“Let’s get us some payback and unleash vicious new tactics on SpaceMonkeys!” – Gobbins, leader of Pandemic Horde
The Incursion
On February 18th, Pandemic Horde received orders to deploy and lay waste to SpaceMonkey’s Alliance’s sovereignty. The plan was clearly laid out with separate stages and sound goals to achieve whilst on their incursion.
Highlights from the post can be seen below:
“Starting this weekend (Friday 19th evening onwards) Horde will begin an Incursion in the north. The staging system for this incursion is Okagaiken.
Incursion plan:
We have a very clear goal and strategic objective with this operation:
- Reduction of SMA’s member count
- Reduction of Fade indexes and eventually sov
The way we plan to achieve this is intense denial of ISK making activities in their home system of Fade by constant hunting and cloaky camping their most valuable constellations. However, this will not be your average cloaky camp and blops campaign.
Operation Hans Landa:
The central tool of our operation will be the massive use of cloaky alts on a scale that has not been employed before.
Our focus will initially be on these two constellations, for a total of 13 systems.
We wish to flood these systems so heavily with cloaky alts it will be impossible for the enemy to use local as a tool to evaluate whether it is safe to rat, mine or travel.
TLDR:
- A papi-link will be available
- Clicking this link allows us to track your cloaker’s position and you to accumulate rewards
- Using the link is not mandatory and completely up to you
If done right this kind of ratting and mining shutdown leads to the collapse of ADM indexes which then means extremely easy to entosis ihubs, which leads to breakdown of logistics and upgrades, eventually leading to worthless adm 1 station systems and easily taken sov.”
The deployment’s possible outcomes allow for a win-win situation for Pandemic Horde. The motivation for the invasion was also clearly laid out in the post.
“Outcomes:
- Goons send patrols of light doctrines to keep SMA ratters safe. Many skirmishes and dessie brawls ensue.
- Goons abandon fortress Saranen and redeploy near Fade to prop up SMA using heavier doctrines backed up by supers.
- Fade rots, SMA loses their sov and their income streams.
Motivation for this incursion:
Not even gonna try hard with this section. First they evicted us from cloud ring, shitting on the good content we had brought them. Then they tried to “teabag” Querious by hitting brave’s space.
When Reavers deployed south, some chubby goon said in a video that their operation would be “just like real life teabagging”. What we are about to do is more like real life experimentation on primates. And if it works, we can move on to human patients.
Let’s get us some payback and unleash vicious new tactics on SpaceMonkeys!”
The Interview
TMC sat down with Gobbins, The Supreme Leader of The Horde, to get a situational update on PH’s progress in the region, while also assessing some damages on his own turf in Querious.
TMC: I would like to shed some light on your “Campaign Against the Monkies”. I know you are taking a few hits in Querious, but first I would like to hear about how you are doing in Fade.
Gobbins: We have completely shut down the two target constellations. For all intents and purposes the space we are occupying is not a part of SMA any longer. Let me back that up with data: This is a previously ADM 6 system, a heavily ratted and mined dead end pocket. As you can see the NPCs killed in the last 48 hours (the weekend since deployment) has flatlined.
TMC: Now, what if it’s because that one dude who 30-boxes went on vacation?
Gobbins: I didn’t think about that, you are probably right. It is a vacation. Damnit.
TMC: What about the entire region of Fade? How is that coming?
Gobbins: This is dotlan data for npc kills last 24 hours of the whole region.You can see the sanctity of this vacation has been taken very seriously throughout both constellations which we have targeted.
TMC: When would you say you began effective deployment of PH against Fade?
Gobbins: The official post said EU evening on the 19th, but most were eager to deploy right after the announcement, so had have had a presence since the 18th. Here is a tracker we use, which shows that we have sixty-four dudes cloaked up in target systems right now, which is not bad for AUS/Asian time zones. By the end of the day when AFK alts accumulate, we get up to 100 or so cloakers. Of course, a lot of them are AFK, but it is hard to tell for local ratters.
TMC: Seems like an effective tool. However, cloaky camping only tends to work for a little bit unless you action on ballsy ratters. Have you guys killed any ratters or miners yet?
Gobbins: Yes, but not many. Most of our good kills in the North have come from actual fleet fights with Goons. As far as impact goes you might be right, time will tell. What can be measured is SMA membership and that has been steadily declining.
TMC: Has Goonswarm Federation or The Imperium done anything to hinder your operations?
