Dead Pool

Recently, a group has become a lot more active in my timezone in the lowsec system that I have been using for Industry. The system is a dead end lowsec system in Lonetrek. In fact it is the closest lowsec system to Jita, Pakkonen. It does not connect to any other lowsec systems. It almost seems that CCP wanted to make it easy for resident of northern nullsec regions to move goods to and from Jita, so they plunked down a lowsec system so that cynos could be lit. The Scandinavian Dirtbags have made this system their home. I saw them on a few occassions in the past, but I felt then that it was just a quick hunt as they were roaming, and they didnt stay in system long.

Examining their killboard is illuminating. They are pretty sucessful at PVP. They have a very high efficiency. They are, however, bottom feeders. They pick off cyno ships, industrials, and solo miners or other brave souls that come to lowsec seeking their fortune. If you look at the month recently where they sustained a signficant number of losses (February 2013) you will see that most of those losses happened outside of Pakkonen. So it could have been either due to expanding the alliance to include groups that were not living in Pakkonen or else a not very sucessful attempt to branch out. In either case, almost all of their killboard activity is now confined to Pakkonen.

Additionally, they have been bashing POSs. Mostly small ones. Their numbers (4-6 active at a time, typically) do not support protracted shoots. They claim they are being paid to shoot the POSs. I'm not sure how that could be true. I don't think the moons they are shooting POSs on are that great in the first place (not worth mining) and there are dozens of empty moons in the system.

Is the allure of killing cyno ships that great? It has to be fantastic for killboard padding, but can't be very satisfying. They commonly camp the only gate in the system, the Isikano gate, in cloaked ships, with a scout on the other side to let them know to decloak and warm up those warp disruptors. The ships that do not have a cloak fitted will often warp to a perch or off-grid. Often their logistics ship will hang out on the highsec side of the gate, serving as a really obvious scout. Most of the time it seems they use an out-of-corp cloaked scout on the gate.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a small gang or solo fight, come to Pakkonen and get it. They have a nice bounty. They may even have a capital or two. Send in some bait and go fishing.

PS. If you bring an Orca or Freighter as bait, all sort of interesting things undock in Pakkonen!