Farjung
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Posted - 2005.08.30 00:02:00 -
[1]
I'll take the opportunity to share my thoughts about this contract before the thread deteriorates further into a flamefest.
I was interested prior to taking this contract to see how the ASCN today would compare to the Xetic Federation we were contracted against not so long ago, and in several ways I was rather impressed. I came down to Feythabolis during that contract on a couple of occasions, but the general population in the region was very low and pretty much dead for a good portion of the day. By way of contrast, this time it appeared that between Impass and Feyth there were almost always at least 30 characters logged in, whether they be active or docked and afk. During peak times there were easily in excess of 100 characters logged in between the two regions. Similarly, the ASCN empire presence was considerably less than the Xetic presence during that war. For that I salute you - after the last couple of contracts we've been on it is refreshing to see an alliance that actually lives in the space they claim.
As a result of this change in target distribution I personally spent about half the war in 0.0, and about 90% of that time travelling or running like a girl. The oft-complained about distance between ASCN claimed space and empire is a double-edged sword, and probably ASCN's biggest defensive asset. Not everyone in the MC is able to devote an hour and half to the trip down and back, aside from any fighting which may or may not happen, so it was generally small, mobile guerrilla units that were sent down.
A fact of life when fighting alliances is that the blob will become involved, and ASCN can put together an overwhelming show of force in their home space as fast as anyone I've come across. One evening we sent down a mix of cruiser and frigates with a gang numbering about 20, and we were met by a gang of over 50 in northern Impass, with approximately 20 battleships. Another afternoon, my cruiser and a couple of interceptors were chased for an hour or so by a hac, 2 cruisers, 6 or 7 t1/t2 frigates and a couple of battleships. The other day our 3 cruisers and 3 interceptors was met by a 15 man gang consisting of 5 battleships, 5 cruisers and 5 frigates. Just this morning my dominix and a pair of cruisers was chased around by two battleships, a hac and some cruisers, 8 or 9 frigates.
My point is not to complain about being outnumbered - we are expecting that when we come to your home territories. I am just trying to point out the sheer ridiculousness of expecting us to engage when faced with such insurmountable odds. If you want to chase us out of your territory you're going the right way about it, but please don't smack me in local and on the forums about it when you present us with no other option. As I've proved several times during this war, we are happy to engage when the odds aren't stacked in our favour. Alternative tactics would have been to come down in an extremely long range fitted battleship and played the sniping game for a couple of weeks but personally I don't find that a lot of fun.
As far as the out of corp covert ops thing, those in glass houses... At least Mexicanfx's alt can use a covert ops, even if he is a member of Deep Core Mining Inc. That's more than can be said for the tens of ASCN alts padding the numbers of organisations such as Center for Advanced Studies and School of Applied Knowledge that are posted on every gate within 5 jumps of Esa, smacking in local from the comfort of their shuttles and rookie ships. It's not as if you don't use out of alliance hauling alts to move freely through empire either. I wish espionage and intelligence gathering was a better supported profession in EVE, but as it isn't, I'm trying to make the best of the tools available to me.
All in all, I had an enjoyable contract and the client was pleased with the outcome. I know at least some ASCN members enjoyed our flirtations as well, and had some pleasant chats with them. Till next time, fly safe o/.
Someone really needs to keep me away from the Taranis |