Beitrag von: Aura am Juni 17, 2013, 02:02:29 Vormittag
The first awesome thing about nullsec wars is the metagame. The propaganda. The battle for hearts and minds. All of this that is waged on many different internet venues, from the big aggregators like Reddit, to gaming sites such as EVENews24 and TheMittani, through to the large forums like Something Awful, Kugutsumen and EVE-O, all the way down to lowly blogs such as mine.
I was trying to keep my blog posts as free of bias as possible. Completely unbiased is impossible, but I think I succeeded in being as impartial as I could be, in my first few posts on the war. Every now and again, you have dive into the metagame, and that's what I did with my post yesterday. It wasn't full on propaganda (as I've done with various Minmatar alliances in the past), but it was certainly propaganda-lite.
Why? It seemed like some of Test Alliance's resolve was fading. What can pump up and motivate a group faster than most anything else? The other side shit-talking their resolve. Like I've said previously, I want this war to last a while. It's been a helluva fun time. The longer Test rallies against the CFC, the more fun for everyone. Test and Pals rallied today. They rallied hard.
I'm not going to take all the credit or anything. That would be daft. But, I'd like to think I had some small effect, given the comments I was getting in game today. If people from Test are mad at me in-game, then my post yesterday certainly had some of its desired effect and reached some of the desired audience. It helped get the enemy pumped up, angry, and out to prove to us a thing or two.
DoraTheExplora Taft > Poetic Stanziel plz goOh. Wait. That last one has nothing to do with Test Alliance. That's a Rote Kapelle dude. That's just normal local love.
Rahst Sylvanesti > Poetic Stanziel spin this change of events!
Lex Arson > Poetic Stanziel faaaag
Test today was out SBUing every damned system they could, it seemed. At least anywhere within ten jumps of B-DBYQ. It's a good strategy, especially their own systems. If we attack a TCU, all they have to do is pop into system, offline one of their SBUs and the TCU sudddenly becomes invulnerable. They also took back a couple systems (maybe more, Dotlan will tell the entire tale tomorrow.)
Battle-wise, it wasn't a lot of fun for either side. A lot of structure grinding for the CFC. Which I really didn't mind all that much. Test were trying to protect their SBUs, but our orders were to blow them. No. Sorry. Blue ball them. Our orders were to blue ball them today. So, while they were frustrating us, throwing up SBUs all over the damned place, we were denying fights. Kills were still had by both sides, because mistakes are always made, but mostly it was a day of denial. Test were denying us more systems, and trying to deny us systems we've already taken, and we were denying them any of the pleasures of battle.
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The other fascinating thing about these large wars is the amount of planning and logistics that go into them. I imagine all the CFC directors pouring over intel, timing reports, etc. Deciding when certain types of fleets have to go out, when certain sovereignty structures have to be placed. All these orders being passed down the chain of command to available fleet commanders. I might be on one fleet, doing a specific thing, but there's a hive of activity going on elsewhere. There could be five, six or seven other fleets out on their own objectives, doing very specific things for the war effort. And then there's all sorts of smaller, secret ops going on.
Just yesterday, I was out in a Caracal fleet. Obstensibly roaming, trying to pick fights with Test gangs, shooting at occasional structures, attempting to entice the enemy out of Karan. What actually happened is that our webbers were called away at one point to assist with another operation. Guiding a freighter into another system so that it could place an infrastructure hub (these can only be carried by freighters, which means a bit of dangerous slow boating in nullsec, after whatever amount of bridging they receive.) The rest of the fleet guarded the systems one and two jumps away. This could have very well been the point of our operation all along. Bring us out for one reason, have us perform another more important op at a pre-arranged time and place. You certainly wouldn't announce the actual goal of the fleet to the rank and file, because of spies. But that fleet could perform its actual duty quickly, before spies could react, in the middle of another cover operation.
On the flipside, I think some of the actions that Test and Pals are waging against us have been quite effective. While knocking down two CSAAs (with a Nyx and a Titan in build), along with destroying the 700-strong defence fleet, doesn't much affect the overall war effort for the CFC, it certainly is annoying as hell, it's embarrassing likely, and it's certainly something that Test and Pals can crow about. It takes forever to get three complete fleets up north under TiDi. And it redirects our attentions away from Fountain for a few hours.
So many different types of targets, so many different types of war to wage. We're seeing it all from both sides. From the in-your-face, full-on brawls, to harassing guerrilla action, to industrial and economic warfare. It's all fucking fantastic, to put a not-so-fine point on it. It's what gives EVE its depth, that wars are waged across many different fronts, that there are many avenues to success.
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A Test Alliance acquaintance asked me recently:
When nearly every major nullsec alliance declares that they'll be assisting Test Alliance, does that not constitute a bad day for the CFC?From a purely miltitary and economic standpoint? Probably it does constitute a bad day for the CFC. You'd really have to consult Mittens and his Directors (or be a fly on the wall in that room) to find out.
From a gameplay perspective, from my perspective, I think it's awesome. Yeah, maybe it sucks a bit that we'll be fighting all the things. But hey, it lets the CFC prove its mettle. If the CFC can withstand that sort of assault, then all the big talk through the years was not without a shit tonne of merit.
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Test Alliance. Please learn to anchor. Thank you for the SBU.
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I'll leave you all with a short Google Poem:
Source: The War in Fountain - The Depth of Gameplay In Sovereignty Wars (http://)