2014 may or may not have a quiet summer. Many are predicting that nothing of note will happen and both major coalitions have made plans to just hang back, find “gudfites” where they may be (such as Provi) and let things settle for the next big war. As we all know, any time someone makes a plan, there’s always someone waiting to screw it up for them. Summer 2014 might end up being a quiet summer with its focus on the Industry centered Kornos expansion, but I believe there are certain key factors in 0.0 and loswec at play regardless.
When the Halloween War kicked off things looked less than spectacular for the “RUSRUS” coalition (AAA, Solar, Black Legion, etc) until the CFC joined their side. Together they handed N3/PL a cripple one-two in the forms of B-R and having their retreat station deadzoned.
With the drain of sovwar weighing heavily on the CFC grunt member, Mittens pulled heavy assets out of the south and back home to deal with pesky BL/MOA/allies insurgency in the north. Leaflets titled “not our war not our problem” were handed out among the CFC grunts and that mantra became sentiment. To the CFC, it was not their job to help back up the south.
Either shortsighted and not expecting N3 to ragegrind the remnant territory of their southern enemies, or simply optimistic, the CFC now has to contend with sharing a border with their enemies. The point of this war is always the next war and the lines are drawn for the next round.
PL has soft-reset the majority of their N3 allies in order to stave off boredom. Much of N3 is off in Provi as well exchanging shots with the local residents. As of writing this no sov has fallen. Some internal tensions in both camps have cropped up as PL and N3 members have exchanged words disagreeing over how to best ensure “gudfites” happen in Provi. PL destroyed Edell’s Avatar Titan in lowsec as he was preparing to sell it and (supposedly) join NCdot.
On the CFC side, said tensions escalated when Razor booted out hirr over disagreements concerning leadership. In Querious, CFC forces destroyed an estimated 500 Billion isk from one of their renters for building supercapitals, violating their rental agreement. GENTS and Li3 Federation, CFC member alliances, have also closed down their doors and merged into “The Bastion” due to leadership burning out.
While there is no one major thing happening, plenty of smaller tensions have escalated into a variety of events. It’s only a matter of time before two or three of said events intersect and create a perfect storm.
“The Great Nul War will come out of some damned foolish thing in Lowsec.”
Asakai is a name which invokes memories of a capital slaughter surpassed only by B-R. Lowsec has become the sight of various decimation of capital forces and most recently the lowsec system of Daras was host to the loss of several CFC supers at the hands of a combined N3/PL and surprisingly BL force.
In Aridia the war between Definitely Not a Coalition (DNAC = Surely You’re Joking + Easily Excited) and Black Flag Society (NARM + Jihadsquad remnants), Violent Declaration and other allies has been raging for several weeks. While DNAC has had a steady streak of victories over their foes, they will now need to be mindful of the handful of NCdot Supercapitals in the region brought to support Black Flag. Having twenty or so super capitals within jump range of CFC territory could prove to be an interesting catalyst
While Vince Draken of NCdot has sworn to hellpurge Solar and punish MACTEP for his role in the previous war, surprisingly the Russians have opted to unify and strike at N3 allies such as Fraternity, Cult of War and Calderius. The problem with squeezing Russians out of their territory is that they generally have nothing else to lose and no where else to go but to the doorstep of the last person that pissed them off. The unique ethnic aspect of these alliances also ensure little turnover in terms of membership. Nothing in particular keeps an English speaker in the CFC or N3 besides current relationships. For Russians it’s not just isk, it’s national pride. Many were amazed when Solar lost all it’s territory in the east without losing many (if any) members in their move to lowsec.
Over all there is plenty going on in Eve to lead to something big. All one has to do is remain observant, adaptive and ready to push the right buttons. One has to be daft or dishonest in claiming Eve will be anything but interesting for the next few months.
– Seraph IX Basarab
