Ass-kicking...as in, on the receiving end.

Not all roams end with success. Quite the contrary and last night was a failure largely on my part. We had a RR Battleship gang with some support in place and plodded through low-sec; on the look out for loot and plunder when one of our forward scouts drew aggression by a typhoon-class battleship from Electus Matari at a gate. Eager for the kill, we aligned and jumped in when a second scout yelled out that there was a proteus on the gate as well!

With a rebel yell, I ordered the fleet to warp to the gate our excitement building. It was a long warp however and the scout continued to count the number of ships now swelling local. First one, then two then half a dozen new ships all jumped through to aid their typhoon friend. I had butterflies in my stomach as our pirate fleet raced onwards but I viciously clamped down on it. As we landed, my overview lagged. I heard z0de and Coochie (both super dependable and reliable) call out to the other pilots to start locking each other to ensure we could remotely repair each other. Meanwhile, I called primary and selected a dominix and a typhoon as primary and secondary. My ship shuddered as the 650mm repeating artillery batteries opened up, spitting out large EMP rounds across the short distance. The dominix shields went down quickly but the enemy fleet, rallied round and pounded on Viginti's golden hued Armageddon. What did we expect from EM? Go for the Amarr ship!

Viginiti went down before we could even lock him to assist and then things start going wrong very quickly. The Dominix was going down into half armour when it quickly recovered. Meanwhile, we were suffering: our DPS appeared to be too low to knock the Domi down and then another pirate BS went down, hulls shattered and guns firing aimlessly. Survival pods spitting out from the breached ships like rain. I re-tasked my gunners to hit the dominix, over-heating my guns as we did so but still couldn't get the Domi down. I repeated my primary and secondary targets but to no avail. z0de went down fighting hard, his drones out chewing on the primary as he stayed to the bitter end. I was next, ordering my ship to ram the dominix into the star-gate. My typhoon was cut in half with almost contemptuous ease. Then poor, dearest Mynxee - her ship broken in two; spirally away from the fight. Then loyal-Raelyf followed - the hull of his typhoon blackened with fire and internal explosions. Randgris's mighty megathron; designed for close-quarter gankage was smashed apart as he ordered ramming speed as well. Then the others died with only Coochie, me0de and Alaki managing to escape the conflaguration.

We were beaten and soundly so.

I tipped my hat off to -EM-, with a 'gf' in local, they kicked our behinds thoroughly and deserved acknowledgement for this. I appreciate a good fight and even though both sides had ECM; we slugged it out until there was more scrap then ship around us. Those that survived limped back home. The field was held by -EM- and friends.

As I finally returned to my room; there was an urgeny message for me. I really didn't want to take any calls at the moment, I was responsible for the ship loss of seven battleships (at least) and the ignomity of defeat. But the message was marked as urgent and it came from someone outside of my address book. With some irritation, I opened the message and I read it with some surprise.

2009.07.28 22:53
Hi.

It is difficult to write something - anything - after a victory, as it is easy to come off sounding arrogant or smacky. That's not my intention.

I wanted to thank you bastards for being Bastards. You are pretty much the only "real" pirate corp I know - it's refreshing to see people be "real" pirates, with a good attitude and without the typical smack talking and chest beating that often accompanies similar attempts.

And as I just read that in your blog - congratulations on your CEO-ship.

A.S.

Well, that was a pleasant surprise and I sat back and ordered a drink. It isn't every day that you get an ass-kicking and then followed by a letter to say how well you took it.

However, I could not rest on my ass for too long. There was too much to do. RoninData had made an appearance and we could at last finalise the loot sales and I have to say, we had over 4.1Billion isk to split between pilots, both Bastards and Hellcats and our friends.

