Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Cipreh for CSM8! *UPDATED*

I am announcing my candidacy for CSM 8. There are a lot of wormhole candidates running this year, and I hope to stand out above the crowd. I feel that it's necessary for our community to be represented by someone who has the varied experience I can bring to the table.

Background: 
I am the CEO of a medium sized wormhole corporation called Clann Fian, and the was the lead diplomat for my former alliance, Transmission Lost. I have been living and playing in wormhole space for about four years, have spent time in all classes of wormholes. My corporation is based out of a Class 2, with a static high sec, and a static Class 4, and we accommodate a wide variety of play styles within the organization, everything from pure industrialists, to players who constantly hunt for PVP targets, even taking on the occasional mercenary contract. 

I have been lucky enough to have a wide variety of experiences in this game, I was the alliance leader of Narwhals ate my Duck mercenary alliance and learned a lot from that experience. I have done extensive diplomatic work with many organizations, most recently as the lead diplomat for our former alliance Transmission Lost.

Experience: 
I have lived and worked in every area of space throughout the game, from just about every class of wormholes, low sec, high sec, even out in null sec as a renter for a while with my corp. I’ve lived in Class 6 and Class 5 wormholes with Narwhals, as well as fought and explored through all of the other classes.

Within these boundaries, I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to experience everything from renting space in null sec, working as a mercenary in wormholes, high sec, and low sec, as well as leading a major alliance. I have limited experience with industry. However I am lucky enough to have a very knowledgeable industrial group within my corporation, and throughout my contacts in-game that I can ask for input and advice. Most recently I have created an alt to get into Factional Warfare a bit more, and I am currently flying with the Minmatar militia in the White Lotus alliance.

My Goals: 
My I plan on running to bring CCP's attention to the need for a new or improved conflict driver in w-space. As it stands right now, w-space is running the risk of stagnation due to the lack of risk to many organizations, we have reached a point for many organizations where there’s no counter to the strategic cruiser fleets other then a larger fleet, or capitals. I would like to see the blob discouraged in wormhole space, though I cannot honestly say how to do this. My former alliance is even guilty of this.

There have been many ideas passed around these forums for how our lives could be improved, ranging from adding another class of wormholes, changing the mechanics of certain classes, or even changing the "wandering" wormhole spawn methods. There are always going to be different views on what our community as a whole needs to expand and flourish, and many of them are good ideas. I feel that the dynamics of wormhole space are in need of iteration, or we will see it become a new null sec, ruled by massive organizations, and the blob.

We, as a community need to band together, and push these issues to the forefront, so that we no longer take a back seat to null sec politics, and the endless leveraging of numbers by massive alliances and power blocs. 

In addition, I feel that CCP cannot abandon the proposed POS redesign; it has the ability to fix so many problems in many different aspects of the game. Even if we do not receive the entire modular POS system that has been proposed so many times in the past, a rebalancing pass over the current POS modules and structures could easily alleviate a lot of our current issues with access and ease of use. This is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for new organizations in wormhole space, and I feel would be a huge boon to the common goal of broadening our community and getting new blood into wormholes.

As a bonus, if done well, it could potentially improve game play across all areas of EVE. I feel that if CCP went through and touched up the anchorable modules for towers, such as the intensive refining array, it could act as a boon to low sec and null sec industry, which is a goal that they have spoken of many times in the past. 

We need a CSM who willing to stand up, and fight the good fight, to push CCP and the CSM towards something that is better for everyone, in all aspects of the game. 

Whether you're a C6 PvPer, or a C1 industrialist, or anywhere in between, this is the time when we as a community can make our voices heard.

I have talked quite a bit on various podcasts and other outlets to expand on my ideas.

You can hear me on the Podside podcast episode #75 about more CSM stuff:

http://s8.multiplexgaming.com/downloads/PodsideEp75s8radio.mp3

Special thanks to Bronya of Down the Pipe and the guys from Podside for having me on their show!

My Crossing Zebra's Podcast interview can be heard here:

http://c-z.me/csm8cipreh

Thanks to Xander Phoenix for having me on his podcast!

You can come listen to the various WH candidates chat and discuss their ideas at the Down the Pipe "WH Debate" podcast. 

http://downthepipe-wh.com/media/CSM8WHDebate.mp3

Thanks to all the other candidates for taking the time to be there to share their views!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

No more Narwhals!

