Deja Vu: Delve, Querious, Period Basis and Fountain
With the Summer over and the forces of the CFC returning to North, a counter-attack from the Southern Coalition commenced on the now residents of Delve, Querious, Period Basis and Fountain -- the HoneyBadger Coalition (HBC). The assault started off little rocky, attempting to utilize battleship hulls in now deep enemy territory -- and naturally getting countered by heavy gear including Tracking Dreads and Carriers. Wave after wave of fleets were fend off and SBUs killed without systems really entering reinforcement cycles.
The battle turned with the unveiling of Tengu fleet adapted from the PL FlashCats doctorine to include ewar utility, with lower DPS but better survivability thanks to minmatar jammers vs. huginns/scimitars -- the fleet tore through a HBC Rokh fleet after a Rokh fleet while reinforcing 49-. HBC threw Rokhs on the fireplace as thou they were out of fashion and for a moment, the Querious front looked grim. 49- entered final RF for the outpost and HBC had to stand down their fleet unable to contest final IHUB timer, something some of the HBC alliances hardly ever do. However, now threathened the HBC pulled the bell and brought 1200 pilots from the HBC alliances alone to the final 49- outpost timer deep in US TZ. SoCo gathered a respectable 700 + bombers force, but unwilling to risk it -- they called off the assault and told their pilots to go back to bed since the HBC in Makalu's own words were not able to maintain the defence any longer.
With SoCo eager to push further, HBC went to work in long term and short term solutions to counter the new adapted FlashCat SoCo tengu fleet. First immidiate solution was to introduce an Instacane wing to the Rokh fleet, which was able to volley SoCo MWD Scimitars while giving all important bomber coverage to the Rokh fleet -- who in turn were able to shred Tengus with now in-operation firewall for the Huginns. This was difficult to pull off reliably, given the need for a full fleet of Rokhs + 50+ Instacanes in all timezones, however the quickpatch solution was able to carry the HBC over the hump and suddenly the bleed of non-outpost systems was brought to a halt along with Neo moon losses.
With the bleed over, HBC executed second step in an attempt to consolidate assets closer to the front and allow us to respond faster to any possible threaths. PL deployed to 319 and commenced operation camp RA/RDN, while TEST+friends deployed to K-6 in order to be near soon-to-be Sov3 links for Jump Bridges. Now in direct Titan range -- HBC was able to respond to 49- conflicts much faster and actually stream reinforcements/replacements to the field at the same rate as SoCo had done previously. I called it in my PL Tactical War Update that SoCo would be very likely to take increased risks in order to keep the earlier momentum going -- this is standard to any offensive I've ever been part of or witnessed. When your progress slows down, as an offensive party you will do everything in your power to further escalate and utilize strategic assets such as Supercapitals and Capitals to compensate for any loss of footing on the subcapital field. I've done it myself many times, and it's been a particular achilles heel for Pandemic Legion in the past. All of our Y- moments have happened like this.
I did not expect this to come true QUITE so quickly, as just 24h or so after my TWU SoCo deployed Supercarriers in K-6 on a beacon and proceeded to dickwave with them on the outpost where TEST was just performing a moving op to. Perhaps unaware that 12h previous TEST directors had moved their Interdictor Cache to the very station they were now incapping -- an all out cowbell went out and HBC members started to pour in from all directions. Suddenly SoCo found their Supercapitals in a hostile staging system with dictors pouring out like it was Jita 4-4 undock and only support fleet being a 100mn Tengu platform which is not designed to be a "brawl it out" fleet to begin with. PL/HBC supercapitals cynoed in and the rest is history on the previous regional thread. SoCo reached out, and got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Laughing off their losses, yet seemingly unaware of the long term effects -- SoCo soldiered on with their offensive war.
Our Armor Doctorine replacement theorycrafting had been under way for VERY long time, HellCats was a loved platform of ours and we've been very sad to see it replaced with boring Rokhs for some time now. With the SoCo adapted Flashcats -- the theorycrafting kicked into high gear again and a very old Apocalypse Navy Issue concept from over a year back was brought back into life with the supply now at reasonable levels and new Triage Carrier meta items widely available and T2 Triage Archon pilots in good supply. We named the concept FoxCats (though many still call them DonnaCats) and went to work to refine the support fleet around the core of the fleet. We called TEST to test the concept with us and they turned up in droves for the first week while we smashed down a fleet after fleet of Oracles, Drakes and Tornados. Makalu was recorded as openly mocking the "shit fit PL NApocs, which would only ever be fielded once" -- yet we were unable to find a SINGLE TENGU fleet willing to engage us from SoCo.
In order to persuate them, we went to work on the Pangu controlled systems near 49-, which their counter offensive had secured while our focus was trying to maintain outpost systems as priority. Finally, a proper baptism of fire presented itself on one of these Pangu system timers and HBC forces faced off with a Tengu Fleet, Oracle fleet and a DarkSide Rokh fleet on the opposing side. As the fog of war cleared, ~40 Tengus, countless Oracles and 80% of the -D- Rokh fleet laid in ruins at the loss of 1 NAPoc from our side. Makalu raged and told the ROL FC to go back to ratting, then proceeded to form a Tengu fleet later on in the night -- and lose another 10 tengus before calling a warpout for the fleet.
The final Pangu systems changed hands today, bringing ALL hostile sov conquered during the Counter Assault back under HBC control along with all of the Neo moons in the region. SoCo did not contest, and for the first time in a long time, their 18:15 CTA was called off due to bad participation levels (http://soundcloud.com/ohseven/soco-c...09bywrikhoover).
While the current counter offensive has now effectively been stonewalled and SoCo has returned to a "skirmish stance" with ROL/others on "break" from the front -- the forces of the South are openly regrouping and laying groundwork for their second counteroffensive. This time, the assault will take place from two directions -- in the North Team RA lead offensive with Hun Reloaded, Spies R' Us and RAIDEN. on the Fountain Industry. In the South -- a newly solidified Southern Coalition with Soldiers of New Eden now in tow await, with promise of "more alliances from the north soon joining" on their side. Team RA has already started work on RFing jump bridges and low income moons, however today -- they got to witness exactly how close the seemingly massive distance between Fountain/K-6 in reality is. Within 6 minutes, a fleet deployed from K-6 and dropped on top of RA/RAX fleet in 6vdt.
HBC forces now enjoying a full Sov 3 surroundings with impressive JB network and beacon path to boot are preparing to face the second counter offensive with a playbook that the bitter old vets have lived through before. I must admit, I find it rather ironic to be facing an enemy assault with a playbook written by none other than SirMolle himself. For those new to EVE -- that was called "Delve 1", and we (Goons/RA/PL/A/NC) lost the war against BoB. It will be interesting to see if the Southern Coalition has a new twist on this very old playbook.
Deja Vu anyone?
Honeybadger Coaltion vs. Southern Coalition + Fountain Core. Discuss.
Reply With Quote
fun times
Originally Posted by Kanloch
Bookmarks