By Frozen Fallout, with editorial assistance by Samson Lancaster.
Good Morning New Eden!
I am Frozen Fallout and this is the Faction Warfare report. To give a little background on myself, I have been playing EVE Online since 2006 and have been in and out of Faction Warfare since its inception. I have recently rejoined the war effort and created the Guldan Age Empire, with Joebane Maetheon leading us as our Emperor, on the side of the Gallente. The Federation Front Line Report is a Gallente Propaganda Podcast that was created to keep everyone up to date on the action that is taking place in Faction Warfare today. You can also check out the video here.
What Is Faction Warfare?
Faction Warfare or “FW” in EVE Online started in 2008 as part of the Empyrean Age expansion. Faction Warfare was a way for players to dip their toes into PvP gameplay without the need to join a player-owned corporation. In FW, you can join an NPC corp that is part of the war, as long as you have a positive standing for the faction. It also gave a place for many lowsec PvP corporations to grow with non-stop action and a way for their members to make some good ISK. Many other corporations and alliances also got involved as third parties by not joining the war directly. Instead, they use the war as a way to generate solid small gang PvP in the space the Factions fought over. After a time, CCP also granted the ability for players to join FW as an Alliance which allowed many corporations to better organize throughout the warzone. Personally, I believe Faction Warfare is still the best place for new players to learn PvP while being able to make a good amount of ISK, as early as day 1!
According to zKillboard the fighting in 2008 created around 2000 to 5000 kills per month, for each Faction. This trend seemed to hold until 2012 when the kills started to jump up to 10,000 kills per month (give or take a few thousand) per Faction. In 2015 the kills peaked for the Factions, with each getting over 25,000 per month. These days, the fighting has died down a bit with each Faction. As of September 2021, each faction was only getting around 5000 to 14,000 kills. Much of this change has to do with many old guard corps dropping out of the fray, having outgrown FW, or just seeing new opportunities in other areas of the game. The lower player count these days has also contributed to the lower number of kills. In addition, Faction Warfare has been mostly untouched by CCP for the past decade. With CCP now directing new players to Faction Warfare, we may see an increase in kills, with Faction Warfare getting some much needed love!
The Factions
So let’s break down how each Faction currently stacks up.
Starting with the Gallente Federation and looking over zKillboard, we can see that there are about 255 active PvP characters in the past 7 days, with around 52 corporations, and only 1 Alliance. During the Month of September the Gallente destroyed 6,726 ships and did over 433 billion ISK worth of damage. In warzone control, the Gallente are currently holding out with only one system, Agoze, with the Caldari recently taking Fliet and Iges, both of which were staging areas for the Gallente. All eyes are currently on Agoze to see if the Gallente can make a final stand!
The Caldari State has been looking very strong recently, with around 498 active PvP characters in the past seven days, with around 81 corporations and 9 Alliances. Having such a numerical advantage, the Caldari have been able to sweep the warzone and currently control all systems with the exception of Agoze. During the Month of September, the Caldari destroyed 14,000 ships and did over 3 trillion ISK of damage. That’s one hell of a showing for the Caldari in the month of September.
The Amarr Empire is currently standing at around 306 active PvP characters in the past 7 days, with 39 corporations and three Alliances. The Amarr are racking up some nice ship kills with 7533 for the month of September and over 2.55 trillion ISK of damage. The warzone currently stands with the Ammar holding the vast majority of systems, with 58 of them under their belt.
The Minmatar Republic has around 273 active PvP characters in the past seven days, with around 49 corporations and 6 Alliances. During the month of September, the Minmatar were able to kill 5,849 ships and did over 434 billion ISK of damage. For warzone control, they currently have 12 systems under their belt and have been working hard to increase that number, with seven of those 12 systems being flipped over to the Minmatar in the last 14 days.
A small-gang paradise
As you can see, there are still great fights happening every day in both warzones and I highly encourage people to check FW out. Faction Warfare space is great for both neutrals and FW members to find some small gang and even solo PvP action! Using the Faction Warfare Complexes as a focal point of battles allows solo and small gang PvPers to restrict ship size and warp in points, making it easier to avoid blobs and other “unfair” fights.
Thank you for your time, and remember, fly dangerously!
