The week thus far has been a tumultuous time for various alliances in New Eden. The looming specter of Fozziesov has many groups scrambling to prepare for the coming changes and resulting conflicts. There are three regions which constitute the majority of fighting so far.
Providence
Provibloc and NC. have been brawling in Providence over key systems for the last few weeks. The brawling reached a head on May 19th. The fight started after NC. brought a Tempest Fleet Issue Battleship fleet, approximately 80 pilots strong with 3 Triage Archon Carriers for support, to the region. The force accompanied 21 Titans who were reinforcing towers in the H-GKI6 system. The Titan force was able to extract, but removing the subcaps safely proved to be an issue.
ProviBloc formed a response fleet, 150 pilot strong Naga Battlecruiser fleet, with a Stealth Bomber wing and made their way to the system.
The two forces met first in H-GKI6 on the VKI-77 gate, the NC. fleet receiving a full payload of bomb damage, dropping their health into deep armor as it sat on the gate. When ProviBloc jumped their main fleet into them, NC. declined to engage, preferring to jump out into VKI-77. There the fleet was caught by interdiction probes, as ProviBloc jumped back and quickly anchored on the gate.
The exchange proved murderous. With many of the Battleships already in half armor, the Nagas easily picked them off one by one. The Triage Carriers took time to jump in and de-cloak as well, meaning that for a few minutes no Logistics were present for the NC. fleet, which only added to the initial massacre. Though ProviBloc lost a few ships in the early stages of the fight, as Battleships popped left and right, their damage output lessened, allowing shield transfers to hold.
With the majority of the fleet decimated and the Triage Carriers tackled, chaos ensued. Micro Jump Drives were spooled and fired, allowing a few Battleships to escape the carnage. With no more sub-capitals on field, it was the Carriers’ turn. One by one they were destroyed, the last one trying desperately to tank, but ultimately succumbing to the unrelenting fire poured on it by the Battlecruisers.
With the last Carrier destroyed, ProviBloc forces looted the field and extracted safely, having won the day.
Footage of the Battle from Providence Bloc’s PoV, Courtesy of Mangraa Dementia
Battle report for the VKI-77 system can be found here.
Etherium Reach
In 8KE-YS (Etherium Reach) at 21:00 on May 20, Pandemic Legion [-10.0] and Nulli Secunda [S2N] engaged Vanguard Coalition (mainly SOLAR FLEET [SOLAR] and Triumvirate. [TRI]) over the shield reinforcement timer of the TRI’s infrastructure hub. Both the timer and the ISK war were won by PL and S2N.
PL used a Proteus fleet supported by S2N’s Ishtar fleet, while Vanguard Coalition were in Machariels. PL and S2N sank short of 31b ISK worth of Vanguard’s Machariels, losing only about 1b ISK.
The region has been quite a powder keg with Nulli and others taking merc contracts to engage Vanguard forces in the area from GemCo in recent weeks. It remains to be seen which side will fold first as both are taking quite a beating in terms of ISK and overall losses.
Fountain
HERO and Black Legion. have been brawling over key R64 moons in the region for the last several weeks. The conflict seems to be reaching a tipping point in favor of BL. As a short Reddit post from interim CEO June Ting confirmed that HERO plan to allow the Satyr constellation to fall. Black Legion. currently hold 54 systems in the region, along with the majority of the moons in those areas as well.
Despite HERO finally scoring victories over a hotly contested moon in MN5N-X, and their ongoing campaign of “POCOpalypse”, the coalition is in desperate need of a morale boost and major victory. They seem to finally be recovering from their numbers losses, but still have a way to go on that front. HERO did what everyone has been telling them to do for months and dropped capitals against BL ad FCore, scoring a minor victory. So it seems they are finally heading in the right direction.
However the departure of FC Clay Robertson for Black Legion., and the current attitude about leadership decision among some line members highlights a long standing issue for HERO. That being their newbro focus has led to the group not feeling like home for some of their higher SP members. Resulting in a lot of talented and skilled players being poached by their rivals. Correcting this trend with new direction in terms of progression and planning will be key to overcoming this issue and moving forward as a group. The problem is that there is a lot of resistance to removing some of the nepotism and stagnation that has held HERO back up to this point.
