First off I want to apoligize to Mr Boson as I agreed to help him find the appropriate winners for the prizes made available to HK3, I have been too busy in RL to do this but I have sorted out at least the prizes I promised myself.
Without further ado;
#1 Name; Nashh Kadavr’s ‘Project Rifter’ Prize; 10 Rifters and Rocket Rifter Packages Goal; Hulk kill with the most rifters on the killmail
This has been awarded to Valgore Muerte from the Tuskers for owning the KM with the most rifters on it (2), prize delivered to his home system Hevrice.
#2 Name; Nashh Kadavr’s ‘CDM’ Prize; Participation in a CDM or 500 million isk Goal; Top scoring Pilot according to HK3 killboard
There was no other than Mr Phil to claim this one, he chose the 500mil cold currency, shame, he would have been an interesting chap to meet.
#3 Name; Nashh Kadavr’s ‘Mad Scientist’ Prize; 1000 assorted Data Cores Goal; Hulk kill with the most T2 ships on the killmail
This one went to Ol'summer Bedlinen with a sweet 5 T2 ships on the KM. Hope they are of use!
Well done to all the winners, sponsors and organisors of this event. much love for all!
Clearly the prizes where donated to promote my blog and I am not ashamed to be a attention whore. I am and have accepted that. Next time I'll ensure to have prizes donated earlier and maybe bigger, if my wallet so permits...
Arrhidaeus requested a CDM with me about 7 months ago. I put him on hold at the time as this is not how CDM works, Celebrities are not self appointed. What his request did do however is draw attention to his blog, and what a blog it is indeed.
I started reading his stuff and immediately fell in love with his writing style, it was clever, witty, informative and of superior quality than my own for sure. Ever since I started reading his stuff he never ceases to amaze me with the quality of what he puts up for the world to see. Perhaps not as regular as some other bloggers but with Arrhi it is quality, not quantity. I personally started lobbying for his Blog to be added to the Blog Pack and still do (You reading this CK? Don’t make me post more sad panda pictures!)
As a fellow Bastard I get to follow his progression in-game as well and his heroics still amaze me every day. We are on different time-zones but due to my RL work I generally play the same time he would do. His playtime is about half of what I generally log-in for in any given week and we score about the same kills on average. This obviously means that if Arrhi would play as much as I do, he would kill twice as much as I do.
With a penchant for Navy Slicers Arrhidaeus rips up foes left right and centre, scoring epic solo kills wherever he roams. It is he himself I blame for my own addiction to Faction flavoured Frigates; my kill/loss ratio isn’t as good as his however…
Perhaps it is clear enough from the above but let me be very clear that I hold this man in the highest esteem and have a little bit of a man-crush on him…
Time for that CDM then I guess.
Preparation and stuffz… Some ideas floated around about what to fight in, Faction Frigs had been mentioned, fitting restrictions were briefly discussed but Arrhi could not decide what to do. As time passed we flew occasionally together on little roams. On one particular evening we ended up Vitreaze and engaged 3 Tusker pilots in a Rifter, Firetail and a Jaguar, we preceded to melt them but lost Arrhi’s Slicer, leaving me to face three experienced pilots. By sheer luck all three Tuskers fell to my Ishkur, surviving with just a sliver of hull. Read Arrhi’s story here.
Arhhi was impressed, and of course I basked in the glory of the moment. It was utter luck not skill however that made me survive that fight. Perhaps I am wrong but I think that moment defined the choice of ships Arrhi eventually decided to fight me in…
Assault Frigates, another CDM first, brilliant! For days before the fight I tried to imagine what to bring, I can fly 3 different Races worth of AF’s and thus had the choice of 6 different ships. It was hard to imagine what my opponent would turn up in as he rarely flies Assault Frigs. No research was required to what he can and can’t do; I already follow his moves and progressions on the kill-board closely.
The fight played over and over again in my head; on the way to work, on the bus, when I made breakfast, you name it. This CDM I wanted to win more than any other. I wanted to show him who is boss and dominate…
After long deliberation I decided to use a kiting flavour of my Ishkur. A crazy fit perhaps but in all the possible scenarios that I played over and over in my head I saw this to be the fit that would work. Microwarpdrive-loving-Arhhi wouldn’t be able to run away from me or kite me if I fit a MWD myself. With a semi decent tank I would be able to tank whatever he throws at me if he is long range fit, and if he does fit an Afterburner instead I shall pummel him from range…
The fight Arrhidaeus safed up in our home system Evati and the moment of truth had come. The Kaalikiota owned station released the sleek hull of ‘Mégas Aléxandros’ into the cold blackness. Named after Alexander the Great, the Ishkur class Assault Frigate aligned gently to a blank point in space. Its smooth surfaces reflected the lights beaming from the stations undock point.
‘Good luck’ I mumbled as the Warpdrive engaged. I lied, I didn’t wish him any luck, I wanted him to die. The room went silent, no music, no distractions, final equipment check…
Scanning ahead had already revealed the ship type I would be fighting, as the warp tunnel closed behind me I landed 30 clicks from my rival’s Ishkur.
Tactics had already been prepared for fighting this particular encounter as I set to work. I fired up the Microwarpdrive and selected a comfortable 20k orbit. Superheated rounds of Caldari Navy Thorium propelled towards the much slower target, doing minimal damage and missing various salvos.
The 10 Warrior II Light Scout Drones stayed in their bay until Arrhidaeus committed his own drones to travel the 20 kilometres into my direction. His drones finally deployed sped towards me…
Knowing the Ishkur well I proceeded to take out the majority of his DPS output by deploying my own drones and targeting his. Fighting at this range meant his drones had a long way to travel back every time he recalled them, giving my drones more time to destroy and maim.
Trying to keep count of how many drones he had left became harder as the fight went on but at best four to my estimation and set my drones to attack his spacecraft.
With Arrhi now suffering from heavy Armour damage I felt victorious and closed down all items on my Head Up Display to get a nice shot of his ship erupting into fragments.
But I waited, and waited a little longer, without the satisfying blue flash filling my overview. Quickly bringing my HUD back online it became clear that my drones were no more. Luckily I still had all my spares and deployed a fresh batch.
This fight had gone on for some time now and I started to wonder why my guns didn’t put out enough damage to finish off those last little slivers of hull. Checking logs revealed that nearly all shots fired missed their target. Thinking that my high speed didn’t help the tracking of my guns I slowed down, switching to manual flight.
My opponents shields slowly recharged as I desperately tried to approach and fly away to reduce our transversal and get a straight shot at him. Harder work than it may sound, as my weapons only have a 23k range and getting to close meant his Ion Blasters and NOS became an issue. So much of an issue that at one stage I took such heavy damage my hull peered through. Barely had I managed to escape and gained enough range to repair the damage done.
Concentrating so much on getting my guns to score some hits I forgot about my remaining drones until it was to late. A little grey cloud appeared were my final drone was last seen.
This couldn’t be a draw, I didn’t want it to end like this, I panicked as I loaded up the last scraps of ammo. The duration of the fight had been the cause for burnt out modules for the both of us, however Arrhi burned out the one reason my guns where useless, a Tracking Disruptor.
With his EWAR now out of the equation my guns finally did some damage. With my MWD burned out I selected approach and crossed my fingers as overheated-nearly-burned-out-Railguns fired hot lead.
I had won, I had actually won! This is the first CDM in 6 encounters I won! I surveyed the damage to my ship and realised the repair bill would be rather substantial. The fight started of with my hold crammed full of ammo and cap-charges. All that was left in my hold now were cigarettes, spirits, and a test-dummy.
Twenty-six minutes, a whopping 996 Faction Thorium charges and 40 cap-charges were spent trying to destroy Arrhidaeus, leaving just 4 rounds of ammo in my smoking Railguns...
Just for you Arrhi My apologies for the late posting of this CDM but I didn’t want to post it until the video was completed to my satisfaction. Many thanks to our brother-in-arms TheHermit for helping me put this video together (watch it in HD, much better yeah). Perhaps only followers of both our blogs will understand, Arhhi, this is for you;
The ‘theme’ as you may have guessed is ‘Mortal Combat’, I intended to make this straight after this post made by Mr Arrhidaeus some time ago. Again I want to thank all involved in making this video possible, and yes I will deffo make more in the future.
