Winter has come to the south!

Hello, my name is Johann Landier, and I’m a writer and political analyst for EN24. The thoughts, advice, and opinions written here are mine and not meant to represent anyone else’s.

Yesterday, capsuleers from across New Eden celebrated the arrival of the New Year by reveling in massive fireworks displays throughout the various regions of the universe. However, a tense situation in southern New Eden erupted into a massive series of escalating battles, as the invasion of Stain Wagon Coalition’s space was launched by the Stainfraggin “Super Coalition” (Yes I have borrowed the term from Jin’Taan who has done two great video’s (video 1, video 2) on the politics and sides of the Winter War.).  The successful invasion of Tribute by Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition, followed by the subsequent abandonment of all space held by TESTCO and Drone Walkers in the northern regions of New Eden then saw through diplomatic agreements the formation of the Stainfraggin Super Coalition, with the intention of removing Stain Wagon Coalition from its space throughout five separate regions in the south. In response, the Imperium deployed its military forces and supercapital fleet into the area in order to help Stain Wagon repel the invasion.

Before I get into the opening rounds of the fighting of this war, it’s important to know who is who and what side they are on:

• The TESCTCO-led ‘StainFraggin’ Super Coalition is primarily made up of the three coalitions below, and the campaign commanders will likely be well known veteran FC’s such as Progodlegend, Vily, Blue Ice, GigX, and Lucian James):
  • TESTCO or COWPI (Circle of Walkers Please Ignore) is a close-knit coalition between TEST Alliance, Circle of Two, and Drone Walkers.
  • Phoenix Federation is the Fidelas Constans-led coalition including the Alliances Army of New Eden, Fubar, Legio De Mortem, The Serenity Initiative, Perfect Dark, Off The Reservation, Blood Covenant, Asteria Concord, and Integritas Constans)
  • Vanguard Coalition is the Triumvirate-led coalition including alliances Stella Nova, It’s Only Pixels, Hell’s Pirates, and Invidia Gloriae Comes

• The Stain Wagon & Imperium Super Coalition will likely be led by well-known Imperium FC’s like DBRB and Asher:
  • The Imperium, while smaller than they were this time last year, is still a massive superpower in New Eden and possesses one of New Edens largest supercapital and titan forces.  The coalition is led by Goonswarm Federation and member alliances include The Bastion, LAWN, Tactical Narcotics Team, The Initiative, Red Alliance, Dream Fleet, and Brothers in Arms
  • Stain Wagon Coalition is a collection of mostly Russian alliances including Coven, Against All Authorities, Soviet Union, Desman Alliance, Wing Wanderers, and Volition Cult.

On January 1st at around 1900 Eve Standard Time, the StainFraggin Super Coalition launched their invasion into Stain Wagon-held space. The initial objective was to establish a pair of forward operating bases inside the Catch region, in the system of F4R2-Q. By establishing two Fortizar-class citadels for themselves in F4R2-Q, the TESTCO-led coalition gained a secure beachhead in order to strike deeper into Stain Wagon held space, and would also allow them to extend their supercapital and capital umbrella over much of Catch in opposition to the Imperium.

As the citadels anchored, a series of battles took place that saw fights occurring throughout several systems, escalating to the point where the Imperium deployed supercapitals.  At it’s peak, the local pilot count in F4R2-Q approached 4000 capsuleers, and the battle raged for close to 12 hours. While battle reports are still generating, and the total amount of losses have yet to be totaled, there are some initial indications of how massive the battles were. StainFraggin forces were approximately 2200 ships which fielded Hurricanes, Maelstroms, Proteus’, Nightmares, Machariels, dreadnoughts, and carriers. It is also significant to point out that Northern Coalition joined the fight, on TESTCO’s side, and brought a Proteus fleet. The Imperium brought around 1200 pilots while the defending Stain Wagon Alliances brought between 200 and 300 ships. They fielded Machariels, Caracals, frigate e-war, bombers, dreadnoughts, carriers, and a sizable supercarrier wing. As the battle progressed, the Imperium and Stain Wagon forces appeared to be headed for a clear victory, as the anchoring citadels continued to receive an unsustainable amount of incoming fire from the Imperium supercarriers and capitals. In the end, both the TEST and Circle of Two’s Fortizars were destroyed. However, what should be viewed as a clear victory by the defenders and Imperium allies has potentially turned into a victory for the invading forces.

A series of incidents saw the Imperium losing five supercarriers and up to 40 or more dreadnoughts. Current estimates have the Imperium and Stainwagon suffering close to 700 billion isk in losses, while TESTCO and allies lost around 70 to 100 billion. It has also been revealed that another set of ‘back up’ citadels was quietly anchored two systems away; these structures survived and will serve as the forward operating base for the Stainfraggin forces.

As it is early in the conflict, it is too soon to say whether what happened yesterday’s battle will be significant: while on the surface the Imperium and the Stainwagon Coalition won the objective, it came at a hefty cost, and TESTCO forces managed to inflict severe damage on the Imperium, all the while securing a secondary objective. The Imperium will certainly replace the lost supercarriers, but long term losses of this scale can not be sustained by the Imperium.

At the time of publishing no final battle report is available. Eve News 24 will update/publish more information as it becomes available.