Baiting, tactics, epeens, and hypocrisy

I recently read Rixx's post about playing station games and it got me thinking about the different tactics people use in Eve and reactions to those tactics.  It bothered me a little because Rixx and his crew use very specific tactics to win fights such as baiting on station and then warping in carriers.  Rixx also claims that  "I can honestly and sincerely say that I have never run from a battle and docked up to avoid combat."  No offense to Rixx but I seriously doubt that.  In fact, I was talking with a couple of guys in my alliance who recalled that just the day before, some Lucifer Hammer guys docked up to avoid dying.  And I personally was involved in an engagement when Rixx and another Lucifer pilot was trying to fight us on station in vagabonds.  We were able to get a web on one and started laying into it.  Guess what it did just before it hit structure?  Yep.  It docked up.

So I ask you why is it cowardly to dock up to avoid dying but it isn't to warp in a cap ship?  Or is it only cowardly when it is the other party denying you a kill?

Docking up is a valid tactic when engaged by an obviously superior force and I find it strange for that to be called cowardly. Of course this is just another example of the mindset in Eve that if someone uses a tactic you disapprove of against you, they are blobbers/ECM fags/cowards/noobs and on and on.  However if you actually use that same tactic, you are just fighting smart.  I undocked a Falcon the other night and the other pilot cried in local about how weak that was.  But that pilot had attacked my bait alt with a ship two classes higher than his target.

Why isn't that cowardly if ECM boats are?


The same goes for "blobbing".  If you get engaged without securing an agreed upon 1v1, then you really shouldn't cry when more ships land on your face.  I have seen killmails where a person complains that he thought the other party wanted to solo but instead called for back-up.  Once again, unless you both agreed on a 1v1, why in the world would you assume this and then complain when you got ganked?


Another example is a corp that came down in our space last night.  They had a gang on the other side of the gate with Scorpions, battleships, and a command ship.  We only had four on and we were mostly in BCs.  Well this gang tried so very hard to bait us.  They put a drake on gate but no luck.  They had a cynabal warp in and call us names while dancing around the station.  Then they brought in a BS and tried to get us to engage outside of station.  Of course we knew the gank squad was next door so we didn't take the bait.  Well they got upset and decided to call us all pussies for not engaging and going to a certain death.  I don't begrudge them for baiting but their anger at not being able to provoke a fight was strange because I know they would not have engaged if the odds were reversed.

Then the cynabal pilot started to berate us because we often camp one of the low sec skill book stations in system.  The funny thing is this pilot is usually outside the station in a machariel doing the same thing.  So it is faggy when I kill noobs while flying a cane but it isn't when he uses a faction battleship?  I don't understand the logic.


I guess my point is that  a fair is a place you go to eat cotton candy and step in horse shit.  Fair doesn't really have a place in Eve.  I don't like to lose ships and I tend to engage when the odds are in my favor.  However that's not just me.  Almost everyone does the same thing.  So just play the game you want but don't be a dick when others do the same. Killing noobs on the undock doesn't make you an awesome player but it also doesn't make you an asshole either.  Same goes for baiting, using ECM, and all the other things that everyone bitches about but uses for themselves as well.

Hypocrites suck.  Don't be one.

Want Pirate Booty?

Recruiting is open for all three of the Sails.  Contact me or any corp officer for more info.

Check our FAQs @ our website for more information.  Want to know more about our alliance?  Check here.

The Pirate Life for Me

One thing I have found out since running a low sec pirate corp (and now a low sec pirate alliance) is that pirating isn't for everyone.  A lot of players read the blogs and decide they want to go yarr in low sec.  After all, who doesn't want to be a scary pilot and pop haulers in belts?


Unfortunately many people don't realize some of the challenges involved in being a flashy red pirate and they quickly get discouraged and leave the corp/alliance.  What makes it so tough you ask?

Isk, for one.  It's bloody hard to make money as a pirate.  Oh sure you can get the occasional ransom and sometimes some tasty loot.  I remember once when I was with a small gang that got 700 mil worth of loot from a Loki kill.  That was awesome but usually it's crap loot from crap fits.  Some people think they will be a pirate and just rat and mission their way into wealth on the side.  Well that's an idea but rats in low sec don't pay near as well as 0.0 and low is actually more dangerous than null for ratters.  You can try ratting in a belt but odds are you will come back in a pod.  While missions are lucrative, you have the same problem as ratting.  Of course you can do missions in high sec but if you are actively pirating, your sec status will rapidly put high sec missions out of reach.   And speaking of sec status...

Have a low sec status can be a pain in the ass.  You will find that the faction police will have a serious problem with you and all of empire is now off limits.  If you do research or indy stuff, better find new systemst to use.  If you want to buy something in a major trade hub, forget about it.  There are guys who spend all day outside of Jita or Dodixie just waiting for flashy pirate to come out.  Getting supplies changes from just running down to the store for a single mod into training up a neutral hauling alt just to make supply runs.

Low sec PvP is tough.  PvP in low sec isn't like that null sec bullshit of having 200+ ships and just trying to out DPS another 2--+ fleet.  Most fights in low sec involve solo ships or gangs of 3 to 10.  Anything bigger than 15 in low is a HUGE fleet to me.  Smaller gangs require smarter tactics than just locking a target and clicking your guns.  And roaming solo or in a very small gang looking for fights is work.  You have to really know what you are doing with the directional scanner and you have to be aware of high sec/low sec aggro.  I recently lost a Stabber Fleet to Concord because I had my head up my ass.  If you are going to come into low sec to look for fights, you are going to have to learn some skills.

All of these reasons are why I often see a pilot join and then quickly decide to go back to running missions in high sec.  It's unfortunate because I think low sec is the best place in the game.  Fights are fun and plentiful.  There are skilled people to fight and noobs looking for skill books to abuse.  With a little planning, you can take care of your logistical needs.  Isk will always be a problem but if you follow the rule about only flying what you can afford, then you should be okay.

If you have read this and still think you want to give it a try, the Black Sail is still recruiting and the Gray Sail is there for newer/less experienced pilots who need to learn.  Shoot me a mail in game if interested.

One door closes and another one opens

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our last alliance (Burn Away) is dead.  We at the Black Sail have decided to continue on with our own plans for Eve domination.  I just created the alliance Yarr Collective with Black Sail as the executor corp.  On top of that, we have created the Gray Sail Anarchists as a training academy for newer and less experienced applicants to the Black Sail.  We have also created an industrial corp with the intent of using it to supply the alliance with cheap ships and hopefully to turn a profit.

Yarr Collective is not accepting any other corps just yet.  We are going to continue to build up Black Sail and fill Gray Sail with pilots that we can mold into awesome pirates.  We are going to get a decent income stream from our indy corp and fill our coffers.  Once we get everything running smooth, then we will start accepting other pirate corps into the alliance (if any want to join).

I've very excited about this new direction we are taking.  I have good directors and motivated people to work toward the goal.  With that being said, we are still recruiting.  If you are a decent player and want to try to pirate life, Black Sail may be for you.  If you are new to the game/PVP but want a shot at low sec, Gray Sail could right up your alley.

We are also looking for people that enjoy working with noobs to help with training and fittings.  And if you are a miner or manufacturing pilot who would like to be associated with a pirate corp and yarr on the side, try our indy corp, White Sail Anarchists.  All of you can drop into our public chat "blacksailpub" if you have questions.

*note*

Corp thieves can look elsewhere.  I'm a pirate and I read the blogs.  Access to assets will be strictly limited, especially in the indy corp.  Oh and Incarna sucks my balls.

Another day, another alliance

We joined Burn Away and everything seemed to be going fairly well.  But just as we were starting to get comfortable with the alliance and do some joint hunting, we got notified that the alliance was shutting down.  Apparently the alliance head, Rixx Jarvis, has to take a break from Eve due to RL issues.  I understand that completely.  After all, real life come first to a spaceship game and I wish him the best.  However I was very surprised that no other corp members stepped up to take over as alliance head.  I asked Rixx about it and was told that none of the members were willing to accept the responsibility.

It seems strange to me because Lucifer's Hammer seemed like a real close group of guys.  I dunno what the deal is but Burn Away is effectively dead in the water less than two weeks after we joined them.  Regardless, we aren't letting this slow us down.  In fact, we are actually speeding up.  Recruiting has been amped up and we are starting a new pirate training corp that will affiliated with Black Sail.  This is roughly modeled after the Black Rabbits and their Black Rabbits Academy.  We are also starting to form an industrial corp (similar to the White Rabbits) to help us fund the academy and hopefully get a ship supply program going.

I'm really excited about it.  While recruiting I found that many people were interested in trying piracy but just didn't meet our initial requirements.  An "academy" will let us evaluate the newer players, guide them, and then have a nice pool of experienced low sec pvpers to recruit from.  While we still haven't gotten all the details ironed out, it should be operational soon.

There is still some talk about if we should join another alliance or make our own at this point.  I am leaning towards creating our own and eventually having other pirate corps join if they want.  We are still a long way from that point but it is a goal we can start working towards soon.

In other news, I love our new system of Lisbaetanne.  It is a very active system and we have a ton of kills there already.  When we are tired of killing the noobs, there are several skilled pvp pirate corps in the area that give us good fights.  I have extended an invitation to all the Lucifer Hammer pilots who would like to join up but that offer is going to expire soon and we will be truly independent in a couple of days.

Yarr

Stupid stupid stupid

I went on a roam the other night with the intent of going to a low sec pocket that I like to hunt it.  It was a straight shot through low sec until you come to 3 .5 systems in a row.  Once you go through those, you are back in low sec in the pocket.  I took out a new Stabber Fleet Issue because I wanted some decent power and I wanted to make sure I could avoid the faction police in those high sec systems along the way.

