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Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 16:34:00 -
[1]
The Siege & Capture of Unity Station
This is an OOC report on the siege and capture of Unity Station in 9UY, Providence. It is quite long and the first section is basically an introduction setting the scene in Providence and the events/reasoning which lead up to the eventual attack on 9UY.
Background
The Beginnings - Operation Deliverance and expansion into Providence As many of you are aware the Curatores Veritatis Alliance (CVA) has had a long held ambition to extend the boundaries of the Amarr Empire. In November 2004 we officially launched 'Operation Deliverance'. http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=121887
At first the scale of Operation Deliverance was relatively small reflecting the limited size of our alliance. Our ambitions were focused on securing low-sec Amarrian space on the borders of Providence (which was at the time overrun by a variety of evil pirates) and to extend law and order into Providence itself - with the eventual goal of having Providence recognised as part of the Amarr Empire.
Initially, our size limited our capabilities, neverthless we gradually turned the Deliverance area from a pirate infested backwater into an economically thriving and busy region populated by many neutrals taking advantage of our anti-pirate stance (and making many enemies in the process). The following two threads give some idea of how 'Operation Deliverance' progressed over time:
http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=336624
http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=386053
Despite various 'invasions' (which varied in annoyance from 'minimal' to 'complete pain in the arse') the CVA persisted with its objectives. As we grew and expanded our capabilities we naturally expanded further into 'Amarrian Providence' constructing two Outposts as part of this process.
The Minmatars move to Providence Shortly after we launched operation Deliverance our perpetual enemies the Minmatar terrorist Ushra'khan (UK) alliance also moved in to Providence (albeit not right next door to us) and started building their own 'terrorist' Empire. Like us the Minmatars faced regular pirate invasions and of course we also did what we could to welcome them to the neighbourhood.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
|
Posted - 2007.06.06 16:35:00 -
[2]
Under the influence
Gradually both CVA and Ushra'khan had relatively 'pacified' their respective parts of Providence. I will never say 'fully pacified' as it is never possible to provide 100% security in 0.0) and many neutral individuals, corps and alliances migrated to the region. Some of these settled in the CVA sphere of influence (e.g. Huzzah and then Novus Ordos Seclorum) whilst others (eg. Brotherhood of Steel / Imperial Order) were more influenced by the Minnies.
These new neighbours and indeed many of the other neutral parties who came to Providence worked together vs pirates with either with CVA or UK and as a result developed strong bonds to the point where they also began to see either UK or CVA as enemies depending on which alliance they tended to work with vs pirates - as a result many non-RPers were gradually sucked into our traditional RP war.
The first great siege of 9UY
Anyway whilst CVA was expanding so was Ushra'khan. They constructed their first station named 'Unity' in 9UY. As many of you will remember 'Unity' eventually came under attack by a huge pirate coalition including Veto and The Establishment. This was the 'first great siege of 9UY'.
From our perspective we did not want the station in the hands of pirates as our eventual goal was to capture it ourselves. As a result we ceased our usual raids on the Minmatars and instead launched attacks on the pirate logistics in the low-sec Minmatar/Ammatar area bordering Ushra'khan space. At the time were accused of hypocrisy for 'assisting our enemies' but in our view we were working for our own Amarrian cause.
The Minmatars put up a heroic resistance against the huge pirate coalition and eventually with the help of ISS (who owned the neighbouring QR Outpost) and the Mercenary Coalition the siege was broken and 9UY remained in terrorist hands - free for us to capture at a later date.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Sean Dillon
Caldari Naughty 40
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Posted - 2007.06.06 16:37:00 -
[3]
Edited by: Sean Dillon on 06/06/2007 16:37:06 Nice reading.
I have always found the Providence war to be quiet amusing.