Unfortunately, I have withdrawn my corp from Narwhals ate my Duck alliance, and I am no longer their official point of contact and diplomat.  Clann Fian is now an independent corporation, and currently recruiting active wormhole dwelling pilots.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Sunday Slaughter

Last Sunday was a busy day for Narwhals. From the time I logged in, we killed 5.5B and scooped 1.1B in loot. I'll be brief in my descriptions, so my apologies if names of scouts are left out.

When I log in, I hear reports of active pilots in a class 4 through the c5s. 



Talocan United has a few navy battleships manned at their tower. We were not sure if they are going to run anomalies but find out that they are about to close our connecting wormhole. FC called for the fleet to jump and kill the first BS through.  I join fleet just in time to catch the fleet warp. Fleet warps to a typhoon and quickly turn it to dust. 


http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10484


Good scouting and being aware got us this kill.

The very next WH starts out quiet. A c5 with static 6, no one around. 



We drop probes until locals start to log in. Quickly, our scouts recalled their probes. They warped to the tower just in time to see the locals log in three Rattlesnakes and a Golem. The fleet goes crazy when we get the report that they have warped to 175km above the POS to apparently RR their drones. Our scout gets a warp in on two of them and provides a couple of our recon t3's a chance to scramble the targets. Unfortunately we only manage to catch one Rattlesnake... 


Our fleet warps in and proceeds to kill this tanking beast. Probably the toughest sub-cap tank I have seen in EVE.

http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10485

Time to cycle the static again, our next hole has miners.  Our scanners had their work cut out in this small system by not having a place to drop combat probes off directional scan. However our scanners are awesome and less than 30 seconds pass from the time of probes being deployed to them being raised. 



Fleet jumps and is warped to go "mining".

http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_related&kll_id=10488

A few holes later, we find a solo Harbringer shooting an offline POS.

http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=10491

Then for the icing on the cake...



Our scouts find a wormhole with 4 Navy Scorpions. Suddenly, a Chimera appears at the POS.  After some discussion, it's decided that we are going to hold this wormhole and wait until they move...  


We wait about an hour, before the scout reports that their entire fleet is aligning.  Our scout reported them warping and finds them at a sleeper site that we had bookmarked earlier. It is nearly 2:00am and the fleet has lost a few members while we were waiting. 


The fleet is anxious to attack, but understand that because we only had 2 Guardians, the targets have to clear the escalation before we can attack. In the minutes before we struck, we went over tackle assignments and reminded logis and falcons to warp at range.

The carebears didn't have any structures or wrecks near them so a cloaked Falcon is sent to burn closer to provide a warp-in when the last two sleeper Guardian BS's are left.



It works. 


Our fleet lands 15km away and the HIC bubble goes up. This battle is long and difficult, the kind of fight we all love but rarely get. We only have a single Bhaalgorn, and he is doing the best to keep the Chimera capped dry.


 Logistics calls are flying back and forth in the broadcast window, and several members are taking heavy damage. For a good 5-10 minutes, we battle to get the Chimera capacitor empty, while rapidly swapping targets to get ahead of their remote rep. 


...But they are not breaking. 


The scorpions all have ECCM and the Chimera can not be jammed while he's in triage. So the Falcons are sent home, along with most of our scouts to reship for more DPS.  After they rejoin the battle, we spread our damage out evenly, putting two DPS ships on each target.
This works like a charm, and we create a weak link in their repair chain. The first Scorp quickly falls under our guns, followed shortly by the rest.

Now we are left with the lone Chimera.  However, since he is not remote repping, his cap is easily able to recharge beyond the single Bhaalgorn neuting ability, and keep his own tank alive. 



Given enough time, we were going to kill him, or he was going to self-destruct. 


Then, in local, he asks for ransom. 


The fleet decides to ask him to eject from carrier and he accepts. 


 We scoop the carrier, plus all their sleeper loot and head home.

http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_related&kll_id=10499

Many thanks go out to all the Narwhals that made this happen! This was an awesome day of wormhole PVP.

Monday, February 20, 2012

A Tale of Two Caps!




A regular Tuesday evening and getting ready to start the evenings chain collapsing for targets, normally it's fairly uneventful, but this time, we struck gold.


The first wormhole of the evening was cycled after I returned from dinner. Our scout jumped in with a covert ops to take a look at the d-scan.  Jackpot! There was a moros, orca and scorpion on dscan.



A quick sweep of the system, confirmed they weren't near a planet or control tower, combat probes were thrown out in the general direction of the spotted ships while the call for ships went through the alliance like wildfire and the fleet quickly jumped in numbers. 


