The Issue With Numbers

So we had another big battle, this time in HED.  The good news:  Numbers were great and the node didn’t crash.  The bad news:  Soul Crushing Lag.

Solving this problem has to happen.  I see three ways to do it, and I think all three should be implemented.

First I’m going to do the inane thing and talk about why real life battles don’t turn into the Command & Conquer blob of Mammoth Tanks overrunning the objectives.

First: there’s logistics.  EvE doesn’t worry too much about these, but in real life the supply “tail” behind a potent force in the field, or even a not-very-potent force is often as large, or larger, than the force actually in the field.  All the fuelers, armorers, maintenance, admin, command, supply, cooks, and medical personnel represent a much smaller wedge than in EvE.

Second: In real life you have to worry about area of effect weapons.  Especially if you are against us.  Whether it’s DPICM, JDAM, or any of the menu of cluster munitions NATO forces can use, putting a bunch of tanks within a 300m area… not smart.  Clustering infantry in the open?  The gunners are drooling.  Even the insurgents came up with some innovative ways to punish allied forces when they got too predictable.  EvE has smartbombs, but these only work well up to a certain point.  Really all they do is murder support, and even Battleships can usually escape to wreak havoc.  Not to mention the server lag caused by these tactics.

Third:  Economy of Force, there’s always competing objectives.  There’s a need to protect your own supply lines, your centers of power, strategic terrain that threatens your forces, if you stack up your entire force, the enemy can do massive damage to your own forces and or infrastructure without even engaging your combat elements.

One of these (Logistics/Divisional Wedge) doesn’t really apply in EvE.  Almost any nullbear can fly something useful in a fleet and isn’t busy running munitions, fuel, other supplies etc to the front.  Back in the dark ages you used to have to warp off grid to the logi tower where all the logis hugged up and topped up your armor and sent you back in.  Yes this was a thing.  Even that rudimentary tail has been eliminated (thankfully, I can’t IMAGINE how dull that must have been).

We’ll replace that one with hardware/software upgrades that bring CCP closer to being able to handle battles like this.  This won’t actually fix the problem, because as soon as it happens more players will fight in these battles and the problem comes right back, but we can keep running on the wheel a bit here.  This is also probably the most straightforward leg of the solution.

Area of Effect weapons that threaten overly concentrated fleets.  Whether it’s better smartbombs, nukes a la Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Device, or something similar, the solution to the blob is a weapon aimed at the blob.  Hell let titans script their doomsdays.  Maybe not the full grid demolishing AoE, but a smaller, more concentrated (say 20km) area of death.  Like 200k of damage death. Oh you have your whole fleet anchored up on one guy?  STBY brah.  Oh 20 carriers in one little cluster?  The titans just salvo’d them into structure for the support to finish off.  Good luck.  Sure this will cause spikes of lag on the server, but it will make FCs think twice about bringing every asshole who can only anchor up and F1.  It might force them to bring in fleets in waves.  They might find entirely different ways of operating.

Finally:  Competing objectives.  Make it possible for defenders to force additional objectives in that system or neighboring systems.  For example the TCU, IHUB and Station all have to be down at the same time, and all run on the same timers, rather than in sequence.  Or if you take a system in a constellation, you can only do it once a week/month, whatever, BUT you can take as many as you want as long as they come out of reinforced within 24 hours of each other.  Something to incentivize spreading out.

I’m using it every time I can

 

The Cream Rises, and Gets Scooped Off

So TEST has had a bit of a rough go of it in Aridia.  Down 1/3 of their members in fact.  And if some were booted, many, even most, were not.  In any organization the cream rises to the top.  There it can be seen, observed, studied, and stolen.  There are many who have left TEST who didn’t have the cojones to deal with the upheaval.  There were far more who had better opportunities elsewhere, especially with as many frenemies as TEST had.

Of note to me is Di-Tron, formerly the core of Atlas.  Enlightened Industries, a 2011 TEST corp.  Ponywaffe, which joined Di-Tron in Insidious Empire, not to mention the numerous defections to Black Legion and the leadership that has abandoned ship.  TEST is bleeding talent out of proportion with the numbers of players they’ve lost.  Which is something of an achievement when you’ve lost 5000 members in the last week.