So here goes:

FINAL LOOT TALLY
3 Jayne 201,386,424.40
Alaki Kant 197,651,501.82
Amy Fae 193,516,481.04
AntonioBanderas 82,026,451.07
Ard UnjiiGo 65,413,220.44
Elviiron Crusoe 24,730,083.00
ericAmerica 6,285,833.74
Fenneck 37,024,510.19
Fish Brain 169,791,020.23
flashfresh 18,473,088.76
Gazur 2,144,161.62
General Coochie 70,011,188.26
Gorgoleon 90,031,900.53
Happy San 162,938,464.35
Hera Darkthorn 136,378,937.96
Heriom 18,639,948.22
Inkoruskee Simo 14,587,567.87
Izzy Lizzy 14,568,178.47
Jack Tremaine 215,628,046.91
Jaxxon Voers 6,285,833.74
Jmarr Hyrgund 42,001,639.84
Kamoonga 170,775,592.41
Kathleen Hallet 3,171,250.00
Laboheme Orchid 24,511,039.30
Lakasha Nachthexen 12,705,540.80
Maeveria 37,623,793.58
Mahn AlNouhm 21,776,697.07
Mon Palae 38,249,083.06
Mr Frog 43,379,080.51
Mynxee 11,167,177.73
Nova Blackadder 177,675,040.65
P'XEL 59,882,345.30
Persephone Astrid 289,938,370.96
Raelyf 80,007,075.59
Randgris 144,456,668.45
Ravenesa 314,690,091.20
Reyna al'Thor 10,929,144.61
rhiw'aow 4,986,399.36
RnProphet 19,366,832.49
RodneyStar 4,485,249.36
RoninData 77,460,222.01
Sapphire Mote 9,367,056.66
Shae Tiann 19,662,405.60
Silvetrys 24,748,604.43
Snake Boy 233,516,456.01
statanspawn 3,781,250.00
Valarissa 5,693,505.23
Venom Orchid 57,312,510.59
Viginti 3,505,534.50
z0de 140,208,804.88
Zeasier 87,417,132.92

Oh My God - wait, you're showing everyone our crown jewels! Yes, we do have a customised application that does cool things with the killboard mails and the items that have dropped from a kill. It then divides up the monies we get from selling the dropped items, equally and fairly against all the pilots involved in each kill. An older, more manual system worked when we had a few kills here and there but with the increased numbers, we needed something new and now, here it is. Also, in a mixed fleet with non-corp/non-alliance members - they can be guaranteed a fair payout. From my experience; mixed fleets have always viewed the loot as 'every person for themselves' and The Bastards have traditionally, came up short in these mixed fleets. Once again, I wish to emphasise that we survive on the pickings of piracy.

However, there's more! We have our own ransom-board now. Oh yes. Check it out here. It is still a work in progress but we had to show it off; it is just too damn sexy otherwise. Hats off to HappySan who put it together and then donated it to the corp.

I really want to push and celebrate our ransoming side of our play and what better than a cool ransomboard? Looks like we have a fair bit to do to catch up with RoninData....

We would love to hear your comments on the board too. So fire away.

Musings of a pirate; part 9 'Too Much Isk Ruin A Pirate?'

This post was actually just some random scribblings I had and I decided to collect them together and blog about it..just been sitting in the drafts folder for a while. Might as well give it some sunshine.

It was originally put together around May 2009...

While I have been absent from piloting a starship, I have been working with other Bastards recruitment officers in sifting through our applications. We've received a fair number of very good (and not so good) potential recruits. As I have been fielding the various questions from the applicants, I noticed that there were certain strands of conversation that we all followed and this lead to a refresh of our FAQ. My intention is to keep this document as a living document. I do apologise for the (current) horrible formatting on the website. It will be fixed and for a less eye-straining version, check out this post here.

As I was putting together the FAQ, I noticed my wallet was flashing and eagerly I opened it up and was delighted to more isk trickle in. I was now hovering at 650million isk. My loot share from ransoms and kills was paid out, albeit late and my own sales orders (from solo kills and trades) was also selling. So isk wasn't an issue. In fact, I felt quite secure financially, though a capital ship or a marauder was still out of reach. Even though I have the skills to fly them, I don't have the wallet to cover them. I want to though and like most other pirates, I like shiny kit and strive hard to attain the financial means to get them. Or steal it from someone. At gun point if required.

