The Militia

Good morning. Not without it's drama, but then again, I wasn't in the FC channels so I'll leave other to comment.

On one side, an old corp mate and all round excellent pilot (and his corp) have joined the militia. This instantly gives me more pilots I'd be willing to fly expensive ships with (always a good thing). Getting into any long conversation with the guy may lead to depression and thoughts of suicide (by way of charging at the enemy) but he's good in a fight.

We started off the morning and initial I was in a Thrasher as per FC's request. That soon changed to a loaned Cheetah (one of my favorite ships in EvE). Not that I don't have my own rigged Cheetahs but they were far and the op was underway. I must discuss with the FC one day why I found 3 tech 2 expanded cargoholds in a Cheetah (this was soon rectified) but I digress.

I spend the rest of the morning scouting for plexes as we were mainly a (rather large) cruiser/frigate gang. As per the FCs design, we plexed madly, stedfastly ignoring any Amarr buildup in fleet concentration. When we heard they were running an un-restricted plex however, judging the timing right the FC ordered a burn to the system and an precipitous up-ship. The rapidity ouf our re-location and the swiftness of our strike were well rewarded with many dead Amarr ships for few losses. Once that plex was capped, it was back to our plex running.

This time we were dodging a re-concentrated Amarr fleet, but once again we simply ignored them and concentrated on plexing. Their un-willingness to downship to follow us into the plexes that were size capped is evident by the regular capping of plexes for little losses on our part. But then again, we're Minmatar. We're not there to play into their hands. It was practicaly a textbook example of "Raid and Fade". An excelent example to future FCs about how to run this type of operation, get plexes capped and ignore the enemy until it's time to strike. Then strike hard, strike fast and faid before counter operations can be moutned. Keeping mobile.

For most of it I was actualy plex scanning in my cov-ops, confirming systems without plexes and tracking down those that had them. I only switched to a combat ship for the strike, then right back to the cov-ops after the strike. I didn't get a lot of plex points this way but it did allow the militia to keep moving from system to system with something to do when we weren't attacking the enemy.

A note to vairous pilots that want to FC in the milita:

1. This is not 0.0, one does not "have" to hold any ground. This is much more like skirmish warfare mid sized fleets for the most part.
2. If things go wrong (and they will) do not make a prat of yourself and start recriminating the other pilots. They've been doing this for months and they can tell when you make a bad call.
   
3. It's usually a bad idea to insult existing matari FCs (especialy the ones that can get the pilots to x up).
4. Again, this is not 0.0, most of the pilots you are flying with are self-supported. What they've got is what they've got. You want them to fly specific ships they dont' have? YOU supply the ships.
5. After a few bad experiences with bad FCs it'll be a very rare competant matari pilot that will fly something expensive with an FC they have not flow with before, or one not backed by the other known FCs. Fly with us a bit as a normal pilot before trying to take over a fleet. If you're competant and we can see it, you'll get the pilots. If not, we'll be avoiding you like the plague and good luck getting anyone to form a fleet with you.

Having addressed this morning's drama, more general advice for anyone joining a Militia follows:

1. Do not call for people to help you out at gate x in system y in the general militia chat. Plenty of spies have done this in the past and it's lead to some juicy ambushes. If you keep it up we will simply asume you're a spy even if you aren't.
2. Do not give travel destinations on the militia chat. Ever. You idiot.
3. Do not say "I'm going plexing in system x" in militia chat. It's like painting a nice big "shoot me now" target on your ship.
4. You can report war target system presence. If you can see them, they can see you, so revealing your position with this intel is irrelevant. The enemy already knows and the militia pilots can use the intel. A simple x wt in is sufficient. If youv'e got eyes and after you get to know the pilots "it looks like Armada's cap pilots are undocking in - get ready for a hot drop somewhere" is more useful, but again experience will tell you. Stick with simple till you know the players.
5. Be careful replying to pilots who just joined your fleet who ask "where are you going" instead of "where should I go". The first are probably spies trying to see if they can setup an ambush, the later are actualy trying to join your fleet. As a corolary, do not ask a fleet you've just joined, where it's going, ask it where they want you.
   

Ah, EvE, don't you just love the paranoia.

Friday

When I logged on there was some action happening around Arzad. I managed to get in on the tail end of a pretty spectacular debacle. I still managed to get a pod kill, but it was not a good engagement. The FC was not someone I recognized (this not being my usual time online, that's hardly surprising). So a frigate was lost for a pod kill. The thing is, that various recriminations between certain participants who had been involved longer than I was started happening.

Drama, in the militia, who'da thunk???

Basicaly I spend the rest of the day on Indy pursuites and when I want to fleet up at the normal time I end up back with the level 5 stuff from the previous night. Sometimes that's the way the cookie crumbles. Not as much as the prior evening but still we'll be able to turn the drone loot into some nice milita ships.

Man what did I do last night?

