Rolling Large – A Corporate Strategy
Different corps and pilots have varying ideas about when to upgrade to a bigger ship class. Some believe that you need to wait until you can fully T2 fit the ship in question. Others believe that you should upgrade as soon as you possibly can, fittings be damned. And still others fall somewhere between those extremes.
WTE believes in putting our pilots into the biggest ships they can fly, as early as they can fly them. That means cruisers and battlecruisers even for those pilots days or weeks old. Yes, there is a certain amount of risk involved in doing so, but we believe that the benefits outweigh the consequences.
- By flying in bigger ships, you have more DPS. More DPS means the opposing ships die faster. The faster they die, the less damage we receive. The less damage we receive, the less we die.
- By flying in bigger ships, you have more effective hit points (EHP). The more EHP you have, the longer you live. The longer you live, the more damage the enemy takes. The more damage they take, the faster they die. The faster they die, the less damage we receive. The less damage we receive, the less we die.
- By flying in bigger ships, you have more engageable targets. A fleet of 10 frigates (T1) will get killed by almost anything. A fleet of 10 cruisers can engage more than 10 frigates. A fleet of 10 battlecruisers can engage more than 10 cruisers or 10 frigates. A fleet of 10 battleships can engage more than 10 battlecruisers, or 10 cruisers, or 10 frigates.
- By flying in bigger ships, you win the psychological war. An enemy fleet of 10 battlecruisers will scoff at a fleet of 10 frigates. They will laugh at a fleet of 10 cruisers. They will be concerned with a fleet of 10 battlecruisers. They will fear a fleet of 10 battleships.
Let's use some actual examples here:
A few nights ago, OUCH had a gang of 8 T1 frigates roaming around in 0.0. Now, referring back to Assertion #3, we can guess that there would not be many, if any, targets in 0.0 that they could successfully engage. Indeed, they likely would only be able to engage haulers, or a solo T1 cruiser or two. Is this because OUCH pilots are poor at PvP? Heavens no. As will be shown shortly, pilot skill is only one part of the equation. No, they had few targets they could successfully engage because their ship selection was limited to T1 frigs. The end result when they encountered a smaller gang of larger ships? All 8 OUCH frigates were destroyed, 6 OUCH pilots woke up in new clones, and every hostile ship remained intact.
Now, let us put a typical WTE gang of the same size into that same engagement. Eight of our pilots, six flying battlecruisers, and two in cruisers (as is typical). The WTE gang would have steamrolled that particular Outbreak fleet. Why? Because WTE pilots are better at PvP than OUCH pilots? Heavens no. Indeed, a sizable portion of the WTE Security Division is made up of former OUCH members at the same general experience and SP level as those still in their old corp.
No, the difference is the ship selection. Battlecruisers (and cruisers) hit harder and last longer than T1 frigs. By hitting harder, we could actually deal enough damage fast enough to kill the enemy. By lasting longer (more EHP), we are better able to sustain that high level of DPS. Thus we avoid a massacre that teaches very little, and instead win a victory that teaches much.
The biggest concern when you're wanting "young" and "old" alike to roll large is ISK for the newer pilots. After all, a well fit frigate might cost around 4M ISK, and a cruiser might cost 12-15M ISK. A well fit battlecruiser can run the gamut of 45-75M ISK, quite a leap up from the previous two ship classes.
This is where White Talon's ship provisioning program comes in. We give you fully fitted ships for free, eliminating the ISK concern for organized PvP or PvE ops. Essentially, all WTE pilots can "roll large" at the corporation's expense. You lose a corporate ship while on an organized op? No biggie, they're all corporately insured, which lets us turn right around and purchase another. By provisioning these ships, you ensure that we are always able to field the maximum amount of firepower, with the maximum amount of sustainability, that our pilots possibly can. Sure we could eke out some more DPS and EHP by provisioning battleships. And you know what? That is in the plans. But that's for the future while we continue to operate successfully in the present.
Question for the People:
Where do you and your corp fall in the spectrum of when a pilot should upgrade his/her ship to the next size larger? Right away? When they can properly fit one? Is it an ISK concern? A SP concern?
War Declared
At 20:38 NES on 2010.02.08, Beyond Divinity Inc declared war on New Bastion, the alliance that houses White Talon Enterprises. I thought about doing this announcement press release style, but decided against it in the end. After all, I want my actual thoughts, and not Matthew Geary's "thoughts", to be what is presented here.
Beyond Divinity Inc is a rather well-known and long-lasting pirate corp in EVE. They've had a variety of haunts over the years, and I've fought against them on numerous times in various corps. For a while there they got away from their "roots" and attempted to roll large with capitals, but Ugluuk has since reigned them back into his original vision of the corp: Pirates who roll around looking for ganks and good fights as often as possible.
