Waiting Is So Painful

Waiting for GMs to resolve CEO issue. Waiting for skills to finish. Waiting for lab jobs to get to the top of the queue and actually start. Waiting for mods to sell.

ARRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!

The good news is I'm not actually waiting on standings to climb so Kirith is free. The question is, to do what?

I've considered going back to NoQ and trying to weasel my way back in there. I still have friends there and I'm on more secure footing now. But that doesn't appeal to me because a lot of the 0.0 issues that made me want to leave are still there.

Another old friend is in a corp in Minmatar space and does a lot of PvP in low sec. But its a decent sized corp and I only know one person. Makes me nervous.

I was hoping for a rebirth of IPORC or Strife soon but it doesn't look like that is going to happen anytime soon.

I could get my own combat corp going focusing on mission running and low sec PvP, open recruitment and stuff like that. Am I ready for that? I dunno.

Decisions decisions.

Stupid Game Bugs

I went out and found an Eve player that made it his business to setup new corps with high faction standings and sell them to people like me with ISK and no patience. So I got a new corp to setup my high sec POS but a bug prevented me from becoming the CEO when the seller left the corp.

So now I have a corp, but no CEO to control it. What a pisser. I've put a petition in but it could take weeks before they look into it. Sigh.

So I'm back to being on hold. Labs are are full up with rig research, T2 BPCs are used up and on sale, and Kirith is back to mission running. The upside is that I'm free to do other things with him as I see fit.

Chaos Versus Imperial Megabattle Report

What happens when 18 Warhammer Freaks gets together to fight it out for supremacy on one board? Madness! See here for pictures.

The board was 20 feet by 4 and armies deploying on the long board edges. The middle four by four section of the board was completely forested, and on one side of the forest was a table of some hills and the other had an airstrip, buildings, and some fortifications.

The chaos plan was to hold the line on the flanks and drive up the middle and swing to the airfield after getting their deployment zone. As the game evolved four theatres developed: the deadlands of the hills and open spaces, the forest, the airfield, and the chaos assault zone between the airfield proper and the forest. I'll roughly describe the action in each one going from left to right.

Deadlands

Here we (chaos) deployed two Emperor's Children armies with one trukk of Orks and arrayed against them were some Sisters of Battle units and Ravenwing bikes and landspeeders. And where go Ravenwing nowadays, so follows the Deathwing. And on turn one there they showed up, right on queue.

Unfortunately, no one ever told them don't get into a firefight with armies that LOVE to firefight. The bikes, land speeders, Sisters rhino, and terminators were no match for the sonic weaponry and 40 daemonettes that appeared in turn 2. The Imperial advance was crushed and the rout underway so as more reserves became available, they were dispatched to other parts of the board.

Forest

Chaos combined all of their defilers into one location to maximize defense so we had seven defilers lined up across four feet of forest. In front of them were two large world eater units with two world eater dreadnoughts on one side, and some noise marines and a chaos lord with raptor bodyguards and a winged daemon prince on the other. The Imperials deployed an Inquisitor and retinue, whirlwind, and some more Sisters of battle while infiltrating two units of Imperial Fist scouts.

On turn one four Deathwing terminator units teleported in and scatter in such a way that all four were assaulted turn one and by the middle of turn 2 all were dead except one unit that managed to survive a while longer. The World Eater and chaos lord units chewed up the terminators easily and one World Eater unit and the chaos lords went on to kill the scouts and inquisitor and eventually the other terminator unit. The other World Eater unit became part of the chaos assault zone.

Chaos Assault Zone

We had the following in our assault: ork buggy, 2 ork trukks carrying 10 orks and a warboss, Zaggstrukk and his stormboyz, 30 tactical Black Storm marines in rhinos, 10 assault Black Storm marines in a Land Raider, 16 Khorne Berserkers in rhinos, a Death Guard land raider, and a World Eater predator. Directly across from this was two tactical squads of the Spectre lance, an Imperial Fist dev squad with four missile launchers, an IG mortar team, and three dreadnoughts. Oh, and an Imperial Fist predator was providing fire support.

With night fighting in effect first turn, the chaos line was able to advance before the shooting in turn two started to tell by killing the ork trukks and immobilizing the buggy. No terminators landed in turn 1 but on the top of turn 2 the imperials brought down three drop pods with a dreadnought in each, Dante and an honour guard, and Death Company with a Chaplin. They opened fire and... blew the twin las off the world eater predator.

