Disclaimer: The Author is a Line Member of one of the Alliances Involved
After the epic Keepstar fight (which saw my first fight as an Aeon pilot) that witnessed magnificent defensive tactics by the DRF (Drone Regions Federation) and subsequent triumph in the deployment of a Fortizar in hostile territory (a feat certain other coalitions require low treachery or firesales to accomplish), by GOTG (Guardians of the Galaxy), the grind that is today’s Fozziesov Entosis meta has been running on in Perrigen Falls. While MTO2-2 was cleared of the DRF Fortizar that was crucial to the initially successful invasion of the system last week, the DRF forces have proved to be no pushover. That said the Dragon has proved to be fully awake and hungry.
Heavy citadels like Sotiyos can take an hour or more to reinforce. Merely distracting the attacking fleet can potentially save the timer. One such siege I witnessed (during the reinforcement timer of Digital Vendetta’s Sotiyo in 83-YGI) saw just that when a Guardians’ Macharial fleet was opposed by Digital Vendetta and Razor Alliance in Feroxes. Despite the defenders making a single pass to try and save the station the invading GOTG forces narrowly won. The shield and subsequent reinforcement timers of the Sotiyo in QKQ3-L saw the DRF limit their defense, well, to local chat.
That said, more effective response fleets are being detected this week.
Entosising is the same time consuming pain since CCP decided to introduce it. One clever and inexpensive technique to extend its already significant time investment is the use of Griffin class ewar frigates to extend the timers on Ihubs, nodes, and other entosisable items. By breaking the Entosising ship’s lock, it costs the attackers 2 minutes lost due to the time it takes for entosis modules to cycle. An effective tactic if one side needs time to assemble a response fleet. As to its morale value, I suppose that depends on how lively an FC can keep his comms.
Since my last article the tactical situation has begun to shift. The DRF used extremely smart deployment of dreadnaughts and a fortizar in the system during the defense of MTO2-2 to prevent the anchoring of the Keepstar during the opening days of the war. However as of this article the Guardians have taken complete control of the strategic system, destroyed the DRF fortizar and have now set up the system as a crucial military staging point into Perrigen Falls. This beachhead has allowed the GOTG over the last week to take control of another three systems, destroy multiple DRF structures, and launch attacks that to date have reinforced close to 50 systems through Perrigen Falls and Oasa. As all of this occurs on the DRFs northern border Triumvirate continues to put up a solid fight on a second front in the south and wage unrelenting war. While this has split the DRFs forces it would not be realistic to write any predictions yet as the DRF forces appear to be preparing for a response.
Not that Griffins have been the only thing to shoot at though. In a welcome break from it, A Nyx was caught in KED-2O and taken down by a Guardians’ Cerberus Fleet while it was providing support for an Entosis Op. We spoke to Guardians’ FC George Soletters of Legio Germanica about how it came about.
Click for Kill Link
Yossarian – Lets talk about that kill… did you think the pilot was baiting?
George Soletters – I don’t think he was baiting. I received the intel about the supers in that systems few days ago, because some people went into the system and got killed by him. It was also mentioned in one of the lower FC channels. The system is cyno jammed, so it wasn’t possible to cyno something in. Of course from both sides. If you see his losses in the past, you will quickly see he is just a guy with too much ISK. But as far as I know there are still 2 or 3 more Nyxes in KED atm. Not sure if they are still in that system or if they already moved.
Yossarian – Well I prefer not to pass judgement. The pilot’s killboard shows plenty of VOLTA kills…. and I know firsthand how challenging taking on Wormholers with a capital can be. I see his own fortizar had top damage….
George Soletters – Yeah, because he activated the PDS (Point Defense System) to kill our Interdictors and parts of the Cerberus fleet. The dictors were corpmates and they knew what they were are doing. They warped occasionally down to keep him bubbled. There was also some stuff hanging on a ping with them because they were not able to tank the PDS that good. I actually was expecting we could tank it a bit better.
