Introduction

Ok, I'm going to try to keep this from ballooning into a giant wall of text. Sorry, but there's a lot to go over. There's a tl;dr at the end for those of you who dig brevity.

Welcome to the first Prefect report the Hammer's Fist has seen since 2010. This all started with some complaining and hand-wringing on the TC mailing list, but with a lot of energy and drive we've managed to turn that into something positive. I can't tell you how many times I heard people tell me that the EH was dead, or that our efforts would never accomplish anything, or - and I'm very guilty of this one myself - "It'll never happen, but it would be really cool if...". I'd like to extend a very heartfelt thanks to all of you who have joined or supported our efforts to bring back the Fist, especially GA Rapier and SA Havoc for their support and willingness to let us take over a section of their club. But most of all, I'd like to thank my co-conspirators, Drachen and Sparky, who have been tireless in tracking match reports, annotating Google docs, cheerleading, communicating, and organizing. I could never have come this far on my own, and I have no doubts that they will continue to give their all so that we can build you a truly kickass subgroup.

Command Staff

The HFFM page for the command staff has been updated. We're going with the recent(ish) name Special Operations Command, since it fits our numbers and lore a little better than the more generic General Staff. Allow me to introduce your SOC:

• SOC-1: Prefect of the Legion (PRF): Archenksov. I'm the ringmaster of our delightfully deadly stromtrooper circus.
• SOC-2: Executive Officer (XO): Ulrich Drachen. Ulrich is the man to go to if you can't get ahold of me. Additionally, he'll be managing the roster - putting people in units, approving promotions, and removing AWOL members; he'll also be handling medal and promotion recs for SOC members. But his most important job is going to be arguing with me and holding me to the same high standard that I'll set for the rest of the SOC.
• SOC-3: Commander of Operations (CO): Sparky von Wagglehorn. Sparky will be in charge of our gaming activities, including processing match reports and awarding medals for those.
• SOC-4: Commander of Intelligence (CI): Vacant. The CI will be in charge of our fiction and roleplaying activities as well as keeping our information updated on the HF wiki. We are currently accepting applications for this position. Let us know what you've got planned and how you'd like to go about doing it - if the reality is that we need to wait a few weeks before doing much fiction, we don't mind leaving this position vacant until then.
• SOC-5: Signals Officer (SO): leocadio. Leo's already been a big help getting the old website running again, and he'll be in charge of maintaining it, building a shiny new database, and ultimately designing a new site for us from the ground up.

Communications

Here's the summary of the communications systems we're using. We ask that you join us on whatever platforms you use.

• Our new mailing list at eh-hammers-fist@googlegroups.com is used for reports and general conversation. We're official now, time to ditch the "provisional" prefix. All members of the old mailing list have been migrated over to this one.
• Our Telegram channel is where most of our informal discussion happens. To join us, install Telegram for desktop, Android, or iPhone, and then contact the SOC for a join link. For those new to Telegram, the name you enter when you sign up is the name that will display in chat.
• TeamSpeak is used for voice chat. We have our own channel on Zephon's EH server, address "8.6.77.102:9103".  Contact the SOC for the password. If you use it, be sure to thank Zeph for letting us stink up his server.

Website

We have access to the site at hf.emperorshammer.org and we've gotten most of the old code functioning again. That said, we're continuing to tweak the layout and other aspects to make it serve us better. Much of the information is still very out of date. Feel free to make an account on it but take most of what you see with a grain of salt for the next week or two. You should also be aware that you might have to make another account or re-enter your info later. None of the info in the current database will be lost, but we might be making new profiles depending on how things go in the next few weeks. We're talking to leocadio now about what we want out of the new site, so if you have any ideas you need to get them to us ASAP. Additionally, if there's something on the current site that isn't working for you, let one of us know so we can fix it. There's a big friendly "Contact the Webmaster" link on the sidebar just for that.

For those of you who haven't met Leo, he's a professional web developer, pizza fiend, and all-around handy guy to know. He's already done a lot for us, answering my noobish PHP questions, talking site design with us on Telegram and Teamspeak, and implementing repairs and changes to the site. He's going to continue sprucing that site up a bit, then design a new database for it, and finally a new frontend. Feel free to say hi if you catch him on Telegram - if you're nice, he might even let you stroke that majestic beard of his.

Proposals

We've got several steps to go before we have a fully functioning subgroup. The next step is getting ranks and units squared away. As far as the structure goes, the survey I sent out several weeks ago gave us all the information we need. However, the initial Telegram discussions about ranks got a little contentious. So here's how we're going to handle it. You have until midnight Friday to submit a proposal to me. Your proposal should include a full list of ranks, what positions each rank should hold, and what you have to do to be promoted from a given rank to the next. Additionally, we'll having people returning from previous incarnations of the HF and we want to recognize their past rank, so include a way to handle that. For an example, here's my proposal, plus all of that information condensed into a chart. If you read it, you'll notice that I suggest using "Advancement Points" to determine when enlisted personnel qualify for a promotion, so I also wrote up a chart showing some information about those. You don't have to go nuts with your proposals, but the more information you include the more we'll have to consider.

After the deadline, I'll distribute another survey or something asking for comments on the proposals we received. I'll confer with the SOC and aim to announce our final decision in my report next Monday. From there, we can enter the ranks into the site and start putting people in their units.

