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Political Structures: Red Tide: The Flow and Ebb of Red Alliance

Published on 24. Aug, 2009 ... written by Securitas Protector.

Before I begin, I’d like to say that I am no innocent bystander. I was a participant and fleet commander in this war on the side of the Ethereal Crossing Coalition. The purpose of this article will be to highlight mistakes from both sides, politics, and analyze the war as a whole. For a shorter, very powerful, and non-text version of this piece, look at this video, which was not made by me: Youtube Video

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The beginning of the Drone Wars is not clear…not even to the ones that fought in this long and bloody conflict. Red Alliance maintains that it came under attack from Ethereal Dawn/Intrepid Crossing, while ED/IRC says that Red Alliance initiated it all by allowing various pet alliances to attack ED/IRC.

What everyone can agree on is that a Lucky League(Red Alliance pet) pilot shot at an ED/IRC pilot, ED/IRC pressured RA for letting this happen, and that touched off the entire war. At first, ED/IRC appeared to heading for a massive, decisive, and most importantly quick victory. With relatively little interference from any other forces than the Red Alliance bloc, ECC (Ethereal Crossing Coalition) forces smashed into Insmother, even taking a newly built station in EUU for a few hours. Morale was high, and fleet after fleet moved farther into RA space every day.

One thing that went unnoticed was that for the numbers in alliance chat, fleet numbers were low; even though the ECC was winning, participation rates were extremely low. What IRC and ED did not realize that while they pounded RA from the north, RA was unable to pressure AAA from the East, thus making harder for Goonswarm to attack KenZoku. GoonSwarm had to do something quick, so in an effort to push the ECC out of the Drone Regions war, they coerced the Northern Coalition to send some of their newer, (then) smaller alliances to attack ED/IRC’s home turf.

At that time, I, like most ECC members, believed our home space entirely safe, and thought that at worst, we would simply fail in taking Insmother. How wrong we were. Suddenly, the newly built XB- station in Etherium Reach was under heavy capital and POS attack from Majesta Empire, while DYPL- in IRC space was besieged by the Initiative. Roaming gangs of Wildly Inappropriate began buzzing through our home regions. Mining and ratting ground to a virtual standstill. At this time, the name ECC was a bit of a misnomer, as Intrepid Crossing and Ethereal Dawn were virtually (though not quite) the only members. (For outsiders who don’t know, IRC and ED are so close that they are essentially one alliance.)

As the rest of New Eden saw, the situation had very quickly changed. ED/IRC had gone from an offensive position to a highly defensive one. The Northern Coalition pounded the previously impenetrable “loop” (a constellation with many ED stations and only one entrance) during our active timezones while Red Alliance and friends hit it during our inactive timezones. It was a recipe for utter disaster. Within a day, all forces had withdrawn from Insmother and the pressure RA had previously felt on their home turf was gone. They were now able to hit us without fear for their home region.

Morale dipped and pressure mounted on Etherium Reach. We lost our XB- and R-6 station systems, then TP-, and then finally 3H5 and 1H5 in quick succession. Fleet participation was abysmally low, but curiously, people did not leave. All hope seemed utterly lost, but even though morale was somewhat lower than it had been during our string of victories in Insmother, it did not fall very far. Finally, at our lowest point, a few motivational speeches with a true vision of the future got us back on our feet. Most importantly, our morale did not drop further…if it had, we simply would have lost very quickly. We knew we had made mistakes, whether it be in politics, trust, stront timing, FCing, or the stupidly low amounts of towers in our station systems. Everything had to change and it had to change yesterday.

After managing to kick Majesta Empire out of XB-, the ECC kicked The Initiative out of DYPL with a VERY decisive battle, and Majesta made an official statement saying that it was surrendering. Not only was the coalition as a whole much more confident, even though Red Alliance still stood very firmly against us, but it had grown, with the addition of Raining Doom, Blackguard Coalition, StarFleet Federation (they left), and finally Arcane (later.)