I got to the last low sec system before the first .5 and I decided to run the belts first.  I located a flashy stilleto in the top belt.  Just before I started to lock him a non-flashy dramiel landed next to me.  Since a dramiel is the shiniest of the two, I locked the dramiel and got GCC.  Who cares though, I'm  a pirate right?

Well the dram of course zoomed off before I could kill him and I saw several big ships pop up on directional.  I figured that I should gtfo and continue my journey so I warped to the next gate.  There was a drake sitting there that immediately started to lock me.  No big deal though. I would just jump through the gate and warp to the next system.  So I jumped.  Into a .5 system.  With an active GCC counter.

Hello CONCORD.  Goodbye Stabber Fleet.

I guess that's what happens when you spend all your time in low sec.  You completely forget about high sec game mechanics.

When the going gets mean, we burn away

That title really makes sense to me, I promise.

So it's finalized and Black Sail is now a proud member of the Burn Away alliance.  I learned about this alliance from following Rixx's blog over at Evoganda. I respected the way they wouldn't put up with the elitist attitude of one alliance or the blue killing of another.  I also like their style.  They seem like a very fun group of guys that just want to enjoy the game and low sec piracy.  Since I was looking to leave Mean at the same time they were looking for member corps, it seemed like a perfect fit.  I look forward to flying with them.

Now the question has been asked of why I pulled out of Mean Coalition.  I hate to air dirty laundry but I haven't been able to PVP much lately and I think we were treated poorly so I guess I need to blog about something eh?

I was never really happy with Mean.  They always seemed fairly unorganized.  The intel channel was a mess of blues from different alliances.  Some were blue to individual corps, some were just friends of directors, so on and so on.  So I never really felt comfortable with it.  It was also like herding cats to get people to use comms.  I can think of multiple engagements where nobody was on comms and people were typing back and forth in several different channels.  It was also hard to get someone to take charge during spur of the moment engagements.  I remember one time when the FC simply announced that he didn't want to FC anymore and was just going to follow instructions IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ENGAGEMENT.  It was just a mess and we got our asses handed to us several times.  I tried to bring it up a few times but was met with indifference.

Another issue was the blue list.  Because you had individual blues and not whole corps, you sometimes ran into these blues roaming in our area with corpmates who weren't blue.  Fights would happen and then you would have the inevitable blue on blue killmails.  It was a real problem.

Spies was another issue.  Mean seems to be blood enemies of Electus Matari and there were always concerns about EM spies in the corp or the intel channel.  I know I heard of several emails from "anonymous" sources that there were spies in my corp.  I think that this was just a tactic by EM to sow discontent within the alliance and I think it worked.

So these were some reasons I was not really happy with Mean.  Now don't think that Mean didn't have its good side as well.  When they pulled it together and got organized, they could do some amazing things.  I can remember several engagements when people actually got on Vent and there was good FC.  Mean absolutely shined during those times and mopped the floor up with their opponents.

I figured Mean has real potential and there are some good people in it that I enjoyed flying with.  For that reason I planned that we would stick it out and try to make things better.  The thing that really set it off was when one of my corp members tried to get a regular roam started during non-peak hours.  This member wanted to try his hand at FCing small gangs and invited people to fly T1 cruisers and frigs during these roams.  He even offered to provide ships to people that wanted to participate.  In the spirit of cooperation, an email was sent to the alliance inviting anyone to attend.

What followed was ridiculous.  The alliance head sent out an email to everyone saying that the roams were not sponsored by the alliance and discouraged anyone from attending.  He then proceeded to insult the member by saying his kb sucked, he was probably a spy, he was a possible corp thief and should join Eve Uni if he wanted to learn PvP.  It was also implied that we were trying to train our members by using the alliance as "meat shields".  We were then told that we needed to investigate our members better and use better judgement.  It was total loony toons.  This guy only wanted T1 ships and offered to supply them!  Hardly the stuff of epic spies.

I was royally pissed that this type of email would be sent across alliance mail instead of being addressed between CEOs or diplomats.  Several email exchanges between myself and the alliance head were very unsatisfactory so I decided that I did not want to be part of an alliance that was so disrespectful to its members.  Since Burn Away had recently had a similar experience with RK, I thought it would be perfect.

I tried to keep the move quiet but word got out quickly and the director of Mean freaked out again.  Another alliance email was sent out berating us for being sneaky or something.  Then we were kicked from the corp and set as nuets.   I was able to talk to him and get us set blue for a week but then one of my members was still on their vent.  He passed on that they were planning on ganking us despite our blue status.  Pretty classy.

Well luckily we based a couple of jumps from the main alliance members so we were able to avoid them and most of us have moved our stuff out.  We lost a couple of members that didn't want to move across the galaxy but that is to be expected.  In a couple of days everything will be settled in and we will start actively recruiting to get back up to full strength.  I'm glad to be out of Mean and it feels like a weight is off our backs. Now we can get back to the basics of low sec pvp.