28 | July | 2022 | The Ancient Gaming Noob

Ten years ago this month I went to Delve for the first time… the first of a number of times as there seemed to be an almost annual Drang nach Delve tradition in the CFC and Imperium, at least until we got thrashed in the Casino War and went there to live full time.

But back in 2012 Delve was a whole new region for me. I had never visited. I had been in null sec for about six month and had gone through the war with White Noise and Raiden, so I wasn’t a complete novice anymore; I had seen capitals, taken titan bridges, been on fleet ops, suffered through that brand new time dilation mechanism, and learned to wait two beats before following any instruction DBRB shouting into voice comms. But I was still prone to getting lost and the naming convention for null sec systems meant I constantly had DOTLAN EVE Maps open… though that is still mostly true a decade later.

It was also a different landscape in New Eden null sec. A coalition map of the time.

Null Sec Power Blocks – July 2012

There was Southern Coalition with AAA and Nulli Secunda among their numbers… and also the defiant Walltreipers Alliance, who are now a part of The Initiative… whom we were attacking.

There was Solar Fleet in the east holding the traditional Russian regions and fighting with Northern Coalition, which held Geminate, Vale, and Tribute.

Of course there was Provi Bloc doing its thing in Providence.

And then there was the Bropact, the combo of the Clusterfuck Coalition, or the CFC… Goonswarm Federation, Gentleman’s Agreement, Circle of Two, Executive Outcomes, Fidelas Constans, Get Off My Lawn, RAZOR Alliance, SpaceMonkey’s Alliance, Fatal Ascension, and Tactical Narcotics Team… and the Honeybadger Coalition, or HBC… TEST Alliance Please Ignore, Pandemic Legion, The Initiative, Tribal Band, and some more I cannot remember… who got together to invade Delve and have a good time.

Delve – Summer 2012 Poster

Viewed from 2022, that is kind of a strange mix. TEST and Pandemic Legion from the HBC… along with RAZOR from the CFC… were part of the PAPI tide that tried to wash us out of Delve in World War Bee.

At the time Vily, who led the war against the Imperium in 2020, was a Goonswarm FC and the captain of the GSF Alliance Tournament team.

But this was the beginning of the estrangement of TEST from Goonswarm. When TEST arrive in null sec Goons the two were pals after a false start. (TEST heard Goons were bad, so decided to go to the part of null sec furthest from Goons when they arrived in 2010. But, due to an ongoing competence problem they have the map upside down and planted their first flag 9 gates from the Goon capital.) TEST grew up in the “Testagram,” the five pointed star in the RFY-QB constellation. By the time the Delve 2012 war had begun that had moved to Fountain and were making new friends and growing apart from their CFC allies. They actually asked the CFC to go home once Delve had been taken while they pursued AAA into Stain and Querious.

As things would work out we would eventually take Fountain and Delve from them in the Fountain War and, after World War Bee, TEST would finally move into the region of null sec furthest from Goons, their initial ambition finally achieved.

Meanwhile, some of our enemies in Delve 2012 would end up on our side come World War Bee. The Stain Russians preferred us to TEST and PAPI.

Anyway, it was a new war for me back then. It was a time of MWD Drakes and station camps and fights over a region that would eventually become our home.

Posts from Delve 2012: