everywhere was emptying out. We made our way through Etherium Reach and into EOA- but nothing was showing up. Using the map I tried to steer us into systems with what looked like reasonable activity but Dian kept reporting empty space or clusters of battleships waiting on titans. Things were not looking good.

In TVN-FM we ran into a VOLTRON Maelstrom gang with heavy logistics support. Dian had reported them on the station but as we jumped in they had moved to our in gate. Their bubble went up and I picked an align point and got people to burn away from their heavy tackle. In the mean time I called their Sabre primary, hoping that we could volley through their logistics but they managed to pull him back from about 25 % shields and there was nothing we could do. Masty had been snagged by their Huginn and Lachesis and there was nothing we could do to save him. The rest of the gang warped off and we waited around for them to lose interest before heading down the pipe to P3EN-E.

In Y5J-EU Dian found a Sabre but he dropped a bubble and jumped out before we could give chase. As our warp drives activated a Manticore decloaked and followed us in warp. Caught in the same bubble as us he dropped out of warp right on top of our gang and before he could do anything about it he had been evaporated by 720 mm artillery shells.

We continued down the pipe towards low security space and somehow, upon jumping into P3EN-E I had what can only be described as a “spaz attack”. I just seemed to lose my ability to do anything and ended up aligning my ship off in a random direction, shooting a gate, warping off when I meant to realign, and somehow (although I didn’t discover it until later) setting my default warp range to 70 km. I eventually managed to pull myself somewhat together and we jumped into Obe.

Obe sits in a low security pocket of half a dozen systems that connect Vale of the Silent and Tribute to Empire space through P3EN-E and M-OEE8 respectively. There are lots of Northern Coalition pilots in the area and we spread out looking for them. Sa’Haira had got seperated from the gang because he was too busy looking for a spoon to eat his Nutella with. As he tried to find us he reported that he had been tackled in Hakonen by a Tengu and called for our help. We quickly burnt back to the Obe gate and jumped. 30 % shield remaining and we still had to cross Obe to get to the Hakonen gate. Thankfully it was a short warp and as we landed Sa’Haira’s Hurricane was just going into armour. We jumped and deployed ECM drones just as the Tengu decided to deaggress. It was a race against time as overheated artillery cannons and missile launchers span into action. His shields were dropping slowly and then all of a sudden more rapidly. As he entered the last few percent of his shields I lost lock and began to swear as I though he’d successfully jumped to safety but then I realised that the shear power of my last volley had punched clean through his armour and hull leaving him as just a smoking wreck. A nice kill and well played to Sa’Haira for getting us it.

We dumped loot and formed up in a safe spot. My plan at this point was to spread the gang out and explore the pocket looking to see what we could get. Before we’d managed anything much a pair of GCC’d Hyperions were reported and we moved to engage. I aggressed one of them and pushed both of them through the gate where Dian was waiting for them. Somehow one of them got away but the other fell to our guns.

At this point I get a bit hazy on the details. I have no idea how but I seemed to have taken GCC again while the rest of my gang were okay. (In retrospect I think I must have docked in a CONCORD station.) It seems that the last vestiges of my little break down in P3EN-E were still hanging around and I spent most of my time futilely warping around trying to avoid sentry guns while the gang called targets and began to take people down. It was a true Gunpoint Diplomacy moment as, from the chaos that the gang had become, killmails began to appear. First a Rapier, then a Tempest, Abaddon and Armageddon. By now I was feeling completely useless and thought I was probably more of a hindrance than a help at this point. It was suggested that we dock up to let everyone’s GCCs resolve and get things back on track. I took the opportunity to stretch my legs and get a change of scene. In fact, I enjoyed my change of scene so much that I didn’t really want to come back to the computer and when I did half an hour later it turned out that Suleiman Schouaa had come along to join us and had taken over the gang. Thankful to be relieved of command I apologised for my absence and decided that logging off was the best course of action for me. It seemed to work well for the gang, too as they killed a Stabber Fleet Issue in Taisy before going to what looked like a good fight in M-OEE8 followed by a Raven kill back in low sec.

So what went wrong? Well, I could blame the fact there was a big fight going on and all the locals being CTA’d into fleets but I don’t think it was that. In all honesty my heart just wasn’t in it. I’d offered to lead the gang so I logged on and did it but all day in front of a computer had just killed my passion for sitting at it any longer and my performance suffered. It probably didn’t help that I had a couple of beers but when we docked up in Nalvula I was really pleased to be able to step away from it. Thanks to Sulei for stepping up and taking control of it and also thanks to Ari for reminding me that this is just a game. Sorry to everyone who I abandoned but I was already less than useless by that point and would only have got worse. In retrospect I should have done what I normally like to do and go set up shop in someone’s home system rather than roaming and getting frustrated. I think what I really need to do is tag along to a few more gangs lead by other folk and pick up my confidence a bit.

What have I learnt? Well, the sun is shining, and the days are long. Its time to get outside more and not log into Eve just because its something to do. Especially if it means that I am going to die stupidly like I did this morning messing around in M-OEE8 with my arty cane. It is, after all, just a game. So yes, there’s going to be less ship spinning from me, more focussed killing and getting good instead. Right, time to go ride bikes…

Last night officers of the Molden Heath Police Department formed up for a patrol into lawless space under the command of Detective Inspector Wensley. The fat cats at City Hall have launched a new initiative to tackle reckless piloting in the Geminate and Vale Regions. In all eleven officers and cadets gathered in the Teonusude precinct where they requisitioned standard issue MHPD patrol vessels.

As soon as we began our journey towards the north western suburbs we met with our first criminal. Constable Willem Revolati was attacked by a known criminal but was able to evade the attack with only minor damage to his patrol ship. We left the criminal to local law enforcement because we had more important things to do. Willem was swiftly promoted to Sergeant for his valiant role in our first contact with a perp. The patrol moved at full speed through the safe districts of Molden Heath, Heimatar, and Metropolis until we pulled over on the border of Geminate, home of several gangs and mob families. Motivational speeches were made and propoganda materials distrubuted before we decided that the most sensible thing was to stick together and the patrol jumped into EOA-ZC en masse. The area was oddly quiet except for a suspicious Tengu that looked to be a cut-and-shut job but resisted arrest. We moved into UBX-CC where we encountered our first criminals. Several unlicensed Drakes and a Tempest with an expired tax disc were loitering 100 km off the EOZ-ZC gate and the decision was made to apprehend them and check their vehicles. I’m pretty sure at least one of the Drakes had a faulty indicator light. The patrol warped to a belt, aiming to warp back to the criminals and make our arrests. As we initiated our warp back to the gate we saw the suspects landing behind us, and odd maneuverer but the criminal mind works in mysterious ways. We waited on the gate, expecting them to return to the scene of their crimes but they decided to make a break for it and left the area. Probably went to go check on their drug ring or some such. While we waited and Purifier with insufficient tire tread uncloaked amongst us and the diligent officers of MHPD made a quick arrest. As we moved on about our beat another bomber decloaked much to the distress of WPC Ariartus who yelped “BOMB BOMB BOMB!” even as the fleet aligned for warp. Thankfully no-one died despite people microwarping all over the grid at the time. “Bomb bomb bomb!” is now Constable Araiartus’ nickname.

We proceeded on our way and patrolled the mean streets of Geminate but found no more criminal activity. In the usual hot spots of L-HV5C and AP9-LV all of the hoodlums were obeying their curfew for once and remained withing the safety of their station. Unfortunately we did not have the warrants required to board the stations and search their quarters but such is the bureaucracy of the modern force, preventing the beat bobby from performing some good old fashioned police brutality.

