Welcome to the fifth installment of the week of war between the Imperium and PanFam. The main events of the 15th of June until the 21st of June will be covered. Despite PanFam’s continued refusal to engage there is an awful lot that has gone on.
No Place to Hide
The week kicked off with the Mittani, leader of the Imperium, announcing that it would be going to war with “Mogul Financial”. In short order Jeronica, leader of Mogul Financial and former PL and MC member, got straight on the case with denying involvement with any PanFam entity. Weird though, that the Imperium were barred from using Mogul Financial structures, as well as these structures residing in a key PanFam owned system. The argument was put forward that it was Goons ruining the game yet again. How could these heartless monsters remove capital production facilities, that they cannot use, from the common folk of New Eden?
In short order structures were transferred from Mogul Financial. But that should not prove a problem for the Imperium as Mogul Financial did provide a list of their structure publicly.
How determined the Imperium are with regard to removing all Mogul Financial structures remains to be seen. With almost 300 billion already lost by Mogul Financial it may just be a case of warning other entities against working with enemies of the Imperium. It may also have an effect on promoting the use of other service providers where the Imperium are not excluded.
Advancing in the Opposite Direction
INN has already reported evacuation of the PanFam-controlled system of SH1. This was only the first wave of early adopters, probably leadership and others that were “in the know”. The move event for the normal line members occurred over the weekend. As good a time as any to move. Only two weeks prior, PanFam ordered capital ships pulled back from Malpais to stage in SH1. The logic here seems a little off as PanFam had declared that they would not be fighting for Tribute at all. So why move capitals into Tribute to then only move them out again a couple of weeks later? Surely it would have made more sense and cost less to move them to Q-EH in the first place. But perhaps PanFam leadership had a lot of fuel for sale in SH1 and P3EN keepstars.
The Keepstar in SH1 is the final PanFam Keepstar in the region of Tribute. Already, Imperium forces have struck at this final jewel in the crown of Tribute. The SH1 iHub has been destroyed and any PanFam forces that could be deployed to defend this Keepstar now have much further to travel. But not everyone got out during the PanFam move op over the weekend. Those late to the party have even expressed disbelief at the predicament in local. Those PanFam members left behind now have to rely on a more treacherous journey to the latest PanFam staging system. But of course they can also rely on asset safety should they be inclined to do so.
Top of the Chart!
Speaking of Keepstars, PanFam member Northern Coalition. (NCDot) now move to first place in Keepstar losses. This comes after losing yet another Keepstar in the system of P3EN in the region of Vale of the Silent. The loss brings their tally up to 5 Keepstars lost, 4 of which were actually deployed. If the SH1 Keepstar should also fall they will likely secure their first place for quite some time to come. But kudos to NCDot for leaving their Keepstars rigged, at least proving that they knew how to fit them.
The final timer for the SH1 Keepstar is set for 2019-06-22 07:24:33. Whether there will be some heroic last defence on the part of PanFam is not known. But given recent performance it looks very unlikely. How many Goons turn up will also be interesting. I do know for certain though that I will be there.
Trouble at the top
PanFam leadership has suffered a couple of blows this week. The first comes with the news of PL mouthpiece, err I mean content creator, Doomchinchilla resigning from leadership position. Apparently Doom had been very inactive for some time and has made the decision to hand off leadership of his corp Collapsed Out to Dj Aldard. Doomchinchilla was very keen to point out quite publicly that his resigning had nothing to do what so ever with PL leadership Hedliner and Dancul. This is normally code for it having everything to do with Hedliner and Dancul.
Then came some very public remarks from PanFam leader KillahBee. The one thing I would happily admit about KillahBee is that he is often refreshingly honest. If he makes a mess of things he will not be coy about admitting as much. This makes his comments all the more interesting with regard to the current state of PanFam. KillahBee was quite critical of PanFam leadership in that they had failed to recognise the changes to the nullsec meta and to adapt to them. He lamented at differences of opinion between himself and Vince Draken. KillahBee went futher to say that it was the failure of Vince Draken in leadership that had led PanFam to be in its current sorry state.
KillahBee then went on to also lay blame at the feet of members of PanFam. He said that they were lazy in their play style and only wanted to log in for easy wins. Line members were also unwilling to support new FC talent within PanFam and would leave fleet as soon as a new name appeared. KillahBee also stated that he at least recognised the strength of the model used by the Imperium, Legacy Coalition and now even Dead Coalition. It was one that he said PanFam had to accept and embrace else their future looks very bleak.
Skill Urself Drop All Sov and Fold Into Fraternity
Generally it is wise to be cautious when certain groups say that they are going to do something. So until I actually see a change on a reliable source like Dotlan I often remain skeptical. But oh my how things have changed on Dotlan this week. True to their word Skill Urself folded their alliance. As a result we saw a massive drop in sov ownership. A total of 259 systems suddenly became up for grabs and one entity especially did not hang about in picking up new space. Around two thirds of the systems dropped by Skill Urself were quickly picked up by Fraternity. Fraternity also gained around 600 new members from Skill Urself.
This is a very interesting turn of events for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Fraternity have increased their combat capability greatly as Skill Urself were heavily PvP focused. This also strengthens their combat strength in the EU time zone. Secondly, this new space may give Fraternity the opportunity and incentive to sue for peace with Legacy Coalition. How this plays out for the region of Detorid is still very much undecided. But Fraternity now have additional options that were not present before.