Over the last week, WTE has fared rather well against BYDI. And while I'd like to say that it was due to skill and out-maneuvering the enemy, those would mostly be lies. BYDI is predominantly Euro, while WTE has a very balanced Euro and North American population. The kills we've been getting have been in the late evening NA-time. Thus BYDI is outnumbered and out-gunned for those engagements...and we usually have the sentry guns on our side as well.
Which brings us to this wardec. The vast majority (maybe all?) of BYDI pilots have a sec status hovering somewhere between -7.0 and -9.9. And while we spend most of our time in lowsec and nullsec for our PvP roams, we do indeed base most of our operations out of a nearby high security system. Thus at 50 million ISK a week this wardec seems a bit odd, but not overly so. If I had to get right down to why I think they did it, I'd say that they were tired of tanking us AND the sentry guns at the same time. And since they can make 50 million ISK in a day or two of pirating rather easily, I believe they felt the expenditure worth it.
And that brings us to the situations that made spending the ISK "worth it" for them.
Kill #1:
Unreal is alone in Maila with three BYDI that are all docked. To see what they would do, he undocks from the station in a Drake, and is followed out by Ashley Snow in a Hurricane. Ashley locks Unreal, Unreal locks Ashley, and they both sit there staring at each other. Ashley begins pulling away slightly, unwilling to aggress first against a Drake and receive sentry gun fire at the same time. Unreal throws caution to the wind (two more BYDI pilots docked and no WTE pilots anywhere nearby to assist) and tackles the Hurricane down, engaging. Ashley returns the aggression, and slowly melts to the Drake's superior firepower and tank.
Unreal mentioned that, given her fit, she was likely going to try and kite him a bit, staying out of HAM range (if possible) while maintaining point. This obviously didn't work out for her.
Kill #2:
In this instance, Unreal was again alone in Maila with five docked BYDI. This time around, though, we had a fleet of twelve pilots standing by in Purjola, aligned for the Maila gate for a quick warp-and-jump. Unreal is ordered to undock in his Drake and to see what the hostiles will do. BYDI again undock a Hurricane, but once aggressed the hostiles begin piling out of the station in a Tempest, Drake, and Scorpion. While the BYDI hurricane is able to return fire on Unreal because he aggressed first, the other BYDI pilots begin taking sentry fire when they pour the damage onto Unreal. The fleet arrives on-grid and the Scorpion is primaried, dying quickly, while the other BYDI pilots redock or warp off.
Kill #3:
This is probably my favorite kill of the bunch. I'd left Cal cloaked up in Akora while I ran some errands, noticing Atreides Horza off the Reisen gate both before and after I got back from AFK. Warping to the gate cloaked, I began to approach his ship without really know what I was going to do when I got there. I thought for sure that he'd warp off, but instead he cloaked when my stealth bomber was about 50km away.
Well, that started the mad scramble to get a couple more people together after they'd been told to stand down from the previous roam that day. Unreal and Gah shipped up, and stood by in neighboring Reisen and Maila. I knew, though, that something would have to happen to get the sniping Tempest to decloak so that I could effectively find and tackle him. After all, I was flying blind in the general direction I saw him in before he cloaked up...but I had no idea how close I was actually going to end up.
Zaratustra was recruited to play the part of bait. He quickly fitted a "Battle Hauler" in Reisen, letting us know when he was undocked and ready to go. We knew exactly who Atreides' alt was in Reisen local, and knew that he must be salivating at the opportunity for another expensive gank. True to form, as Unreal warped to the Akora gate, Atreides decloaked his Tempest so as to clear the sensor recalibration time.
And, lucky us, he was a mere 27km away from where I'd ended up. As Zara jumped through, I quickly burned to the Tempest while calling for Unreal and Gah to get in system, and warp to me. There were actually two moments that I lost point due to poor cap management when Atreides could have warped out if he was paying attention. Luckily he wasn't, and luckier still Unreal and Gah finally arrived on-grid to take over point and let Cal bug out.
Kill #4:
This was another particularly fun one. We were just finishing up a roam, entered Akora, and saw baagpus and another BYDI in local. Knowing that they like to snipe off the Reisen gate, I warp the fleet there at 70km, hoping to get lucky again.
Baagpus and the other battleship were indeed on the gate as we arrived, and while the further Tempest decided to warp off to safety, Baagpus decided to cloak up where he was, remaining completely stationary while invisible (mistake). I burned straight towards where he'd disapeared, and was rewarded with a very large bump and decloak on his Tempest, which was quickly pointed down and destroyed. Bonus: His Dread Guristas Cloaking Device dropped, netting us a small chunk of change.