The second district on our target list was Vale of the Silent, home of the notorious R.A.G.E. gang. We set course for the heart of R.A.G.E. operations in ZLZ-1Z and officers were ordered to lock down the neighbourhood and search all vehicles for contraband. Constable Dirty Protagonist made the first arrest when a Sabre pilot attempted to shoot at his police vessel. Our officers poured into the system, quick to respond to the “code 998” that Constable DP broadcast. The suspect was apprehended and police justice was quickly rained upon him. An accomplice appeared in a Rupture space vessel and this too was seized for inspection.

With all officers safely into the area we then proceeded to set up traffic traps on the major routes and perform inspections on any vehicles that came through. Unfortunately our traps were badly placed and several vessels were able to dock in the station and evade our officers. A Bestower, at least, was not so lucky and we were able to seize his illegal cargo.

At this point the police systems went down and we took an enforced break while the software rebooted. Once we were back online we quickly set up new check points, this time in the correct location. A couple of shady-looking Drakes undocked and we opened fire because they looked to be packing heat. Both battlecruisers retreated and we stood down for a while, manning the check points and waiting for traffic. Several ships began to undock including two carriers and an Onyx but we were unable to make any arrests due to their superior firepower so we remained on our check points. Soon two untaxed Hurricanes appeared and we pulled them over. While our officers went to work on one of the ‘Canes the criminal elements began to move closer and used radio scramblers to interfere with our police vessels. With half the patrol unable to activate their ship’s defense systems we beat a tactical retreat and decided it was best to patrol another neighbourhood.

We set course for S6QX-N where we found a Thanatos that was illegally parked. Unfortunately all that we could do about it was issue a ticket and warn him that we’d be forced to take more serious action if we saw him repeat offending. While we wrote up the citation we did what no uniformed patrol would be complete without. Yes, we formed a Comet conga line. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures.

By now it was late and, despite the standard issue coffee and exotic dancers, our officers were getting bored and tired. We set course for home and made best speed for our Oddelulf headquarters. On the way we failed to apprehend a speeding Rapier and Hound as well as a Prowler that was almost certainly carrying contraband. In Atlar we found the upstanding citizen Migrond Aramath being set upon by a band of unwashed students. As good and dutiful police officers we like nothing more than beating up students and the patrol came to the rescue of the humble Tempest. The student dogs fled from the justice we offered to deal out to them but we managed to apprehend their suspected leader in his Jaguar.

It had been a long night with very few criminals out in space. Maybe it was because of the patch that was deployed to all pod pilots. I think there’s a mole in City Hall and they found out about our operation and laid low. Either way, our patrol was complete, criminals had been apprehended, contraband had been seized and now we had paperwork to complete. Thankfully I have secretaries for that and I was able to head back to my quarters with a female officer I found hanging around the corridors of the precinct. Hey, even the fuzz need to kick back sometimes.

Detective Inspector Wensley signing off.

Last night we ran another one of my Wednesday roams. As with previous weeks we formed up a gang with artillery Hurricanes at the core with Scimitars and tackle ships providing support. On top of that we had not just the Loki we’ve used in the past but also a Tengu to provide extra leadership support. In the end we mustered seven Hurricanes, plenty enough to give us the volley damage to take things down quickly as well as a tonne of DPS.

The plan was the same as before. We checked out Great Wildlands but things were too quiet for us to stand a chance of getting a fight so after scouting out the usual systems we made full speed down the pipe towards LXQ2-T. Other than a couple of frigates there was nothing of note there either and we continued on towards Geminate. In Otosela a Hurricane cross-jumped us and stood no chance of making it back to the gate under our firepower. First blood of the evening.

Geminate itself was looking pretty quiet on the map and no system seemed to have more than 10 people out in space. Seeing as there were no gangs to fight I decided that the best thing we could do was to camp the station in L-HV5C and see if we could provoke a fight. We set up with tackle on the station undock and a small bubble to catch people warping in from the jump bridges in the system. Unfortunately we got no real hits other than a bait Rattlesnake on the station undock. We’d been there for over half an hour and I was just contemplating turning round and heading for home when a gang undocked and warped off to a safe spot. Probes were dropped and our Arazu went in for the tackle followed by the rest of the gang. We dropped bubbles and set about them, catching as many as possible before they could warp off. Initially a Falcon, Scimitar, and Armageddon fell to our guns and before we could finish looting a second wave came in for the attack. This time we snagged a Scorpion, Caracal, Tempest, Apocalypse, and Blackbird. Good stuff. We looted up the field and I was preparing to move the gang away when our Heretic pilot told us he’d been aggressed on the undock by a Megathron. The gang swept in and we killed the Gallente battleship before he could dock.