Kinda fuzzy this morning. Darned cold. Ok, some stuff went down but little action as I got into the war zone. Eventually a corp mate calls me up for a level 5 - but he needs salvagers... So I re-fit a probe with dual salvagers, and off I go.

The level 5 was fun to watch (one of the ones with a carrier) and much was salvaged, the tag sales went to all the participants, and the rest of the loot got put in the refining bin of the corp. Then we got another one and I switched to my Mastodon for that one since it was a drone one. After a relatively uneventful level 5 mission it was off to a station to melt over 3k m3 of compounds. Got enough to manufacture 4 Ruptures (which I did immediately). Sent the rest off towards the corp hangars via corp contract.

Wait a sec, 2 level 5 missions... THAT's where the evening went...

More indy stuff

You may want to skip this post if you're here for battle reports.

So I take a look at my mineral bank. Tap the gauge. Hummmmm.... Time to fill it up a bit. The previous day's mining followed by some very nice pew pew didn't fill my personal coffers. So I head out to my manufacturing center, grab my Hulk again and head for a nearby spot. My survey scanner reveals Crap roids but oh well, no mining = no mineral. I get down to killing roids. I'm liking the new capacity on my hauling alt I must say. Althought the system had quite a bit of thru trafic for an out of the way place, I was rather un-disturbed all evening.

Fighting thru my cold, I only got about 2 hours of mining done for 4 jet cans worth of ore. Not great but then again, with the roids that were there, about what I was expecting. One of the mining crystals finaly poped. Ooooo the excitement (well the 2 alloyed trit bars from some rats were nice). On the other hand with my cold developing nicely, that was about all I could handle. Good thing I decided against PvP this night.

I put in 2 more Rupture hulls. So I'll make some modules for the ruptures tomorow so I can ship down 2 more ruptures and a Thrasher. I also put in 3 of my BPOs for research to 10 ME. HOLY MOTHER OF ***! I am suddenly forcefully reminded why I'm a proponent of high sec research POSes. 60 odd days before I see my BPOs again and over 5mil per bpo??? Good thing I'm only doing this to keep my research skills in use. My Blackbird, Moa and Osprey BPOs will be out of circulation for a while. Good thing I got my Minmatar hull BPOs researched before it all hit the fan.

Back to the pew pew tomorow.

Rapier kills are sooooooo sweet

After the previously engaged small gang disperses, I end up scouting around, humm known dread pilots in Tzvi but only 3 war targets. Nothing seems to be heating up so I head back to Kamela and those previously spotted war targets. This time there's myself in a Vigil and Calius in his Rapier. We spot an Amarr Rapier and a Manticore at the station in Kamela along with 2 wrecks. Eventualy after some docking-undocking, some wreck looting under the noses of the two enemy pilots in my Vigil, we manage to get the Rapier to aggress at the un-dock point as I dock up after looking like I'm going for a second ninja looting under their eyes.

After I dock up I hear Calius trying to get in position to web him (still under cloak). So I un-dock and both Calius and I get points and engage the aggressed Rapier. Meanwhile the rest of the fleet jumps in and starts burning for us. The enemy Rapier pilot however is boned. Webbed, pointed and still under aggression timer so he can't dock up. We actually manage to kill the Rapier before the other guys in the fleet get to us. I'm pretty sure everyone in the fleet is happy anyways. They are in BS mostly and a Rapier kill is a Rapier kill.

So since I'm on top of it anyways I loot the Rapier wreck. You see that True Sansha Warp Disruptor? I picked it up and will be donating it to the corp fund for militia ops. I dock up and make sure it's in station for later disposal. To add insult to injury I finish by looting that last wreck that was sitting outside the station at the start of all the fun.

The op continues. After trying to find more targets, I'm headed back to my forward base as it's after midnight local time. On my way back I hear of a rupture on the other side of a gate I'm approaching, so after seeing that the pilot on this side is a stabber and coordinating with the FC, I jump thru and get tackle. He aggresses me, the stabber pilot jumps thru with the rest of the fleet on his heels. My vigil goes up but the stabber is hammering away. Unfortunately as I'm warping away in my pod, I hear that they loose the Rupture.

This small engagement shows the importance of having good follow-on tackle to the first tackle. The Amarr have a tendency to prioritize frigates when we start the engagement. So frigates in first tackle situations have a very short life expectancy. My loss rate definitely shows this fact up. However they are T1 and fully insured. Their crews have been briefed that their battle stations are IN their escape pods. The point is that we know we're going to loose the ship (we're usually horribly surprised if we survive a fight). All we ask is that there's a follow on tackle that's solid to get the target as we're warping away in our pods. It also shows the importance of flying aggressively and boldly. We did not end up with any large fights but we did end up with good kills. Over the course of the evening I traded a Rifter and a Stabber for an Ishtar and a Rapier (still stoked about the Rapier since I put a lot of work into that kill). It was a great evening.