We then proceeded to kill the all. One of the large World Eater units in the forest and their dreadnought headed over to the assault zone and assaulted Dante and his guard and one dreadnought. Some burner boyz took care of a dreadnought trying to tag the rear of the ork looted demolisher, and the world eater pred turned around and lanced the dreadnought targeting it while my tactical marines did some drive by plasma gunning to help.

The death guard were hit by World Eaters from one of the rhinos and my tactical squad... and did one of the two bloodthirsters get in there too? Can't recall when they showed up exactly. It was all a blur. The Death Company, Dante, and his guard did not survive.

Blood Angel terminators, Spectre Lance Terminators, Librarians arrived to fight but found not only the assault force but Khorne Daemons: two blood thirsters and a squad of fleshhounds and bloodletters. They took down one bloodthirsters but the weight of bodies was too much and the defense was overwhelmed as the orks and assault marines on the other side of the zone started to hit.

By turn four the imperials were wiped and the assault force began rolling up the imperial line in both directions.

Airfield.

Here the Imperials put up their best fight. Three Death Guard armies facing off with dreadnoughts, predator, land speeders, 40+ marines, sentinels, ... it was bloody. On turn one, 20 (or 25?) terminators deep struck and added to the Imperial force.

The Death Guard were hit by assault cannons and bolter fire and assaulted by Marine characters. The fighting was fierce and no unit was unscathed. As the imperial firepower started to tell the chaos players begged for reinforcements and starting turn 2 and continuing into turn 3 and 4, the rest of the chaos force responded. Five Obliterators, another predator, 2 squads of possessed, more chaos characters, chaos terminators and tactical and assault units from the chaos assault zone started to pour in on the flank later on.

As well, two daemon princes, the Quint'Aan and the Rhatt assaulted marines early on and slowly worked their way across the field killing marines, sentinels, and then terminators with abandon. Eventually the Rhatt fell to damage but the Quint'Aan absorbed a round of shooting from scouts, heavy bolter devs and a predator to have one wound left and ended the game destroying a razorback.

The imperials countered our reinforcements with reserves of their own. Two blood angel tactical squads in drop pods tried to stem the tide coming from the assault zone, as well as several IG drop troop squads, but one tactial squad was overwhelmed by two of the Black Storm squads, and the other Blood Angel unit and imperial guardsmen had to contend with bands of Orks walking on the board edge and getting choppa-happy.

Their efforts at securing the airfield were failing and they were being forced back. A great unclean one and a Manreaper wielding chaos lord along with terminators, oblits, and possessed were pressing forward now and the Imperial line became an Imperial pocket as the order for full our retreat was issued.

Victory to chaos! Result: Massacre by the end of turn 5.

Analysis

I fully expected to lose the Deadlands and the Emperor's Children armies protecting them, and I wasn't going to be surprised if the Death Guard armies got overwhelmed as well. The hope was the time that they bought with their lives would be enough for the assault force to break the Imperial line and begin to roll through their deployment zone to retake the airfield later in the game.

But the Slaaneshii forces dominated their board and their reinforcements allowed the Nurgle followers to hold on until we could push back. Everywhere we met them, the Imperials died horribly. Why?

I think there were several reasons.

1. Imperials had nothing more than a general plan of "drop pods and terminators on their asses! Booya!". Chaos had detailed plan for deployment and early movement.

2. The Deathwing Terminator armada was a good idea. Fifty Terminators could ruin anyone's day. But putting them across 20 feet of table made them unsupported by each other for the most part and deep striking them turn 1 made them unsupported by the rest of the army. By the end of turn 2 all except the terminators on the airfield and one other squad were dead or near to it.

3. The Drop Pods in turn 2 along with the Death Company arrived in easy charge range of the bulk of the chaos assault force and did almost nothing after getting out of their pods. They were also almost all dead by the end of turn 2, leaving the bulk of the assault force to deal with more reinforcements in turn 3.

You notice the pattern? Each of the first three turns saw significant Imperial reinforcements arrive and they were virtually wiped out in the subsequent chaos turn with almost no corresponding losses. The end result was that only half of the Imperial army was facing 90% of the chaos army at the beginning of turn 4.

