Welcome to the fourth installment of a week of war between the Imperium and PanFam. This is where I will summarise the events of the week in generally broad strokes. This piece will cover the events of June 8-14. If you want to see details of the other pieces covering this war, check out parts 1, 2, and 3.
Tenal has been subdued
This past week has seen PanFam completely removed from the region of Tenal by the forces of Dead Coalition. The defence offered by PanFam forces for the region was sparse at best. PanFam members tried, late last year, to take Branch from DeadCo in order to install Co2. This of course failed and led to the demise of Co2, which was rolled into Pandemic Horde. So it would not be too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that Dead Coalition members are both amused and delighted at their most recent acquisition.
However one of the leaders of PanFam, Hedliner, was making noises about how quickly they would be able to take the region back once “those goons” are gone. Hedliner also made remarks about how the alliance Skill Urself may be inclined to step into the region to cause trouble. Weird that Hedliner should make such a statement, given that it seems to fly in the face of others stating that Skill Urself have nothing to do with PanFam. But more news on Skill Urself a bit later on.
Assault on Vale of the Silent
With the current defence of PanFam territory being more than a little lackluster, the Imperium have decided to press on. The insatiable appetite members of the Imperium have for grinding structures seems to know no bounds.
However on Sunday, June 9, PanFam decided that the iHub timer for the Keepstar system on P3EN was worth defending. A battle for entosis control lasted a good few hours. Ultimately PanFam lost control of the P3EN iHub and a brand new shiny one was installed by the forces of the Imperium.
Additionally the PanFam-owned Keepstar within P3EN was set into its armour timer. Generally speaking, the armour timer is the important one, and will be defended the most. That is if there is any desire to defend it at all. This is because it allows defenders to de-agress and tether without having to risk the structure suddenly not being there anymore while the attackers still have superior supercapital numbers on the field. The armour timer came out at a little after 07:15 on Saturday, June 15, and though there was some subcapital defence, Imperium forces prevailed nonetheless.
But curiously, earlier on 13 and into 14 June, there was a flurry of activity from PanFam forces. PanFam forces were observed yet again moving capitals further to the east. This was via P3EN and Q-EH, which are both currently systems that hold Keepstars.
The grinding of Tribute continues
On the morning of June 11, we saw the Imperium destroy not one, but two Keepstars belonging to PanFam forces in the region of Tribute. The first to fall was in the system of M-OEE8 and the other within 0-Y. Despite the timing by PanFam to the AU timezone for these structures the number of pilots presented by the Imperium still exceeded 1600. PanFam did not wish to contest the destruction of their Keepstars and so no forces were assembled by them.
There has been no let up in the pace of operations from the Imperium. New people continue to step up into roles and learn the tricks of the various trades needed for warfare. Nearly two trillion ISK has been lost by PanFam in the destruction of infrastructure alone. Quite a tidy sum. Although it should easily be replaced with all the rental income stashed away.
Skill Urself Killed Itself?
In the latter part of the week it was leaked to Reddit that Skill Urself would be disbanding. At this time there has been no sign of corporations moving on, although it has been suggested that some corporations will be joining Fraternity. Only time will tell as to how Skill Urself pilots ultimately decide to disperse. But this does lead to some rather interesting questions. Despite only having 1,228 members Skill Urself holds the largest sov area in the game. Quite the feat, I wonder how they manage it. With their disbanding it then brings into question what will happen to the 259 systems that they exercise control over.
It is probably prudent to remind you of some of the history of Skill Urself. They consist of groups from Pizza, NCDot, PL, Lumpy and even Triumvirate to name but a few. All of which have apparently no links back to PanFam. Skill Urself was also very instrumental in the destruction of the DRF. As we should remember only too well, the destruction of the DRF greatly benefited PanFam and their rental desires. But again, I am sure that there are no connections between Skill Urself and PanFam. None at all. None whatsoever.
PanFam efforts in the South
Although PanFam are not really trying to defend their own territories in the north, they do seem inclined to defend the territory of Fraternity. We have seen PanFam leadership offer very flattering words to Fraternity in the past. Especially when Fraternity were complicating matters for Legacy Coalition and the DRF. On Thursday, June 13, we saw fleets from PL, NCDot and PH all heading down south to help Fraternity defend.
But where PanFam go the Imperium are likely to follow. This was the case in this instance and the Imperium also dispatched forces to the south in order to shoot PanFam where possible. One has to wonder about the wisdom in Fraternity continuing to call on such allies. But perhaps this is a desperate measure given that PanFam betrayed Dead Coalition and are in need of some support in the AU timezone.
Fragmented PanFam Meta
PanFam still seem to be struggling with control of the meta. There are still some trying to put forward the idea that PanFam are vastly outnumbered. While at the same time arguing that PanFam have a very generous capital subsidy program and that they have loads of capitals. Meanwhile there are still many posts declaring that Goons have won EVE and that the game is dying as a result—perhaps in the hope that CCP will do something to cripple the might of the Imperium. What a sad state of affairs that is. It is also very amusing given that there were far fewer complaints when it was PanFam in a position of seemingly unassailable power. It does not take a great deal of effort to see what was being said by PanFam members during the Casino War. Oh how times have changed.
As mentioned previously, perhaps the plan of PanFam leadership is to wait for one of their many arguments to actually gain some traction. But this seeming failure of leadership does have an effect on the many PanFam line members. Already we are seeing PanFam self-destructing vessels of various sizes. There has also been considerable movement of capital ships further to the east. But probably most surprising has been the use of Thrasher and Cormorant doctrines by PanFam forces. Not just by PH members either. All the time numbers in the PanFam staging systems continue to decline and fleets seemingly less complete. These are troubling signs for any leadership still present.
As always feel free to leave your comments and opinions below. Stay tuned to INN for the latest news in New Eden as it happens.