Selling out You may have noticed that CDM, or me as its representative is selling out. I have spend a lot of isk and time on CDM and it has finally come to a stage where I feel comfortable asking for sponsorship.
Some time ago a chap paid me 50 mil isk and I named my ship used in the next CDM in his honor, now however the isk goals are higher and I have been very lucky to find 2 sponsors for this video.
Another video is scheduled for my CDM with Entity some time soon, if you want to support the project or sponsor the video please contact me in-game or email me at nshhkdvr@gmail.com.
Celebrity Death Match #22; Rixx Javix - EVE artist Exraordinair
The Celebrity I had intended to ask Mr. Javix for a CDM some time ago, his arrival into the blog pack made him an easy addition to my wish list. I started following him and with every post he made my desire to fight him become stronger and stronger. His space-comic jokes make me chuckle and his art work astounds me every time he does something new.
Browsing his folder of previously made pieces related to EVE, it dawned on me I would love to own a Rixx Javix piece for myself or for my corporation the Bastards. His work clearly very popular I wasn’t sure if he would make time for me or even would do any work for me at all. Our first contact was pretty easy going, Rixx responded to my emails and after a quick convo 3 jobs were taken on...
The first was a Bastard promo poster, and I have to say it is one of his best to date;
Secondly I requested a new blog banner and another fine piece was delivered, and at a very good price too;
The third and final job is still secret but for those that may know me a little better or have me as a RL facebook friend will know what’s coming. I hope to be posting more on that later this month.
With our business completed I could finally ask him to join me in a CDM. Rixx accepted immediately and after we discussed some of the standard rules for CDM I offered for him to take his time in deciding what ships he would like to fly, where and under what restrictions.
So, Battlecruisers it was to be, brilliant, one of my favourite ship classes. The restrictions where; no ECM and only one faction module if we'd choose to use any… Brief chats were exchanged in the days before the fight, chats where we sneakily tried to find out who would be flying what ship but cards were kept close to our chests. I still had not decided at this stage as I have a few fitted Battlecruisers about, all of which I like but serve a different purpose. None where really suitable for 1v1's but their base fitting would suffice…
Preparations On the last night before the fight the final details were exchanged. Mr Rixx explained his troubles getting his ship together through war-target-infested trade hubs, even being shot at when he attempted to dock up and get fittings together. As a joke and final attempt to find out what he would be bring is asked; 'its a Drake, isn’t it?'… I didn’t get a response and we continued our conversation. As we completed our chat and went our separate ways I read over the chat log again... why didn’t he respond? He could have just joked, laughed it off, agreed it was and double bluffed me… He could have triple bluffed me or what not... but he didn’t respond. Mmm…
Don’t get me wrong, I suck at poker but his poker-face was rubbish, he was so deffo gonna fly a drake... right?
With Hulkageddon 3 in full swing and I found myself deep into high-sec on the day of the fight. In the morning I raced back to Evati to look at the available vessels. I didn’t care too much to be honest as I had already decided to fly a buffer Myrm, the very same one that once took out two T2 fitted Hurricanes in a single sitting. With confidence I intended to land myself right on top of him, rip up any drones he may have then slug him to death with a selection of mixed sized drones of my own.
To my horror (I literally broke into a cold sweat) I discovered at the last pod loss my clone grade was insufficient in size for the skills now in my head. I had lost 13 full days off of heavy drones V and thus would be unable to use T2 Ogres. Shit, crap, now what? Go into battle with T1 ogres? And make a fool out of myself? i don’t think so, I need a different ship.
Quickly browsing through the available ships I discovered all my drakes have been either destroyed or moved to different hangars, the closest being in Ardar, 6 jumps out.