So far so good. We’d bagged nine kills for no losses. Once again I was contemplating turning around and heading home when a new gang began to undock. This time it was a more coherent fleet with Drakes, Basilisks, and Blackbirds but not much light tackle. We were hanging around on the station still with our interdictor placing bubble between us and them. Unfortunately the bubbles didn’t work and with our gang looking disorganised they warped in on us. Once again Zombie got tackled and there was nothing we could do to keep him alive. Their next primary was me but I’d already got myself around their gang and safely rejoined my own gangmates. With Scimitar reps holding me up but no real targets presenting themselves we warped out and prepared to go home. The battle report is well in our favour and because they only got the one kill doesn’t show all the numbers that were in the second gang we fought and likewise doesn’t show those who escaped the first fight. Still, we fought out-gunned and out-numbered and lost just a single Hurricane while doing nearly a billion in damage ourselves and we got to loot the field for once.

Their gang, growing in numbers, was sitting on the NBPH-N gate, blocking our most obvious route home. Instead I took us into YN3-E3 where we were scouted by a Hurricane sitting on that gate. I got the gang to align for the sun and burn away from the gate, hoping to be able to pull some light tackle away from the main gang. They jumped in and Suleiman was able to volley his way through a Blackbird. Unfortunately, House2Twist was flirting with the hostiles far to close for comfort and found himself tackled and too far away from us for support to burn back and save him in time. We did try and shoot the Hurricane that had shot him but their reps were holding and there was nothing we could do but get the rest of the gang away safely.

At this point it seemed unlikely we were going to be able to get any more kills without taking losses and I concentrated on getting the gang home. Our route into NBPH-N and on to home was currently block so, hoping to throw them off the scent, I doubled back into L-HV5C and, rather than going the direct way, took the gang into D0-F4W. This did the job and we were able to proceed into NBPH-N and onward to Akkio with the hostile gang chasing us but always a jump behind. Suleiman had lurked behind and was able to kill an Incursus too, the whore.

Once safely in low security space we made our way to Tasti and docked up. This was the end of the night as far as I was concerned and I logged off there but it looks like people carried on back to Molden Heath and had more fun there.

When we were camping L-HV5C I was getting a bit concerned that they weren’t going to give us a fight but it seems that patience paid off and people will not tolerate you locking down their principle system for nearly an hour. Their initial response was the rag-tag one that I had hoped for and we did an excellent job taking them down. Their second fleet was far more organised with good logistics and ECM support, I’m guessing with racks full of LADAR jammers, too. I should know by now that when you see someone bring out the counter to your gang it is time to make a move and leave but we hung around for the second gang and let them take the initiative back, costing us two ships. If I were to do it again I would have warped our fleet out to NBPH-N and burnt off the gate, leaving tackle to pin them down. That way we could still have made use of our strengths rather than have them warp in right on top of us.

Either way it was a lot of fun and an excellent fight. I definitely got the fight I wanted this time and that always feels good. Thanks to everyone who came along and extra thanks to those that brought T3s along, Dirty Protagonist and Vincent Pryce for top notch Scimitar piloting, and especially Vanderie for doing an excellent job in the Heretic and getting us all those kills. Here’s to next time! Maybe I’ll even remember to take some screenshots so you can what the fights looked like from our point of view.

Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them,
Volley’ed and thundered.

– The Charge Of The Light Brigade

It was always going to happen sooner rather than later. After the good fun and smooth running of my last couple of Wednesday nigh roams, this one fell short of my expectations. It was one of those nights that started a bit chaotically and I never really got on top of it from there.

