Everyone loves an underdog! To win a prize in this bounty, share the true story of a battle you really should have lost and yet somehow prospered in. Bonus points for storytelling flair! We're expecting contextualised and entertaining stories of at least 100 words (feel free to make it considerably longer). Nine winners will snag $4, while the very best story will win $15. Bonus points for dramatic storytelling flair!
This bounty closed to entries at 9:07am on September 13, 2024 but you can still reply, react, and join the conversation below! If you’d like to enter other bounties which are still open, click here.
A little history. More than two years ago a single pilot in our Corporation made some bold claims in local one day. He declared that the low security system we live in was ours and no one else could use it without our permission. This proclamation angered some of the people in local, who fired back in chat. This back and forth continued until the other side became so enraged they decided to attack one of our structures.
A war ensued. They attacked our structure, so we attacked one of theirs. This went on for a week or so and suddenly the conflict started to expand. Others were drawn into the fight. Nasty things were said on Discords and the back and forth continued to escalate. As I raced to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape, I reached out to the original combatants and made peace with them. The original pilot was let-go from our group and I hoped peace would reign.
This was not to be so. One of the largest groups in Low Sec space decided that we deserved to be punished and thus began a campaign to remove all of our structures from our home system. This despite a long-standing agreement between us regarding those structures, which we used only to host our annual and epic Frigate Free For All events. This did nothing to stop them and once started there was literally no way for us to stop them either. In short order our structures were gone and in their place remained a sole Astrahaus of theirs. In view of our home station and named an intentionally provocative name.
It is important to mention that our small group of Pirates flies mostly solo and small gang Frigates and Cruisers. While this much larger group primarily flies much, much larger ships. Our play-styles could not be more different. We rarely interact in space.
And so began a slow and deliberate rebel action. While we couldn't take this group on toe-to-toe, we happen to be extremely determined. Every so often, for the past two years, we attack their structure. Over and over and over again. Randomly. Often two or three times a week. Often with months in-between attacks. Usually with different ships. Sometimes solo. Sometimes with a fleet. The plan was to just never stop doing it. Often this would end with nothing accomplished, or with the loss of a few ships. But we never stopped.
Over the Summer we managed to remove this groups ownership of the POCOs in our system (POCO stands for Player Owned Planetary Office and each planet has one that collects tax from the use of those planets. They are a small but important source of income.) And we became more serious about the effort to remove the structure.
For days at a time we would log in and attack the structure, over and over again. And over and over again they would respond, often by manning the station and running us off. But often by dropping far superior forces on us as a show of strength. But we kept at it. We never gave up. We became unpredictable, often putting the structure into a timer and then not showing up for the final timer. And vice versa. We also established a line of scouts that could help us determine the enemies intentions ahead of time.
And then, our moment arrived. We had already put the structure into its first timer. And we brought out a new fleet composition we'd been holding onto for the final assault, when we thought we might have a better than normal chance of success. And it worked like a charm. No one showed up to defend. And on August 27th - over 2 and a half years later - the structure finally exploded.
I haven't said anything about this on my blog, or on social media, or anywhere else. This one is just for us and we are trying to avoid any unnecessary repercussions. This is the same group that dropped 15,000+ shuttles on me earlier this year. But it is a great story about not giving up, despite the odds, and sticking to your plan no matter what others are saying - or doing. And I think Just About is the perfect place to share it. I have avoided using any names in this story.
Not all great fights in Eve Online are between ships.
This story is a beautiful example of persistence and resilience. A small group of pilots, facing a much larger and more powerful corporation, almost like a movie script haha
I was getting real Star Wars vibes too. This is great Rixx Javix, first prize is yours. Here's to hoping we haven't accidentally reignited the conflict.
Just so that we're clear, I'm the worst strategist in the world. I'm the type of person who thinks they have a grand plan and end up pigeon holing themselves into a corner. Like at the CSM summit where I got CCP Convict to get the Eve boardgame out and coach myself, Satan, Storm and Oz. I was sure that battle would lead the Caldari to glory but instead I just managed to get Satan and Oz to team up on me.
But that isn't the story we're here for. This story is about the time I lead my Dessies and Down newbro roam, that's held together with duct tape and a prayer, to get a Mackanaw AND Orca right next to Horde staging. And got away with it.
The date was November 22, 2023. It was a Wednesday and time to take out the FUNny Newbros in a NPSI (not purple shoot it) kitchen sink Dessies and Down fleet. The fleet was around 16 or 17 pilots with two pilots who were fairly new to hunting. It's worth noting that in the pvp fleets I FC, anyone can try any role (including FC).
We yeeted out to null and landed in Malpais and decided to hunt into Perrigen. This normally isn't the best fleet to take around Horde staging. It's not as agile and quick as the raptors and I usually get us welped when I try what other NPSI FCs do. But, for some reason we ended up in TDP-T3 which is right next to MJ, the staging system.
