Long time readers of this site can remember the outlaw Cyclone that I had tackled by chance in Highsec. It was quite straightforward and simple, but it was fun and extremely effective. Although ganker ships are often less shiny, catching them at gates can be a very, very effective tactic, because it stops them before they even reach their target.
First of all, why should you do it?
1) Because content.
2) You will actually be playing EVE and using in-game methods instead of crying on forums about how gankers navigate in Highsec easily and without punishment.
3) In a game like EVE, player interaction has a huge importance and beauty. I've always been a huge fan of EVE situations where players replace NPCs. We've seen it in Skiff Stories: Otela Lights - Keikira Botsada. In that story, the DPS coming from miners' drones were so high that the Catalyst was destroyed before CONCORD's appearance on the kill report. Read that story if you haven't, it will make you smile.
4) Like I said, it stops them before they even reach their target.
Secondly, who is an Outlaw, and how are they chased in Highsec?
Pilots with a security status between -5 and -10 are considered "outlaws" (Yarr <3). All regular gankers become Highsec outlaws quickly because each gank, especially pod ganking, reduces their security status considerably. This gives them two options: either purchase tags for fixing the security status, or stay an outlaw and accept the risk of being tackled by other players in addition to being chased by faction police.
When an outlaw enters Highsec, he/she is not only a legal target to everyone, but they are also constantly chased by an NPC named faction police (which is NOT the same thing as faction navy.) Faction police is the one that chases the outlaws and it has a delayed response. Therefore, an outlaw who navigates in Highsec can escape them provided that he doesn't stay at a given place for too long. However, if a player tackles the outlaw, the faction police will eventually arrive and finish him. In the past, I had many simple, lovely and effective engagement examples including the ones against the notorious ganker couple named Cholo Dejesus & Victor Von Vyvorant, that strange guy called Currin Trading (whose name keeps reminding me of a restaurant called Taj Mahal) and a well-mannered viking named RolandoooEvoX. These are some good examples that illustrate this type of Anti-piracy.
In the above example, I had managed to spread points on two outlaw Catalysts while they were heading to their target. First and foremost, I highly recommend creating an overview tab that exclusively shows the outlaws only.
Creating this dedicated overview tab is quite easy. I was able to create it in a few seconds thanks to the overview settings: Overview Settings -> Tab Presets -> States.
From my experience, I can confirm that Always Showing the outlaws and not showing others works well. If you want, you can also Always Show the suspects in case you want additional pew pew opportunities. Please keep in mind that I haven't played EVE for several months because of lack of time, therefore if you find an outdated info/detail above (or in this post in general), let me know.
Just like most of the other types of counter-ganking, catching outlaw gankers at gates requires being at the right place at the right time. You need to guess/predict or know where the gankers will come from and when. To do this, you need to ask yourself:
1) In which system are the gankers based? (their departure location)
2) Where's their target? (their destination)
If they gank in their base system, ( =they won't have to jump through a gate) the only way to tackle them before they reach their target is to know their insta bookmarks and perches.
I was thrilled as hell last night when Jennifer En Marland and Thomas En Chasteaux showed up at one of our bookmarks and tried to mess us up. That was EPIC guys and my hats off to you. That’s how you play EVE in my honest opinion.-Gorila Vengaza
While that can also be fun for all involved parties, this post mainly applies to the case when they will have to jump through at least one stargate.
My engagement with gankers Cholo Dejesus and Victor Von Vyvorant was a good example of this tactic:
Basically, the gankers were based in Leremblompes and their scout was near a Hulk in Vaurent. In other words, their departure location was Leremplombes and their destination was Vaurent. As you can see, they had to pass Atlanins to reach their target. In this example, tackling them in Atlanins (Leremblompes gate) or Vaurent (Atlanins gate) was possible. If you're in a fast ship that warps faster than the Catalyst, you can even have two chances (in case you can't tackle them at the first gate)!
Some tips:
1) Notifications are important. When you're waiting at a gate in Highsec, seeing the following type of notification means that an outlaw has jumped through the gate and is about to decloak somewhere close.
This is what it looks like in Caldari Space. In Amarr space, it goes like "All criminals in the Amarr Empire will be shot on sight! Venturing into our space will be your last mistake, Aaaarrgg!"
In Gallente space: "Criminals are not welcome into Gallente space - leave now Muammar Gaddafi, or your vessel will be destroyed!
In Minmatar space: "Report of a criminal within this solar system: Ninjai - We will ensure that law will be upheld in Minmatar space!"
