Australian Gaming Community

It is long overdue, and I am glad to announce that I am stepping down from leadership due to real life commitments. I think everyone realises that the organisation needs to change to suit a new broader purpose and I am really happy to see the fantastic leadership group that has sprung up in my absence. Big thank you to TheSneak, BUnit, Warwalker, Greyfrog, Genesis and Grimleyblack for your efforts here as well as many others.

Soon the website will be getting updated to change the focus from more than just planetside, remove old content and improve the layout. In addition the forum will become unrestricted and membership will be encouraged in public via the forums rather than the current application page.

It is my sincere hope that IB will continue to grow and bring friends together through the shared pursuit of pissing excellence.

I will of course continue lurking around on mumble and can be reached for technical matters by limeCodeMonkey, Mindlessness, LuckyLegs and more. Also by my @basterds email address if you are smart enough to work that out

See you at the next meetup.

Bitterchill out for good.

Big thanks for Psynapse for his dedication to the outfit over the last 4 months but the time has come for someone else to step into this key role and head up our training and infantry SOP.

I’m very pleased to announce that TheSneak will be taking on this role, having proven himself to be a very capable trainer and platoon leader I am very confident he will deliver a great result here.

Also I am happy to have BUnit as his 2IC who will be key in helping Sneak keep up with the big demands on his time.

Congratulations to both!

-Bitterchill out

Unfortunately our Air Captain has had to resign his post due to real life issues and will no longer be playing PS2 for the immediate future. Big thanks to RobertMuldoon for all his effort in organising the Air Wing over the last few months.

Luckily, we have an excellent candidate to take over this responsibility – Uproar will now fill this role and I am very much looking forward to what he can (and has already) brought to the table. Look for an updated SOP, recruitment/showcase video and more active operational leadership. Congratulations Uproar!

In addition I would like to (finally) announce the appointment of an Armour Captain – Mindlessness who has been working on an armoured SOP for a very long time. With the recent slight shift in meta game away from air dominance due to flak changes, improved armoured capability has now become a big priority for us. I am looking forward to seeing the final version of the armour SOP and for dedicated armour training nights to commence ASAP. Big congratulations to Mindlessness!

-Bitterchill out

Congratulations to the following new Lieutenants!

Squeaky4all

Grimleyblack

Sma11wood

These guys have been putting in lots of hard work consistently leading squads and I’m really grateful to have them around

-Bitterchill out

Guys don’t forget that today is 3x SC day. Everyone seems to buying up like mad to get all the good unlocks and lots of cosmetic crap to boot!

Don’t forget.. so is the enemy. There will be plenty more asset and heavy weapon spam incoming unfortunately..

This week we hit another milestone: 200 members in the outfit list and a buzz of activity every night in mumble. Tonight RobertMuldoon is running an event and top performance and adherence to the SOP is expected from every single Basterd!

If you want to be part of the number one Australian Planetside 2 Outfit then head on over to our recruitment page, check out our requirements and follow the instructions.

-Bitterchill out

Due to our rapidly increasing size (150 members!) we have appointed some new captains.

Congratulations to Psynapse (Infantry) and RobertMuldoon (Air) for their promotions. Armour captain is TBD.

We will be looking to these captains to formalise the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for their units and to drive training initiatives so that everyone understands the SOP and can implement it consistently.

In addition we have some new Lieutenants that will assist with leadership on the ground:

• Bioweapon
• Reddawn2013
• ChuckIes
• Mindlessness
• SubmachineFun

If you want to part of the number one Australian Planetside 2 Outfit for New Conglomerate on Briggs then head on over to our About Us page and if you agree with our approach check the membership requirements on the Recruitment page and follow the directions to apply.

-Bitterchill out

Last night we had our greatest success – we had almost a full platoon on mumble and were able to push the TR right up to their warp gate and hold their tech plant until we went to bed. Each squad had an effective leader and we were able to attack multiple smaller outposts simultaneously. Big thanks to Psynapse, TheSneak and Reddawn for stepping up and getting your troops into line. It was much appreciated.

We also made good use of a dedicated anti-air squad in the form of no less than 6 MAX bursters supported by an engineer for ammo and repair. The Terran air force was vaporised every time they tried to strafe our positions no matter how many Liberators and Mosquitoes they threw at us. Even a full on armour assault was defeated by frantic use of heavy assaults across the entire platoon and flanking to ambush armour from the rear. I’m sure there was a Terran commander on the other side tearing his hair out about how much of his force was tied up on one outpost.

