Just a quick post to admit that I have been both incredibly lazy, and heavily engrossed in SWTOR, and therefore not creating blog posts. However a new year is here, and I have things to say, so watch this space. For now I will leave you with video from the past few Ganked events.
Well Ganked 6, success or great success? I am still thinking it over, I mean we did not actually die (well not all of us) in a horrible fire, but we did get an epic fight…
Anyway, we set off slightly later than the 21.00 kick off – due to people setting up mumble, trying to fit lasers on anything and what not, but when we did leave we had quite a respectable fleet rolling, some 70+ people, the majority on mumble (even Jagtor despite his protestations that there was no discipline … “BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE BUBBLE”) and all with an awful lot of lasers to throw around. Rainbow goodness!
Vale was emptier than I can ever recall (bring back IEGEX, all is forgiven!), and as part of the “plan” (ie I basically looked at my EVE Universe poster and randomly picked places…) we would meander southwards – via the east – so the fleet moved towards Geminate. Fintarue calls on comms he had a duder tackled on a detour to BWF, and so I fleet warped us to a gate that I thought was on the way to him, turns out it was a gate 141AU in the wrong direction… Fin died 
However the simple act of actually getting the fleet into BND and moving towards BWF somehow enraged the locals and they brought out a bunch of ships and 5 guardians! Oh noes, “we who are about to die salute you” we thought. Then we ran around playing kisschase with them until it turned out they had used a jumpbridge and got ahead of our little band.
Much discussion ensued – and some nifty “tactics” I am borrowing for the future were raised – until I called a leeroy.
Much carnage was the result.
BUT.
Not of our fleet, of the UPS fleet (Geminate locals).
2 Guardians bailed as soon as we jumped in, the rest got ecm’d and tackled (love ecm drones!) and eventually killed while their fleet just went pop, pop, pop, pop one after the other to our rainbows. They really did taste them!
Then as fast as it had began it was all over, and the fleet was all “wait, we won?” “we didnt die” “what?”. Epic fight was truly epic, victory from the jaws of certain flaming death.
It was pretty late by this time and slowly people logged/went afk until a small band moved into Etherium Reach and decided to engage a kitey gang, killing an SFI but pretty much dieing in the process. However fun was had, shit was chatted on mumble, and the night was ended satisfactorily.
Numbers:
40+ Kills (Campaign)
2.5billion ISK damage done;
Beer consumed (lots);
Fun had (also lots);
Video (Courtesy of Geddonz):
The holiday season is nearly upon us, which means plenty of beer and plenty of time for spaceships, which when combined result in hilarious explosions, and there is no better way to partake of these two wonderful gifts than an RVB Ganked roam. Or several in a row!
Here is the program for the coming holidays:
19th November 2011 – Ganked 6: Judean People’s Front.
The theme is lasers. Preferably on Amarrian ships, but you can stick them on whatever.
26th November 2011 – Ganked 7: Get back in that kitchen.
Anything you want to field, as long as it is battlecruiser sized or smaller.
10th December 2011 – Ganked 8: Viagra+Crucible=Penetration.
Destroyer Hulls. Post Crucible buffs.
17th December 2011 – Ganked 9: Chesnuts roasting on an open Fire(tail).
Republic Fleet Firetails. Everywhere.
26th December 2011 – Ganked 10: Boxing Battleships.
Will we get hotdropped? (if you cant/wont fly a BS come if anything else. Id prefer BS though.)
7th January 2012 – Ganked 11: We’re going to need a bigger plane.
Battlecruisers. Tier 3 preferred.
14th January 2012 – Ganked 12: We come for our people.
Rifter hulls. Because.
21st January 2012 – Ganked 13: Quack, Quack, Quack.
Drakeswarm (and other assorted missile boats).
I will send round individual mails to the ingame mailing list “RVB Ganked” about these, as well as make posts for each on the RVB forums, and a post in the Ganked thread over on Failheap, as well as keep the RVB Ganked in-game channel updated. So guys, keep your eyes peeled, stock up on the beer and isk (isk=ships=explosions) and we will have a bloody good holiday!!!
… that is the question.
