I have done it! It seems that at one point or another, most serious pilots in the galaxy must make the trip. Some call it a pilgrimage while others are just bored. Me? It came out of my drive to find new hunting grounds and new unsuspecting victims. I traveled far and wide, and reached the place where it all started, the New Eden System. There is not much I can say that hasn't already been said, so I will simply leave you with a few pictures of the beautiful effects that can be fount there.
Unfortunatley, I did not find much of a fight on the way there or back, so not much else to comment on except that doing the 20+ jumps in a BC without a fight is hard work!
Killing N00bs
In other blogging news, the amazing and awesome pirate Spectre (who is btw, the self proclaimed master of the universe) has made a recent post about tricking carebears into fights. Be sure to check out his blog for some tips on how to accomplish this!
Other interesting stuff
As always, be sure to check out the other bloggers who are much better at this (and EVE) than me.
Check out Wensley's recent posts about having fun in low sec and fleeting up with the goons
The latest going on's with the tuskers can be read about in our corp-wide blog
Last but certainly not least, my favorite podcast is back! Check out the newest Drone Bay episode! Welcome back guys!
As most of the readers will know, The Tuskers tend to favor heavily on the side of flying small ships. Because of this, and because who doesn't like a good Eve video, we tend to keep each other updated on videos coming out etc. One of them has been the frigank series, created by Prometheus Exenthal. These excellent videos show what a frigate can do at the hand of someone who really knows his stuff. Most of the stuff is solo fights in t1 frigates. While I simply wanted to inform y'all that frigank 6 is out, I would recomend watching them all as there is some amazing stuff in there.
I think everyone who is in the pirate profession will tell you that life as a pirate is a difficult, and at times, boring one. You spend days on end looking for a good/fun fight. You lose countless ships to blobs and go 20+ systems without finding a suitable target. Every now and then however, you find a diamond amongst a pile of crap. Null Sec Run The day started pretty normal. Things were a bit slow around our home. Around 2100 Eve time, wensley came on and we made an unplanned (except for a quick chat about it the day before) trip into null sec. Wensley led a crazy band of 8 pilots into null sec in frigs as a suicide run. To spare you all the details...we engaged a hawk and quickly destroyed it. His fleet warped in and killed a few of us, including yours truly. Podded as well, I fount a quick replacement in a TD crucifier (they have quickly become my favorite EWAR weapon). In the meantime, Wensley was able to bag a crow (don't have KM as our boards seem to be down at the moment). After refitting, we went again into low sec but ran into another fleet and I didn't last long (thanks to a bubble). At this point, I left and went to attend to a RL friend of mine who had been asking for a tennis lesson...she can be quiet persistant!
Diamond among a pile of crap
Later on that night...realizing i had a clone and a nano-omen (most fun ship in eve...ever!) up at Kor-Azor, I decided to jump clone to it and head to New Eden system..somewhere I have never been to. Not much action on the way, tried to gank a hauler at a gate whichw as unfortunatley stabbed. Then I went into the beatiful system of Angur...my diamond! With local up quiet a decent amount, I began to scout around. At first, nothing unusual...then as I scanned another set of belts...there it was, a MINING OP. That is one of the most beatiful sights for a pirate, and this one made my eyes water. There was a number of ships on scan (around 6 or 7), including a retriever, myrmidon, and an ORCA!! Cursing that I was so far away from home and away from friends to help me take it down, I quickly decided to have a go at some of the other ships doing some fly by runs. No guts no glory right!? Some of the order of kills is a bit hazy, but I first targeted that retriever. Not lasting long, I began to try and target any of the other frigates. As they all warped, the only two ships left were an Ibis (or bantam cant remember) and a myrmidon. Figuring for some fun, I went after the myrm. As his shields and his armor started to drop, i realized he was either fit for ratting or mining, and with his T1 dones, he wouldn't have a very good tank. Just as the last of his armor gave way to his structure, a pilgrim and dominix were brought in to try and help. Going guns hot, I overheated and stayed away from them both...fearing for a scram or the pilgrim's neuts..the myrmidon gave out in a big explosion and immidiatly after I warped away. Looking at local, my eyes lit up. This was a mining corp that not only didn't bring the necessary protection to their low sec ops...but also loved to whine and talk smack!! They began to yell and call me all kinds of names in local. I kept my cool, and as we try to keep smack talking to a minimum in The Tuskers, answered the way I thought was appropriate. With them bringing in a