The number of people willing to die in whatever silly fight I try and take on seems to be increasing and, with scouts and gang booster, we peaked at 19 people in gang last night. The bulk of the gang was made up of artillery-fit Hurricanes as discussed in an earlier post. With a Loki booster, covert ops, interdictor, a couple of tackle interceptors, and a pair of Scimitars supporting us we could hopefully fight off whatever defence fleet formed in response to us. Before we got moving out towards null sec, though, there were reports of targets all over Molden Heath and we dashed around in a slightly disorganised fashion, putting them down as we found them. First to go was a Blackbird in Aedald. Unfortunately we couldn’t pin the rest of his gang down. Next up was a small gang in Oddelulf who we managed to bait with a Dominix as they jumped out of Atlar. This time a Curse and Drake fell to our overwhelming fire power. A shout out here to Dian Lung who foolishly or bravely decided that tackling in a Stiletto under sentries was a good idea and somehow lived to tell the tale.

A couple of other smallish gangs were reported around the region but I decided that our gang was wasted engaging such small forces and decided to head out to find some bigger fish to fry. Our first stop was a loop through Great Wildlands, entering through 7Q-8Z2 and moving through the station systems, before heading off to Etherium Reach and out through LXQ2-T back into lowsec. All the way through Great Wildlands and Etherium Reach we barely saw a soul and no real targets worth engaging. The only incident worth noting is that Miura disconnected every other jump and lost his Hurricane by the time he was able to log back in the last time. In Uemon things picked up and three Harbingers warped to the gate we were loitering on. Half the gang engaged and the ‘bingers jumped through, followed by the rest of our gang. Points were called and the targets tried to flee, knowing we were waiting on the other side. As soon as aggression timers ended the rest of the gang jumped and we finished off all three of them. Hardly a good fight but its always nice to pick up kills as we go.

Looking at the map, the only system in Geminate with a reasonable population in it was my regular stomping ground, L-HV5C. We set destination and burnt there without incident. As usual we set up on the station and waited to see if we could provoke them into a fight. We picked off quite a few people but, other than a Trans-Solar Works gang poking their nose in and then leaving, we were unable to drum up a response to our presence and I decided to move on. There was nowhere with a population big enough for us to get a proper fight on the map but I decided to go check out AP9-LV and see what Violent Entity were up to. On the way we ran into a Vagabond who was surprised to learn that 8 Hurricanes could volley through him before he got back to the gate. He dropped a faction point, too, so that should contribute to keeping us in tackle ships for a bit longer.

In AP9-LV our scout reported a few battleships and a Thanatos hanging round on the station. I sent in a couple of Hurricanes to see if they could tempt them into aggressing and encourage anyone else to undock. An artillery Tempest was doing pretty significant damage to our advance party and on hearing that the hostiles had aggressed my gang got a bit trigger happy and jumped the gun before I could trickle in support. With local fully bumped by our gang I had no choice but to rush to the station and hope we could kill something before they docked. Several of them got lucky and made it to safety with a slither of structure remaining but an Apocalypse wasn’t so lucky. He’d have died faster too if people stuck to the targets I was calling, damn them.

It was getting late now so I turned us around and we began to burn for BWF-ZZ and empire space. Before we got there our scouts reported a gang in 2E-ZR5 and we were able to kill a Harbinger and Malediction who jumped into us. During this fight it seems that Violent Entity had returned to hugging their station so we turned tail and burnt back. Once again we trickled people in and this time we were able to kill the Tempest that had been worrying our vanguard.

Now it was time to burn for home again. The gang that had been spotted in 2E-ZR5 was hanging around the area still and seemed to be a similar composition to ours. I decided that we were going to fight them if we could and I set up the gang on the SR-KBB gate in NQ-9IH. Rather boldly I put our damage ships at zero on the gate and this turned out to be a mistake. The opposition jumped in a Legion initially and we quickly went to work on him, which kept us right on the gate where they wanted. With the Legion at half armour they jumped in and Scimitars quickly went to work on him. Time for us to burn but we’d left it late and they were easily able to tackle a few of the gang and took down our interdictor, an interceptor, and one of our Hurricanes for the loss of a Taranis. Having regrouped our gang and assessed their composition we were ready to go back in, at range this time, but when we got to the gate they had already bailed and looked to be heading back to Vale of the Silent. It was late and I didn’t want to give chase so we continued towards home.

