Art by Quendan Comari
Call me old fashioned, but I firmly believe that when someone publicly excoriates a person for some failing and is proven to be wrong, that person should eat some crow—publicly. Please pass the ketchup. Asher engaged not only with aggression and élan, but also with a plan that would have dealt a mighty blow to the attackers, if only the server had worked. This fight will go down as a loss, but the commander bears none of the blame. He was right, the previous keepstar fights were not the time.
YZ9-F6
The battle of YZ9-F6 will go down in EVE history as one of the greats. The Imperium lost 2.5 trillion ISK. The Anaconda Invaders lost 800 billion. Trading at 3 to 1 against their opponents and winning the fortizar timer that started the battle makes the battle a resounding Anaconda victory.
The battle started with subcapital fleets engaging each other on a fortizar in the NPC system of YZ9-F6. The Imperium had used fortizars like this one as staging to attack and destroy the 3 previous Anaconda keepstars. So, it was clear that the Anaconda Coalition wanted to clear out NPC Delve in order to have an easier time anchoring their keepstars.
Battleship fleets fought each other across the citadel. And then Snek dropped dreadnoughts to attack the Mittens’ Kittens battleships. The Imperium counter dropped their own dreads. Anaconda dropped on those dreads.
Escalation
Finally, Asher decided it was time. He told the supercarriers to insure and undock. Yours Truly was a part of the superfleet, and being told to insure was an interesting moment in the fleet. We knew we were going in hard. I knew then that crow was back on the menu.
The superfleet jumped into YZ9-F6. Aside from the jump taking two whole minutes to accomplish, the server didn’t seem horrible. We tethered and waited.
Snek dropped their dreads right on top of us. Asher ordered the supercarriers to kill dreads by range. At this point, for me, the server started to be a bit uneven. One account would process outgoing calls rather quickly; the other account would take twice or even more time for calls to clear. Still, things mostly worked, and fighters went out to attack enemy dreads.
An Imperium carrier fleet dropped in to attempt some space superiority. Bully good for them. I think it worked. I certainly didn’t lose a tonne of fighters.
Enho, Enho, Enho
Finally, Anaconda escalated with their super fleet. Just like Asher—fresh from being featured in the latest trailer—predicted. The Snek supers jumped into the system in a tight formation, and Operation Enho played out perfectly.
Alas, the server, that fickle thing on which hinges the hopes and dreams of every null sec commander, decided not to work. The titan boson only activated twice or thrice and the Anaconda superfleet lived.
The Imperium loss wasn’t for lack or trying. It wasn’t for lack of fighting spirit, or aggression, or the will to fight. It wasn’t because the commander was inadequate. The Imperium lost because the server decided not to work, in PAPI’s favour. This isn’t the first time that the server has not worked on important fights, and regretfully won’t be the last. But dammit, it robbed Asher Elias of his victory. CCP, fix your shit.
Now, will someone please pass the salt, too?
BRAVE: We’re In Delve Now
Those Who Fail to Learn from History . . .
A War of Accretion
Simon Chui
I’m confident that the Imperium FCs will devise and execute many more such manoeuvres in the coming months, and at least some of those times luck will be on your side. While PAPI seems content to do the same grind over and over again, the Imperium is innovating, pushing the game in ways it’s never been pushed before, and finding bugs for CCP to fix in the process. And PAPI claims to be at war against stagnation.
October 18, 2020 at 12:21 PMMoomin Amatin Simon Chui
The Imperium have a history of doing weird things. I have no doubt this will continue. PAPI however seem content to do the same old things. I guess that is an option when your are blobbing and punching down.
October 18, 2020 at 1:42 PMNoob Moomin Amatin
You could say the same thing about Grant outside Richmond: “Move to the left flank. Fight. Move to the left flank. Fight. Move to the left flank. Fight.” etc.
Thing is, Grant won and Lee never really had a chance.
October 18, 2020 at 2:28 PMSimon Chui Moomin Amatin
Innovation is costly because of the high probability of failure, but every failure is a learning opportunity. Ultimately, defeating enemies isn’t what’s important; self-improvement is the greatest prize. I think Imperium leadership know this, they haven’t been on a serious war of conquest for so long, instead just sending out expeditions to try new doctrines and train FCs.
Now, if only the PAPI guys can understand that they are the cause of stagnation in EVE, with their renting and botting and TTT monopoly. It all serves to stifle competition and entrench the status quo.
October 18, 2020 at 10:55 PMOrihara Izaya Simon Chui
Funnily, you could actually argue that the war is against stagnation… it’s just not the resolution of the war in either direction that prevents stagnation but the conflict itself. After all, conflict is what most often births these innovative ideas (in game and in real life).
October 18, 2020 at 4:33 PMMoomin Amatin
Some have been critical of the Enho Plan. The thing is, what I watched worked. Those titans came in perfectly and on any other day those PAPI supers would have been toasted. But The Imperium was not lucky that day and had to take the loss.
So despite what some people are saying the proof will be in how you see PAPI deploy supers in a similar situation. If they are all bunched up then it is very clear that they are confident that the “Enho Plan” will never work. If they are spread out then it seems PAPI have taken the lesson to heart.
October 18, 2020 at 1:40 PM