Suicide ganking

I like it alot.  We ganked a hulk, a mackinaw, and a retriever.  While all the kills were fun, strangely enough the cheapest kill was the most fun.  Apparently the pilot, Warpborn Omanid, didn't find it that much fun.

Please enjoy the following tears:

Local tears (after I left):


[06:47:08]  Warpborn Omanid > yeah yeah - whatever - lets see how good these guys are against a real target
[06:47:18]  Warpborn Omanid > hmmm - gone quiet ? no surprise there
[06:47:31]  Warpborn Omanid > its not you im after - I want Buck - and I will get him EVERY time he is on
[06:47:39]  Warpborn Omanid > if he wants to play Bad ass pirate - thats fine with me - I prefer legit targets

First email:

Popped
From: Warpborn Omanid
Sent: 2011.04.30 06:38
To: Buck Flintrock,  


Yo Yube - Im gonna bust you every time i see you - its gonna cost you a fortune in lost ships

My reply:

Re: popped
From: Buck Flintrock
Sent: 2011.04.30 06:44
To: Warpborn Omanid,  


u mad?

Second email:

Re: Popped
From: Warpborn Omanid
Sent: 2011.04.30 07:13
To: Buck Flintrock,  


Your damn right Im mad - why pop a defenceless miner ? I really am gonna come after you, you cost me 9 mil ISK - so im gonna take double out of your hide.

Then he convo'd me and this is what I got:



[07:15:10] Buck Flintrock > why hello there fine sir
[07:15:24] Warpborn Omanid > i hope your feeling good now - it wont last
[07:15:43] Buck Flintrock > how can I help you?  Need help refitting your mining ship?
[07:15:55] Buck Flintrock > possible fit tips?
[07:16:01] Buck Flintrock > a small loan perhaps?
[07:16:02] Warpborn Omanid > you cost me 9 mil isk
[07:16:36] Buck Flintrock > ah.....so?
[07:16:56] Warpborn Omanid > so - what goes through your brain - to attack a defenceless miner ?
[07:17:23] Buck Flintrock > well it kinda goes like this:  Hey there's a miner.  KILL HIM!
[07:17:29] Buck Flintrock > pretty simple really
[07:17:42] Warpborn Omanid > ok - let me ask you this - how long you been playing this game
[07:18:11] Buck Flintrock > plus I'm a pirate.  That's kinda what we do.
[07:18:59] Buck Flintrock > welcome to eve
[07:19:44] Buck Flintrock > you know, this is part of the game right?
[07:19:49] Warpborn Omanid > well i been playing for 6 weeks - you just wrecked all that work to get that ship - people like you are why this game is dieing on its ass - however if you want to play the pirate fair enough - im sure you wont bitch when i hunt you then
[07:19:53] Buck Flintrock > "sandbox" and all that
[07:22:30] Warpborn Omanid > the wierd thing is - you didnt profit from poppong me - cos you got wasted in the process - no logic there
[07:23:39] Buck Flintrock > Nope.  I won't bitch at all.  We live in Gultratren if you want to pay a visit
[07:24:05] Buck Flintrock > I didn't know this game was dieing.  Heck you have only been playing for a month.  How do you know?
[07:24:25] Buck Flintrock > and the logic is fun.  Pure and simple
[07:24:26] Warpborn Omanid > because it used to be fice times as many players
[07:24:36] Buck Flintrock > dont think so.
[07:25:15] Warpborn Omanid > lol - you cant be a very good pirate if you get wasted killing a miner
[07:25:38] Buck Flintrock > that is why it is called suicide ganking.  You really are new at this aren't you?
[07:26:31] Warpborn Omanid > wow - sounds real fun - charge, die, spend
[07:27:24] Buck Flintrock > I'm glad we agree.  You done raging?  If so, just fit up a rifter and go pvp.  That is the fun part of eve.  Not staring at a rock
[07:28:23] Warpborn Omanid > i dont have endless cash to do that - as i said earleir
[07:29:45] Buck Flintrock > dont need endless cash.  rifters are cheap
[07:31:50] Buck Flintrock > good times
[07:31:58] Warpborn Omanid > well - i'll see you around then, by the way for the record im still gonna pop you every time i see you
[07:32:07] Buck Flintrock > good luck with that  lol
[07:32:23] Buck Flintrock > gonna be hard in a mining ship though
[07:32:45] Buck Flintrock > you know where to find me. o/

Man suicide ganking is great fun.