Though we had kicked the NC out and the mood was jubilant, Red Alliance now had a spot on the influence map in the middle of ED space, and this was on the mind of all of our alliance members. We almost immediately initiated a campaign to retake our space, and within only a week or two, TP-, 1H5, and 3H5 were under Ethereal Dawn control once again. Only R-6KYM, the famous station system, remained balefully red. Things were looking up, though, as Atlas Alliance and their allies were smashing into Red Alliance space from the south, up to the point where they literally had no stations remaining in Insmother, and indeed only a few systems at all. The Ethereal Crossing Coalition’s Black Ops team, founded by me, scored a massive victory and made history when they destroyed an entire fleet with only bombs, scoring some 56 kills.

For a few weeks, it seemed that we were back on track and the past months had been worth it. We were poised to get our own space back and much of Insmother as well, and we had nearly defeated the famed Red Alliance. If only things were so simple. Suddenly, the Delve War II ended, with KenZoku and it’s allies pulling out of Delve and the coalition led by GoonSwarm suddenly having the time, space, and resources to go defend their friends. At first, only small numbers of enemies, namely the GoonFleet Foreign Legion, appeared in our space. The first two waves were annihilated, but by less than a week later, our space was once again flush with reds. The Initiative had returned to attack us as well, while another small alliance started chewing on us from the West. The end came very quickly; only a few weeks from the end of the Delve War and we had gone from glorious victors to evacuating completely. Shadow of xXDeathXx and Legion of xXDeathXx had both reset us, stating that Atlas were using our stations as a base to attack their space, even though Atlas quite obviously had enough space and had no interest in X.I.X space.

To this day, I do not know why Legion of xXDeathXx reset us, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. With the Northern Coalition returning, GoonSwarm projecting force, Red Alliance continuing to fight, and other smaller entities, there were even more enemies than the “first round.” Legion of xXDeathXx beat us soundly in less than a week, mostly because of lack of willpower and fight left in the Ethereal Crossing Coalition. After fighting overwhelming odds for 5 months straight, we simply did not have it in us. XDeath and GoonSwarm were fresh and on the offensive, XDeath having no other conflicts and having built up for months. The decision was made to evacuate shortly after an alt of Oldma, who was IRC’s alliance leader, lost 150 Billion ISK in blueprints to a Goonswarm gatecamp.

At the time of this writing, Ethereal Dawn and Intrepid Crossing have evacuated and are now living in Curse with new allies, Intrepid Crossing having mostly dissolved into a new alliance: Wicked Nation, and Ethereal Dawn having survived remarkably well. Red Alliance has begun to gather in strength again, having regained much of it’s former space and most of Etherium Reach as well. Thus, it appears the tale of Red Alliance is not over yet: it still continues to flow and ebb like a red tide.

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Political Structures: Reaching for Liberty

Published on 27. Feb, 2009 ... written by Securitas Protector.

My alliance, Liberty., disbanded. Normally, no one would care, and maybe no one does anyway, but there are a few lessons that one could learn from how we went from an alliance with control over an entire region with 500+ players to nothing in a matter of a month and a half or so.

So, what did we do wrong, and what rules can we make out of it?
To start with…

Never overextend yourself as an alliance – don’t take more space than you can hold.

First of all, Liberty came in and took Pure Blind by storm, even though we only had maybe 200 members at the time. Sure, it was some feat, and it’s very tempting, taking a whole region by ourselves(with some help) like that, but ultimately it was a very bad decision in the long run. Even at our peak member count, we could not consistently patrol our space and defend our outlying miners and ratters. This made it so that ratting in any of our systems was a dangerous expedition, and even in our “home” of P-2, we couldn’t evict raiders, simply because we were spread too thin.

It is very important to regularly have gatecamps and operations within your own space, to reassure your members that it is in fact, your space.

Always utilize the space you have.

Secondly, except for a few possible exceptions, we did not utilize our space to it’s full extent. Mining operations were few and far between, as were ratting ops, or even PVP ops in general. If we ever ran complexes, I never really heard about it. Don’t get me wrong, Liberty was a great alliance and great fun to be in, but even when we had an entire region under our dominion, it just wasn’t used to it’s fullest extent. I feel that if we had continually ratted and mined and built things while in Pure Blind, perhaps we could have resisted the eventual invaders with much more strength.

