AT8 update & CSM5 news

Look mum we're on TV! (actually is it going to be televised?)

Details are here.

At least we have a well-known team for our first round and previous winners to boot. What will a pack of low-sec living pirates do against HUN Reloaded? I have no idea but I hope we get into a position to ransom one of them!

Our prep is progressing but it is no secret that the Bastards are going to have a great time. We've been more aggressive in our roams just to ensure that we can properly battle-test our ships and tactics, Sisi is too controlled in some ways and the sheer randomness of tranquillity is the best test. Unfortunately, we've had a few set-backs but some successes too.

==Other bits==

Biggest news items by far is that Mynxee got the most votes for CSM5, automatically making her the chair-person. To be honest, she's the best bet for that position and I am immensely proud of her for stepping up and volunteering to do it. I just hope she has time to squeeze it all in!

Check this out:

Votes	Character Name	Real Name	Country
4,116	Mynxee	Carole Pivarnik	United States
3,360	Ankhesentapemkah	Eva Jobse	Netherlands
2,521	Dierdra Vaal	Valentijn Geirnaert	Netherlands
2,196	Korvin	Andrey Antonov	Russia
1,649	Vuk Lau	Vuk Lau	Serbia
1,553	TeaDaze	Jason Renouf	Guernsey
1,519	Meissa Anunthiel	Stephan Pirson	Belgium
1,463	Trebor Daehdoow	Robert Woodhead	United States
1,260	Sokratesz	Tim Heusschen	Netherlands

Now that is a mandate for Mynxee as as Keith had pointed out, the number two on the list has quite different views on piracy so we shall see.

Oh, shout out to Kane and co for reversing a carrier drop to their advantage; nice!

The Bastards and The Ransoms

Yes, your votes and your love for Mynxee!

Give her your time, your love but more importantly - your vote! I think she is one of two pilots who are entering CSM 5 with an almost exclusive low-sec focused agenda. I can't argue with this and support it 100%.

Campaign broadcast over...what else in this post?

Ransoms and isk

Ransoms are still an important part of what we do and I went over our ransom board to get an update and was pleasantly surprised. Here's a snapshot for the month of April and it looks like Persephone Astrid is the leader. She's a patient one I can tell you and when she's got her sights set on you, there's very little you can do to shake her off.

Some readers may also recognise Persephone as the organiser of our first Bushkazi frigate contest and there's now going to be another one organised soon.

Of course, most of us will have a while to catch up with RoninData and Happy San in terms of the total ransoms and the amount of isk from ransoms but with this board, it is hoped that their efforts are recorded and recognised. On our own forum boards, we encourage our pilots to write up accounts of anything noteworthy from either ransoms, ransom attempts or funny talk between them and our customers. Now, I have decided to shamefully steal content from Persephone in one of her recent ransom runs. So take it away Persephone:

So it's late night in Evati, and I'm out in my covops prober looking for trouble as usual. This time the trouble was a mission runner in an Eagle. Since nobody flies Eagles, I had to look it up on the EVE Wiki. I quickly probed him down and took a peek at the spot: there was an acceleration gate with wrecks on the outside, and the Eagle was presumably inside the mission. I docked and got a Drake, just to play it safe.

The first time I landed inside the mission, he was 50 km away. Even so, he was slow to align and I'd lumbered to within 30 km before he warped away. I docked and counted to sixty, then undocked and went right back to the mission.

The second time I landed inside the mission, he was 20 km away, but aligned. He warped before I could lock him. I cursed my luck and docked up, and switched to a Blackbird with all Caldari racial jammers, a long point, and heavy missiles. I undocked and went to the mission.

The third time I landed at the acceleration gate, he was still outside, but near the gate. I quickly warp disrupted him and hit the ECM and missiles. I was about 15 km from him, and he began to burn away. Startlingly, he outran me on afterburner by about 100 m/s, and I could not keep up, even overheated. (AB fit for inside the mission, you know?) After getting clear of my overheated 24 km point range, he escaped again.

I decided to try yet another tactic. I convoed him:

Persephone Astrid > Hi there!
Sin SoLeXX > yo
Persephone Astrid > For five million ISK I'll not camp your mission in a covops. Instead I will log off and get some sleep.
Sin SoLeXX > psh
Sin SoLeXX > it's not that important lol

I thought five million was a bargain. Oh well. Since he was determined to run the mission, I was determined to get him no matter what. About that time Zemledok logged on, and he volunteered to camp the landing spot inside the mission in a Curse. We quickly formed a fleet, he warped to me and went into the mission, and I warped away to hide.