Scout, trying to speak calmly, lets us know he's caught two Mackanaws and a Porpoise. We get into TDP and take care of the Porpoise and one Mack. While we start working on the second, another scout tells us he caught an Orca.
Local is starting to come up and a Caracle as well as a few other small things land. We let the Mack go and fly to the Orca. I told the fleet either we'd be successful or we'd go out in a blaze of glory. Well, while local was climbing and Horde was putting a proper response fleet together my ragtag band of misfits poured every ounce of fire power onto that Orca and took it out right as the response fleet was landing.
This was one of the very few times I've ever been able to do something sneaky and strategic and have the kills (and a video) to prove it happened.
I may have accidentally killed one or two newbros to get the Orca explosion. That may have been a bit of an Icarus moment.
I've always said for the past 4 years that I've been running the newbro roam that the fleet is held together with duct tape and a prayer. So I'd been waiting for the moment awhile. ;-D
Okay, here's one I'll never forget, it was very memorable at a time when I loved playing with my cousin and some friends:
It was a quiet Saturday night, we were playing as we always did every weekend. My corporation was small, and we had recently joined a coalition to conquer some territory in nullsec. Our alliance was small, with an ill-equipped group, with rare exceptions (a bunch of crazy people with a few expert shots hahaha). We usually played in a “hit and run” style, and it usually worked, but on this day things didn't go well.
We received information that a hostile fleet of 50 men was heading towards one of our systems, with the intention of capturing it. Fear prevailed. We had just over 10 pilots online. Most were already thinking of imminent defeat, but the few who trusted in an impeccable defense rallied everyone for battle!
The enemy arrived in force, a mixture of warships and support cruisers, equipped with technology II and with great firepower. On our side, we had a few battle cruisers, some logistics ships and a single stealth bomber (yes, that last one is me).
The plan was simple: lure, harass and keep these guys chasing shadows. I loaded my Nemesis stealth bomber with a rack of torpedoes, camouflaged myself and went ahead of the fleet to reconnoiter. My task was to ambush their logistics ships - their lifeline. If I could take out one or two of their guardians, we might stand a chance.
The moment came when their fleet reached the gate. Our main force struggled, barely managing to keep up, dancing on the edge of combat range as I positioned myself. They were concentrating on chasing us, and I had my window. (I was scared to death at this point, I had the feeling that the whole strategy was going to go wrong, that it was a waste of time, but I still made the effort and stuck to the plan.)
I came out of camouflage, lined up my shot and unleashed my torpedoes. One of their logistics ships disintegrated under the blast. But now I was exposed. Their entire fleet had turned against me. I activated my cloak just in time to disappear from their scanners.
They hesitated, not knowing whether to continue chasing or defend their logistics. In that confusion, our second group of ships entered from another angle. Suddenly, the battle turned into complete madness.
I went after their DPS ships, got another kill, the enemy began to retreat, disorganized. They jumped, abandoning the field. Our losses? Minimal. Their fleet? Destroyed. THAT NEVER LEFT MY MIND!
Against all odds, we won. We shouldn't have stood a chance, but by taking the risk and with a lot of luck thrown in, we were victorious. The game was already very good, but this experience made it all the better!
It was just another day of bumming around in the wormhole that we called home. Me and a handful of other corp mates were trying to figure out what we wanted to do. Should we go hunting? Do we want to do some pirate sites and salvage all the loot? One of our guys decided he would buzz around through some connecting wormholes and look for some good gas mining sites. His gas-huffing boat was nice and stealthy; perfect for what he was about to do. He took off to do his thing while we sat around pvp’ing each other and scratching our asses. It wasn’t long before he came over our comms channel, “Bring boats, lots of them!”.
Now, keep in mind, that we can only fit destroyer class and smaller ships through this hole. Destroyers are one of the smallest classes of ships.
So, we get our boats and stage on our side of the hole. This was so that we could jump through the hole en masse. Surprise!! You suddenly have 12 ships in the hole with you and you’ve just hit pucker factor 11. Our man in the hole is cloaked up and starts feeding us warp-in points. He comes over comms and tells us, “Just be ready for a long fight.”. Our fleet commander gives the countdown for jump- 3, 2, 1, JUMP! We hit the other side of the hole and once everyone is in, we align to our warp point and warp in. When we hit the warp in point we were astounded and excited to see that what our corp mate has found is a freakin’ Rorqual! I giant industrial mining ship. An unbelievably expensive giant mining ship with lots of drones and tougher than John Wayne!
Our fleet commander gives us the green light to attack. Giving orders for certain groups to kite the Rorqual and for others to focus on the drones. The attack commences. In the meantime, calls are going out through online chat apps, text messages, and phone calls- All hands on deck!
Over a few hours, pilots are logging in and out due to real-life responsibilities, wife aggro, and tiredness. Ships are destroyed and capsules are coming back with new jump clones and ships. Tactical destroyers, bombers, and logistics ships coming and going.