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Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 16:37:00 -
[4]
The ongoing war and the IAC/ISS squabbles
With the pirate threat (at least temporarily abated) the CVA and Ushra'khan got back to what they loved best - shooting each other. However, the usual flow of things in Providence began to be influenced by affairs in the rest of the universe. The CVA had a long standing friendly relationship with Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate (IAC) which predated either alliance getting involved in 0.0. IAC had settled in an area of CATCH close to both CVA and UK holdings in Providence.
In roughly the same area, the Interstellar Starbase Syndicate (ISS) had also established a number of 'neutral' trading Outposts. Previously, the CVA had had a run in with ISS when they had tried to erect an Outpost in a system claimed by the CVA and indeed CVA had war decced ISS despite being threatened by MC. While that incident had eventually been sorted out diplomatically it did mean that there was little love for ISS within the CVA.
Around this time an IAC Outpost came under an apparently unprovoked and heavy attack involving the Mercenary Coalition and others. The CVA had previously arranged a 'mutual defence agreement' with IAC and sent assistance to IAC. IAC with assistance from Axiom Empire and CVA successfully dissuaded the attackers and the IAC Outpost was saved. CVA forces returned home.
Shortly after IAC declared war on ISS for a variety of reasons including the belief that ISS had secretly instigated the attack on the IAC Outpost and because MC and others had used the neighbouring ISS Outpost as a base for the attack.
The CVA - neutral to ISS - opted to stay out of this war as it had been instigated by IAC and ISS were still neutral to us. ISS brought in Mercenary Coalition and Loktra Volterra which turned the tables on IAC and then Ushra'khan (who owed a debt to ISS for helping out in the first 9UY siege) also sent ships to join the IAC gangbang.
The CVA had already decided to not get involved in this war but the fact that our terrorist enemies had joined the attack on an old friend meant that we felt an obligation to assist IAC even if we were not going to get directly involved in the IAC/ISS war
8P9 - The distraction
By now both the CVA and Ushra'khan had expanded to such an extent that there were places were our borders and sovereignty claims had started to brush up against each other. 8P9 was one such border system. We decided that it was the perfect time to put some pressure on Ushra'khan and indirectly relieve some pressure on IAC. In addition the Ushra'khan had recent attacked and taken down an Amarrian battlestation as part of an RP event so our RP allies in PIE, VV and AM were also eager to get some revenge on the terrorists and joined in. Initially, the attack on 8P9 went well and indeed it did force Ushra'khan to pull forces from the IAC front. This led to 'The Enslaver' of the then still powerful Loktra Volterra alliance telling CVA to basically back off or die. He was given a suitably Amarrian response :P
However, the CVA operation in 8P9 had been rapidly put together and we did not have at that stage the experience of siege warfare that the Minnies had - nor any real understanding of the numbers, time and commitment needed to successfully take a system. As a result the Minmatars successfully beat off our attack, retaining sovereignty in the system, destroying a CVA tower and basically forcing us to back off. The Minmatars had won an out and out victory.
Elsewhere IAC with the support of AAA and Goons had once again survived, sounding the death knell for ISS and marking the opening stages of the larger galactic conflict vs BoB...
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 16:39:00 -
[5]
The lull after the storm
The failed attack on 8P9 seriously underminded CVA confidence in our abilities to conduct siege warfare. We had always had plans to take 9UY from the Minmatars but after 8P9 we suddenly realised how difficult that was going to be. This experience put a serious spoke in our offensive plans - although it did provide some useful learning experiences that we would utilise later.
The CVA returned to business as normal with regular raids on Minnie space but also our usual anti-pirate activities throughout Providence and and low-sec Amarrian and Ammatar space. We have always had plenty of enemies to fight as Providence seems to be a magnet for raiders from the major 0.0 alliance and PvP corps wanting to test themselves against us and Kheram/Yong also seems to attract wannabe pirate corps, trying to make a name for themselves.
Indeed we faced an extremely trying invasion of R3 from SAS, Northstar Networks and The Corporation during this period which really scored highly on the 'pain in the arse' scale :wink:
Increased terrorist activity and the attack on QBL
Over the next few months Ushra'khan gradually increased their activity stepping up attacks (in conjunction with Imperial Order (IO)) on CVA space particularly during our lower activity periods and these became increasingly irritating as we couldn't always chase them away as rapidly as we would like in our non peak hours.
