Iron Armada [FLEEP], is consolidating into a single corporation and joining Goonswarm Federation. This move has come with a number of questions from people within and outside both groups. In order to provide some answers, the announcement comes with a short FAQ attached.
Jurius Doctor posed the following questions of Iron Armada leader Tridgit, the following responses shed light into the move:
1. What prompted the move?
In short, increasing demand on decreasing people.
Slightly longer: This game is rewarding to people who accomplish things in the same way that life does, a passing moment in your own novel that is briefly celebrated by others. And just like life, when you see that athlete sports the ball real well, it’s with you for that moment in its glory. However, you do not see the thousands of hours that were dedicated to perfecting the craft, or the hundreds of setbacks and failures that had to be overcome to get to that moment.
This game is cruelly uninterested in rewarding individuals who put themselves out there to make shit happen for their groups, dedicating time and effort, for the possibility of… well fucking anything. There’s no guaranteed fights, no easily repeatable activity for groups—especially small ones—to charge into night after night.
So what prompted Iron Armada to hang the alliance banner up for good? Well it’s just our next chapter. We started as a solo corporation, and though we evolved into an alliance in name for the sake of Sov, we really were just a corp still. Now we are taking our group and our collective experience and adding it to another group, augmenting them and ourselves in the move.
2. How does this help or change things for you as a leader in Eve?
I can stop walking the diplomatic tightrope and stop pushing the string. Smaller groups in eve are plagued by this ethereal balance that is of group moral and momentum. Large groups have this too, don’t get me wrong, however with smaller groups the focus is an acute weight on a small number of individuals’ shoulders, and it fucking sucks.
So changes? Hell yeah, no longer do I need to deal with the casual dismissal of larger entities, or do I have to put the pompoms on and cheerlead for the group when … things just don’t go well. No longer do I need to stay 3 steps ahead of looming swords of damocles and other threats that might threaten Irons little fief.
Myself and the Iron leadership team are basically culling all of our eve job responsibilities and clearing the runway to have some fun again.
3. What has been the reaction from your membership to the move?
There are three camps. The nope.jpg and ImOut.mp4, and those very small people have made their ways and we bid them farewell. There are a few people who are super pumped about it, and then there is a large group of people that are cautiously optimistic.
A lot of Iron has had bad experiences in large groups in the past, and an even larger group of Iron identify with our small independant image. So this is an obvious complete reversal of that, being as we are throwing in with literally the largest and most successful entity in the game. Overall it’s positive tho, a change of pace was needed, and this was definitely a path of least resistance.
4. On a scale from table salt to asteroids of pure sodium chloride, how salty are your detractors?
My detractors have been many and vocal. I take pride in the enemies that Iron has made, and often me personally. I’ve never let the opinions of these idiots affect me or my direction, so I’m not about to start now.
I was criticised heavily when we sold our wicked creek holdings to Fraternity to end the war against Vanguard Coalition, when they broke their NIP with Iron. I was called a loose cannon and a fool for turning down all diplomatic deals with an entity that Iron was at war with and they had a doxxing incident with one of my pilots. Iron pilots stood with that decision, if need be to the end, because that was the line in the sand. We ended up winning anyways, but we threw everything on the table because it was the right thing to do, and damn the consequences.
When Iron managed to take the KVN sov from The Culture, and then successfully anchor a Fortizar in KVN as the initial staging for goonswarm against TC, I had not only enemies call me a sell out, but our fucking allies did as well. They thought we could turn Fountain into some sort of space fight club and just small gang roam each other every day and that would be the premo life. They swore up and down, that goons would betray Iron, yet over 2 years later, that betrayal never came.
5. Iron has been accused of being Goon pets, how does this prove or refute the point?
Iron has never been directly told to do, or not do, a thing by Goonswarm. We helped open the door for them in Fountain, and they have clearly appreciated our loyalty and integrity towards them, as they have reciprocated completely.
So when it comes to Iron being pets? Outsiders will always make up their own ‘truths’ and it’s difficult at best to reason someone out of a position they got into without reason. The Goonswarm has treated Iron with respect, unlike basically every other large coalition ally Iron has ever had.
6. Were there any extenuating circumstances which contributed to the move?
Over a year of basically burnout. Iron’s leadership has gone more and more afk from the game, which just stalls the activity of the group entirely, and none of us have the energy to fix it anymore.
7. Does this change the play style focus of Iron Guard, or your recruitment?
Yes and no. Iron will continue to have high standards on members, and a focus on learning and evolving as pilots and as a unit, however it’s just within the larger entity of Goonswarm. Recruitment changes will happen, but this happens every 6 months with us anyways, so par for the course there.
8. Has your real life contributed to your desire to alter the scope of Iron’s efforts, or is this a play-driven change?
Both. I’m tired of having to dedicate multiple hours a day to maybe get a fucking fight, in a campaign that ultimately means fuckall. I’m also extremely busy at my job, and I don’t really see an end in sight for that front, so it’s better to reduce the stresses.
9. Is there anyone you’d like to thank for getting you where you are, personally or as a corp?
I feel like I’ve answered this question a bunch of times before in eve interviews, so I’ll make this instance brief.
Yes. There are a dozen or so individuals in Iron that have at one point, or a few points in time, have been the glue of the operation. This has been a team effort from the beginning and our success has surpassed all of our targets.
10. If you could give a shout-out to anyone, who would you plug?
To anyone?! Probably BazBattles on YouTube, and any of the similar channels that give proper historical accounts of strategy and battles.
But in EVE, has to be the pilots of Iron. We’ve been running strong for over 5 years and 7 months, here’s to some more time with each other on a new adventure.