This led me to think if my desire for isk was one of the main reason for my love of piracy and why I am, who I am here in New Eden.

What drives me and others like me to piracy? For me it is partly about isk - I want to earn isk through ransoms and loot drops. Running missions isn't my thing, trading (apart from selling salvaged loot) is a no-no for me. Character trading, R&D, moon mining and exploration is not appealing either, unless it involves a ransom or loot. It is through piracy where I make my money. Most of my skill books and implants, likewise. I have never scammed (because I am too impatient) or stolen from my corp mates. Then there's the challenge of piracy and low-sec space in general.

I am actually quite proud of myself when I look at my bank balance and I believe that this attitude exists with majority of The Bastards and The Hellcats too. Piracy largely works for me and my compatriots despite the fact that it is feast or famine type of scenario.

I tell you one thing: it's hard. Loot drops don't always guarantee a massive pay out nor does a ransom. Most people refuse to pay a ransom either out of principle or from a bad experience where a ransom was accepted, monies paid and they still got podded. Pirates who do this are bad for business and need to be hunted down.

The Bastards and The Hellcats however, have proved that it is possible, indeed likely that over time one can make enough isk to afford better and better ships and other shiny items of kit. We have an innovative loot handling programme that ensures all loot is shared out equitably. See this post for more details. We also ransom as often as we can, with a new shiny ransom board in the cooker and we have a system where pilots and corporations buy 'passes' from us for week long periods.

Now isk is quite hard to come by from pirate work alone and for the casual observer of our kill board, one can see that we fly a lot of the more basic hull types when compared to the age and experience of the pilot, be they Bastard or Hellcat. As an example: I still fly the rifter and rupture class ships on a regular basis. I consider my hurricane and jaguar hulls as my bling ships and use my maelstrom class ship for very specific jobs. I have been a pod pilot since 2004 with maxed out auto canon expertise and support skills.

So yes, we do fly a lot of T1 hulls but also why kill or ransom in your faction-fitted vagabond when your stabber would do fine? T1 hulls are cost effective and keeps in character with us pirates, cutting down the sting of losses and making do with what we have. We're here to make isk through piracy after all and this is a matter of great pride to us: nearly everyone makes most of their isk through piracy and rarely through alts or markets or trading or GTCs. We do have alts but they're there to support the pirate mains. Piracy isn't merely an outlet for us in New Eden, it is the SOLE reason why we play.

It is a matter of great honour and pride for us that we can prove to others that piracy is a viable lifestyle and one can thrive in this environment through team-work, dedication and a bit of luck.

Flying T1 hulls means that individually, we need to fit our ships optimally and have experience in these hulls. If you can kill a T2 fitted inty in your incursus, time and time again (as does one of our best pirates, Coochie) - then you are the right fit for he Bastards.

Flying bling-bling ships has its place, don't get me wrong but it's a syndrome that we have seen in many a player with too much isk. We are sure that too much isk rots a players brain, addles their appetite, dulls their senses and reduces overall excitement. If you have nothing to lose each time you go into a roam, what is the point? We know many a pilot who, having reached cap pilot or multi-multi-billion isk status, does nothing but want to undock a carrier to kill a rifter or some such. Why we ask? It's because they can and they rarely see (or desire) any other action. 'T1 battle ships are SO BORING!' they say. I can't begin to say how depressing it becomes when all a cap pilot wants to do is to undock his ship and 'blow shit up' or screaming for a cyno-sural field.

Cap ships have their place and use and a good example is when an enemy carrier is tackled, you need some serious DPS and fast. Similarly insisting on using a faction fitted vulture to kill a stabber in a belt, when one single competent pilot in a rifter can do it so much more efficiently and in style makes you look like an EBay moron.

This leads me to killboard statistics: we do NOT worship the K/B stats. We have been accused in the past of deliberately using cheaper hulls to minimise the isk loss on our board. Utter bollocks. However, the kb is usually the first view of who we are and how 'good' people think we are. Losing T2/T3 ships left, right and centre needlessly, does us no favours. We've slowly built up a reputation as pirates and part of that is our ability to fight and fight hard and efficiently.

