PL Loses a Titan: Reading Between the Lines

It always amazes me, how in one breath militia pilots talk about small-gang warfare without all the political drama crap of nullsec blocs, and in the next they are talking about some drama bomb militia has recently unleashed. (Or they are screaming the drama from the top of their lungs.)

This weekend, members of militia downed a Pandemic Legion titan, and I wrote about it here. It is true that leadership from all four militias met together to discuss such an operation. It is true that they met to discuss a plan hatched by Amarrian FC, Predator Elite. It is true that the plans that were discussed were not the plans that ended up happening. It is true that the titan kill ended up costing those involved significantly in lost Dreadnaughts.

However, it was not the whole story.The whole story is a story of politics. It is a story of inter-militia drama and back stabbing. It is a story of corruption, hatred, and war.

Little to no Resistance

I’ve now flown with the Minmatar militia for a little over three months, and I’ve seen and experienced quite a bit in my time here. From huge capital battles to small, spontaneous skirmishes, it’s been a fun three months so far.

I admit, I was somewhat concerned when I first joined the Minmatar, having been in the Amarr for over a year. How would it feel shooting people I once flew beside? Would I be accepted into the Minmatar ranks or labeled an Amarr sympathizer and ostracized? I guess I didn’t really need to worry. It all turned out okay.

I do know that the Minmatar went through a period of time where they were very inactive in the USTZ. That all started to change a few weeks ago, as more and more logged in to shoot at the Amarr. I was reluctant to hope that it would last—maybe it was just a weird flux. But, weeks later I am still seeing significant more activity then during my beginnings in the militia.

In fact, I got a little concerned as to how to write about everything that happened this week. There were multiple cap battles, battles with neutrals, battles across different time zones, small skirmishes, etc. I thought…maybe I could just post one big post linking all the battlereports, but probably only the nerdiest of pvpers would be interested in all of that.

The Track Record

A little while back we had a little run in with EM. (Electus Matari) You can read about it here.

Needless to say we ran into them again last night while out roaming. Unfortunately (for them) many Minmatar corps are blue with them, so it posed a little problem, since I am not. They warped two frigates into our gang and immediate started shooting me. So, I started shooting back.

I was then informed in fleet that they were 'blue,' and that fleet shouldn't shoot them. Only one in my fleet GCCed to help me kill them. I was in an SFI so they weren't really a threat. If they were in larger ships and I had died while my fleet stood by and watched, heads would have been rolling.

Needless to say, the guy that helped me got into a little of trouble. His corp's diplomat was contacted, and the following, hilarious conversation ensued: (Please note that Tyrolen has -10.0 sec status.) I underlined my favorite parts.

Tales from the Minmatar Front Part 1: The Response

As many people probably already know, I have recently been writing about the Amarr/Minmatar conflict. This has generated a lot of interesting comments on several blog posts, as well as some ‘interesting’ mail.  (Related posts are linked below.)

Unfortunately for them, Sovereignty Wars, a blog I frequently refer to, has chosen to publish a rather scathing, ill-written rant by a somewhat hot-headed Amarrian FC. (Also linked below.) My LOLs follow:

LateNight®: A Look at the Minmatar Elite, and the Minmatar Militia Caste System

I know I have been talking a lot about faction war lately. It’s kind of hard not to, since I actively participate in faction war. I find it funny that a lot of null-sec pvpers I talk to instantly go “ewwww” when I say I’m in faction war. “Faction war is for nooby carebears trying to pretend to be pvpers.”

Though it is true that there are a lot of noobs in faction war (I’ve admitted this before) not every fw corporation is created equal. This is true anywhere. In all honesty, a lot of my faction war friends go “ewwww” when they hear of someone being in a big 0.0 alliance. To them, null sec pvp is long, boring, laggy fights with huge fleets of mindless lemmings who can’t tie their shoes without the FC’s sayso.

On either side, you have conjecture and major generalization. However, when push comes to shove, it really depends on the corporation you are in as to what kind of pvp you generally do. Every alliance, region, group, etc has its scrubs and its good pvpers. Sometimes to new comers, it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

“When in Doubt…” Eve Politics and the Philosophy of NBSI

“When in doubt, shoot it.” Pretty clear cut advice from an old CEO of mine. One we took to heart. Back in the day, our allegiances were constantly shifting. We would pair up with wartargets to kill pirates, or visa versa. We’d jump into 3 and 4 way fights, semi allying ourselves with various parties while shooting others. We rarely ever had blues, which made out NBSI status that much more fun.