On the December 17, TEST Alliance Please Ignore (TEST) leader Sapporo Jones held a State Of the Alliance meeting. Following the news that TEST were leaving Vale of the Silent and evacuating to Obe after losing the War in the North against NC./PL, this meeting was arranged to discuss TEST’s plans for 2017.
In the meeting, Sapporo told line members how proud he was of how much the alliance had grown since leaving Wicked Creek in March. After leaving Wicked Creek to deploy to the north as part of the MoneyBadger Coalition, TEST settled in Vale of the Silent. There they continued to grow the alliance’s numbers and strength. Now though, after fighting against Pandemic Legion (PL) and Northern Coalition. (NC.), with their allies Circle-of-Two (CO2), Sapporo announced that TEST has decided to evacuate their space, and deploy elsewhere. Rather than living next door to NC. and PL, where their potential for growth would be limited by NC./PL’s potential to out-escalate TEST at any opportunity, they decided a relocation was necessary.
To solve this problem, TEST and CO2 have decided to deploy to Sendaya and Podion, in the southern region of Derelik, where they will begin an invasion of a nearby null-sec system after taking a break over the holiday. In addition, Triget of Drone Walkers (WALKA) has also released a statement notifying his alliance of their intention to join CO2/TEST in their southern deployment:
“As our only blues in the north are leaving, Tenal is no longer tenable as a long-term home. As such, we are moving with our allies, CO2 and TEST to Curse to take some new space for ourselves down south.
I hope to keep Tenal until we can have new sov to move into, however, this being EVE, you should begin moving stuff to lowsec. Have your stuff in lowsec, and your self in Sendaya ready to roll by Christmas. I’ve been working with CEOs and directors of each corp, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. There are good citadel jump routes available for both caps and jf/rorquals, ask your CEOs. There are two jump services in alliance, WALKA Express and STK Express who can move your stuff for a nominal fee. Anything of value should go down via jump freighter, anything high volume should go into a citadel and will go into asset safety for a while.
Once in Curse, we will begin operations with our allies. Be ready to roll, this part will be tons of fun. My best times in EVE has been invading with TEST, and I’m looking forward to doing it again.”
While CO2 have not strictly announced their intention to move with TEST, it can be assumed at this point that we will hear an announcement from CO2 shortly, declaring their intent, at this point, it can almost be assumed that CO2 will follow TEST, and deploy to the south.
Possible targets for TEST/CO2 Invasion
Tenerifis & Immensea
These two regions are currently owned by Fidelas Constans (FCON). FCON was a long-term member of the CFC/Imperium that held space up north near LAWN/Bastion/RZR/CO2. A reliable part of the Imperium war machine, FCON nevertheless always maintained a certain level of cultural distance. Unlike Goonswarm, FCON members are prohibited from scamming and ganking, and have been prohibited from taking part in the annual Burn Jita/Amarr events of past years. This has been attributed to a greater attachment to the idea of being ‘honorable’ than many nullsec-dwellers have, and in many ways set them apart from their former coalition-mates. When they withdrew from the Imperium, they allied themselves with the Vanguard Coalition headed by Trimvirate (TRI), and have recently been earning ISK and hiding in the south.
These two regions have the capability to support two large alliances, and the neighboring regions of Catch and Impass allows the Co2/TEST coalition the potential to expand without entering a long, drawn out war with another entity, and this is their most likely target.
Scalding Pass & Wicked Creek
Scalding Pass and Wicked Creek are currently controlled by a multitude of different entities, The Heathens, comprising of Iron Armada (FLEEP), Feign Disorder (FEIGN), and Salt the Earth (NA-CL) are the major player in the regions, with Manifesto (.M.) and Bright Side of Death (BSOD) also owning a large amount of space in the regions.
While these entities are not as large as the neighboring Vanguard Coalition, these regions are noteworthy as they are the last two regions in Sovereignty controlled null-sec space that are primarily owned by completely independent entities, separate from the large coalitions that are present in this space usually. While Wicked Creek in particularly holds sentimental value to TEST, as they lived there before their deployment to WorldWarBee, realistically, the region does not contain enough wealth to support their coalition.
Although Wicked Creek could be seen as a major strategic vantage point in which to invade Vanguard Coalition’s space, Progodlegend stated TEST’s intentions were to settle somewhere in which they could build a bigger Capital, and Super-Capital fleet. While Wicked Creek has the potential to allow them to achieve this aim, there is simply no way that CO2 and TEST’s members could truly be supported by these regions alone, meaning that they would have to go to war with Vanguard Coalition in order to expand their newly gained territory.
However, if CO2/TEST were to invade Scalding Pass and Wicked Creek, what would it mean for the small entities that live there? Do smaller entities, working together, have the ability to defend their space with small gang and harassing tactics? Even now, these questions loom large in the planning for many of the residents of these two regions.
More importantly, if smaller groups who live in and use the space they own cannot hold it, what does that mean for Aegis Sovereignty? Enabling smaller organisations to participate in null-sec, without having to face down the big coalitions that dominate that space, was one of the primary selling points of the Aegis Sov gameplay mechanic.
If smaller entities can no longer control null-sec space without ‘bending the knee’ to a larger coalition, would that mean that Aegis Sov can be considered a failure?
Update: The original text of this article incorrectly attributed a statement regarding TEST’s supercapital production intentions to Sapporo Jones. This has been corrected to the proper attribution, Progodlegend.