In addition, UK had started attacking our friends in Novus Ordos Seclorum (NOS) quite successfully. The CVA concentrated on taking Imperial Order out of the picture and started harassing them in their homelands in low-sec Ammatar space with a view to making them renounce NBSI in Providence and stop them working with Ushra'khan. This campaign was going very well and IO activity was starting to drop when UK launched a full scale offensive on the strategic NOS system of QBL.
The details of the attack and its outcome are given here (a UK report):
http://users.utu.fi/sipesa/eve/index.php?a=topic&threadID=486928
The whole experience in QBL revitalised the CVA as we actually realised that we could be successful at POS warfare and it provided us with some valuable experience and learning. If the Minmatars had not given us this opportunity I sincerely doubt I would be writing this today.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 16:41:00 -
[6]
The QR campaign
As detailed above the IAC/ISS war had gone poorly for ISS - as a result they decided to sell off a number of their Outposts and Ushra'khan purchased the QR station in Providence from them. They had called it Karishal's Defiance as per the following news item http://myeve.eve-online.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=1382&tid=3 which was like waving a red flag in front of a bull, particularly as our scouts reported the system defences were weak.
With our new found POS warfare experience and confidence and with the backing of our Amarrian allies in PIE, Vigilia Valeria, Delictum, Aegis Militia and s3verance - an anti pirate group with who we had worked for some time vs pirates in low sec Amarrian space - we decided to attack and started putting in place the necessary plans and logistics for the assault (whilst continuing to batter Imperial Order).
I will not go into great detail on the QR siege as that has been covered previously here http://users.utu.fi/sipesa/eve/index.php?a=topic&threadID=491171 but needless to say we successfuly took the station off the Minmatar terrorists after a huge struggle.
Fortunately for us, it emerged afterwards that we had caught the Minnies at a particularly bad moment (leadership away/forums down/voicecomms malfunctioning etc.) which gave us enough of a foothold to secure the system and Outpost for Amarr and it was duly renamed 'Karishal's Folly'.
Imperial Order, Star Fraction & 9UY
With the successful completion of the QR siege CVA once again turned up the heat on Imperial Order who eventually agreed to CVA terms to cease NBSI in Providence and stop providing assistance to the Ushra'khan terrorists.
Meanwhile the Star Fraction alliance, who had unsuccessfully assisted the Minmatars in QR, had stepped up its war of words with our non-CVA Amarrian friends, which eventually resulted in some Empire skirmishing which the CVA played a small part in.
While the Star Fraction campaign may have been making the headlines, behind the scenes both CVA and friends were already planning the assault on 9UY which would finally remove the terrorist Minnies from Holy Amarrian Providence.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 16:47:00 -
[7]
Why 9UY ?
It has always been our intent to create an 'Amarrian Providence' - an extension of the Amarrian Empire in 0.0, a relatively secure area giving people access to 'safeish' 0.0 without major obligations.
That does not mean a Providence in which only CVA or Amarrians live - we already coexist quite peaceably with several other alliances in the region (who are independent, do not pay rent and whose only requirement is to operate an NRDS policy in line with the CVA's own).
We have ALWAYS intended to push the Minmatars out of Providence ever since they first moved here and their leadership has been aware of this IC and OOC.
The terrorist presence in Providence is anathmea to what we are trying to build in the region and in RP terms it is simply not realistic for us to 'coexist' peacefully in some kind of cosy RP dream world with the terrorists as neighbours.
While some people have always assumed that CVA and UK have had some kind of hidden RP agreement with each other, in reality the only agreement had been a general gentleman's agreement to avoid the use of alts and spies and to avoid the usual smack and disrespect that plagues many EVE wars.
