As expected, the Imperium Keepstar in NOL-M9 was destroyed by PAPI supers as we were unable to take back the ihub to prevent the system from being cyno jammed. This will likely be the same fate that the Keepstars in D-W7F0 and 1-SMEB will face.
The highlight of the war last week was likely the Christmas Truce, where each group asked its members not to set timers that would come out on December 24th or 25th. The truce seemed to be mostly respected, though not everybody got the word and the usual suspects on r/eve and elsewhere tried whine their way to a propaganda victory over things few cared about. Nobody in an actual leadership position called out the other side.
There was even a game of “Griffinball” in T5ZI-S that both sides in the war participated in. I saw the ping for it, though I didn’t have the time to join in myself.
Of course, the truce only covered structures and sov timers, so there was still plenty of shooting going on. A big battle broke out on the T5ZI gate in 1DQ and there was an attempt to dread bomb a PAPI Erebus on the Keepstar in T5ZI that went wrong. Christmas Day saw more than 150 billion ISK in ships blown up across the 1DQ-T5ZI front, most of it being Imperium losses.
And once Christmas Day was past, things returned to the usual grind, though PAPI seemed eager to give us a few last minute presents as they fed first one, then another Marshal blackops battleship for a combined loss of over 18 billion ISK for two subcaps.
Finally, there was a leak from a Fraternity alliance meeting that they were urging their members to get ready for a “big push” in Delve in January, so perhaps PAPI will make another move on 1DQ or Helm’s Deep.
Delve Front
There were not many big changes on the Delve front over the past week. Timers came and went, but we haven’t been able to wrest any of the Keepstar ihubs back from PAPI. Their doom awaits.
Delve – Dec. 27, 2020
The electrical metaliminal storm has kept on moving into the region. Right now it is at a crossroads, where it might head up into the YX-LYK constellation or it could roam right into Helms Deep and its protected areas. The storm in Helm’s Deep would actually help the Imperium as the only real threat there right now is covert ops bridges into the area to shoot at those still bothering to rat or mine. Keeping them from cloaking would be a boon. But even now, with it on E3OI-U it is keeping covert ops ships from slipping past the gate camp.
Catch Front
The Catch region remains in play with Brave and its Legacy Coalition allies having to spend time defending timers and structures. Early in the week Brave had to defend its ihub, which The Initiative had reinforced. They managed to form up enough to keep it from being take in the entosis event, but when their propaganda team compared it to the Imperium defending 1DQ I snorted audibly. High on my list of objections to that comparison is the fact that PAPI hasn’t actually managed to reinforce the 1DQ ihub yet.
Catch – Dec 27, 2020
We keep pecking away at their infrastructure. The Watchmen, which I mentioned last week because they appeared to be folding up shop, has lost a bunch of members and its sov will be up for grabs. Legacy seems to have given up for now on killing our staging Fortizar in 0SHT-A, falling back to a defensive posture. Brave has been keeping up a small gate camp on the gate between GE-8JV, their capital, and V-3YG7, the direction in which we lay.
Meanwhile, in addition to the Gamma storm that has been wandering the region for a few weeks now, the Plasma storm in Providence has started moving closer to the war zone.
Other Theaters
Querious continues to be a low intensity tug of war over some key ihubs in the region.
Querious – Dec. 27, 2020
Meanwhile, The Bastion and friends down in Esoteria are still holding on to a set of systems in the region.
NW Esoteria – Dec. 27, 2020
The Army of Mango Alliance appears to have all but given up fighting in the region.
And, if you have been watching Rorqual losses on zKillboard, you might have noticed that The Initiative has been busy dropping on Legacy’s backfield where they have been mining.
Dec 27 Rorqual kills
That should keep some crabs on their toes.
My Participation
My week in New Eden started with some fights and ended with some fights, but in the middle I wasn’t on all that much. I formed up a few times for fleets in Delve where not much happened, but out in Catch with Reavers we have had some fun.
Waiting with Asher
I was involved with the fight over the GE-8JV ihub. While we lost the entosis event, a significant brawl developed where we at least won the ISK war. I had a close call on the way out.