And it is one I have been asking myself for a couple of weeks now, especially since the Unista war and leading several large, very serious business fleets against their blob. The fleets we in RVB put together for large scraps against E-Uni, were very very impressive especially when you consider the “rep” we have as a pvp training group. However, the sheer amount of organisation required in getting nearly 100 people together, getting a fleet set up just so relevant boosts take across it, then getting all of that from point A to point B, and ensuring that everyone understands the plan, and is willing to win by potentially dieing in a fire, eventually just gets to you.
I know it did with me.
Since the end of that war, and with the exception of 2 events, I have not really done much FCing as it just feels so much harder now and so much more stressful, even in the smaller fleets that happen daily in RVB. With the varying levels of experience found across the members in both Red Fed & Blue Republic, it often feels like herding cats with ADHD, mainly due to one or all of the following:
Eventually you can start to feel really angry about doing it – no matter how much you enjoy it – or even worse, just end up hating it. And in RVB when you start to feel like this, then everyone suffers, as we have a dearth of FC’s and people willing to call on a regular basis, or FC gangs that leave the respective HQ systems. I know that as I got close to my snapping point I was letting go at my fleets much more often on the slightest of things, eventually it came to a head in a gang that TGL3 had been running, he went down, I took over and then just went off on a tirade against a fleet member who I felt was trying to back-seat FC, on top of a fleet that was not addressing the targets as I called them. Since then I have just not really tried. Although I am still enjoying my time in RVB, especially since my latest RVB event “Anywhere But” got going.
Now, the question is how does someone who likes to FC, get over the burnout, and get back to it?
Truthfully, I do not know.
Right now, I am soloing around, in the hope that my event, will get more people out and about as well, giving me some rest from the recent nonsense that I feel contributed to me snapping and getting myself back to the fun of pvp, which once I rediscover that, may kick start my will to pass it on to others. Although people being people, not many folks will wander and roam without an FC – big catch 22 right there.
Other FC’s within RVB spend their time missioning when it gets too much, others just do not undock or log that character on. It really is a difficult problem to solve when simply upping and leaving is not an option as you love where you are.
So to recap, I am burned out, other FC’s are burned out, and yet there is no obvious solution, but RVB is still fun for the majority who do not see these problems. And as long as RVB is fun, then I’ll be around.
So, a couple of weeks ago my beloved RVB was two.
We celebrated this with two Ganked nights during September, the first of which was a Thrasher hull night, and which went very very well from start to finish. Seeing what 100 thrasher hulls can do – especially when armed with artillery – is just an amazing thing, like really amazing.
Take a look at the Ganked killboard for a quick overview (Right now this campaign is not displaying correctly, but you can at least see the numbers, until I figure out what is wrong) of the kills we got during Ganked 3: Time On Target.
The second September Ganked was one that took the majority of the attendee’s back to their pvp roots: Rifter hulls!! And as with Ganked 3 (and indeed any Ganked) it was a great success!! Fleet was a sight to behold with – again – nearly 100 rifter hulls rolling out to mess up the evening of anyone they came across – and we did it with style, despite 1 smart bombing abaddon, and a group of very determined Scythe Fleet Issue pilots (We love you too Hydra) trying their best to under cut our fun!
However, the main event – and an internal RVB one at that – was one I termed “Sink the Bismarck“. This final birthday event would see a Red Fleet try and guard it’s flagship, the RVBFS Bismarck from Veisto to Oimmo, at opposite ends of the RVB combat area, while the Blue Fleet tried to prevent that. Battleships, Battlecruisers, and relaxed rules on logistics and electronic counter measures made this a much more interesting prospect than every day RVB and both sides pulled in 70+ members for their respective fleets.
Both fleets surprisingly had formed up on time and the hunt was on, Reds rolling with an excellent scout team, and Blues with Fintarue – who is a scout team all on his own!! (They did have other scouts, however AFKing on a gate does not a scout make). Eventually, Red Fleet got near to Oimmo, and a stand off ensued. However, it did not last too long as the Red FC made the decision to leeroy into the Blue Fleet who had setup in Vourrassi on the Hageken gate.
The rest is glorious. Ships burned, logis repped, ECM jammed and carnage happened.
Happy Birthday RVB.
Note: I personally lost 2 battleships, and 2 loaned guardians. And it was so worth it.