Celebrity Death Match #20; Arrhidaeus

CDM #20 Arrhidaeus

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.

Many thanks to Selene D’Celeste from EOH POKER and the ever brilliant T’amber from ShipsOfEve for the contributions to this project. I hope to work together again in the future! (wink wink)

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.


Watch this space!

Bastard Medals June 2010

A bit late but as the say better than never. With z0de, Arrhi and Raelyf back on a more regular basis the killboard has evened out to a more normal level. Between the 3 of them I had expected them to completely dominate the Kill- and Ransom Board but it appears I did have my say here or there.

The month of June will see less action for me as RL has got a firm grip on my time. That combined with some deadly additions to the corp will mean my efforts to stay in the top 3 of any award this month will be futile.

Anyways without further delay;

Top Killers
1# Raelyf (72)
2# Arrhidaeus (66)
3# z0de (65)

Top Scorers
1# Nashh Kadavr (11232)
2# Raelyf (7068)
3# z0de (6775)

Top Solo Killers
1# Nashh Kadavr (22)
2# Raelyf (21)
2# Arrhidaeus (20)

Top Damage Dealers
1# Raelyf (53)
2# Nashh Kadavr (32)
3# Arrhidaeus (31)

Top Final Blows
1# Raelyf (50)
2# Nashh Kadavr (30)
3# Arrhidaeus (30)

Top Pod Killers
1# Arrhidaeus (9)
2# Nashh Kadavr (9)
3# z0de (8)

Top Griefers
1# z0de (5)
2# lord breathnach (2)
3# Kingzolo (2)

Most Ransoms
1# Nashh Kadavr (4)
2# Zemledok (3)
3# Raelyf (3)

Most Ransoms
1# Raelyf (183.214.286 isk)
2# Kingzolo (176.230.000 isk)
3# Mon Palae (154.290.000 isk)

Kill of the Month

Not decided but we all know who shall be winning this one...

Pirates Ahoy! #4 Feast or Famine

Flashfresh> Are you sure this is what you want to do?
Nashh Kadavr> Very much so!
Flashfresh> Piracy is feast or famine, will you be able to deal with that?
Nashh Kadavr> Spinning ships in-station is my 2nd hobby…

-o0o-

He did warn me all those months back…feast or famine…damn…

For two months I have flown my socks off to gain ranking both on the Bastard kill-board and on Battle Clinic. With Raelyf, z0de and Arrhideaus all on part-time basis over that period I performed well, if I may say so myself.

March end totals saw me claim medals for Most Ransoms, Top Killer, Top Scorer, Top Solo-Killer and top Pod Killer. April end totals awarded me Most Ransoms made, Highest Earner in Ransoms, Top Killer, Top Scorer, Top Solo-Killer, Top Pod Killer, Top Damage Dealer and Top Final Blows. Yes I am proud of that and yes I do like to blow my own trumpet.

One of my goals this year was to get myself ranked in the top 10000 on Battle Clinic, starting of in January being ranked 22000. It appears that goal has been reached. My kill count at 367, nearly all of those scored for the Bastards.

Some of my favourite kills include;

Enyo vs Retribution
Enyo vs LOL-fit-Harbinger
Vexor vs Navy Slicer
Killing Lucius Invictus 3 times
Revenge killing of two slippery Hurricanes
Fail ransoming this chap (Ransoming 101 coming soon)
Loki #1
Loki #2

There are some more sexy ones in there but my ego is swelling too big for my head so I’d best stop. I did actually recommend a few posts back that for ones sanity it is very important not to care about statistics too much as it can be very depressing when the stats start swinging against your favour. Well, I am good at giving advice, not taking it, especially not from myself. I am a stats-whore…and I loathe myself.

-o0o-

All this glory comes at a cost, hence the title of this post.

My successes over the last 2 months are much to the contribution of a prober alt, luck and help from Bastards and friends. On many occasions I have hooked up with Lady Shaniqua, a great pilot from whom I am learning a lot. Lady S is also my mentor in ‘Project Rifter’ but more on that soon.

I missed out and currently do not own the coveted ‘KOTM medal’ distributed to the pilot scoring the greatest Solo Kill as voted by our beloved corp. Raelyf won the medal in March by killing a Cynabal in a Rifter (what a hero) and Arhhideaus scored himself a great kill in his Crusader vs Zealot in April. It makes me wish for not having ransomed this chap in his Damnation, in hind-sight I could have solo’d him but called in help from Zem as I had never even seen a Damnation. Babylon Jones was only too happy to part with his 250 million isk and save his ship… next time Babylon....next time…

Some days have been great in the sense that there are lots of targets out, easily probed and/or enticed into a fight or ransom.

