00sage00's Romps Through the Eve Universe

In my previous post I complained that the Ami area was very empty. One nice thing about the lack of high traffic, however, is that we can have nice fights with other local pirate corporations without constantly worrying about hotdrops and 80-man faction warfare fleets. Here are two very fun engagements we have had the past few days.

Chain of Chaos: Healers FTW

Chain of Chaos (8): Brutix, Drake x3, Harbinger x2, Myrmidon, Caracal

Python Cartel (8): Abaddon, Dominix, Typhoon, Drake, Harbinger, Hurricane x2, Scimitar

Our battlecruiser gang was camping some locals in a station when we spotted a Chain of Chaos fleet moving through the area. Several people quickly swapped to battleships while I switched to a Scimitar. We warped into a belt at 0 km (I was at 70km), and the Chain of Chaos gang decided to engage. Being unable to overcome my remote repping, they primaried me. Thankfully, my fleet mates managed to kill the ships holding me down as I reached structure. I warped out and back in, but was unable to save Jawmare in his Typhoon.

Just as the space dust from the fight was clearing, an Ibis (the pilot is actually a scout for another alliance) warped in to a wreck, trying to steal some loot. However, before it could warp out, I managed to solo kill it with my Scimitar of Doom (the Drake whored my killmail).

In the end, we killed nearly every one of them and lost one battleship.

Rising Phoenix Alliance/The Alpha and the Omega: Meh, ECM :(

RPA/AaO (12 pilots, 17 ships used): Rokh, Scorpion x2, Typhoon, Hurricane x2, Brutix, Drake, Vagabond, Rupture, Stabber, Caracal, Caldari Navy Hookbill, Kestrel, Scimitar

Python Cartel (9 pilots, 10 ships used): Abaddon, Maelstrom, Armageddon, Typhoon, Dominix, Hurricane, Harbinger, Cyclone, Drake x2

As with the previous fight, our fleet was in battlecruisers when a pilot reported seeing 10 hostiles two jumps away. We jumped into whatever battleships we had and headed their way. Not wanting to get into a fight on a gate (sentries would be working against us), we warped to a planet and waited. And waited. And waited. Fifteen minutes later, ships began appearing on scan (it turns out that they incorrectly thought we were in RR battleships).

We killed what we could, but their ECM (two Scorpions) prevented us from using the majority of our DPS. And when we did kill a pilot, they returned in new ships. After a couple minutes, we had so few ships that everyone was permajammed, so we warped out.

Altogether we lost four battleships and two battlecruisers and killed one battleship, two battlecruisers, and two smaller ships (Kazaji miraculously was able to survive the fight in his Abaddon, but stupidly warped to a gate and died right after the battle).

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

Although the two fights seem very different, both battles highlight how disorganized impromptu fleets are. For blobbing they work tolerably, but easily crumble under pressure. For example, in the first fight, there were both armor tankers and shield tankers in the fleet but only shield logistics. In the second fight, had we been properly prepared for remote repping (which all battleship gangs should be) and ECM resistance (almost no one fitted ECCM), we would have been able to hold the field. This stands in stark contrast to the organized battleship roam and our immensely effective DrakeSwarm.

After a month long break, I have returned to New Eden again (unlike Spectre, who constantly quits).

New Home

As of a few weeks ago, the Python Cartel has moved from Old Man Star (Gallente lowsec) to Ami (Amarr lowsec). Ami is much, much quieter than OMS; you can be afk for an hour outside a station and not get ganked. And most of the time, there are no neutrals or hostiles in system with us. Even when roaming throughout the area, I have yet to see local exceed 15 people. In a way, the lessened pressure is relaxing; in OMS I had to constantly worry about cynos and bait and blobs. On the other hand, getting kills in the area is relatively difficult. Many of the roams (both solo and fleet) I have been on get few, if any, kills (going 20 jumps and only killing a hauler is quite common). The lack of action in Ami makes me wish for a more active home, but I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side of the bridge.

In the three days since my return, I have only gotten 17 kills; I seem to miss out on all the exciting fights. My favorite kill so far has been popping and podding a Reaper pilot visiting the Eve Gate. Not exactly an exciting fight, but I imagine that not too many people get kills at the birthplace of New Eden.

Reps!

My decision to train Logistics V while taking a break turned out to be a good one. In the entire time I have been in The Python Cartel, I had seen logistics used only two or three times, so I was uncertain as to whether it would come in useful. However, it appears that the Scimitar in nano gangs is tremendously helpful; every time I am in one, my fleetmates seem to get more reckless (“Let’s engage that target on a gate. Our cruisers will be safe because we have a scimi!”). Logistics also comes in handy when your gang catches a Harbinger at a belt and decides to play Harbinger Hockey with him (that 94,433 damage taken was due to my reps on him, not because of the Harbinger’s epic triple shield booster fit).

Python Is 1337

In other news, Python is now in the top 100 PvP corporations according to BattleClinic. For a corporation barely a year old, that is pretty impressive. Python is also recruiting, so if you 1) like pewpew, 2) like WoW (kidding), and 3) like penis, send in an app.