CVA and UK sitting on our respective sides of Providence fighting a 'phoney war' is not good for either of us or realistic RP. EVE is about building (or in our case extending) empires and that applies just as much, if not more, to RP alliances.
Yes the Minmatars are good enemies. They ALWAYS put up a damn good fight. Yes raiding 9UY was an interesting diversion from the run-of-the-mill anti-pirate activities and yes I am sure we will miss that. However, I seriously doubt that this setback is the end of the Minmatar threat - it will simply evolve and come back to plague us in new and unpleasant ways.
Why now?
After QR it became clear that we and our Amarrian allies had the capability to take 9UY but the potential logistics and work involved were huge. We knew the Minnies would defend the station with everything they had.
However, it was clear that Minmatar morale had taken a dive after QR. Corps and individuals had left the organisation plus allies who had helped them in QR (i.e. Imperial Order and Star Fraction) were now either out of the fight or diverted onto something else. The system seemed 'takeable' and our view was that if we didn't do it now someone else eventually would!
Neverthless we didn't think it would be an easy fight and planned for a long siege, even if privately many thought it would be a walkover - a confidence (false as it turned out) engendered by the rapidity of the QR conquest.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Borg017
0utbreak
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Posted - 2007.06.06 16:49:00 -
[8]
Die you Amarr scum! -----------------------------------------------
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Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 16:50:00 -
[9]
The Second great siege of 9UY
The beginning The CVA assault on 9UY was scheduled to start on the evening of Friday the 4th May to give us a full weekend in which to potentially inflict as much damage on the Minmatars as possible.
Our allies informed about the assault were PIE Inc, Vigilia Valeria, s3verance and Aegis Militia with other friendly locals such as NOS and North Star Confederation informed on the day. A large Amarrian fleet was assembled and the Minmatar's simply didn't have the numbers to stop two of their large POS being placed into reinforced. The CVA also took the opportunity to construct its own POS in the system from which to base. So far so good but our expectation was that the real defence would start when the tower came out of reinforced.
The Minmatar surprise and the Amarrian disaster
The next day CVA and allied forces began to prepare for the assault on the first POS to come out of reinforced however the Minmatars had not been idle. We had expect the Ushra'khan to call in support but what awaited our fleet was beyond our worst imaginings. The following organisations had answered the Minmatar's call for help:
The Establishment Outbreak Einherjar Rising EVOKE Betrayal Under Mayhem (BUM)
To say that we were surprised was an understatement. A couple of these organisations had been involved in the previous 'pirate' siege of 9UY whilst Einherjar had spent the previous month pirating in Providence and shooting UK, CVA and neutrals.
Whilst some in our organisation were 'upset' that UK had brought in these 'piratical' non-RP organisations to do battle for them, most accepted that it actually made good RP sense - after all terrorists aren't supposed to be nice guys. There were however consequences for this UK decision but I shall come on to this later.
Between them these very competent PvP groupings fielded a susbtantial fleet supported by UK's not unsubstantial capital contribution. In addition, UK's new allies also provided a Titan and a couple of Motherships to the terrorist fleet. The CVA had up to this point fought individual motherhships but to face two, plus a Titan, in front of a hostile POS was extremely challenging.
UK was also receiving assistance from the Chaos Incarnate alliance and other random elements. In QR the CVA had fought with a substantial advantage in tech II fitted snipers but this advantage was now wiped out. The question was should we risk our Dreads in front of a reinforced UK POS with that much enemy firepower in local. Local topped out at around 250 pilots (approximately 100 of which were in the Amarrian gang). Despite the odds we decided to proceed...
There is no doubt we got our arses spanked. Losing six capitals in a single evening is not a loss that can be shrugged off by any alliance - let alone one the size of ours. Yet we put our balls on the line and we gave it a go. Despite being outmatched we still succeeded in inflicting reasonable support losses on the enemy and gave them something to think about. These Einherjar battle reports http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=517856 posted shortly after the Saturday evening fights give you some idea of the carnage... This screenie http://www.inet.hr/dgreen/randomfiles/2007.05.06.20.20.25_4-20_capitals.jpg is a snapshot of some of the Capitals arrayed against us...