maelstrom to join the domi and pilgrim (as well as a thorax that never tried to engage, unsure if it was fit for combat or mining), I had a real fun chat with them in local as I continued my drive-by's and attempted to get more of their ships. You could say I was tacking too big a risk, but how often do you run into opportunities like this? And so far from home? I almost preferred death as it would be doing me a favor. In the process, I bagged a rifter, punisher, and Bantam. With their spewing in local, it was just too much fun. [05:01:03] Joc > but its how you look at the GAME [05:01:09] Joc > see..i see it as just pixles and coding [05:01:13] Senen Forsworn > Yes destroying new players [05:01:14] Joc > you look at it like its the end of the world [05:01:15] Celestius al'Rhaytian > hey jock where you at? [05:01:21] Senen Forsworn > That why you're crying your eyes out at getting owned? [05:01:27] Joc > I am? [05:01:33] Joc > i havn't gotten owned [05:01:34] Joc > im still alive [05:01:38] Senen Forsworn > Well every recent attack you've made has failed [05:01:46] Joc > lol [05:02:05] Joc > but its fun [05:02:08] Joc > and thats the point of the game [05:02:31] Joc > remember...GAME [05:02:37] Senen Forsworn > You have no idea the guy who's coming your way. [05:02:50] Senen Forsworn > And man, he is pissed... ------------------------------------------------------------ [05:03:19] Joc > so you would be doing me a favor actually [05:03:31] Senen Forsworn > Finally accepting death, awesome. [05:04:10] Norsk Maelstrom > i did that in a shuttle once 30 jumps out oim 0.0 i just rather they kill my pod than have to fly it back [05:04:29] Senen Forsworn > Shit he just gave me some pounding. [05:05:36] Joc > ah finally caught me [05:05:39] Senen Forsworn > Yet failed to kill me, nice one matey ;) [05:05:41] Joc > the only one of u who has any sence [05:05:48] Senen Forsworn > Here comes the boom buddy [05:05:55] Joc > good for ya nuean [05:06:13] Senen Forsworn > And our best isn't even there, but trust me they're headed straight for you [05:06:13] Emius Darkrunner > bye bye [05:06:23] Joc > they are? [05:06:26] Celestius al'Rhaytian > Cov ops for the win [05:06:28] Senen Forsworn > Yup [05:06:29] Joc > cuz ill come back... [05:06:36] Senen Forsworn > Hows the pod feel? [05:06:45] Joc > oh and btw if you want to visit me, or my corp...we are always willing to accept visitors [05:06:47] Joc > we live in Hevrice [05:07:01] Senen Forsworn > We've got friends, I don't advise coming back. [05:07:01] Celestius al'Rhaytian > why the hell would we want to come to that shit hole? [05:07:17] Senen Forsworn > That raging pile of filth somewhere in the middle of your universe. [05:07:41] Joc > wow I may have to come back here more often then [05:07:47] Joc > i rarely come here..but if im guaranteed a fight...
Simply some of the stuff I got from them, pure comedy. In the end, I was caught by a combination of a covert ops with a scram (good tactic) and the nuets of the pilgrim. The damage from the maelstrom was there, but it was over the course of something like 5 minutes, and what really did me in was the pilgrim's neuts...as without them and his scram I coulda warped out at my discression. It should be noted that the pilgrim pilot is the only one who had a real sense of what this game is about. I chatted with him privately throughout most of the ordeal, and he was the only one that understood that this is the nature of the game, that they were in low sec system and simply had lost. A good guy, and possible new recruit to the Tuskers. The rest? Well to be honest they were a bunch of players who made it to be the end of the world when their ship got blown up. It was everyone's fault BUT theirs (and in particular it was my fault) when it blew up, and they simply did not understand that they had gotten caught this time. Fellas, remember, IT IS A GAME....its just pixels fit aorund a certain way...jsut because your frigates get blown up does not mean you have to fill buckets of tears. I mean sure, its entertaining for me, so I appreciate it, but it can't possibly be good for you in the long run. All in all, after they were done spewing all kinds of things at me (as well as the usual "we have friends coming, you better RUN!!!), one of them may have finally gotten it: [05:19:30] Emius Darkrunner > ok lets just say this... you got us... we got you end of story
And it is true, we each had gotten each other. You win some, you lose some...It's all about the enjoyment we got out of the experience. The maelstrom pilot confessed to me that it was the first time he had shot at someone, and that he had fun. I feel I have done a little good in New Eden today... In the end, I was left in my pod, and wondering if I should jump back the 20+ jumps home, I decided to simply destroy it and make the quick trip back home. With so much fun, you can bet I will be back to this system at some point, perhaps with some friends in case that orca is still out here...after all, I still have to visit the New Eden system!
NOTE: Sorry for the Battleclinic killmails. I generally will link to the Tuskers Killboard, but it seems to be down at the moment and I wanted to write this down before I forgot much.
