EPIC Celebrity Death Match #16 Planet Risk (Part 2 of 2)

Planet Risk – EVE’s Voice (featuring Mynxee-the peoples favourite)

The wormhole sparkled brightly, with a dark red coloured heart, beating. Wormholes are fascinating to observe. It’s like looking into the back of a pulsating spoon made of mercury…

Upon entering Planet risk’s worm hole I felt strangely comfortable; I had spent a lot of time in wh space myself some time ago. My cloak faded around me as the mesmerising pulsating blob overshadowed my tiny frigate.

The journey had been tough, stressful and nearly fatal. An overwhelming sense of relief came over me. Still in unprotected space by far but the chatter in the now joined channels took away the feeling of fear. I made it, thank fuck I made it.

It had already been a long day by now, far longer than I intended but I had the house to myself and relaxed with a brew. I had earned it. The pending radio interview made me a little nervous but Mynxee gave me some good tips and advice; the best one being ‘have a drink’.

The inevitable attention this fight would get made it even more important to win than any other CDM so far. Mynxee, none other than Mynxee had agreed to join me in this adventure and I did not want to let her down.

Our tactics were solid, our setups had been solid until I lost the fittings I intended, however I still had faith in my modules recommended by 67 to 1 pilots according to Battle Clinic. I couldn’t wait to get into the Navy Vexor for the first time and online my shiny gear.

The wormhole was bustling and a fair amount of pilots had logged in by now, keeping themselves busy; some going off to mine, some returning to watch the warriors collect their vessels. An orca placed securely within the gun-less POS held our Faction Cruisers.

I had not dealt with a POS for so long I couldn’t remember where to enter the password for its shields. I had to swallow my pride and ask for help and kicked myself for looking like a dork when the answer came.

My laptop already in a bad condition, had severely heated up since arriving and I feared it might over heat. For some reason it used to overheat quicker when I spent time within my own wh POS some time ago. The only thing that helped was zooming all the way out for the time I spent in the protective bubble, then get out as soon as possible.

The shiny hull of the Vexor appeared just metres away from me. God she is sexy, her greenish sleek hull, like a Greyhound on roids. I never thought I’d like Gallente ships, being a Caldari myself those Vexors where laughable a few months ago. Vexors look like hairdryers at best, so I thought, but more and more I appreciated their shape and power.

Fitting didn’t take me long, I had exactly what I wanted and needed. Mynxee realised she had not crammed a plate in the hull of her covert ops ship and requested the local inhabitants for a spare. I immediately joined in, asking for some spare Cap Boosters myself as I had only managed to bring 6. I had enough so I thought but I didn’t want to risk capping out so a few spare wouldn’t go amiss.

Having my ship ready I decided to warp out of the bubble and wait 100k from the POS to save my laptop. I am a PC noob but am I right in thinking the POS bubble takes up more CPU due to graphic content and therefore can affect a laptops overheating? Maybe not, but it sure worked for me. The laptop cooled enough for me to believe I could make it to the end of the fight.

We had all switched to the Ventrillo channel used by Planet Risk by now. It didn’t affect my reception but Mynxee being rewired via Athens clearly didn’t help communications. Patience however is golden in this girl and her experience with bad connection showed.

We requested a private channel to discuss tactics during the fight and I had hoped Mynxee would take the lead. Instead she made me the reluctant Fleet Commander. Our tactics discussed again became worrying as Mynxee was convinced more EWAR would be used than I anticipated myself.

We decided in the end however on an open approach to the first minutes of the engagement; I would warp in 20 k further than Mynxee to ensure she would be primary and for me to drop sentry drones to take out their ECM drones may they use them. Mynxee sported a mean tank on her ship compared to mine and with her reputation she was sure to be the main target.

The arena was set; in between 2 planets a safe –spot was made and we were to warp to our optimal range from our prospective planets. The Bastards took up planet 7, Planet Risk would fly in from planet 6.

Teadaze got himself into the right position to record the fight; close enough to target the participants but far enough not to get in the way. The gathering crowd warped in just behind him, popcorn at the ready.

Heart beating faster, controlling my breath I signalled I was as ready as could be. Quivering Palm and Luminus Aardokay were also clearly nervous, speaking fast, repeating the rules again. Mynxee had remained calm throughout but now excitement had clearly affected her. This was it, now was the time.

The Bastards warped in, Mynxee to 0 and me following closely behind at 20k. The rules were simple; we would warp to the bookmark at out preferred range, we would wait for Teadaze to count down, then fight to the pod. The enemy Navy Vexor warped in, nearly hugging Mynxee, not a surprise, and then the Navy Caracal came in at a similar range?!? Now that was a surprise. We expected to kill the Vexor first, and then try to catch up with a range tanking Caracal.

Too late to change our mind or change our fittings; Teadaze signalled the inevitable 5...4...3...2...1...GO GO GO!

I stuck to the plan, immediately speeding towards Lumi’s vessel and opened up, obviously my initial shots missed as I was not in range. I dropped the Faction Sentry’s and started targeting the various drones now deployed by our foes.

Somewhat confused and in disbelief my shields started to take damage. I...what? Why? Why would they go for me? ‘O shit..’ I mumbled to Mynxee, ‘I am primary’. My shields vanished swiftly; I had expected this however it is still a scary sight being a shield tanker normally.