Attention: There's also a notification system expressed by faction navy. That is not to be confused with our subject because we are targeting outlaws here. For this reason it's advised to have Green Safety to avoid hilarious accidents. (But if you've set up your overview so that it shows outlaws only, then you should be fine).
2) Orbit the gate at like 1000m. It's a good idea to be close to the gate because the target can spawn anywhere at 12km from the gate.
3) Learn from your mistakes. When I seriously started testing this type of Highsec Anti-Piracy, I came across a flashy Helios in Niarja. I had noticed the notification on the screen and I was ready to tackle the outlaw's ship.
The faction police notification, marked green below, is what we care about here. The red notification is expressed by faction navy.
[ 2014.04.03 23:14:58 ] (notify) All criminals in the Amarr Empire will be shot on sight! Venturing into our space will be your last mistake, Anslo!
[ 2014.04.03 23:14:58 ] (notify) Anslo, you are an enemy of the Amarr Empire! This is your last voyage into our territory!
[ 2014.04.03 23:15:08 ] (combat) Warp scramble attempt from you to Anslo [SWCW](Helios)
[ 2014.04.03 23:15:08 ] (combat) Warp scramble attempt from you to Anslo [SWCW](Helios)
[ 2014.04.03 23:15:12 ] (notify) Target is invulnerable.
[ 2014.04.03 23:15:12 ] (notify) Target is invulnerable.
As soon as he decloaked to warp to the next gate, I applied my two warp disruptors, but despite that, he managed to warp away. I was curious about his fitting, so I asked him in an EVE-mail. As expected, he was dual-stabbed. Right, sometimes these guys will fit stabs. I remember adding another warp disruptor to my fit that day. Additional points on the same target will increase your chance of pinning down the ganker in case they're stabbed. However, sometimes one point can be enough provided that you have the support of some other people nearby. An example:
I only had one point that day, and the ganker had 1 stab. Luckily, Niarja is a popular system, so there are often people who will try to catch these criminals.
4) Ships. Which ship is the most convenient for tackling the outlaws? For me, it's the Skiff.
Even with a single sensor booster and multiple long points (warp disruptors), the Skiff will have a great scan resolution.
"Oh God I hate skiffs. Many of my lonely interceptors have died to those tanky bastards."-Damnskippy
There are, however, other choices. I'll keep it short and just link this page by Astecus who also shares his own good tips about outlaw tackling in that page.
5) Be alert. Do not watch netflix. Why? Astecus explains:
A skilled catalyst will align in 4 seconds according to EFT, and if you count at least 1 second delay from cloak wearing off and reaction time, you may have up to 2-3 seconds to lock and warp jam (point) them.
If you want to reach success in this type of Anti-Ganking, you need to be especially alert. Keep an eye in Local and the screen at all times. Especially pay attention to the notifications that pop on the screen. If you don't pay attention, you probably won't have enough time to point the Catalyst who aligns in a few seconds. You have to react as soon as the outlaw appears on your overview. When he decloaks, your dedicated overview tab will normally show him only, so feel free to hold Control and keep clicking on the empty overview in advance before he even appears on it.
6) If you need some practice, do not hesitate to sit, for example, at the Madirmilire gate in Niarja on a sunday evening with that overview setup. It's a popular route for the outlaws, especially for the pod-gankers. Just always keep in mind the importance of scan resolution and the amount of points you have, and make a balance between the two depending on your needs.
Triple Jamming Bonus: GankerJamming in Sankkasen
I recently picked another video from my folder: it was recorded by our dashcam on a day when I had teamed up with a competent Griffin pilot named Shelley Tortuga. We had chased a group of gankers who were targeting miners around Halaima, Kamio and Sankkasen. We were too late for saving a Skiff but we kept a close eye on the gank-scout's Heron and followed him in a determined way.
The gankers' scout warped to an asteroid belt and approached a Retriever to provide warp-in to gankers. This time, we were ready to prevent the gank and save the miner.
Gankers Globby, Sherman Cohenberg and Sterling Cohenberg landed but they were kindly and promptly welcomed by our glorious, persistent ECM already landing on the Catalysts one by one. As a result, they had to abort the gank without even going criminal and warp away. As always, our dashcam recorded everything.
Content was generated, emergent fun was had by all sides, miner was saved, EVE was once again played in Highsec. Meanwhile, Veers Belvar was busy crying on forums about how impossible Anti-Ganking is and why Gankers are terrible people in real life.