So today TEST announced that they would harass Fountain.  The good news is they won’t be taxing their leaders by demanding that they set up safespots, they should have good ones already.  The problem is TEST is announcing this while still pouring random liquids on the million house fires they have burning in Aridia.  They thought they were stepping on a roach nest in the classy russians of Infernal Octopus, instead they got scorpions.  But really who could forsee Russians fighting with determination and fury when defending their homelands?  When has this ever happened before?  They thought they’d get breathing room to recover their strength, in a region that has connections to *Deep Breath* Delve, Fountain, Khanid, Solitude, Genesis, and 2 jumps into Solitude takes you into Syndicate *Gasp*.  But surely there’s no one that could set up a midpoint cyno in Khanid, Ertoo or Hophib for Titan Bridges.  So having moved from the fire into the frying pan TEST has decided that dancing on the edge of the pan and dipping their toes in the fire is preferable to out and out frying pan treatment.

Edit:  Apparently the folks of Infernal Octopus use this gif to show how well TEST has moved them out (other than whomping some POS towers)

Good luck with that.

TEST still has the solid for of (D)Redditors to keep the alliance extant, but beyond that their ability to project power is more on par with an alliance less than a quarter their size (yet still in the top 20 alliances size wise) their ability to SUSTAIN that power projection is practically nil.  They are broke on many levels.  Their leadership capital is probably damn near negative.  Their personnel capitol is scraping the bottom for an alliance half their size.  Their money capital is a well advertised nil.  I wouldn’t trade places with Booda if he promised to not touch all the wallets exactly as they are.  They still have their super fleet, and they have their name.  They don’t have a name.  They don’t have enough FCs to run any kinda of a fleet, their logistics is beyond a shambles, yet they will survive.  They will get pounded.  They might fall below 6000 members.  If they purge inactives they might fall below 3000, and they will take body blows on the way.  They cannot realistically hope to drive FA from fountain.  They can only hope to take some heat off the frantically reorganizing nullbears in Aridia.  Some of the heat.  Not a lot because the Russians will be there, as will the rest of the Aridia locals.  TEST has been lucky running 80 man fleets around to pop Infernal structures, that kind of fleet looks awfully tempting to many of the folks in the area.

TEST has launched a campaign in Fountain when I cannot believe for a second that they have any clue what capabilities they really have to bring to the field beyond shitposting.  They need to establish leaders who will be there for more than a week.  They need to take stock of what they really have, even if it means mass kickings of people who can’t be arsed to show up or even log in.  They need to take the time to get people on the same page, get them organized and get them moving in a direction that makes sense.  They need time to develop a fresh crop of folks.  They need time for cream to rise to the top, and time away from the spotlight so it doesn’t get crapped on or stolen before it’s any good.

I’m using it every time I can

I Was Right. I Think

So Mittens has declared that CFC won’t be invading Delve with the goal of killing TEST.  At least not for now.  They will certainly defend Fountain.  They will almost certainly raid Delve.  They probably won’t kick TEST out.  In that regard I believe myself to be right and Ripard to be wrong.  Don’t worry I won’t get used to it.  He’s too sharp and too well connected to be wrong very often, I just read my tea leaves a bit better this time.

Moreover, it doesn’t look like CFC will have to lift a finger to make TEST collapse.  Their leadership is a raging inferno, awoxers are driving corps out, lack of leadership is driving out others, and there’s so many knives out for TEST that they look like Goons at low tide.  All those they’ve wronged, slighted, or who imagine themselves wronged or slighted are ready for revenge.  Possibly pre-emptive revenge.

I’m not worried for TEST.  This will hurt.  Probably a lot.  They may travel quite a distance before they hit rock bottom.  This wont kill them.  TEST is too heavily anchored outside the game to lose out.  They share that quality with Goonswarm.  It’s not a bad one either.  However this meta-invulnerability doesn’t translate to actual invulnerability.  They might lose Delve.  They will almost certainly lose systems.  They are already losing members and corps.  Maybe not weeping blood, but losing a lot of cogs from the machine.  They’ve lost their cachet as the credible alternative to the CFC.  They’ve lost most of their leadership, and frankly they’ve lost their direction.  Right now they are in Delve frantically trying to not lose more… everything.

