There is a war going on in our neighborhood still. It has spread to The Vale of the Silent recently, but things continue. It has been going on for a couple of months now, kicking off with the I Want ISK versus SpaceMonkeys Alliance dispute.
Nosy Gamer pointed out earlier this week how hard it is, as an outsider, to get a sense of what is really happening in the war. DOTLAN EVE Maps can show you some data points, like what the ADM is for some systems, or if an ihub has been reinforced or a station has been freeported. But that paints an incomplete picture at best. Meanwhile the two key EVE Online news sites aren’t much help either. TMC is run in the name of The Imperium at this point, with little pretense at much else, while EN24, long anti-goon in policy, takes ISK from the very same source that is funding the war.
So an outsider can get conflicting and incomplete views.
The thing is, as something of an insider, or at least a line member on one side, it isn’t like I am getting much better news.
Both sides are so riddled with spies that the assumption has to be that anything said to a group of more than three people is going to be in the hands of the enemy and up on Reddit or Pastebin soon enough. So I hear lots of good things about how we are doing. I go to Reddit or EN24 and I read about how well the other side says they are doing.
This sense of the war… or lack thereof… hasn’t been helped by the fact that it has been a busy month for me. I was out of town for nearly a week and there have been all sorts of things going on at home to keep me away from the game.
And even when I am not busy, I seem to miss the action.
I know there are battles going on. At the office I check Jabber on my iPad once in a while and I see fleets getting called up and battle reports being broadcast. But the peak time seems to be mid-to-late EUTZ and early USTZ. Here on the west coast of the US, by the time I get home from work, have dinner, and settle in for some spaceship time, the last fleet for the night has often left already. The vulnerability windows are winding down across the alliance. If I am lucky I get in one of the clean up fleets. So I am familiar with Hurricanes again.
Standing guard on a gate
I’ve run around with Jackdaws.
Jackdaws on Patrol
I’ve been on quick response fleets, firstwith interceptors, then with Caracals.
Caracals discouraging entosis ships
A lot of the time is spent hanging about watching Fozzie Sov in action/inaction.
There was a fight on elsewhere while we were staring at this
While we get the occasional big kill, a lot of it is doing the dull but necessary work to support the war effort.
So lots of propaganda from both sides, but little in the way of actual progress being made, even after major fights. It almost sounds like a Dominion style conflict at this point, with both sides grinding away at each other until one side gives up and finds something else to do.
Of course, that gives me confidence in our side. Goons or the CFC or The Imperium have a long earned reputation for being stubborn and showing up for fleets in good numbers day in and day out for long stretches. And doing so on our own patch of null sec, so there is no home front left depleted to worry about, strengthens that idea.
Of course, unlike dominion, our foes are no longer sovereignty holding entities in the old school way of things, so they don’t really have an unguarded flank either, except maybe when it comes to money moons and the like.
So the war grinds on and on, looking to break one of the long standing traditions in null sec. Fanfest is coming up in April, and the usual routine is for NCDot to form some sort of loose coalition and attack Imperium space while our leadership is off drunk in Iceland. This year, they are already attacking our space, along with a lot of other names from the past, including TEST, which got a warm welcome to the war from its allies when PL dropped on their convoy op.
I suppose we shall see whose will breaks first.
Addendum: See, this stuff keeps happening while I am at work. By the time I get home, it’s done.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 