A lot of nonsense gets tossed around regarding World War Bee and the Imperium’s supposed demise. Yet despite fighting outnumbered for so many months, the invader’s assured victory seems rather tenuous. Claims on Querious seem mixed and confused. Period Basis, while taken, only really has value in peace time when the resources there can be safely farmed.
Despite The Initiative taking the war to the enemy’s backdoor through Curse, the invaders could not even spare a SIG to capture undefended Fountain space. It is obvious to anyone who has been following the war that the invaders feel gassed out. The attackers are worn out by constantly having to be on alert in Imperium territory. The prolonged nature of the conflict has likewise given way to various and often conflicting narratives and goals.
It seems like certain elements are looking for a way to damage control a potential retreat, and scale back the “absolute annihilation of the Imperium” victory condition for which they had initially been hoping. At best maybe they can hope for taking Delve and that Goons will quietly go somewhere else and totally not cause any trouble any further.
But let’s pretend that the attackers get a second wind, press on and completely remove the Imperium from Delve. Would they have really taken ‘our’ Delve? The Delve that the Imperium has held for several years now helped the coalition rebuild after the Casino War. CCP’s continued scarcity war against industrialists has ensured that that Delve will not exist again.
Instead TAPI will settle into a Delve much less valuable and productive than what the Imperium has had. Delve will turn not into a prize jewel for TAPI to flaunt, but a boulder they’ll have to drag as they are being continually hit by Goons who now have nothing better to do. Compare that with what TAPI’s space already offers them: established structures, secure space deep out of reach of hostile forces, secure supply lines. Doesn’t this seem at least somewhat foolish from a strategic perspective?
It makes one wonder if TAPI leadership has thought this through to its conclusion, or if they just threw it together as they went. There’s improvising as things develop, and then there is simply not having any plan at all. How do TAPI members really feel about this? And how exactly is having all the regions from Delve to Omist and Immensa under the same blue coalition supposed to be better for the game? Prior to the war TAPI and the Imperium had a non-invasion pact, but still fought. How exactly is having more regions under the control of the same coalition good for EVE? Have Vily and PGL detailed this anywhere?
Is this just “salty Goon spin coping about Delve?” It might be more comforting for TAPI members to think of it that way, but it will not change the truth that is being written.
Think of Delve like a stock. The Imperium “bought” the Delve stock rather cheap in 2016. We knocked out a few smaller groups, settled in, utilized Rorquals at their peak with unprecedented levels of security, expanded structures when they were at their cheapest, and were in the top of the MER —if not leading it—for months afterwards. Delve “stock” soared from 2016 until 2020 and paid yacht-tier dividends for Imperium members.
Over the years CCP threw some nerfs at the rorquals, nerfed ratting income, and introduced ore scarcity updates. “Delve stock” sank. Smart industrialists saw the value of their ore reserves grow to the envy of our rivals. Now TAPI are “buying” Delve stock but instead of taking it off some snot-nosed nobody-even-remembers-them alliances that once held Delve like we did, they are having the single most costly war of invasion in EVE history.
For their trouble they will get a deeply impoverished Delve “stock” that they’ve already burned a mountain of money at even claiming. If TAPI does keep their word and shuffle their old hand-me-down regions to other Legacy members, Delve will be the only thing to show for all their trouble. And the Imperium will hang over their head like a Sword of Damocles just before it drops on its inevitable victim.