CFC meanwhile just declared Caldari Ice Interdiction time.  They are moving on.  They have something fun and zany to do to keep the masses busy and keep them from blowing up things they probably shouldn’t.  Like shooting sov structures in Delve.  CFC has friends, they have victories to rest on, they have activities to keep them busy, and a leadership structure that is humming along keeping everything moving as best as it can.

Goons don’t need Delve.  They don’t need the win, and they certainly don’t want to risk breaking momentum shooting structures for another two months.  TEST is safe from Goons.  They might not be safe from themselves.

I’m using it every time I can

No guys. Just no.

So there were two comments out of the 6V fight that I just cannot agree with.  The first one is from the normally brilliant Ripard Teg who believes

that there was some kind of back-channel negotiated peace offered by TEST over the weekend… and the CFC rejected it out of hand.  I said last week that Fountain has traditionally been the road to an invasion of Delve.  Goons have about a 50/50 success rate at invading Delve.

I have to ask:  Why the HELL would Goons invade Delve?  They have just come out of a lengthy, painful, but successful war.  They still have a LOT of structures to shoot, and probably it will be one helluva grind to get rid of the structures involved.  Finally there’s claiming such sov as they do want to, mostly to keep TEST from having easy access to the moons that Goons fought to take.  Finally:  Goons don’t hate TEST.  They don’t want to destroy the alliance, they don’t want to salt their fields.  They want to go back to the old relationship where there’s two coalitions and they work in concert.  Just with more wealth in the Goons pockets.  That’s probably not too realistic but it’s a helluva lot more than expecting Goons to find someone ELSE they want to install in Delve and keep watch over.

Second there’s a gem from Gevlon.

The propaganda of TEST bankruptcy will end just as fast as “N3 is destroyed by the sov-dropping director”. TEST can no longer bankrupt. Moons can be taken, members not. As long as there are members loging in, there will be ISK in the chest, therefore there will be SRP. As long as there is SRP, there will be PvP-er to fly them. As the funds increase, more will be available for “get your first battleship for free” or “hourly pay for structure grinders” or free slowcats.

No.  What’s more FUCK no.  Depending on the wealthy in your corp or alliance to pay for everything is a bad idea.  It’s a historically bad idea.  Now that’s not saying I don’t practice it myself, but I’m leading a corp with 20 guys.  Doing it for an alliance with 500 times that?  TERRIBAD.  FUCKING TERRIBAD.  It’s a band-aid on an amputated arm.  It’s one thing to do this for a single war.  It’s another to try to make this policy.  The idea that “Moons can be taken, members not” is ridiculous.  Members don’t have to be taken.  They just have to lose interest.  They just have to see their hard earned isk wasted by untalented leadership.  They just have to leave the corp.  That moon will pump out it’s mud as long as you hook a POS up to it.  Depending on your members is like betting on the Battlestar Galactica.  Rooting for it?  Sure.  Betting on it?  Fuck no.  That bitch is going DOWN.  The other side has reliable sources of income and replenishment.  Galactica has only what it brought with it and what it can scrounge on the way.  Take out the Hollywood element and who wins?

So let’s put these together.  TEST has a very precarious, undependable strategy that simply begs to fall apart under pressure, looks like a really tempting target, especially after all the fighting that’s already happened right? Not so fast speedy.  The main opponents aren’t TEST.  They are ennui, boredom, and motivation.  Why the hell do Goons want Delve?  What is going to keep them interested in fighting hundreds of structures that don’t shoot back, night after night, for months?  How will they keep their members in a region SO far from home for a goal that probably doesn’t interest any of them at all?

So my money is on Goons doing no more than harassing TEST.  MAYBE taking a staging station or two.  Which is good for TEST because anyone who thinks you can win a war by depending on the kindness of strangers is kidding themselves.

I’m using it every time I can

Fountain Flip Flop

So with the battle of 6V over TEST has effectively lost any realistic hope of holding Fountain.  They can launch strikes.  Well, they will launch strikes, and they will whelp at least one more CFC fleet because this is EvE and that kind of thing happens, but Fountain will belong to whoever CFC hands it to and the R64 moons will go to Goons and their croniest of cronies.  And yes that’s a word now.  Deal with it.