The three ships disappeared of dscan, as the fleet continued to form up, but we thought they might be trying to collapse a wormhole, so the scout scanned down the c5's static. Upon arrival though, the wormhole seemed in perfect condition. Clearly, there was no way the ships we spotted had been trying to collapse it yet.


Dejected, the fleet started to stand down, thinking we lost the targets.  Two more scouts jumped in to continue scanning the chain, when moments later an archon and moros turned up on grid at the wormhole. The first scout assumed they would land at zero and collapse the way back home, so he immediately  started heading back to the hole.


Until the call came that they landed nearly 10km off the wormhole. The slaughter was on.


The fleet was ordered to jump in, despite not being at full strength yet. More calls were put out through teamspeak and our intel and alliance  chats, for logistics and dps. Luckily, we had enough Loki's to keep the moros and archon away from the wormhole. Several Guardians and four Bhaalgorns quickly followed the rest of the fleet through into the fight. The two scanners that jumped through, had to establish initial points on both the Archon and Moros, immediately reported them going into siege and triage. Perfect.


The Moros was immediately called primary, and the fleet was told to ignore the triage carrier.


Several HiC's had caught up with the fleet by this point, and with both capitals well within the bubble they knew weren't going anywhere. At this point the Archon and Moros pilot started begging to be let go for ransom.


2011.12.06 20:09:46 ] Sheldon Conquerer > stop a pay
2011.12.06 20:11:02 ] MaxVodka > ей (do it?)
2011.12.06 20:11:11 ] MaxVodka > я заплачу остановитесь (I shall begin to cry stop)
2011.12.06 20:11:53 ] Efraya >  <youtube narwhal song - cut out for weird forum>
2011.12.06 20:12:55 ] Guall > stop pls
2011.12.06 20:13:07 ] djswitch47 > lataz
2011.12.06 20:13:23 ] Sheldon Conquerer > i pay money
2011.12.06 20:13:32 ] Sheldon Conquerer > don not kiil
2011.12.06 20:14:12 ] djswitch47 > we are rich
2011.12.06 20:14:21 ] Sheldon Conquerer > pleas)
2011.12.06 20:14:39 ] Sheldon Conquerer > dont nuch car) very hard by


This was ignored and only answered by posting the narwhals video.








When suddenly!


 ...a Loki warped in?


The act of bravery was astounding, or possibly stupidity, the world may never know.


Some points and webs were switched to the Loki, and we promptly ignored it.


The fleet was focused on punching the Moros down, the four Bhaalgorns sucking its cap dry. The Bhaals gave a single neut cycle to the Loki and then put everything on the Archon while keeping a single neut each on the Moros to make sure he wouldn't recharge any cap.


The moros died and the loki was called primary next.


http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7711


The Archon was sitting there in triage with just under 25% cap left, from the tender attention of the Bhaalgorns. As far as I could see, he wasn't even trying to rep the Loki, as it went down under our guns in a flash.


http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7557


The Moros pilot had been given the pod express to empire, with the Loki pilot quickly following.


http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7558
http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7555


The entire fleet now gave its undivided attention to the Archon, with its cap entirely gone, it folded very quickly.


http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7710


For everyones pleasure we kept the pod alive a little longer so everyone could whore onto that mail.


http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=7556


Several haulers were brought in to loot all the stuff, including some officer capacitor mods and a bunch of meta 2 cap mods. Then a Revelation was called on d-scan, but he turned out to be at a POS the initial scout had missed.


The fleet was ordered to leave the wormhole and when everyone and the loot was saved (and everything salvaged) the c5s was collapsed.


Overview of the fight:
http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_related&kll_id=7556



PvP Pays!

Not our cleanest CTA but possibly our most lucrative invasion yet, this is how it went down:

The Prelude – 15:30-18:30 Amarr –

I had started my trip out of home towards Amarr when I began receiving reports that our formup system ‘Amarr’ was suffering with serious lag issues, alternative rally points were drafted but as quick as the lag had occured it stopped. Everyone knew that it would result in a server crash and sure enough CCP failed and an unscheduled DT notification threw a spanner in the works.  CCP estimated 10mins of DT (which in Icelandic means ‘24hrs give or take’) but to our delight the server was back online 15mins later.

17:00 came around very quickly and we had formed a very respectable fleet comprised of T3s, CS, logi and some POS bash BC/BS, all we were missing now was an FC with all the intel. It was at this time I realised I was probably going to have to take the Lead FC. I started to build a picture of our primary t-sys (TLC’s J105705) from the intel our scouts had gathered and it was looking very grim: Multiple poses (2 Large heavily defended, rest med/small limited mods), multiple enemy caps (not piloted), no friendly cap support (the locals had been very organised in closing down K162’s from lowsec as soon as they appeared, so we had been unable to get what we needed in), no free moon for staging pos (every one of these towers was fuelled and shielded).