On many occasions there has been famine, serious famine. On at least 3 occasions I sacrificed a free day and roamed, probed for 5 hours on end without finding anything at all.

On some days I did find some targets and with spirits high, heart racing I would warp in to find nothing but wrecks in a just finished mission...heartbreaking. On various occasion I would warp in only to be eluded and missing point or finding a target with warp core stabilisers…soul destroying.

One particular night I had just completed a 3 hour fruitless roam and ended up chasing Handyflop around the local area for another hour. The Faction Warfare pilot eluded me every time and mocked me in local. After an hour I got so agitated I switched out to an Arazu with Faction fittings and small rails to kill his Kestrel. I failed again and got laughed at… mind shattering.

There have been losses, a fair few too. About 30 of my ships met their demise in the last 70 days to an estimated value of 550 million isk. I lost 2 pods full of implants as well costing me another 500 million to replace.

I blame Arrhideaus for getting me addicted to Faction Frigates, costly but great fun to fly. As are Tech 2 Frigates, sexy, tough little nuts that are excellent fun, however rarely pay for themselves in kills/loss ratio.

EVE can be an emotional rollercoaster, it has great peaks and highs but sometimes delivers demoralising, lonely times and silly lows and losses. I apologise to my fellow Bastards after my ‘rage-quit’ the other night. I was just a little bit pissed off about a ransom that took too long and failure to get me repped-up. The other way of looking at it is why didn’t I warp off. Either way, in a very unprofessional and unfriendly manner I safed up my prober and pod and logged off…sore loser boo-hoo.

-o0o-

As a (proud) recruitment officer for the Bastards I make sure any applicant is aware of the phenomenon known as feast or famine. Sometimes life is good, sometimes life is boring and/or slaps you around the head with a wet fish.

We have been lucky with some great recruits, some whom have already joined our ranks as Bastards (welcome Interdict and IlikeFoodz). Also some great pilots are running a probation/trial period and look very promising (Kingzolo, Nichonostra, Mucky and Ruben). Let’s see how things work out…

Please note that Bastard recruitment is temporarily closed until after the Alliance Tournament.

‘Project Rifter’ and ‘Ransom 101’ coming soon™


Watch this space….

Pirates Ahoy! #2

Pirates Ahoy!

As a new dad I have 2 weeks off work. Yes I do all the laundry, housekeeping, nappy changing, cooking breakfast lunch and dinners and general juice-fetching for the wife and 2yr old. However there is plenty of time left to play EVE.

Within New Eden I have come to respect and admire solo pirates a lot as the skill, patience and determination required is immense. Kane Rizzel, Spectre, Wensley and Sage to name but a few of the pilots I have learned to respect outside of the Bastards.

Within the Bastards however we have some truly skilled pilots that I am proud to call my brothers in arms. Raelyf is at the top of my list as one of the greatest pilots in the game. Guts and glory for that man, solo’ing his way around EVE in any hull type. Other than that we have Arrhidaeus with a penchant for Amar Navy Slicers but again a very skilled pilot and a few others I have a lot to learn from.

Anyways enough of talking about other peeps, my point merely is that although I have a proven track record of solo kills I do not feel I am a skilled solo pirate. So time for change and experiments I figured. To soften the emotion of ship losses I have build up my main hangar with over 50 hulls and enough fitting packages (I’ll explain that later) for all of them. On top of that I have a second hangar in Old Man Star with 6 fully fitted & rigged ships and now a third hangar in Hevrice with 7 fully kitted out vessels.

I have grown an affinity for my sexy Vexor but still have to justify that love with some more kills and less losses of that bad boy. My other interests have been Ishkurs and lately my Faction Worm. Wich leads me to some piracy related stuff this week;

After an unsuccessful and boring night on Monday I prepared to log off for the night when some guys temporarily sharing our vent piped up and said the where gonna drop some carriers into Egghelende. Although tired I figured this was worth watching and signed up.