The moment of truth for me had come, this was the point were Battle Clinic would prove itself. I activated both small Armor Reps and the damage seemed to negate for a brief moment. Not for long however as the enemy Vexor had reached his optimal and started pounding away more Armor than I could fix.

I had fitted an ECM module to counter the Gallente vessel ripping into me but so far it had proven unsuccessful. With my DPS split as the sentry’s where still going after various drones I panicked and switched all weapon systems to the Vexor clearly doing the most damage, in the hope to take him out before I would blow up myself.

In a final attempt to get away from the damage being inflicted on me I turned and aligned to the planet we had flown in from and burned off. Overheating modules could not save me any longer and I admitted to Mynxee; ‘I am going down..’.

‘What?! No way?!’ she replied, as stunned as I was. ‘Sorry’ I managed to squeeze out as my screen turned into a bright flash. Parts of my Faction Cruiser violently propelled themselves across the battlefield, leaving a trail of grey smoke behind them.

Months of preparation, hundreds of millions of isk spent, a six hour stressful journey and an angry wife, all for 2 minutes of adrenaline fuelled action; priceless.

The hope of CDM victory lay with my glorious wing-woman. She fought valiantly and did not give up. Being chased by our two foes she held up well. ECM drones buzzed around her hull, tracking disrupters to boot. Not a chance, no hope.

The reason why we had intended to make Mynxee primary now very obvious, her tank was immense. However, unable to fire, frustrated, the people’s favourite finally gave in.

The smooth surfaces of the Pirate hull no more, as it bent, buckled then expanded into the vacuum.

‘Aww’ Mynxee spoke. As we discussed what had happened and what went wrong the Planet Risk crew celebrated their victory in the background.

I sat back with a fresh beer and watched their pilots fight over the dropped faction loot from my wreck, like ravenous dogs, pilots claimed the drones and the Gisti Armor reps. To the victor the spoils I sighed…

You win some, you learn some. That was my motto and this time it turned out to be the latter. Mynxee too took the loss very well, I had flown with her before in a Bastard roam where she lost a ship and remained calm and focussed, no tears ever from this pirate.

We hung around and decided to record our post-match Radio interview, the moment I dreaded. ‘I don’t have the face for radio’ I had protested some time ago but by now I didn’t care anymore.

For those of you reading this I presume you will all be living it large and partying hard in the Hellcats Pub. I on the other hand am missing out. I had booked the night off work, rare for me as Saturday nights are the busiest night of the week. But I am without a laptop. It is still not fixed and it doesn’t look like I will have it back before Wednesday now.

I shall post related links as and when I can and hope you all have fun, watch me and Mynx go down in flames in the fantastic video provided by Teadaze and listen in to our radio interview; it’s not too bad.

Ps; if someone wants to donate their winnings in the lottery that’ be sweet as it appears I am fresh out of Carriers, Faction ships and shiny gear. =)

Ps; pictures to follow if my laptop ever returns…

Ps; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kujJJVpIcms this is the link to the video!!! Ace job Teadaze!

Ps; yes i did get my laptop delivered back to me at 11pm Saturday night by my computer man. for all the hard time i gave him the poor bastard came to my house to drop it of. What a legend. however I can run EVE for a mere 5 minutes before it cuts out. I got to show my face in the Hellcats pub briefly, said hi to the bloggers and poof... laptop is fuuuked up. /me sighs. Watch this space....

Ramblings #12 In need of isk.

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1202694

Ramblings #11 What is a celebrity?

Celebrity (Encarta Dictionary), descriptive name given to individuals, male or female, who capture public attention, largely through the media, and who have a broad general significance in contemporary society and culture.

Now this pretty much sums up what a celebrity is. I mean I could explain Wikipedia’s version of what a celebrity is but it seems pointless. Also I think that this term explained as it is leaves enough space to leave it open to interpretation.

Some of the celebs I have fought in the preceding Celebrity Death Matches have been surprised why I would ask them specifically to participate. The answer is simple really; I set out to fight well known pilots in New Eden.

Some are more well known than others I admit ,however the pilots is selected have stood out in the fact that they are known through the blogs they have written or in some cases the work they put into the Eve community.

Some names will be familiar to a lot of people simply because they have been selected by The Blog Father Crazy Kinux and get uploaded by 25000 capsuleers. There are over 800 blogs written for and about Eve but the 40 most prolific, the cream of the crop, are added to the famous blog pack.

Some pilots have not stopped here; some have written articles for the EON magazine and other Eve related publications. Some have had their profile increased by Radio interviews or made it in the CCP newsreels.

Some are part of famous Corporations and top the ranks within those organizations by skill and determination, automatically becoming a representative of said organization.

Now this begs the question; am I then by these standards a celebrity? I mean; I am part of the Blog pack, I will appear for a radio interview and I am part of a famous Corporation. Or am I simply taking a piggy-back on other peoples success? Is or should there be a ranking in celebrities? If so where would I fit in?

Do I like or dislike it? I never thought I would but I must admit I now follow my ratings every day; I love my followers and crave more hits. Having worked with a major name like Mynxee has clearly shown the effect on my own ratings. And a fan base even half the size of hers would maybe convince me to convo myself for a CDM…

Above all and most importantly; I do this for fun. I love the excitement of meeting these people I have read about and finding out what they are like. I love the thrill of the preparation and the excitement of the fight and run up, no matter what the outcome.