Therefore, am sure one can see that keeping mainly in T1 hulls or their equivalent enables us to maximise our loot gains and gives us a certain identity, verve and style. Most of the more senior pirates are all T2/T3 qualified mind and no pirate will complain when a sleipnir comes out with gang mods and the shield tanking gank hurricane gang go on a rampage! As sometimes, only T2 will do.

However, what happens when a pirate does get enough isk? Not just enough to survive and cover the losses but I mean, a lot more? Say billions more? There are ways to short cut this journey from penury to financial comfort and the easiest method is through the purchase and subsequent trade of GTC or plex-codes. Real life money can be turned into ingame isk, legally and easily. I have already alluded that pirates who just want a 'good fight' are actually gladiators and boxers, wanting pure combat for combat's sake.

So, instead of pirating and ransoming people the length and breadth of metropolis for half a year, one can purchase a 60-day GTC or plex and sell it for anywhere between 600-800million isk and in one transaction, one has enough isk for a yummy faction fitted battle ship or capital ship or even a T3 ship.

However, I have come to the conclusion that too much isk might be bad for you, changing your play style and removing the sense of risk whenever you undock. Controversial? Discuss.

The first week or two

It's been two weeks or so since I was voted in as CEO of The Bastards and it has been a most interesting time. I handed over the recruitment stuff to Nova and Gorg and concentrated on a number of internal projects that we had to complete. Like any organisation, we had a number of process and personal issues that had to be dealt with and the buck now stopped with me.

Wielding my new found powers was a novel experience but the first thing I had to do was a long post detailing my plans for the corp and the means to achieve them. It was very similar to what RoninData had and speaking of that balded headed rascal, I expect to be seeing him back and online soon as I could do with his help on certain matters.

The CEO as a position, is important on a practical point of view (setting standings, paying bills etc) but this can be done by a director or a trusted member with sufficient rights. No, the CEO position is a figurehead and a role that someone must play. Most corps can operate on a day-to-day basis quite happily without any input from those with directorship roles and above but there are times when motivations drop, boredom sets in and the group detects a feeling of 'drift' in the corp that the CEO has to step in and provide leadership and the necessary corrective measures. It is easier if the CEO has had a certain degree of separation from the events in order to make as an objective decision as possible.

Anyway, recruitment is closing now and we're delighted with all of the new recruits; there's of new and exciting initiatives at The Bastards, not too many so as not to lose focus but plenty to keep people interested in the future.

Roll on....

Intercept roam!

Tuesday night is my FC slot and pushing the time back just a wee bit; I linked into fleet chat with z0de and others all milling about in local and waiting for me. I was made boss but z0de had an interesting idea: he saw that there was a large Dark-Rising [DARK] fleet in Evati, specifically in the Minmatar plex. z0de, wanting to kick the night off with a bang urged the fleet to suicide jump into the lot and hope to get a kill (or two). I actually thought it would be a good idea and switched to my vexor and roared after z0de. As I activated the acceleration gate, I yelled out in the local broadcast:

"One million per ship! This is a ransom! One million per ship!"

The other pirates, too sensible to join z0de and I snickered in fleet chat as I tried to relay the situation. I landed right into the middle of a swarm of about twenty or so frigates. Who didn't hesitate to lock me and reduce my ship to pieces. I didn't get a single ransom. Nor did z0de. Suitably blooded, I rejoined the fleet and grabbed my claw and within a minute; the fleet was out.

With 14 pilots, a mixed gang of Bastards, Hellcats and recruits we zipped into null-sec. Our first port of call was the infamous EOA-ZC gate and as our scouts moved through; they reported back a bubble and two ships sitting about 200km or so off the gate. I ordered the scouts to bait them to a planet or belt but they didn't take it. Not deterred we moved on and our first catch was a harpy. Complete over kill but what we do? The assault frigate melted within seconds with much hooting and yarrs. We followed this up with a jaguar kill, once again melted it down to it's elements in a few seconds. Great job by Happy for the tackle. We continued with the roam and once again, a call came out.

