Viking Burial Redux

Well, the deed is done. Maythorn and friends showed up for another dip and the two Archons I wanted gone and, in the end, they are indeed gone. It just didn't quite go as expected.

We formed up in a very similar composition to last time, the two Triage Archons, a handful of Armour Battleships, Battlecruisers & Cruisers and clean pods. Maythorn and co probably weren't as prepared last time and we were hopeful of a better showing on this occasion but alas, two Archons just didn't seem to be enough of a lure to get some people to log in. They came nonetheless, in a mixed fleet of armour cruisers, Battleships and a couple of Bhaalgorns, out numbering us slightly but two Triage fit Archons would comfortably negate such a small advantage. As soon as the fight began, it became abundantly clear that the three Guardians were not going to be able to keep their fleet alive. It was a fleet of many corporations however, so it's fair to say communications probably weren't as stellar as you'd find on that of a corporation who fly together regularly. So the dominos fell and our reps held, clearing the field in fairly short order.

Alas, that wasn't the point of the exercise. These Archons needed to die, so it soon became everyone vs the Archons as we combined what remaining forces there were to send these Capitals to their resting place with Bob. It turns out a cap fit Triage Archon is a bitch to neut out so it took a long damn time, but we got there in the end.

Full Battle Report

Thank you to everyone who showed up, it was a blast.

Target rich environment

With my peculiar working hours, Tuesday is to me what Saturday is to most. Logging in on Tuesday morning there was nothing out of the ordinary to be seen in my C3 system, but I went about updating my bookmarks and siggy and started exploring my chain.

It's always pleasing to find some fresh Null rated Relic sites, they're like an iresistable candy for the HiSec explorers dipping their toes in W-Space. As luck would have it I had a couple of fresh ones so I bookmarked pounce spots and kept cloaky eyes in system whilst I went about resetting my Planetary Interaction harvests across six characters.

Before long I had a connection open from a C6 occupied by Haywire, an Aussie TZ W-Space entity that we are blue to when it counts, but all bets are off under all other circumstances. Being alone at the time I waited patiently as I had seen numerous pilots of theirs traversing my HiSec route. I just needed one of them to take an interest in one of my Relic sites. They obliged shortly after, landing a Buzzard in the site I was watching over who quickly made his way to the first can. I wanted to get this over fast, before reinforcements could arrive, so I immediately activated warp to the can he was scanning. Unfortunately, he didn't like what he saw in that can and moved on to the next one, the problem was I couldn't cancel warp fast enough and got decloaked upon landing with his Buzzard beyond the range of my Smart Bombs. He immediately warped off  and I went back to my pounce lamenting my missed opportunity.

Only a minute later he's back and moving towards a can. Spider senses start tingling. He had back up on field now, of this much I was sure. Undeterred, I aligned to his can and warped to 10 km's. I then aligned a celestial behind my target and as I was approaching speed to warp I uncloaked and let loose with all my smart bombs, vapourising the Buzzard and the Pod as a Stratios uncloaks right next to me. I initiate warp to my celestial and I'm gone before the Stratios has even had the chance to yellow box me. It was the perfect crime.

Turns out my day of murdering hapless explorers wasn't over. Over the course of the day an Imicus worth 95m ISK went pop, complete with his Sisters probe launcher and RSS probes, a Magnate, a Cheetah and two Asteros with Warp Core Stabs a go-go. My smart bombs care not for your warp core stabs, heretics!

Attempt number 2 of the Viking Burial will take place this weekend, all things going smoothly. Expect to see me regaling you of epic Archon losses shortly thereafter.

Viking Burial

Since moving into my current home things have been pretty sweet. One rather odd hangover of evicting the old tenants however is what to do with these damn Archons we inherited. Initially I thought they could be useful for solo ratting the Sleeper Radar Data sites as they can be quite a handful in even a Rattlesnake, and indeed I did use one of them for that purpose a few times. But it's tiresome and slow and even with good hole control, you're going to get caught one day. I could just strip them down and self destruct them for the insurance but it's just not my style, I'd much rather use them to create some content for my fellow pilots and see them die gloriously in battle, guaranteeing their path through the gates of Valhalla. I revealed my idea to Trinkets friend and he put the ball in motion, offering the prospect of a good fight to Maythorn. They outnumber us pretty comprehensively, but the goal was to see the carriers die and have a fun fight, not necessarily win the battle.