********UPDATE**********
He came into low sec to talk smack and then jumped back out.  I waited at the gate and him came back.  It didn't end well for him.  I told him he could have his corpse back for another 9 million isk.  No response back this time.

A little bit emo

The corp is still growing and it seems like we are adding people everyday.  I am going to have to start farming out some responsibilities because between recruiting, getting the corp website up and running, and hauling people's stuff into low sec, I don't seem to actually have time to pew pew. I guess that is a drawback to being successful.

Last night I finally got some free time and we had quite a few guys on so we decided to go on a short roam.  It was an ad hoc roam with a mix of battlecruisers, a battleship, and a couple of cruisers.  The plan was to send a lone rupture ahead as bait as the main gang would gate camp the system and wait for the word to warp in. Since there was supposed to be a huge gate camp at the Todi/Evati gate, I took us around on the back route to give it time to break-up.

It was a pretty quiet night.  We missed a dramiel that was impossible to lock and we missed a drake that was able to burn back to the gate despite being webbed multiple times.  We decided to head back up toward Egmar and play with the Dragoons.  When we got into Evait, we all got GCC from another failed gank and had to wait it out.  I sent the bait alt into Egmar and saw several Dragoons and a couple of pirates in local.  I thought that everyone in the fleet was done with GCC except for one ship so I told everyone to get into Arnher and wait on the Egmar gate.

I started zipping the alt around belts and got engaged by a wolf.  Then a drake and a harpy warped in.  I checked my main and saw that only 3 of my ships were in system in Arnher.  Where the heck were the rest of them?  I gave the command several more times for everyone to get on the gate.  During this time, the bait ruppie was starting to go down. It hit half armor and I saw that the other ships had just entered Arnher so I gave the command for everyone that could to jump in and warp to the bait ship.  I hated to have my fleet split up but there wasn't much choice.  It didn't actually matter because my bait ship died and the targets warped out before anyone even landed.

I was pretty pissed to be honest.  I thought my commands were clear about everyone getting on the gate and being in position.  The only reason I engaged was because I thought everyone was one jump away and on their way.  My bait is dual 1600mm plated and can last a long time.  I'm not sure where the confusion was but apparently if a majority of people weren't clear, the blame lies with me, the FC.

Pet peeves of mine are when people don't pay attention while roaming but I don't think that was the issue here.  I'm trying to figure out how I should have been clearer and I guess I should not have let myself get engaged until everyone was in position.  It had been a slow night I and I was overeager for some kills.

Unfortunately I was too irritated last night to continue.  Since we were close to home and I was too pissed to go on, I left the fleet and called it a night.  I don't mind losses but I hate stupid losses, especially ones caused by my incompetence.

Well I am calmed down now and I need to apologize to my members, especially the new ones who saw me rage quit last night.  Sorry guys. I'm actually a pretty calm guy who understands it's just pixels.

Usually...

An excellent thing

Things are still rolling along in the Black Sail and in the Mean Coalition. The corp has pretty much stabilized with around 20 members.  We all seem to get along fine and drama is at a minimum.  I missed a pretty nice freighter kill that the corp and alliance got.

I lost a Stabber Fleet to a Cynabal. I gave it a valiant try and did my best to warp in on top of it but it didn't work.  Between the speed, large drone bay, and neuts, it was all over but the crying.  Ahh well.

We went on a small corp roam tonight. T Ray and I had a pretty boring roam and had only been able to kill a rifter so far.  Trelox, was sitting on the Eszur gate in Frerstorn.  T Ray and I were in Frerstorn but not on gate.