Gobbins: Well there isn’t much that you can do against a bunch of cloaked dudes, but Asher did a good job setting up camps and trying to prevent horde from entering the area. The thing is Goons seem to be busy running all over the place at the moment propping up the different fronts.
TMC: True. Now I would like to talk about your home systems that were counter-deployed against by SMA. How is that coming along?
Gobbins: Winet has been roaming in Firetails entosing ADM 1 TCUs in empty systems. In the current mechanics, the TCU is an emoty system and does nothing except put your name on the map. SMA’s deployment kind of felt like a desperate move to make Horde recall home, but we didn’t and won’t.
TMC: We have seen what they are reinforcing in Querious and SMA is not just attacking your sov, but are attacking other space as well. Have any of the other Querious alliances called for help?
Gobbins: You can ask them directly, as I am sure they would love to comment.
TMC: Thank you. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Gobbins: I would add that perhaps there should be more compelling dynamics than cloaky camping to occupancy-based sov. For example, right now there is no way to make ADM decrease any faster than by trying to deny ratting and mining across all timezones and waiting.
TMC: I see. What would you like to be implemented?
Gobbins: I mean that would be a long topic and I made a thread about this a while back.
TMC: Awesome! Thanks for your time and help.
In Querious
Greygal of Affirmative was also available for comment on the situation in Querious.
TMC: Gobbins referred me to you to get idea on the current situation in Querious. You hold several systems in Querious that are being attacked by SMA, correct?
Greygal: Yes, we hold sov in Querious and SMA has been giving us some really good fights over TCUs over the last few days.
TMC: Great! How is the sov war with SMA affecting you as an alliance?
Greygal: I’m not entirely sure why SMA has been attacking sov structures of non-Horde systems here, but it has been fun for us. It has also been frustrating, as we’ve only just moved in.
TMC: Normally when an entity deploys to a region to attack sov, they hit the surrounding sov as well to cause as much damage to the region as possible. It is also a great way to create content, as you stated. You seem to be having great fun with them!
Greygal: I must admit, yes. Yes we are! We haven’t lost anything crazy yet, since we just moved in. We’re literally grabbing whatever we can to fight them. A few hours ago, we went back and forth with them for about three hours I think. They slowed down our recapturing of our TCU nodes quite a bit, but we also kept chasing them off. I think we killed seven or eight of their Firetails.
TMC: Backdoor deals are a part of EVE, as I am sure you know. Have you thought of working a deal with SMA so they only hit PH?
Greygal: Funny you should ask! We were offered a deal. The deal was that they would leave us alone if we didn’t interfere with what they were doing and did not respond to help Horde in their systems. However, I can’t agree to not respond to help another Querious Fight Club member. That would be dishonorable of me.
TMC: You would rather lose sovereignty to save PH?
Greygal: No, I would rather lose sov than break my word. I have not been asked to defend or assist PH holdings as of now. We are just busy holding our own, but if I was asked, I’d help PH over SMA. That is what Querious is about. We shoot each other, have good fights and help each other out.
TMC: Space honor is good in my book and it is nice to see you standing by your morals. How long have you held sov there?
Greygal: Less than a week. Prior to this our only sov experience was the duality games. Affirmative. Modified Entosis Link is what we got from duality games and we swore after that we’d never do sov for real. The way Querious is set up though, it is newbro nirvana! PH, Brave, Agony, PFR, TriggerKittens, all these newbro friendly organizations in one region together? We all bring good and honorable fights.
TMC: What will you do if SMA takes everything? If you lose sov, what will you do?
Greygal: What is there to take, but flags in space? So long as we are having fun and getting good fights, we are winning. We could try to take it (the sov) back, go on some other crazy idea of an adventure, or start a renter rebellion! Who knows, but we will do whatever we want! Affirmative is lucky, in that we are space poor and have no heavy metal assets or industrial chains to worry about. All ships are disposable, we’d move into whatever we are willing to lose.
TMC: Sounds like a comfortable way to live in Eve. Thank you for your time and help!
In comparison, SMA currently has eleven reinforcement timers to deal with across their sovereignty, while PH has three. With the two deployed against each other, rushing like The Horde and The Alliance in Alterac Valley, who will be the first to fall to pressure and return home? Pandemic Horde numbers are consistantly increasing, while SMA shows a steady decrease in pilots, losing nearly 1,300 members since December. Will the tactic of hitting the smaller members of The Imperium lead to something bigger–the next Big War–in New Eden? We will just have to see how this plays out and report as the situation changes.