More Celebrity Death Matches will follow so watch this space…

Weekly Update #10

Weekly Update (12th – 18th October)

The worst possible thing has happened to me this week; my laptop has crashed. I would settle for being station bound but no such luck, planet bound it is. I am getting my EVE-fix via blogs and the Capsuleer app on my I-pod, and get to do some drawings for my fiction story. My laptop should be returned to me by Wednesday if there are no further complications. Until then I’ll ninja the wife’s laptop to blog.

A quick shout out to the 4 new followers I have gained since my last reference to it, bringing the total to 17! I have also managed to sign up to Google Analytics which has been insightful. I have been told that is unlikely to show all my readers and neither will it show the I-pod Capsuleer readers. But it’s a start. At least it gives an indication what posts’ have been popular and where my traffic has come from. Shame I didn’t get it any earlier.

It will not be a surprise that working with Mynxee on the EPIC CDM has boosted my ratings too. To give you an idea; nearly 50% of my hits have come through her post on the events. It begs the question how many hits Mynxee gets in one day? 1000? 2000? More?

Another neat feature of Google Analytics is that it shows the Google searches people made to get to your site. ‘Kestrel of Doom’ has landed me 6 hits, ‘Voers Fitting Tool’ has been searched for four times and ‘eve invention vexor Ishtar skills’ apparently leads the way to my site too?!?!

The highest referring site other than Google and nearly matching it is Mynxee’s class blog. To my surprise Kane Rizzels blog gave me 45 referrals in the last 7 days too, surprising only because our CDM was a fair few weeks ago...

Other than that I just wanted to spur on more people to join the in-game Bloggers Channel. Whether you write a blog yourself, want to write a blog or just want to say ‘hi’.

Celebrity Death Match
This week finally saw the completion of CDM#17 the long awaited and overdue re-match with Kirith Kodachi. It’s never nice to lose but kirith beat me well and outsmarted me. The blow of the loss has also been softened by the fact I have also secured a Battleship duel. A fight I have been craving for for some time. Rules for this have not been established and thus please keep suggestions coming.

I had hoped to get the blogfather Crazy Kinux to offer me this opportunity but CK is impossible to find in-game. Clearly our on-line times missing each-other. CK is as rare as Morphite in high sec. =)

Pirating
This week saw my Bastard application accepted! Big news for me as I have been following all Bastard related Blogs and stories available. I have been flying with the Bastards for a fair few weeks and have had a great time doing so. The crew is great to hang around with and are professional but above all; fun. I can see myself settling in for the long haul as I have been made to feel right at home. Special thanks to Happy San who has helped me settle in and has also being my mentor and recruiter.

As new recruits come in, unfortunately some of the older members move on too. Gorgoleon has by now indicated he is leaving and his colourful FC’ing will be sorely missed. I am grateful for him dragging a small bunch of us around the other day scoring some class-A kills; including a Cerberus, Raven and a Loki.

I am now also recognised by CONCORD as a criminal as my Sec status dropped to -6.2. Helped along by a few pod kills I must add but hey; can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.

Another great feature of the Bastards is their ranking system which strives one to be better and get involved. I have, with the help of the kills I made in the last few weeks, got my first promotion to 1st Luitenant and if my laptop would still have been with me this weekend I am confident I would have made it to Captain before this post. The curve upwards after this is steep however but my goal is to be at the top one day.

For those of you that read my first fiction story and particularly the last chapter can imagine my excitement when I joined a bastard roam in my Crow Interceptor and a Charon Freighter got scanned down by Happy San. I simply had to be involved and after a first fail with 2 interceptors to get a lock, Happy managed to scan him down again.

I was the first one there, eager for the ransom or kill. On landing and warp bubble collapse my primed point started to lock... Point! Point! Point! I shouted over comms. My excitement replaced by frustration as the freighter disappeared from my overview. WTF?!

Corie did a logofski. We waited around in neighbouring systems for some time and I made the decision to log off myself in the place where Corie disappeared. The remaining gang returned home to Evatie and fell asleep. Asleep long enough not to notice Corie logged back on and made a safe get-away.

I sighed with frustration but my mood picked up when Corie was spotted in a belt of the system we had come from not long before. Clearly bait in his Drake and with an Apocalypse Battleship as backup. Still angry with the poor sportsmanship of logging off whilst under attack, both fell to our firepower and that eased my mind a little. The strangest thing is that although they where baiting neither one of their ship had a point fitted...

We followed this up with a Wormhole raid where we killed 2 Stealth Bombers and tried to ransom a T2 Destroyer. I say tried as we held our fire to allow our victim to pay as he offered to pay on his own accord. A minor delay allowed him to slip out of the wormhole itself with me and me0de hot on his tail. Both of us in our haste to catch the SOB jumped into a 0.5 system.

It appears I am no longer welcome there but managed to warp around the system and back out the way I came with just my structure intact. me0de was not so lucky unfortunately and had to go home in his pod.

In other news
My industry Alt has been parked up in a wormhole for some time now but I rarely log him in anymore. I feel the CORP he is in deserves better than that and so I have tendered my resignation.

I have not built anything for some time; in fact the last thing I built was the carrier in which he sits. My extreme spending spree over the last 2 months has seen me blow 4 billion isk on booze, woman, poker, CDM and some ships.

