Week 18 of World War Bee was slightly slower than week 17, with 24 hostile actions and 17 fights, per INN’s tracking. Delve largely dominated the headlines, although some other losses around New Eden punctuated the week’s action.
The ISK split in the war zone of the Southwest was roughly the same at 66% to 34% in favor of the attackers. In theater, belligerents have lost 42.1 trillion ISK, up 2.2 trillion ISK week over week, with 374,742 ships lost, up 20 thousand week over week.
Across New Eden, since July 1, the ISK divide is also steady at 55.4% to 44.6% for the attackers. The belligerents have lost 52.9 trillion ISK total, up 2.7 trillion ISK week over week, with 443 thousand ships lost, up 23 thousand ships week over week. The average ship cost 119.3 million ISK. A rough estimate of the real world cost of the war is no less than 735,000 USD/551,000 GBP/618,000 EUR.
There were six fights in week 18 that exceeded 20 billion ISK in total losses. One was a strategic win for the Imperium, two were strategic draws, and three were strategic wins for PAPI forces. Most were all modest affairs, but one exceeded 150 billion ISK in losses.
The two major theaters are the North (Fountain and the border with Aridia and Cloud Ring as well as northern Delve) and the South (the rest of Delve, Paragon Soul, Querious, Stain, Period Basis, and Esoteria).
THE NORTHERN THEATER
Week 18 in the North continued the theme of small skirmishes and capital ganking that has led headlines in the area for the last few weeks. The week began with The Initiative (INIT) trading dreadnoughts with a roaming gang, killing 4.8 billion ISK while losing 5 billion. Wednesday saw a Frenchswarm group take losses while sieging hostile structures in the Taurus constellation of Fountain, as LowSechnaya Sholupen dropped more dreads than the Imperium had at the ready, with the Imperium losing 8 billion ISK and killing 4.3 billion. Thursday saw some unfortunate Bastion capitals get dropped by some roaming bomber gangs, losing 12.3 billion ISK and taking only 205 million with them. Fountain continued to prove that it’s dangerous to go alone.
THE SOUTHERN THEATER
Week 18 kickstarted in the South with a number of fights. The week began when an Imperium bomber gang hot dropped hostile capitals in 49-U6U, killing 14.7 billion ISK for 270 million in losses. A short time later, the Imperium bomber gang caught a PAPI Ferox gang in YZ9-F6, wiping all but one on its way home, killing 2.7 billion ISK for 69 million ISK. An hour or so later, a PAPI tech 3 cruiser gang, bombers, Feroxes, and Jackdaws attempted to take revenge, but the ambushed Imperium Feroxes and Jackdaws managed to get the best of the fight, killing 4.8 billion ISK for 4.3 billion in losses. The day ended with a wide-ranging battle as PAPI tried to assault some onlining cyno jammers in a Southern Delve constellation ahead of an entosis node fight. The Imperium forces managed to online some of the jammers, but took the worst of the fighting, losing 14.2 billion ISK for 11.2 billion in kills.
Shortly after midnight, the entosis node fight kicked off and the two sides endeavored to take command of the constellation. The Imperium, fighting outnumbered roughly 1.5 to 1, with over 1600 players taking part, managed to kill some of the PAPI hackers as the first nodes spawned, but control of the constellation eluded the Imperium. After a couple of hours, the Imperium was forced to concede the field as PAPI forces finished taking many of the iHubs. The Imperium killed 79.3 billion ISK for 71.6 billion ISK in losses. Shortly ahead of the fight, a Goon Avatar was caught trying to gate into XZ-SKZ and was killed by a TEST dreadbomb. Some of the last action of the day saw an Imperium Windrunner gang attempt to displace a PandaFam force reinforcing a Sotiyo in K-6K16, killing 5.3 billion ISK for 2.1 billion ISK in losses but failing to stop the Sotiyo entering hull timer.
Tuesday was largely a slow day as there was only one major action, although it was fairly sizable. PAPI forces deployed carriers to assault a Sotiyo in PUIG-F. Goon Capswarm forces attempted to respond by deploying carriers of their own in defense, engaging the hostile fighters. Unfortunately for the Imperium, PAPI had a number of titans on stand-by which they dropped on the carriers, burning through more than a few before they could abandon their fighters and jump away. The Imperium ended up losing 41.6 billion ISK in exchange for 8.2 billion.
Wednesday was a bit busier as the Imperium dropped a dreadnought gang onto some carriers in TEST’s capital of D-PNP9 attacking a bait Astrahus, but TEST’s FAX reps held. The Imperium ended up losing 38.3 billion ISK for 9.2 billion in kills. Early in the day, a Goon Jackdaw gang got bombed, losing 3.6 billion ISK for 101 million in kills. Towards the end of the day, a Goon Cerberus and Harpy fleet roughed up some PAPI Feroxes, killing 6.1 billion ISK for 1.6 billion in losses. The Imperium also lost three manufacturing citadels, one Tatara, and two Sotiyos in QY6-RK.
Thursday was an interesting day as Brave lost an Erebus and TEST lost an Avatar, each by third-party dreadbombs. Action continued later in the day as PAPI forces assaulted a jump bridge in Fake Querious, eventually killing it but the Imperium got the upper hand, bombing a PAPI Eagle fleet and largely finishing it off. The Imperium killed 27 billion ISK for 12 billion in losses. Friday’s action included an Imperium Ferox fleet beating up on a PAPI Ferox fleet, killing 11.6 billion ISK for 4.6 billion in losses. Shortly afterwards, an Imperium Cerberus and Jackdaw fleet fought some mixed PAPI forces to a standstill while attempting to defend cyno jammers in a constellation ahead of a node fight, killing 5.7 billion ISK for 2.2 billion in losses. Saturday was mostly quiet ahead of another constellation-wide battle over node fights as outnumbered Imperium fleets struggled again to gain constellation control and PAPI ended up taking a number of iHubs. The Imperium lost 35.7 billion ISK while killing 12.6 billion, including the iHubs and four cyno jammers.