To be honest it was a bit of a fail op and I wish I had just gone to bed. On arriving in system in my Vexor (yeah I know) I warped to the Station where the action was at. A super shiny Bhaalgorn was taking some fire and was called primary. I checked the pilots name and hesitated for a moment… Kane Rizzel… I figured if Kane would have the opportunity to pew pew one of my shiny ships he wouldn’t hesitate and open fire and thus did I. Kane tanked a shit ton then docked, a great example I thought, and followed suit, logged and went to sleep. Read Kane’s Version of event here.

Tuesday saw another joined corp operation but I think that is confidential at the moment so ‘no comment’. I did get in on a few kills but also missed out on a lot as there where many in fleet with faster ships, faster lock time and I sported Heavy Missiles...

After the scheduled roam RoninData, another Bastard legend rallied a few of us to go to Amamake for some late night pewpew. Not a bad run as we managed to kill a Harbinger, Moa, Vexor, Drake, Stabber and a Crow.

I logged off in Auga that night and intended to fly my Vexor back to Evati the next day. I never made it back in my Vexor, In fact I only made it one jump. I managed to save my pod however.

All the above pushed me to go out solo and practise…

I took out an experimental Kiting Ishkur fit and made my way towards Egmar. My alt scanned out a Ranis, Caracal, and Vagabond out in a mission and figured I’d give it a shot…

Nashh jumped in, evading a small Cynabal blob and set course to where I thought my target was. On arrival at the acceleration gate D-scan revealed a lone Rifter? Wtf wher’s the Caracal, Ranis and Vaga? Activating the gate I flicked back to my alt and then realised I warped to a Minor Outpost not my alt. Silly me, o well. The Rifter and his pod popped as I aligned to meet up with the next target.

On landing at the correct gate this time it appeared my prey was still there. The warp gate slung me a short distance and on exiting warp I found the Caracal on his own 20 clicks from me. Primed and overheated point locked on and I settled into a comfortable orbit before I even launched my drones.

The Caracal warped off?!?! For some reason I managed to switch off my Warp Disruptor and kicked myself. The second warp gate within reach and the Ranis on D-scan I decided for the rage to enfold later and proceeded. The Ranis immediately felt the pain of my drones on landing as the Vaga started stripping my shield and half my armor. Time to run I figured as the Interceptor’s hull began to show. In my haste I warped to a belt not a safe, mid warp I had hoped for a round two with the Gallente Tech2 Frigate. On landing I aligned to my safe and initiated the warp drive as the Taranis landed behind me. Furious ‘cancel warp’ commands failed and the fight was over. The 3 pilots docked and that was that.

A little later I spotted the Rifter pilot back on D-scan and this time with a friend in a Hound. They were easily found but after some cat and mouse I only managed to kill the Covert Ops.

Whilst all this was going on a Griffin had been in a mission for about 30 minutes. I could not enter the mission as my MWD would be useless and it didn’t allow for T2 Frigates anyway. It seemed pointless to reship in Evati to come back but when 40 minutes hit I thought sod it and sped back to Evati in my pod. One of my trusty Worms undocked smoothly into blackness and evaded yet another camp on the way back to Egmar.

To my surprise and joy the Griffin was still on scan and after activating the second mission gate he appeared on my overview. It was clear the Caldari T1 was no match for my Faction beast.

On route back to Evati I crossed Lady Shaniqua and a duel was requested… I would have instantly agreed in my ‘up-close-and-personal’ variety Ishkur but I took a minute to decide if a scram fit, fast Tech 2 Minnie was the right opponent for my setup. What the hell, its been a good day…

Planet 1 was the meeting point and we wished each other good luck after agreeing not to squish pods. The fight lasted a few minutes but with my drones and ammo drained it appeared to be a stalemate as Shaniqua couldn’t get within shooting range.

With Arrhideaus just fitting up a new Slicer it appeared to be a good time to take off on a little roam, I invited Shaniqua along whom gladly accepted. I decided to come along in a Crow but after one jump into the roam had to jump into a Worm yet again to get access to another Minor Site.

Lucius Invictus in his fast Punisher either disconnected or logofski’d mid fight and his ship fell to the Worm’s power. I spotted Lucius in local about an hour later in his pod but he didn’t seem too happy to talk to me.

Arrhi had to log of for RL reasons which left me and Lady S to find targets. I found a Cynabal but didn’t dare to engage; I had made that mistake before and paid the price. Help was too far out thus it was time to move on.