Kill #5:
Not much to this one. We were just starting up a roam and Unreal was again alone in Maila with three BYDI docked in station with him. Unreal decided to bring out his new toy (Rokh), and Herra B responded by bringing out a Megathron. The two battleships began battling, and the fleet was ordered to Unreal's position to burn down the Megathron as fast as possible. The other BYDI pilots remained docked.
Kill #6:
I'm not even sure if I should include this one on here, but it was amusingly none-the-less as I've done the exact same thing in the past (in a cheaper ship). In my case I was trying to warp my alt to a gate and jump through, but since my alt and my main were both flying the exact same ship in the exact same loadout, I was incorrectly looking at my main as I ordered him through the high sec gate. /insert lossmail to Faction Police.
The same thing, supposedly, happened with Herra B. He warped to the Purjola gate (high sec), and jumped right on through. Normally this isn't a terrible deal, as you can MWD right back to the gate and get back to safety. I had to do it recently myself when I wasn't paying attention and my autopilot took me through 1.0 space. I had no idea what was going on, but managed to make it back through at about 73% structure.
I'm guessing Herra was paying even less attention, as he didn't make an attempt to burn back to the gate until already webbed and pointed. Unreal astutely ninja'd onto the mail, and it ended up on our board as a kill. /salute Unreal.
Kill #7:
Ok, I lied earlier. This one is likely my favorite. It tops #3 in sheer awesome, because it was complete chance that it worked. Again, WTE was just finishing up a roam, and headed back to Maila/Ikami from the Otosela direction. Unreal jumped into Akora, and noted that Atreides was in local. Rolling the dice and hoping for all six's, I jumped through and warped to my bookmarked spot where Atreides had died the first time.
I honestly couldn't believe it when I decloaked his Tempest due to proximity upon landing. I was almost unable to order the fleet through into Akora and to my position due to laughing at the incredulity of the situation. There was no way the bookmark should have worked, but it did. There was no was Atreides would still be using the same spot, but he was. And while it wasn't the priciest kill against them, chance decreed a kill none-the-less.
All of those but Kill #7 happened prior to the wardec. And while I'm not under any allusions that those losses were "many" or severely impacted BYDI pilots in any way, they certainly must have been annoying. Thus the wardec, and allowing them to engage freely without worrying about silly matters like gate or station sentry guns.
We struck first blood, and meanwhile our Logistics Division is still plying away at their activities in our high sec HQ, undisturbed by the war. They've been cautioned to keep a close eye out on local, and to switch over to combat ships when necessary, but given BYDI's sec statuses impairment of their operations seems unlikely.
Thanks BYDI for all of the fun so far. Here's looking forward to the rest of the war, this week and onward. o/
WTE Chronicles – Conflict and Conquest
The man silently ran a towel through his hair for the tenth time, attempting to clear the large of the orange capsule fluid that still found itself present despite a thorough showering. He paused mid-motion this time, though, and said, "Aura, play the last message received from Zaratustra, please. Audio only."
"Internal or external audio, Captain Geary?" the soothing female voice queried back.
"Internal, please." Geary replied. He wanted to listen to Zaratustra's report as he walked to his meeting with Schwigg's contact, but he'd be damned if Aura broadcasted the audio to every local comm unit She could connect to along the way.
"Beginning playback now, Captain Geary."
Geary's eyes lost focus and he autopiloted through preparing for the meeting as the audio was routed through his cochlear implants. Zaratustra's report concerned a security operation WTE pilots had just embarked upon while Geary and his crew were conducting a post-flight cooldown of the corporation's Moa-class cruiser. Though he wanted to be present with his people to ensure the success of their op, the meeting he was about to attend pertained to the success of White Talon Enterprises itself.
"Log begins at 17:45 NES. Captain, I hope your meeting with Orlen goes well. We just finished combat maneuvers are are now safe from hostile contacts. Final tally is six hostiles within our patrol zone destroyed, while we sustained a single loss.
Cal began calling for the fleet to form up at 16:30 NES. The following pilots participated in the combat operation:
Calculon - Scimitar
ChristmasMarine - Maller
Crimnon - Drake
Laura Wu - Maller
Markie Mark - Falcon
Matthias Frost - Falcon
MegaThordin - Drake
Raiden Kaine - Arbitrator
Shou Shin - Myrmidon
Sorin Markov - Hurricane
Unreal - Drake
Zaratustra - Drake
To save you the number crunching, Cap, we had twelve pilots in fleet. Six battlecruisers, three standard issue cruisers, two force recons, and one logistics cruiser. Of that fleet, all ships returned safely besides the Drake-class battlecruiser piloted by Crimnon.
