After the first full week of World War Bee, the action has clearly just begun. Both sides are feeling the other out and testing for weaknesses. The total ISK lost across the war so far has surpassed 1.5 trillion ISK, and the fights stretch across the south of New Eden, even providing unsuspecting targets for low sec pirates. Last week’s update established two major theaters, one in Aridia on the border of Fountain, and the other in Paragon Soul, between Period Basis and Esoteria.
The Southern Campaign
The Southern theater of Paragon Soul has now expanded to include not only its border systems, but also Querious, as Imperium defenders beat back incursions from Legacy forces and their allies. Beginning Monday morning EVE time, Imperium defenders raced across Period Basis and Querious, fending off a mass entosis attempt by TEST. Only two systems were successfully reinforced, AO-N1P and XZ-SKZ. The fight in TCAG-3 was particularly bloody as Imperium FCs Apple Pear and John Hartley attest. “For this one, we lost the ISK war but won the objective and they left,” said Apple Pear.
Describing the TCAG fight where TEST was hacking the iHub, FC John Hartley said, “We dropped two fleets in and had a fight. Apple’s Sacrilege fleet got bombed pretty badly and we had a brawl, then dropped [capitals] on them. They bailed at that point. I chased them to the gate where we had a little scrap and booshed the Brave FC off the gate (where he) ejected from his Monitor.” Later in the day, Legacy finished deploying their second Keepstar in FAT-6P, a primary staging just outside of Querious.
Tuesday brought a pair of skirmishes over entosis timers across the theater, largely a strategic stalemate as the sides countered each other. Later in the day, a subcapital skirmish in Catch broke out, leading to the destruction of a Legacy Jackdaw fleet. Per John Hartley again, “We chased off a fleet shooting our jump gate in 49-U6U [a Querious border system] and they ran home, so we shot their jump gate in RR-D05 [two systems from Legacy staging]. Brave formed Jackdaws and we slapped them.”
Wednesday was a busy day as fleets in the South traded Ansiblex defenses and some small skirmishes ensued. The Imperium destroyed a Legacy bridging POS in TCAG-3 but the bulk of the action took place later in the day as a fight over the XZ-SKZ iHub led to some of the bloodiest fighting in the South so far. The Imperium lost the iHub but destroyed considerable enemy assets. Additional small fights broke out later in the day, but only one Ansiblex defense exceeded 2 billion ISK in total losses.
Thursday was a day of wins across the South for the Imperium, as they destroyed two staging POSes and an Astrahus in a critical front line system. It continued with a small fight in 4-07MU, a border system in Catch, as the Imperium fought over a Territorial Claim Unit. They lost the TCU but drained nearly five times their losses from TEST. The headline of the day was no doubt handing a defeat to Legacy in 49-U6U, a critical border system into Catch.
Friday’s fights in the South were another day of big wins for the Imperium. The Imperium defended an Ansiblex, annihilated a Munnin fleet, reinforced a jump bridge in Paragon Soul, defended a gatecamp, and exchanged entosis fleets. The highlight, though was a critical fight in TCAG-3, an essential border system that also serves as a crossroads for Period Basis. Imperium FC Asher Elias was part of leading the defense.
“We attacked their anchoring structures in XZ- and killed them without contest,” Asher said, “After putting out iHub fires in EUTZ we barely had any successful hacks against us. They attacked our [jump bridges] in USTZ with smaller gangs, Brave focused on 49-U6U. None were successful that I’m aware of. We even stopped one in the very bottom system of Period Basis. After that I started using ‘scramdaws’ to camp the TCAG-3 gate with fighters skynetted [meaning the carriers sent their fighters from the safety of a nearby structure]. I had only ~eight carriers showing and we brought in Rorquals to raise the ADMs. Vily flash formed Muninns, got kinda bad numbers and tried to break in. [We] dropped caps on him and he ran to Stain. Jay got a bubble and we got a few more before they made it. While this was going on we got our iHub astra in XZ- anchored.
“I camped the gate for the rest of the night,” he continued, “and we [sent] in hackers to Paragon Soul and then, when they formed up to respond, I went to ref the G-M4GK jump bridge. Meanwhile Stain Rus was attacking a fort TEST had to defend. They split their response (Vily used his dread to stop one hack) and saved the gate but we put two systems into [reinforcement] in Paragon and then that fleet used a [wormhole] to escape. TEST chased ghosts for about 20 more minutes looking for them.”