Mr Knight was scanned down in Frerstorn but slipped the net for a good 30 minutes until Lady S got the prober out. Short work was made and the poor guy got his Drake ransomed for the handsome sum of 40 million isk. The price seemed right as he did pop 5 of my drones and the time it took to catch him. I say poor guy as Lady S has actually killed and ransomed this guy on 4 previous occasions. A friendly chat in local evolved with the pilot who seemed a nice enough guy, I wish him luck in his further adventures.

As the GCC timers ran out it was time to dock up and get some well deserved sleep. I thoroughly enjoyed flying with Lady Shaniqua and would not hesitate to do so again.

Until we meet again my friend, may it be against or alongside each other.

All in all not a bad week so far; as it stands at the moment I am top killer and top ransomer for the month. Let’s hope Raelyf and Kalius Prime take a few days off before the end of this month =)

Also for those interested I am now a recruiter for the Bastards. EVE-Mail me if you are interested in joining one of the best Pirate Corps in New Eden!


Watch this space…

Where have I been....

Where have I been…

I have been quiet on my blog for some time now and for that my sincere apologies. Work has been busy as hell for me in December and the little time I have had has been spent getting myself into space causing havoc.

Now we are in the New Year I hope to find more time to pursue some more EVE activities.

First off I want to thank TehMastersword for his work done on my laptop cover. Unfortunately no other works have been sent in despite more interest having been shown earlier on in this design competition. This is not the way to win a competition but I want you to know that I am very happy with the design and if you come to Fanfest 2010 you will get to see the design glazed over my laptop with your own eyes. The 500 mil isk shall be sent to you as soon as possible.

Pirating has been very mixed up for me over the last few weeks. The Bastards occasionally in disarray and with some of the veterans leaving has been a little demoralising. Also the Hellcats leaving our alliance and moving away has been a bit of a shock, but hey, such is EVE life. Flashfresh has had to attend to RL issues and so he should, but his presence is sorely missed.

It’s not all doom and gloom however, new recruits that have come in at the same time as me have proven to be great pilots and fun to fly with. Competition is stiff and I am proud to be at the top of various awards over the last few months. Realyf, one of our directors has been a great pilot to fly with and I got to spend time with him even though we are on different time zones. He truly is one of the best pilots in EVE and I hope to learn a lot from him.

Some good kills have been scored and some bad losses had. My current isk-efficiency is pretty poor after a streak of losing T2 ships for stupid reasons. Solo gate camping in Ishtars when you are drunk is not one of my recommendations and neither is tackling in an Interceptor within station gun range.

I had never flown Attack Frigates before but I have decent skills for them and thus figured I should buy some Ishkur’s and try them out. Fitting cheapish Gistii and True Sansha modules I took out my new found glory to join Arrhidaeus on a little roam. A fellow blogger and Bastard Arrhi is due a CDM but that will come. Arrhi has certainly proven his worth as a solo pirate with a penchant for faction frigs but boy does he score some kills.

It didn’t take him long to score the initial tackle on a Tusker Firetail but I was unable to save/help him in time. However the Firetail pilots friends came to late to avoid the loss of their Faction frigate in return. Then it happened… the moment I fell in love with my new ship, not only did I finish of the Firetail, the supporting Jaguar and Rifter also fell to my drones and Ion Blasters.

Love never lasts long in space I found out as I since lost the ‘Predator’ trying to kill a Rupture, failing to see he had 4 friends in Local with him. /me sighs… I was on my way to Vitreauze to spend a little time with Venom and Mynxee, hoping to go on some roams with them and the Hellfleet boys. I did manage to buy another Ishkur from a passer by as there was nothing on the market available that tickled my fancy. I paid heavily for it but I felt naked without a ship surrounding my little egg.

A slight detour later and I caught up with the Mynx herself whom kindly helped me to some more modules and ships to use while I am stationed here.

Having been away for the weekend I returned for a few hours this afternoon to get ‘Predator 2’ into space and started scanning belt in the surrounding systems. A cruiser hull in a belt seemed like a good idea but the slightly inferior fit and a hangover did not help me in the slightest. Even in top form I don’t think I made the right choice in engaging and the inevitable happened.

Out of Ishkurs and I figured it was time to go T1 to work on my stats but curiousity killed the cat when I hung around a bit to long to see what all the fuss was about outside the station. Time to log out I figured…

Is shall return to space later and maybe get into some of the Hulkagedon funtimes….

Watch this space…