After having nearly the entire war zone within reach the Caldari have faltered, and now a resurgent Gallente Militia has reclaimed over half of the territory while showing signs of pushing further still. Speculations for the drivers of this swing of the pendulum are many, but if one were to hazard a guess, economics would seem to be a primary motivator.
In this run of events, after attaining Tier 3 warzone control (175% of normal LP payouts) for a few weeks, and pushing the Gallente into Tier 1 (50% of normal LP payouts) for nearly 2 months, the value of Caldari LP had begun to sink. Meanwhile, an astute LP marketer could find certain items available from the Federal Defense Union stores worth in excess of 5,000 ISK per loyalty point. 3 weeks ago, the Gallente made their way back into tier 2, and as of the evening of August 25th, have broken into tier 3. They have gone from holding a paltry 11 systems, to 67 out of 101 as of midnight on August 26th. With the Caldari now dipping into tier 1, the bulk of LP farming is expected to shift somewhat to the favor of the Gallente, and will likely remain until the Federation’s LP value plumets from over-supply.
Gallente Fleet Command has commented often during this particular surge that Caldari defenders have seemed few and far between. Khan Farshatok, savior-apparent of the Caldari cause barely a month ago hasn’t been seen in weeks. Whitetalon.com, an excellent source of insider information on the Caldari war effort during their surge has sputtered to silence, and then announced on the 19th of August that the group behind it would be bailing from FW all together. Reasons? Awoxers, civil war, unhappy with FW mechanics.
Oh, that civil war thing!
Shortly after our last report on the happenings in the Gallente/Caldari war zone, the Caldari got into a bit of an internal bust up. Caldari corporation Born-2-Kill were accused of blowing up some of their fellow Caldari militia pilots. Words were said, Khan Farshatok’s Tornado got blown up, B2K was added to a KOS list, and then wardecs started to fly.
At the time, a large portion of the Caldari Militia was based out of the high sec system of Ichorya due to its close proximity to Gallente capital system Nennamaila (2 jumps), with the Gallente militia being unable to take the system from them due to it being high sec space. B2K, a small but organized group of pilots, decided this safe haven would be an excellent place to prosecute their war and began camping the system, wantonly destroying billions of ISK in Caldari assets amid repeated calls from Caldari leadership to stop giving B2K so many easy kills.
Militias being what they are (Gallente have been trying to tell their fellows for years not to base out of their equivalent system, Villore), this was met with limited success. The Gallente meanwhile were denied fights from both B2K, and Cal Mil pilots that never made it out of high sec.
With the Caldari taking time to fight each other, the Gallente have seen a serious down tick in FW specific action outside of the Innia area where Templis Dragonaos still maintain a base of operations. Fortunately, Black Rise and Placid’s reputation as a fertile small gang PVP ground attracts all types, including several groups outside of FW looking for whatever action they can find. Sniggwaffe (the waffle guys) have set up shop in the area bringing frequent visits from certain elements of Pandemic Legion with them, while various elements of other null sec power blocks are also seen passing through from time to time.
Large fleets are having a hard time finding action, while small gangs of 5 or less pilots are almost guaranteed to find something exciting to do before long, with bigger fleets having more success at the weekend.
A combined fleet of Pandemic Legion and Sniggwaffe cruisers was engaged in a fight against a slightly smaller, but more heavily equipped Gal Mil fleet in the Vlillirier system when local pirate organizations Tempest Legion and Rainbow Dash Friends decided to make it a 3-way affair. Tempest Legion and RDF dropped 2 dreads and 2 triage carriers with subcap support in the middle of the Gal Mil/Pandemic Legion fight. Dread and Carrier kill reports being more attractive than Caracals and Abaddons, the PL/Sniggwaffe and Gal Mil fleets stopped shooting at each other and turned on the new arrivals instead.
Word spread out in Pandemic Legion of the turn the fight had taken, and in short order a second cyno went up ushering in a handful of PL Super Carriers to help finish the job. PL’s FC, Hedliner, has denied asking for the super drop:
the PL supers which appeared were nothing to do with us, it was just our resident opportunistic killmail whoring crew who saw some caps and thought why not. I didn’t ask for them and was as surprised as you guys were when they showed up! – Hedliner, FC, Pandemic Legion
The Caldari have been so scarce lately that this past Saturday morning (usually a fertile time for militia on militia action) was so dead that a small 25 man Gal Mil fleet of frigates, destroyers, and a pair of battleships (to provide a potential enemy with a couple juicier kill mails) was desperate enough to head out to Brave Newbie home system Barleguet on the far side of Placid.
Expecting to fight newbies, the Gallente deliberately kept their fleet comp on the light side, and didn’t bother bringing logistics. After reading the propaganda posters of lone Merlins facing a sea of reds, the plan was to charge into what would probably be a much larger frigate fleet, kill what they could and die honorably. What actually happened was they did indeed come face to face with a much larger BRAVE fleet, but instead of frigates, it was full of Talwars, cruisers, battlecruisers, a Megathron, and a slew of T1 cruiser logistics. Needless to say, it did not end well.
[ 2013.08.24 01:42:53 ] Remy O’Bannion > Seems like gal fed cant even fight noobs. no wonder they lost their space
[ 2013.08.24 01:48:02 ] Anna niedostepny > way to suck gal fed
[ 2013.08.24 01:48:14 ] Punkos Anarchos > WELCOME TO BARLEGUET
-Selected quotes from Local
PWND.
Good fights aside, Factional Warfare in Black Rise and Placid has taken on a definitive Gallente flavor for the moment. If the past year can give us any indication, this has all happened before, and will happen again. We can probably expect an uptick in Gallente war zone control and LP farming until the relative value of Federal Defense Union LP falls to low levels, while State Protectorate LP rises in value making it the more attractive LP to farm. Given the popularity of Caldari Navy ships (especially Drakes) next month’s report will probably show the Caldari well on their way back to warzone parity, with perhaps another surge coming in early October. For right now however, unless they’re traveling in Barleguet, it’s good to be Gallente.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by FunkyBacon.