“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality. “ – Walt Disney
The recent addition of Citadels to New Eden has served as a boon to industrialists, and tenacious capsuleer builders have taken CCP’s design and made it a reality. Citadels have not only provided industrialists with a new lucrative steam of income but also living, breathing monuments that will allow them to point to these new and awe-inspiring sandcastles as one of their achievements.
As corporations, alliances, and coalitions now compete in a new arms race to acquire, erect, and master the Citadel their impact has barely begun to be realized. The strategists of New Eden are busy theory crafting and testing their abilities, strength’s, and weaknesses hoping to pioneer the best use of these citadels in a way that will benefit their respective groups. It is my opinion that the Citadel will mark a turning point for the capsuleer. It is a powerful tool that will allow us to project power in every region including Empire space without the need for sovereignty in a particular system. From a lore standpoint, these stations will continue to ramp up the threat the four empires feel and fear of the capsuleers and our growing power over the universe.
Shortly after the Citadel patch was released, I quickly raced across fifty jumps, as a space tourist, to see the first of these new stations built and I readily admit to being in awe and inspired by the breadth of these new “Cities in the Heavens.” The first glimpses took me back to my first days as a capsuleer and the sheer amazement I felt when I saw my first Avatar Titan all those years ago.
While the greater impact of the citadels is yet to be known, their enormous scale and potential have already lived up to the hype. They have quickly become massive force multipliers for the powers of New Eden; a way to gain a beachhead in hostile space or a new tool deployed in one’s home space to gain control of critical grids within a system. Their fighters, defensive systems, and super weapons have laid waste to attacking capital fleets while simultaneously providing cover and logistic support for defensive and friendly fleets.
Smaller corporations are also benefiting from the ability to own stations in space that up till now would not have been an option. I would venture to say that there is not a corner of New Eden that has not been or will not be impacted by the citadel.
“One can always find hands for a work of destruction.” – Andre Gide
Despite the raw power of a citadel,, one thing continues to be true in every corner of New Eden. No matter how indestructible something in Eve seems to be, there is always the will and ability to destroy it. Over the last month,supercarriermany have quickly found that their new citadels have become a target of either opportunity or revenge. In the early morning hours of Friday, May 27th Violence of Action commissioned and began “on-lining” a “Fortizar” Class Citadel. The operation, conducted under the protection of a Violence of Action fleet, was composed of about 125 Tornado attack battle-cruisers and Zealot heavy assault cruisers in the Fountain system of 7BX-6F. Violence of Action, while a newer alliance, has dominated the USTZ in the region. The EUTZ dominate alliance The Culture has waged a war with the aim of “removing Violence of Action and Cede Nullis from Fountain”.
It is likely they carried out the operation in the early morning hours to avoid interference from The Culture and despite precautions,, the operation did not go unnoticed. Fleet commanders for The Culture quickly formed a 150 man combined fleet of Machariels battleships and support made up of pilots from the Culture, The Uncultured, and Psychotic Tendencies. As the fleet formed and the citadel ticked closer towards on-lining Pandemic Legion was notified and sent a 50 man proteus fleet. Psychotic Tendencies also formed around 35 titans, super-carriers, and dreadnoughts for possible escalation.
The combined attacking fleet formed on a titan but could not bridge directly into 7BX-6F due to the system being protected by a cynosural system jammer. The Uncultured fleet members reported that once they bridged to a system near their target they had to fight through several bubbled and camped gates. After clearing the gates and entering the target system, the attacking fleet commanders warped their fleets to the on-lining citadel and engaged the Violence of Action fleet. The defending tornado fleet was unable to inflict any damage on the machariels and began taking losses to the point of being forced off the field. Despite the attacking fleet now holding the field around the on-lining Citadel they (The-Culture and Psychotic Tendencies) needed more DPS to destroy the station once it on-lined and entered into its fifteen-minute vulnerability window.
Note: Citadels have a short window of time after they initially anchor in which they can be destroyed, and if they can get through this window then they become invulnerable for 24 hours, after which, they cycle through another short vulnerability window before they then enter a longer weekly cycle.
As Pandemic Legion entered the system all the attacking fleets warped onto the cynosural jammer and incapacitated it. Once the system jammer went down the Psychotic Tendencies titan and super carrier fleet was able to jump into the system and join the fight. The fleets then re-positioned to the citadel and the battle and race to destroy the citadel began again. Violence of Action lost the majority of the defense fleet (84 ships) and while absorbing a butcher’s bill of 57 Billion ISK. After removing all opposition The Culture, The Uncultured, Psychotic Tendencies, and Pandemic Legion managed to stop the repair timer and destroy the citadel. It is remarkable to note that the repair timer only had 75 seconds left until the citadel would have been safe for 24 hours. Had Violence of action sent a fleet to counter the attack on the cynosural jammer they might have bought the citadel another day at the least. Whether that would have delayed the inevitable or not will never be known. The loss of the combined citadel at 26 Billion ISK and fleet cost Violence of Action 83 billion ISK while the attackers completed not only the tactical objective but only suffered a small loss of 4 battle ships and a couple of support ships for a total of 3 Billion ISK. Had Violence of Action managed to get the citadel online and functional it would have provided them another weapon to maintain their presence in Fountain, but with the loss of this fleet and citadel is a solid victory for The Culture and friends.
Note:Despite our efforts, Violence of Action has not given EN24 a statement or response to inquiries.
