The Mittani Sends His Regards
As regular readers of this blog will know, I play the MMO "Eve Online". They will also know that I fly with Goonfleet, and that we are currently fighting (alongside our allies) against an alliance of much older and established alliances who tried to wipe us out when we first formed. This phase of open warfare in the South has now lasted for a year, and we have gone from being a collection of irrelevant newbies to the largest alliance in the game. Our allies, the Red Alliance (made up largely of Russians, funnily enough) have similarly rebounded from having been reduced to a single station system to possibly the most feared alliance in the game. Alongside the third member of the RedSwarm Federation - the French of TCF - we have stopped the Band Of Brothers-led collection of Bob pets and vassals after their initial advance, and over the last five months have methodically and steadily removed them from system after system, constellation after constellation, and region after region. We have taken hundreds of systems from them in the regions of Detorid, Omist, Tenerifis, Feythabolis and now Esoteria.
Having suffered steady losses over such a long time, BoB decided to head north and concentrate all their resources, alongside their complete collection of pets (their own term for their vassal alliances) against what they saw as the weakest point in the Coalition's lineup: the northern front of AAA (more terrifying Russians) and IAC (drunk Americans). Known collectively as the IAAAC, these are geographically distant from the Feythabolis front. If you want to see some of the geography of the battlefields, see this link for the map of the south: Bob originally held most of the bottom third of this map, and launched an attack into Detorid. Now they are present in only the very bottom-leftmost fragment, having moved most forces to Catch (you can see the geographical big picture here). This meant effectively abandoning their southern vassals who had paid them huge sums in rent for protection.
So that's the background. In summary, you had a hegemonistic end-game alliance, utterly dominant and aimed (in the long term) at total conquest of the entire game world. Foolishly underestimating a minor power, they now face the situation where that minor power has grown to the extent that it now leads a coalition which has for months inflicted steady, grinding strategic defeats upon this previously undefeated alliance. Their loyal vassals are abandoned in a last-ditch Schlieffen plan type of strategy to knock part of their enemy coalition out of the war, but that attack, too, has stalemated for the moment. Enter the Mittani.
We at Goonfleet have an extensive intelligence agency: quite a few of us lead front corporations, sleeper units with which, after a time, we penetrate enemy alliances to gather intel, disrupt logistics and spread discontent. It's hard work, but a nice change of pace from relentless alliance warfare. The result is that we have people leaking information from many of our enemies' forums. Yesterday, the Goonfleet Intelligence Agency released batch after batch of postings from such forums: from those of the Red Moon federation, who had lost both their station systems in a week; from RISE, a thousand-man alliance neutralised and bypassed in our advance in a classic example of manuevre warfare (less than 50 pilots from our blackops unit, helping a core of elite PvPers from Pandemic Legion, now utterly dominate RISE's home systems); and the Mercenary Coalition, Bob's main pets (who try to deny that they are, in the face of our deliberate provocation over this) wring their hands over the stalled advance.
I think that this will be very interesting to anyone with an interest in games or MMOs: what do the internal discussions look like of organisations who supposedly play games for fun, and are no longer having any fun at all: they are looking at losing what they have spent years building up
The Mittani said to spread the joy, so here are the contents of the private forums of our enemies. First, Mercenary Coalition. These guys, I must reluctantly say, are competent. They look down on their own masters, BoB, as you will see here, and have a decent awareness of the important of cultural matters in their organisation. I expect them to come out of this war fairly intact. As a matter of interest, one of them (Rexthor Hammerfists) jumped ship from Bob a few weeks ago, and from his interactions you can tell a lot about Bob's hierarchical structure
Originally Posted by MC thread, 'Whats Happening!?
Admentus [BDCI]
Dude - MC have completely shifted tactics; I don't get why they haven't noticed we achieve a super high sucess rate and they achieve now a 45/55 success rate.
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Ferocious FeAr [ETNY]
Tactics have to be adjusted since the game is changing. MC has adapted, BoB seems to do some abnormal stuff....don't know why but I guess that's how they are.
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Admentus [BDCI]
You know who else have done abnormal things?
A lot of our opponent alliances that have died.
It's very very obvious that BOB's morale is on a downward turn. Restructuring is in order.