We saw gate activation and a Rupture jumped in.  No big deal there but what happened next was surprising.  A pirate Tengu jumped right behind him. Imagine my surprise when he targeted the Rupture and attacked him on the gate.  Now the Ruppie wast flashy so the Tengu started taking gate fire and Trelox was right next to him.

Trelox locked him and the rest of us jumped on top of him.  This guy was active shield tanked and we had four medium neuts and a small nos between us.  The combined DPS of us and the gate guns took him down fairly quickly.

I was pretty dang excited about the kill.  The pilot must have been shocked because he stood there long enough to get podded.  The loot drop sucked but that's okay.  The isk amount of the kill (799 million) is enough to satisfy me. We decided to call it a night after that and end on a high note.

On another issue, I am almost finished with the corporation website.  While it still looks kinda rough, it's functional and I hope it becomes well used by the members. I don't think I am happy with the overall appearance but I am not experienced in Joomla and CSS.  If anyone can recommend a good person to design the webpage for me, let me know.

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Things are still working out well with the Black Sail.  We are close to having 20 members, we are working well with our alliance, and there are usually plenty of people on when I log on (at least in the US TZ).  I am still actively recruiting and I hope to fill the EU TZ a little more.

I've FCed a couple more roams where we've gotten kills but no losses.  I've noticed that my FC style is fairly conservative.  I am slow to engage if I am not fairly sure it is in our favor.  I am also quick to order the fleet to bail if I think something heavy is coming.  The positive of this is that I haven't lost many ships under my command.  The negative is that I pass up on a lot of targets that we might have killed.  Once I get a little more used to FCing, I plan on becoming a little more aggressive.  I also need to get used to a variety of ship types.  Right now I feel most comfortable with BC gangs.  Add a couple of ECW ships, HACs, or sniper fits BSs and I get confused.

Last night I was flying around with my bail alt around Hrondmund when I saw a Drake in system.  I let the corp know what was happening and to be prepared to jump in.  I warped to a belt and waited.  The Drake followed me over and engaged my alt.  I pointed him and called for the calvary.  The drake saw the local spike and started burning off.  I tried to burn towards him and maintain point.  Unfortunately my dual plated Rupture flies like a bag of bricks.  My corpmates landed too far off from me and the Drake warped away in structure. While we were sitting near gate thinking about what just happened, another Drake in the same corp as our original target jumped in.  We engaged him but he burned back to gate and jumped in.  It was all very frustrating.

W decided on a roam after this.  In hindsight, we should have just stayed home.  The night was full of missed kills and screw-ups.  We had missed a force recon ship that burned off from us.  We had a Cyclone mwd back to gate and got away.  There was a Stabber we couldn't lock on time.  And then there was the incident where I misunderstood our scout and thought that Tempest Legion was jumping a gang through to us and we bailed.  Turns out it was a lone Tempest BS that our gang of 7 fled from.

After one more frustrating missed target, I called the op and we headed home.  Once we got there, some of us took out our frustration by killing the macro haulers that infest our area.  I guess it's better then nothing and at least we didn't lose any ships.

Good times

It's been a good couple of days with The Black Sail.  We've lost a couple of members and gained a few more.  We've been working closer with our alliance mates and getting some decent kills.  I've never been a big fan of gate camps but I have found myself enjoying some of the ad hoc camps we've set up in Eifer.
Unfortunately, Eifer doesn't seem to have the same amount of traffic as some of the busier regions such as Otou, Akkio, or Rancer.  However we have gotten some decent kills out of it and I think it will be a regular thing.

Last night we got a little bored of Eifer so I went on a small roam with some corpmates.  I was using my bait alt and we were able to catch a Taranis in Ofage.  Things seemed slow after that but as I ran the belts in Mateber, my alt was attacked by a Wolf.  He didn't last very long.