I have come to the conclusion my 3rd account is now too much for me to handle and it’s time to sell him to recuperate some isk. For those of you interested please contact me in-game, leave me a message on my blog or email me on nshhkdvr@gmail.com . Please note that although he comes complete with a Carrier he is not a combat pilot.

That’s it for now...

Ramblings #10 EPIC CDM UPDATE

A lot of interest is generated when working with high profile celebrities and I figured I’d milk it a bit myself. This is just a quick update with links from the EPIC CDM;

Mynxee’s brilliant post on the CDM story so far.

Planet Risk’s class post brings you right to the brink of the fight.

A fantastic teaser, and a teaser it is indeed;

Many thanks again to all the participants and special thanks to Teadaze for putting together a fantastic video.

More to come so watch this space…

Celebrity Death (Re-)Match #17 Kirith Kodachi

Kirith Kodachi – The Fist Shaker (14th October 2009)

Finally the long awaited re-match with Kirith Kodachi. Mr Kodachi has been shaking fists at me through varies means after losing his first Celebrity Death Match in Battlecruisers.

A rematch was sure to happen but it has taken a fair bit of time to actually get online together and slug it out once more. Both of us have either been pre-occupied with RL or Eve related stuff.

Kirith is still one of the most abundant writers in the blogging community. I don’t know how he does it. I mean; I know how long it takes to write a post. Some longer than others, but checking your spelling, re-reading them to make sure you don’t sound stupid takes some time. Kirith however blogs like I a normal human’s heart beats.

‘Verbal diarrhoea’ he professed to me. Maybe so but it still requires a significant amount of intellect to come up with the quality posts, at the amount he does. I take my hat off and hold him in high esteem.

‘/me Shakes fist at Nashh’ is something that became familiar to me whenever Kirith and myself found ourselves online at the same time. Not that he was bitter I am sure but merely a loss he perhaps not had expected. Also he indicated fairly quickly he would like to meet again. Destroyer class vessels this time, a CDM first.

Here we are, 12 Celebrity Death Matches have happened between our 2 encounters. Number 5 proved unlucky for Kirith but was number 17 to be any better? I felt confident that it was my turn to win again…

I know that my foe holds higher skill points in nearly everything but Missile’s and there are no Tech 1 Destroyers with any launcher hard-points. I have however skilled for the Turrets I fitted on my Navy Vexor last Sunday so I didn’t mind too much. I only have the Destroyer skill to level 2 but so does Kirith last time I checked, so again that did not worry me.

Then it came to choosing a ship; either the Caldari Cormorant or the Gallente Catalyst. Browsing some websites I decided to go with a gank Catalyst, hoping to out-damage my opponent quickly.

Checking EFT with some suggested fits did not suit me as well as I thought and I remembered that Mr Kodachi has superior navigation skills. Not an issue per se but with a short-range setup this could make it difficult for me. I didn’t want to be sniped to death…

I’ll snipe him instead I figured. Back to the drawing-board, forget Battleclinic and Scrapheaps, brain power and beer is all I need. Speed module? Check! 125mm Railguns? Check! Damage rigs? Check!...mmm extra mid slots… lets see, if I get into a 5 k orbit, nos him to make my cap stable, then use tracking disrupters. Yeah! That’s it!

It all just about fit and I purchased the modules I needed. All I required now was a +12 powercore. I remembered I bought Caldari Navy Powercore a few weeks back but I left it in Evati. A round trip of 44 jumps but I was a little early and figured I could make it in 30 minutes so I set off…

Halfway to Evati, Kiriths portrait blinked in the bottom of my screen, soon followed by a private chat window opening.

We chatted for the duration of the journey but did not meet up on vent, both of us sitting next to our pregnant better halves watching tv. For some reason spaceships do not appeal to everyone…

I asked him if he had brought a Catalyst or a Cormorant himself, not that it would have changed my fit as my ship was ready to go. ‘Catalyst’ he hesitantly revealed. ‘Crap’ I said, knowing the potential DPS he would be able to inflict on me if my plan wouldn’t work…

On arrival in system we did not waste any time and undocked and met at Planet 1. We took from each others cans and agreed to warp to planet 2 to commence battle.

‘Shall I warp to 20 and you to 0?’ Kirith requested. ‘Sure’ I immediately replied, knowing that a little space between us from the start would suit my plan very well. My heartbeat sped up and my face started to glow with anticipation. Kirith had unknowing signed his own death…

Upon the Warp bubbles collapse neither of us paused; targeting and activating all modules available… With weapons roaring and disrupters disrupting, I selected the 5 kilometre orbit I wanted. I was taking some damage but it didn’t bother me as I knew my win was secured as soon as I get into orbit.

My pitiful shields started to take huge hits now and it finally dawned on me I was no where near getting the orbit distance I wanted. I intended stay out of the range of his weapons but instead Kirith stayed out of the range of mine!

My foe had slipped into a comfortable 40k orbit from me and peppered my fragile hull taking no more than a minute or so to rip it apart.

Kirith had got his revenge and got it well. Spoils went to the victor and it included the Caldari Navy Powercore which was to be the trophy of our encounter.

Kirith wrote a great article on duels, something that clearly took my notice, being in the duelling business myself. Maybe it would be nice to add trophies and a prize cupboard in ones hangar.

