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Eve Newb: Following the Gang

Published on 13. Nov, 2008 ... written by Sam Guss, Tags: Articles

by Sam Guss … One of my enjoyments in flying in 0.0 space is joining alliance-ran roaming gangs. Every corporation and alliance runs their gangs slightly different and most even has a couple different ways. For example: running ship or tactic-specific types of gangs depending on the goal of the roaming gang.

This is lesson #1 in the newb’s guide to flying in roaming gangs: There are different types of roaming gangs, be sure that you can fly a ship that is conducive to the type of gang you will be flying. Don’t bring a big, slow ship to a gang setup for fast, strike and move tactics. Likewise, don’t bring a non-stealth ship to a stealth gang setup. One of the best things you can do is to outfit at least a couple of ships in order to participate in as many types of gangs as you can.

There are a few things that roaming gangs can be setup to do. Indeed, in some cases it is not even unheard of to have a gang participate in several of these operations over the course of their flight time:

• Keeping a corridor clear. A corridor is defined as a semi-permanent series of systems leading from your home system in 0.0 to another area of space – usually empire space, but perhaps to a sibling home system within your corporation or alliance. In this operation, you fly from one end of your corridor to the other and back again. The goal is to attack or chase off any neutral, hostile or war targets that may have entered the corridor for whatever reason.
• Gate camping. When I first encountered my first couple of gate camps, I figured all gate camps are the same. Indeed, to the untrained eye, they are. However, there are some subtle differences. Mainly it comes down to reasons and tactics used for the gate camp to begin with. A roaming gang that engages in gate camps will usually do so in otherwise hostile areas and combine this other roaming gang operations – such as keeping a corridor clear. They will usually operate a bubble, or mobile bubble outfitted ship and a stealth ship to mark targets before they jump into a gate camp.

This brings us to lesson #2 in the newb’s guide of flying in roaming gangs: Whenever you see a neutral or hostile in system with you and they are still there after awhile in local… and you don’t know where they are? They’re stealthed. And if they aren’t moving out of system in a decent amount of time? Chances are VERY high that this is a scout for a gate camp somewhere after exiting the system you are in. This applies equally to low sec and null sec systems.

Other operations that roaming gangs participate in include:

• Search and destroy. This is probably my favorite roaming gang operation type to engage in. In this type of operation you are flying along back lanes in null sec, in an attempt to find, isolate and destroy neutrals or hostiles, usually in and around your home systems and corridors. Often, intel will be provided in corporation, alliance or intelligence channels on where possible targets are and if a roaming gang is on a search and destroy operation within a couple of jumps will attempt to find and take out the target.
• War operations. Whenever there is a war, there are pilots everywhere in operations – from huge fleets for fleet to fleet combat, to POS destroying fleets, to the roaming gangs. A roaming gang in a time of war is the guerilla strike force of the universe, often times providing as much if not more offense, by taking their operations into hostile territory as they provide defense and guarding the corridors to the home system.

As a newb you can get involved in these roaming gangs very easily. It is going to require you to put in some effort on your skills though, however it won’t take you long nor will it be complex. It has been mentioned before and will be again, right here: tackling is one of the easiest and shortest in terms of skill training you can do to get involved in roaming gangs. You need to be able to use a warp disrupter and a webifier. That’s it. Anything else is secondary.

There are two main ways to tackle. The more dangerous way and common way, is for you to warp in on a target, tackle them and call in the reinforcements. If, you find yourself doing this a lot, then train up tanking skills as much as you can. The second way, and the way I find myself tackling the most often, is to warp in as a gang (or wait for your target to warp to you) and while everyone locks on and fires away, you then lock on to tackle first, provide DPS second. In this scenario you will often be overlooked long enough to survive and take out your target. If, you find yourself in this type of situation more often than not, I can not stress the need for speed! So train up accordingly.

Other great ways to provide support in a gang as a newb will include the following – but may take a little longer to get the skills up that is needed:

• EW: Electronic Warfare
• Warp Disruption Bubbles
• Scouting. Best if you have stealth/cloaking skills and can use a scanner
• DPS. Bring the biggest guns you have and blow ‘em away!
• Logistics. Train up remote shield and/or armor rep and help out your team mates!

Finally, let me give you some tips for the first timer:

• It may take a few minutes to get everyone coordinated at the beginning of a trip. So be patient.
• Do NOT wait until last minute to join a roaming gang. Unless, you know the region VERY well, you will find yourself left behind and can lose your gang within a couple of jumps easily.
• Expect to lose a ship. This is no ones fault, as much as you might want to blame the FC or your team mates. It is bound to happen, learn to accept this before hand.
• Don’t do it for the ISK. If you’re looking to make ISK, there are better ways of doing it. If you’re looking for glory, fame and bragging rights though – go fly in a gang!

Fly safe! Wait, you’re in a gang …