The Southern theater was relatively quiet at the start of the weekend from an ISK loss perspective, although multiple skirmishes happened across the region as the Imperium generally led a capable defense against Legacy’s fleets. Unfortunately for Goons, however, the XZ-SKZ reinforced iHub was successfully defended by hostiles who brought representatives from nearly every alliance to contest the timer. The Imperium forces guarded key entrances to Delve and conceded the field.
The Northern Campaign
PandaFam spent the Initiative’s entosis vulnerability window Monday reinforcing the entirety of the border constellation in Fountain from Hophip, including the D4KU-5 beachhead. A small skirmish broke out with similar ISK losses on either side. Tuesday brought a massive adrenaline burst as The Initiative (INIT) had a Titan jump instead of bridge, leading to a bloody defense of the asset. Both sides flash formed to fight with INIT taking the worst of it, although the Titan was saved.
Wednesday brought good news for the Imperium in Fountain as the entire Taurus constellation leading into Aridia was defended with nearly no fight as INIT formed 1,200 members. Their would-be attackers only brought about 750 capsuleers, per INIT FC Blurkus, so they stood down. As if to put an exclamation point on the day, PandaFam lost a bridging Titan in Aridia while taking a gate. The lowsec pirates who killed him were stunned that he didn’t use any of the safe structures to jump himself and that he assumed there weren’t eyes on the Titan moving from system to system.
As the clock turned past midnight on Thursday morning, INIT faced off with PandaFam in D4KU-5.
“Horde were doing their nightly [reinforcing] of D4KU,” INIT FC Blurkus said, “But they were in a smaller fleet this time and with Augoror Navy Issues. I formed Nightmares and caps and pushed it all through the Ansiblex and started to fight. Unfortunately they killed all of my [logistics] right at the beginning and we were forced to pull range. Caps re-approached the Ansiblex and then jumped through. Unfortunately some dreads, faxes, and two carriers died as a result of being [Heavy Interdiction Cruiser] pointed by hostiles. On the way out, Goons showed up with a Sacrilege fleet and forced hostiles out through the Hophib gate. Right before they were able to leave, Pando decloaked with some bombers and killed some people on the way out.”
Friday was a big day in the North as well for the Imperium, beginning with the destruction of a PandaFam Ferox and Muninn fleet. As both sides waited out the reinforcement timers in the Hydra constellation, a fight broke out on the KVN-36 jump bridge as PandaFam attempted to reinforce it. INIT dropped lance Titans and other capitals, sweeping the field of the PandaFam subcaps, saving nearly all of the iHubs in the constellation, as well as the Ansiblex itself. To cap off the day, INIT waxed several Cormorant fleets that a PandaFam FC was selling to his line members at a three-times mark-up from Jita prices.
The weekend brought out numerous fights as numbers in both blocs swelled. An Imperium Fortizar in Hophib was destroyed undefended after having been evacuated some time ago. Multiple fights broke out in D4KU-5 again, INIT destroying an attacker fleet on their Fortizar, then fighting again late in the day and losing the ISK battle to PandaFam. Both sides were bloodied and that led to a dreadnought move-op during prime USTZ as Legacy reconfigured their war plan to perhaps take the critical border system and establish a beach head in Fountain that could allow them to strike deeper into Imperium territory.
Other Theaters
Other parts of New Eden were active this week, including the Imperium homelands in Delve. Highlights include a skirmish on the 1-SMEB Ansiblex between the Imperium and PandaFam led by Imperium FC Dave Archer. “Fun engagment, hostiles made a few errors allowing us to get the drop on a hostile fleet that was reffing our 1-SMEB jump bridge using Jackdaws as tackle to hold the hostiles down while the caps cleaned up. I had a few members of Ascendance whose sole job was to scram the hostile FCs.”
Multiple PandaFam Cormorant fleets welped to Delve defenses. Lastly, PandaFam lost another pair of Titans in lowsec, this time in Amarr space in the Devoid region. While Legacy members on Reddit contend that the pilots were “blue tanking” (changing their alliance for the sole purpose of not attracting unwanted attention), they were dread bombed while moving to a bait citadel.
As of Sunday, there were multiple conflicts raging, including some major fleets in D4KU-5.
