Welcome to our summary of week two of the war between the Imperium and PanFam. If you missed the first week summary, you can find it here, but in case you do not want to read that or simply want a refresher, I will try to give you that now.
The Imperium spent the first week mainly conducting move operations from their homeland of Delve. The vanguard forces of the Imperium set to work shooting structures in the forward staging area in and around KQK.
Meanwhile PanFam formed when they felt like it but did not seemingly try to interfere with any Imperium move ops.
The Main Events from 2019-05-25 to 2019-05-31.
For a large part of the week it was business as usual for both sides. The Imperium continued to shoot structures, set timers for iHubs, and generally set about tearing down a region. PanFam at points would form fleets to hinder the Imperium in their efforts. But generally the flow of war in favour of the Imperium to make continued progress in their campaign objectives.
System-wide cyno jammers are a major factor in the defense of Tribute. With such structures in place, the defenders can dictate the use of capitals in most engagements. Cyno jammers are, however, reliant on a system having an active iHub. So, iHubs are a central part of the campaign objectives for Imperium forces to enable them to use their capital fleets to greater effect.
Throughout the week, the Imperium continued to hit iHubs to good effect. With each iHub destroyed, new opportunities present themselves to The Imperium capital fleet. You can keep track of timers being set within New Eden with this very handy site.
There were minor scuffles between the warring factions, and a larger fight broke out early on the morning of May 31. The short story is that PanFam successfully defended a key iHub timer.
Perhaps of more interest during the week is the continued oddness surrounding the meta.
The Meta So Far
Narratives are important things for war—They help in both victory and defeat. At this time, the narrative from the Imperium has been pretty consistent. They intend to at least ruin Tribute for PanFam, and then think about if PanFam have suffered enough for them to call it a job well done and head back home to Delve. Pretty simple stuff and unlikely to change for the time being.
The narrative from PanFam, however, seems to have been a lot more complex. There appear to be a number of different approaches that have at least been tried, all with varying degrees of success.
Gon Bad, Grr Gon, Hat Gon
This has been tried but to far less effect than has been seen historically. During the Casino War, this was all that was needed to get others to fight the supposed evilness of the Imperium. This time around it is less than convincing. The Legacy, Dead Coalition, FIRE Coalition and others all seem to be in agreement that they would rather have a working relationship with The Imperium than any member of PanFam.
Help Us Reddit, You’re Our Only Hope
A number of posts have been spotted that try to appeal to the Reddit crowd to come and assist the outnumbered and outgunned PanFam. Be it in the form of being on the front lines in Tribute or by hitting the Imperium in their homelands of Delve, these seem to be framed in one of two ways. The first is that big money can be made hitting the industrial might of the Imperium. The second is that Goons are too strong, and that only All of Eve™ working together can stop them from ruining the game.
PanFam are Nomadic Warriors
Other commentators will be quick to state that PanFam are nomadic and have no need for sovereign space. It will take little effort though to see that this claim is not an honest one. PanFam have held sov now for many years, with some regions being under their control for an absolute age in New Eden terms.
PanFam are Spartans
Finally we have the idea that PanFam can and do fight while being vastly outnumbered. Odds of two, three or even four to one do not deter them in the slightest. With their superior pilot abilities and tactics such fights are easily within their grasp.
Making sense of the Real Numbers
PanFam seem very determined to show the rest of New Eden that they are outnumbered by the forces of the Imperium. Often you will see numbers about how the Imperium is so much larger in character count than Pandemic Horde, Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition Dot. Yet in almost the same breath PanFam, will talk about all the krabs that are in The Imperium.
So in order to get a better sense of the real numbers involved I decided to do some very basic math.
For The Imperium you have:
GSF – 34069
Bastion – 3171
TNT – 3591
Lawn – 1417
The Initiative – 5222
PBLRD – 1084
For a total of 48554 characters.
For PanFam you have:
Pandemic Horde – 17199
Pandemic Legion – 2328
Northern Coalition – 3874
Northern Associates – 177
Rate My Ticks – 4355
Skill Urself – 1238
Hard Knocks Associates – 2808
Hard Knocks Citizens – 1039
Brothers of Tangra – 5517
SLYCE – 1667
Triumvirate – 459
Circle of Hell – 1771
Summing up to 42432 characters.
Quibbling about the numbers here is going to be pretty easy to do. The effort I went to in order to establish who should be on each respective sides list was pretty minimal. The main point of the exercise is to simply show that when you see comments about The Imperium being 10 times the size of PanFam forces it is far from true.
To better put this into some sort of context, the Imperium during The Casino War fought outnumbered for many months. At most, the Imperium could claim to have 25000 members during the Casino War compared to the 60000 plus of the Money Badger Coalition.
Something has to stick
With so many diverse narratives being put forward by those favourable to PanFam, you have to wonder why that is. Is this a lack of direction from the PanFam leadership? Or is it hoping that one of the narratives will gain traction that PanFam can then throw its weight behind? There is also the possibility that it simply gives PanFam wiggle room when it comes to objectives. PanFam initially stated that they would let all of Tribute burn. But the actions of PanFam suggest that some members are keen to fight. Is this just a case of letting enough narratives float that PanFam can please all of their members?
Tenal being Hit
Finally we need to talk a little bit about the region of Tenal. Tenal is controlled mainly by PanFam members Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition Dot. But this is changing rapidly as Dead Coalition forces make a move into the region.
Hostilities between Dead Coalition and PanFam started after Dead Coalition made a peace deal with the Imperium last year. The deal was for the benefit of all PanFam members as well as Dead Coalition, but PanFam were unhappy with the deal and tried to invade Branch as soon as Imperium forces returned to Delve. This attempt failed badly and PanFam withdrew.
Co2 had stated that they would take Branch or die. Co2 ended up dying and folding into Pandemic Horde.
Sort Dragon had already expressed his disdain for how his coalition had been treated and backstabbed by PanFam. Now it seems that Dead Coalition is looking to acquire new territory at the cost of PanFam. Many timers have already been set and we will soon see if PanFam intend to offer any defence to the region and their renters who live there.
INN will continue to bring you updates and continued coverage of the Tribute war as it progresses.