Time lines were established and The Maythorn agreed to be the meat in our Archon sandwich, turning up on time for the most part, although losing a Paladin en route to a duel in Jita. The two Archons were set up for Triage and capacitor regeneration, predictably. Throw into the mix a support fleet of two neut Armageddons, a pair of Scorpions and an assortment of other DPS Battleships and subcaps, it promised to be a good brawl. Unfortunately however, The Maythorn were a little under represented. They brought along a trio of Guardians, a Bhaalgorn, three neut Armageddons, a curse and a few T1 or faction Armour Cruisers. Honestly, even without the support fleet I think they may have had a hell of a time breaking the two Triage Archons. No fault of the leadership of course, all you can do is make your members aware of content being created, it's up to them to actually log on and make the effort.

Being good sports, they didn't just turn tail and bail out and, without going into the gritty detail, it didn't pan out too well for them. There were some accidental poddings from Smart Bomb spam [it is a Red Giant, after all] and despite the result, it was a good fight that probably wasn't as one sided as it might appear on the killboard.

I was particularly pleased with something of an experimental Armageddon fit for the fight too.

[Armageddon, Neuting Pairs]

Damage Control II
1600mm Steel Plates II
1600mm Steel Plates II
Corelum C-Type Energized Thermic Membrane
Corelum C-Type Energized Kinetic Membrane
Corelum C-Type Energized Explosive Membrane
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Large Micro Jump Drive
100MN Afterburner II
ECCM - Radar II
ECCM - Radar II

Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Heavy Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II
Large Remote Capacitor Transmitter II

Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I
Large Trimark Armor Pump I

Berserker II x5
Bouncer II x5
Praetor EV-900 x5

Clearly we were expecting some Falcons that didn't eventuate, but the goal was to allow enough cargo space for a refit of Smart Bombs, Nosferatus or Cap Regeneration, should the situation demand it. Being able to refit off a carrier is a rare privilege for me, so the space the cap boosters would take up just wouldn't do. I could've just loaded up the Archons with those items of course, but it felt like I was leaving my destiny in someone elses hands a little more than I'm comfortable with. Paired with another Armageddon of the same fit, you can keep all 5 Neuts going for around 5 minutes and we were able to stress their Neuting and DPS ships throughout the fight without bothering the Archons for capacitor every thirty seconds.

There will be another attempt at seeing these carriers die in glory soon, hopefully the first conflict will whet the appetite of our friends at Maythorn. I'll keep you posted.

Location, Location, Location...

Success with Night Fever very much depends on where my static HiSec leads. If I'm connected to an out of the way system without any through traffic I'll quite often go the whole day without any visitors, so it was with some gleeful anticipation that I connected to Sehmy yesterday, just two jumps from Amarr and one from a Rookie system and several popular mining systems. It's where I was born as an EVE player, so I knew the region well and was confident it was well farmed by the locals. As often happens a couple of hapless newbies wandered into system together, presumably thinking there was safety in numbers. Honestly, I thought the first one would run screaming from system after his friend exploded, but greed is a powerful motivator and he followed his friend out to HiSec in similar fashion a couple of minutes later. Fortunately for them both, Bob does not discriminate who is deserving of His love and as His chosen vector of love, I took great delight in educating our newest brethren on His Glory.

Now, newbies need converting, of that there is no denying, but it's the heretics who deny Bob's existence that I am charged with educating. This morning, such a heretic wandered into Bob's realm.

I had only just finished doing my morning PI resets when I noticed a distant signature disappear. Fairly certain it was one of the two Data sites in system I immediately jumped into Night Fever and headed to the second one. Moments later an Astero landed in the site and started scanning the cans for content. It's not something you like to see, especially in a Data site, the things are devoid of value and most explorers will just pass them by, but this chap had a track record of completing them so I aligned to the can closest to him, regardless.

Sure enough, he began his hack, I warped in on top of him letting the can uncloak me and setting off my five smart bombs in fast succession. The second cycle of the bombs saw his ship detonate and the pod an instant later. Satisfied with the result, I scooped the contents of his wreck and his corpse for a blood ritual at a later date, and returned to POS. It was a nice Astero. The Loot Fairy, damn her to Bob, saw fit to make off with most of the goodies, but the return was a nice one, regardless. The truly shocking part of this particular sacrifice was yet to come.