4. There was no "synergy" between proximate Imperial units. The Ravenwing and Deathwing on the deadlands table jumped out and were dead before the Sisters of Battle Units had moved. The Imperial shooting on the airfield was combined with a few Marine characters for close combat, but not any assault units. The Drop Pods of turn 2 landed without any imperial forces to protect them from counter-charge.

5. There was no Imperial "Overseer". On the chaos side I was nominated overseer to make sure every part of the battlefield was functioning well and our thoughts and plans could be coordinated. Reinforcements went to where they would help the most. The Imperial side, after the terminator drop of turn 1, seemed to throw their reserves wherever the owning player felt without much in the way of discussion or impact analysis. Was deep striking Stu's drop troops behind the comm tower, where three of his reserve rolls went off the table, the best use of his reinforcements? Beyond that, was attacking the comm tower the best decision with the troops that were assigned to it? Did anyone try to talk Dave out of drop podding within 12 inches of 24 frothing Khorne Berserker, or tell Mike his dreadnoughts were in danger from the Ork Burnaboyz?

Ultimately it felt like there was 9 imperial players showed up expecting to face off against the chaos guys in a friendly shoot-em-up and slap-em-down game and instead found their forces facing an army.

6. The Imperial choices for units was questionable. I'm not sure if the same lists could have performed better in a more coordinated fashion, but its worth mentioning that we expected more in the way of Basilisks, Leman Russes, Land Raiders, Rhinos, Whirlwinds, Grey Knights, Inquisitors with Daemon Hammers, etc. The fifty Terminators was cool, but the rest was rather mundane excepting the Elysian Drop Troops and their two flyers.

Overall I had a good time, but I wish it had been less one-sided. The massacre was good for the ego but nothing beats a game that comes down to the last few moves.

A big thanks to Dave for hosting the event and I hope the Imperials come back for revenge next year! We'll be waiting....

SCREW IT!

I was running missions recently and while the ISK, loot, and salvage have been great, the standings climb is so freaking slow. I hit over 200 million in my wallet and said SCREW IT! I'm hiring help.

So I went looking and I'm in the process of buying a corp with high faction standings to set up the POS I want. Its gonna cost but ironically ISK is cheap and a high sec POS will allow my industrial aspirations to move faster.

Unfortunately, the downside is that KODA must die and be replaced my a new corp. (Shareholder take note: as the transfer goes you will receive new shares in the new corp to replace the KODA ones at a one to one basis.) This makes me sad as I invested actual cash for the www.kodachienterprises.com domain but lesson learned. Now I have to make sure to not pay the renewal fees.

Patch Day!

Revelations II is being installed on the servers today, so no Eve for me. I had some good sessions on Friday evening and Saturday morning, knocking off four missions. Yesterday I started and finished another mission, but this one was actually a challenge.

It was Pirate Invasion with the Angel Cartel. You warp in and no rats are there, and then suddenly four groups materialize. One aggros and you think "ok, I can handle this" and then as soon as you start shooting a second group aggros and now you've got 8 battleships pounding you with cruise missiles, torps, and artillery as well as the few cruisers and frigs buzzing around.

I admit some worry creased my brow.

Fortunately, the Vespa IIs were more than a match for the intercepting frigs and my shield tank was awesome with resistances around high seventies for both explosive and kinetic damage, the high points of Angel ships. I did have to warp out to recharge twice, but after that I was able to tank 6 battleships easily and clean out the herd. Nice total bounty collected and decent salvage too.

On the business side of things, the weekend saw decent sales of the Invul Field IIs at a much lower price than I would have preferred. Still making a healthy profit but nowhere near what it was before. That means I'll need to sell more units before the profit sharing dividends are paid out, that's all.

In the good news department, rig production made a couple rigs and sold one of them for handsome amounts of ISK, and after the patch I can train up some more Graviton Physics in anticipation of the Cloaking Device copying and research for datacores.

Red Tide met the Dark Green Tidebreaker

I knew the game against Brent (Ezekiel) was going to be tough, but this has got to have been one of the toughest games I've played in a long time.

1700 pts, Take and Hold.