Before the fight commenced we already agreed there cannot be a CDM that draws, there needs to be a winner. Kirith agreed to a Battleship duel if he would win. Now I am clearly gutted to have lost, however the now secured BS fight has lifted my spirits…

I know Kirith is mad for his Rokh but I don’t really fancy being sniped from 190K so some rules will have to be set. Range for one, no ECM for second. If anyone has a suggestion on how to go about this upcoming fight leave me a message…

For now lets leave Mr Kirith Kodachi to gloat…

Ramblings #9 Just to let you know...

bas·tard

-noun
1. slang. a. a vicious, despicable, or thoroughly disliked person: some bastard ransomed my battleship. b. a person, esp. a man: the dirty bastard blew up our POS.
2. something irregular, inferior, spurious, or unusual.
3. of abnormal or irregular shape or size; of unusual make or proportions: bastard sized 425mm AC; bastard blasters; bastard pewpew lasers.
4. having the appearance of; resembling in some degree: a bastard pirate; bastard eye patch; a bastard parrot; a bastard pegleg; bastard grog.
5. Nashh Kadavr…

Weekly Update #9

Weekly Update (5th- 11th October)

This is just a quick post as I have a short night ahead of me and have spent all day in front of the computer. Coffee has no more effect on me and my eyes have squared…

Celebrity Death Match
Ga’len claimed CDM #15 and killed me good. I failed to come up with an original fit in time and my Gank Kestrel could not match up with his superior fit and skills. Please read the relevant CDM and check out the other side of the story.

Kirith’s rematch is scheduled for Tuesday this week. And I cant wait to meet him again. The fight shall be in destroyers, a CDM first.

The EPIC CDM has been completed and although you clever capsuleers will be able to find out the result I shall not link any killboard post until I posted part 2 of the CDM post on the 24th October. Please do read part one to give you the prelude and run up of the fight which was pretty exciting to…

Pirating
O yeah I spent most of my time in Evati under Happy San’s wing. Happy is one of the brilliant Bastard’s that make me want to be part of their crew. More on that later though…

I have got a few kills both with the Bastards but also a few solo kills. My sec status has now dropped and I am officially a criminal with my sec status at -5.2.

I shall post a longer weekly update next week but for now this will have to do.

Watch this space…

EPIC Celebrity Death Match #16 Planet Risk (Part 1 of 2)

Planet Risk - EVE's voice (featuring Mynxee-the peoples favourite)

The long awaited EPIC Celebrity Death Match. Well, part of it…This post is the mere prelude to the actual fight which I shall post on the 24th October.

The result will be easily found but the actual fight post will be supported by; links, a radio interview and a frappsed video by non other than Teadaze and will have to wait as an ode to the Hellcats party on the 24th.

Also the fact that a lot of time, preparation and isk has gone into today’s CDM warrants an extra long post therefore making it a 2 part works well for me too.

Three weeks ago I contacted Quivering Palm and asked if he would be interested in doing a Celebrity Death Match. He gladly accepted, but was surprised to be asked in the first place. Being the face of the great SIRadio and blog pack acceptance made it an obvious call to invite him for a Celebrity Death Match.

He quickly made the demand for a radio interview to which I reluctantly agreed. The second pre-requisite for the fight was that it was to be done in Planet Risk, his corps wormhole. No problem (or so I thought).

Now he is not the only face of Split Infinity Radio and he proposed to do a double whammy and include Luminus Aardokay.

Initially I thought that would be a brilliant idea however my laptop is becoming more fragile by the day and duel-boxing has become a big no no. ‘Just wait a minute’ QP stated. A few minutes later and QP returned; ‘Nashh?’. ‘Yes?’ I replied unsure about the delay. ‘Meet your wingman…’ QP continued…

‘I..what?! holy crap!’ I stuttered. ‘Hi Nashh’ Mynxee had typed in the now group chat.

Mynxee; every woman in New Eden wants to be her, every man wants to be with her.

By far the most prolific celebrity in Eve to date was going to be my wing-woman? This Celebrity Death Match grew exponentially into EPIC proportions. Radio? A 2 vs 2? Mynxee!? Surely this couldn’t get any crazier? Well it can apparently; ‘my only request is that we fly in Faction Cruisers’ Mynxee added to the mix. O my word, this is going to be sweet!

The next few weeks involved trying to find a suitable fit for my newly acquired Gallente Navy Vexor. But Nashh you only fly Caldari? Well yes I did. I did. But you may remember my fight with Spectre? Yeah that’s right, that’s the first time I tried a different flavour of ship. Now do you remember my post on the Bastard faction roam? I spent some time ogling z0de and I nearly got an opportunity to fly his Navy Vexor…

My drone skills are not too bad but I did spend my time getting up some gunnery skills and armour resist skills to be able to fit what I thought to be a brilliant fit I found on Battle Clinic. Double small-armour reps, microwarpdrive, medium cap booster… ‘Excellent’ I thought and purchased the fittings.

Various emails where exchanged and Mynxee made me aware of Jaxxon Voers helping her with her fitting. Jaxxon, another Bastard, is a genius when it comes to fitting ships so it appears. I convo’d him and he kindly helped me with a more suitable fit, and quick. He raised my potential tanking and damage output within minutes of meeting him. Eve Fitting Tool? Blah! Voerss Fitting Tool!

He also recommended getting heavy drones or sentry drones to effectively create another cruiser but I didn’t think I’d have enough time to skill for tech 2 varieties.

