So I go to sleep for 6 hours and suddenly everything changes.
Least importantly, the second jump bridge system which was threatened yesterday has been cleared of SBU.
Atlas is going home. Their renters are under attack by Cursed alliance, which I forgot to mention in my last update. Atlas apparent is highly dependent on renters, having few high-end moons despite the vast amount of space they inhabit, and Goons are also moving to assist Cursed. Atlas pets GC and CoW have reportedly had minimal participation in the north for several weeks, so I expect to see them leaving the front entirely soon as well.
IT lost a titan this morning. It's one that had escaped from H-W by resetting a pos password (when they still had towers in the system), which bumped it outside the bubbles surrounding the tower and allowed it to jump out. Apparently it was caught as it was moving back to Delve.
At this point we could just call the war over. I'm going to hold off on that because there hasn't been an official announcement yet, but I don't see how the enemy could accomplish anything at this point. What happens now remains to be seen.
EDIT: I've gone ahead and changed the label for this war from 'great northern war mk 2' to 'max 2'. I was really expecting us to lose when I made that.
Monday, May 17, 2010
IT vs NC: General update
With the H-W campaign winding down we're back to structure warfare, capitalizing on high participation to start to undo the progress the enemy had made in the western regions. As well as saving the EC- and FIO stations we repped a number of pos coming out of reinforced and sieged a large number of enemy high-ends; our timer tool was showing more than 30 reinforced towers at its peak. Many of the towers were saved, but since h-w we've killed (and presumably replaced) 17 large towers, and another 7 are currently reinforced.
Reinforced towers as of a day or two ago
An interesting situation has developed over the last few days with regard to H-W however. According to intel the enemy still have 7 titans and 20 something else (supercarriers or mixed capitals depending on which rumor you listen to) logged off at their dead staging towers. This is a problem for the enemy because titans are a big deal; active titan pilots are a rare commodity, and seven of them would make a huge difference in any capital fight. They can't be abandoned, so the enemy has to get them out of h-w somehow.
Over the last day or so they have been trying to draw our fleet out of h-w by attacking jump bridge systems. At the present time one jump bridge system has enemy SBU anchored and one other has been cleared of SBU. Although the operations in the western regions and saving the one jump bridge system have been accomplished without abandoning the H-W camp, the hostiles have been pulling fleets of about 500. These sort of numbers may be tricky to take on while still maintaining adequate cover in h-w, though we'll see how it goes.
The strategic situation has also continued to evolve. The NC has been joined by a former Providence alliance, who are now running a campaign against Ev0ke, while Ushra'Khan and brick squad have joined the attacking forces and IRC are apparently going to attack Tenal on the 20th. Down in IT space things have heated up as well, with Pandemic Legion and their panda-themed allies being joined by a new alliance formed from an eve community known as dreddit.
Reinforced towers as of a day or two ago
An interesting situation has developed over the last few days with regard to H-W however. According to intel the enemy still have 7 titans and 20 something else (supercarriers or mixed capitals depending on which rumor you listen to) logged off at their dead staging towers. This is a problem for the enemy because titans are a big deal; active titan pilots are a rare commodity, and seven of them would make a huge difference in any capital fight. They can't be abandoned, so the enemy has to get them out of h-w somehow.
Over the last day or so they have been trying to draw our fleet out of h-w by attacking jump bridge systems. At the present time one jump bridge system has enemy SBU anchored and one other has been cleared of SBU. Although the operations in the western regions and saving the one jump bridge system have been accomplished without abandoning the H-W camp, the hostiles have been pulling fleets of about 500. These sort of numbers may be tricky to take on while still maintaining adequate cover in h-w, though we'll see how it goes.
The strategic situation has also continued to evolve. The NC has been joined by a former Providence alliance, who are now running a campaign against Ev0ke, while Ushra'Khan and brick squad have joined the attacking forces and IRC are apparently going to attack Tenal on the 20th. Down in IT space things have heated up as well, with Pandemic Legion and their panda-themed allies being joined by a new alliance formed from an eve community known as dreddit.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
IT vs NC: Five SC supercarriers down in H-W
But first, some boring lead-up.
Over the 12 or so hours after my previous update enemy towers in h-w were coming out of reinforced every few hours, and after not too long we finished the last one off. Hostiles were still intermittently logging in to where the towers had been and dying, which brought our total number of capital kills for the h-w campaign up to 59 (plus a titan), while the IT killboard is showing they killed 48.
After all the enemy pos had been taken down the EC- station came out of armor reinforced, so we headed down and repped it. Many hostiles were still logged off in h-w, and they formed up 300 (according to intel) people at the login screen for 2 hours hoping to break out while we saved the station; however, we did a capital-only op and kept support in h-w, so they abandoned this. The next enemy breakout attempt was scheduled to start at 1000 eve time, one hour before downtime.
At 1000 we got about 290 people together and spent the hour warping around and trying to get tackle on an enemy battleship fleet which had logged in. At one point we got good bubbles on a couple dozen hostile battleships as their fleet warped off, and we kept getting kills here and there until shortly before downtime. The hostiles were very focused on the planet 9 moon 2 and p9m3 former pos locations, warping in repeatedly to kill mobile warp disruptors.
Good bubbles for once
Minutes before downtime a hostile ragnarok and aeon were reported on grid. The server went down, and soon we got a jabber alert that the hostiles were calling for everybody to get in and fight.
After downtime we finally formed a proper capital fleet and I switched to my dreadnaught. We got a warpin shortly and landed on what must have been the entire hostile fleet, battleships, capitals and supercarriers though no titans. We started out primarying and doomsdaying enemy dreads, who were attacking a friendly titan, but pretty soon we switched to supercarriers and took down a nyx and aeon in short order.
Taking down dreads
First nyx going down
First aeon going down
The enemy capitals that weren't tackled started cynoing out as the aeon was going down, and capitals stayed on grid to kill the ones that couldn't escape while supercapitals warped out to kill a logged off nyx and support kept a wyvern tackled 180 km from our capitals. When the enemy capitals and nyx were down our capitals and supercaps warped to a logged off aeon and killed it, then to the wyvern and took that down too.
It was a pretty good night, overall.
Over the 12 or so hours after my previous update enemy towers in h-w were coming out of reinforced every few hours, and after not too long we finished the last one off. Hostiles were still intermittently logging in to where the towers had been and dying, which brought our total number of capital kills for the h-w campaign up to 59 (plus a titan), while the IT killboard is showing they killed 48.
After all the enemy pos had been taken down the EC- station came out of armor reinforced, so we headed down and repped it. Many hostiles were still logged off in h-w, and they formed up 300 (according to intel) people at the login screen for 2 hours hoping to break out while we saved the station; however, we did a capital-only op and kept support in h-w, so they abandoned this. The next enemy breakout attempt was scheduled to start at 1000 eve time, one hour before downtime.
At 1000 we got about 290 people together and spent the hour warping around and trying to get tackle on an enemy battleship fleet which had logged in. At one point we got good bubbles on a couple dozen hostile battleships as their fleet warped off, and we kept getting kills here and there until shortly before downtime. The hostiles were very focused on the planet 9 moon 2 and p9m3 former pos locations, warping in repeatedly to kill mobile warp disruptors.
Good bubbles for once
Minutes before downtime a hostile ragnarok and aeon were reported on grid. The server went down, and soon we got a jabber alert that the hostiles were calling for everybody to get in and fight.
After downtime we finally formed a proper capital fleet and I switched to my dreadnaught. We got a warpin shortly and landed on what must have been the entire hostile fleet, battleships, capitals and supercarriers though no titans. We started out primarying and doomsdaying enemy dreads, who were attacking a friendly titan, but pretty soon we switched to supercarriers and took down a nyx and aeon in short order.
Taking down dreads
First nyx going down
First aeon going down
The enemy capitals that weren't tackled started cynoing out as the aeon was going down, and capitals stayed on grid to kill the ones that couldn't escape while supercapitals warped out to kill a logged off nyx and support kept a wyvern tackled 180 km from our capitals. When the enemy capitals and nyx were down our capitals and supercaps warped to a logged off aeon and killed it, then to the wyvern and took that down too.
It was a pretty good night, overall.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Longpost: What happened in H-W?