Eldar:
Farseer with 5 Scorpions (Exarch) in Uber Falcon
10 Scorpions in Wave Serpent
10 Guardians and warlock in Wave Serpent
6 Jetbikes
5 Pathfinders
5 Warpspiders
2 Vypers
5 Dark Reapers

Dark Angels
Librarian with 7 bodyguards in Drop pod
2 x Tactical squads broken into 5 man combat squads, one with Razorback
3 Ravenwing bikes
1 Attackbike
5 Assault Marines
Dev squad with 4 missile launchers broken into two combat squads
Dev squad with 2 MLs, 2 plasma cannons broken into two combat squads
Whirlwind

The game started like many other for me. Dark Reapers and Pathfinders deployed in cover in the centre facing off against most of the enemy army, while the "Red Tide" deployed to go around one flank. Brent had his army setup to shoot shoot and shoot some more, with the bikes going on the opposite flank.

First turn he nails a vyper and eliminates the dark reapers, but no huge surprise there. I begin my flanking maneuver. On turn two his bikes move up to threaten the Pathfinders and I decide to pull the Falcon carrying the scorps and farseer over to deal with them. I killed two, but the last pulled a Johnny Blaze up the side of a two story building and flamed the surviving rangers to death. I did get him next turn though. No bike shall survive.

On the flank I was advancing on, turn 2 saw Brent drop his pod in my way. Big juicy command squad? Yes please! I warp the spiders in on my turn and bring everything to bear on that command squad: Warp Spiders, Jetbikes, Guardians, vyper, and wave serpents. Slowly but surely the weight of firepower told the difference and it was whittled down to the lone Librarian and the brightlance on my wave serpent. I shot, hit, wounded, and he prepared to roll for his psychic power force field save. Instead of have an iron halo, he gets an invulnerable save if he passes a psychic test on his LD 10. "Psychic test?!!? Enter Runes of Warding! Use three D6 and add them together for your test. Oh look! It adds up to 12. Too bad." Yes I am evil.

On his turn three he advanced a combat squad and the assault marines to deal with the rushing Red Tide. Two missiles into the read of the wave serpent only stunned it, and shooting fell two warp spiders but the other three stood firm. The Guardians got shot by the assault marines "to soften them up" but being pretty soft already they failed their break test and ran. So here I was faced with 10 regular marines and I was only the guardians and 2 warp spiders short. Rubbing my hands in glee I moved in the 10 man scorp squad and opened fire with everything again.

And killed two marines. WTF?! Last turn I killed 8 marines including a Librarian but this turn only two noname marines? Well, maybe the powerblades of the warp spider exarch will even things up a little. Charge, four attacks, whiff.

Brent took advantage of the turn of events and proceeded to make me pay. The assault marines shot and broke the Scorpion squad, which took a whirlwind blast on the way out and failed four 3+ armour saves to put the unit below half. The jetbikes and warp spiders could not kill marines for the life of them and eventually managed to do it long after it mattered and both jetbikes and spiders were dead. Guardians never rallied. The Red Tide was in tatters except for the wave serpents who enjoyed a damageless game.

Things were looking bleak but on the last turn the Falcon swooped in with its cargo that never exited the vehicle and claimed enough VPs to push my total into range to tie the Dark Angels.

Analysis:
This was a game of weird dice rolls and momentum swings. I failed a lot of unmodified leadership tests: Pathfinders, Guardians twice, Scorpions... each one was harder to accept than the last. While Brent had bad rolling for armour on the Command Squad, the Assault Marines were blessed making something like 6-8 armour saves. My armour was on and off too. The Jetbikes appeared invincible early on but the scorpions failed far too many. Brent rolled 4 or 5 difficult terrain tests for bikes and assault marines? Failed 3.

In the end I guess they all balanced out and it came down to who executed their strategy best. Brent's massive firepower held the centre of the board for the most part while my fast flank chewed up enough of his army to keep it close enough for the Falcon to swoop in with the scorpions and secure 277 vps to tie the game.

Awesome game, and we'll have to have a rematch someday.

The streak continues at 12 games.

Streak coming to an end?

My eleven game unbeaten streak is under dire threat today. I have a 1700 pt game against Brent (Ezekiel), one of the most solid generals I know of in Ottawa. Comfortable leading Dark Angels or Orks, he is a clear thinker and solid tactician and will be a serious challenge.

Full report coming tomorrow.