Not twenty seconds later, he announced on Vent that the Eagle had landed atop him, and that he had three points on him and was neuting him for good measure. I quickly returned and laid on some ECM just to be mean. I invited him to Yarrsom:

Persephone Astrid > Hi! We're pirates
Sin SoLeXX > ?
Persephone Astrid > We'd like to discuss the value of your ship now.
Sin SoLeXX > o
Sin SoLeXX > lol
Sin SoLeXX > you are wasting my time
Sin SoLeXX > what do you want
Persephone Astrid > Money, say 50 million ISK
Sin SoLeXX > will you go and leave you are annoying
Persephone Astrid > Of course we will. Our reputation is built on honoring ransoms.
Persephone Astrid > http://www.the-bastards.com <-- our site

(*my wallet blinks*)

Sin SoLeXX > k bye
Persephone Astrid > Have a good mission!

Zemledok and I split the 50 million ISK and laughed all the way home.

Persistence paid off handsomely.

Recruitment

Nashh has stepped up in his efforts as one of our Euro Time Zone recruiters with a timely reminder. Be sure to pay his site a visit.

Alliance Tournament news

Well the signups have closed and we've paid our 2B isk and we're waiting like everyone else. The auction for eight of the remaining slots was NOT run, it looked like there wasn't enough takers for this one? Am unsure what this means but it could indicate a lower than expected turnout than last time?

Anyway, we've been theory crafting and working together (as much as possible) in joint-ops. I see a fair few Tuskers alongside our own pilots on our KillBoards lately and vice-versa. This is a good thing. There are only slight (but distinct) differences between our corporations and it is interesting to see how we have been working together. It bodes well if (when!) we get our place confirmed on the AT list of 32.

Busy but can't keep a pirate down now can we?

EVE-Uni and HACS

A busy few weeks but little time to put it all down, it has all been a blur!

I did organise a HAC/RECON roam into low-sec, the initial plan was to take the northern route up through Paala and into LXQ-2T but we were blocked by a large and hostile force. Our ships were not really designed to sit long at gates against RR BS class ships so we opted to go 'south' and head into Metropolis and Faction Warfare country. I was piloting my lachesis class recon ship and loved the ability to through out the warp disruptor to a fantastic 50KM+ range. An excellent tackler and with a rapier in the lot, it made for a potent combo.

The night was an excellent roam resulting in our HAC/RECON gang popping ten ships and losing only two (both of them were Viginti's curse recon!) - the loot drop was very good but no ransoms from any of the targets.

The Bastards have been busy preparing and training and improving ourselves; New Eden is a harsh mistress and she punishes those who are ill-prepared or who take her for granted. I like to think that The Bastards are far from this. Recruitment is ticking over nicely and I will have to find time to put together a new newsletter for everyone. It is April 2010 already and so much has happened that it deserves a newletter.

Meanwhile, I have been informed that my dearest Mynxee has signed up with NOIR. A

well-known and respected mercenary corporation. She has posted about her move here. Shae has left the Hellcats (actually joined U'K for a bit) and moved to VETO while Venom Orchid has joined Ard Unjigo with The Tuskers. Change indeed across all fronts but it does appear that The Hellcats and HellFleet are in capable hands. As ever, The Bastards extend our best wishes to the Lady Pirates of EVE.

Due to real life issues, I missed out on an open panel invitation organised by EVE-University. Despite gunning down ten of their fellow pilots a week ago, I didn't think that they would hold it against me and was much looking forward to joining in. However, real life gunned me down and I found that I was unable to attend. All was not lost, Mynxee who did attend also had the time to posted an update for everyone to read. Verone, Ka Jolo and other notables also attended. Fine company indeed.

EVE-Uni Say Hi

A couple of days later, I was passing through Ofrold and ran into an EVE-Uni camp. It was a mix of frigates and cruisers and they all pointed my Lachesis and let rip. I couldn't warp but turned around and pulsed the MWD to get back to the gate. I noticed that all the ships there had red-boxed me so if I could just get back through the gate - then all would be ok. My shields held (thanks to ex-Bastard Jaxxon and his Lachesis fit!!!) and activated the gate. I whipped through and safed up. The campers were no doubt spamming the gate activation button frantically but alas, to no avail.