This was the first time the CVA (and our allies) had been defeated on such a large scale and to be honest it hurt and was followed by a lot of internal discussion. Neverthless Amarrians are nothing if not stubborn and while it was clear that a change of tactics was needed. We were determined to go on with the fight despite at that stage being massively outclassed.
Indeed this video clip that someone posted on our forums the day after the 'massacre' sums up the general attitude that CVA adopted to this setback http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rFx6OFooCs
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:00:00 -
[10]
Making them come to us
It was clear that in the short run anymore major POS assaults would be pointless. The alliance assembled by the Minmatars were simply too well equipped and talented to beat in a head to head blood fest, particularly in front of hostile POS. However we had one key advantage - DETERMINATION. Providence is our home we were not going to go anywhere, but the willingness of UK's new allies to sit around was still to be measured. We needed sap our enemies will to resist.
We had been stung bad and we wanted revenge. If we did not have the capability to take down the enemy POS then we would see if they would be willing to take down some of ours instead and put their own Capitals at risk in front of POS. This attitude was summed up by an leadership post at this period:
"Our goal is to bring their fight to us. Let them expose their ships under our guns. UK themselves have no ability to resist our forces directly. As we've seen they have all sorts of allies. They wield a large number of capital ships. The reality is, most of those allies are here for kills and battles. We choose those battles carefully and dictate the terms. This may mean setting up an op and sitting inside the pos all day. However as we have seen. When the time comes CVA is still superior. Keep moving in resources people. Every ship, every module, ever stick of ammo. We will take 9uy. Everyone should have no illusion that this will be a short operation."
To that end we extended our bridgehead in 9UY with a couple more POS (bringing total to three) and dug in for the long haul. In addition, we created 'interdiction/sniper' squads that operated almost permanently in 9UY to make things difficult for our enemies. Although we had taken huge losses at the outset we started to gradually claw that back.
During this period Ushra'khan with aid from their allies Chaos Incarnate did actually succeed in downing two large CVA towers which we were not able to defend adequately but these were swiftly replaced and interdiction/sniping patrols continued.
Annoying the neighbours
As mentioned above Ushra'khan's recruitment of percieved 'pirate' corps was to have other consequences. Providence was home to several other neutral alliances which had taken no part in the CVA attack on 9UY. These alliances - Sylph, United Corporations of EVE (UCE) and Brotherhood of Steel were genuinely disgruntled that 9UY was now a safe zone for many pilots that had (and continued to) prey on their pilots in Providence.
The UK view was that as these alliances were not actively helping UK in the defence they would just have to live with it (an if they are not our friend then they are our enemy approach) and as a result alienated large groups of pilots who had a vested interest in Providence.
As mentioned previously most in CVA felt that UK were justified in doing everything they needed to do to save their station and from an RP perspective 'terrorists' and 'pirates' working together is hardly that much of a shock.
However, up until this point UK had always taken an 'anti-pirate' line so it is understandable why their neighbours were now upset by this change in approach (even if some of the subsequent forum smack on this subject really wasn't necessary).
Although the alienating of neighbours did not have a major impact on the overall combat in 9UY (which continued to be lead by CVA and our Amarrian allies) it was noticeable that as things dragged on we started receiving more local support which did prove useful if only because it gave UK more headaches.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
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Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:01:00 -
[11]
Ushra'khan and friends take the offensive
While we may have wanted to get Ushra'khan and allied dreadnaughts in front of POS we wanted those POS to be in 9UY. So it came as a nasty shock to us when a Minmatar fleet turned up in our own Outpost system of XR3 (one week after we had launched the 9UY op) and succeeded in putting all POS into reinforced. We were now on the serious defensive. Over the next few hours we gathered a susbstantial fleet including lots of locals and some IAC and awaited the inevitable assault when the POSes came out of reinforced.