In IOO-7O a Sabre jumped into us and once again felt the wrath of our 720 mm artillery cannons before he could make it to the gate. We jumped into BWF-ZZ and were greeted by the sight of a Vindicator landing on the gate. At this point the red mist rose and I kind of lost control of the situation. We began to engage the Vindi only to have a Drake gang with logistics land on us. Thankfully we aligned out and the gang was able to warp off without casualties. We didn’t warp coherently, though, and people we scattered all over the system with some still trapped in IOO-7O. zombie had landed on the sun at zero with the hostile gang right behind him. While I was en route to a safe to get the gang back together, Sulei decided to play the hero and rescue zombie so he would finally survive one of my roams. By the time Sulei arrived zombie was safe but our knight in slightly rusty armour wasn’t so lucky and lost his ‘Cane.

With the gang finally reassembled we got everyone safely into BWF-ZZ and from there into low security space, docking up in Akora and calling it a night. In total we killed three battleships, a Vagabond, a Sabre, three interceptors, a Curse, a Blackbird, and six battlecruisers for the loss of three Hurricanes, an Ares, and a Flycatcher. Not a bad return at all really.

As far as debriefing goes, I think its fairly safe to say that I’m at fault for never really stamping my authority on the roam. Except between Great Wildlands and L-HV5C, things felt pretty disorganised and chaotic. In L-HV5C I felt much more in control of the situation and maybe we should have hung around in there a bit longer to see what happened while we were on the front foot. When fighting the opposing nano gang I should never have had us at zero on the gate and instead set us up with a head start so we could draw people away from the main gang. As it was we might as well have jumped into them for all the benefit we got by being on our side of the gate. Ah well, live and learn, unfortunately they didn’t hang around long enough for us to get a second round. By the time we hit BWF-ZZ everyone, especially myself, was pretty tired and things once again got pretty disorganised. Next time I think I need to be a bit more strict with time constraints and not spend time chasing after smallish gangs. Then again Geminate was pretty quiet anyway. I know I feel a bit disappointed with how things turned out but then I had very high expectations of what we’d achieve with our improved gang.

The final thing that I want to say is that I really liked flying the artillery Hurricanes. The volley damage that they deliver makes them great for punching through targets before they can get back to the gate. On the stations we lost a couple of kills because the huge cycle time of artillery means that targets have longer between volleys and those fractions of seconds are enough for them to dock up if we can’t alpha through them. Unfortunately we didn’t get to test them out in anything beyond skirmishes so I’ll be interested to see how they handle bigger fights.

Last night I did another of my Wednesday night roams. This time we based out of Molden Heath and, as well as a few of my old Tusker friends, a good number of the locals came along for a laugh. Unfortunately we had to leave Zombie behind because his computer seems to have some kind of moral aversion to TeamSpeak. Sorry, mate, we’ll use Vent next time.

Comms where suitably chaotic while we formed up, bringing people in from Teonusude, getting ship fittings together, and generally hanging out. It was about half an hour after the planned departure time when we finally set out from Oddelulf and set destination for Khabi. The plan was to hold one jump out while a scout checked out 7Q-8Z2 to see if there was a camp set up and we burned at full speed across Molden Heath low security space. Our gang consisted of 6 Hurricanes, two Drakes, a Sabre, two assault frigates, and a stealth bomber acting as scout.

