Nearly 2 weeks ago, Phoebe Freeport Republic’s [PFR] Walter Cohen announced that PFR would be invading the regions of Querious and Catch in order to conquer more freeports for themselves. The Crusade suffered from numerous issues which hampered it’s progress until ultimately on Tuesday the 5th of May, after only 2 days of combat operations in the Querious region, Walter officially called an end to the 3rd crusade in a post to the alliance internal forums:
Dear Crusaders of PFR
The third crusade is coming to an end and one has to admit with a bit of mixed success. The Catch portion was successful as we gained a station and now hold PFR Catch which already has been used by a couple of passing by fleets as pit stop. Some of us were hoping for more, others thought it was crazy in the first place, me personally, I am pleased with what we achieved in catch. Because one station out in catch is something we can support and sustain.
Now Querious didn’t go that well. We found a lot more resistance then we were lead to believe. We got less support then we were lead to believe and it all started as a long shot in the first place. But no worries we will go back there one day. Someone put it on the list with CT8K and 3Q.
One station in every region of New Eden, that’s the long term plan. Seven months and three regions in, we are going strong. A lot stronger than anyone would have expected. We create content for us and for others. We are doing just fine.
So where do we go from here? Home to Catch or WC/SP and fill the wallets back up that are depleted. We are going to sit down and wait for fozzy sov, doing what we do best. Give fights to anyone who comes, get better at PVP and have some good old fashion PFR fun. Might even drop our last SBU in 3Q. Or even better poke a bit at M-M and RANE. We also need to get a few more moons. The alliance needs to add a bit of isk .. JB’s are not free.
We came, we saw, we gained a station, we created content … I call op-success
Thanks for being who you are PFR
Walter Cohen
PFR initially began to make moves on Catch just before the 25th of April. With HERO Coalition leaving the region, they offered to sell their systems and stations to anyone interested, and so PFR chose to purchase 5 systems, including 3 stations, from HERO for a total of 3 billion ISK. As soon as the sovereignty transfer started, Pandemic Horde [REKTD] (The newbie alliance belonging to Pandemic Legion) immediately struck and seized 2 systems, including a station system, away from PFR before they could online their TCUs. Against All Authorities [-A-] did the same for the ZXIC-7 system, however PFR was able to negotiate with -A- and retain the station in that system despite -A- owning the sovereignty. The campaign for Catch was fought via the pen rather than the sword as PFR did not try to contest REKTD/-A- taking sovereignty over their purchased systems and instead decided to accept that 2/5 was fine for Catch. Thus they headed onto the next part of their campaign… Querious.
The Querious part of the 3rd Crusade was by far the most controversial, due to several factors. PFR started their assault by attacking the constellation of 8ET-D1 which led to confusion amongst some members as the constellation is uniquely positioned to be one of the worst in Querious, specifically for gate-to-gate logistics. However the constellation is very good for Jump Freighter logistics and as the sec-status is so poor it was thought that no-one would seriously resist PFR’s takeover. In a post to the alliance internal forums Morgaine Mighthammer (Head MilDir for PFR) announced that the assault would start on the 3rd of May:
The Querious Campaign Begins!
As all of you know, last week we began the 3rd Crusade. Since then we have succeeded in opening a new freeport in the system of KDF-GY in the region of Catch. While Catch was almost entirely secured via diplomacy, and thus was taken in very short order, Querious will have to be done the hard way.
So! for everyone that is coming on this portion of the 3rd crusade, what i need for yall to do is leave a clone in 4-c and get yourself to the system of Parses in Khanid. once there, you will find moas on alliance contract.
Operation: Free Burger King will kick off at 1800 eve time with the reinforcement of 3BK-O7, what will become our home system in Querious for the duration of the crusade.
In addition, for all crusaders that intend to stay and live in Querious after we have succeeded, please put in an app to Rational Chaos Inc. as it will end up being the main corp for the Querious and Delve regions, and it will allow me to better coordinate efforts in the region without mucking up alliance chat.