In Eve progress is slowly being made toward being able to copy the Prototype Cloaking Device. Unlike the shield mods, it required high science skills (Graviton Pyshics and Hydromagnetic Physics) as well as research databases, and the max number of runs is 100 and takes a long time to execute. Nasty business. To make matters worse, I got everything in place last night but couldn't start the copying because all my slots were tied up in material research of the latest batch of rig BPOs! Due to the long queues in Empire, the first is not due out until July 2nd.

On the upside, that gives me a break to do a few things. My standing with Ishukone Corp had improved enough to get level two R&D agents for Hydromagnetic Physics and Quantum Physics, so I switched to them and increased the rate of RPs by 7 per day. With two-three weeks of not needing datacores, I should have enough for 10-12 datacores each. Research party in July in my station!

I need to get a Graviton Physics R&D agent but the lowest available one in Ishukone is a few points higher than my standing so I'm training Connections IV in hopes that I don't have to run a few missions after that to get her.

While my lab slots are tied up, my factory slots are not. I have two T2 BPCs in the hanger, one for Invulnerability Field and one for X-Large Shield Booster. I'm low on cash since tying up so much of it in the cloaking device BPO and skill, so I'm going to build and sell the cheaper-to-produce X-Large Sheild Booster first and get the capital to build the Invul Fields. Unfortunately the market in Domain got flooded with cheap Invul Field IIs recently so the profit may not be as lucrative as previous sales. Once I get invention slots available again, I can look into the other shield mods and see if more profit is to be had.

Soon You Will Be Mine

Last week I got assigned the Mordus Headhunters mission and while I had no trouble completing it, I just lacked enough time to do decent salvaging and complete it. Last night I finally had time to sit down and run them out of the system. I made a crap load of money off that mission, lots of juicy BS and loot, not to mention salvage.

Today I finish Evasive Maneuvering V and start into the Interceptors skill, my third T2 ship after the Covert Ops and Stealth Bomber. Then some training in Gallente frigates and cruisers so I can have access to the sexy Myrmidon and Brutix battlecruisers as my new PvP ships of choice.

On the industry side of things, I purchased the Graviton skillbook and Prototype Cloaking device BPO for a cool combined 145 million. Ouch, but hopefully it will be worth in down the road.

New Freaking Plan Man

I've been all over the map with training skills in Eve since I got T2 Drones a month ago. Shield skills, missile skills, Social skills, electronic warfare, etc. I had like 8 different plans written up and it was getting to the point I didn't know what to train next so I would train anything.

So this morning I tossed everything and made one plan. The New Freaking Plan, man! Its goal is to get me into Interceptors first (just because I am close and want to fly fast) and then train up to a Myrmidon battlecruiser (as my initial Drone ship). After that it is a variety of skill improvements to get access to tech 2 mods such as Reactor Control units, X-Large shield boosters, Tracking Computers, and Invulnerability Fields, followed by skills to improve targeting and fitting turrets on ships. Its a 43 day plan that will take me to the cusp of my summer vacation near the end of July.

So what am I going to train on the week I'm off camping? Hmmm... we'll wait and see.

Eldar Versus Tau - Part II

James (aka Threepwood) sought me out for revenge after I beat him back in January in a 1000 pts game and last night we squared off in a 1700 pt Secure & Control mission, Alpha Level.

Eldar:
Farseer
10 Scorpions in Wave Serpent
6 Scorpions
10 Guardians, Warlock in Wave Serpent
6 Jetbikes
5 Pathfinders
5 Warp Spiders
2 Vypers
5 Dark Reapers
2 Shadow Weavers
Fire Prism

Tau (from memory):
Ethereal with Honour Guard
Commander with two drones and crisis suit bodyguard
6 Steal Suits
8 Pathfinders and Devilfish
3 Sniper Drones and Controller
2 x 10 Fire Warriors
Piranha
Hammerhead
Skyray
Big-assed mass of Kroot

We deployed in an interesting fashion, both of us refusing a flank. My advancing red wave (jetbikes, scoprions, vypers, fire prism) faced off with delaying forces of empty Devilfish, piranha, and kroot in the middle occupying a large forest, while his main shooting base occupied the other corner facing off against my Farseer, Reapers, Pathfinders, Shadow weavers, and Guardians.

It was a good tactic and held lots of promise for success except for one little detail: those Dark Reapers refused to be moved without the use of a tactical nuclear weapon.

