Nullsec Roaming

So, a couple of us little Unistas decided we wanted to learn a bit about solo PvP, maybe a bit about small gang PvP and sure, why not a smattering of nullsec PvP while we were at it. How hard could it be, right? Jump in a few T1 frigs and head to a border zone, grab our guns, head out and we'd soon be contracting corpses to Ubercado!

Yeah. Not quite. Night 1 of combat engagements left me with 1 dead Griffin and 1 dead pod. My wingmate received three dead Maulus'.
http://killboard.eveuniversity.org/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7931388
Talk about getting the wind let out of our sails. I personally think the Vagabond cheated, we clearly went in with 2 ewar boats against a Rifter expecting not much more than a scratch in return and the Vag had to come along and ruin our party. :D

Seriously though, some lessons to be learned, even if we were aced down in small order. A good hour or so wandering around a couple of nullsec systems drilled home that you just have to be aware of bubbles, not just in gates, but when bouncing from planets or belts. I got away with it one too many times and finally paid with my pod when heading for home after the Rifter/Vagabond engagement.

Neutrals aren't neutral. I'm far too used to Uni fleets where you go hunting the flashies and usually everyone knows well enough to stay away, or are actively hunting us anyway. Nullsec is different. We'd seen the Rifter in adjacent systems alone, and with a 'Ceptor so when we jumped in and didn't see the 'Ceptor, assumed we'd just found ourselves a tasty scrap metal meal. Maybe the Vaga was a friend, maybe he was bored. It was our mistake for assuming he'd stay out of the fight.

Frigates are cheap and it doesn't hurt nearly as much to lose them. That was one positve, I can afford to lose plenty of cheapfit frigs while learning.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this again, and hopefully news of some kills (eventually).

Stay tuned!

Neat Combat Video

So, I was browsing EVE-O and came across a thread on smart bombing gates, something that I've come across now and then when flying with the Uni. I'd wondered why the ships involved were called "Disco Rokh" etc, since generally all we ever dropped with was a bomb or two, which while deadly wasn't visually overwhelming.

Suffice it to say, I now understand.



The prevailing wisdom whenever I've seen it discussed in the Uni has always been that smartbombs are an anti-frigate/cruiser weapon. Interesting to see a BS gang pretty much destroyed by them! Just goes to show, in EVE, if there's something that can be done, someone will do it.

EDROP/E-UNI Joint-WH Op

So, just docked up, tired from my first WH Op, one held by EDROP no less. It was... interesting. Unfortunately I was flying CovOps but missed the pre-operation scouting and scanning of potential 'holes. I had been looking forward to helping out on that in particular, since I had a feeling that manning the picket once we got in-system was going go be less than thrilling.
And such it turned out to be. If it wasn't for the very knowledgeable folk in EDROP entertaining and educating us in turn in the Overwatch channel I'm not sure I could have stuck it out. Beyond getting the initial sites scanned down and bookmarked I was on perma-picket so I had a lot of time to pester the EDROP guys and the more knowledgeable Unistas with questions so it was kind of like an extended Q&A session in that sense.
A lot of the lack of activity was down to redundancy, which isn't a bad thing per se, there were just a lot of scouts from EDROP in the fleet already. Naturally, given the commanders knew their abilities better than unknowns from the Uni it was they who were sent into adjoining 'holes to scout and delve further into w-space.
It hasn't put me off though since I think in a smaller fleet where perhaps there are only a couple of scouts available as there normally are in Uni fleets, it would be a lot more hands on and busy.
There is the apparently controversial Wormhole Club in E-Uni that I think I'll have to see about joining. This was definitely an experience that I want to repeat albeit in a hopefully more intimate fleet rather than a virtual UniBlob™ W-Space Edition!
I'll have to keep an eye on the Unista blogs and grab some links to any posts from a hopefully more exciting perspective. But not now, time for bed...
As I thought he would, looks like Memoocan threw down a post on it too.
Progression's Horizon: Roll Out: "Broken debris littered the area. Flames winked out as atmosphere vented silently from the hulls and bodies floated aimlessly in space."

Fleet Command

So, finally managed to get back in game today after a two week hiatus. And, finally managed to get a mic sorted which opens up the wonderful world of Fleet Command to me! Small beans to most people perhaps, but I'd wanted to try for a long time and finally today I got my chance.

Ok, it was a completely uneventful small (<5) pick up fleet for stranded Unistas but still, I got it done without killing anyone or suffering a breakdown.

Now to get some leadership skills trained up and SC for some large fleets to get ready for my first active combat fleet.

This is part of why I love EVE University. I don't think there's too many other corporations that would allow a virgin fleet commander wander around the universe while there is a war ongoing.

Here's to many more!

EVE

So, I've been playing EVE the past while and figured I might as well resurrect this blog for that game.
The title still fits!
Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have something to actually write about. Can't get in game at the moment so am trawling some pirate blogs which are inspiring me to try my hand at some solo-pvp.