Wednesday, May 6, 2009

And now the end is near...

Real work has been keeping me extremely busy lately which is why my updates have been lagging recently.

Anyway here is a quick round up of events around the galaxy. I would suggest readers use the automatically updated sovereignty map (http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/Verite/influence.png) to get a better idea of the geography and location of these conflicts.

The Great War - Delve, Querious & Period Basis (Bottom left)

The fight over 49-UGC in Delve goes on. My last report had it firmly in Goon hands however a KenZoku(RKZ) tower spam has once again turned the tables. With -A- (Against All Authorities) and Stain bloc assistance KenZoku had managed to match enemy numbers and tighten its grip on the system. As it stands

KenZoku have 31 POSes claiming sovereignty as opposed to 12 Goonswarm. The 49-UGC system is important in that it is a transit route through to Catch which is -A- territory.

KenZoku have also laid down additional POS structures in other R.64 (systems with moons producing ultra rare and ultra valuable resources) in an attempt to wrest these back from Goonswarm. No doubt these systems and 49-UGC will see further conflict in the period ahead.

This fight from the Tau Ceti Federation (TCF is a Goon ally) - http://killboard.tauceti-federation.com/?a=kill_related&kll_id=124311 - demonstrates that not everything always going swimmingly for the Goonie coalition!

Part of the reason for the KenZoku recovery is that Goons and friends attentions were - at least temporarily focused elsewhere - Period Basis. Period Basis is the region under Querious and Delve which had been held by Executive Outcomes (EXE), a KenZoku ally.

Unfortunately for Executive Outcomes they simply couldn't resist the steamroller when it was turned in their direction and the region is currently being subdivided between Killed In Action alliance and two other Goon allies.

Mittani wrote this:

Over the course of three days, EXE has been transformed from the proud defender of a Sov4 constellation to a greasy, contemptible stain in the road. Z-M5 has only one hostile tower left at this moment, and in a few hours it's likely that it will have nothing. G-Q was hellpurged and is neutral sov as of today. All that remains is the Sov4 capital system of PA-VE3. RAWR spammed the nonstation systems in the constellation several days ago, so they will flip to neutral or RAWR when the 7 day claim ticker is over. This may be quite possible the fastest that an actively defended Sov4 constellation has fallen in the history of the game.

RKZ no longer owns any R64s in Period Basis.

With the fall of PA-VE3, there will be no more 'Period Basis Front'. This will allow ZAF, KIA and RAWR - the primary coalition forces invested in this region - to focus entirely upon Querious.


Of course Mittani, as Goon spymaster general would say that, he is after all doing his job. However, it is pretty clear that Executive Outcomes have suffered a blow as these internal forums postings demonstrate:
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1065543

Whether Executive Outcomes will simply stop contibuting to the RKZ/-A-/Stain coalition vs Goons now they have lost their home region is debatable. Also debatable is the assumption that KIA and other Goon allies will continue to put their heart into the fighting in 49-UGC now that they have secured their own territory in Period Basis.

Time will as always tell!

Pure Blind (Left)

Nothing too major to report here however Triumvirate (an alliance whose power has ebbed and flowed over time) seem to be enjoying a bit of a renaissance at the moment and are attacking IRON assets (high value moons) in the region. IRON (another alliance with a big history and not so glorious present) are junior members of the Northern Coalition who are in turn currently allied to Goonswarm in the 'Great War'. While Triumvirate have on the whole stayed out of the larger war there is no doubt that there actions harassing IRON are causing some nuisance (albeit minor) to the anti-KenZoku coalition.

Insmother/Drone Regions/Etherium Reach (Upper Right)

As reported previously the IRC (Intrepid Crossing) and Ethereal Dawn (ED) alliance launched an attack on Red Alliance (RA) in Insmother. Unfortunately for them this provoked the wrath of the Goonswarm Coalition as Red Alliance were one of Goons oldest allies. At the behest of Goons the Northern Coalition (NC) reset standings to ED and IRC and NC along with other Drone Region and Red Alliance forces have launched a counter strike into Etherium Reach which is IRC and ED home territory.

I am aware of various 'good fights' happening in the area but am not currently sure if the alliances attacking IRC/ED are seriously challenging sovereignty with a view to taking the region for themselves or are simply harassing IRC/ED. Will update you when I know more!

Tenerifis/Detorid (Right)

Many formerly Goon regions were abandoned when Goons focused all their efforts on Delve in the aftermath of the BoB disbandment. As has been reported previously Against All Authorities (-A-) and various other KenZoku allies (Red Overlord, Coven, Systematic Chaos and Atlas) took advantage of this to claim swathes of new space.

Initially most of this expansion was not resisted as Goons and allies were too busy elsewhere but as the -A-/Red Overlord/Atlas bandwagon spread eastwards they started bumping into pockets of resistance from entrenched Goon allies such as United Legion and Red Alliance.

With Goons wanting to distract -A- and friends away from 49-UGC they called on Red Alliance, Solar Fleet and the xXDeathXx alliances to start putting some pressure on -A-/Atlas in Tenerifis. Most of the conflict centred on the 46DP system which xXDeathXx tried to claim. This turned into a fairly large conflict as Goon allies from Pandemic Legion and TCF (Northern Coalition) also got involved in the fighting. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned for Goon Coalition with TCF losing a Titan and xXDeathXx a Mothership and -A- winning sovereignty of the system.

Watch out for developments!

Wicked Creek (Right)

Tenerifis is next door to Wicked Creek which is home to Scorched Earth alliance who have historic ties with TCF (Goonswarm's long standing French ally and member of the Northern Coalition). As reported here a few weeks back Aggression Alliance (AGGRO), a grouping nominally alligned with KenZoku (quite a few former members), launched a bold attempt to sieze territory in the region.

Despite help from Atlas Alliance and various other random groupings based in Curse, the Aggression assault failed, primarily because Tau Ceti Federation (TCF) took a hand in the conflict despite its commitments elsewhere.

The fighting seems to have stopped now but it will be interesting to see what Aggression tries to do next!

Geminate (Top Right)

Sovereignty in Geminate is currently held by Killed in Action (KIA) Alliance who, as mentioned earlier, are currently obtaining new space in Period Basis as part of the Goon Coalition. While this has been going on interesting things have been happening in Geminate.

The United Freemen Alliance (UFA) had been operating in the region however they have recently come under attack by the Wildly Inappropriate Alliance (who are junior members of the Northern Coalition).

Anyway it seems that the pressure applied by Wildly Inappropriate paid off as a UFA diplomat made this public surrender statement: http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1063200

Now I am not an expert on affairs in the North and the various diplomatic entanglements/agreements up there - but it does seem strange that UFA are surrendering their claim to a region which, according to the Sov Map, is owned by someone else entirely. Also I am not quite sure why Wildly Inappropriate (an NC ally) would be attacking a region owned by KIA (a Goon ally) when NC and Goons are in theory still cooperating against their common enemy - the KenZoku/-A-/Stain bloc.

I am quite sure that some kind of deal has been done behind the scenes - I just don't know what! Maybe one of you could enlighten me on this one!

Anyway there endeths my roundup from around the galaxy for this week. Hope you enjoyed the read and found it reasonably comprehendible!

Feedback is always welcomed!