TEST will retreat to Delve and face harassment from CFC, but no actual invasion.  Delve is rather difficult to invade, not terribly worthwhile from what I understand of it’s wealth as far as an ALLIANCE is concerned, although it does have decent enough ratting and such to keep the nullbears quite happy.  This hasn’t been a violation of the “Big Blue Doughnut” (actually more or a big blue crescent but whatevs) but it does represent a power shift.  PL will go where the money is, I was surprised that they backed TEST to begin with and I will be surprised even more if they continue to work with them after this war.  I’m not sure they’ll head straight to Goons though.  I think they will want to see who ALL the movers and shakers are with the moon rebalance.  They might head where there’s more action at first.  In the long run, however, they will settle back into their erratic orbit with Goons and CFC as a whole.

Ironically we might see MORE supers in space once this desultory war winds down.   As the coalitions fall away from each other the opportunities to use the Supers might look more and more tempting, especially as Goons grind down the last chunk of structures.  Long-term I think Booda has to look at what he wants to do Vs. TEST alliance’s actual capabilities.  He should have a really good idea of what they can actually do, how far they can project what kinds of power, and for how long.  Now he has to match that with things that are fun and interesting and bring morale up.

CFC meanwhile can start hoarding money again.  Also they can send me some 😀

Fly Dangerous.

I’m using it every time I can

Sooo… What happened?

So for those of us living insulated lives in Empire, or even the less interested parts of Nullsec, there’s a lot of Schadenfreude regarding Z9PP.  There’s lots of facts, there’s lots of conjecture, and there’s lots of butthurt.  I want to talk about what this means for the war.  Moreover I want to talk about what it COULD have meant.

Over 100 carriers and some Blap Dreads were trapped on the field, apparently more or less doomed “Eventually” to an ugly death.  I doubt that even skating to downtime would have saved them depending on when the last bubbles dropped and how fast CFC logged back in.

Reinforcements were apparently almost entirely in CFC’s favor.  This is an ugly situation for Test to be in.  CFC had the ability to slowly start eliminating Test carriers and once that got started the snowball likely would have been fast.  Test was in trouble and they knew it.

At this point the bit of blind screaming luck that can change the course of empires shows up.  Namely the hand of a CCP engineer.  We’ll call him CCP Johnny

Johnny is in a hurry, and rather than moving other systems off the server in question, he moves the IMPORTANT system.  Johnny is probably related to Tuxford but that’s not important now.  The result is the system goes down long enough that the carriers get to log off, and stay off long enough to GTFO.  Test got out of a major crisis with very little actual harm.  Here’s how I see things happening with 4 paths of outcomes.

First off let’s assume that somehow Test manages to get away somehow.  Coasting to DT, PL coming up with something amazing even for PL (Yes I can read Kugu, I’ve read the AAR there, it’s good) CFC completely falling apart, whatever.  HUGE morale boost for Test.  MASSIVE.  Getting their balls into the bear trap then pulling them out even remotely intact would give them something to chestbeat about for a while.  Seriously, it would be an amazing bit of leadership for them.  The odds of this are REALLY low I’d think, but possible.

Second let’s go the other way.  Test’s fleet is utterly whelped and the CFC turns out to be completely right, the fleet turns out to be the skyscraper that breaks the camel’s back, neck, legs and spleen.  Morale crashes through the floor so fast the floor doesn’t even notice and Test is thrown WAY back in the campaign even as Goons morale soars.  Goons get to move the line in Fountain, moons, stations, whatever they want, as far as they can and start to build Sov time towards expanding the all-important jump bridge network.  The war isn’t over, but the momentum would be entirely in Goon’s hands.

Next we’ll look at a Test whelp that is mostly handled by the SRP fund.  Test manages to handle most of the critical losses, and keeps their fleet in the field.  This is rather more likely, even if I think it would be a huge strain on their resources.  Goons morale still soars, but without the catastrophic crash to Test morale CFC cannot grab the momentum with both hands and seize control of the warzone.

Now we’ll look at Test getting beaten, but not whelped.  This would require Test to lose a significant number of ships, yet still hold together well enough to GTFO even as their losses begin to cascade as fewer and fewer reps are available to land on any remaining ships.  Once the carriers started popping the popping was going to keep going.  Accelerating and finally outright snowballing.  This would have been bad, but far less of a strain than being crushed and even if the SRP fund is marginal it should be able to absorb the loss.  This also would have given Test a “Bloody but unbroken” chance to wave the banner.