When posting about this war I've deliberately maintained a facts-only style. I'm involved in the war and so obviously have bias, but I recognise that and I don't do chestbeating, trolling or propaganda. In the effort to remove biased language though I've also thrown away content and things I want to write about, and since this is a personal journal instead of a newspaper that stops now. Today we're going to talk about the attack on h-w and why and how it failed. Take it all with a grain of salt, of course; I'm a just grunt and most of what know about the strategic situation is guesswork based on what I see in the trenches.
First off, it was a good plan. It's what I would have done -- really true, although possibly not the best endorsement. I've worried about what would happen if the hostiles attacked h-w and wondered what was preventing it, but I got complacent anyway; I never expected them to put 800 people in staging pos and try to lock down the system 23/7; when it comes to attacking in the most effective way, they did it right.
So what went wrong? Two things, time zones and numbers.
With their famously weak player coverage in US time zones the hostiles didn't have enough numbers to keep us from taking system control during that time. When that happened we were free to bridge in reinforcements, clear the gates, get people out of the station, bring in more capitals and put up a cyno jammer and jump bridge; at this point we could lock down the system and they couldn't get reinforcements in via either titan bridge or gates. They broke our hold pretty easily on the first day, but by the second we had enough in system that this wasn't possible.
As for numbers, our fleets before the attack on h-w were weak. We saved the Stella Polaris stations and FIO, but those ops went down in late US time when the enemy is weakest. Our fleets were adequate for the job, but nothing like the overwhelming response a serious threat to stations should warrant. After a month of POS warfare and the enemy not doing anything interesting we got complacent. The SC seemed laughably ineffective and we forgot they were a serious threat.
Then they hit h-w. The attack was a red-hot poker to the eye for the coalition and we woke up and came together, as we do in times of crisis. The numbers we didn't have before came out of the woodwork, every alliance representing; we are the NC and this is how we roll, one nation, one people. Our numbers in system went from 300 or less on the first day to over a thousand, the hostiles were unable to break our hold on the system for more than 24 hours before station came out of reinforced and the attack was over.
First off, it was a good plan. It's what I would have done -- really true, although possibly not the best endorsement. I've worried about what would happen if the hostiles attacked h-w and wondered what was preventing it, but I got complacent anyway; I never expected them to put 800 people in staging pos and try to lock down the system 23/7; when it comes to attacking in the most effective way, they did it right.
So what went wrong? Two things, time zones and numbers.
With their famously weak player coverage in US time zones the hostiles didn't have enough numbers to keep us from taking system control during that time. When that happened we were free to bridge in reinforcements, clear the gates, get people out of the station, bring in more capitals and put up a cyno jammer and jump bridge; at this point we could lock down the system and they couldn't get reinforcements in via either titan bridge or gates. They broke our hold pretty easily on the first day, but by the second we had enough in system that this wasn't possible.
As for numbers, our fleets before the attack on h-w were weak. We saved the Stella Polaris stations and FIO, but those ops went down in late US time when the enemy is weakest. Our fleets were adequate for the job, but nothing like the overwhelming response a serious threat to stations should warrant. After a month of POS warfare and the enemy not doing anything interesting we got complacent. The SC seemed laughably ineffective and we forgot they were a serious threat.
Then they hit h-w. The attack was a red-hot poker to the eye for the coalition and we woke up and came together, as we do in times of crisis. The numbers we didn't have before came out of the woodwork, every alliance representing; we are the NC and this is how we roll, one nation, one people. Our numbers in system went from 300 or less on the first day to over a thousand, the hostiles were unable to break our hold on the system for more than 24 hours before station came out of reinforced and the attack was over.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
IT vs NC: H-W is doing pretty okay, actually
-Angel_Hun:#IT- do NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT LOG IN to H-W
After the titan kill yesterday the infrastructure hub came out of reinforced and we repped it and killed the two SBU. With excellent participation on our part the system stayed under our control throughout the day; local was over 1600 and mostly blue when the first hostile tower went down at 1800, hostile prime time.