Cutting things a bit close
But my Ishtar made it into warp and lived to fight another day. It also has seven kill marks on it now, which is my new all time high.
Headed home for repairs
After the Christmas truce ended we were back at it in Catch on Saturday, reinforcing ihubs and shooting Ansiblex jump bridges. Brave eventually formed up for us, but not before one pilot threw their Nidhoggur at us to try and stop an ihub hack.
Nidhoggur tackled
I gather he felt that his smart bombs would defang our Ishtars, but we pulled some range, dropped sentry drones, and took him down from a safe distance. Not too long after we ran into a Jackdaw and Munnin fleet sent to see us off. We were seriously outnumbered and had to safe up and log off for a bit. But after that we were able to get out and home. Through all of that I managed to not lose a ship.
I did lose another Ares, this time by forgetting it was on an alt sitting on a gate in hostile space because I was focused on my main for too long. So it goes. My loss count for the war is now:
- Ares interceptor – 13
- Crusader interceptor – 5
- Atron entosis frigate – 6
- Rokh battleship – 5
- Drake battle cruiser – 4
- Malediction interceptor – 4
- Ferox battle cruiser – 3
- Purifier stealth bomber – 2
- Guardian logi – 2
- Scalpel logi frigate – 2
- Scimitar logi – 2
- Raven battleship – 1
- Crucifier ECM frigate – 1
- Gnosis battlecruiser – 1
- Bifrost command destroyer – 1
- Cormorant destroyer – 1
- Hurricane battle cruiser – 1
- Sigil entosis industrial – 1
- Mobile Small Warp Disruptor I – 1
Other Items
CCP released the Monthly Economic Report for November 2020 which showed the impact of the latest round of nerfs to the economy. I wrote a post covering that, but the big news is pretty well summed up in this chart.
Nov 2020 – Top Sinks and Faucets Over Time
Mineral prices are at an all time high, destruction remains high due to the war, and the ISK faucet of NPC bounties has been cut back down to nearly the low point of the Chaos Era null sec Blackout of 2019.
The MER was followed up yesterday with a self congratulatory Dev Blog from CCP about how well they have done fixing the economy. They promise things won’t remain as grim as they are now, so long as you can do without self-sufficiency, predictability, or wealth. You can call my cynical and I’ll agree, but I think history warrants it. I’ll probably do a blog post about the dev blog later this week if I find the time and energy.
Meanwhile, the peak concurrent user count for the week fell on Sunday. The holiday week was slow and Saturday did not crack the 30K mark, but Sunday it managed to break through to 31K. The time when it his it peak corresponded to a form up by both sides in the war over a Sotiyo timer. No fight ensued, so we all just bridged in and glared at each other.
- Day 1 – 38,838
- Week 1 – 37,034
- Week 2 – 34,799
- Week 3 – 34,692
- Week 4 – 35,583
- Week 5 – 35,479
- Week 6 – 34,974
- Week 7 – 38,299
- Week 8 – 35,650
- Week 9 – 35,075
- Week 10 – 35,812
- Week 11 – 35,165
- Week 12 – 36,671
- Week 13 – 35,618
- Week 14 – 39,681
- Week 15 – 40,359
- Week 16 – 36,642
- Week 17 – 37,695
- Week 18 – 36,632
- Week 19 – 35,816 (Saturday)
- Week 20 – 37,628 (Saturday)
- Week 21 – 34,888
- Week 22 – 33,264
- Week 23 – 33,149
- Week 24 – 32,807 (Saturday)
- Week 25 – 31,611
Still, that is the low point of the war so far and, while it might be explained away by the holiday, the count does seem to be trending down. As I mentioned last week, CCP was patting itself on the back for managing to get 1.9 million new accounts in 2020, more than the previous three years combined, but it doesn’t seem to be reflected very well in the PCU.
Related
- INN – World War Bee: Week 25
- INN – Christmas Truces in History
- NEP – How to turn Christmas into your Own Personal Narrative (post does just that!)
