Gatecamping for Faggots Like You
After some chatting on mumble during last nights aunenenenenenenene camp there was some interest in me reposting a gatecamping guide I made for a previous corp a while back and posted on SHC. Some of it may be a little out of date due to subsequent changes, but here it is:
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This is intended as an introduction to lowsec gatecamping for relatively new groups of pirates, and particularly their fleet commanders. I am assuming throughout that you know basic shit like comms discipline, how to make safespots and how to fit your ship in a way that won't make Baby Space Jesus cry. It is mainly just a brainfart of things I have learned from the many awesome pirates I have flown with over my EVE career. This is nothing any uber leet -10 doesn't already know, but hopefully it will be of aid to those just starting the sec status plummet:
How to Camp in Lowsec and (Hopefully) Survive
So you and your megalomaniacal buddies want to gatecamp? Congratulations! Gatecamping can provide a steady supply of targets for a young pirate corp. However, if done badly it can yield a few crappy fit cruisers and blazing death for your gang. In its most simple form, a pirate group sit on a gate to highsec in biggish ships and wait for targets to come through, upon which they kill/ransom them.
This is generally a bad idea. The camping gang is unable to see what is happening on the highsec side of the gate, which means you won't see the anti-pirate gank fleet until their tacklers start scrambling you. Also, if your prey is being smart then they will probably send a scout frigate/shuttle/alt in before they try to bring their faction fit Golem through.
Location, Location, Location
You want to set up your camp on the lowsec side (duh) of a highsec-lowsec gate, prefarably one that is a little busy. Ideally you want to choose a system that doesn't have another pirate corp that like to camp the area so steer clear of Amamake for the moment.
Your Battlesteeds
Every pirate camp needs the following:
A Cloaked scout (more on this in a minute)
Something that can lock relatively quickly and has a 24km+ point (Heavy Interdictors are perfect for this, but sensor boosted battlecruisers can work too)
Some firepower (Gank fitted battlecruisers/battleships/HACs etc.)
Оptionally, you can bring somе electronic warfare to the party‚ however I haven't camped much since Falcons got altered so I can't really say much about this.
You will be fighting under sentry guns a lot. This means your ships need a lot of effective hitpoints and have some way of replenishing their tank. Shielded ships (such as Drakes) should be able to survive off their passive regen between ganks, however armoured ships will need an armour repairer. The more ships in the fleet, then the more the sentry gun love gets spread around. The bigass waffle Tama camps of old actually had enough ships in for my aggro timer to expire and my shields fully recharge before the guns cycled back to me. You could go the whole remote rep route, but that is a whole different post.
Tech 1 cruisers generally don't cut it unless you totally gimp the fit to let it survive the guns, so the smallest T1 ship you will use should be a battlecruiser. Gate sentry guns have perfect tracking and deal 300DPS (all types) so put the frigs away. Drakes, Harbs, Hurricanes, Brutixii and the like are fantastic for this. Don't use drone ships, their drones get picked off way too easily by sentry fire and your drone bays should be full of ECM drones anyway (more on this later). Also, it is useful for the firepower ships to be mounting some tackling gear to reinforce the initial point and to keep the target locked down.
Pitching Your Tent
Firstly, you should NEVER be just sitting on the gate and soaking up sentry love. Make a safespot about 2000km away (a "tactical") from the gate and have the main gank fleet sit there, aligned towards the gate and at full speed. Your cloaked scout should be sitting near the gate to lowsec in the highsec system cloaked. The scout's job is to call out whatever is approaching the gate. When a target jumps through the gank fleet warps onto the gate, tackles and kills the target.
Generally, a sensor boosted HIC can catch anything from a cruiser up. Don't even bother warping in on frigate hulls or anything with a covert ops cloak, you will give away the location of your fleet and get nothing in return.
Оncе you have ganked the target‚ warp the fuck out back to the tactical. You don't want to be sitting on a gate to highsec with a criminal countdown, ever. Generally, one tackle capable ship should stay on the gate until the rest of the tacklers are aligned back to the gate just in case something juicy appears.
Finally, make sure that the fleet members in the safespot are watching their scanners. As soon as you see combat probes out in your area it is time to assume there is something coming for you, and be ready to warp the fleet to a different safespot/station should you see a local spike.
This way of gatecamping minimises your fleet's exposure and allows you to engage on your terms and your terms alone. You'll have advance warning of targets and hostiles coming at you from the other side of the gate. Your chances of dying in a blazing fire of fail have just been substantially reduced.
ОH SHI-
Shit happеns in EVE. As you warp in on a target all of a sudden you see local spiking and all sorts of nasty stuff appearing on your scanner. Or the juicy carebear battleship you're ripping into suddenly drops a cyno and starts neuting the everliving fuck out of your gang. What should you do in this situation?
Escape. You can fight if you're feeling brave‚ however you will be going up against an enemy force that has most likely been built especially to take your sorry group of pirates down. Unless forced to, a small gang should never fight at someone elses terms. Hopefully you saw the local spike and have your gang in warp before anything nasty lands. But what if you've been tackled?
In that case it is time to use your ECM drones. 5/6 players dropping ECM drones have a good chance of breaking most thing's lock. Оncе your fleet has their drones on the tacklers‚ then get them out to a ѕafеspot while local fills up with smack about your "bad spaece honor".
Happy Camping
Last edited by Chakrai; 2010-08-29 at 08:09.
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