Unreal, who was scouting ahead of the fleet, reported that there were several Beyond Divinity pilots in Maila. The fleet traveled to the Purjola starsystem where it then sat aligned towards the Maila gate while orbitting Planet V. The stated goal was to see if the Beyond Divinity pilots were up for an engagement, or if they would simply remain within the safe confines of the station's docking bay.
I took the liberty of recording the fleet audio during that time, which will play now."
Unreal > Looks like we have five BYDI in station with me Cal.
Cal > Understood. Undock in your Drake and let's see if they want to party.
Unreal > Undocking.
*pause*
Unreal > Cal, I had a Hurricane undock with me. Attempting to engage.
Cal > Fleet, warp to the Maila gate and hold.
Unreal > Cal, the Hurricane has engaged.
Cal > Roger that, the cavalry is coming. Fleet, jump on contact and warp to Unreal at engagement distances.
Unreal > Ummm...Cal, we have more undocks. Tempest. Drake. Scorpion. I will need reps immediately.
Cal > Understood. Primary is the Scorpion people. Engage upon landing at the station. Primary is Trouser.
Matthias Frost > Tempest is jammed.
Markie Mark > Scorpion is jammed.
Cal > Trouser is going down, secondary target is the Hurricane.
"The Scorpion-class battleship piloted by TrouserDeagle was successfully destroyed. Unfortunately the remaining Beyond Divinity pilots were able to de-aggress or warp off. While I recommended that we spread points next time around, Cal brought up the obvious point that it wouldn't have mattered terribly, given both of our fleet compositions, we might have only destroyed a single more ship before all hostiles were able to talk the station traffic control operators into letting them back inside."
Aura's emotionless voice took full advantage of a pause in Zaratustra's report to notify Geary that he had to take the next left in order to arrive at his destination on time.
"From Maila we travelled our normal patrol zone through Akora and Oijanen before entering the starsystem of BWF-ZZ. Cal was shocked that the communication relays reported only three pilots not in our fleet present in the system. Having been stationed nearby in the past, I shared his surprise. For the better part of the last three years BWF has been a major hub for pilots leaving the confines of Caldari space and venturing into the black. Despite this apparent lack of targets, we did engage and destroy a Stabber-class cruiser whose pilot apparently thought it a grand idea to fight outnumbered twelve to one.
After securing anything of note from the wreckage of the Stabber, we proceeded through the empty starsystems of IOO-7O, BND-16, 01-FTD, 2E-ZR5, SR-KBB, and MR4-MY. Our foward scout that entered FDZ4-A noted that there were five pilots somewhere in-system, but after many minutes of fruitless searching concluded that they were docked or under the protection of a cloaking device. Frustrated, Cal called for a new destination of EOA-ZC and we began making our way there.
As was the case for most of the preceeding systems, WH-2EZ, L-HV5C, and NBPH-N were empty save for pre-existing orbital bodies. On a whim, Cal called for a scout to hop into the neighboring system of L4X-FH before continuing on to EOA. What follows is another recording from the fleet audio at that time."
Unreal > Cal, local here is at thirteen pilots besides me. On scan I see Caracal, Drake, Drake, Guardian, Hurricane, Curse. However, several starbases also on scan.
Cal > Understood. Let me know if you home in on any of those with the directional.
Unreal > Check. Wait. One Hurricane just warped to the gate.
Cal > Notify me of aggression.
Unreal > He has aggressed. I repeat, he has aggressed.
Cal > Fleet, jump into L4X. Primary is dreffaste. Call your points.
Gah > Point.
Matthias Frost > Target is jammed.
*pause*
Schwigg > Gate fire.
Cal > Hurricane down, primary is the Caracal.
Unreal > Point.
Cal > Loot and scoop people. Re-approach the gate.
Unreal > Curse decelerating from warp on the gate!
Cal > I'm jumping through the gate. Notify me when he jumps through.
Schwigg > He's jumping Cal. Jumping into you.
Cal > Understood. Jump when the stargate clears you to.
*pause*
Cal > Cal has point. Still locked through the stargate?
*pause*
Unreal > Fleet is jumping through to you now Cal.
Cal > Got it. Cap is running low, call your points so I can disengage.
Raiden > Raiden has point.
Unreal > Unreal has point.
Schwigg > Local is plus one, Cal.
Markie > Target is jammed.
Cal > Understood. Disengaging.
*pause*
Cal > Great job people on the Curse. Loot and scoop. Re-approach the gate.
Unreal > Hurricane is landing on the gate.
Cal > Target rich environment? Primary is Roynine Gainas. Call points.
Schwigg > Local is spiking.
Cal > Everyone align for Planet VII. Align for Planet VII. Pulse your microwarp drive.
Unreal > Hostiles are landing. Bhaalgorn, Tengu, Zealot, Vexor, Hurricane, Hurricane, Hurricane, Scimitar, Scimitar, and more.