What we have instead is a thoroughly unsatisfying disaster.  CFC has been robbed of the chance to really dig their claws into an utter victory.  They most likely would have finished it off, but even if they had failed they’d know for sure what happened.  They wouldn’t be left with this frustrating, infuriating sense of being robbed.  Test on the other hand has scored a “victory” that they cannot trumpet, that they cannot celebrate, that they can only acknowledge (but probably not humbly) The glass is half full (of carriers actually) but it is ungarnished, simple and stark.  They got their carriers, but they also have no answers.  They cannot prove their SRP is healthy, they cannot chestbeat about their impossible victory, or even snatching a draw from the teeth of a crushing defeat.  They cannot commiserate about a tough loss against long odds.  They can only sprint back to safety and marvel at their stunning escape.

Goons will be mad.  They will continue to strike.  They will attempt to hammer Test again, and try to draw their slowcats into another fight where they can hit them again like they did this time.  Test will attempt to come up with a better method of extracting this fleet, and of defending it.  Test morale will be down, but more “funky” than depressed.  They know their best fleet got beaten, and only the invisible hand of fate saved it.  CFC morale will be up, edgy and angry knowing that a deserved victory was snatched from them, and possibly a victory far beyond merely what was on the field.

I’m using it every time I can

Making the Best of your Molehills

Mittens came back from E3 to find his minions happily wagging their tails and jumping up and down on the doorstep pleased with the steaming pile of something they’d left on his bed.  Some of the wiser minions had something to be proud about apparently, but there was plenty of crap to deal with.

Mittens came back from E3 needed to flog the success they’ve had, and to make light of the rather difficult issues they faced.  He had to convince his minions to keep fighting the war the goons way.  Careless of battles, careful of objectives.  He had to get his FCs operating in a more disciplined fashion, he had to get his network of agents working in a coordinated fashion.

Mittens came back, and issued a long statement.  He talked about the successes they’d had.  He talked about the way goons fight.  He talked about the goals and the strategies, and he set a new narrative.  His partisans will back it (see HERE wfor details) his detractors will laugh at it (do I have to tell you how to find Reddit?)

There’s a lot to the goonswarm way of war.  A whole lot.  It’s not glorious in its early stages, it’s rough, it’s ugly, and it can be demoralizing.  To keep it going the goons have to be cajoled, prodded, bribed, and sometimes all but forced into the fight.  Fortunately they have wordsmiths, FCs, PILES of isk, and propagandists to spare.

Mittens has gained a handle on the narrative.  He’s picked up the mantle of leadership and can now bring his own personal aura to bear on the situation.  Maybe going to E3 wasn’t brilliant for The Mittani, but it didn’t end the war.  Now the goons have to get to work.  They have to control the narrative, they have to call their shots, and they have to break up the coalition facing them, loose as it is.  They’ve made progress with BL, they’ve hammered on some of the issues with TEST’s policies, and they’ve done their “We don’t want the systems themselves anyway” routine.  Now to see if they can make it play out the way they want.

I’m using it every time I can

Hold What You Got

Ok, so the big CFC / HBC 2.0 showdown is here.  It’s here and it’s ugly.  Goons were initially looking at a badly divided HBC, with weak leadership, confused allies, and unmotivated members.  They had been having it all their way in Delve and were hooting over the fracturing of the once proud coalition.  They invaded Fountain and found that PL was backing TEST, that TEST had its motivation, and that their doctrines were not all they were cooked up to be against what TEST had developed.  Then TEST started gathering allies.  As it turns out CFC and Goons especially have built quite the list of enemies over the years (whodathunkit) and that many of these people were champing at the bit to take a crack at them.

So CFC invades, and manages to cut a lot of the “fat” out of Fountain.  They capture several systems, whelp and kill several fleets, and generally make at least a decent showing of things.  Goons don’t so much steamroll their enemies as smother them.  What they didn’t expect and what I didn’t expect was that TEST would hold out so firmly.  TEST managed to pry back the clawing fingers of CFC, helped by a rather lackluster showing by many CFC alliances, and a tremendous showing in both Fountain and back in the North by alliances working with and for HBC 2.o.