On up to the First kill

As I get back to the forward base, I decide to move some frigates to fill out some low sec frigate caches that have gotten used up a bit. I barely have time to move one when the call comes out that a fleet is forming and needs pilots. So I burn back in my pod to grab an insured Rifter and join the fleet.

It turns out that a) it's a newbie FC on his first try at it. b) it's against Angelonico's gang and c) we're not getting the numbers. After hemming and hawing (note to self - quiet while thinking and make decisions quickly - safespot the fleet if nothing else comes to mind), it's decided to go on a roam. Knowing Angelonico's habits I suggest a destination that should avoid walking into an Angelonico/Elise/and Co trap. After way too much double checking that the gates are clear we finally move off (note to self - do not hesitate when people say it's clear, get the fleet moving - a moving fleet is safer than a stationary one). We end up in Arzad, two of us tryign to get some action going with a Purifier, but no luck.

While the games were happening, one of the Directors and an experienced FC comes in and joins gang and it's decided to re-ship and up-ship. I stay in my Rifter. That turned out to be the right decision for a number of reasons. Mainly because after up-shipping we were a little short on tacklers. So I lead off. While scouting out Kamela and spotting some war targets in system, we get the call that a fleet pilot is in trouble on the Auga gate in Kourmonen. I burn back there. I'm in warp when I hear the pilot goes down, but I know most of the fleet is in Auga at the kourm gate, so I let em know I'm warping on the battle zone. I land on top of the enemy ships and point an Ishtar and call out the name as the fleet jumps in with that pilot called as primary.

Sure enough I loose my Rifter quite quickly. But it's done it's job. I held the target in place long enough to get second tackle on it and erase the Ishtar from existance. I imediatly re-ship from a cache in the system happy to trade a Rifter for an Ishtar.

I am reminded that decisiveness is very good in an FC. Having some plans on how to conduct yourself in the pre-engagement stage of a fleet op helps. As a new FC, it helps if you have some default action that is relatively intelligent to do if you catch yourself over thinking a situation. Never stick too long at a single gate. It's an invitation to have an enemy fleet drop on you.

I make up for lack of recent action

This is going to take multiple posts. Otherwise it would be a wall of text.

Started off the evening up in my manufacturing hub. Due to a mining op that was called by the corp, I switched to my hulk, got my alt and headed down to the mining op's designated location. Due to it's proximity to Rens I plan on transfer box mining. I can tell my corp mates (even with their industry alts) are not used to large mining ops. Only the two of us with alts bring haulers with the alts (at least they are high volume haulers). We end up being 6 most of the time, with gusts to 8. The mining ships involved were: 2 Hulks, a Covetor and a Retriever. The haulers were an Iteron 5 (my alt) and a Mammoth. One of the directors showed up in a short lived Scythe and there was one other pilot. What he was flying I have managed to forget (sorry).

After making sure that the hulks are in different belts and I got my transfer box (GSC - anchored - password-ed) setup, I settled down to some "relaxing" roid crunching. A bit of jiggling and I was in charge of the squadron so my Mining Forman 5 was boosting all of us.

Now immediately I see that there will be problems. I'm the only guy transfer box mining and we are WAY too close to Rens - aka griefer central. Before the Covetor and the just appeared mining Scythe can fill a can, sure enough a griefer shows up. I call it: "Guys you're about to get your can flipped and he's got a BS on backup". Sure enough, he flips the can, the Scythe pilot back flips it and warps of to re-fit with guns. Before all this went down I had filled my hauler and it was back at the transfer box just starting to fill up. I send it to the station to drop off what little it has and head to the Covetor. The can is still counter flipped but the Scythe is not in system. I grab the ore (22k worth) and get flashy to the rest of our little fleet, but manage to get the ore to station. Meanwhile the Scythe pilot comes back and so does the griefer. They go at it and sure enough a BS uncloaks. Both the Incursus and the Scythe go down (the Scythe had overheated). And that prety much ends the excitement for the mining op.

I spend the rest of the evening bopping between my transfer box and the Covetor's jet can. The original plan was to drop the ore one station over, but in order to minimize any further griefing losses, I decide to haul both from my hulk and the Covetor. In order for my hulk and T-box not to max out, I pull in my drones and change to a station in system. Once I get into a rythm, I am able to stay ahead of the hulks mining rate (4 warps and 2 session changes between pickups). It would not be possible to stay ahead one jump away - as I suspected. Then it was haul everything over to the other system for melting.

The end of the evening gets 6.5 mil trit, 1.4 mil pye, 340k mex and a teensy bit of iso. Not bad for 2.5 hours of mining with the excitement we had and the ships we had. The Covetor was using strip II's without crystals though. I explained for the next op, he really does need to bring standard strip miners if he can't bring crystals. I get my hulk back up safely to my industrial hub.

This concludes the indy part of the evening.