Fweddit - I Love Ushra'Khan

November was a slow-ass month for faction warfare PvP. We did not find nearly the number of big brawls that we had in October. So, that I got 117 killmails this month, is saying something. I beat Fenrir Vice too, which is saying something more (and I don't accept his "I had midterms" as an excuse, either!)

My losses were higher. Nearly 500M ISK. But two of those losses were due to that damned d-key jump/dock bug, sitting on a station I was supposed to dock at, but never did. 155M ISK of my November losses right there, including a pod.

Not a bad month, though.

And I'm learning. If I want some kills when I log into EVE, there's always one particular fleet commander [FC] to look for. No matter how slow an evening it is, this particular FC somehow eases a few kills out of any roam.

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This was the section of the post where I was going to start talking about all of the stellar FCs we have in the YOLO Coalition (#yolocolo on the Twitters). But I was reminded that would be a bad idea. Since it tells our enemies who to target first. Not cool.

Suffice to say, we have some of the very best FCs in faction warfare. Calm, cool and collected. People who know how to set bait, how to utilize their scouts, how to control the battlefield, how to target call. And we have people who know how to listen to those orders.

When I was in AUTOZ, I thought the Minmatar had some pretty good FCs (especially from Iron Oxide), but the depth and breadth of the FC pool over here in #yolocolo puts to shame anything the Minmatar have.

Okay. I'll give you all a little taste. James Msyu and Drewex. Stellar stellar fleet commanders. Please don't primary these guys. We rely heavily upon their expertise.

***

We had two great brawls yesterday with Ushra'Khan out near their new home in Isbrabata.

(I'd like to say, with the new gate between Kurniainen and Isbrabata opening on December 4th, it was a good decision by Ushra'Khan to station themselves right at the back door to Metropolis. Being out around Gebuladi was doing nobody any favours.)

I like Ushra. Maybe because they're roleplayers. I don't engage much with roleplaying myself. Just don't have the time or energy to do so. Remaining in character takes effort. I can't be bothered anymore. Plus, I did all my roleplaying back in Ultima Online and Everquest. I did my MMO roleplaying time, so to speak. But I do respect those players who do take the effort to immerse themselves in their game.

When Ushra is in system, or we're setting up to fight them, I'll alter my usual local shit-talk to be more roleplay oriented. Out of respect for those guys. I don't want to purposefully step on their immersion.

[ 2012.11.30 05:20:39 ] Poetic Stanziel > Hello. This apple orchard isn't going to pick itself. Any of you Minmatar want room and board for a little of your labour?

So we travelled the seven jumps to Aset for our first brawl. An armour cruiser fleet. They were set-up in a major plex, so we came to them. A great, lengthy brawl. Their Blackbirds proved to be a pain in the ass (as Blackbirds always are) and it took some time before we could get them off field. The battle was not determined early on, which is what makes a great fight great. I wasn't a target of any target calling until the end, which makes the fight even better. It was the first time I'd flown a Stabber Fleet Issue into the thick of a battle. Have to say, I really quite like the ship. (Odd, to say that, since I was Minmatar at one point, but never flew SFIs back then. Strange that I only take it up as a ship while Amarr.)

We won the ISK war in the first brawl. But not by much. They held the field, got to do the looting. So you have to chalk it up as a win for Ushra. It's always good to bleed more ISK out of the enemy than they do to your own fleet, but if they're the ones mopping up the wrecks on the field afterwards, that counts for quite a bit, especially when the ISK war was as close as it was.

We head the seven jumps back to Egghelende. (Man, it would be nice to stage closer to Isbrabata. Near Saidusairos, somehow? Though the systems one jump out of faction warfare and one jump out of highsec, they're all station poor in that area. Egghelende is perfect in that regard. Oh well, the new Siseide to Eszur gate will reduce the distance by two jumps.) A bunch of us want another go at Ushra'Khan, so about two-thirds of us reship in armour cruisers again and make the trek back.

Scouts tell us they're camping the Flosewin gate in Aset, and that a few of them have upshipped to battlecruisers now. (They're taking lessons from Late Night apparently *grin*). So we, instead, set-up in a medium plex in Flosewin. Send the message, we want to fight, but let's do this in similar hulls. (This is the great thing about plex restrictions, you can use them to dictate the types of fights you want.)

Ushra gets the message and their battlecruiser pilots reship. A good long battle, that's not decided until the end. Again, we come out on top in the ISK war, though not by much, but Ushra holds the field, gets to loot the spoils. So gotta give the second encounter to them too.

Again, another f-ing great brawl. I, unfortunately lost a pod. My first pod loss in a fleet fight since mid-September.

It was a surprising two fights, though. Not to be trollish, but Ushra'Khan doesn't generally fare well in large scale encounters. They, more often than not, get their asses handed to them. So whatever they did tonight, it worked. They need to keep on doing it.

***

Which is a good segue into Late Night Alliance wardeccing Ushra'Khan. Pretty much a dick move by Ka Pow Pow (who happen to be the corporation that has the greatest hand in what Late Night does as an alliance), but Ka Pow Pow has dickishness to spare.

(Ka Pow Pow is the reason I left the Minmatar militia. As much as I thought Autocannons Anonymous was a good group of people, Ka Pow Pow puts a sour taste in your mouth for the alliance as a whole. At least when Test Alliance or Goonswarm are awoxing the hell out of each other, there's a sense of humour to the acts. Not so with Ka Pow Pow, it's all serious business with them. They're not a fun group of people. Blame the giant sticks they all have up their asses, I suppose.)

Late Night loves to pad their killboards. Given that Ushra'Khan is not known for their stellar PvP prowess, it's really little surprise that Late Night would go after them.

Back when Fweddit were skill-poor newbies, Late Night was literally in love with Fweddit. (I know this, I was in Late Night at the time.) They spent 80% of their time fighting Fweddit back then, because the killmails came fast and frequent. It was barely an effort to decimate a Fweddit fleet twice or three times the size of a Late Night fleet. It was easy to hang your e-peen off those sorts of encounters.

Fweddit is no longer the push-overs of the Amarr. Really, there are no push-overs in the Amarr militia at the moment. So it's not surprising that Late Night would go seeking their easy wins elsewhere. It's not much fuss to them that Ushra'Khan is in their militia.

Killmails are killmails, don't matter where they come from, that's the sort of think tanking you get out of Ka Pow Pow.

***

Wow, this is my 300th post of the year.