By now we had contracted our ships out to Planet Risk in Jita for them to haul into their wormhole. With them knowing our ship types it only seemed fair we knew what they where going to be flying. A Navy Vexor and a Navy Caracal it would be…

After some more contact with Mynxee we agreed on our strategy and the plan was to both ECM-drone-swarm the Caracal as ECM was not banned and the possibility of the Caracal being fitted with ECM modules was quit big. The rest of our weapons would be turned on the Vexor.

A few attempts had been made to get the modules nearer to Planet Risk but it’s not easy with wormholes spawning entrances in different locations every few days. The Hellcat CEO suggested moving up on the day of the fight in cloaky ships.

I finished work late on Saturday and browsing the market I spotted some Faction drones. A yes, I had heard of them but not seen them yet. Without to much pause I spend the last of my isk (after selling some collateral) on 5 Faction Hammerheads and 5 Faction Bouncers. I fitted a Manticore with cargo expanders and cargo expanding rigs. Loaded with all my modules, ammo and 15 drones I went to bed for an uneasy night sleep.

The reason why I say the last of my isk is because my industry alt has not been active since I spent all my online time in Evati. Fists full of isk have been spent on my small fleet there and some CDM losses, a carrier and the skill books for my alt and poker.

Celebrity Death Match is a costly hobby I have found out. This CDM alone has cost about 450 million isk but I will give you that breakdown later.

Sundays downtime over and I logged in promising the wife I wont be on more than 3 hours.

Mynxee had found an opportunity to get into the worm hole safely so I was to make the journey alone. No problem I figured, I am by now a very seasoned space traveller and set off via Kuomi to pick up the Faction Hammerheads I left there by mistake.

Two routes where available, one deep into 0.0 and another one shorter and safer so the choice was simple. The last 7 jumps to Gomati proved stressful as I got chased briefly by a small gang. Alexia from the colourful Punishment Blog convo’d me mid travel. Another celeb on my list but why would she contact me? ‘Are you being chased?’ she asked. ‘er, yes’ I responded, ‘but how do you know?’. She paused (I think she put in a good word for me with the locals) and then explained she spotted a gang jumping after me. We chatted briefly and agreed to catch up some point soon. Unfortunately I had to cut the conversation short as I neared my destination and Mynxee just came online…

Mynxee explained she used the deeper 0.0 entrance and made me aware that Lumi and QP where not going to be online for at least another hour. I reset the route and a daunting 33 jumps through 0.0 planned itself out. By this point I have already made 92 jumps for this CDM to get my fittings etc to this point.

I sighed but activated my warpdrive… whilst travelling I explained I picked up some faction sentry drones so if we so wanted I could still go back to Jaxxon’s suggestion of dropping large drones. Mynxee expressed her joy and that decion made just left another 23 jumps to make.

Constantly checking local and my scanner I blasted my way through 0.0. A few close calls but nothing crazy happened sofar. I started to become aware of time as my missus started to ask how long I was going to be and I am nearing my 3 hour time limit. I activated my ECM on her and moved on.

Then it happened. With only 2 in local I ignored my scanner and flew straight to the next gate. 90 clicks from the gate I ended up in a bubble and the 2 pilots in local didn’t hesitate. Blood rushed to my head as I franticly tried to escape with my microwarpdrive. O fuck crap shit bullock no please no… pop went my ship.

My faction drones, modules, every last penny I had, was in that ship. I managed to get my pod out and docked up in a local station. I explained to Mynxee what had happened and took a minute to sort myself out. I am in the process of stopping smoking but I have some in the house in case of emergency. This was an emergency.

Returning to my keyboard I did not have many options. Getting more fittings was out of the question; I am broke. Making my 3 hour time window is now deffo out of the window. Wife aggro continued but I activated my ECM’s, Scrams and all available weapons on her, then overloaded.

‘Want the Corpii’s back? 25 mil for both’, it read in local. Without hesitation I figured a quick check of what dropped and asking my killer to return them. FleshDiver answered my call and asked what I wanted. I complimented him on the kill and explained my purpose in his space. I explained my intentions and what I am doing. Then to try and save time, hassle and secure a safe passage I offered for him to keep the Navy Vexor if I win this fight, in return for my gear and an escort. He paused momentarily but then instructed me to come to the top station. ‘I normally don’t do this’ he said, opening a trade window.

To my amazement he traded me all the dropped gear back, minus the rigs.’that’s all I can do for you’ he said and left our private chat. I thanked him in local and offered to give him a mention on the radio interview and in my blog.

In the explosion I lost all the Faction drones, more than 100 millions worth. My rigs where gone too and a few other modules. Mynxee took pity and flicked 150 mil in my direction, I vowed to return it to her but she stressed the fact she will not accept any payment back.

Jumping around the local area got me a new Manticore and Covert Ops cloak then I set of to Rens to buy the missing modules. On route there I realised the Corpii armor reps where part of my original fit, not the Jaxxon Voers fit I intended. I discussed this with my wing woman and I decided to go with the Battle Clinic fit I originally intended, to save a little money.

Rens luckily had some more Faction Bouncers and I grudgingly paid the 60 mil. A few mods later and some rigs for the Manti to be able to hold all my gear and I set off again.

By now Teadaze had joined us and he offered his expertise in getting me to the wormhole entrance safely.

