Yesterday, my labs delivered a total of 18 cruiser and six destroyer invention-grade blueprint copies, bringing the total to 22 cruiser and six destroyer.

Now, I need 50 hours and 70 million ISK for each cruiser and ~38 hours and 40 million for every destroyer invention job. A bit of multiplying reveals I’ll need over 1300 lab hours and almost 1.8 billion just to run the invention jobs.

For the rotten carrot’s sake.

Over a half of them will probably yield no results. And I’ll still need to buy the materials needed to build the ships.

No wonder I’m chronically short on cash these days…

I usually don’t go analysing my habits, and I go around publishing those even less often, but this one struck me as interesting…

I have been a party in destruction of four (4) ships while flying a Helios. Which, as we all know, is a covert operations frigate whose offensive capacity consists of a single light drone. And the way I equip it, a short-ranged warp scrambler. A ship which is supposed to stay invisible as much as possible.

Now, four kills might not sound like a lot, but let’s put it into perspective. I got more kills in this ships which barely deserves to be called armed than in killing machines such as Armageddon (three), my beloved but very rarely used Dominix (three), or Harbinger (one). Makes me wonder…

And what ships seem to be my favourite tools of destruction? Quite expectedly, the list is topped by the Curse (20, mostly by the Tangled Sheen and the much-mourned Black Moon) and the Myrmidon (12). Unexpected are the next two ship classes – Crow and Malediction (10 each).

So what have I concluded from this self-analysis? I need to fly my Vagabonds more. They’re down there near the bottom of the list, too.

I think I’m developing a taste for Vagabonds. Very, very nice raiding and harassment ships. A shame we don’t have anyone to raid or harass…

So many things have happened in the last… How long? A month. A long time. And I’m not even going to mention them here. I’ll go about another angle instead.

Fleet command. Did it once before, and once again recently. Seems to be a big issue in the alliance now – we’ve grown, and the fleet commanders got diluted in the process. We need more of them, and some discussions on other channels got me thinking… So, how does one, according to me, go about being a fleet commander?

First, you should at least have a basic idea of what you want to do with the fleet, and how you should do it. It doesn’t need to be more than a basic idea, and if you’ve spent some time participating as a fleet member and observing what the people in charge were doing, you should have more than that already.

Second, you have to be prepared to spend an hour or two assembling the fleet. I didn’t notice that people were more reluctant to join my gang because I’m an FC rookie – they were joining, and many of them were much, much more qualified for the job than I was. It took time, but that’s just the way it is. This isn’t as bad as it sounds, since it gives you the time to organise wings and squads, shuffle people, get some scouting done, and do more thinking/discussing on the whats and the hows. Just starting the thing is a big step forward, as people seem to be more inclined to follow than to lead.

Third, delegate. You don’t have to do everything, and you shouldn’t even try. If you have someone in your fleet who can do things better than you, assign them to do it. It also helps if you don’t get involved into mundane tasks such as actually shooting things – leading from the rear is a time-honoured tradition, and a covert cloaking device makes it much easier.

Fourth, be decisive. Even if you’re not sure what you’re supposed to be doing, decisively ask for advice. If that doesn’t work, decisively find someone more qualified to take the lead and step down. But be decisive!

Fifth, don’t be afraid of screwing up. It happens to everyone occasionally. If you can’t get over this fear, admit to yourself and everyone else that you’re not meant for the job, and be content to follow someone else – followers are needed just as much as leaders, and you might actually do a better job as one. Alternatively, you can go mine veldspar in Bhizheba or Arbaz. It takes a lot of tritanium to replace the ships some FC with less skill but more initiative got blown up.

And finally, keep in mind that you’re the boss. If you’ve done everything listed above, it’s your sacred right to demand that people follow you, and it is their sacred duty to follow. Don’t let anyone give you shit – if you do, it’s your own fault.

…ago, I joined the Imperial Dreams.