Come at me bro, I'm on a seafood diet!

I'm having a great time in Faction Warfare. No seriously!

I've spent most of my first two days learning mechanics; such as plexing, capture ranges, how warp-ins work in regards to fleets already in plexes, how to defend systems, how to attack systems, why we shouldn't attack said systems (no seriously), what fits work surprisingly well due to these mechanics, what ships are good for certain plexes, how to catch those pesky Incursuses without guns... The list continues on into infinity. It's a whole new way of fighting, and it's pretty damn fun to both learn, and be a part of it.

Yes, that word which is so foreign to the majority of EVE's population, fun.

The Gallente are really nice too,  this guy gave me free Thrashers! 

The rest of these two days, I've spent organising the logistics of my move. For some insane reason as my alt passed through Amarr, I decided to splurge on a new PvP fleet for my FW adventures, along with lots of spares because they'll probably get shot to pieces fairly fast. This fleet includes, but is not limited to:

- 20 x Atrons
- 20 x Condors
- 20 x Slashers
- 15 x Punishers
- 15 x Rifters
- 15 x Incursus
- 15 x Merlins
- 25 x Thrashers (I don't think this is enough)
- 5 x Ruptures
- 5 x Thoraxes
- 5 x Vexors
- 5 x Mallers (bait bait bait bait...)
- 3 x Cyclones
- 3 x Brutixes
- 2 x Drakes
- 2 x Hurricanes
- A smattering of Assault Frigates (e.g some Wolves, Retributions, Jaguars, Vengeances)

Now this was fairly expensive (I think maybe 400-600mil ish), besides the fact that I haven't actually fit all of them because it would probably bankrupt me to do so. Instead I'm fitting up three or four of each at a time and then flying those until they get brutally exploded.

The problem is, our staging system Nennamalia (affectionally called "Nenna" by my corp) is two jumps into LowSec from Caldari HighSec. Two jumps between two groups of rather angry people with guns. Right through a very active warzone. So obviously I'm not risking my freighter through that (since my alt is still in Adamas Anima, and therefore an valid target in LowSec for anyone who's a bit bored), but on the other hand flying almost 200 (I think) ships one by one will most likely drive me mad. So I looked to Black Frog Freight. At first their prices made me wince, (65mil for a 360km3 cargo, two jumps into LowSec). Then I realised, they're putting a Jump Freighter on the line for my cargo here, I think they're entitled to a decent pay. So I set up two contracts for 65mil each, which covered the vast majority of my armada. The rest I wanted to move out myself, so that I had something to play with while I waited for the rest to be delivered.

The majority of my new armada. I bought a few more after this too
:D

And play I did. I spent most of my time wandering around both enemy and allied systems in my Thrasher, scaring off gunless frigates on both sides and doing some plexing myself. It wasn't until earlier today that I had my first taste of real combat.

The shooty bit

An Incursus and a Griffin were hanging around Akidagi (1 jump out of Nenna), and I was keeping Militia Chat updated with their riveting activities. Eventually another militia member (Davir Sometaww) turned up in his Catalyst, and we started chasing the squids (which is what the Gallente militia call the Caldari. I assume it's because Caldari sounds like "calamari" which is, you guessed it, a type of squid). After some messing around between sites, they went into a Minor Plex, at which point we both followed. I landed directly on-top of the Griffin, and swiftly tore it to pieces. We'd agreed beforehand that the ECM bird could not be allowed to get a jam off, so I was quite pleased to have nailed him before the engagement had even started. Dave even managed to whore on it ;)

Then we started chasing the Incursus, who even while warp scrammed was outpacing our destroyers. Dave only had an afterburner, so he could barely keep pace with the agile frigate anyway, and my microwarpdrive made turning an absolute bitch. So after some quick turns and fancy flying, the Incursus managed to shake free from our scrams, and opened up his warp drive while in deep hull. (I'm fairly certain he was dual repped, because he'd drop alarmingly into hull, then zoom back up to around 40% armour, and then yo-yo between the two. A pair of destroyers will do that to a frigate...)

We both gave a grudging "gf" to the Incursus pilot in Local, before I had to log for a while.

When I came back, I decided to do a little plexing and see what I could scare up. I talked the time away in Gallente Militia chat while lazily circling the buttun. (The buttun is the thing you have to orbit, or atleast sit next to in order to capture a site. A Minor Site takes 10mins to capture, which is enough time for a good conversation or two). So with around two minutes left on the buttun, I noticed Local suddenly had a lot more squids in it than before.

I THINK DEY MAD

I uhmmed and urhhh'd a little, wondering whether I should wait it out and try to take the Plex, or run like a little girl when they warped in. Then I remembered what my new CEO had said earlier, when I had hesitated to engage a Hookbill sitting on a gate (he jumped out when I started shooting).

Mirana Niranne > It's only a thrasher. Go balls deep my friend ;)

Suddenly determined to hold my ground against the onrushing seafood menace, I stared them down as they warped in, landing 60km off my buttun.

O DEY MAD

I started to align out to Nenna, before deciding to turn the other way, and aligned to a planet instead. It made sense in my head at the time, but I can't remember why I did it. They started burning right at me, their fishy rage reaching across the silent void of space. Within ten seconds or so, they were upon me, with guns blazing. The first guy to reach me was flying a Merlin. I kept microwarping away from the gang as I fired at him, trying to give myself as much time as I could away from the full force of their guns. Amazingly, I managed to burn down the Merlin in time for his Thrasher buddy to get in my autocannon's falloff range. I turned my guns to him and kept the overheat on, praying that my guns wouldn't burn out just yet. He also melted, but I was in deep armour (while flying a shield tanking Thrasher) and I was fairly certain death would come quickly. The next target in range was a Rifter, so I switched my guns over to him and kept them hot. I just shredded him down to hull when my guns cut out. Woops...

I'd forgotten to watch the heat levels on those things.

YEAH DEY DEFINITELY MAD

I watched the smoking Rifter peel away, my Thrasher still alive for a few more precious moments. I wondered if maybe I could still escape, but my hurried spamming of my MWD was useless against the continued scrambling power of another Merlin...

Then the steadily smoking Rifter pilot (still retreating) managed to whack me with a wrecking shot while I was in deep hull. My ship exploded around me, and I quickly warped my pod back to the Nenna gate, before shakily typing a "gf" in Local, which was returned by the majority of the enemy gang. (GO GO HONOUR FITES) With a huge smile on my face, I warped back to my home station and docked up.

That. Was. EPIC.

I think I've found my new addiction: Solo vs a Gang. My first try was decent I guess, but I reckon I might have killed that Rifter, and probably forced off his buddies too if my guns hadn't burnt out. Till next time!

Oh and of course a few minutes later I went back out to the same Plex and captured it anyway. No fishy Caldari are blocking my LP fountain. ;)

Also you can see in Local there was a 30man BC gang kicking around
that I almost landed on top of when I left system D:

Fly safe !

P.S Not getting GCC for attacking Caldari Militia members is also really goddam nice. Just thought I'd mention it