On route I spotted a familiar face in the local communications channel, with some other chap shouting GF! GF! I chuckled as I warped on top of Lady Shaniqua's Rifter and quickly proceeded through the gate, not sure if my pod would be safe. At the next gate I found an Ishtar and some friends clearly making the return trip home much more difficult. Now sharing multiple channels with LS I requested if he would be so kind to scout me back to Evati.
As the mentor for Project Rifter, I already know of Shaniqua’s fitting expertise so it only seemed sensible to discuss the upcoming fight and my intended fit. As I now decided to fly a Drake into combat myself, I took a Podla-Drake fit as the base, but instead of a point I intended to use a target painter and T2 Fury missiles. We talked and talked and ideas were exchanged, eventually agreeing that perhaps the Drake was not the way to go and another BC hull would give me a better chance.
In the mean time on planet earth wife aggro made me rage log and move to the spare room. A cigarette and a beer later I calmed down sufficiently to get a fit together for the pending fight. I don’t like making people wait and was thus relieved when I checked my emails and found a message from Rixx explaining his connection issues, possibly delaying the flight. Speeding back to Evati, again in my pod, Rixx logged in. shit...
I kept quiet and didn’t speak to him in the bloggers channel, on entering Evati I hoped to be able to slip in unnoticed but with just 3 other pilots in local he was sure to see me online and check up on me. I was not ready, not even close. I didn’t even have a hull sorted let alone the fitting...
With no Drake available to me and with more and more doubt that Rixx would actually come in a drake himself I decided to pick up the Myrmidon with a 109k buffer. A good base as long as I could get close enough to my opponent to make the rest of the fitting work.
I stripped the high slots of their small Blasters and replaced them with small Auto Cannons to save a minute worth of Capacitor, took of the second webifier and the Sensor Booster and frantically tried to decide what to replace them with. I needed to get close to my opponent and there was still the risk he would warp in at range and slowly break my tank, leaving me powerless to respond if he would take out my gimped drones.
Targeting range dampeners! Two targeting range dampeners may force him close enough for me to cut off his MWD and my superior tank would certainly give me enough time to kill him. Brilliant idea! I finalised my fit and responded to the convo request now sent by my foe.
‘Ready?’ Mr Rixx requested… ‘yes’ was the hesitant response. We agreed to warp to a bookmark made by Mr Javix earlier that day. ‘Are we to warp at range or to 0?’ I requested. ‘..well that’s the beauty of bookmarks’ Rixx started, ‘you can’t warp at range…’
‘Ok sweet… Quick bio and let’s get it on..’ I made use of the brief delay to quickly relieve my bladder and have a smoke to settle the building nerves. As I inhaled the delicious cancerous smoke into my warming lungs, reality hit me… Can’t warp at range? I didn’t know that… Holy shit he is not in a Drake! He is prepared to warp in close so he must be Blaster fit something... Brutix? Myrm? Ferox? Certainly not a Cane, too piraty for this pirate hater… Either way or anyhoe, he is turret based. For sure… right?
I sucked down the last remains of nicotine and ran back up the stairs, crashed through the bedroom door and jumped into the pilot seat. Quickly opening the ‘EWAR’ station container revealed the last two available tracking disrupters…
In a flash my ship was stripped of the MWD as it would be shut down immediately anyway by his scram, replaced it with an Afterburner, ripped out the Targeting Range Dampeners and wacked on two Tracking Disrupters. The changes left me plenty of grid to replace a small Energy Neutraliser with a Medium variety and now I was ready… Bring it on Mr Rixx and suck up the pain!
The Fight ‘DIE RIXX DIE’ smoothly sailed into the Evati night sky, aligned to a Station at moon X to pick up the bookmark needed to get to our fight location, and set off.
The Gallente vessel turned slowly and took its time to get up to warp speed, enough time for me to re-arrange my drone bay. One full rack of Warrior II Drones, one full rack of Hammerhead II’s and then the heavy damage set; one Hobgoblin II, 2 Hammerhead II’s and the embarrassing addition of two T1 Ogres…
With the location registered into my onboard systems Rixx Javix started the count-down…
‘You are gonna need it sucker!’ I laughed out loud to myself, confident that I could better my standings in this whole CDM adventure…
My glorious ship had undocked and initialised its warp drives… with the distance closing down rapidly I primed my mid slots and waited for my enemy to land right on top of me…
I couldn’t wait, tension built up… Primed Web and scram would stop him dead in his tracks, Tracking Disrupters already overheated would render his Turrets useless and…
WTF?!