The 3rd Crusade marches on!
Death or Glory!
The announcement was met with immediate skepticism by longtime member SkyMeetFire who questioned the logic behind the attack on Querious given the imminence of FozzieSov, the difficulty of logistics to the constellation and the disappointing result of the Catch campaign. Diana Olympos added his skepticism to the campaign echoing many of SkyMeetFire’s worries. However Walter Cohen was quick to clamp down on the discussion, stating ‘Just so we are clear on something. This is not a campaign that’s open to discussion.’.
The Campaign went ahead and was met with immediate resistance as PFR found a resurgent Darkeshi (DARKNESS. [DARK.] and The Kadeshi [THOR] coalition) more than willing to defend the constellation. With CFC’s departure from the south, DARK. and THOR had begun to solidify their hold over Querious (DARK. recently acquired Northern Associates. [NA.], Northern Coalition. [NC]’s old renter alliance) and begun to make moves on reclaiming the Delve region, sadly for PFR they struck just as this was occurring so their attempts to grab sovereignty were quickly shut down by DARK..
It was at this point that sovereignty dropped in the system of Z-UZZN and so PFR, along with other local entities such as The Exiled Gaming [TX] quickly rushed to the system in an attempt to take control. However once again DARK. and allies were able to wrestle control of the situation and promptly killed a couple of PFR TCUs before the system eventually returned to their control. Another attempt was made on 3BK on the 5th of may but was quickly shut down and so the call was made to end the crusade after just 2 days of military operations in Querious.
The announcement of the end of Querious operations was met with much disappointment from long time members such as Laevex Esre who noted the disappointing number of people participating in the Crusade and suggested PFR focus on internal harmony before seeking to expand elsewhere. SkymeetFire was quick to post his thoughts, where he attributed the lack of success to the whole idea being flawed from the start. It was also pointed out in that thread that of the last 7 attempts to conquer space by PFR, only one has been successful. PFR Alliance diplomat Chuggi tried to resolve the growing unrest by seeking to find a new direction for the alliance, in a post on the forums he suggested PFR should focus on fortifying the Scalding Pass region in preparation for Fozziesov, his suggestions were met with a lot of agreement however Chuggi, and his corp CK-0FF [-FU], soon decided to part ways from PFR in order to help a budding alliance in Delve.
With the third Crusade a failure, many have begun to head back home to the 4-CM8 system, however the question still lingers over where PFR will seek to expand to. The CEO of Dutch East Querious Company [DEQC] (the largest, and founding, corporation), Marciniusz Solo, said ‘I’d very much prefer if we’d stick to nearer regions, like Wicked Creek. Splitting one alliance over 5 regions apart just doesn’t work for me. It may have worked before Phoebe, but not after especially if we’re not taking any sov in-between.’.
PFR has faced the issue of where to expand to for many months now with the regions of Insmother and Detorid being out of the question due to large, Russian entities such as Red Alliance [RA] and Dream Fleet [DRF] occupying them. PFR have traditionally looked to Wicked Creek to expand however the entrance of TEST Alliance Please Ignore [TEST] saw those hopes dashed and the alliance between RA and Diplomatic Immunity. [DIP] means PFR would not easily be able to take any system in Wicked Creek. That leaves only Scalding Pass for expansion (local expansion anyways), however PFR currently have a Non-Invasion-Pact with The Gorgon Empire [-GE-] who owns most stations in the region.
Time will tell what awaits the ‘Phoebe Crusade’ however if they hope to take full advantage of the introduction of FozzieSov they have a lot of internal issues to work on first.
Thanks to Chuggi, Marciniusz Solo and Park3r Kalkoken for their help in the making of this article.
When asked for comment Walter Cohen stated ‘PFR Leadership will no longer work with EN24 or any other press. Thanks for your intrest. Fly safe. o7’
