Week 55 of World War Bee was up from week 54, with 20 total hostile actions reported, another increase as the war enters what may be its final weeks with an exciting set of escalations early in the week. Delve and its environs were home to most of the action.
[Editor’s Note: As the war has reached its anniversary, INN’s tracker is now split between the July 2020 to June 2021 events and July 2021 onwards. The first year’s data remains broken, but the author is tentatively hopeful the Year 2 data will calculate moving forward.]
There were six battles in week 55 that exceeded 20 billion ISK in cumulative losses, outside of the 1DQ1-A/T5ZI-S border skirmish battle report. Five were strategic victories for the Imperium, while one was a PAPI vs. 3rd-party dreadnought brawl. The Imperium staged a number of productive breakouts early in the week, several times finding themselves creating trouble in NOL-M9. The 18th was the most expensive day in Delve, with two sets of battle reports each exceeding 115 billion in total losses. The Imperium also turned aside a costly 3-DMQT attempt by PAPI. The narrowest battle report of the week was Saturday, as the Imperium traded blows across Delve once more, losing 11.3 billion for 14.5 billion in kills. The battle in Vale of the Silent was covered by INN’s Elthar Nox.
The three major theaters are the North (Fountain and the border with Aridia and Cloud Ring as well as western Delve), the South (the rest of Delve, Querious, and Period Basis), and the East (Paragon Soul, Catch, Stain, Immensea, and Esoteria).
THE NORTHERN THEATER
Once again, the North was relatively quiet from a battles perspective, but once again, 3rd-party forces fought over Fountain’s Cloud Ring border system, killing a Fortizar.
THE EASTERN THEATER
The Eastern theater was also rather sedate, from a big fight perspective, during week 55. One of the strangest headlines of the week was Imperium forces stealing a Hel supercarrier from a Legacy POS in Paragon Soul, another stolen supercapital in this war to match Madcows’ heist of a titan from a POS in Esoteria nearly a year ago to the day. Brave lost a Tatara in their former capital staging system of GE-8JV later in the week.
THE SOUTHERN THEATER
Sunday began with a bang as some Imperium fleets surged through PAPI space, wreaking havoc in NOL-M9 and then reinforcing citadels across T5ZI-S, killing 67.3 billion ISK for 50.5 billion in losses. They followed up that sortie later in the day with a much more comprehensive chevauchee across PAPI Delve, this time killing 91.2 billion ISK for 45.2 billion in losses to close out the day, a shocking discrepancy for the relatively evenly matched foes. This allowed Imperium forces to destroy a cyno jammer. Goons later lost a Hel in Sakht. The 1DQ1-A/T5ZI-S border skirmish battle report for Sunday showed the Imperium killed 27.8 billion ISK for 21.5 billion in losses. Monday, the Imperium turned aside another 3-DMQT attempt, killing 19.8 billion ISK for 4.8 billion in losses. Monday’s border skirmish battle report showed the Imperium killed 58.6 billion ISK for 40.2 billion in losses, overlapping with some of the brutal fighting from the later battle report of Sunday.
Tuesday’s border skirmish battle report showed the Imperium killed 12.3 billion ISK for 12 billion in losses. Wednesday, the Imperium killed 7.3 billion ISK for 11.7 billion in losses. Thursday, the border skirmish battle report showed the Imperium killed 11.8 billion ISK for 9.5 billion in losses. Friday, the border skirmish battle report showed the Imperium killed 19.3 billion ISK for 25.2 billion in losses. Saturday, the day started with PAPI forces attacking a Goon Astrahus in NOL-M9 and being confronted a gang of Imperium’s Delta Sqad Saxfleet Tornados. The otherwise dull structure bash saw the Imperium trade evenly with PAPI forces, each side losing about 5 billion ISK, with the bulk of the Imperium’s cost being the small citadel. Towards the end of the day, Imperium forces celebrated PAPI’s announcement of a final effort with another chevauchee across PAPI Delve, killing 14.5 billion ISK for 11.3 billion in losses. The week-ending battle report saw the Imperium killed 18.7 billion ISK for 10.4 billion in losses.
ELSEWHERE IN NEW EDEN
Across the week, The Initiative forces killed a Hel in Oasa and then a small group of The Initiative and 3rd-party dreadnoughts dueled with Fraternity in Deklein, killing 22.1 billion ISK for 4.3 billion in a lost dread. The battle in Vale of the Silent between Fraternity and Snuffed Out ultimately cost 311.2 billion ISK all told and was covered elsewhere on INN.
Arguably the headline of the week was PAPI’s coordinated announcement of a final push against the Imperium, expected to take up to 4 weeks (per ProGodLegend and others), pending one week of move operations to return PAPI supercapitals to Delve. As reported elsewhere on INN, during the announcements themselves, 1DQ1-A’s population was hovering around 2,500 with another 700 in 3-DMQT. T5ZI-S’ population, on the other hand, was about 1,500 pilots. Speculation on Reddit and elsewhere suggested that one or more of the major PAPI coalitions had demanded a “put up or shut up” push from PAPI leadership, ultimately forcing PAPI’s hands with a timed offensive. The countdown begins – who will be left standing in Delve at the end of August?
