Full disclosure: the writer of this article is a member of IG.Academy, a member of the Iron Armada. While I will avoid bias as much as possible (because let’s be real, bias sucks), take some of the things I say with a tiny pinch of salt. Most importantly, enjoy the article!
On the night of the 26th of June, there was a battle in Cloud Ring between the Imperium and a coalition comprised of Lethal Intent [L3THAL], Iron Armada [FLEEP], and Usurper [USURP], known as Lethal Ironboards. The fight escalated, and ended up causing 144 billion ISK in damage.
In the past few weeks, Lethal Ironboards have been clashing with Imperium forces, mostly I Whip My Slaves Back And Forth [J4LP], in an effort to chip away as much space as possible. This particular fight was over a POS belonging to Lethal Intent that was set to come out of reinforcement. The fact that this POS was placed on an R64 made it all the more crucial for both sides to gain control of the moon.
Lethal Ironboards numbered approximately 125 pilots, primarily in Apocalypse Navy Issues, supported by capital ships and a Mordus Angels bomber squad, along with various other allies. Northern Coalition, asked if they would like to come along, came in a fleet of Proteii and Lokis. The Imperium brought along approximately 250 pilots, with a fleet consisting mainly of Ishtars and T3s, supported by their own capital and supercapital fleets.
The fight began as the tower came out of reinforcement, however it was delayed by an hour due to sov mechanics. Nevertheless, both forces waited patiently before arriving on the battlefield.
When questioned about the progression of the battle, EX Winet, one of the FC’s for the SpaceMonkey’s Alliance (SMA), had this to say:
Well as you may know, J4LP recently moved to Cloud Ring. Since moving they have been struggling to get everything sorted. Being friendly neighbours, we offered a hand and then Lethal Intent decided to come in and try and take over on a mismanaged sov change. So we set a trap. Called in some smaller Syndicate friends, had them lay the bait on a tower that SMA had set a timer on. We sent in the allies and held an SMA fleet in reserve while asking our other Imperium allies to be on standby in case of cap escalation. We then received news that there was going to be cap escalation so we spun up the caps and had them on standby. Lethal and all of their friends jumped in, so we committed J4LP and other Syndicate allies while SMA held on a Titan. Once the Lethal caps were on grid, SMA committed, while Imperium moved into position. We then committed J4LP caps to buy some more time and started taking subs while J4LP and other allies focused on the caps. We then committed the Imperium caps along with Co2 sub fleet, and the rest is a killboard. SMA set a timer and baited and the bait was taken, which resulted in a good fight.
Straubz Sasen, an FC for the Lethal Ironboards forces, had this to say as well:
J4LP and friends initially cynoed in to start grinding down our tower that had exited reinforcement, they had a mixed fleet of Ishtars, T3’s, battleships and triage. We countered by jumping in our Navy Apocalypses + Triage support at range. They escalated with their dreadnought fleet we had previously scouted out, so we made the call to counter with our own dreads. That went on for a while before Imperium (CFC) came in with their Supercap fleet. And from there our forces extracted.
Tridgit, the executor of Iron Armada, said this of the fight:
Due to outstanding scouting on the part of a select few individuals, we knew where a large portion of the hostile dreads were travelling from. One of the fleets pilots managed to pin the OSS/Groon capitals in their midpoint, allowing the fleet to burn down pieces of what should have been a superior dread force. This is what could have been the deciding factor of the fight. We had cleared the hostile dreads, and were in the process of killing the enemy triage off field. Had papa goon not showed up, I feel the fight would have lasted another 20 minutes, with a shaky – but definitive – victory for the defense fleet.
Both sides seemed very content with the results of the battle. While the Imperium won the objective, Lethal Ironboards forces managed to win the ISK war, a huge morale boost for a group of small low-sec alliances. ISK lost by the Imperium totalled 78.66 billion, whereas the Lethal Ironboards forces lost 60.25 billion ISK.
A link to the full battle report can be found here.
Some footage of the battle:
