So, you have been on an RvB Ganked roam, seen me whelp us repeatedly and still have people fly with me over and over again, and now want to run a Ganked yourself?
Then you are in luck! This post is going to cover the basics you should understand before attempting to “FC” a Ganked roam, and I may or may not ramble off on various other Ganked FC related topics along the way. We shall see.
Theme: Try to pick something that does not limit the ability of others to take part, for example do not say “Stealth Bomber roam with Blops support” as suddenly 50% or more of regular, and potential RvB Ganked attendee’s, are unable to attend due to skill & experience levels. Any ship type that has a low barrier for entry or at least a T1 variant is your best bet to be as inclusive as possible.
Meetup Location: Use a hub, or somewhere close to a hub, that also has a reasonably close low sec, so that even the less law abiding amongst us can aid us in our eternal quest to locust the hell out of the market in every region we start from. In addition, try to ensure your meetup location gives you access to several possible regions. Saying “lets go from Stacmon” for example only really gives you Syndicate as a viable target region, whereas Rens gives you Providence, Great Wildlands, & Curse. Dotlan is very useful for helping with this decision.
Scouts: Choose them wisely. Green Gambit, Evilian, Kaeda Maxwell, Thecla Elarik, Daneel Trevize & Lorkin Desal (in one of his many guises) are amongst the best the regular Ganked line up has to offer. However, more are always appreciated, especially if they bring combat probes.
Local Spam: Ensure it is mostly in line with the theme, see if you can get a couple of handy images “shopped in time for the roam, and as usual YouTube will provide relevant videos. One thing to note, try not to let your fleet mates go TOO FAR in regards to spam, it can get them warned or even banned and we do not want any negative publicity or views when it comes to Ganked do we?
Once this is all done and you have passed the info to me, I will make the post on the RvB forums, mail the mailing list and begin the weeks twitter campaign, as well as edit the RvB Ganked channel MoTD to ensure as much coverage as possible is given to the roam. The more the merrier on these things after all. I’d suggest if you are Guest FCing a Ganked roam you also work on publicity from your end and your in game social circle too, as occasionally I do slip and either forget or get too busy to push as much as I normally do.
On the night, set up your fleet, use the Fleet MoTD for all the important information, have your route(s) communicated to your scouts and then herd your cats to glory! While doing this remember:
- Lemmings will happen. Make sure they link their losses;
- Gloriously running away is a GOOD thing if you want to avoid a needless whelp. If 20+ logistics will ruin a fun whelp, then bail. No one will mind;
- People may expect broadcasts, try and do it, means more people on the primaries therefore more chance of winning the isk war;
- Shinies are a great way to “win” a Ganked roam. Primary them at all costs, especially if they jumped to you before their logistics did;
- Ensure there is a prober around;
- Never go north, they just are not as fun as the rest of null-sec space.
And most importantly, try to keep the following two images in your mind at all times, one to link & one to just keep you smiling no matter what the fleet actually does:
And its all over.
It is now the day after and the roam was a success, you killed stuff, stuff killed you, and people got very drunk playing internet spaceships. I would love it if you mailed me your prize winners so I can get our wonderful sponsor’s at Somer.Blink to pass their prizes to them and if you can write a few words about the roam and I’ll post them on my blog/Reddit for publicity – any publicity is good publicity after all.
After you have done this, you can have your life back.
Not quite the same as it was before is it…