Host operations and many of them

Always keep your pilots engaged and doing damage to enemies, it makes them feel important and as if they have a purpose. When I was in Liberty, ops were few and far between, even to defend our own space or gatecamp. The more busy you keep your pilots, the more they feel as if they are in an alliance worth their time, ISK, and energy.

Keep participation up

Always be sure to keep your pilots engaged, and to have punishments(that are actually carried out) for those who do not participate. Often someone would call out an op and attendance would number less than 50% of online, active pilots, even those in the same system as the rally for the op; they simply didn’t come because they were ratting or “doing something more important.”

Communication, communication, communication

This might seem like an obvious one, but always keep constant contact between Alliance leadership and the grunts on the front line. Having a sense of where you are today, what your purpose is, and where you’ll be tomorrow is important for any pilot. Often, new moves were announced or carried through with some pilots staying behind or leaving POS’s or other assets behind. New policies and initiatives were carried out without widespread knowledge.

Ventrilo and/or Teamspeak are great tools for communication, as well as forum boards and alliance mail. One of the things that Liberty did do right is mandating that ALL pilots had to be on Teamspeak ALL the time-although even then, communication was limited at best. I often found myself doing things without knowing why or how this was going to advance our cause.

Choose your friends wisely

When we did move into Pure Blind, we were surrounded by the massive, extremely powerful Northern Coalition, and faced an IRON that no longer held space. Although we were allowed to stay for some time, this was a recipe for disaster. We did form our own small coalition, but when it came down to it, most of our friends did not stay with us and in fact turned on us. Thus, when the NC supported IRON’s bid to retake Pure Blind, we fell in a matter of days, perhaps a week at most.

Keep your players excited and in touch – stay together

After we were kicked out of Pure Blind by the NC, we had a quick period where we were in Empire, not much was going on, and people were leaving by the droves. Perhaps some of them were simply dead weight, but after nothing eventful happens for a few weeks, it’s hard to blame those who leave. After a few weeks in Empire, we did move to Fountain as renters, however, not everyone moved and Liberty was split, with some players left in Empire and some who moved to Fountain. Ultimately this led to a less cohesive alliance and further breakdowns in communication.

In conclusion

To clarify, I’m not attacking Liberty or it’s leadership at all; we had some great people in charge, and that’s why we got as far as we did, I’m glad I was a part of Liberty while it lasted, and if it ever reforms I will not hesitate to rejoin. However, in retrospect, we didn’t always make the best decisions, which is to be expected – nobody’s perfect and as alliances go I feel that Liberty was a great one, but I’m laying down our mistakes here so we can all learn from them. I know I, and many other ex-Liberty members, already have.

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Political Structures: The Great Reclaiming

Published on 14. Jan, 2009 ... written by Securitas Protector.

Just over a month ago, I wrote an article about the possibility of EVE becoming more divided, with the larger coalitions fragmenting and being replaced by myriad, smaller alliances. Anyone who’s been looking at the sovereignty maps will know that my prediction has been proven completely and utterly false. Almost. The North, once home to many of these smaller alliances, such as Liberty, Sc0rched Earth, Dark Trinity Alliance, and Penumbra (who actually still live there), has now been retaken in a “great reclaiming” by the Northern Coalition (NC). IRON, who saw their old home taken by these alliances, has now moved into Pure Blind and Scalar has retaken much of the space that was captured from them previously. Meanwhile, in a massive migration, the Tau Ceti Federation has replaced G00dfellas in Deklein. For all of you that don’t already know, the french Tau Ceti and the NC are allies, and thus almost the entire North is now “under one banner.” Although I’m sure there are exceptions to this, that is the general trend.

Moving on, Mostly Harmless, Guardian Federation, Wildly Inappropriate, and Majesta have all been given more space in the north and now have a significant presence in the region. Being a footsoldier during the evacuation of Pure Blind in Liberty. Myself, I can attest to the control that the NC now possesses over the entire North. However, it is not only the North that has solidified back into the old powerblocs. An excellent example of this is Warp To Desktop, who once held a small yet significant portion of Geminate (admittedly kind of in the north). Only weeks later and they have been pushed out of the region, and their space has been taken largely by KIA and it’s allies, leaving most of the North, East, and West arrayed against Band of Brothers and it’s allies.