I thought to myself ‘How am I going to get a fleet to agree to that??’. 

An alternative invasion was positioned, but this one also had its drawbacks: the fleet would need to logoffski for 24hrs  

We had 50 bloodthirsty ducks sat in HighSec doing nothing, a decision was needed. At around 18:20 The fleet was ordered to make best speed to a system 1 jump out from TLC’s chain.

The Engagement – 18:30-21:20 –

As we arrived on the gate leading into Olettiers (our entry into the chain) our scouts reported TLC forming up a small hole camp, a small squad of cloaky lokis was chosen to move in ahead of the main fleet to try and catch them, the lokis set off and moments later the fleet followed, staying just ½ jump behind to ensure we would not be spotted. Of course the hostiles panicked as a few of our T3s jumped into their system and tried to escape via the C2, not expecting to see an even larger group on that side of the wormhole.

http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9087 Absolution
http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9088 Absolution POD
http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9086 Curse

So, with some nice killmails under our belt we all jumped through into t-sys and began to camp the wormhole. Once we had a bubble up the fleet was split into 2 groups, I remained with a small group of close range T3 on the wormhole whilst Tuna led the assault on the small towers. We were making good time on the first small pos when the scouts informed us that a tengu was inbound to the wormhole, probably with a BS following shortly. I gave the order to open up on the tengu as it landed as it clearly wasn’t cloaky/interdiction nullified to make quick work of it as I was anticipating more inbound ships, when it reached low shield the fleet on the hole was asked to hold fire as it was clear no support was coming (btw, if anyone ever asks me ‘why?’ in comms again when I am FCing you will be primary) but unfortunately it was a wreck before I could recall the fleet to whore on the mail.

http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9089 Tengu

Soon after the tengu was dust a convo invite appeared from the CEO of the TLC corp:

[ 2012.01.18 18:55:54 ] scotayne hawkins > o/
[ 2012.01.18 18:56:05 ] scotayne hawkins > i assume this is a paid op for you guys
[ 2012.01.18 18:57:11 ] Wasted 2008 > you know someone who would put one on your head?
[ 2012.01.18 18:57:33 ] scotayne hawkins > not enough to hire someone to do something this scale or least we dont think so
[ 2012.01.18 18:57:45 ] scotayne hawkins > is there a ransom option?


As Tuna was continuing the assault on the small towers and the fleet was managing the wormhole control nicely I decided to see where this could go. I talked to the other ceos to see what they would be happy with and the figures of 25-30b were put forward, considering what our scouts had told me about TLC’s recent activity and what we believed they had in this system asset wise I decided to go a little lower than that, but with the intention of not negotiating:

[ 2012.01.18 18:59:45 ] scotayne hawkins > i need a figure to put towards our members
[ 2012.01.18 18:59:53 ] scotayne hawkins > what figure are you thinking of
[ 2012.01.18 19:02:38 ] Wasted 2008 > from what my scouts tell me you have a substantial amount of assets in here
[ 2012.01.18 19:03:00 ] scotayne hawkins > we have a few caps nothing major though
[ 2012.01.18 19:03:14 ] scotayne hawkins > brb wife calling
[ 2012.01.18 19:03:34 ] Wasted 2008 > well the price i'm going to put on the table is 20b
[ 2012.01.18 19:05:09 ] Wasted 2008 > seems a steep amount when you look at it plainly but considering your assets and the fact that I assume you wish to keep this hole, it looks more realistic


We spent the next 2 hours slowly reinforcing the remaining small/medium towers, scanning to make sure no new K162’s popped up and keeping the C2s at MC to prevent a counter attack from hired guns, all the time myself and Cipreh were keeping scotayne talking. The idiot we popped earlier returned in a scan ship:

http://narwhalskilled.me/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=9090 Buzzard

We were aware that he was probably looking for AHARM to help or trying to hire starbridge and just stalling for time but it didn’t matter, we held all the cards:

[ 2012.01.18 21:00:50 ] Wasted 2008 > just as a heads up, this fleet is becoming restless
[ 2012.01.18 21:01:52 ] Wasted 2008 > if you dont want to have to repair another pos from RF I'd get paid up asap


Until finally...