"There's a hurricane on scan. I can see some probes out..." Reported back San, we moved out of system to give him time to scan the hurricane down without spooking the mission runner.

Ahead, I had Plat running as my scout and some other pilots stretched out. I wanted eyes.

"Hit."

A jolt went through me. I love the feeling when there's some immient violence.

"OK - we need one long point to go in and for San to fleet warp you." Michael and z0de were the two and they hovered eagerly near the gate.

"Found the hurricane - he's outside a wormhole. He's found a wormhole."

"Tacklers, jump jump jump. Warp to Happy. Confirm your points." Two flashes and Michael and z0de were gone, re-appearing thousands of kilometres away and racing towards the hurricane.

The rest of the fleet waited impatiently.

"Point. Point." That was our signal.

"Fleet: jump, jump, jump. Warp to Happy." The fleet, almost snarling, jumped through and raced towards our single target. The hurricane was parked right outside a dazzling ball of light: the entrance to a wormhole. As I suspected, he was within jump range and quickly raced through into worm hole space.

"Everyone but me and Reyna - jump and follow that 'cane!"

Like a pack of wolves, the interceptor fleet fell upon the hurricane and tore it to pieces. Looting the wreck; there was a burst of chatter and noise.

"What did you say? Archon?"

"Yes! An Archon. Here in the worm hole!"

"Kill it!!" Suggested one pirate.

"Point it!"

"Point, point, point!"

"Drones are coming out, his warrior IIs are killing me." That sounded like Happy, the only voice I recognised as the voices seemed to get warped. A product of the worm hole?

"Er, are we going to kill it? I mean, the archon? Are we going to kill it?"

"Yes! Let's do it" Replied z0de, somewhat enthusiastically.

"We're not going to kill it. Not with 13 inties. Not an Archon." Injected Fish, with a bit of reality. "He might have smarties."

"He would have used them by now. Let's go!!"

So the inties swarmed around the Archon like angry flies - now, I would love to have the night end with an Archon kill but it became obvious that thirteen inties would not be able to dent the beast and I reluctantly gave the order to disengage and continue with the roam. There were some grumbles from the pilots include z0de who was quite adamant that they should have stayed longer.

The gang continued to move with scouts pushing ahead and pinging their scanners furiously for targets but there was nothing. As the group came together, our scouts, only one jump ahead cleared the way but communications broke down somewhat. A large gang had jumped into our system and their ship types reported back. We were aligned to our next destination and we followed the scouts - the camp appeared to be on our side and with our angel of approach; it was unlikely a bubble could pull us out. We landed and activated the gate and we were then faced with an even bigger camp. Not good. Hesitation killed us as we should have GTFO: the camp had not dropped an interdiction sphere and when it did - the bubble grew slowly enough for most of the frigates to get away; if we had warped away instantly. Instead, four of the gang were caught and destroyed.

Disappointed, the surviving fleet rendevoused with me, two systems away and we re-grouped and proceeded on our way. A slight detour but we were on track and after two more jumps, the group was chatting and having fun once again. The loss of four colleagues now just a memory. Happy spotted a rupture while Fish managed to track down an ishtar. As I decided to split up the fleet, sending some to the rupture and the rest to the ishtar - Happy announced that he had lost the rupture, most likely it went to a pos. Just as this report was being posted, Fish announced that not only had he found the ishtar, he had pointed it and it was at the UBX-CC gate. Just one jump away.

Not waiting, I ordered the fleet to warp to the gate and held back half of the interceptors on this side while the rest whipped in.

"Point!"

"Web it!! It's too fast."

"He has stopped aggression; he is going to be jumping through to you Flash." Said Fish, due to the gate mechanics, it required a ship to wait for 30 seconds before the excess energy built up from firing weapons systems, could be bled out and for the jump gate to be activated. That's why it is always a good idea to have a tackler(s) on both sides of the gate. There was a flash of light as the star gate registered a new arrival.

"Ishtar has jumped to you Flash."