On route to meet Teadaze the wife decided enough is enough and returned fire, podding me instantly. The mic was to go…

No mic through 0.0? What was she thinking? However her alpha strike is strong and my resists non-existent so I obeyed.

The very first 0.0 system I jumped into nearly killed me for real. My heart pounding out of my chest, for there where several bubbles up at the gate. I quickly warped to the nearest celestial where upon landing 2 bubbles appeared. I managed to escape but upon landing at planet 1 another 2 bubbles appeared. Again I got away warping to planet 4 immediately. Mid warp I decided to just hide for a few weeks if I would lose this ship. Landing at planet 4 increased my stress levels further as again 2 bubbles came up. Jebus fuck what is wrong with these guys?!

I managed to escape the system in one piece with my head ready to explode from the amount of blood that had rushed to it. The wife had waited long enough and escaped also, using the front door rather than a jump gate however.

A further 14 jumps where made, lead by the expert scouting of Mr Teadaze. Some small hiccups but nothing life threatening luckily. We arrived at our final destination and were led to the wormhole by Luminus.

The wormhole sparkled brightly, with a dark red coloured heart, beating. Wormholes are fascinating to observe. It’s like looking into the back of a pulsating spoon made of mercury…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Ramblings #8 Super Secret Epic CDM Hint

I quiver with anticipation, knowing space will be illuminated when the cat's paw shreds their faction hulls...

EPIC CDM SUNDAY 11th OCTOBER.

Watch this space!

Ramblings #7 CDM Stats

Celebs fought; 14
CDM fights; 21
CDM fights declined; 1 (Chribba)
CDM fights pending; 2 (RoninData, Kirith)
Score; Celebs 12- Me 9
Ships lost in process; 14
Isk spent in process; 885 million isk
Jumps made for CDM; 868
Longest wait for a celeb; 15 hours
CDM Sec Status drop; 5.1
Celebs that posted a blog after winning; 10
Celebs that posted a blog after losing; 3
Words typed for CDM; 18240 words
Average per CDM post; 1103 words
Longest CDM post; 1847 words (00sage00)
Frigate CDM fights; 11
Frigates destroyed; 5 (3 x Rifter, 2 x Punisher)
Frigates lost; 6 (6 x Kestrel)
Destroyer CDM fights; 0
Destroyers destroyed; 0
Destroyers lost; 0
Cruiser CDM Fights; 7
Cruisers destroyed; 2 (2 x Rupture)
Cruisers lost; 5 (4 x Caracal, 1 x Thorax)
Battlecruiser CDM fights; 3
Battlecruisers destroyed; 2 (1 x Myrmidon, 1 x Hurricane)
Battlecruisers lost; 1 (1 x Drake)
Battleship CDM fights; 0
Battleship destroyed; 0
Battleship lost; 0

Celebrity Death Match #15 Ga'len

Ga’len- The Blog Commander (7th October 2009)

Mr Ga’len had been on my wish list for some time but for some reason we kept missing each other. Having caught up finally, we quickly agreed to meet on Wednesday 7th October.

‘Excellent’ I thought after he expressed some fear in losing this match. I need a win badly after a serious losing streak. I had been ahead since being downed by Mynxee and Sae Tiann some time ago. My fight with Wensley drew the score and after that I had been ahead in points for some time. Winning some fights even got me a lead of 5 points at one stage. Those days are over…

My fights with 00sage00 killed my confidence and my possible recapture of the lead.

I need this win. I need this win badly…

EFT came back out and I tried to come up with an old skool crazy fit to get the curve ball on Ga’len. ECM was again not allowed in this fight so that option was out. However other EWAR had not been disallowed so I tried to come up with another alternative to my Kestrel of Doom.

Tracking disrupters? Mmm Sensor damps? Yes that’s gonna be it. I spent 3 hours trying to find the modules that would allow me to fit what I wanted. I ended up buying stuff on contracts, Navy rocket launchers, Navy powercores, you name it.

My alt and most used CDM fighter is in Amarr waiting for Kirith so I can’t use him with his ‘ok’ sec-status to collect and haul my stuff. Nashh’s sec status however has dropped to near criminal status and shopping with him proved hard. So difficult in fact I aborted my hauling mission and decided a different fit altogether.

Having my fit collected in low security space proved time consuming but I got what I wanted and I found a sparring partner to try out my fit. Pastor Phelps, another Bastard hopeful, agreed to fight me to test if my fit and see if it would stand any chance.

I expected Ga’len to come in a Rifter and so did Pastor, brilliant. We met at a safe and I requested to go through shields only. /me sighs, pointless fail fit is all I can say. I tried double sensor damps with range scripts and a microwarpdrive... It worked for about 20 seconds but I forgot to check capacitor stability before actually buying and collecting these mods. Silly? Yes Stupid? Yeah I know. Stop going on about it.

We discussed the fit briefly and agreed after a range test that this fit could still work with Standard Missiles and range tanking. Yes it would work, and yes I was sure to win, without a shadow of a doubt. ‘Yes!’, I said that will be it then. Range tank and range dampeners. ‘What a frustrating way to die’ Pastor noted, immediately reminding me of my fights with Roc’s Firetail and Hallan Turek.

A lot went on inside my head, and within a split second I replied that that’s not how I roll. Loyalty to the gank and all that jazz. I docked up my fail fit to bring her back out with some standard launchers to try the theory anyway.

As I docked and evaded the station guns Ga’len convo’d me. ‘Crap’, practise time is over. This CDM is on.

