year

Much has happened since my last addition to this journal. RANSM exploded with members, at one point reaching around 45 players, firmly establishing our presence as a dominant force in Molden Heath. Now we have been reduced to a comfortable 25 members, while still maintaining ourselves as the alpha pirate group in our little slice of EVE.

Concluding the summer slowdown period for the corp, I spearheaded PvP efforts, leading nano BC gangs starting in September continuing consistently into October of '11. The result of training for the Drake, encouraging its use in the corp and coupled with ganglink support was monstrous: more ISK damage and kills were had by me during these two months than in the previous 6 months combined. I set a personal record in September as well for both total kills and damage done in a single month.

I can't stress enough how much the Drake affected that outcome. Its ability to absorb damage passively coupled with the 80km range of the HML meant that though gang members were often weaving in and out of a fight evading tackle and jockeying for position, all of our vessels were in range to apply consistent DPS on the primary target. All of our ships were able to adjust their damage type to the tank of the target. In addition to this, PODLA variants in the fleet which sported two webs in the place of invulns supplied vital range control, allowing us to deal with tacklers effectively. I'm happy to say from the results of these two months that the corp knows its own power: we're a very effective small gang organization when we decide to be.

November has been tainted with the urge of several of our top PvPers and FCs, including myself to take a break to carebear, or just from the taxing role of fleet command. This has resulted so far in a lackluster showing on the killboard, but in the end, we're just here to have fun.

Notable occurrences:

Laktos, an AUS member has released two PvP videos since joining the corp, Intolerance 1 and Intolerance 2. Great videos, and hint to those that enjoyed them: the next one in the series will involve plenty of Tempest action.

xxxAlloxxx, a CAN member has also been trying his hand at PvP video production. He's been working closely with Laktos to learn the ropes of solo PvP as well as video editing and production, and I'm looking forward to his growth as a PvPer.

Dirty Protagonist has begun blagging again, and I recommend you peak over to his site to get another view from within the corp. He also hosted a forum signature contest, which resulted in the image below. It's damned suiting.