"All ship on the UBX-CC gate, orbit the gate with drones out please. Over load your pumps." We had to maximise our chances and behold, an ishtar dropped gate cloak and started to align. I was 28km and closing, my microwarpdrive burning brightly. The ishtar disappeared from my overview.

"Ishtar has a cloak. Moving towards last known position."

While a cloak is a miracle of modern sciene, it doesn't make one invulnerable. The Ishtar dropped gate cloak and quickly engaged his cloak. However, the inties with me had a very good idea where he was and burned towards him - once you are withing 2000m of a cloaked ship, the interference from your engines cause the cloak to short and disengage. So the ishtar was found, pointed and webbed once more.

"Point and we need more DPS."

The Ishtar was fully repped back up in terms of armour, much to my chagrin but we kept at it and pounded away until it was down to 10% when he once more stopped aggression and crawled close enough to the gate to jump. Happy and Fish both stopped their aggression as well and prepared to jump. We had wisely left two more interceptors on the other side of the gate just in case. The ishtar jumped and was promptly pointed once more on the other side.

We were in a dilemma however: we had 50% of our ships on either side of the gate and it was clear that we needed a touch more DPS to crack the armour tank on the HAC. However, should I commit our entire strength in one go?

"He's de-aggressing. Flash, get ready again." Said Viginti.

Moments later, the ishtar was back and his armour was whole. He cloaked up and we burned towards him, breaking his cloak. We pointed and we webbed.

"Point!" I yelled.

"Webbed." Said Michael.

I checked the distance between the ishtar and the gate: 12KM and he was slowed to a crawl; looked like this time, I had all the webbers with me - some luck. We poured on the fire and he tanked very well but slowly, under the onslaught, damage was bleeding into his hull. It started looking likely that he wasn't going to make it. Everyone piled in, the star gate flashing as my fleet mates raced in, eager for the kill. We left only one person behind.

"Overload. Overload." With the extra damage from overheating our guns, pushing them beyond their manufactured tolerances; we should be able to crack this ishtar. Slowly, inexorably, the ishtar began to die: leaking our fluids and sections of his ship decompressing as precious atmosphere vomiting out. With the help of our webbers, we finally popped the troublesome ishtar. It was fitted and piloted very well by Captain Teneal.

We finally got back home in one piece and it was a superb roam. Well done by all.

Alliance Tourney

2009.07.17 09:46
Hello,

This mail is confirmation that your entry and fee have been received and that you will be entered into the draw for Alliance Tournament VII.

Regards
CCP Claw

Woo-hoo and as such, recruitment is now closed until after the end of the AT or the draw, if we don't make it.

Destroyers, Star Trek and Bombs

It was with some trepidation that I walked down to my ship hangar and looked at my destroyer, a thrasher class vessel packing eight 200mm auto canons and gyrostabilisers to ensure maximum damage. I was going to run a two hour roam, just to get to reacquainted with my pilots (old and new) and to stretch my wings so to speak. The theme was naming our ships after Star Trek vessels but Gorgoleon insisted on naming his after some Star Wars vessel. There was an encouragement to start using the more infamous quotes from the films including: 'Beam me up Scotty' (not actually said in any film), 'Klingons on the starboard bow' (from a song!), 'Set phasers to stun', 'make it so', etc.

Like all Bastards roams, we didn't go far - Zach had scanned down a myrmidon and the fleet, already assembled raced across to kill it and then a 15 minute cool off period as our globals counted down. Of course, we were further delayed when someone spied a dominix and off we went, yelling, hooting and hollering. The dominix was dropped in short order and the pilot pulled into 'yarrsom' for the negotiation of his ransom.

"Two hundred million isk please and you and your pretty little implants can leave un-molested." I said, a most reasonable request in my view.

"Five million." Shot back the reply. I chuckled and grinning I repeated my demand.

"Two hundred million isk please. You have ten seconds." There was a pause as the pilot was thinking about the offer. Meanwhile, the pirates were grabbing dropped loot and salvaging the wreck with wild abandon. We do have a second motto as well here at The Bastards and it is 'Leave no wreck or loot, behind!'.