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MakkAnzy [CONIN]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Admentus [BDCI] View Post
You know who else have done abnormal things?
A lot of our opponent alliances that have died.
It's very very obvious that BOB's morale is on a downward turn. Restructuring is in order.
Lets hope that this restructuing happens soon. I swear bob has A.D.D. and can not focus on one thing at a time. Are we still focusing on dragging this war out in Catch til Thanksgiving? I am A.D.D., so how many ships did we lose in this fight? Whats happening since I am at school all day?
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Hans Roaming [BDCI]
Default Re: whats happening!?
I think there is a possibility that BoB will just go north like the Five did.
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Seleene [BDCI]
Bitch in charge
BoB need to evolve, not to put it lightly. They are still fighting like it's 2006 IMO
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Rexthor Hammerfists[ETNY]
if bob command would listen to any1 about changing tactics outside of bob,
it would be the mc command.
i dont see bob or us having a chance winning this war, or keeping the space we got if the joint forces arent "joint",
so before saying we dont join em anymore id even treaten bob first to change things, or better yet, have a say too,
before pulling back our forces when bob still counts on us.
i realize im stepping over the line with this, and will stop posting about that,
but had to get it out -no offense meant.
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Mynas Atoch [ETNY]
MC Leadership
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rexthor Hammerfists[ETNY] View Post
if bob command would listen to any1 about changing tactics outside of bob,
it would be the mc command.
i dont see bob or us having a chance winning this war, or keeping the space we got if the joint forces arent "joint",
so before saying we dont join em anymore id even treaten bob first to change things, or better yet, have a say too,
before pulling back our forces when bob still counts on us.
i realize im stepping over the line with this, and will stop posting about that,
but had to get it out -no offense meant.
We effectively presented them with a plan to take Catch. They appeared to agree. Then didn't do any of it. We hauled them back to the table. They told us it sounded a great plan, and still haven't done much more. We've just wasted two weeks and now AAA appear to be back in the fight after us ringing their bell and making them hide for a week. With this momentum, its going nowhere fast - call me when you are serious.
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Griffinator [CONIN]
tbh we need to inform BoB that its steam roller time they need to go system by system nukeing everything,
not ignoring the plans that are drawn up, nor the ones that are agreed upon or those that at least appear to have been, exactly the same way it happened in the north, system by system with MC in the lead,
no offense to BoB but they haven't had a break in months we have.
IRON crumbled fast as did D2, now i know its a different fight down here but the same principles should apply,
want some ones alliance dead? take it one at a time,
yes fine catch doesn't seem that important but if you nuke the little guys first then the rest of the coalition will melt away, oh one other thing leaving your "pet" alliances to die sucks they have stood beside you, they all probably had the chance to change sides but they said "no i will stick to what i have got and said my standing's stay as they are"
*** needs to change and to change fast, tell them its not 2006 anymore the tactics they are using atm won't work no more they need to adapt or fold
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#32
Seleene [BDCI]
Bitch in charge
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rexthor Hammerfists[ETNY] View Post
ii realize im stepping over the line with this, and will stop posting about that,
but had to get it out -no offense meant.
Rex - I don't know what it's like in BoB and, frankly, the more I work with them directly the less I am starting to care. For one thing, it's hard to step 'over the line' in MC. Leadership here (myself, especially) dislike shy and soft spoken people. We like it when our members speak thier minds because that's usually the best way to decide who to promote around here.
"Sounds like you've got a handle on the situation! You're in charge now!"
While I like quite a few people in BoB, the differences between BoB and MC as alliances and fighting forces have never been more painfully obvious than in the last couple weeks.
Mynas's latest post is spot on. There are political and military aspects to this campaign that BoB just cannot seem to tighten up on. That's being worked on quite heavily ATM and the next few days will be the test of that IMO.
All I'll say with regard to the "war" is this - BoB never should have attacked ASCN. An ASCN / LV / BoB alliance would have been an insane wall of metal. AAA and IAC would already be a memory. But now we're stuck with what IS. The only good thing about ASCN's defeat was that MC benefitted by picking up some of thier best members. It's just too damn bad those people were not allowed to make a difference as part of a much stronger 'Alliance'.