So TEST has decided where their fortress will be and is busy piling up the corpses of CFC ships and pods.  CFC is keeping the pressure up as best as they can, but it seems that some of the larger battles are involving a lot of CFC and very little of TEST.  THIS fight didn’t exactly make TEST break a sweat.  In fact they seem to have missed it altogether.  This is a very bad sign for Goons, and a very good sign for TEST.  Goons win by smothering, by making the fighting so not-fun for their enemies that they stop showing up.  TEST doesn’t have to show up, the gleeful hordes eager to shatter the goon narrative are doing the heavy lifting for them in entire battles.

This isn’t to understate TEST’s achievements, or the road ahead for them.  Goons don’t give up, Goons know how to win by losing, how to grind away at both the enemies capability and will to fight, and you can bet that things are in motion.  There’s rumors that they’ve bribed Elo Knight on Reddit right now to basically go somewhere else and fight.  Goons aren’t going to fight this whole war in space.  Currently they are taking a pounding in the Meta arena, where they are traditionally strong.  I doubt this will continue, whether it’s Elo or whoever, they will find a crack, drive a wedge into it and start pulling, TEST has to keep the momentum, and marshal their strength to be ready to fight themselves when the later onslaughts begin.

Finally TEST deserves enormous credit.  Even 2 weeks ago it looked like HBC was dead and TEST would stand practically on their own, Booda and the TEST diplos deserve ENORMOUS credit for their work ensuring PL would work with them, coordinating with Pizza, 401k, and BL to get CFC stuck in its own beehive of enemies.

TL;DR:

TEST have teamed up with friends old and new and shoved goons down in the mud, they need to kick them while they are down and watch their back while they do it because goons can backstab from anywhere.

I’m using it every time I can

 

Mittani, Mistakes, Mountains, Molehills

Ok I wasn’t going to hare in on this.  I really, really wasn’t.  I don’t have much regard for Gevlon outside of the world of making (absolute fucktons) of money.  The man is a sharp shark of a market warrior and his considerable mental gifts are very well focused on his primary goal of making piles of isk.

He is not remotely aware of the history of EvE, the power structures of the major alliances, or the motivations of anyone who doesn’t permanently have their wallet open to chortle over.  Let me get to some details here.  Recently our gobliny friend posted an op-ed claiming that the Mittani had made his first and last mistake during his declaration of war.

News flash:  If it’s a mistake it has a lot of people who made the decision and it is FAR from the Goon’s first mistake.

Goons have a history of two things.  Doing something that looks fantastically stupid and turning it into something brilliant; like abandoning all their Sov to kill BoB.  This move had every pundit in the game laughing as they expected the Bees to get stomped, and find themselves completely homeless, hopeless, and friendless.  Only it worked.  BoB collapsed (with help) and the Goons found their strategy, and their spymaster, vindicated.

They also have a history of stupidly squandering success.  For example forgetting to pay sov bills.  For virtually all their sov.  Yeah, goons did that once.  It was a *bit* of a mistake.

Goons are also a TOUGH alliance.  Their connection to this game (like that of TEST) has nothing to do with EvE, but instead through a massive community entirely outside of the game.  If by some disaster Goons get crushed they won’t disintegrate like BoB, -A-, or so many alliances tied to EvE by only EvE.  The worst the could conceivably happen would be some coalition members drop out.  Some drop in activity.  They won’t failcascade any more than they have the numerous times they’ve been chased out of various areas of EvE.

Let’s talk a bit about why Goons are so successful.  They have a leader who makes statements, they have a leadership council that makes decisions.  I’m guessing these guys would measure up pretty well to a professional military staff.  I should know, I’ve been on one.  They look at measurable facts, they develop doctrine for each situation, they plan logistics and have replacement ships ready both on their own and through the  efforts of coalition members.