Cal > Disengage people. Disengage. Burn off the gate and warp to Planet VII at <censored>. Once there immediately align for UBX. Again, align for UBX immediately upon exiting warp.
Matthias Frost > I'm scrambled. Bhaalgorn is jammed. Tengu is jammed.
Markie > Hurricane is jammed. Zealot is jammed. Scimitar is jammed.
Cal > If you're still at the gate, finish your burn and get the hell out.
Matthias Frost > I'm away. 15% structure...
Crimnon > I'm caught. I'm caught.
Cal > Damn, sorry Crim.
Crimnon > No worries, get people home.
Cal > Everyone warp to UBX. UBX is clear, so jump in contact. Get it in gear and let's race these guys back to safe space.
"While the numbers were relatively even between the two fleets, the ships belonging to Ad Astra simply over-matched what we currently had fielded. We lost Crimnon's Drake in this engagement, but we did manage to destroy the Ad Astra Hurricane-class battlecruiser that served as bait for our boys. I know neither you or Cal take a ship loss lightly, but there truly was nothing we could have done in that situation given what they were fielding and the distance at which the engagement played out at. Our Falcon pilots were simply far too close to maintain any level of safety, as evidenced by Matthias Frost's ship just barely getting out of there in one piece.
The Ad Astra fleet pursued us through UBX-CC and EOA-ZC before giving up the chase at the border of Caldari space. If they had chosen to engage us in Akkio or Otosela, we might have obliged them. The gate sentries would have evened the field nicely, and our Falcon pilots would have been able to dictate the necessary range. Regardless, they didn't pursue, and no other hostiles were encountered as we returned home to Ikami.
Wish you'd been along, Cap."
Aura's voice filled the auditory void and said, "Playback complete, Captain Geary. Would you like to save, replay, or delete the report?"
"Save it for now, Aura." Geary looked around him, blinking in slight confusion. It never ceased to amaze him that the human body can so easily navigate spacelanes or the interior of the station mostly on "autopilot" while the brain was focused on other tasks. He hadn't run physically into anyone or anything else along the way, despite the crowded cooridors. And now the doors leading to his destination were directly in front of him, waiting to be opened.
"Aura, please send a message to Zaratustra. Copy Calculon on it. Text only please. State, "Job well done. Looking forward to seeing you soon. MG."
Aura replied, "This action has been completed to your specifications, Captain Geary."
Outwardly composing himself, Geary stepped through the doors to begin his own mission. The secretary in the outer waiting room looked up as he entered and smiled as she said, "Mr. Tamoiro has been expecting you, Mr. Geary. He can see you immediately."
WTE – One Week Later
One week ago today, WTE finished up our move to the Ikami/Maila area. I'll tell you the truth, I was a little nervous about the move after another corp backed out of moving up there with us. After all, at that time we were a small corp of just 20 members, and there were large established pirate corps living at our destination. Moreover, the split from said other corp meant that instead of 210 people flooding the area looking for good fights and thus achieving critical mass easily, we were going to have a fraction of that number. Inwardly I wondered if we'd still be able to achieve the necessary numbers for fleet roams through lowsec and 0.0.
One week later, though, I'm laughing at those fears. Despite having only 50 members in corp at this point, we consistently have 12+ online and active at all hours of the day. At any given moment I'm able to call for a fleet roam, and I have 10+ immediately fleet up in the correct types of ships. And when we have scheduled roams? We can easily get upwards of 20 in the fleet without breaking a sweat. Not bad for a small corp that hasn't held open recruitment yet.
Our miners are having fun mining. Our PvPers are having fun PvPing. We're making new friends, and becoming re-acquainted with old enemies. Our pilots are learning, and having fun while doing it. Their wallets are growing, they're getting into bigger and better ships as a result.
It's been fun to see some of the former OUCH members stepping up and calling for their own roams while myself and the other primary FC's aren't online. It doesn't always work out the best for them killboard-wise...but I frankly don't care. As long as they're having fun and learning as they go, I could care less about the overall efficiency displayed on the boards.
We've got some major activities planned over the next few weeks, and it should be interesting to see if our overwhelming success to-date continues, or if we hit some major roadblocks along the way. Personally, I'm hoping for a little adversity. I want the former OUCHers to know that it isn't always going to be as easy as it has been so far. We're going to take some major losses on PvP roams. We're going to get our noses bloodied. There aren't always going to be targets around, and when they are we aren't always going to win.
Here's to a very successful, very fun first week in the area.
BoB and Goons: A Living Monument
In perhaps the most poetic ending that could have happened to the Band of Brothers/Goonswarm sage, Karttoon has created a living monument of their struggle. As many of you may know, Goons have controlled the alliance called Band of Brothers ever since Hargoth disbanded BoB. Karttoon has placed Goonfleet (which he controls) into Band of Brothers (which he controls). But even better, he has put enough ISK into the appropriate wallets to ensure that these two arch-enemies will be tied at the hip until the EVE servers eventually shut down.