This report from Eddie Gordo and the various CVA responses details what happened next http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=519802.
The Minmatars did successfully take down a CVA capital POS. I know there is some UK bitterness about my original response to this battlereport so I will state unequivocally - WELL DONE UK.
However, I will also repeat that from our perspective (being faced by what we faced) we were more concerned about defending the sovereignty of the system, which we thought was under major threat. We did take the decision to sacrifice the Capital POS because the debacle on the gate had cost us over 50% of our snipers and we didn't want to sacrifice any more of our fleet at a POS with the punching power of a sickly Gallente toddler.
We had therefore decided to make our stand and fight at one of the other large deathstars where we had a good chance of inflicting a heavy price on any attackers. Ushra'khan (probably wisely) decided not to take us up on that offer, so from our perspective the 'defence' had been successful despite the POS loss.
Neverthless kudos for achieving it. The original jump in took balls from Ushra'khan and their allies and they did achieve what they had wanted to achieve - it was just a pity for them that they hadn't hit it a few weeks earlier ;-)
Back to 9UY
Following the XR3 attack CVA forces returned to 9UY and continued to interdict the system to best of our abilities with the aim of grinding down our enemy's will to resist. We were still waiting for Ushra'khan and friends to mount a major attack on our POS which would give us an opportunity to kill some of their capitals - but it didn't happen.
It is fair to say that this period was very difficult as it meant that pretty much every CVA member was expected to be on the frontline fulltime - and much of that time there was simply nothing to do - which isn't why anyone plays a game. As a result our tactics seemed to be grinding us down as much as the enemy and we really had no idea if it was having an impact apart from the fact that their numbers (and particularly their ally's numbers) in 9UY continued to decline.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:05:00 -
[12]
POS spamming begins
Around three weeks after the first attack on 9UY it became clear to us that Ushra'khan and friends were not going to mount a serious campaign to hit our POS. Yes they had destroyed a couple in the first week but after we successfully defended a few these attacks pretty much stopped.
It was clear that unless something new happened we would be left in a permanent stalemate. Much though we hadn't wanted to get involved in a POS spam war at the outset (which is why we had never maintained more than three POS for the first three week) it was clear that we had to do something to mount the pressure on UK and make them take offensive against our POS.
The problem is that 9UY has 55 moons. The logistics involved in gaining POS superiority in that system were absolutely immense. Nevertheless we decided to go ahead anyway and this was the UK response from Maggot http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=527206&page=2
The CVA constructed approximately 10 POS on the morning of 27th May and Ushra'khan counter spammed. CVA then constructed even more POS and again Ushra'khan responded to the point where all 55 moons in the system were occupied by POS. UK still had a numbers advantage in terms of large towers but many of their other moons were occupied by small towers to prevent CVA occupation.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:07:00 -
[13]
Sovereignty falls
Due to the fact CVA had first 'spammed' before a downtime the UK were not able to respond until after that downtime. POS mechanics then meant that despite UK having a 'large' tower advantage in the system there would be a period of a day when sovereignty would drop and the station would be takeable. Sov dropped on Saturday 2nd of May.
Before I go on to the consequences of that I would like to clear something up because it has been quite controversial in UK/CVA OOC relations since then.
The CVA did not deliberately spam those towers at that time with the deliberate intention of 'exploiting' POS mechanics. Did we take advantage of it when sov dropped - yes we did - but there was genuine surprise within CVA when Sov did drop. The reason the POS were errected before downtime was purely and simply because it was the best time to do it. Pre-downtime was often the quietest activity period for both sides in this war and when you are erecting a large number of POS you don't want large enemy fleets around. During the siege of QR Ushra'khan themselves snuck up POSes on at least two occasions pre-downtime.
This is an internal CVA post on the subject by Aralis who was one of the people most involved in the POS construction.