7Q-8Z2 was empty but there were about half a dozen or so camping the in gate in 8YC-AN. When we jumped in they bailed and most of them got away successfully but we were able to tackle and kill a Drake that was too slow to decloak and warp after jumping in with us. Their gang was sitting in a safe spot so we moved towards M-MD3B and set up shop on the station. Our Sabre sat on the undock with the assault frigates providing support while the gang moved to a pounce spot above the station. I set up drag bubbles aligned to the two gates in system to see if we could catch any stragglers. While all this was going on four or five interceptors hung around outside the station observing us but didn’t make any moves to engage or get warp ins. A Rifter undocked and Rathnon made short work of him as soon as he moved and a few minutes later a hauler undocked but, seeing our gang warping down upon him, redocked without breaking his invulnerability. Somewhere else, in NIH-02 I think, our scout found and killed a noobship. A vital kill that would have enormous consequences for our overall efficiency.

After about fifteen minutes of hanging around and asking why, with 62 in local, they didn’t want to fight our gang, it was time to move out. The map was showing some activity in Curse so I decided to head down there and see what we could find. We warped out and jumped into E02-IK where we formed up on the NK-7XO gate while our scout sorted out his autopilot settings – he’d been directed into 8YC-AN, presumably to go to Doril via lowsec. As we waited local spiked and a hostile gang appeared on scan.

The hostiles began to land on our gate. Drake, Cynabal, Arazu, and more, and more and more. I held our gang at zero on the gate waiting to see what would happen. A couple of them yellow boxed us and I decided it was go time. The gang aligned out and began to burn away from the gate, through the bubble that their Onyx had dropped, while we shot at their Arazu. Initially we thought we’d killed it but it seems that he jumped out without aggressing. Once out of the bubble and away from their heavy tackle we cut our MWDs and concentrated on nuking the interceptors that were burning towards us. A Vagabond came out from the pack too and we destroyed that. By now their heavy tackle had closed down on us and we’d been going slowly for too long. People were starting to drop and I was fairly early to go. I got my pod out safely and Ariartus took over calling targets with the aim of getting the gang out without taking too many losses.

Although the fight was not a completely glorious victory for us we did pretty well considering my hesitation. In the end we destroyed a Vagabond, Hurricane, three interceptors, and a bomber for the loss of five of our own Hurricanes giving us a 52.49% killboard efficiency. I’m pretty sure that another Drake was lost somewhere in this but either the loss hasn’t been posted to Eve-Kill or I am wrong about that. This is by no means a stellar result but not bad for 10 versus 28. I could have handled the fight a bit better by either being a bit more pre-emptive about burning off the gate before their gang had finished landing or, better yet, jumping through and fighting them on the other side where they would have had to jump into us, giving us time to burn off the gate. Once the fight had started my priority should have been to keep burning away, get out of range of their DPS and then pick off their fast ships as they came to us. In the smaller scale fight last week I was pretty good at warping out and coming back in at a different angle but this time I messed that up and gave their heavy ships time to get amongst us. Oh well, I think everyone had fun and I learnt some lessons that I can apply next time.

After the fight we regrouped and prepared to get out pods out to the safety of empire. 8YC-AN was clear and we jumped in and warped to the 7Q-8Z2 gate. A Sabre was waiting on the other side and I sent in the surviving battlecruisers to force him off, which they did admirably. There was a sling bubble on the out gate so I ordered the gang to hold on the in gate while I warped to a pounce spot but a couple of people were a bit eager and warped straight to the out gate. I think we lost a pod or two here but I’m not entirely sure. Another hostile gang began to land on the Khabi gate and a small and disorganised fight began as people had issues getting a good warp in to the gate without getting caught in the bubble. By this time my pod was out in Molden Heath and I couldn’t provide warp ins and had to just listen to what was happening. We killed a Hurricane but lost a Drake in the ensuing confusion and eventually managed to get everyone out and into lowsec.

By now it was about 23:30 and a few people decided to call it a night and log off. The rest of us toyed with forming an armour BC gang with Guardian support to go fight in 7Q-8Z2 again but by the time we’d spent an hour getting our act together numbers were dropping, people were getting tired, and Masty had gone off to do his teeth.