When all was said and done, the Rorqual succumbed. This was a big deal. As far as we were aware, we were the first to ever bring down a Rorqual in a wormhole. We were under the impression that at that time, a ship of that size couldn’t get into a wormhole. Some of our members even contacted CCP to inquire about it but never received a reply.
Whatever the case, we had a major victory that will be forever memorialized on Zkill.
We originally thought that it was some sort of cheat or exploit. Thats the reason our corp leadership contacted CCP when it happened. I never got into the ins and outs of ship building in the game so I suppose it’s possible but there weren’t any other player structures in there. To this day I still haven’t a clue. By the way, I’m Gelvan Cadelanne in the kill mail. O7
This is just to show this good old kill off. Short story. Got chased a few systems, got caught and then i had to commit to the fight. He only got 1 rep cycle off before he popped. Never underestimate exotic fits...
Ooh nice one. Can I suggest sharing this in the main feed instead of on this bounty post? You'll get more eyes on it there, and I'm sure people would love to hear the fuller story.
This was a tough cookie. I thought a lot about what story to tell. At first I wanted to share the Vargur story, but it is difficult to say the odds were against us and I have told that story often enough. It was one of my proudest moments when we managed to kill a Marauder in our frigates, but the Bhaalgorn that followed was actually an "impossible" kill. Sadly the footage recorded during the fight was useless and I did not cut a video from it, so I wrote it down here. I shared the video of the Vargur itself though, as it was basically the same engagement.
So, this is my tale:
It was a Friday evening and the corp had assembled for our weekly roam. When we reached Fliet, we encountered an old friend and arranged a fight. We agreed on the ships to bring and we started looking for a good site to fight in. What followed was a long and difficult grind trough the crazy tank of a T2 battleship and finally a great killmail, but this was only the start.
The Vargur pilot wanted a rematch and decided to bring his neuting battleship to the fight. We were ready on the warpin and tackled him right away. We were already used to fighting large targets, so we entered orbit and he could no longer track us. The Bhaalg has very strong boni to Energy Nosferatus though and he did everything he could to try and get us. Again, the grind started, but this time we had to be careful not to lose all of our cap and die.
After about 35 minutes of shooting the insanely tanky vessel, I contacted the pilot and asked if he would rely on any kind of cap boosters and if there was a chance to drain him out over the course of time. He was not. There was no way to destroy his ship as long as we would have cap, because his reppers were feeding on our fleet's resources. We were on the point of extracting and leaving him when one of our pilots had an idea.
The Bhaalgs Nosferatus were transferring energy from us to him, but if we would have no more cap, the Noses would become useless and he would loose the ability to tank. This was the first time I called my logi to activate their repair modules onto undamaged fleetmembers, my dps pilots to heat their neuts and activate every single cap eating module even if useless. The two pilots that were under drain finally had no more cap and even their ABs turned off. Without our cap, the Bhaalg began to struggle and the repairers turned off! Now it was just a question of time. In the end, the pirate BS exploded and we had destroyed a ship that was technically unkillable by our current fleet!
The Bhaalgorn pilot jumped into our voice coms and we had a great chat. He was quite surprised about our tactic. It was a lot of fun, but most importantly whenever I encounter a hopeless situation in Eve now, I think of that moment. 45 minutes of fighting, but we did not give up! Just hang on and keep going!
Initially, I considered turning this story into fanfiction, but it’s too personal and rather lengthy. I’ll keep it in my backlog for now, but here’s a short overview.
It was December 2005, about a year after the disbandment of Curse Alliance. The scattered remnants of its former glory were forming new forces, and I was part of one of them – a small corp of 20 people. We had spent a year in constant combat against Veritas Imortalis, The Five, and, of course, the former southern landlords, Arcane Technologies (ATUK).
We managed to ally with the locals and negotiated favourable terms with Red Alliance, RAT, and Section 13. Together, we held the Detorid region, allowing them free passage and access to outpost services. Our main outpost system was 0-W778. Back then, you couldn’t place your own outposts – you could only claim existing ones.
Then one day, the Chimaera Pact arrived with over 400 pilots, including 3 dreadnoughts, bearing a message: "We want to live in peace" – followed by a siege. At that moment, it was basically 13 of us against 400.
We couldn’t face them head-on, so we resorted to guerrilla warfare – catching their rear stragglers, setting traps, and more. Unfortunately, Red Alliance, while vocal on forums and chats, offered little in the way of real help. Most of CHIMPs were from Finfleet, in the Eastern timezone. During the day, they destroyed all our POSes, and at night, we ran freighters from empire space, loaded with towers and fuel. This went on for almost three months, during which we burned through over 400 POSes, but eventually, we lost the system and the region.
For the next few months, we continued our guerrilla operations, hiding in the Wicked Creek region – a desolate area with no outposts or stations. I still have some videos from that campaign, though they’re heavy with now-copyrighted music. Here are a few stats from our winter campaign:
And then came the infamous meat grinder at C-J6MT, but that’s a story for another time!