Today one of our alliance mates was killed in a gate camp in Evati by a local corp called the Chupacabras.  A plan was formed to get a fleet together to teach them a lesson.  We were able to get ten BCs together ready to go seek vengeance.  We hit a small bump when it seemed nobody wanted to volunteer as FC.  Other than 3 man corp gangs, I haven't FCed a real fleet in a long time.  I have been meaning to get some experience so I decided to volunteer.

It went fairly well.  We popped an Eve Uni Hurricane as soon as we left our area.  The Chupacabras were long gone so we set up our on gate camp.  It was slow going and we only killed a Rupture.  Our fleet dwindled down to just four of us so we decided head home.  As we were about to jump in Todi, our scout announced that a Loki was about to jump through into Evati.   We had gate fire and it appeared.  I put my neuts on it and others webbed it.  It started burning back to the gate but I lit my MWD and I bumped it off it's approach.  It took a little work but we were able to bring it down.  The loot drop was outstanding!

Yep.  Things are looking good.

The Man With the Plan

We've had a few changes with The Black Sail.  Our CEO has resigned and I am the new CEO of the corp.  When the two of us first decided to form the corp I guess we should have discussed our goals better.  My intention was to have a laid back corp that was focused on just having fun.  I figured that as a newer corp, we would end up with players that were less experienced in piracy and that the kill board would not be a top concern.  I've never been a big fan of corps that were too worried about stats.

Unfortunately, the CEO had the complete opposite view.  He wanted pilots with a lot of experience and he was very focused on the kill board.  There is nothing wrong with that view and most successful corps follow that model.  It's just not how I think though.  We ended up clashing all the time over who to recruit, who to remove from the corp, ect, ect...  It all got very stressful and we were not recruiting the numbers that I wanted.  Once I realized I wasn't having any fun, I announced my intentions to leave the corp.  Well it turns out the CEO wasn't having fun either and he said he would resign and turn the position over to me if I wanted.

Wham bam, I am now the boss.  I ramped up recruiting and we now have more members and people are starting to fly in groups.  Add that to our active alliance and it is rare to have to fly alone.  Our killboard has taken a hit from some of the newer guys as expected.  We have also had some bumps during our ops due to people not being used to working together.  That's to be expected though and is all part of growing as a corp.

We've having fun and that is what really matters.  If you are reading this and think you want to try some piracy with a low stress pirate corp, give me a shout in game.  I expect to recruit about 5 to 7 more pilots before recruiting is closed.

Fly safe.

Notice a Pattern Here?

So I have started using a bait alt.  It's great fun to put a Maller or mining ship in a belt and wait for the attack to come.  It's actually made me a little bit lazy because I have stopped roaming and have started just waiting for the fights to come to me.  I've gotten some great kills of it from greedy wannabe pirates.  The great thing is that the ship is fairly cheap and if I feel like I can't handle it, it's no big thing to let the alt take one for the team.

It also produces some funny stories.  There is one pilot in my area that I have been trying to kill for quite some time.  He is a ratter and fairly slippery.  Well the other day I put my bait alt out in one of the belts when I saw him appear in local.  I didn't think anything of it because he is a total carebear.  Imagine my surprise when he appeared in my belt in a Ruppie and locked up my bait alt.

I took the opportunity to warp in and toast him.  As I left, he said in local that my alt was the luckiest guy around.  Since he didn't pick up on the bait bit, I chatted back to him a little bit before he left system.  Fast forward to today and I put my bait alt back out.  Suddenly the same guy appeared in local again with two corp mates.  He was in a battle cruiser but the other two were noobs in a frig and destroyer.  They attacked my alt.

I wasn't too worried so I warped my Stabber Fleet in and locked the BC.  The frig and destroyer bugged out but the BC wasn't long for this world.  As I warped off, the target put in local that he wasn't going to hunt in any system with me in it again because I was too sneaky.  From his comments, it was apparent that he still hadn't put two and two together.  Maybe I will get to kill him again in a day or so.

LOL  I love the bait alt.

*No killmails posted on this post for OPSEC purposes