10 Questions for the Privateers
Surrepitious is the executor of the Privateers Alliance, a large empire-based group consisting of approximately 30 corporations and 700 members. Having seen the entity he helped create grow quickly in such a short space of time, Surreptitious agreed to a chat to the IC about the challenges and rewards therein.
The alliance was formed near the end of the last calendar year, with the premise of bringing universe-wide combat to many pod pilots. By utilizing the legalized war-declaration sanctions allowed by CONCORD forces under the Yulai Convention, the Privateers have risen quickly to become a far-reaching fighting force within the CONCORD patrolled spaces in New Eden.
IC: What goal did you have in mind when you took over leadership of the Privateer Alliance/Privateers?
Surrepitious: The goal was simply to provide a free way for people to declare war against thousands of targets and shoot back against the biggest organizations in the game.
IC: Critics have said that the Privateers are pilots who mostly attack defenseless industrial ships, how do you respond to these claims?
Surrepitious: I expect it and internally, we all secretly get a kick out of it. I would say simply look at our corporation killboards, that should be evidence enough.
IC: What was the reasoning behind the recent blitz the Privateers went on where you declared war on the majority of the large alliances/corporations in the universe of New Eden? What were some of the numerical figured involved in regards to pulling this off?
Surrepitious: We did it purely for some fun and to celebrate what we had grown into. Total for the week was 145 wars and we spent roughly 7 billion ISK on it. As we get a few extra billion here and there we plan to have more war parties
IC: What is the deal you have with EVE University whereas you do not declare war upon them?
Surrepitious: No deal really, I just appreciate and respect what they have been doing for pilots within New Eden all these years. Their leadership is honest and made of genuinely nice guys, this goes a long way with me. So when they came asking me to leave them alone on their birthday I agreed.
IC: Privateer claims to take on mercenary contracts, how do you do this and what do you charge?
Surrepitious: We accept every contract offer no matter how long or what the target is. I make it known ahead of time that considering our unique situation we are not in a position to focus on any one target. All I can promise is that if we see them we will attack them.
Taking into account how many pilots we have and how small empire is we cover it all pretty much 24/7 so it actually is surprisingly effective. All we charge is the cost of the concord war fee; we make our ISK, or at least try to, from the loot. People everywhere give us a lot of hell for what we do, but, most of them have no idea the leaders of their alliance are probably paying us to attack someone on their behalf. (Surrepitious laughs)
IC: Your corporation and alliance appears to have a fairly loose structure, accepting many with the only common trait of battle-lust. How do you think this has shaped your ability to wage war?
Surrepitious: Well it has certainly limited us in some regards. We can’t gather the huge 100 man capital ship fleets that have become the norm but we don’t desire that type of fleet action. After experiencing empire war for a few months now I think it actually improves our fighting ability because the targets never know what they’re getting.
Some of the corps work together and fly about in 40-man battleship blobs, some go solo. The common theme we see in enemy intelligence channels is that they assume if they see one of us another 10 are around the corner. It keeps a lot of targets on edge and provides a unique advantage.
IC: Have you been concerned that because of your formerly loose recruiting system, you have let a large amount of spies within your ranks?
Surrepitious: Understand? Yes. Concerned? No. Aside from watching our chat channels there are no real tools for them to use. Most use corporation channels, secure channels, and corporation voice-coms and so on. Truth be told most of the spies end up fighting for us anyways. It’s just too tempting to resist even if they are here as a spy. (Surrepitious laughs)
IC: Many pod pilots appear to be fearful of you, forcing them to band together to fight back. As a result, you're seen as a villian in various circles. How has this affected your alliance and your work?
Surrepitious: Good. Perfect in-fact. It attracts the type of corporations we want and is a rallying cry for our alliance. We really don’t want anyone to like us, just respect our ability to impact their operations here in empire.
IC: Where do you see the Privateer Alliance at this time next year? Do you expect that your seemingly exponential growth continues with more corporation/member recruiting?
Surrepitious: What I would like and what I think are two different things. Unfortunately I am not confident that CONCORD will allow the existing war declaration system to continue. We operate on the razor's edge of it all and the slightest change could really throw a serious wrench into our plans. So what I would like is obviously for us to continue to grow and impact the universe.
It is critically important to me that we continue to provide this service to the hundreds and thousands of pilots who enjoy it. The bottom line is that some pilots in New Eden are willing to pay for war.
I know that regardless of the system there will always be a group of us working every angle and exploiting every hole to get it.
I was there several years ago when they changed the war system and all the mercenaries, particularly in the MC, were thought to be doomed. They found a way to work through it and hit it big, I think we can do the same.
IC: Any final words for our readers and for all of the pod pilots within New Eden?
Surrepitious: I would like to say to every pilot not in the Privateer Alliance, "Bring it!"
