Over the last two months I've grown to really enjoy Syndicate. It isn't the region as much as it is the lack of politics and sov warfare lagfests, the Wild Wild West nature of it all. I didn't think it would impact me as much as it has. But it did. After fighting so many useless wars over territory that you can't hold onto and being a part of so many failed Alliances, the freedom of Syndicate appealed to me.
This was a big change from just two months ago. Two months ago when we first moved to Syndicate and started the new Alliance hopes ran extremely high. It was understood from the beginning that we would eventually grow to the point where we would take Sov again, as usual. I agreed to that direction, it made sense. I had some reservations about certain things, starting an Alliance with effectively one Corporation seemed difficult at the very least. But I was willing to try. Since then no one has been plugging the effort and beating the drum as much as I have.
In that two months I talked to several dozen potential Corporations, some with personal connections, some known thru fellow bloggers, etc. Each one said the same thing, no. Not while you guys are blue to the Northern Coalition. Either that or they decided to actually join the NC. This was true of individuals as well. Having lived in the South most of my Eve life, especially lately, I didn't really understand the level of hatred and/or admiration for the North. Or the "elbow" as I've started calling it.
All of these factors led me to start Lucifer's Hammer and collect some great new talent for the Alliance. A PvP focused Corporation that was new, that only had limited membership, that only took experienced pilots, seemed like the right thing to build. If you are a regular reader you already know all of this anyway, but I thought I'd recap.
Fast forward a month. Things are working out the way I expected and things have changed in ways I did not expect. Lucifer's Hammer is leading the Alliance on the killboard, shooting up the BC rankings and growing stronger every day. That was expected. The people I am hiring however, strong willed, experienced killers, with no pre-established loyalties one way or the other, are revealing unexpected things. At the same time the lack of new Corps and new players starts to slow the momentum... a recipe for change if I ever saw one.
Despite little things here and there it all came down to fundamentals. BLM wants to grow into a Sov holding Alliance under the umbrella of at least part of the NC Elbow. Lucifer's Hammer does not. In fact, I would prefer to shoot the NC Elbow.
Today Lucifer's Hammer left the Black-Mark Alliance. We've been invited and accepted into Rote Kapelle.
We spent the weekend moving our assets from our previous home in Syndicate to a staging system in low-sec. Good timing on that Carrier huh? One of the side benefits of hiring experienced players is that most of our Corp has their own Carriers and Jump Freighters, so this time moving took only a day instead of the week it used to take me.
Why Rote Kapelle? I think the answer is obvious. Great PvP Alliance and no desire to ever hold Sov. Never has, never will. My desire for Lucifer's Hammer hasn't changed. I want to build a great group of fighters and become one of the elite PvP Corporations in the game. Pure and simple.
Joining RK will help us do that. And we can help them at the same time.