"...It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
I have various things about which I need to post, soon. Things unrelated to Eve. But this one will be quick and easy, as well as satisfying a few of those who I see hit the site with Eve-related searches, fifty or so times a day.
A little over a year ago, Goonfleet was being bullied out of the game by Band of Brothers, the most arrogant, hated, yet also largest and most powerful force in the game. We were a rabble of insignificant newbies, and they had characters dating back to the beginning of the game in 2003. They told us that we were finished. They posted on the forums that we would never be allowed to build up again, and that they would hunt us down and grief us out of the game if we ever attempted to do so. Only an invitation by the Russians of Red Alliance saved us from destruction and collapse.
In the spring, Bob looked to be delivering on their promises. Skilfully making use of weaknesses in the game mechanics, particularly with their supercapitals, they had pushed us back to the borders of our last holdings. Our founder and leader, unwilling to be associated with defeat, had distanced himself from us, and his replacement was in a role he was ill-suited for.
Then, everything changed. A new leader emerged (All hail Sesfan. Sesfan is #1). As Bob attacked towards the Detorid region, key fleet commanders, especially Suas and his Spec Ops team, ground out a skillful delaying action in Tenerifis, while preparing a counter-strike towards the key 9-9 system. The period is a blur of horrendously late nights, and I forget the order of things, but BoB, at the moment of their final attack, found themselves caught off balance when we atacked behind their front-lines, our recon teams having noticed the first signs of logistic over-stretch in their tower dispositions. They recoiled, lost momentum, then gathered themselves for yet more attacks. It was the perfect moment for our destruction of their flagship supercapital, "Darwin's Contraption", a move which signalled the end of their period of invulnerability, and forced them to fight us in fleet actions instead.
Then, in 9-9, we broke their siege in a series of long, hard fights which culminated in the destruction of their battle-fleet in an action on the 46-DP gate by a Goonfleet force of equal numbers, without significant allied support. With that victory, Tolon broke their morale. Bob and their allies were never seriously to attack the 9-9 system again. The path into Omist and western Tenerifis was open. Now we would be tested on the offensive.
Months of hard battle later, we have slowly, inexorably pushed westwards. Bob resisted hard, and they threw their vassal alliances in the way in numerous attempts to stall us, but they face the difficulty that Goonfleet has internalised the memory of Bob's arrogance and griefing. Even newbies are quickly indoctrinated. The term indoctrinated is apt, since the Mittani, head of the Goonfleet Intelligence Agency, openly admits to being informed by the work of Goebbels and of the Soviet propogandists. The result is a willingness to face endless hours and days of intensely boring siege warfare, or long weeks of cloaked trade interdiction in enemy rear areas by Black Ops, all in the knowledge that it makes our loathed enemies so unhappy, and so shatters their will to continue, that hundreds have given up and left the game entirely. These people were arrogant bullies, and now they hate being beaten in battle after battle and siege after siege by the people they despise as jumped-up parvenus.
Faced with a renewed war on their northern front against IAC and AAA, Bob decided to attempt a version of the Schlieffen plan: withdraw all but holding forces from the south in order to amass overwhelming force in the north, together with their key ally and vassal, the Mercenary Coalition, in an attempt to knock the IAAAC out of the war. MC presented this plan, the "Steamroller", and demanded that Bob stick to it. We kept pricking at Bob's pride by repeatedly attacking their southern allies, destroying each in turn, and sure enough, Bob would come south each time, exhausting their capital pilots and logistics fleets with hours of travelling, while leaving the northern front exposed. MC lost their own, newly launched, flagship titan, partially as a result of this, and demanded that Bob refocus on the north.
We again provoked a response by Bob, who fell for it, and MC accounced the end of their contract and withdrew, doubtless to prepare for defence alongside Bob unless our diplomats can come up with a fairly spectacular coup. Bob's offensive in Catch vs IAC and AAA stalled again, then they began to be driven back there also, being saved from a humiliating reversal only by unexpected server downtime.
Finally, their southern pet alliances began to dissolve in the face of our relentless advance: Red Moon Federation, Southern Coalition, Digital Renegades, even Rise with their fortress systems and constellation sovereignty fell in the Feythabolis. In the north, Bob's installed tenants were wiped from the map in a matter of weeks by a rejuvenated "Old North" coalition and their unaligned neighbours, the dangerous Triumvirate. Bob, short of cash and facing months more of morale-crushing defeats on three fronts now, saw one of their most capable allies - M.Pire - scornfully refuse their clumsy attempts to extort money for them having first abandoned them.
At the same time, having clearly hoped for a new Miracle of Brandenburg, like that which saved Frederick the Great and shattered the coalition of his enemies, Bob has had to face the fact that, even though our fleets are often supported by those of our French and Russian allies, our diplomats are superb at holding together disparate groupings while terrifying those in our path. At the same time, our strategic Black Ops force has proved able to shut down entire regions, denying them and their resources to the enemy and forcing him to huddle in his stations.
So now they have released this video, which I have to say is very well done. A clear attempt at a new propaganda approach, they have discarded the arrogant approach and are portraying themselves as the underdogs, taking care to seem gracious in their acceptance of defeat. Even then, we are referred to as "thugs": a nomenclature we might be happy with but which is clearly aimed at those outside our coalition. It is well produced, but there are gaffes: MC are portrayed as falling back in defeat under Bob's orders, where in fact they withdrew undefeated and in a state of high dudgeon. We are shown not, not defeating fleets, but rather destroying towers, maintaining Bob's myth of fleet superiority (prove again and again to be untrue when lag is not there to save them).
Bob are withdrawing from three of their remaining six systems. This adds to their having been expelled from four or five more. They probably hope we will rush to attack their home systems, become over-stretched and overbalanced, and be driven back in a morale boost for them. Perhaps they hope to drive us back as we did them. I imagine that we will, instead, inexorably and careful erect infrastructure and staging posts on our way to besiege them, taking time to populate local markets while sending our most skilled Black Ops and Pandemic Legion pilots to harass and dismay the refugee camp of allies which makes up their home systems now. Their plan is a terrible one, which yields rich areas of easy targets in a game where that is the most attractive resource available. Already, pirate organisations are pushing south from Fountain to exploit them.