PAPI experimented with their new booshing doctrine last night, June 30, in 3-D, proving one thing: the Imperium’s woodchipper still works effectively. Forming in USTZ under Hedliner and Sandrin Stone, the two fleets were comprised of the Magus Command Destroyer and other booshers, including the new “nano Cerberus.” The result was the same as with every other 3-D battle thus far; PAPI lost the ISK war 27bn to 6bn in kills and no objectives were completed.
Part 1: The Gatehouse
The tactic, as stated by Gobbins during his recent Town Hall, was to use the booshing fleet to clear Imperium fighters off the gate, then to use the extra speed of the nano Cerbs to burn through the elaborate bubble and wubble maze and then kite from range. The scheme of the maneuver was set; however, the execution was lacking. The Imperium formed hard into carriers and Muninns, outnumbering PAPI from the start. The Cerb fleet jumped through the gate, and although they managed to escape the bubbles, they were set upon by Muninns, and without Info Links they couldn’t match range. The result: a trail of wrecks 200km long stretching from the gate.
The booshers suffered a similar fate, joining the fight shortly after the Cerbs. They proved ineffective at clearing the fighter swarms. Even if they were deployed first, as per the plan, the most effective boosh would move all the fighters off the gate 100km away. But, with a max velocity of around 1,500m/s, a fighter would return to its original position less than 10 seconds after this push. As events turned out, the Cerberus fleet did not need assistance getting off the gate, just assistance surviving.
After the Cerbs had been eliminated, the Imperium set upon the now isolated booshers, eliminating what was left on the field while sustaining minimal losses. The whole experiment lasted 24 minutes. The best theory crafters in the game were sent back to the drawing board, with more SRP requests to process than actual solutions to the 3-D problem.
Part 2: The Prisoners Escape
After the initial battle was over, the Imperium, not content with their jail cell, once again broke out of “containment,” this time to Querious. Travelling to T8T-RA in a combined Jackdaw/Drake fleet, they destroyed a jump bridge before moving on to other objectives. Sporadic engagements occurred throughout Querious, as PAPI Assemble attempted to re-assemble a fleet to get the prisoners back into jail.
Jackdaw on Jackdaw fights occurred, with both sides trading evenly. However, eventually PAPI managed to obtain a critical mass and the containment breach was nullified as the last of the Drakes was destroyed in F2OY-X in Querious after reffing a Northern Coalition iHub. The Imperium once again showed that it is willing to pay for objectives in blood. A full battle report for the nights activities saw the Imperium winning the ISK war 38bn vs 15bn and accomplishing three objectives. The butcher’s bill in mainline ships was:
- PAPI
- Cerberus: 52
- Jackdaw: 52
- Command Destroyers: 42
- Imperium
- Muninn: 3
- Jackdaw: 58
- Drake: 36
Part 3: Don’t Tell The People!
One of the most interesting elements to the evening’s fights was the attempt to cover over their failures in the PAPI Assemble discord channel. The ping channel, established after M2-, shares alliance pings across the coalition and did see an uplift in fleet numbers during February through April. After the initial pings were sent out, it was clear that the experiment in 3-D had ended in complete failure. Yet, not wishing to share this information with his line members who threw ships into the fire, PAPI FC Sandrin Stone shared the following Battle Report.
This BR, carefully picked by PAPI leadership, shows only the battles following the Imperium’s breach of containment, ignoring the feed in 3-D, despite the fact that Sandrin actually was the FC earlier in the evening. It is another example of the super coalition attempting to cover up their failures and maintain morale.
With the offensive against the O-EIMK constellation ground to a halt in the past two-plus months, tonight’s assault was the brainchild of Pandemic Horde leader Gobbins. Once again asking his line members to train into different doctrines, the newest idea simply made sure that the Imperium’s blender was working effectively. Having switched tactics from Blarpies, Azbels, Retributions, Skybreakers, Nano Cerbs and now Command Destroyers, PAPI are throwing mud at the wall just to see if anything sticks. With numbers falling and a further reluctance to pay the iron price, PAPI look bereft of ideas and is running out of that critical component: morale.
