As reported by INN on Thursday, Curatores Veritatis Alliance invaded Pandemic Legion territory in Providence, kicking off an intense battle that saw PL lose a 56b Rorqual and a 32b Hel supercarrier plus other ships for a total of 122b ISK lost, while inflicting 36b ISK in damage on CVA’s fleet.
Background
Since Yulai Federation’s withdrawal from Providence in mid-February, PL has consolidated sovereignty over all former YF systems, including JEIV-E, XHQ-7V, and more. PL’s advance put them right on CVA’s doorstep, and the two alliances now share a direct border between PL’s system of 8P9-BM and CVA’s F-YH5B. Provi-Bloc might be down, but they are certainly not out…as PL were about to painfully discover.
The Fight
CVA have never been ones to sit back and wait for a fight to come to them, and after scanning the expensive Rorqual earlier in the week, had immediately began planning an operation to destroy it. According to CVA FC Miss Kesha, they had intelligence that the Rorqual was active in the region, and when they spotted it in 8P9, immediately assembled a mixed fleet to go after it. The operation was nearly in jeopardy from the beginning, as PL dropped a fleet onto some unrelated CVA forces in F-Y…the exact system where CVA were staging their dreads.
Fortunately, Miss Kesha told INN, the PL ships didn’t notice or didn’t engage the dread fleet, opting instead to follow a small gang of Osprey Navy Issues through the gate into 8P9. The Hel was waiting at zero on the other side of the gate, and the CVA fleet tore into it, lighting a quick cyno and landing their dreadnought fleet right on top of PL’s supercarrier and five combat-fit Rorquals. The battle’s time line tells the rest of the story: immediately after landing on grid, the dreadnoughts annihilated the Hel, then in the next minute took out the blingy Rorqual plus two of the other Rorqs.
By this time, PL had begun to react, and the tide of battle immediately turned. After the Rorquals, CVA only took down two more PL ships, both dreadnoughts, while losing six dreads, two interdictors, and two heavy interdiction cruisers. In all, 21 of CVA’s 29 ships were destroyed in the battle, compared with 12 of PL’s 79.
However, thanks to the Hel and the Rorquals, CVA handily won the ISK battle. To add insult to injury, Doomchinchilla, who lost the 56b Rorqual, also lost a 1.6b pod. At least he seemed to have a sense of humor when he posted on Twitter about the loss.
Miss Kesha was also satisfied with the outcome. “We had a really nice formup with just a bunch of the most trusted people I know in Providence, with an extremely nice outcome for us against an enemy that seems overwhelming at times. Everyone had a lot of fun and was rewarded with some nice kills.”
The Aftermath
One interesting side effect of PL’s unchecked expansion in Providence is that they now have dangerous neighbors: PL’s D-GTMI system in Provi directly borders F9E-KX in Catch, owned by Drone Walkers, who are members of Legacy Coalition. Legacy and TEST have been antagonistic toward PL’s imperialism, and have joined Provi-Bloc as third parties on numerous occasions in the past in order to fight PL. Several things may happen as a result of this new state of affairs. TEST and PL may have an uneasy standoff, the presence of each keeping the other in check. TEST may launch a large-scale offensive against PL, either on their own or in concert with CVA, in order to retake territory in Providence. If that happens, TEST may give some or all of the territory back to CVA, or they may keep some for themselves, retaking the NPC stations from PL in order to reap the benefit of the station changes that are going to happen at some indeterminate point in the future.
Alternately – and perhaps least likely of all – is that TEST would sit idly by and watch PL continue to carve up Providence. One must imagine that Legacy would not want a larger and stronger PanFam directly on their doorstep, and that something will be done sooner rather than later. Even if PL are merely going to rent out the systems, surely TEST would prefer to be the ones reaping the rental income rather than watching their rivals grow richer.
In the meantime, CVA and PL will continue duking it out, although if those fights keep going the way Thursday’s did, PL will surely not be looking forward to them.
Moomin Amatin
Three years or so ago The Imperium went on a small holiday to Provi. The intention was to test out the new sov mechanics and to also get some action along the way. After about a week The Imperium had destroyed all the iHubs in Provi with the exception of the constellations assigned to Co2. Co2 had to rush back home offering excuses about money-moons or similar. Now the only reason I mention this is simply as a reminder as to what happens to Provi when they are attacked in any real degree. Provi will fold in very little time when threatened by a serious invasion.
With the changes planned for nice shiny citadel conversion from stations there is possibly another motive for all of this. In fact a few. The north is incredibly stale and devoid of the ever sought after content. The south has a lot more to offer in that regard. It only takes a quick glance at Dotlan to see some interesting stuff. PL have secured the entrance from the North-east and NC are moving in from the South-west. When the station changes go live you can expect PL and NC to pick them all up from Provi. Panfam have secured the north to such a degree that the stations up there will be nice and safe. Everyone else will also be busy picking up their own faction citadels. Provi will not be able to rely on any help during that time.
To mention Drone Walkers seems hopeful at best. They live in Impass and to call them a neighbour is just not correct. The system they have in Catch is for the supply route out to hisec via HED-GP. The same goes for the rest of The Legacy coalition.
There is as always more that I can add to all of this but I will refrain from doing so for the time being. But I do think it is useful to note how Provi found themselves in this position. Provi as a whole have generally always been very insular. Historically this served them well. But the game changed and Provi have failed to adapt. They should prepare to lose it all. Signs of this are already evident with some removing non-essential assets to safety, the loss of member alliances and key people.
I would suspect that there are some options for Provi to save themselves. But to do so would mean that they engage in something that they have not ever really done before. That is to have a serious campaign against the Panfam to deprive them of the things they love. If Provi had any sense they would be looking to cause an issue to draw Panfam away. This is probably asking far too much of Provi though so I doubt it will happen. Perhaps Provi will just hope that someone else will do it for them, which is highly unlikely.
March 8, 2018 at 2:01 PMNathan Rogers Moomin Amatin
Provibloc just does not have that many active players to take on anyone, without regarding their fragmented structure. They might be able to form 300-400 on a saturday if lucky, probably less with the alliances that have left. Everyone knows CVA only holds sov because the rest of EVE lets them and roams through their space. At some point the big guys need to say, hey we don’t want the south to look like the drone lands and we don’t want EVE to be serenity.
March 8, 2018 at 5:26 PMRyu
what are you smoking, honestly.
March 12, 2018 at 12:24 PM