Well it seems that everyone is doing it, so I figured why not join the bandwagon. I have been compelled, compelled I tell you,byKirith Kodachi from Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah to post up a picture of where I have been throughout my life in New Eden.
As you can see, I have spent most of my time in Verge Vendor region. The low sec systems have been my usual hunting spots ever since I became a pirate, and before that, while I was a high sec carebear, I lived only a few jumps from my current home. I have never spent any decent amount of time in null sec, and while I do go on roams far from home, I always come back to the systems I've come to love and hate.
The Tuskers, as a corporation, do not hide anything. We have three parts of our forums open to the public, including the recruiting posts, the customer relations where anyone can past any complaints or any comments about our corporation or our members, and the academy section where many of our members have freely posted up guides to ships or tactics which they have wrote. Through combination of blogging and our public channel, anyone who wants to find out about us doesn't have to look too hard. We are open to the fact that we are based out of Hevrice system, and we are more than open to the fact that we, for the most part, prefer smaller ships like cruisers and frigates to bigger hulls, like Battleships and to some extent BCs (this does not mean that we cannot pilot them effectively, we even have a couple of members able to pilot carriers).
We have never claimed ownership over anything such as our HQ system. This is why it surprises me a little when different corps attempt to "kick us out" of Hevrice. Every once in a while, a new kid on the block and his friends will attempt to do this, posting up BC and BS camps at our main station, and attempting to kill us. When this happens, we usually do what we always do, undock in our small ships, evade the camp, and go on our merry way. After a few weeks they get tired of it and leave us alone. The most reason iteration of this has been the corporation "Flaming Brotherhood". They have been posting up camps, along with with of their neutral friends (which we sadly cannot engage freely as we will incurr the wrath of the gate and station guns). Credit given where it is due, they have been somewhat successful at times, catching a cruiser here and there, but for the most part they have been simply a nuissance and a source of entertainment from the local channel.
Baiting the Bait Exuse me if this is somewhat lacking of details, but although I meant to post about it sooner, I did not get around to it until now. A couple of days ago, Caster Rom, Leo Solunar, VaJo Mithrandhir, and myself were in Hevrice looking for a bit of action. With a couple of the Flaming Brotherhood online and in Hev, we undocked to find Ollie123 in a prophecy outside of station V. A prophecy is, for the most part, considered an inferior battlecruiser to the rest for the fact that it has only one use, its HUGE tank. Despite of this tank however, its DPS is minimal and is a lesser threath in a fleet fight. Quickly realizing this was bait, a decision was taken to attempt to get an engagement away from the station (a favorite spot of theirs, where they can dock up and play station games. We, as a corp, HATE station games). I undocked in my ferox (unfortunatley, wasn't completely fitted out as it was missing the resist rigs that were on the way down with our corp hauler), a generally underated BC, and warped to the nearest planet to wait. With my 3 corp mates waiting in station in a Ferox and two Brutix, we patiently waited for ollie to take our bait. Just as we began to tire of it, ollie and his prophecy appeared on my overview, and after burning 20 km's towards him and pointing him, the call went out through our vent server to undock and warp to me. The fight was on! As my corpmates undocked, they fount something interesting undocking from station as well, an Armageddon Battleship piloted by ant1312, another Flaming brotherhood member. Thanks to our nimble ships, my corpmates arrived at the fight before the battleship and through the combined power of our four BCs, the prophecy's tank eventually broke. By now, the armageddon had arrived, as well as a couple of neutrals which we figured were with them as they had been spotted together with them. Eltharo's thorax was called primary, with the potential of over 500 DPS if fitted for gank and not much tank, we knew it would pop quickly but could otherwise pose a dangerous threath if left to do its damage. With it gone, we turned on ant1312's Battleship. The fearsome armageddon is a lethal battleship, favored among many and feared among even more pilots. However, thanks to the great DPS potential of our ships, it went down within a minute before it oculd have a chance to kill any one of us. Our final target and kill of the battle would come only 2 minutes after the fight started, a neutral brutix that was helping them out. Just like the rest, it could not take all of our DPS and it too quickly fell to our combined firepower.