One last thing to any of you who doubt it - My loyalty is to the MC, to YOU. BoB is in no way, shape or form in control of me or this alliance. We are involved right now because I think everyone here agrees that it's time to put the nails in IAC's coffin and finish things. We picked up new land as part of the deal and are continuing to build profitable relationships with long time friends.
Don't think for a minute that MC is on anyone's strings. There are always plans within plans and I'm not one to tie our destiny to any specific path. The MC will always adapt and overcome.
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emsigma [CONIN]
Sometimes I wonder why bob has the reputation they have tbh.
And that is from the forums of their only competent ally.
Let's have a look at some less competent allies. Rise first. These guys are doomed, and they know it. We will shortly open a jump bridge in the P8 system (a logistical shortcut, effectively) which will cut them off from their remaining (distant, reluctant) help while allowing us to move hundred of pilots into their systems at a few minutes notice. We call it the Eye of Terror. None of the following comments or emphasis are mine: they are the Mittani's:
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
I have been reading a lot lately about all our adversaries, but I am kinda new to them..(fresh in rise, not a real 0.0 dweller before)
what makes goons so special?
and what are our other enemies? I have heard things like UL, KOS, TCF, PL, RA, Coalition, etc...
what are they like? same as goons? |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
mentally most of our enemies are roughly the same as goons (i.e. lacking in higher brain function).
goons are special because there's just f*cking thousands of them.
also goons are "special" (mainly because their mothers tell them they are). |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
Goons are no longer a homogenous orange blob they used to be, many corporations which do not come from SomethingAwfull joined them so ist kinda hard to define them now. But theire principal attribute is faggotry. Theire goal is to lower the game to theire standards by any means necessary : low-level troll in CAOD, local chat invasion and even hacking our Teamspeak server.
You cant speak with them, you cant negociate, you cant match theire numbers. The only thing you can do is building a big wall and waiting for them to be bored.
The word which is closest to this definition is : Barbarians. |
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
An example of Goon behaviour:
Many moons ago, Ralph Rodriguez was flying solo in his Sabre from FD-MLJ. Looking for action he flew to Goon land and a very kind plated Thorax engaged him in the home system. As I was killing him I noted that the pilot was infact a Daddy Goon. I survived with 36% structure and did not consider it wise to engage the other 400 in local in this state. Suddenly local spiked to over 900 and I started running. For the next 7 hours I was chased by 300- 400 of them over the surrounding 14 systems. I finally cloaked and then watched them bubble the gates. They then starburst and hit every planet and moon at the same time to search for me (That was impressive). In short they utilise group thinking and unquestionable following of orders until directed otherwise. They will keep throwing resources at you until the objective is achieved or changed. They are in the main juveniles controlled by a group of intelligent leaders. Their allies are similar in makeup and method. They recruit anything and everybody, tell them nothing but demand total obedience. In short the prefect army. Unquestioning but willing to die for an unknown objective. The only weakness to this strategy is harm the leadership and the house of cards collapses.
Underestimate them and you will die, lack discipline and you will die, lack sufficient numbers for engagement and you will die.
Think and you may win.
Follow orders and remain disciplined and you may win.
Target starve them and you may win. |
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
Ask your self the following question- What kind of person looks at all the Alliances and corporations and then chooses to join one whose reputation is one of being an uncouth mob of jerks. |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
Goonswarm was originally a bastion for new players coming from somethingawful.com. They would be recruited into the swarm by other SA members and given limited introduction to the game and its mechanics. They were originally the ultimate meatshield. Initially, hundreds of new players from a common online community being led by more senior members in attacks (zergs) against their enemies. That is how they got their reputation for flying swarms of T1 frigates.
The original recruitment slogan was something along the lines of "join us to help destroy that which others have worked so hard to achieve" or some such thing. Of course, they adapted to the ever-changing gameplay and suddenly, at the heart of a T1 frigate pack would be a command ship, giving the newbies huge bonuses and adding devastating effect to their swarm tactics. HAC's, T2-fit battleships, dreads, and carriers became commonplace in their fleets.