This simple and single counter-ganking engagement is an excellent example of what I want to see in Highsec more and more. I encourage anyone who uses in-game methods to fight the criminals.
Ganker Tears Bonus!
Chat logs. We all have them: they are kindly saved by the game itself while we play it. I enjoy browsing through chat logs or old EVE mails to find hilarious logs. As you can imagine, it's much better when ganker tears dominate the logs. I found the following logs in quite an old EVE mail. But the situation itself is a good example that shows how effective the following philosophy can be: "If you don't like them, shoot them."
Like I illustrated in the Greedy Ganker's Bane post, another way to fight the gankers is to shoot their haulers. This is especially effective when done against the gankers who only do it for profit: after ganking a juicy target, they bring a looter ship to steal the loot (which means that they have to go suspect while doing so).
During another day in Madirmilire, ganker iegan used his Hurricane to gank a Bestower. He was a determined ganker with a battlecruiser!
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| Kill Report |
So far everything was going in accordance with his plan: the stupid AFK Bestower was ganked, loot was ready to be stolen. His main goal, of course, was to make the profit thanks to the loot in the Bestower's wreck. To pick up the loot, he brought a Bustard.
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| Image source: https://evepics.files.wordpress.com |
After slowly sneaking towards the wreck, the looter Bustard stole the cargo and became suspect.
Did the Bustard manage to warp away? Did the greedy ganker made that precious profit?
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| Kill Report |
Boom. iegan's looter pilot was promptly engaged and punished (+podded). Content was generated, justice was delivered.
[01:49:59] iegan > FGGTS
[01:50:12] Sarah Flynt > gf :)
The ganker's first reaction was an exotic expression of anger, or was it some kind of corporate abbreviation? We don't know. It's not always easy to understand the mental state of a ganker. Meanwhile, the Anti-gankers were kindly saluting him with a Good Fight in Local.
[01:50:30] KickAss Tivianne > What is a FGGTS?
[01:50:34] Candi LeMew > :D
[01:50:48] KickAss Tivianne > Typo?
[01:51:32] Dark Jesterz > lol
[01:52:15] iegan > SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTHS
The ganker was furious. After being shot at in a game about shooting spaceships, he wanted everybody to stay silent.
[01:52:26] Dark Jesterz > someone's butthurt
[01:52:26] KickAss Tivianne > Ohh tears... I can sell them to Code.
[01:52:33] Sarah Flynt > let it all out :P
[01:52:46] iegan > HOW DARE YOU KILL ME WHILE IM KILLING SOMEONE ELSE
[01:52:54] KickAss Tivianne > Ummmmm
[01:53:02] iegan > SHUT YOUR MOUTH WHEN YOUR TALKING TO ME
Ganker calm down! All this reaction was because he lost his precious looter Bustard. Fortunately, his loot ship wasn't a freighter. What would his reaction be like in that case?
[01:53:11] KickAss Tivianne > lol I like you
[01:59:54] lenz2099 > lol pussy ass anti nerds
[02:00:35] Devious Probe > forsaken isnt anti gank?
[02:00:38] Devious Probe > i dont think?
[02:01:51] iegan > well they are cock-blocking gankers arent they?
The frustrated gankers were full of paranoia: Was Forsaken Asylum Anti-gankers? Why did they shoot that looter Bustard?
[02:02:16] Devious Probe > well if u saw a suspect bustard ud shoot it?
Then came the brief summary of the truth: Anti-Ganking transcends corporations and alliances. It's implemented in the core of Highsec: shooting suspects and criminals is totally intended gameplay that can be achieved by anyone.
[02:02:16] iegan > sooo? either they are anti's or maybe just jelly?
Meanwhile, the ganker was still trying to understand the reason behind Forsaken Asylum's offensive behavior towards his precious Bustard: they were either "anti's" or "just jelly"!
[02:02:32] Devious Probe > just bad timing prlly looking for war targets
[02:02:36] iegan > ARE YOU BROS JELLY?!
Calm down, ganker. According to his records, iegan's ganks used to succeed when no one was around. However, the examples below is a brief and partial list of his failed ganks which were ruined by Anti-Gankers with a variety of backgrounds who used various ways to stop his DPS & save his targets.
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I would also like to take this opportunity to say Happy New Year to all the people who make Highsec interesting: Vigilant miners, Gankers, Anti-gankers, Mercenaries, AWOXers, Pirates etc... Without you all, I wouldn't be able to write these short stories that make me smile every time.
o7
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