By now the rest had time to warp to the station and grab a new ship to rejoin the fight. The fight escalated when ant1212 (ant1213's different account) joined the fight in a Rokh. As we began to work on his shields, Ollie rejoined the fight in his own Hyperion. Knowing that ant1213 (originally in the 'Geddon) would rejoin in even another BS, the call was given to grab the loot and get out. On top of this, furb killer, a neutral party to this fight (or so we believe) took the chance to get in on some killmails and warped at a distance, pointing and shooting things without doing much damage simply to be on the KM. As we tried to get out, my ferox was warp drives were disrupted and, after a few moments of fire from the battleships, the hull cracked and exploded. With this, we decided to conclude the engagement, as we had no intention in following the escalation more and more. We had destroyed a cruiser, two battlecruisers and a battleship in exchange for one battlecruiser. Having grabbed the loot (or most of it) as well, we came out winning, and I would trade my own battlecruiser any day for those kinds of exchange. Having a little chat with flaming brotherhood after the fight (you know they can be decent chaps when not smacktalking), they recognized our good tactic during the fight, and said that they would no longer be expecting us to undock small stuff. An advantage of flying frigates and cruisers, when you undock in a battlecruiser or bigger, most of your foes (if they know you well) won't be expecting it and you will have the advantage of surprise, a small thing that could, in an equal fight, win you a battle. When noob ships attack! I won't go into much detail as Wensley has already done a good job on his own blog, as well as including a video of what happened. Yesterday we fount ourselves in a similar position. A few members on with flaming brotherhood and friends camping us. Only this time it was a single pilot flying a proteus (t3 cruiser) with only a falcon as backup. Our force was mobilizing, the proteus being too good an opportunity to pass up. However, when we finally engaged, the pilot was ready for this and his falcon alt quickly jammed our bait ship and allowed him to warp before the rest of us could arrive at the site. As some of the flaming brotherhood members began to come on and sit outside of the station in their usual battleships, a plan was deviced to fit up noob ships with T1 modules and attempt to take them down. The main purpose of this was to have fun, a break in the routine not only for us, but for them as well...but hey if we happened to get a kill all the better! I will leave you with a link to the video taken by wensley...unfortunatley our comms was not recorded, but I can guarantee you we were all laughing and joking on vent as this went on...great fun was had by all!
Video curtosy of Wensley. Don't think I need to tell any of you, but do visit his great blog!
Another one bites the dust! I cannot comment much on this since I was halfway around the galaxy. However, sometime yesterday a combined Tusker fleet of Battlecruisers and Battleships engaged a similar force of three battleships belonging to The Flaming Brotherhood in Hevrice. The specifics are unknown to me, as I was not near the battle, but in the end our fleet destroyed two tempest battleship as well as a Dominix BS while taking no losses. Another heavy hit to the flaming brotherhood. Great job Tuskers, keep up the good work!
A word of caution to our future "enemies" that try and kick us out or camp us. Yes it is true (and it is general knowledge) that we prefer to fly and engage in frigate and cruiser sized hulls. A small force of this is a deadly swarm to any ship. However, do not let that fool you. Simply because we prefer to fly these smaller ships does not mean that we are not as lethal in bigger ships. But by all means, keep underestimating us...makes it all the more fun for us!
So I don't even know if anyone is actually reading this anymore..but oh well! Truth be told, reason why I write on here so little is because I usually don't have engagements that I consider entertaining for y'all. I do not have the writing skills that other bloggers do that turn mundane encounters into epic stories, so I have to wait until I have something that is (at least for me) exciting. This changed a little bit in the last two days:
Ronan's Nano Op:
On wensday afternoon, Ronan organized a nano op. Our aim was to head to amarr space and see what we could take out. Our complete fleet composition was made up of 3x Vexors, 1x Arazu, 1x Omen, 1x Stabber, 1x Ares, 1x rifter and myself in a Blackbird. Everything engaged at 15kms and further, as that was the requisit for the op, we wanted a forced which would not get itself caught in scram range and be able to disengage at will. There were a few notable kills through the night. One that Ka Jolo will specially be proud of is a flashy drake taht we killed at a gate. Why do I say he would be proud? Well we have a bad habbit if forgetting to leave someone on each side of the gate when we find something juicy to kill. Most times we do it, but it is only because Jolo notices this and decides to hang back himeself. This time however, the fleet showed great composure and we had the main force on one side, with a vexor and the ares on the other side. With no webs or scrams, the drake was able to jump back and forth a few times, but eventually he fell to our fire.
