When the headline topic for the Meta Show is the red dot (which I mentioned last week) and the New Eden Post up and disappears itself, it might be a sign that the war has become less than exciting, at least on the main front in Delve.
There the Imperium is still holed up in 1DQ1-A with the bulk of its forces and a dizzying array of citadels on the main grid, while PAPI scrupulously avoids any direct confrontation in that entire constellation, busying itself with destroying Imperium structures with its supers and titans in cyno jammed systems. They blew up the D-W7F0 Keepstar and started attacking the F2OY-X by gating their supers in so as to avoid any possibility of having to face another titan battle after M2-XFE.
I went out to watch at F2OY-X
That doesn’t bode well for any hope that there will be a battle over 1DQ1-A, where even a cyno jammer won’t prevent Imperium titans from showing up, as they are in system already.
The Imperium plan is to out last the invaders while simultaneously burning down as much as their backfield as they can. Vily’s plan of driving Goons from the game seems less likely now than it did back in September when that was his main talking point. Likewise, the stated plan to take Delve, Fountain, Querious, and Period Basis while keeping all of their old territory seems to have fallen apart since Progodlegend laid it out three months back.
So I am left wondering what the end of the war will look like. The Imperium isn’t leaving 1DQ1-A without a fight. Vily and Progodlegend have invested their reputations in an unattainable victory. PanFam and Fraternity, the least invested in the war, and the group still able to mine and rat in their own space, seem the likely overall winners in the long term.
Delve Front
The invaders retook the PS-94K ihub in the SG-CTQ constellation and, as noted above, blew up the Keepstar in D-W7F0. Smaller structures died as well, but those were the two major events.
Delve – Mar 21, 2021
Otherwise it is skirmishes and structure bashes and attempts to annoy the invaders by making them defend the ihubs they have taken.
Other Theaters
In Querious Brave went on something of an ihub spree. They took two ihubs away from the Imperium and planted 17 more in systems that were otherwise empty, so the map of the region looks solidly Brave and Severance.
Querious – Mar 21, 2021
Meanwhile, in Catch, the former Brave capital system fell. The Brave SOTA last week as much as said they were simply over extended and were going to lose their backfield, so they are focused on Querious while their old territory burns.
Catch – Mar 21, 2021
Likewise, Immensea (and Impass) are both being taken apart by the Imperium and their co-belligerents in those regions.
Immensea – Mar 21, 2021
In Esoteria, Army of Mango alliance and Evictus are stepping in to take the remains of TEST space.
Esoteria – Mar 21, 2021
That has led to fighting between The Bastion and allied forces and AOM, giving whatever TEST has left in the region.
There isn’t much left in those regions to be burned at this point. Whatever you think of Legacy Coalition’s plan to live in Delve, Querious, Fountain, and Period Basis, they are now committed to it. And, speaking of Fountain, that appears to be where Federation Uprising has been promised space and now that they have been burned out of Immensea, they are starting to take ihubs there.
Fountain – Mar 21, 2021
The Initiative retook a bunch of ihubs in the region once the invasion moved on to Querious, and not much has happened since. PanFam announced a re-invasion of Fountain back during week 20 or so, but by week 23 it had petered out. Now it looks like somebody is finally going after the region again. The Initiative is also done with their work in Legacy’s backfield, we’ll see if they come back to Fountain to push back in Fed Up.
My Participation
Once again I did get out and go on a few ops. They most exciting was probably the spectacular Tom Flood Muninn welp in GY6A-L. I was out with the logi wing and we were getting chopped to bits after Tom brought us into a fight with the odds stacked against us. (The HAW dreads were a nice touch.)
I actually thought I was going to get away. I did, initially, finally getting out of bubbles and eluding the Malediction that had me tackled, getting into warp with 53% of my hull remaining.
That feeling when you’ve escaped the trap
Unfortunately, it was out of the frying pan and into the fire as I landed in a bubble on more hostiles. I nearly got away again. I was out of the bubble and aligned and almost in warp… and then my ship exploded. Actually, due to tidi, my capsule was ejected and I got to sit and watch my ship explode.
Watching my ship brew up from my pod
The battle report shows what happens when you throw a fleet in to face odds 2 to 1 against.
Battle Report Header
At least I got my SRP by the next day.
I also managed to lose two Ares interceptors doing other operations, which brings my loss totals for the war up to:
- Ares interceptor – 17
- Malediction interceptor – 7
- Crusader interceptor – 5
- Atron entosis frigate – 6
- Rokh battleship – 5
- Scimitar logi – 4
- Ferox battle cruiser – 4
- Drake battle cruiser – 4
- Purifier stealth bomber – 3
- Guardian logi – 2
- Scalpel logi frigate – 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 announced a Quality of Life patch coming this week that will have an impact on null sec. They key item is the ability to have multiple clones in a single citadel. For people who have clones with implants for specific doctrines or roles, it has been a pain in the ass to have to undock and warp to another citadel to swap clones every time you were doing something different. I have clones in 4 different citadels in 1DQ1-A and I barely do anything special at all.
In addition, there will be some nerfs, because there are always nerfs. This time around ECM burst interceptors will be taking a hit. I gather few people like those… but I am one of those few. That is the way it goes though. Everybody gets their turn in the barrel.
Also on tap is Friendship week. Not really in sync with a war, but there it is.
As for peak concurrent users for the week, that fell before 35K, supplying further proof I suppose that the war in Delve isn’t exactly lighting a fire under anybody at the moment.
- 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
- Week 26 – 39,667 (Saturday)
- Week 27 – 34,989 (Saturday)
- Week 28 – 34,713
- Week 29 – 35,996
- Week 30 – 38,323
- Week 31 – 38,167
- Week 32 – 37,259
- Week 33 – 35,886 (Saturday)
- Week 34 – 35,626
- Week 35 – 35,379
- Week 36 – 35,085
- Week 37 – 34,394
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