Goonfleet, in the Band of Brothers alliance, devoid of players, tied together forever. Sure, I can think of some other things that I'd have done differently if I were in Karttoon's shoes (convert all of that ISK into PLEX and use CCP's Haiti donation pledge), but I can't quite think of anything that would top this in terms of pure EVE awesomeness.
What a way to leave your mark on EVE.
WTE Update and Ship Provisioning
With recruits still pouring in from OUCH in the wake of certain leadership decisions there, WTE is sitting nice at around 43 active pilots at this point. No megacorp to be sure, but we're getting up to the numbers where critical mass can be achieved for corporate operations across all timezones. Our goal is still to house 75 active pilots by the end of February, and it appears that we're well on our way to achieving that number.
With the influx of new pilots, we've been running scheduled ops every night this week. Mining op on Monday night. Standings op on Tuesday night. PvP roam on Wednesday night. The next two nights are "off nights" where everyone can just hunker down and do whatever they want to do. Maybe get another 2-3 ships into the area from way down in Berta. Maybe fill their wallet a little more to handle the upcoming weeks and months. And maybe roaming around looking for targets to kill.
Last night we debuted our "Ship Provisioning Program" to the new recruits. The basic gist of the idea is that, for corporate ops, corp members can "check out" ships from the corp hangar and use them for whatever is going on. Valid ops aren't just PvP (security roams), but PvE as well (security grinds and mining). These ships are corporately insured so that, if destroyed for whatever reason, the corp recoups the ISK investment and is able to restock that ship type.
Unlike some other SPP's, though, our ships come complete with mods as well. We have a couple of corporate fittings that we work from for each ship type, and when a person is requesting a ship they specify whether they're taking the Mk1 (Tech 1) or Mk2 (Tech 2) variants of the fitting. By providing these ships plus fits, we're really allowing pilots to get in and learn PvP or PvE at no cost to themselves. The knowledge that they receive in return more than supplements the ISK expenditure on behalf of the corp.
To put this into practical context, let's use our next Standings Grind night as an example. We have 16 people online, and 12 are going to be able to participate. Those 12 are provisioned Mk1 or Mk2 Drakes, Caracals, Moas, Hurricanes, and Ruptures. We split up into 3-4 groups of mission runners (just two squads, though), and blow through the L3's and L4's rapidly...ensuring that everyone is making a lot of ISK while simultaneously raising everyone's standings with the NPC corp. Salvage, in turn, gets donated to the Logistics Division. At the end of the night, the ships are returned to the corp hangar and are "checked in."
What did that op do for everyone?
1) Padded their wallets
2) Padded the corp wallet
3) Raised their standings with the NPC corp to get them closer to jump clones
4) Raised their Loyalty Point level for purchases from the LP Store
5) Supplied the Logistics Division with a ton of salvage for rig manufacturing and sales
For the pilots it was completely free. They got to use ships they didn't have to purchase, with mods readily supplied to them. If they lost their mission-running ship for whatever reason, no biggie...it happens, and the corp simply purchases another with the insurance payout.
But, let's be honest...this program was really designed with PvP in mind. One of the chief rules in PvP is: "Fly what you can afford to lose." On corporate roams (read: roams with a Senior FC leading them), our pilots don't have to worry about that rule. They are provisioned ships per their skills for use on those ops. Thus the people that may normally only be able to affordably lose a Caracal, for example, can instead be flying a Mk2 Drake. A Mk2 Hurricane instead of a Stabber. A Mk2 Blackbird instead of a Griffon.
A fleet of 15 Battlecruisers has many more realistic engagement opportunities than a fleet of 15 mixed Cruisers and Frigates. By allowing people to check out ships for PvP ops, we're ensuring that we can always field the very best that the pilots can fly, rather than whatever their individual wallet would normally allow them.
So, let's recap, shall we? Corp members can use corp ships for money-making ops, ensuring that they can make money for "free". They can then turn around and use corp ships for combat ops, ensuring that they can PvP for "free". All the while, their individual wallets are getting bigger, and thus they are better able to supply themselves with ships and fittings for non-official corp ops. Sure, the corp is taking a loss through providing these ships, fittings, and ammo...but it is ok for the corp to be "red" in one area as long as it is balanced out with income from others. Luckily for WTE, we have an absolutely stellar Logistics crew that makes that happen.