The game started badly for me. James got first turn and proceeded to blow up a vyper, jetbike, and the wave serpent with guardians in it, losing two guardians in the process. I returned with destroying the piranha and blowing away all of the Tau commanders shield drones and bodyguard.

The Tau commander was not to be dissuaded though and continued his advance through a hail of Reaper, Pathfinder, and guardian shooting with one wound left the next turn allowing him to charge the guardians and dispatch them in short order, then consolidating into the Reapers and Pathfinders. The Farseer charged in but whiffed on his attacks and the Tau Commander killed two pathfinders winning combat. The Farseer's nerve broke and he ran, and the Pathfinders decided to find a better shooting position and they ran, but the four Dark Reapers remaining (one died to shooting last turn) stood firm. And then the most inspiring moment in the game happened.

The next assault phase the Dark Reapers took their weapons and used them as clubs to beat the Tau commander to death. Then they repositioned, and I picture one of them standing on the broken corpse while doing this, and opened fire on a Fire Warrior squad totally annihilating five of them and breaking the squad. Just awesome.

Meanwhile...

On the other flank the red wave rolled on. The kroot were assaulted by the large scorpion squad and discovered the pain that is mandiblasters combined with Stalker (aka Move thru Cover) combined with Plasma Grenades. I'll give you a hint, it equals kroot kebabs. With the kroot removed as an obstacle the large scorpions came out of the woods to discover the pathfinders, sniper drones, and a squad of fire warriors right there. They charged and eviscerated the pathfinders, but rolled a 2 when they needed a 3 for consolidating into the other two squads. Left out in the open James made them pay and wiped them out, but the jetbikes came roaring around the forest and the small scorpion squad snuck out and together killed the sniper drones and fire warriors while the Dark Reapers were doing a number on the further away fire warrior squad and the Fire Prism jumped out for a side armour shot on the Hammerhead that found a weak spot and blew the top off.

With that the Tau were in full retreat. James attempted to go for the tie vai objectives (Alpha means controlling the four loot counters is the path to victory) but the advancing Eldar firepower was overwhelming and when the Fire Prism hit and destroyed four Steal Suits in a forest near an objective late in the game, James accepted the defeat.

Highlights:
Unit of the Game: Dark Reapers took massive amounts of fire warrior, Hammerhead, sniper drone firepower over several turns and lost only one model. And then beat off the Tau Commander in close combat before lending their firepower to help break the Tau resistance. Let's here it for 3+ armour (4+ cover) saves combined with Fortune from the Farseer.

Runner up: Tau Commander broke the Guardians, Pathfinders, and Farseer in close combat, singlehandedly. This was after crossing the table through two turns of shooting from Dark Reapers and Pathfinders.

Second Runner up: Fire Prism nuked the Piranha, Hammerhead, and most of the Steal Suits to seal the deal.

Third Runner up: Both scorpion squads combined killed the kroot, pathfinders, and one fire warrior squad before ending the game holding an objective.

Analysis:
I think James had a decent plan in playing the opposite refused flank strategy. It reduced the effectiveness of my flanking force for the first couple of turns giving them very little to engage. But he made the mistake of thinking he could removed the Pathfinders (3+ cover save) and Dark Reapers (3+ armour, 4+ cover both rerolled) with shooting alone. Sure I was moderately lucky with the rolls and a bad roll or two could have caused trouble, but its worth noting that one gimped Tau Commander was able to removed two of three squads from my fire base in close combat. Lesson learned: one unit of Fire Warriors in a devilfish could have helped overrun that position and turned the game into much different situation.

In the end, I think that was the difference: my flanking force was fast and hit hard against the units arrayed to slow it down and then chewed into his flank in the later turns. His flanking force was mostly static and when faced units that refused to be moved by shooting, his only option was more shooting.

All that being said, a couple of lucky rolls going the other way could have made this a much closer battle. But you know what they say: you gotta be good to be lucky. ;)

Shot of the game: almost forgot about this. The Shadow Weavers were coming under fire from the Smart Missiles of the Hammerhead or Skyray, but the shots were mostly hitting and failing to penetrate the artillery pieces instead of the crew. Getting worried about the advancing Tau, they fired off a salvo at the grouped Fire Warriors, Sniper Drones, and Pathfinders. It landed perfectly hitting all three units and killing at least one model from each. Pinning Checks! The Fire Warriors and Sniper Drones both proceeded to fail their tests giving me a break from their firepower for a turn. I don't think it was game-turning, but it was inspiring and helped to build my momentum.

Sigh

Rokh? Running great.

Missions? Knocking them off one at a time.

Wallet? Growing nicely.

Industrial division? Producing and selling.

R&D? Got some new tech 2 BPCs last night.

So what's the problem?

I'm a bit lonely. I admit I'd like some company when online, someone to plan and scheme with. Maybe run a mission or two. Even low sec hunting? Hmmm, I'm just getting my sec status back to normal...

Once I get standings for the High Sec POS, it should be time to start recruiting.

Killing Rats All Over the Place!

Wow, almost a week since my last Eve post?!? One might think I'm not playing anymore. One would be wrong.

Running missions in the Rokh is going very well. I had enough salvage to build a CCC rig to increase capacitor recharge rate and enough isk to buy a few more parts to build a semi-conductor console (or something like that) rig to increase capacitor size. The hope was that I could remove the cap booster module and get another defensive mod in there instead and it seems to work out. When running a Blockade level 4 against Angel Cartel NPCs today I found I could sustain my cap indefinitely with the Invulnerabilty Field and Tracking Computer running and slinging Lead ammo. Switching to Antimatter made it drain a bit faster and I don't think it will last forever, but hopefully long enough in most missions to make the cap booster gone for good.

In place of that mod I can put in a rat specific resist amp and increase my defensive capabilities. I also dropped the sensor booster for another PDS II to boost cap and shields.

On the industry side of things, I'm a little over halfway to my high sec POS standings and hope to be there by mid summer. The T2 invention has been suspended while I move current Invul Shield II stock and prepare to invent some other shield mods. Derranna's training for Transport ships is continuing nicely and I hope to be there by early July: Minmatar Industrial V takes 28 and a half days don'tcha know.

Busy Busy Busy - Battle Report

Its been hectic at work hence the lack of updates. Anyway, here is the report from a game I had with Corey.

2000 pts, Omega Cleanse mission

Corey:
2 Farseers
3 x 10 Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents
3 x 9 Warp Spiders
1 x 3 Warwalkers with Scatterlasers

Bill:
2 Farseers, one of them with three warlocks
1 x 5 Scorpions in Falcon
1 x 10 Scorpions in Wave Serpent
1 x 10 Guardians in Wave Serpent
6 Jetbikes
5 Pathfinders
2 Vypers
5 Warp Spiders
Wraithlord
5 Dark Reapers

Basically I had planned to swoop from my quarter into the quarter adjacent to my deployment along the long board edge of the 4x8 table (which in hindsight was a bad idea) but Corey brought on the warwalkers so that they covered the quarter before my reserves showed up. And he put a deep striking squad of warp spiders along the border between my quarter and his long-board-edge-adjacent quarter.

So I revised my plan and went in a straight line from my long board edge to his, killing the deep striking and late arriving Dire Avenger squads as they showed up and ignoring the far-away warwalkers who had very little to shoot at all game once they hosed the pathfinders.

Corey made a run of it by getting empty wave serpents behind my leading edge and made some wicked tank shocks to break a couple units, but the scorpions/warp spider advance was too powerful in the later game as the early units (one warp spider squad and one dire avenger squad along with the warwalkers) had been eliminated / negated already.

By turn six I had scoring units in every quarter and corey had none in my home, giving me a bonus 500 pts on top of what looked like a slight victory in normal VPs.

Analysis:
I think Corey made two minor mistakes that snowballed into an untenable position:
1) Warwalkers advanced on the table out of range of the Dark Reapers, but consequently out of the battle as I avoided them.
2) Throwing the early reserves (one warp spider unit and one Dire Avenger unit) into the line of fire too soon instead of hunkering down and waiting for more reinforcements.

I hammered the first warp spider squad and saw them off in two turns, and nailed the wave serpent with a bright lance/ eml combo from the wraithlord right away, effectively meaning that Corey had over a third of his army out of the battle with my casualties being only minor. Although he fought valiantly to make it interesting, it was simply weight of numbers and half-decent playing that saw me to victory after that.

I'm sure once Corey shakes off some more rust he will be glad to make me pay for this victory in spades.