A typical hostile tower during their prime time
I'll bet that tower name is good for your morale
At this point I crashed and couldn't get back in for a few hours. The node died with 2 hours left on the station reinforced timer and I got in when it came back up. At the time of writing the station is being repped and local has 900 blues, so I'm going to call it saved.
Monday, May 10, 2010
IT vs NC: Atlas titan down in H-W
Logged in today after work and h-w local was 870. The station had been rebubbled of course, pos reinforced, services disabled and so forth. Local was pretty red and I spun at a deep safe for a couple hours while we moved into US time. The reinforcement timer on the station is for just after 2200 tomorrow - still euro time, and earlier than I'd like. Not sure if managers can change the end of the second reinforcement timer while the first is still in progress but it ought to be about 5 hours later....
Anyway, we started taking down bubbles at around 2300 with the system still fairly red. We got some more blues in, logged in supercaps and had system control by 0030. We sieged stuff, repped stuff....
Clearing the station again
And then we got a leviathan tackled outside an enemy tower.
The pilot logged off in half shield, actually got back inside the pos but apparently his speed was set to 100% for the duration of the 15 minute logoffski timer and he actually drifted through the pos and out the other side, where he died.
I crashed before he got inside the shield and couldn't relog, but I got on the killmail anyway. First titan kill for me.
Titan under attack by NC hull miners (with credit to Beachura)
Anyway, we started taking down bubbles at around 2300 with the system still fairly red. We got some more blues in, logged in supercaps and had system control by 0030. We sieged stuff, repped stuff....
Clearing the station again
And then we got a leviathan tackled outside an enemy tower.
The pilot logged off in half shield, actually got back inside the pos but apparently his speed was set to 100% for the duration of the 15 minute logoffski timer and he actually drifted through the pos and out the other side, where he died.
I crashed before he got inside the shield and couldn't relog, but I got on the killmail anyway. First titan kill for me.
Titan under attack by NC hull miners (with credit to Beachura)
IT vs NC: H-W capital welp
After we regained control of h-w not a huge amount went on for a while. We got people undocked, who mostly logged off for the night. We reinforced a number of hostile staging pos, repaired the station services and some pos modules and got a cyno jammer and jump bridge online.
Around 1300 a fight developed on a stargate where it looks like the hostiles jumped reinforcements in to system. We warped capitals to the gate where an extremely laggy fight was in progress, but held back on supercapitals; the enemy warped capitals and supercapitals on us. Local rapidly climbed from 600 to a peak of over 1200; modules were essentially completely inoperative, though drones worked. With 4 titans and reportedly 10 supercarriers on the field I expect the fight to be an isk-disproportionate loss for us; I'll try and get a killboard link up when they eventually sync.
Brackets AND effects!
Killboard link 24 capitals killed for 44 lost
I eventually got out in low armor and the survivors safed up as reds took control of the system. There are more blues in system than yesterday, and I expect subcapital engagements throughout the day and more repping shit tonight.
On an awesome note, I was scanning in my cloaky alt before the fight started and came across an ibis with a newbie pilot (a real newbie, not a scout). We had a nice chat and he said he had picked the big red blob on the map and flown up here. While we were fighting on the gate he actually warped in, loaded grid, got shot at and escaped intact. Win!
Around 1300 a fight developed on a stargate where it looks like the hostiles jumped reinforcements in to system. We warped capitals to the gate where an extremely laggy fight was in progress, but held back on supercapitals; the enemy warped capitals and supercapitals on us. Local rapidly climbed from 600 to a peak of over 1200; modules were essentially completely inoperative, though drones worked. With 4 titans and reportedly 10 supercarriers on the field I expect the fight to be an isk-disproportionate loss for us; I'll try and get a killboard link up when they eventually sync.
Brackets AND effects!
Killboard link 24 capitals killed for 44 lost
I eventually got out in low armor and the survivors safed up as reds took control of the system. There are more blues in system than yesterday, and I expect subcapital engagements throughout the day and more repping shit tonight.
On an awesome note, I was scanning in my cloaky alt before the fight started and came across an ibis with a newbie pilot (a real newbie, not a scout). We had a nice chat and he said he had picked the big red blob on the map and flown up here. While we were fighting on the gate he actually warped in, loaded grid, got shot at and escaped intact. Win!
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