The small stuff died unfortunately because they didn’t flag exempt from the initial fleet warp. Some Cerbs also didn’t understand they can just warp up to a ping where all time like 10-15 guys were. But most people of the fleet bumped him very nicely out of tether. One of my dictors reshipped into another dictor and they kept him bubbled. The dead dictor was the actual reason why the super was not able to safelog, because he aggressed him and had a combat timer. When he was already in low armor or even structure he also undocked an Apostle, but the Apostle was like 70km off the Nyx, so he was not able to rep the Nyx.
Yossarian – A good thing for the Apostle?
George Soletters – Well, we started shooting the Apostle also, because it was in range of the Cerbs and the Nyx was already down. But he just stopped repping and locking and docked in half armor. To be fair, the Cerberus fleet wasn’t that big at that point, cause a few guys went back to the staging after the Strat OP or already died to PDS. Anyways loosing a few cruisers is still a good trade to kill a Supercarrier.
Yossarian – considering that the Guardians are a bit out of practice with offensive entosis, would you say that there pilots have done well all things considered, and what about the losses being suffered in Deklein?
George Soletters – Well I wouldn’t say we are out of practise with offensive entosis. Mostly we do it pretty well, as you can see on all the iHub’s* and TCU’s* we already got. Few days ago when we had a Cerberus fleet out to entosis two systems, it was just our fault, cause the fleet was a little bit chaotic and we changed our strategy too late. We took 2 iHubs and a TCU and our Interceptor pilots weren’t able to kill the griffins fast enough. On top we had a more important CTA afterwards and it took just too long. After we talked about it in command channel it and changed our strategy, it was okay, but we just had too few entosis ships that time, which was generally the main fault of the fleet. And about the miners, they had a 1-2 month time to carebear as much as they wanted between our deployment in M-OE and that one. I dont wanna tell 100+ DARKNESS dudes to jumpclone down to Deklein, just to save a dude, who thinks its ok to mine alone in 1-2 Rorquals. But yeah, I like the use the phrase “natural selection”. One guy for example lost a Wyvern because he decided to help a tackled Rorqual against a Loki fleet.
It wouldn’t be a Yossarianite eve article without a touch of wistfully borderline irresponsible speculation…. but who ever said miners know any better? DRF member BOT Alliance (Brothers of Tangra) appear to be presently confirmed as “Friends not food” to the Guardians, much to the chagrin of certain bloodthirsty subscribers to the “Burn Them All” school of thought. Whispers from the other side continue to demonstrate the mutual respect many within each side has for the other’s skill as FC’s and pilots, that fighting on multiple fronts has led to things being “less than ideal” for the defenders at the moment. There is always the possibility of one or more uncommitted third parties entering the fray in force if the situation begins to deteriorate for the DRF. There is also the fact that the DRF Supercapital fleet deployed in the South is likely at least in part reaching the end of the long trek through the Eveverse’s equivalent of Siberia* to counter the Guardians’ incursion into DRF space, as evidenced by the considerable response to a tackled Apostle in Cobalt edge.
Inpanic Supers Jump in to save a tackled Apostle-class Capital Force Auxiliary Carrier
While it isn’t inaccurate to state they are generally despised, at least within this author’s earshot, the Goons have certainly been showing up on this new Northern front quite frequently. As a fellow coalition member recorded in a battle against his own brother. Along with a skirmish earlier today that reinforced the conventional wisdom that hurricanes have an edge over feroxes at anything like close range. Still, the contest remains far from decided. With a potential rematch to the legendary MTO2-2 keepstar fight possibly in the offing, the Goon fleets have provided the Guardians fine content in the midst of what is todays’ meandering sovereignty meta.
*IHUB = Infrastructure Hub, destroying it spawns nodes that if one of the enemy captures them control over structures in the system are lost.
*TCU = Territorial Control Unit, taking it spawns nodes at a later date which, if taken, “flip” control of the system to the attacking party.
** Dronelands, big and sparsely populated… a fair comparison not in anyway slandering any particular class of its inhabitants.