Thanks to everyone who came along. I hope you all enjoyed the fight that we got. It always amazes me that lemmings are willing to turn up to my operations but I think I’m learning from all of them so our survivability should definitely increase over the next couple of weeks if people still turn up. If you were in the gang and have any ideas how I/we could have done better please let me know and if you have any tips for FCing nano(ish) gangs then please leave them here. Oh, and if anyone has any nanoish fits for Gallente pilots to bring along to these gangs please let me know because the only ideas I have so far are Rob’s autocannon monstrosity or something involving railguns.

I don’t think I’m going to be able to do a roam next week but the following week should be frigates and/or destroyers based out of Placid. Next time we do a Molden Heath roam I will have a stock of fitted BCs to hand out to people (for a fair price of course) so there is no excuse for claiming it is too far away for you. Come hang out in the Rifter Drifter channel if you fancy coming along.

Summer is a quiet time in New Eden. Rather than sit in the doldrums doing nothing I decided that Eve is what you make it. To that end I introduced “Wensley’s Wasted Wednesdays”. Its a pretty simple concept. Every Wednesday night I will do my best to organise a gang and go find some trouble. I can’t make every Wednesday and have already had to postpone the first couple to the following day but its been a success. Lots of people are logging on and we’re going out and having fun. The only rule is that any lossmails that don’t feature spirit aren’t reimbursed.

This week’s operation was a definite success. A good sized gang formed up and we headed out looking for trouble. The first destination was Adirain, a system that used to provide us with good hunting while Blood Money Bootcamp lived there but has become pretty barren since the Roughnecks claimed it as their own. Still, we’ve been able to pick off a couple of targets there and Thursday was no exception as the gang landed on an unfortunate Rifter. A quick scout into the surrounding systems didn’t reveal any targets so I moved the gang on to our next destination, Old Man Star.

Before the cold war between the empires broke into open hostilities Old Man Star was a pirate heaven. Its high security border systems provided plenty of targets and competing pirate gangs would slug it out in territorial disputes. These days the system is pretty well controlled by the Caldari militia but there are still plenty of opportunities for pirates like ourselves. Caster reported an Ishtar ratting in a belt but it was too far away from his Arazu for him to make a tackle without dropping his cloak. I warped to the belt in my Stabber and began burning for the Ishtar. As I began to close on the assault cruiser he dropped sentry drones and opened fire on me. My agile cruiser caught him right on top of his drones and they were unable to cause me much damage. “Point!” The gang warped in. Seeing the rest of the fleet land the Ishtar pilot scooped his drones and began to burn away from us. Heck that thing was fast. My Stabber and VaJo’s Vagabond were just about able to keep up and apply damage but we both encountered capacitor problems. How was he running away so effectively? It was only some tenacious tackling by Tarik in his Ares that allowed us to keep him pinned down. Every time the Warrior II drones gave him serious cause for concern either VaJo or I were able to take over tackling duties while he bugged out. Despite desperate efforts we were unable to get the gang a decent warp in to apply a warp scrambler and shut down his microwarp drive. Eventually, though, our persistence paid off and a final volley from VaJo’s Vagabond ended the chase.

With the loot safely in VaJo’s cargo bay we patrolled Old Man Star waiting for our criminal timers to tick down. Targets appeared on our scanner but either left system before we could pin them down or were able to evade our pursuit. Eventually a Catalyst was found in a belt and with a typically bloodthirsty whoop the fleet pounced. With a fresh timer we began to prowl the belts again. Eventually I pinned down a Kestrel I’d been stalking and warped to the belt my scanner showed him in. Jackpot. Not only the Kestrel but also an Ishkur. I pointed the Ishkur and called in the fleet while I took care not to allow either ship to scramble me. The Kestrel got away but the Ishkur wasn’t so lucky. Before the dust had settled a pair of Vexors warped to the belt. Reinforcements or opportunists? We didn’t care. The nearest Vexor was pointed and destroyed while the other fled for its life. As Commoner pointed out, why roam when the targets can come to you?