Hello, I am Seraph IX Basarab, pirate/merc meta gamer by profession. I happen to drop a few lines on EN24 once in a while concerning warfare, politics, strategy, and the occasional weird as hell story that I run into. I’m not a “reporter”, I’m not here to tell you the news. I’m more of a critic meaning what I write is my personal opinion which you’re free to read or discard.
The idea of sitting in my boxers in front of my eve screen for the twenty seventh hour straight, barking commands in 10 percent TiDi, flipping out on the idiot that’s MJDed out of formation, having to deal with the same logi pilot disconnecting yet again, waiting in my third hour on the titan to jump and all the other general fool-fuckery that goes into large scale 0.0 combat is not exactly my idea of fun. Even if it had been I lack the youthful free time which I so envy my past self for once having. Even so I catch myself tossing around ideas and imagining being part of this grand campaign idea where your perspective on this MMO shifts more into the realm of RTS. For what it was worth my involvement in my past alliance had some level of that where I could see my meta contribution dictate the terms concerning in our own war in lowsec and I truly enjoyed it.
So the area of interest for me more recently is Fountain and how it would play out. As stated earlier, I had previously written an article concerning some of the basic premises of a pro/con comparison between the CFC and N3’s position in the west but I did not go very in depth. So for this work we’ll take the perspective of N3 and consider some of the factors that would need to be addressed if N3 were to fully invade Fountain with the intent of occupying the sov and maintaining it as an integral part of their coalition.
1. N3 cannot push into Fountain without abandoning their other holdings in the south between Stain and Immensea. “The Russians” have already been pushing from Curse and taking system after system in the south east. This can be addressed in a number of ways. Assuming that at the end of it N3 wants to be able to invade Fountain, they either need to reach some sort of agreement with the Rus concerning these territories or find more allies to defend them. I’m speaking of course of HERO Coalition which for all its “newbieness” have put up a fairly respectable resistance to Pandemic Legion. This isn’t the HERO coalition with a BNI that flies tech1 fit t1 cruiser but a much better organised and battle prepared BNI fielding full fleets of shield hacs.
Mittens already admitted on his own show that he attempted to give Delve and the surrounding areas to BNI and was quite frustrated when they refused. Mittens for all his critics out there, had a good idea in providing BNI better territory in exchange for more security on his southern border. Good artists borrow, great artists steal, but the greatest build upon even that. Offer BNI not to trade their territory for a new home, but to expand their already existing holdings. According to Dotlan, BNI is already the largest alliance, suffice to say they’ve outgrown catch. They can be a valuable ally to N3.
“But what about PL?” I’m getting to that.
2. In order for this to happen, PL needs to stop hazing newbro nerds and go contribute on a meaningful front. There’s nothing PL can do against BNI that will make them look good. If they win, who cares, it’s just BNI, if they lose, haha you got dunked by newbs. There’s no meaningful objective there for them. If BNI can be brought into an agreement with N3, fine, if not, that’s fine too. As long as PL pulls out of the area.
3. Assuming N3 would invade from Delve, where would PL deploy to in order to have an affect on the Fountain front? One may be tempted to have them with the rest of N3. Unfortunately PL doesn’t play well with others so preparations must be made for their particular disposition. Staging out of Aridia, specifically Hophib would allow PL to strike into Fountain and push for territory while also opening up a secondary local front in the region. With no actual territory of its own, PL can easily fall back into Aridia lowsec never losing any of its own ground while always being a present threat to the CFC. Through it all, both N3 and PL need to make strong use of their super capital fleet. This is important concerning the next step.
4. Fountain cannot be won without some sort of help from the north. If that comes in the form of Black Legion, Mordus Angels and/or Triumvirate so be it but real pushes for real gains must be coordinated and followed through with. Hunting a few ratting carriers and smug posting on forums is never going to cut it. If N3/PL can keep their capital fleets present in all engagements in Fountain, it would actually allow BL and their partners the possibility to use their own capitals more comfortably letting them knock out structures and make gains.
So in conclusion these 4 main points address the remaining southern holdings of N3, and provide a multi front invasion strategy that will rest Fountain from the CFC. It’s done by forcing the CFC to spread itself too thin, but also ensuring that the anti-CFC forces limit internal friction by focusing on their respective fronts and avoiding leadership conflict. The rest is up to term to coordinate.
Next time I’ll write a more focused piece like this from the perspective of the CFC and how best they could fend off such an attack and even reverse their losses in the south west.
– Seraph IX Basarab