(I promise we'll try to avoid losing too many, Schwigg) 
Goonswarm: Welcome to Band of Brothers
I thought that things couldn't get much better last week when the Goons forgot to pay their sov bill and lost the majority of their space to the lightning offensive by IT, -A-, and Sys-K. But as of last night, they did. One of my corpmates relayed the following writeup to me:
As you may or may not know, last week niarT epaR(rape train backwards) forgot to pay the bills and goonswarm lost a lot of sov. Well yesterday, Karttoon(CEO) came back to a disgruntled goonfleet. He posted a polite post in TWR last night and received 6 pages of "resign faggot" and :frogout:
Today on the almost one year anniversary of Haargoth's destruction of Band of Brothers it seems that everything has come full circle.
[07:40:47] karttoon: Welcome to Band of Brothers gentlemen
Welp. Can you say karma?
Quote from vio geraci
Here's what we know:-Karttoon removed roles from Goonfleet directors and kicked every corp except the wallet corp from Goonswarm.
-He has a lot of our ISK. He has a lot of our non-ISK shit. He has control of the Goonswarm alliance and the Band of Brothers alliance.
-There is no possibility that this is a prank.
-Our technical evidence implies that he was not hacked.
-It is two or three days before the anniversary of disbanding BoB. COINCIDENCE?
-Do not log in with capitals if you logged off at a Goonfleet or Goonswarm POS, especially supercapitals, because you will bounce off the shields and die and shit.
I'm sure there will be threads in TWR about this explaining things in greater detail, later. Geraci out.
Quote from Darius Johnson
As many of you may have noticed we no longer have an alliance. The very gentleman who is CEO of fleet is the likely culprit so we'll be dropping goonfleet as well. Goonfleet is dead. Goonswarm is dead. We will now bask in the glory of Goonwaffe.If you have roles drop them. We will be moving everyone to a new corp as soon as I can have it ready. I kept Goonwaffe so that is the likely target. Don't apply yet I need to upgrade it.
And of course, no Haargothing would be complete without destroying as many capital assets as you can.
Thanks Tet for providing the awesome recap for us. I'm sure the Goons will recover from this. They live and breathe for chaos, and certainly nothing could be more chaotic than the current situation for them. If this were any other alliance, I'd certainly feel sympathy...but as discussed previously...the Goons had this coming when they pulled similar metagaming on BoB.
The circle is finally complete. IT (BoB) have Delve, former MC corps now in -A- have Period Basis, and former FIX corps also in -A- now have Querious. It's like the server was rebooted to 2006 to make amends for everything that has gone wrong since BoB got Haargothed. And while I'm not a big fan of the old/new status quo, I am a fan that the wrongs have been righted.
WTE Moved and Doing Fine
The decision was made over the last two weeks to move White Talon Enterprises out of the Derelik/Curse regions and up to The Forge/Metro/Geminate. While there were a variety of reasons for doing so, the bottom line is that our new home has better PvP opportunities, better PvE opportunities, and will truly allow our corporation to grow into what we want it to be. And yes, it doesn't hurt that the location fits perfectly with our minor corporate RP.
Our players are still in the process of grabbing some of their belongings, but we have already run combat and industry ops in our new home. The ore is flowing in, standings are rising, and hostiles are dying.
We'll be throwing the recruitment doors wide open soon, so stay tuned.
Goon Director Miscue Equals IT/-A- Victory
A little bit of preface work here. I have been a member of the GBC. I have also fought against the GBC. I am neither "pro-BoB" or "anti-BoB."
With that being said, karma is a bitch, isn't it Goons? From a Goon member on the Scrapheap-Challenge forums:
Here’s what happened: all of the systems that were lost were the ones with TCUs that were seeded by CCP. Their sov bills all came in at once – today. So how did we lose our space? The same way xdeathx now confirms that he lost his sov. He, too, set auto bill pay up like we did. However, he fucked up and had the alliance’s money in the wrong wallet division. Since the bills could not be paid, the TCUs all unanchored at the same time…
…So, the bad news: We lost NOL, F-T, I1Y, 1-s, and a few stations in querious. Also our JB system is dead and most of our important jammers are gone. Years of hard work literally ruined by a failure to check a box.
I have to say, I have absolutely no sympathy for the Goons. None. Zero. They won the second Delve War with a single button push, so I have no problem with them losing Delve now due because their directors were too lazy to either pay the bill, or ensure that enough money was in the correct Wallet Division to cover the automatic payments. I have confirmed with both Atlas and Morsus Mihi directors that they received notice three days ago that there were insufficient funds to cover the upcoming sov bills. Both of those alliances managed to hold onto their sov because their alliance-level directors were on the ball with shifting the appropriate funds in a timely manner.
And kudos to IT (and -A-) for taking significant and important chunks of Delve when the opportunity arose. For all of the hubbub that The Mittani made of BoB's capital ship debacle, it is sweeter still to see it being repeated once again. During the second Delve War, BoB made the critical mistake of logging the majority of their capital assets off in a station that was then perma-camped for the rest of the war. Without their capital ships to field en masse, the GBC was unable to repel hostile cap fleets, or reinforce towers planted in their crucial systems.
Now we see that the same situation, to an extent, is happening with the Goons in J-L. I have been told the following by a friend with an alt in Goonfleet:
[19:53] Mr. Smith: there are a lot of caps trapped in station
[19:53] Mr. Smith: pretty much anyone who didn't have a JC or wasn't docked where their caps were is screwed
[19:54] Mr. Smith: some people got their stuff out ,but the both stations were taken around 11am pst, well before most goons ever log on
The Mittani is reassuring his Swarm, though, that they have enough spies in IT that it is only a matter of time before they are able to recoup all of the capitals and other assets.
All in all, I have to say that this may have been the best day to happen to EVE in a long, long time. I can say that even though I'm neither positively or negatively impacted by it. Instead I sit from a distance with a huge smile on my face feeling, for the first time in a long time, the balance of power in EVE is right back to where it is supposed to be. I never liked BoB on top of the dog pile, but if they were to be taken down I wanted it done through legitimate in-game actions rather than a director in the holding corp pulling the plug and charting their course to inevitable defeat.
As Matthew Geary would say, "The ancestors surely had their hand in the events of today."
Fun associated links:
White Talon Chronicles: Kickoff
Images floated across his HUD as Matthew Geary floated peacefully in the artificial amniotic fluid. The number being displayed kept climbing, out of the single millions and spiraling further upward quickly. That is a lot of tritanium... Geary thought to himself.
A communication channel acknowledgment began blinking, and Geary willed it open.
"Are you seeing the same thing I'm seeing?" Schwigg asked incredulously, the excitement audible in the computer-simulated voice.
"Yeah. These guys really know their stuff." Geary replied. That Schwigg was showing this much excitement about the results of their Opening Bell kickoff spoke volumes. In the four years that they'd worked together, Geary could only recall two other instances that had warranted such an emotional response.
"If you don't mind, Cap, I'd love to discuss the specifics about getting these guys into some more capable vessels. Look at what they did with a bunch of Ospreys and Retrievers. Imagine what they'd be able to accomplish with Covetors or Hulks."
Despite himself, Geary smiled in his capsule. He never is satisfied, is he? The thought, though, it was quickly answered with another. That's why he's in charge of our Logistics operations.
"You're the money man, Schwigg. When you have had the chance to fully quantify the results from the kickoff operations, let me know and we can talk about upgrades to their vessels."
That the reminder of his duties quenched some of the the excitement was evident when Schwigg belatedly replied, "...yes Sir..."
"Oh, and Schwigg..." Geary said, shortly before closing the comm channel, "Let the guys know just how much we appreciate all of their hard work."
With the communication channel closed, Geary focused once more on the exterior of his ship, manipulating the camera drones to take stock of the situation. Traffic was incredibly heavy this close to Jita, though it'd grow even heavier as he progressed the last few jumps to the largest market hub in New Eden. He couldn't stand Jita, it was far too crowded for his liking, but the fact remained that it was the "it" spot in the galaxy. Anything you could possibly want to buy, whether it be ship, equipment, ammunition, or crew you could be found at the lowest prices the galaxy could possibly offer.
Its popularity also made it a great place to procure information of a more sensitive nature. Schwigg had done an extensive amount of digging at Geary's request after the startling revelation that the CPD has vetted the corporate application through the normal Concord approval cycle. Every avenue that his Minmatar partner had pursued, however, had let to a dead end. Every lead but one.
[i]To willingly walk into the lion's den, armed with nothing buy guile and grace...[/i] Geary thought, bemused. The lead was a former Caldari Navy agent who had accepted a new role within the CPD, working as a liason between the two organizations. Schwigg had worked with the fellow sometime in the past, and while he vouched for the authenticity of his contact's information, it came with a disclaimer.
"Orlen Tamoiro will tell you the truth, but he almost certainly has his own agenda as well." Schwigg had said. "He also wasn't surprised to hear from us, and that scares the hell out of me."
Geary's ship shuddered a final time before the soothing priority override on his communications system broadcasted, "Docking request accepted." For better or for worse, his Moa-class cruiser was now docked inside of the Caldari Navy Assembly Station orbitting around Jita 4-4, and he had a meeting with someone that might very well end with a trip to the Detention Block.
OOC - A very special thanks to the following WTE members that showed up and mined/hauled their butts off:
cavalier7
Conan Samson
Czuuk
FifDSeven
gudea
Ieharu
Mctavoish
PhilAlex3
Sorin Markov
Silvie Girard
Schwigg
Zaratustra