We hit a significant milestone today of 100 Australian members. I never thought this outfit would get that large – but I still want to keep pushing it up as the bigger we get the more effective we are. I don’t see why we can’t use more than one platoon when we are making use of mumble for inter-squad communications as there is no upper limit on the number of rooms we can create. The outfit membership limit is 300 – I wonder how long until we find that to be a problem?

After researching this again today I still am positive that we are the largest and most organised New Conglomerate outfit on Briggs. We are reaching out to other outfits to improve faction-wide coordination and getting some positive feed back. If you run an outfit and want to link up with the Basterds then shoot me an email (bitterchill at basterds.net)

And of course if you are fresh meat or a seasoned veteran looking for a serious combat outfit to roll with then head on over to our Recruitment page to check the requirements and sign up with the number one Australian Planetside 2 outfit.

-Bitterchill out

I’m blown away by how quickly this Outfit is growing – we have over 60 members and after that our efforts in SEO have taken effect we get at least 12 applications every single day. Now that we have learned the ins and outs of Planetside 2 the time has come to formalise our approach and command structure. To this end I have started elections for three Captains (for Infantry, Air and Armour divisions) in the forums. Once the Captains are confirmed they will be creating the standard operating procedure (SOP) for their division. The SOP will be a brief document that outlines the expected behaviour and standards that each Basterd is expected to maintain while acting in each of the three roles. The Captains will also have the authority to discipline members who do not adhere to the SOP or drag the outfit into disrepute.

Last night we had an amazing run – two full infantry squads and a dedicated air squad to provide air superiority was extremely effective and we managed to capture big chunks of TR territory (revenge is sweet!). Tonight we should be linking up with Harlequin for a combined operations and are expecting even greater success on the battlefield. We are also in discussions with several smaller outfits about absorbing their membership to gain access to even more active members and dramatically increase our effectiveness. If you currently run a small outfit and are struggling to make a difference, hit me up and we can talk about merging.

If you’re a solo solider looking to join an organised Australian Planetside 2 outfit then head on over to the Recruitment page, make sure you meet our requirements and then follow the directions to apply.

-Bitterchill out

After a week of hard struggle and not making much progress against the masses of Terran and Vanu forces, the NC on Briggs finally pulled it together last night and started taking and holding large swathes of territory. We had enormous fun rolling in a huge tank column supported by a thick cloud of reavers overhead and even fighting both the TR and VS at the same time we came out on top. We’ve now hit 40 members and applications are rolling in every day – thanks to everyone who has shown their support. Soon we will be able to field full platoons of coordinated, disciplined forces and last night’s success will become business as usual.

If you’re interested in joining the number one Australian Planetside 2 outfit for New Conglomerate – take a look at our About Us page and then submit your application via the Recruitment page.

-Bitterchill out

Our roster has grown to 24 members and applications are flowing in nicely. We had a session last night (in between server outages) getting to know each other which was great fun. Some of the key learnings from the debrief:-

1. Squad coherence is incredibly important in a massive game such as Planetside 2. If people started running ahead wanting to get into the fight then very quickly the squad became too spread out and ineffective. If we maintain tight grouping then we have the benefit of being able to quickly communicate threats that are relevant to everyone who hears the information.
2. Communication discipline is equally important – information about enemy movement needs to be conscience and location specific. Phrases such as “over there” and “too my left” are far too vague. Any information transmitted over voice comms needs to be referenced with a compass heading (enemy to the north of our position) and with enough detail that all squad members know immediately what and where the threat is (top floor left hand window of the building to our north). Unnecessary details that don’t help identify the threat should be left out to avoid blocking the voice channel.
3. We found that due to enemy infantry concentrations that we needed to field at least a full infantry squad to be effective rather than the squad consisting of a handful of infantry and various heavy assets spread out across the map. Once the recruitment targets are met we can start fielding full platoons that will enable dedicated squads consisting of heavy assets.
4. New Conglomerate definitely have their work cut out for them – the TR and VS were thick on the ground it seemed wherever we went were were out numbered by both assets and infantry. This seemed fitting for a rebel faction!

Thanks to those who stepped up to fill roles required by the team when asked and let’s keep up the momentum over the weekend!

-Bitterchill out