"Nah, I have only +3 installed. I don't have any more." Decision made. I gave the order.

"Pop the pod." Even before I finished the sentence, the pod was smashed open and the corpse of the capsuleer flash froze in the vacuum of space. This too, was scooped up.

A few pilots linked in, thinking they were late asked where the fleet was. They were delighted to find out that thirty minutes into the operation, we had not even left our own system. Mynxee was along for the roam and she said,

"The roam started thirty minutes ago, we just haven't jumped out yet!"

Local was filling up and we finally left and zipped into Geminate via EOA-ZC; the system was empty with a lonely warp disruptor bubble sitting 20km of the gate, no doubt set up to catch those trying to fly back into low-sec. My two scouts, Zach and Jmarr went in two different directions. Zach had hostile contact and he vectored the fleet towards him. We arrived at the gate just as Jmarr yelled out that he was also tackled and webbed. He was too far from us but he kept his head long enough for us to get a picture of the ships that caught him. Mainly frigates and assault frigates.

Not being able to assist with Jmarr we attempted to assist with Zach but he had disengaged when we arrived.

Switching around to racing towards Jmarr's last position yielded nothing too. Disappointed we left this rump part of low-sec and went towards Oijanen and the infamous, BWF-ZZ system.

Finding nothing we went round this time with Happy San as out scout. We giggled when we entered 4-CUM5 but targets were elusive and we didn't have a prober with us; an ommission that I realised but hoped would not be detect.

It was only when we were almost back that we encountered a fleet of stealth bombers and assault frigates. With a whoop and cry we engaged some of them and then the stealth bombers released their bombs. Never knew much about them and from what I have been told, they were expensive and difficult to use. Well, after a few changes and upgrades, they proved to be devastatingly effective and popped half of our destroyer fleet before we could get one of them! Much alarmed, we all whipped our pods out and then raced back towards the relative safety of Evati wit a cloud of hostile ships chasing us!

A successful evening due to the fun we had, AstPlatinum got the award for using the best Star Trek quotes during the roam but I HappySan and Jmarr got honourable mentions for using the most in the evening. However, one can't hide the fact that our destroyers got themselves, destroyed.

Later on, HappySan, n00bish and I tried to unsucessfully tackle a missioning hurricane and yet later on, another fleet tackled two mission drakes and popped them. We got the pods and ransomed them but they weren't too keen to pay us ransoms. Instead they smacked endlessly in local. We then had another roam into null-sec hunting for a complex-running Ishtar - we missed it and ended up losing a cerberus and an expensively fitted rapier to a -AAA- HAC gang roaming through.

Finally a bunch of Bastards went hunting through a worm hole and ended up destroying a POS, stealing a T2 fitted drake, T2-fitted cheetah, mods and killed a ratting raven for lols. Netting a cool 290 million isk. All in inties. Even better that we had some potential recruits in our gangs, no better way to see whether we fit their expectations then flying with us.

Without HappySan's permission, I include his corp account for your fun and enjoyment. Please note that HappySan will have a spiffing new blog out soon. Now to his summarised account:

1. Raelyf finds a wormhole in *****.
2. Raelyf finds wormhole within wormhole - leading to WFC-MY in Catch! (AAA space)
3. Interceptor fleet formed for fun roam
4. Drake & Raven sighted in system next door by scout, at a POS
5. We start heading through the system, planning to roam - Raelyf is more awake than the rest of us and notes that the POS has no Force Field!
6. We warp to POS just in time to see the Raven log off
7. Drake is stolen! DJ sacrifices his Incursus to the cause, which we then pop and collect loot from. Drake turns out to be T2 fit with purger rigs!
8. Corporate Hangar Arrays are destroyed, yielding ~60M3 trit, loads of crappy t1 mods and come simple reaction stuff from the POS. Nothing of great value
9. Ship Maintenance Bay destroyed, dropping Raven, Cheetah, Thrasher and Iteron V! Pilots called in to help move these ships, as none of us really want to abandon our Interceptors.
Raven is T2 fit with rigs, yay!
Cheetah is T2 fit with rigs, covert ops cloak and dark blood armor rep (lol?)
Thrasher is salvager, we destroy it
Iteron V is useful, fitted with 5 Cargo expander IIs (No rigs ) - we use this to grab a load of the stuff which dropped from the hangars and haul it back!
10. Ships are taken away to **** via wormhole, and we continue our roam!
A few jumps away in Y-PNRL, just one jump away from AAA's outpost in FAT-6P, our expert scout Ravenesa finds and locks down a Raven ratting in a belt! (A fitting tackler, I'm sure you'll agree)
11. A quick kill later and we fly away with some nice shiny T2 loot, and decide to head back before our luck turns for the worse.