They are friendly first and foremost with Red Alliance. When Tau Ceti Federation entered the fold, they became known as Red Swarm Federation, or RSF for short. During the ISS/IAC war, they allied with IAC/AAA against ISS/MC/LV/FIX, and thusly, the lines were drawn in the sand. The group collectively became known as the Rapetrain Coalition (alternately, just "The Coalition") as BoB declared war against them and the south exploded in waves of destruction. Other alliances joined the different sides but Goonswarm is always considered the core "bad guys" by the Greater BoB Community. Occasionally, you'd see a rush of frigates in a system and run to intercept them, only to have a massive blob of destruction waiting for you. They are the very definition of blob warfare.
Despite their "nooby" beginnings, they are collectively a massive group of players and have some tough friends to go with their "who gives a ***" attitude.
Thank God for dead Goons! |
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
Goons are like farm animals. They arent special. Goons are union of losers(im meaning real life especially). They have numbers thats all. No special tactics neither military concept(As most of you noticed they dont have complicated tactics even they cant implement). As i said they like farm animals, in these we are killing them like dogs and they are breeding again, but with low quality. They are smacking a lot, nothing more; their ingame behaviours give us many clues about their characteristic (very low quality/cheap persons i say). I have no respect to them. I dont feel like a bug nor a insect, if they feels like they will get what they deserve, sooner or later but they will. As a south region resident, we are in the "Crusade" against to them with our allies. And i want bug(goon)free home and will continue to crushing of their heads in the name GOD! |
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
Goons seems to be a bunch of idiots and I would feel like an *** being alligned to them. |
Amongst this flaming bit of pompous vitriol comes a voice of reason via alliance mail. Enter a gentleman who has been a member of RISE since god was a child with this counsel:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
As you all know, RISE is falling appart.
And it is not even due to hostile pressure, we are killing ourselves by doing the wrong things. Some people will hate me even more because I speak franckly, but I don't care. Our biggest threat atm is our poor leadership and we need to make it a primary objective. It's either RISE changes leadership or it will loose even more people including mysleft and other know pilots.
So, lets see.
Contact Lokesh to take over if you have this profile:
- Lots of eve experience
- Dedicated to eve (play time)
- Smart and leader by nature.
- Able to reform a new mi
Once this will be established, this new leader should reform a new council, to consult, but only one person needs to take final decisions.
This might look like a personal initiative from my part, but I have consulted many, many high ranked pilots in RISE before sending this.
When/If this is achieved, we might have a chance... |
This man is obviously concerned about the long term viability of his alliance. He thinks his leadership is MIA. How can this be rectified? New leaders? How should he be thanked for his concern?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Some Rise Idiot
Seb you are wrong to make your post here and in this format. This should have been made through council via your CEO. Mutiny never has and never will be an answer to a problem, communication is often the correct method. |
Oh, that is sweet stuff. They are actually building our myth for us. This is key. Look at how they view us: a "massive blob of destruction", "you can't speak with them,you can't negotiate, you can't match their numbers", "they utilise group thinking and unquestionable following of orders until directed otherwise", "underestimate them and you will die, lack discipline and you will die, lack numbers and you will die". These and more show that Rise are defeating themselves, and as has been shown repeatedly in Eve, this is the only reliable way to lose: morale matters, and everything else is just gravy.
We have some rather sad and tawdry stuff from Red Moon Federation, too, but it just comprises people wondering what they are going to do next in the game when they have clearly lost everything they have held for years.
Here are some graphs of player counts amongst the frontline Bob allies for the last three months, as it became clearer that we in RSF were steadily winning. Fix, from the northern front, then Rise next, who are bleeding to death at the moment. Southern Connection, who we expelled last month...
Just as a final bonus, here is a transcript of a teamspeak recording we all listened to last week. A Bob member called LuckyDuck (a man of remarkably little charisma) gives the most depressing pep talk ever to the 35 of Rise's 1000 members who bothered even to log in. He tells them they are outnumbered, outgunned etc, but just when you think he will give the Churchillian bit, he tells them not to fight us because everyone knows they cannot win. Every now and then he tells them how awesome he is and how great Bob are, then goes back to telling them they are worthless. You can hear the Teamspeak announcements as he talks ("Player Left... Player Left...").