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!

10 comments:

  1. Wow, no feedback as such other than BOOKMARKED! Probably the mosy indepth yet easy to read news I have seen.

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  2. As for Geminate... the sov map never did properly reflect the space that UFA owned in the region. Yes, UFA owned some space on the far left/west side of the region (the area the sov map showed them in), but they also owned most of the K25 constellation, including the station. All of the systems showed as white stars, instead of the light blue which represented KIA space.

    If you look at the Dotlan history, you'll see the various systems I'm talking about... they lost most of them over the last week or so.

    Wauke - Former UFA member.

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  3. Thanks for filling me in! Wauke. Hitch - glad you enjoyed it!

    Will try and make it more regular but can't make promises on that score + Galactic politics can move slowly at the 'macro' level. And if you are reporting on it at the 'micro' level in intricate detail outlining individual engagement and then it moves too fast to keep up :p

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  4. The UFA situation is pretty simple: They got overstretched. Then someone with a bigger cap fleet and better organization came along and pointed this out to them. The hard way.

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  5. Your blog is a real valuable asset to the community, keep it up!

    -------------------
    Agent EVE, AFK Gamer
    http://eveagent.blogspot.com

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  6. "At the behest of Goons the Northern Coalition (NC) reset standings to ED and IRC"

    This is really not a fair assessment. IRC/ED were originally red to us, in large part because they played a roll in attacking NC holdings in the Drone regions. Towards the end of the anti-MAX campaign they persuaded us that what they most wanted was to shoot BoB and Tri. As we were somewhat tight on forces at the time and with Vale part red with Triumvirate we wanted especially to keep that front occupied so we could focus on GBC 100%, we blued IRC/ED.

    That NAP rolled through into the southern campaign and on into Delve where IRC certainly showed up for a while to help raze BoB/Ken. When it became clear that they were no longer helping against Ken and were infact hindering the campaign by invading RA and partly tying up anti-Ken alliances, we reset them. What is true is that we left to Goons the task of trying to persuade IRC/ED to rejoin the fight against Ken, and delayed our reset until they were sure the situation was beyond resolving. But I assure you that (as always) the NC is fully in control of it's own business. The NC alliances sacrafice enough independance by working as part of the NC family, we're certainly not about to be pushed around by external influences.

    It's often overlooked but we've been on this quest to remove BoB much longer than Goons. To us The Great War is NC&allies vs BoB, just as in other parts it's GS&allies vs BoB. And we don't compromise that goal - somebody impedes us and it results in a reset and/or direct action, that's how it's always been and we've always been totally clear about it. Right now with some getting the idea that Ken's days are inevitably numbered I guess there's a tendency to slacken off and alliances start looking out for their own interests more. IRC/ED have either cut and run too early and will pay the price, or they will be a strong source of political chaos that potentially throws a spanner into the conclusion of the Great War. Time will tell, and it's basically down to their own inner strength how it plays out. As far as I can tell they're not doing all that badly at the moment considering. That could of course change in an instant, they're under high pressure, but here's at least the possibility they'll emerge stronger from this 'testing'.

    In any case, the NC is lucky to have Goons assistance against Ken, and we're especially lucky that they've stepped up to occupy the ex-Ken territories. They're equally lucky to have our assistance (something they acknowledge in public regularly). So really, there is no power relationship, much as it suits some people's agenda to imply there is one. We're simply long term partners in the cause to destroy BoB.


    You admit often to not being an expert on the north and we're not exactly loud about our actions/intentions so I don't blame you, but if you do want a NC perspective for future blogs feel free to hit me up and I'll be happy to fill you in on whatever. It's not that we're secretive, we just don't see much point in the daily propoganda grind, but as long you're writing such great historic overviews from a more-or-less genuinely neutral point of view it seems a tragedy to miss out so much of the NC story.

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  7. Well I do what I can. Certainly the 'impression' given to a nuetral outsider like myself was that Goons called the shots on the IRC/ED reset. Mittani's article over at tentonhammer.com certainly gave me that perception (and it wasn't the only place).

    As I am a genuine 'outsider' I do rely on public sources of information (as do many other players) so I would suggest that NC should be doing a bit more to put their own case in public - otherwise such misperceptions will persist (and grow into semi-fact). There is an old saying: "If you don't do your own PR then you are letting you're enemy do it for you"...

    Anyway thanks for the feedback and I will certainly take the viewpoint into account in future writings.

    o7

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  8. are you slacking off :P

    seriously, its May 21st and your last blog was in May 6. Stop playing eve and write more :P

    anyway... i really like your writing style :)

    good luck

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  9. hardin.. a word from ushra'khan: "Eh. whut..!?" with a bit of "lol?"

    next time chat with me, will ya?

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  10. This is a great blog. I love foreign policy and this is a resource that is entertaining, informative and, as your goal states, very free from bias. Keep up the great work and hope to hear more from you soon!

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