That’s the reason for this deployment in actuality; and the players know it.  They need a new source of income to support their mammoth SRP.  OTEC isn’t exactly controlling the T2 market like they used to.  Diversifying their income flow is an absolute necessity and grabbing the moons of Fountain will get them R64 and R32 moons that will allow them to continue an SRP program that includes not only regular BS, but T3s, Fleet BS, and Capitals.  You can’t replace them on the budget they are looking for so they approached their members, and their Coalition mates, and said “You want the largesse to continue?  You want the gravy train?  This is how we get it, show the fuck up.”  That isn’t a mistake.  That’s a straightforward decision.  TEST has been reeling, suffering from leadership crises and the shattering of HBC.  Now the non-surprise of PL coming to visit WITH CFC and AGAINST their former Coalition mates, TEST, not to mention the grinding battles launched when CFC deployed two of their “squads” to the south.

Now the CFC is coming with bells on.  They have their super fleet, they have their Coalition lined up like good little ducklings, they have a clear and simple motivation of self interest in expanding their available resources.  They might have to fight, and fight hard, but The Mittani & Co have had years to infiltrate TEST.  Their counters will be picked up and dealt with, the leadership council of CFC will provide a constant flow of guidance and resources while TEST’s scratch team will struggle to keep pace.

The one thing that CFC needs from this, ironically, is good fights.  Recently they’ve taken a bit of a pounding in their own turf from 401k and BL.  Always being on the defensive is no fun, it doesn’t make people happy, it doesn’t satisfy them and it doesn’t seem like you are achieving much.  Taking the offensive is usually far more popular with the legions.  It gets them moving, they can see systems flip, they can see the disruption in their enemies, they can brag about their effectiveness with far more emphasis on real achievements that everyone can see.  This can forge the newly shrunk Goonswarm and show them that they really are the hard core of the CFC, that they can compete, that they can measure up by their own metrics with their coalition members.

Gevlon would have you believe the greed will turn off the rank and file.  It’s their greed that feeds the need for this campaign.  They would have you feel that the CFC wave will crash against Fortress Fountain and withdraw, shattering Goons.  Goons don’t shatter.  Reverses strengthen them because of their shared culture, sense of persecution, and strong sense of community.  Goons can be defeated, they can lose, they can be chased to lowsec, but it won’t happen while they are on the offensive.  It will happen when they are on the defensive.  When they get pounded after being inactive too long, after being off the offensive long enough for the rot to set in.

Gevlon knows his stuff in his arena.  This isn’t his arena.  This isn’t close to his arena.  This isn’t within screaming distance of his arena.

I’m using it every time I can

Techfleet + Fuckyoufleet = nofightfleet

A good doctrine wins fights.  A great doctrine doesn’t have to fight them (an AWSOME doctrine gets fights that you will win anyway!) Tonight I was on the good end of a great doctrine.  The Goonswarm Techfleet + Fuckyoufleet doctrine is kind of a goulash of shit you don’t want to face.  I’m sure there’s a few counters that could totally ruin it, and a couple counters for PART of the fleet come to mind, but there’s just so much of so many things FC’s hate to deal with so much that it’s kinda hard to get a fight with it.  I’ve gone out with it twice and our biggest enemy has been boredom.  But enough of that, who wants to see the fleet comp that could buy a titan?

Waiting to jump

 

More Waiting

Giving up on the fight and just posing sexy!

 

Was it fun?  Sure!  Did we do a whole lot?  No.  We won a fight because our enemy refused.  There’s a timer involved and you can bet your behind we will come again and see if our opponents managed to come up with a good counter.

This isn’t a “fair” doctrine, this isn’t a fleet you bring in the hope of getting a “goodfite” this is a fleet you bring to show domination of the field, and to force your will on an opponent.  Between the buffers, the reps, and the crippling effects of a Fuckyoufleet, this isn’t a fleet you expect to see getting whelped too much.  Will it happen?  Sure, because:  Goons.  But they can afford to whelp it.  It’s not called “Techfleet” for nothing.

I enjoyed this fleet.  Formup was surprisingly quick and efficient, it was clear that things were being handled well, including partitioning off sensitive communications areas.  There’s spais everywhere, keeping information segregated according to “Need-to-know” makes sense and works well for a command team like goons.  We moved out fairly quickly, but not without some problems, and arrived at our rally point read to move.  Sadly our opponents wanted no part of this fleet and simply waited out to see if there were any opportunities we’d grant them by making a mistake.  It didn’t happen so we figured for the timer, announced the next fleet and flew home.

I’m using it every time I can