Zackalwe
Gallente
Thundercats
RAZOR Alliance
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Posted - 2009.07.02 12:15:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Zackalwe on 02/07/2009 12:17:37
This has been an interesting thread, thought I would chip in.
I do think there is a place for mercs in Eve, but not in the old MC capital blob way.
A few assumptions I am basing this on:
1. To be a truly effective capital deploying force requries 0.0 space ownership with moongold. And a good corp/alliance based replacement program.
The reason for this is if you are actually going to use capitals properly, sooner or later you will lose a load of them. I dont care how good you are.
A couple of losses (or even costly wins) where an alliance loses 30 or 40 dreads would be crippling to any alliance that doesnt have these resources.
2. Owning 0.0 space effectively rules you out of being a merc these days, as your enemies have a place to hit you back at. Because of the polarisation of the political landscape no alliance will survive in 0.0 space if they are regularly taking contracts to kill friends of their neighbours.
3. Again because of the political landscape, no merc alliance can be reasonably expected to acheive anything in 0.0 alone. Doing covops wolfpax fleets in the back areas of an alliance is annoying but is not really threatening to space sov.
So that leaves a 0.0 merc corp with the following requirements:
Cannot own 0.0 really, must rely on other income (industry, contract money, individual pilots missioning).
The above means that fielding caps is a no-no, fleets must be cost-effective and insurable. So maybe fleet BS or RR-BS as a core shiptype.
Must have a good reputation for honouring contracts and being a useful addition to a force (kindof obvious for any merc enterprise). And be neutral when the job is done (no always contracting to one side).
Also means respecting your enemy as well as your friend, in case they are future employers.
Must be good at working with other fleets. Most deployments will be in support of other co-ordinated operations.
If a merc group was based on this I think it could make a good name.
The way I see it working is in support of alliances waging sov war.
As an example I know of an alliance that has a very good capital fleet and the resources and replacement program to field it consistently. It is very good with this cap fleet and would not consider help from a cap-based merc corp. (they have freinds with caps if the need is there).
What it does sometimes find though is that it has a capital fleet many times bigger than its support fleet. A merc corp could conceivably fill this niche from time to time, when allied support is not available.
I dont know, it would be a headache maybe. There are issues with blue status, and communications (presumably you would not want a merc corp access to alliance TS). Above all there would have to be trust, both in that the merc corp will fight well and to the death if required to support the cap fleet, and trust in that the merc corp will not betray its contract.
Perhaps the standard contract would include a provision of reimbusement for merc ships lost in the battle. Like a 30mill cover for insurance or something per BS lost.
It would be interesting to see the attempt anyway. 60 or so mercs in T2 fleet battleships with the experience and skill to work in 0.0 warfare.
The trouble is it would be hard to make it pay.
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