I immediately refit to my standard fit and prepared to meet my foe. I would not get a chance to mess around anymore and this would have to do. I was still confident my standard gank fit could kill any frig at close range so without too much delay I undocked, psyched for the fight.

In my anticipation I made the mistake of hanging around the station for a split second too long, forgetting completely about the invisible timer I had read about some time ago but not experienced before. The station guns didn’t take more than 2 volleys to finish of my glorious Kestrel. How embarrassing, right in front of my prospective corp mates…

Docking up revealed my fleet of ships, now fitted and ready for action, but only one more Kestrel. Not a ‘Kestrel of Doom’ but a ‘Gank Kestrel’. Yes the same fit but unrigged. I asked Ga’len if he had fitted rigs and without a moment pause he posted his Rifter fit.

‘The Bleeding Rose’ was fit well and yes it did have rigs. I requested a moment to get the stakes even and rig my ship too and he kindly offered for me to take as much time as I needed.

My difficulties in shopping around limited my options and with nothing available within reasonable range I requested help in the local (not local) chat channels. But unfortunately no missile rigs were available. An increased transport price did not tempt anyone to make the trip to Hek for me in time so I decided to just go for it.

‘Feck it’ I said and undocked getting out of range of the station guns immediately this time.

We agreed to just fight without stealing from cans or any other delays. My kinda style. Sec status no longer an issue for me and it didn’t appear to be a worry for Mr Ga’len.

On landing I set my orbit, locked and my primed weapons didn’t need any further encouragement. Faction rockets slamming his shields as expected. Taking big chunks out of is preliminary defence I felt the power surging from my gank setup.

With his shields gone and mine at half strength I already worried that it may not be enough. His armour at half strength with my shields at half capacity would make me feel better for sure…

The faster Rifter hull sure did not take long to catch up with my Caldari frigate and my range had been reduced to nothing worthy. His armour reaching the halfway mark matched the point of my shields breaking.

The inevitable was due and I knew what this meant. I prepared a screen shot with the secret hope of capturing an explosion other than that of my Kestrel.



No such luck it appeared. Ga’len defeated me well, his fit superior to mine.

It’s a shame my efforts to come up with an alternative fit did not come to fruition, and it’s a shame I cannot just yet commit myself to a range tank fit. For the same reason I felt bad for using triple ECM’s on Venom I suppose. But both Roc and Hallan have done it to me in a very effective manner without getting any stick from the public so why do I feel bad for attempting the same? Should I change my stance or is range tanking as bad as ECM in a 1 vs 1?

Food for thought for sure, maybe I should stop being such a pussy and do it. It is clear I need to come up with a different Vessel for frig fights as this ship has now outlasted its purpose. Ga’len killed off the ‘Kessy of Doom’.

He kindly traded me back my dropped loot in the hold of his Rifter. As a present I got to keep the Rifter that beat me, as long as a rematch will be held at some point with the same ships. This would require me to skill for Rifters but I think the stats will prove that that may not be a bad idea…

Please read the next post too with some interesting stats on the CDM’s sofar…

Weekly Update #8

Weekly update (28th September – 4th October)

Celebrity Death Match;
I still haven’t managed to get together with Mr Kodachi but I presume he has been busy with as many thing’s as I have. Still this rematch is on the cards. A fixed date and time has been made however to catch up with Mr Ga’len.

So Wednesday coming shall see Celebrity Death Match #15 or if I catch up with Kirith first Wednesday shall see out CDM#16. The Stats blog shall follow immediately after CDM #15.

The Super Secret Epic CDM is coming along nicely and plans, tactics and fittings have been completed and purchased. I shall give a little more info and please make sure you are seated; no other than Mr Teadaze is going to frapps the fight and add commentary! For those of you that don’t know Teadaze; he was one of the commentators and frappsers of the Alliance Tournament!

More on that soon so keep your eyes peeled…

I have had a1 vs 1 with another reader and I am glad to report for him he beat me pretty good. After meeting up halfway between our locations and stealing from cans we warped to planet 1 of the agreed system. On landing I attempted to target his ship but failed. Then failed again. So instead I targeted his single Warrior II and dispatched it quickly. Attempting to target his ship failed again but then found its lock but it was too late.

Chack’Nul’s Tristan had a very impressive DPS and he posted his fit for me. I immediately saved it and on my way back to Evati I purchased some Tristans myself. On arrival in Evati I fitted it according to his spec but changed some fittings to T2 and the ammo to T2 and rigged it. I named them after my killer. So if you come across a Tristan named Chack’Nul beware…

On pirating;
After some more great roams with the Bastards my sec status dropped to -4.58 and is still falling quickly. I must admit I solo gate camped some noobs and podded them which did add to my sec status decrease.

I caught up with my favourite pirate Venom Orchid a couple of times this week and after a boring start to Sunday night I apparently started a gate camp which resulted in some nice chats and a few kills to. Finding my name via the Bastard kill-board looks pretty impressive now with 100% efficiency. (Bastard related only).

My application with the Bastards has reached the ‘vote’ stage and I hope to get good news from them soon. Fingers crossed…

On other news;
I have been following Roc Wielers post closely on the Fan Fest and again he has proven his superior blogging skills. My hats of to you sir for keeping me skiving off from work to read your updates.

That’s it for now but be sure to watch this space…