Dark Brotherhood Battleteam

The Dark Brotherhood battleteam still exists and will continue to until I'm satisfied with our ability to run competitions and reward activity in house. Currently, the DB is the only way you can earn medals. There's been a slight change as Drachen stepped down as BTL and I took over the position, but I'll try to manage it as successfully as he did. Once we can handle everything through the Hammer's Fist, I'll resign as BTL and ask the DB leadership to rename or close the battleteam. The DB will continue to support all of the EH's platforms including the FPS and RTS games, and all of you will continue to be welcome there, but the HF and the DB will once again be completely separate subgroups. In the meantime, I will continue to issue BTL reports to the DB mailing list.

ID Lines

We're got two email lists with different policies, so listen up. This isn't new info but it is something that's continued to pop up:

• All communications to the MAA/CON/PCON/BTL for submitting matches, and all posts to the DB mailing list, should use DB ID lines. They should not include ID lines for other clubs. That's their policy and all BTMs need to follow it. I'd also like to point out that restarting the HF battleteam the way we did was a bit weird, and it also required the DB leadership (especially Woody and Pell) to do a lot of the work for us when it came to submitting matches and awarding medals. They did us a big favor and have been hugely supportive of the effort to revive the HF. Besides, nobody is required to be on the battleteam. If this is an issue you can't compromise on, that's your business - but I don't want anyone giving the DB leadership grief about their subgroup's policies. We haven't heard any complaints about ID lines since the incident over in the TC, and I'd like to keep it that way.
• The HF doesn't have proper ID lines yet but I figure I might as well address the issue while it's topical. We've got a tight community and we want to maintain that going forward. Please start signing HF messages with your HF name. Once we have everyone's ranks and positions settled, please use your HF ID line. We ask you not to use id lines from the TC, DB, DJB, IW, RS, etc on the HF list. If you have some technical or other reason why this is an issue for you, that's something we can discuss privately. I'm not interested in hunting people down or creating conflict over this, but the SOC is in agreement that the whole point of ID lines is to show who you are in the Fist and to foster a sense of belonging to the Fist. For a new member, especially once we start recruiting people who've never heard of the EH, seeing a guy sign his emails with three or four different names is going to get confusing.

Gaming

Screenshots should be emailed to me, Drachen, and Sparky for credit. If you're in the EHDB and would like CFs for your wins, you will need to send that email to us and to Woody, Crsepe, and Pell. Please summarize your shots by telling us who players and how many wins each person had. We hope to have a way to submit shots through the website (like the TC and DJB do) soon, but for the time being we're stuck with email. Currently the SOC is working on figuring exactly what medals we'll be issuing for multiplayer activity and what the requirements will be. Once we've settled that, we'll get to issuing medals for the matches that have been reported to us over the past several weeks. In the meantime, DB battleteam members will be receiving DB medals for the activity they report over there.

Most of our activity remains on BF2. I think the best possible advertising we could get would be to have a public server with the HF name on it running as close to 24/7 as possible, like SWAG. Unfortunately, my terrible connection means I can't do this myself. If you're interested in helping us out with this, please let me know.

The most exciting news on this front is that the new Battlefront is going to have an open beta this weekend, starting sometime on Thursday and ending Monday. Your SOC will be killing our way across Hoth, Sullust, and Tatooine - join us if you can. The latest information is available at the official Battlefront site.

Fiction

Just a tiny vignette this week; the report's long enough as it is.

Hammer’s Fist Central Command Facility
Carrida II, Carrida System, Alpha Sector

The conference room was in a state of frenzy. Archenksov, the newly appointed Prefect, sat at the end of a long table half-buried under datapads. His XO, Drachen, was at the opposite end, closer to the door. Between them almost two dozen officers and NCOs, some seated at the table, others standing and looking over their shoulders, a few even squatting on the floor. Most were scanning personnel records from the Stormtrooper corps, army and navy, hunting for qualified candidates and forwarding them along. Others were in arguments with indignant officers demanding to know why their best troops had been suddenly transferred out of their units without explanation. Men from the Operations Office were frantically putting the finishing touches on various training facilities and barracks, while representatives from the Signals Office popped in at regular intervals to whisper in the generals’ ears. To the untrained eye it was chaos, but it was nevertheless and ordered, purposeful frenzy. Grand Admiral Rapier had ordered these men to rebuild the Strike Fleet’s special operations forces, and he wanted it done fast. It would not be easy, but the Hammer’s Fist did not exist to do easy things.

Roster

1. Archenksov
2. Ulrich Drachen
3. Sparky
4. leocadio
5. Aija Alura Judarrl
6. David Hawkins
7. Delak Krennel
8. Doyon
9. Dunta Polo
10. Flelm
11. Len Eode
12. Liam Stephens
13. Plif
14. Junazee
15. Trideo Arkson
16. Vosakia Spreex (Mark Schueler)
17. Xavier Sienar
18. Zephon

tl;dr

• Arch and Drach are in charge. Sparky runs gaming. Leo runs the site. If you want to run fiction, talk to us.
• New mailing list. Join Telegram.
• Website is working but not updated.
• If you have strong feelings about ranks, share them by Friday.
• No drama over ID lines pls kthxbai
• DB battleteam is still around. Keep sending us shots.
• BF3 beta is coming. Also, hit us up if you can host a BF2 server.

For the Legion,

Archenksov,
Prefect