I'll just leave this here.

Oddly, no Omega hardwiring to get the most from a High Grade Slave set, but in hindsight I guess it was for the best.

Super Size Me!

The latest image from CCP's Tumbler account really gives some perspective to the scale of a Citadel, finally. With an Avatar and a Chimera parked off to one side the sheer enormity of the structure is suddenly brought into stark reality, and it's just a Medium! Unfortunately, it's probably brought a stark reality to a few hopeful capsuleers, myself included.

I admit, what I know about Capital ship construction you could write on the back of a postage stamp with a crayon, but judging by the scale of this structure, an extraordinary amount of minerals are going to be required and a highly skilled industry character to build it. The prospect of having a home base in W-Space that didn't require fueling is a lucrative one and I did have every intention of setting up one for both my bearing entities and with Sudden Buggery for our respective home bases. Now... I'm less certain about it.

For one, it's clearly going to take several weeks just to build it. That's a long time for someone in W-Space to find your Citadel under construction and coat hanger it. Secondly, if scaling is anything to go by, the mineral requirement will be enormous and almost certainly beyond the achievable realms of a small group.

Then you have to consider the cost. If a Titan is worth about, what, 60 billion these days[?] and the citadel is, at least by visuals, four or five times the size of a Titan, I think it's fair to say the ISK you save on fuel may take a while to pay it off.

With any luck I'm being an alarmist and going off half cocked over a few artist impressions. I know CCP want to phase out POS's in favour of these behemoths, and I'm all in favour of that so long as it's achievable for those of us not in the big NullSec power Blocs.

Bittervet is bitter

When I set myself to Disco explorers back to HiSec for the Glory of Bob, I don't discriminate. I don't care if you're a day old newbie in your first Magnate or a bittervet who doesn't even know why he's farming ISK anymore, Bob's appetites cannot be sated. From a personal point of view, the bitter vets are certainly the most desirable.

It's a regular Wednesday morning and I'm camping the only Relic site in my system with the Proteus that has served me so well. A new sig pops up and moments later so do the probes. Excellent! The visitor is from an Illusion of Solitude C4 system and after a few minutes he seems to have found what he was after, moving his Viator back and forth through the HiSec. I considered crushing his wormhole home but a scan in system indicated he had friends online so doing so undetected would be unlikely. I resolved to wait and see if his greed would get the better of him.

I didn't have to wait long. A Helios lands in the Relic system and the result was predictable. What wasn't expected was the fury.

Dean Mintar > little faggot
Apex Bex > Bob thanks you for your sacrifice.
Dean Mintar > figures you would be a bob fucker
Dean Mintar > i like fucking people like you
Dean Mintar > :)
Dean Mintar > catch you tomorrow ;)
Apex Bex > unlikely
Dean Mintar > and everyday until i get that proteus

Clearly an alt of the victim, and apparently I've made a new friend. No doubt he won't be the last to try and catch Night Fever, but if he's successful, he will be the first. =]

Fly dangerous. o7

You'll never take me alive!

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Russian occupiers of our new home had no interest in negotiating their own safe withdrawal, instead self destructing every vessel in their POS. The Rorqual as spoken about earlier and now the only thing of value they had left, the Archon. Numerous smaller ships met a similar fate and they withdrew from system in a Viator and some Covert frigates never to be seen again.

Tactics like this have always confused me. I understand that not everyone who plays EVE wants to PvP, but when you're faced with the certainty of your own ships destruction as they were, wouldn't you take a swing at it anyway? To be clear, this isn't an exclusively Russian thing to do, I've witnessed La Division Bleu do it before on a grand scale and obviously lesser entities in W-Space regions, but I'm at a loss to explain the mindset.

Is it considered a small victory to deny PvP players the opportunity to PvP? Is it just in an effort to deny the attacking force some spoils of victory? For future reference, quite often your attacker just wants control of the system, a peaceful withdrawal can be negotiated.

I know were I in a position that I couldn't negotiate my way out of I would most certainly fight to the last ship, I get insurance payouts regardless and maybe I could take a few out along the way and actually salvage some pride instead of skulking away with dignity in tatters.

It's all mathematical now, of course. The system is ours, the Russians are evicted and the killboard is green.