At another point our Ares scout spotted a neutral hauler heading our way through a gate. Now in normal circumstances, in cruisers, we would have just let him go on his merry way. However, when we looked at his info and saw "CvA FRIENDLY : DEATH TO PIRATES", we knew we had to gank him, if not for any loot he might be carrying, simply for the name of all pirates out there. The pilot jumped into our system, and after waiting a few seconds, uncloacked only to activate a cloaking device. Our pilots quickly accelerated to his last known position and were able to decloak him. A great job that was rewarded to us as his ship cracked like a piñata and spit out all its wonderful candy! We left a couple of pilots ferrying all the loot to a container and then waiting for a hauler to come pick it up, while the rest of the fleet hurried forward about three jumps as our tackler had fount 2 vengeance at a belt and had tackled one of them. With our fleet arriving, one of the vengeance escaped (for now) and so we quickly dispatched the one that was left. THe loot gods, unfortunatley, were cruel with us, and even though all the lows were fit with faction modules, we did not get a single one :(
At this point, things got a little hectic. The main force of the gang (everything BUT the ares and a vexor which was racing to catch up to us) was able to get a tackle on a 'Geddon we had been chacing at a planet. Just as we did this, our Ares pilot was able to get a point on the other vengeance that had escaped 2 jumps back. The plan was to kill the 'Geddon (and his zealot buddy if he decided to try and help) and have the ares hold the vengeance. However, the vexor that was catching up instead went for the vengeance, and together with the Ares, burnt up the assault ship and raced towards us for the battleship kill. As expected, the zealot warped in to try and help out his 'Geddon friend. Unfortunatley for him, he came in at 0kms (even though he fit beams...mistake on his part) and was very quickly dispatched by our fleet, and not long after followed by his 'Geddon friend.
Eventually we decided to have some fun, and after chacing a neutral anti-pirate myrm who would not leave the gates, our FC decided to kindly ask him to eject from his ship. When the pilot asked how we could possibly ask for such a thing before getting a point, we informed him that we had simply decided it would save EVERYONE some time. Failing to see the humour in this, he responded in quite the rude manner so we decided to leave him, and his fleet of BC's, alone. However, a few jumped later, thanks to a client crash, I was caught at a gate by his harby buddy. Quickly jamming him, I was about to hit the warp button, when I noticed he was taking sentry fire. Into armor already, I quickly overheated my measly 3 heavy launchers and engaged him, quickly calling for someone to come help with DPS and get a point on him as I lacked one. Unfortunatley, just as Ronan was landing in his stabber and the harby was reaching the 20% armor (or less) point, the rest of his fleet jumped in which constituted of a myrm, hurricane, brutix and falcon at least (they later would catch Menthez' Blackbird as he attempted to catch up to us, we usualyl don't field more than one ECM ship, but that was the only one he had available and with me so far from home there was no other choice).
The final action of the day would come from a hulk and its escort, a devoter. As the devoter was blinky, we decided to try and kill him at the gate. However, a couple of our members decided to gank the neutral hulk that he was escorting, even if it engaged the sentry guns. Because of this, we were missing a couple of DPS ships on the devoter and we could not break his tank. Eventually Egrat warped back in his omen to try and help, but got destroyed due to sentry gun aggro, marking our only loss of the night. One more notable engagement was at the begining of the op. The scouts fount and tackled a pretty new player in a brutix. Just as he was about to enter structure, the idea came forth to randsom him, not for ISK, but for its ship. Although the pilot answered in quiet a rude manner, spewing all kinds of profanity towards us, he ejected from his ship and we took control of it, dropping it off at a station and continuing on our way...Are we true pirates or what!!?
The fleet called it after this, a good showing and some good kills. Some great fun was had by all (evident by the amount of time we spent online) thanks to the kills, and some good banter by everyone on vent. At points we could barely stop laughing long enough to pilot our ships. One of the most notable points was where Ronan, as FC, lost the fleet, and upon asking where we all were, was told that if he could guess CORRECTLY, he could continue being the FC. Despite of all the joking and talking, Ronan did a good job at the FC position, and the fleet members did a great job following orders and keeping discipline when it was needed, stopping the joking and talking and focusing on the fight/intel.
Been a while (again) since I made a post. Have had some fun with an omen set up, but other than that not much has been going on in my end. This is due to me not playing much cuz of other stuff going on and also I have been trying to recoup some ISK. In order to do this I have been spending some time running a little experiment for myself using trading.
Having made a trade alt BEFORE the patch hit (so a brand new character with 57 available buy/sell orders), i gave him 1 million ISK and see how good I could use that to trade. I started something like 3 weeks ago I believe, and now I am sitting at around roughly 120 million ISK or so. I usually leave my pc on throughout the day, so while sometimes I cannot get on to get some actual playtime I can do a quick check of orders and fix any that need their price adjusted.
However, I did want to post about something new going on in the Tuskers. One of our members, JonahKarr started up the idea to have a Corp Wide blog where any of the Tuskers could contribute and write up a post. After some good responses from the rest of the corp, The Tuskers Public Relations blog was started. So far it has had a good number of posts, thanks to the availability of more than one author. So please, check it out and leave a comment!