[ 2012.01.18 21:19:14 ] Wasted 2008 > the offer will be withdrawn unless i get something to show them you are cooperating
[ 2012.01.18 21:19:44 ] scotayne hawkins > 10bill sent
[ 2012.01.18 21:20:37 ] Wasted 2008 > confirmed
[ 2012.01.18 21:22:36 ] scotayne hawkins > another 10bill sent
[ 2012.01.18 21:22:45 ] scotayne hawkins > 20bill paid in total
[ 2012.01.18 21:23:04 ] Wasted 2008 > confirmed
[ 2012.01.18 21:23:12 ] Wasted 2008 > our fleet will be withdrawing asap
[ 2012.01.18 21:23:36 ] scotayne hawkins > guess its time to go make some more isk now
[ 2012.01.18 21:23:47 ] Wasted 2008 > you have tons of plexes



See boys and girls, that’s how you play at being a merc 

Less than 4 hours actual work, 20b better off. And people say pvp doesn’t pay?

Sunday, November 13, 2011

When Lead Farmers attack!

I logged in last Monday, and got on TS. As soon as I joined the channel, an alliance PvE Carrier fleet announced hostiles in their wormhole.  They tried to disengage, but the sleepers kept some of the fleet pointed, so the call was made for them to stay on grid in the site.

Moments later, a Lead Farmers fleet landed in the site with them and began the attack.

We had about 6-7 Tengu in the site with the carrier, as well as a Maelstrom and Nightmare, but they were dealing with incoming sleeper damage from an escalated site as well, so time was of the essence.  The carrier was tanking them, but the had brought a Bhaalgorn onto the field so the carrier pilot knew his capacitor run time was very limited.

 The Lead Farmers fleet was comprised of a Bhaalgorn, two Loki, a Legion, a Proteus, an armor Tengu (lolwut?), an Absolution, two Deimos, and three Guardians. A response fleet was formed up on the wormhole, comprised of whatever shield ships we had laying around, including several PvE fit Tengu, BC, HAC, Recons and a lone armor Bhaalgorn.

We had no logistics, but were hoping the Chimera would be able to keep us up against their fleet. We were given the order to jump in and warp to the carrier, and landed on the grid. Our falcon and a curse warped with the fleet and were destroyed almost immediately.

http://narwhals.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11462777

The Chimera was already in triage, and the Tengu were working on reducing the incoming sleeper dps. The FC begins calling primaries, but the opposing guardians were on top of their reps.  The hostile fleet targeted our Bhaalgorn as soon as it landed on grid, and though the carrier pilot tried to save him, he exploded.

http://narwhals.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11462726

Lesson of the day: Don't bring armor tanked ships to a shield fleet.

Our FC started rotating the primary around, to try to get their guardians to slip up, but they were doing a great job keeping the hostile fleet in the fight.  The FC saw the Bhaalgorn was taking damage from the sleepers in the site,so the order was given to overheat our weapons to beat their reps, and he quickly melted under the combined fire.

http://narwhals.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11462775

We continued to trade fire, moving our primary around, to keep the pressure up on their guardians, manage to burn down their Absolution before the Guardians could get reps on him.

http://narwhals.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11462809

The Carrier was about to come out of triage, all but the last of the sleepers were dead, so the rest of the Tengu fleet could focus on the fight.  Our Bhaalgorn pilot reshipped to a Phantasm, and rejoined the fray, only to explode once again.

http://narwhals.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11462839

He was just not having a good day.

We are slugging it out with them, when our carrier pilot calls out that he is exiting triage.  The FC calls for us to spread our points around as the hostile fleet tried to disengage.  We managed to catch a Deimos, and their Loki.

http://narwhals.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11462798

http://narwhals.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=11462772

They fled the field, we looted all the wrecks and some "GF"s were exchanged in local, and moved the PvE fleet to safety, collapsing the wormhole behind us.

Eve-Kill BR:

http://narwhals.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=11462772

Sorry for the delay!

As I am sure some of you noticed, I have been slacking on my blog lately. This is due mostly to my taking over leadership of our alliance Narwhals ate my Duck.

 The other CEO's and I have been very busy getting the alliance running smoothly.

 It has taken up a lot of my time. We have had quite a few things going on recently, so expect several blog posts in the next few days. I have a lot to talk about.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Video Day!



This video is of a fight on a high sec wormhole against a Brotherhood of Starbridge, remote repair Tengu fleet. This was the first actual fight of the "World War W".

The second video is of our overnight squad bumping dreads out of the Brotherhood of Starbridge POS. You can read about it in depth here.