There is very likely a sinister angle to all of this however. Was some sort of Faustian deal struck between Fraternity and PanFam? I ask this as PanFam have been very eager to see Fraternity succeed. PanFam have frequently sent down sizeable forces to support the defensive efforts of Fraternity against Legacy Coalition. There is also quite a bit of history with Fraternity aiding PanFam’s goals in destabilising the former eastern empires. Then there is also the question of what Fraternity intends to do with all of this new found space. Will they actually occupy it and develop it themselves? Or will they end up renting it out? If they do rent it out will there be other parties that get a cut of the proceeds?
Regardless of the intent of Fraternity it is quite obvious that they are being pushed towards being closer to PanFam. Is this how PanFam intend to deal with their very obvious shortage of manpower in the AU time zone? Do Fraternity even realise that this is the case? Probably most importantly, does Fraternity realise the history PanFam has in using alliances and then discarding them once their usefulness has expired?
Something Has to Stick
PanFam mouth-pieces continue to try as many narratives as they can, all in the hope that something gains traction. They are even now going so far as to speak for how the line members of the Imperium feel. This is a clear demonstration of not only desperation but also a complete failure to understand line members from the Imperium.
Perhaps the arguments being put forward are more a reflection of their own narrow experiences and view points. There is also the possibility that it echoes their own desires and frustration. With that in mind I will try my best to explain the Imperium in simple terms that should clear things up a bit.
The Imperium has many different types of folk. Some love ratting or mining, others industry or exploration. Incursions, Wormholes, PvP, Ganking, Scamming, Logistics, Space Priests the list goes on and on. As I have already mentioned before, much of the Imperium is not even deployed. What you see is but the tip of the spear. There is a whole ecosystem behind that tip that makes it all the stronger. Massive losses could be incurred for the Imperium but in all reality it would be a small bump in the road. In fact this latest campaign was more than ready to welp many fleets of all shapes and sizes. Fundamentally a Goon mantra is “our people deserve the best”, no matter what the endeavour is.
So when PanFam mouth-pieces claim that the line members are unhappy with the current situation they at best speak for a small segment on the whole. The ones who care most about PanFam not undocking are those that are active in the many SIGs and Squads that form the very active PvP backbone of the Imperium. Once the main forces of the Imperium withdraw those very same PvP focused players will go right back to their SIGs and Squads and continue to cause havoc where ever they go.
For others this campaign is like mining but with more sparkles and killmails. Structure shooting can be a very relaxed and entertaining past time when done well. There are many goons that love nothing more than shooting a structure for hours on end.
Then there are those that are getting more experience in nullsec bloc warfare. The Imperium knows only too well that in order to keep their people entertained they need to flex their power at times. If anything it is a vital factor in the continued success of the Imperium to continue to take risks and to develop new talent. This was one of the main purposes of this campaign and to argue otherwise is simply foolish.
But perhaps most importantly is the fact that the Imperium went to war with their forever enemy PanFam and that PanFam were so scared of the might of the Imperium that PanFam just hid away. PanFam have covered their ears and closed their eyes and are shouting very loudly “nah nah nah we can’t hear you”. PanFam leadership seem hopeful that if they make this campaign such a damp squib then everyone will forget the event. But no true Goon could ever forget the time that PanFam, the self proclaimed elite PvP force of nullsec, ran away when there was the slightest risk to their killboards. That is a stink that will last forever. One that any group in the future can hold against PanFam. Especially when PanFam are shouting “why you no fight?” when they outnumber their obviously weaker prey.
PanFam Vengeance is Being Planned
We have already heard noises from PanFam about what they are going to do once those Goons go away. There are a few options that present themselves. Firstly there is the option to retake Tribute. This is likely to be a very easy affair as they will be able to use their capital fleet again in greater safety. But Aryth, financial wizard of the Imperium, has said that it will take around 5 trillion ISK to develop a region fully. How quickly the region of Tribute will be re-developed will likely offer clues as to how much liquid ISK PanFam has available. There is always the chance that they will rent it out again and let the tenants foot as much of the bill as possible.
The re-taking of Tenal may prove to be another matter altogether. In very short order Tenal was taken over by Dead Coalition, former valued allies of PanFam. Relations soured between the two entities after PanFam tried to back-stab Dead Coalition. The reasons for the back-stab are not completely clear as they made little sense at the time and are equally unclear despite being several months further down the line. But the failed invasion of Branch by PanFam forces into Dead Coalition territory could be a sign of things to come. We already know that fighting an offensive war is not easy for the attacker, especially if the defender decides to undock. Equally the mechanic of Time Zone Tanking allows the defender a great deal of control. This is then compounded by judicious use of system wide cyno jammers and the very efficient jump gate networks available.
It is entirely possible that this is all simply bluster from a frustrated membership and leadership. With Skill Urself disbanding in the east PanFam may well just decide to move over that way in order to stabilise and re-establish a rental income stream. It may also give them time to consider their position with cooler heads. After all it is not as if there is a shortage of space within nullsec at this time. Additionally the amount of wealth that can be extracted from a region has been proven by a number of different coalitions. Perhaps PanFam will take this time to reflect and adjust their internal workings and mindset.
Wrapping up
So there you have it. Yet another week of war in a glorious and amazingly well executed campaign by the Imperium. To be quite honest I am stunned that no balls have been dropped in spectacular fashion. But who knows, there is still the potential for plenty of ball dropping, as this campaign will continue until the Mittani says otherwise.
As always we will keep you informed of the week’s major events as they happen and I will be back next week with another summary and analysis. Until then stay tuned and feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.