They eventually came through and we had some banter in local. It was ever funnier once it was realised that MrMasterShake was part of the camp. My cargo hold contained all his dropped mods. I was only making the trip this evening just to pick them up! Nice chaps EVE-Uni nonetheless.

Battlecruiser bruiser

So, onto last night - FC'ed a successful BC roam. We had some applicants with us and it was a typical Bastards roam: constant banter, focused violence and witty repartee. For the loss of one myrmidon (which we should have saved), we took down a domi (x2), harby and a catalyst. We failed to kill a drake and 'phoon. Decent loot but no ransoms. We were tracking a similar size BC gang with logistical support but lost the opportunity when the gang moved into high-sec. The best opportunity was at the beginning.

DeepSafe Nerfs

Deep safes are being removed. I wonder how many people will lose ships and anchored containers in supposedly 'safe' and un-probeable areas? I know without these deep safe spots, that gang we were shadowing last night would not have remained hidden for long.

What else?

Recruitment is moving along albeit slowly - our recruitment officers have been too busy with RL and with the spring here and summer coming along, people are (quite rightly) spending more times outside with friends and family than in New Eden. However, I have decided to pitch back into the recruitment pool just to take the slack off some people. If you have an application with us and there is apparently no movement or decision on it, drop me a line and I will seek out a solution.

Some exciting times ahead...

Just been tagged

Like in a school play ground, sometimes you're wandering around, not quite noticing anything and then - boom, you're 'IT' and a bunch of snotty nosed kids run off, cackling and yelling to everyone that you now have the 'lurgy' and for everyone to avoid physical contact.

Anyway, amongst the bloggers out there - we sometimes tag each other for fun. Once tagged, one has post a few facts about themselves and then tag other bloggers in the hopes they'll do the same thing. All in an effort to find out things about me.

I have been tagged by Mynxee, she-devil pirate, friend, fellow blogger and fleet-mate.

Mynxee - you could have just asked me....

So here goes, I supply eight facts about Flashfresh, with a twist, one 'fact' is in fact, false. Can you guess which one?

So here goes. Did you know that I:

• Am trying to breed White Cloud Minnows?
  
• Was a part-time ex-male model?
• Have two Masters Degrees and planning on a third?
• Count myself as as pretty damn good cook (Chinese) ?
• Considered a career in the military but went to academia because their posters were more eye-catching?
  
• Run, not as often as I would like but I do cross country and half-marathons?
• Lived in Africa and South America before settling back in the UK?
• Have met the Queen of England? (she's a very small lady!)
  

The Rules:

1. Link to the original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about myself in the post - some random, some weird. I added one more, a false fact to confuse. You don't have to!
   
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

I now tag the following:

• Kane Rizzel
• Jedizah
• VB Sarge
• DJ Akula
• Khaled Urduni
• Lanissum
• Ka Jolo

There's so many more I want to tag but the rules state only seven. I have included a fair few of The Bastards crew but not all of them; DJ Akula hasn't blogged much; so I hope this tag will galvanise him to do so!

EVE Pirate Speedlinking

I love to read what other pirates are doing so here's a run down of some funny pirate stories that I have read as well as a recap on some other entries. Crazykinux does a great job with an overall speed-linked update but for specific pirate content? Well, hope this effort of mine helps! I know my good friend Votrian is doing something similar for explorers like himself.

• Kane Rizzel. One of the best solo pirates in New Eden. Mission running locals avoid him like the black death. Holder of a recognised speed record in New Eden (will find the link) and a friend and respected pilot to me and others, has hit a milestone: 1000 kills.Congratulations. Hop over to his blog and check out his cool tattoo..
  
• Your money or your life is a well-written blog by Ka Jolo, a pirate of some standing. He talks about the etiquette of the 'GF' we all write in local, whether you've just had your ass handed to you or did some killing yourself.
• EVE Newb (not a noob to be honest) in a classic encounter against x3 battleships versus his inty, a cruiser and a frigate. They kicked ass, the entry is quite recent so read it while it's still smoking. Plenty of chat and post on the eve-forums too.
• Justice in the Dark Universe is Cid Drakir's account of how he turned the tables on an idiot. Cid isn't a pirate but the story was too good to be excluded.
• I love salvaging stuff in space and Ironfleet have made it their own. A fun tale of sneaking in, stealing a can from a miner and then high-tailing it out of there...while the miner is completely unaware! They'll take anything not nailed down to a planet. I love it.
• Mynxee updates us all on her comings and goings in low-sec. I agree, sall cyno-ships must die.