O crap, I fucked up, blood rushed to my head as embarrassment already filled me from the gut up. My heart sank as his ship exited the warp tunnel…
A Drake? But but… why? I thought…
I switched of the TD’s and as soon as I could get a lock attempted to scram out his MWD. His speed didn’t reduce until the web started cycling, now clearly making 3 modules in my mid-slots completely useless…
And holy crap his tank is immense! My drones barely scratched him! Stick to the plan, I convinced myself as I targeted his 5 Warrior II’s… 4?
This was not going well at all, in the minute this fight had been going on my Drones had been attacking his Drones; hence his shields were looking so healthy. Quickly redirected drones started chewing into the Drake whilst my web and small Auto Cannons made short work of the remaining Warriors.
The Myrm’s Armour had already taken a steady beating by this point and without any active repairs this was just a matter of time…
With Frapps running I burned out the high slots when trying to get a pretty picture of my pending demise…
Thanks to Rixx for this Video;
I fail, and suck at EVE… My fitting was wrong, my tactics where wrong and my opponent had well and truly beaten me.
In a daze I floated in space, only surrounded by the fragile shell of my escape pod… Slowly being circled by the ‘DIE NASHH DIE’ baptised Drake. Bobbing up and down gently near the remains of my fail Myrm…
Alarms flared up as my pod got targeted and a warp disrupter prevented my escape.
Rixx Javix> hands up this is a ransom!
We both laughed it off as the pirate hating combat pilot couldn’t complete his ransom. With probes out in the system (not the Bastards) it was time to part ways…
It has been my pleasure and honour meeting Mr Rixx Javix and hope to keep in contact for the duration of my EVE life. Please also read his side of the story and don’t forget to check out his art!
Some weeks ago I requested for Rixx Javix to do some art work for me. To be honest I wasn't even sure if he would make time for me at all, so I was pleasantly surprised he took on the work with both hands.
Job number 1 was a poster for my beloved corp, the Bastards. I have had the poster in my possesion for a few weeks now but simply have not had an oppertunity to post it with something relevant. So here it is, in a non Bastard related post;
Feel free to check out the other sizes on this link, I had to use a smaller size to ensure it fits in this post but please take a moment to check out the link to see the amazing detail.
Job number 2 was a long overdue new blog banner. as you can see the new banner is live, scaled to size the new layout of my blog. The request was for some Bastard affiliation and perhaps a logo, something also related to job number 3. More on that one later...
For the i-podder's out there scared to come visit my blog here is the banner you will never see;
Job number 3 has been completed on Rixx's part, and a job completed very much to my liking. many thanks again Mr Javix, it means a lot to me.
Over the months gone by I have become aware of having readers and I have grown to like it, even crave it. I want more all the time. Rixx however doesnt even use tools like Google Analitycs to see if anyone reads his stuff. Just a small testament to his nature as a giving/not taking man.
A great deal of his time and effort goes into EVE and eve-related activities. His artwork and posters are spread across our universe. I had already wanted to ask him earlier but it didnt seem appropriate. With our business now completed the time was right to ask him to please join me in a CDM adventure.
Mr Rixx Javix has accepted my duel request and I await his choice of rules eagerly, cant wait to meet him face to face (in space)....
I intended to post an update on CDM stats every 5 CDM’s. I am posting this early and late depending on how you look at it. Early as CDM 20 has not been posted yet, late as I have already posted CDM 21.
Anyways, please find below a list of all previous CDM’s with a brief description and below that any statistics one might find interesting.
Another fantastic person to have met, and be beaten by. I still have the Rifter he donated to me and he is part of the reason I started Project Rifter.
The first CDM of the EPIC variety, this post tells the tale of how I got to the agreed fight location, arguably more exciting than the actual fight itself.
