Space Quidditch

It's been a busy time on the recruitment front in The Bastards. With an exremely sizeable chunk of Python heading to the darker side, we had effectively gained pilots ranging in the double figures in the space of one to two weeks.

The Bastards are a corp based upon our brotherly (and sisterly) loves. We all fly as a rowdy bunch of mates who cannot hope to be controlled in an orderly manner. Gaining such a large bunch of new guys was going to require something a bit different to help them integrate into the elite ranks us fools.

RnProphet and myself decided to scheme one afternoon about a way to have a lot of fun and get the new guys involved. What we came up with was an evil hybrid between Capture the Flag and Quidditch. Prophet penned the 'Space Quidditch' name but I thought it was bit homosexual, even for his open closet tastes and just stuck with Eve CTF for now.

We lead 14 individuals in their pods to a designated system. Each of them completely unaware of what lay ahead. The first point on the agenda was picking teams. Ronin and Lord Sara were penned in as captains and proceeded to choose their team-mates. We ensured that the Pythons got a good mixture on to both teams by picking them first and the Bastards last.

Now the fun began.

Prophet and I had arranged ships into numbered Station Containers that came equipped with some vanilla T1 mods for which to fit them with. Teammates could swap mods to realise their dreams.

Players took it in turns to pick a number and receive a can. Ronin and Sara then had to pick from two more cans which had a support ship (Destroyer) and their team flagship (Cruiser) within them.

While these picks were happening, San had made a quick safespot for which she sat in a Maller class cruiser. Any team capable of probing it out and finding it would be able to use it in their fleet.

The teams in a Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars style began to optimise their fleets for capture the flag. Their were no warp disruptors involved in this game intially. Teams were however allowed to rat to find new mods.

During the setup phase. Teams were allowed to undock, probe and find the bases. Red team took full advantage of this and managed to probe out the Maller. San promptly ejected from the ship. After a short conversation, red team realised that none of them could fly the cruiser and hence decided that it was better if they blew the ship up rather than allow the enemies to secure a clear advantage.

In an even more devious scheme, red team then proceeded to their anchored can for which their own flag was sitting and jettisoned several cans, naming them all 'red base'.

The rules to win were simple:-

First to 500 points

- Succesful Flag Capture - 100 Points

- Kill a Frigate/Noobship - 25 Points

- Kill a Destroyer - 50 Points

- Kill a Flagship - 200 Points

All of the players were now ready and the game got underway. Both teams essentially swapped places to one another's base. Red team scooped the blue flag and proceeded to return. 

Blue team were in a state of confusion. They landed to find 10+ cans on their overview and began to lose control of their profanity filters. Red team waltzed back to their base, capturing the flag without a shot being fired.

Blue team realised their mistake and reconfigured their overviews so the same mistake would not happen again.

Red led by 100 as the flags were reset.

The battle began again. Blue team had this time left their Augoror flagship at their own flag with an ample frigate escort.

The mighty Augoror is generally known as a pretty rubbish ship. Atheist Peace had turned this little beast into real flagship. Its dual medium rep tank and extended armour points made it a fearsome command ship. 

The red team scout, Khaled landed near the blue flag. The Flagship and its escort proceeded to bear guns down upon the reaper noobship. Before it could turn about, the purple sheers of the flagship had reduced the scout to a molten heap.

Faster ships began to arrive at the blue base. This time a successful swoop managed to snatch the flag from the container. Meanwhile, at the red base, Fenneck's deadly Thrasher and the red command ship, an Osprey were acting as sentry gunners to fend off Ronin's attempts to snatch the flag. Each time Ronin managed to slip away with mere structure points left in his Rifter.

The Osprey is again not noted for it's PvP prowess. This flagship however was fielding a serious tank in the capable hands of Comy. It's extended shields and multiple invulns made it a serious tough nut to crack. It also had some serious anti speed tank weaponry in its myriad of heavy missile launchers.

Once again, the red team dwindled back to their base to capture the flag for another 100 points. In resetting the flag however, they decided to shoot the iteron games master and proceeded to gain a rapid 50 point deduction.

The flags were reset again and the passwords were changed. San was now in a Buzzard for which the password would be the name of the ship. She remained cloaked while battles unfolded.

Skirmishes had broken out at both bases. A blue Kestrel succumbed to the firepower of the flagship and destroyer combo. This time, the Blue Team managed to score  closing the score to 100 blue 175 Red.

The fun continued for several more rounds. Both red and blue scoring and taking some losses upon the way. The score was close at 350 Red 375 Blue. We decided to settle this the correct way as it was getting late.

Planet V was designated the showdown area. It was a team deathmatch, last man standing scenario. Whoever was left, would win.

The initial bulk of the blue fleet landed upon the planet, remaining in tight orbit to their Augoror flagship. Red team began to drop warp 50km away with their irreplaceable Osprey command ship at the centre of the fray.

After a little dance between the two teams, the fighting got under way. Loth went for a characteristic Leeroy upon Ronin's Rifter. In an attempt to web the Rifter down, Loth rapidly lost his ship under the combined firepower of the Augoror and Cormorant.

The remainder of red team swooped in. Engaging away at the enemy frigates. The Osprey command ship began tearing into an enemy Imicus, attempting to speed tank the command ship. The heavy missiles quickly getting the better of it. Atheist beared the guns down upon his Augoror and opened fire on another Kestrel. With Ronin and Shaders help, the Kestrel ruptured and promptly caught fire.

Ard called Ronin primary for the red team. Fenneck's Thrasher levelled the artlillery and made some sizeable holes in the Rifter. It was soon over for Ronin. Fenneck's Thrasher finally succumbed to the remaning firepower but not before aiding in the demise of the Cormorant.

Red now had a sizeable advantage over blue. The Blue flagship Augoror plundered into range. Red began to open fire. The Augoror began to soak up the damage from the combined red attack. Its dual rep armour tank was able to see through all of the damage that was lashing the armour plates. Alas the Augoror was not friendly on it's capacitor. After a sustained several minute period of which it held out against the onslaught, the batteries ran dry and the nanobots died.

With the Osprey now bearing its missiles on the Augoror too, the mighty ship had its days numbered. Atheist proudly saluted his flagship as it finally entered hull and proceeded to decorate local space with bits or chared armour plating.

A mighty battle which finally swayed to red team. Congratulations to all that were involved both winners and losers. It was great to get the new guys involved in some harmless mudering of corp mates.

I felt that this brought up a point about Eve which we pretty much take for granted. The Augoror and Osprey in the context of this engagement may as well have been an Aeon and a Wyvern. They had superior tanks that could near enough soak up all of the damage coming from the enemy fleet. The firepower they brought was superior and it generally led to them becoming feared opponents upon this particular battlefield.

It was almost a replica of a capital fight in subcapital ships without watching the entire battle in Microsoft Powerpoint mode. In a real Lord of the Flies scenario. We had converted two of the worst cruisers in the game into these godlike supercapital ships. 

This was a whole barrell of fun for all of us involved. Even Prophet and myself who GM'd the whole event. We got to phantom on Ventrilo so we could listen to both fleets at once which was extremely entertaining how the FC's differed their tactics and primary calling.

We will most certainly have to do this again, refining the rules a little more and expanding the size of the teams involved. I hope all of our new members enjoyed it as much as our current one's did and we can't wait to have you guys on board, full time.