Yay!

Involved parties and special thanks:
Raelyf (Thanks for exploring and getting a roam started!)
Happy San (I'm awesome)
DJ Akula (Sacrificed his own ship to ferry the Drake, and also flew our stolen Raven back!)
Tallitar
Kai
Ravenesa (Yay for Raven tackling a Raven!)
me0de (Kicked that Raven's ass)
Inko (Stole a Cheetah for us!)

Yay for piracy!

It's great to be back.

Oh, we've also signed up for the Alliance Tourney but we're in the random pick list so imshallah that we get in!

Back!!!

Yes, I am back. After two months away due to my mother's illness - she's recovering and now out of hospital and it means that I can slowly return to New Eden, The Bastards and The Hellcats and piratical mayhem.

A lot has happened, not least that our venerable CEO, RoninData has had to step down as CEO due to a change in his own real life situation. He hasn't left the corp let alone New Eden but had to cut back on his time. I was then voted in by the rest of the board and I was actually reluctant to take the role on. Due, in part to my own absence. I felt that I didn't have enough contact time with the other pirates in the group and I was personally lobbying for another director to take over. However, after a few late night sessions - we hammered out a deal and I took on the role of CEO over the weekend of the 11th/12th July. My motto will be 'more of the same, but with better organisation!'

Anyway, I was initially reluctant to accept; as I have been away for two months due to my own personal circumstances and was supporting the nominations for two other candidates. Still, this position as CEO is for a sixth-month term with caveats. This is at my insistence and a vote will occur between the directors when my time is up. This keeps things fair and fresh. Hell, I might be sick of the role so it gives me an exit strategy!

I have no desire to make major changes but some change is necessary. One was for me to push for one of our newer recruits, Gorgoleon to be promoted as our Euro Time Zone recruiter and speaking of recruits, we've been swamped once again. Oddly, 90% are from the US/CAN time zone so I can see that our American pirate-mates will get some new faces soon.

Updating The Bastards and The Hellcats via a newsletter took me a good part of the weekend but am satisfied with the results. So what does this mean for me, I think initially, I will be spending a fair bit of my time running the corporation and not actually doing much ingame. It is almost a full time role. However, I have already started to delegate tasks to the other directors and I am keen to build up a small cadre of dedicated FCs. Made up of pirates who have no desire to move into corporation management but still wants to accept roles of responsibility within the corp. To be honest, the FC is probably the most important role, they lead the pilots into space and it's to them to find the victories and to bring them all back in one piece. A tough challenging role indeed and I am encouraging my fellow Bastards and Hellcats to put themselves forward as FCs.

Anyway, am very excited about the direction of the corp and the goals we have ahead of us. Will post more on the goals and strategies we will be adopting over the next few days. Too much to put down in one post.

Plenty more to come but I am back. Yes, indeed - I am back.

Almost back

It was with some cheer that I found out that my mother can finally come out of hospital. Have been out of action in New Eden two months this saturday and I have missed the thrills. Been trying to keep up with what's been happening via blogs and web sites but am aware that my pirate blog speedlinking needs re-visiting; the months of May & June are missing though I have read far and wide.

Anyway, just a shout out to friends and enemies alike. My ships are being made ready and I have started to contact associates and colleagues alike. I can't wait.

F