As rumors of the NC invading Providence and other areas in the south of New Eden, the possibility of the sovereingty map becoming even more polarized is becoming an ever more-likely option. If Providence is successfully taken by the NC, the myriad smaller alliances currently residing in this space will be pushed out of 0.0. Overall, it appears that the major coalitions and alliances are simply “reclaiming” space that was once theirs or expanding their borders for the time being.

With this “great reclaiming,” dozens of space-holding alliances and coalitions have been reduced to a few main powerblocs, most notably BoB and it’s allies against most of the rest of New Eden. In summary, the many third party and neutral alliances have largely either allied themselves with one side or been pushed out of 0.0. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is up to the reader, but over the past few weeks, EVE has seen a major decline in “neutral” alliances. Whether this is just a temporary surge, with the newly-claimed or reclaimed space being taken back by these smaller alliances within a few months, or the major powers are here to stay is definitely a valid question.

How has the movement in the north affected your corp/alliance and gameplay in general?

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Political Structures: The Great Breakup

Published on 17. Nov, 2008 ... written by Securitas Protector.

by Erik Jensen … As the non-virtual world goes through a time of political upheaval, so does the world of internet spaceships. What I’m referring to, of course, is our very own EVE online. As I’m sure many have noted in recent weeks, the sovereignty maps have been changing. Dramatically. Large chunks of space, held sometimes for years by alliances who have been there since the beginning of EVE, or close to it anyway, suddenly turn into a chaotic maelstrom as dozens of small alliances appear seemingly out of nowhere to seize a piece of the universe for themselves.

A perfect example of this is in the northeastern realm of New Eden. Just weeks ago, this was solidly held by Band of Brothers and G00DFELLAS, along with a few other, smaller alliances. Just weeks later and it’s all changed. Liberty alliance, in a migration from the south of New Eden in IAC space, has taken one system after another. Sc0rched Earth, yet another smaller alliance, has come out of nowhere, taking systems from Axiom. Other smaller alliances of note in the region include Scalar Federation and Terran Alliance, and Imorral Dragons have almost completely lost all of their space.

Just west of here, in the north of New Eden, right above empire-held space, is the rising star of Bionic Dawn, which has over the past few weeks taken various systems from Morsus Mihi. Meanwhile, in the southern heart of Goon-controlled space, RED.OverLord has begun taking sovereignty in two separate areas, not to mention the West, which has become a patchwork of sovereignty including Soviet Mercenary, Red Alliance, Legion of xXDeathXx, Shadow of xXDeathXx, Intrepid Crossing, SOLAR FLEET, SOLAR WING, and GoonSwarm. In fact, virtually the only areas completely unaffected by this sudden spate of land-grabbing action have been the deep north and the great Band Of Brothers/Executive Outcomes fortress in the southeast. Perhaps the oft-considered most powerful alliance in New Eden is simply impervious to the swarm of smaller alliances, or perhaps it is only a matter of time before the entirety of New Eden ceases being controlled by a few select power blocs and instead becomes a blend of hundreds of different factions. Which is more interesting? Well, that’s for every pilot to decide for himself.

Personally, however, I find it more interesting to have a political landscape consisting of many different competing alliances, small coalitions vs. big power blocs. Rather than having a few massive alliances controlling trillions of ISK worth of equipment and minerals and commanding massive fleet operations involving multiple titans, it is much more compelling to watch the story of a small but rising alliance, rather than having such a force instantly quashed. Headlines such as “300 Man Alliance Completes First Mothership” are far more inspiring than “Band Of Brothers Unveils Titan #38!” Come on, lets hear it for the little guys! Sure, their fleets might not be as awe inspiring as hundreds of capitals simultanously hotdropping on a Titan, but it’s battles between them that allow for the personal side of EVE to shine through. Player versus player, not Titan vs Titan.

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