"And actually UK do have a valid complaint about unfair over this pos/outpost attack. I never really thought they'd lose sov on Saturday. Actually it's logical that they should and the idea had crossed my mind but I thought "nah it won't work logically like that" - I'd actually got the impression it didn't during the QR siege. If we'd planned for this yes I think they would have a valid point totally - and of course they don't know that we didn't."
As mentioned above we DID take advantage when sov dropped - but I want to make it clear that the POS spammage before downtime was NOT a deliberate effort to exploit game mechanics.
Anyway, getting back on track with the 'siege' report.
Sovereignty did drop after downtime on Saturday 2nd of June despite the fact that Ushra'khan at that stage still had POS superiority in the system. We decided that we would attack the station with a view to making things difficult for UK's logistics - at least until they UK regained system sovereignty the next day and retook the station from us.
CVA massed forces and successfully took the station. The previous four weeks of siege had reduced UK activity and none of their allies were around - as a result the station capture happened pretty much without incident. The station was renamed 'Reclaiming' to reflect the CVA's and our allies goals in Providence.
The loss of the station (even temporarily) seemed to be a massive blow in morale for the Minmatars and it served to revitalise the Amarrian forces. Increasingly we received help from other local alliances such as Sylph and the fact that we were 'local' (and therefore had a vested interest) whereas UK's new allies were not meant that we had a clear numbers advantage.
With the station in our hands we decided to press the advantage and started attacking UK POSes in the system. Over the weekend of 2/3 June we destroyed 11 Minmatar POS (most small placeholders), reinforced another 12 POS and errected a further 5 large towers of our own - guaranteeing us sytem sov within 5 days. This was a huge effort by our capital pilots with the siege gang operating almost 36 hours straight.
The loss of the station seemed to have severely demoralised the Minmatars and this new Amarrian offensive met little resistance from the outnumbered and weary defenders and conversations on various forums and ingame indicated that Ushra'khan had accepted defeat in the 'second great siege of 9UY'.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:09:00 -
[14]
The last throw of the dice
On Sunday 3rd June system sovereignty returned to Ushra'khan and we awaited an assault on the station which didn't come. However the next night scouts reported a build up of Ushra'khan numbers in 9UY and surrounding systems and also the return of Ushra'khan's Outbreak, Einherjar Rising and BUM allies.
The shoe was once again on the other foot and the huge Minmatar fleet assembled meant that there was little we could do to stop the terrorists reclaiming 'Reclaiming'. Even Backdoor Bandit of the Minmatar *** Rights League had shown up to help his brothers. http://oldforums.eveonline.com/?a=topic&threadID=531695
A CVA attempt was made to interrupt the recapture of the station but was beaten off by UK and allies with heavy Amarr losses.
Once the Minmatars had regained the station they began an evacuation of assets which reminded me of the alliance escaping from Hoth in 'The Empire Strikes Back' :P . CVA and friends made some attempt to interdict this traffic but much of it escaped successfully.
Despite temporary system superiority on Monday evening the Minmatars and allies made no attempt to construct new towers (there were by now many empty moons) or to attack CVA towers. It was clear that the terrorists had decided to accept their defeat in Providence.
Today (Wednesday 6th of June) sovereignty in 9UY system returned to the CVA who by now had a 25 to 16 advantage in large towers in the system, after knocking down a few more UK POSes. There was no indication that the Ushra'khan were interested in either defending their remaining towers, constructing more or knocking down CVA towers..
With sovereignty back in CVA hands our forces attacked the station shields shortly after downtime and met no resistance from the remaining terrorists in the system.
'Reclaiming' was back in Amarrian hands with little immediate prospect that that situation would change.
Thus ended the 'second great siege of 9UY'...
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
FowlPlayChiken
Sharks With Frickin' Laser Beams Mercenary Coalition
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:10:00 -
[15]
pos spamming isnt siege. It is financial delaying tactics. I have a strange feeling your pos will be reinforced in short order
http://nhimebaugh.wetpaint.com/ Just podded this sig, now where is my toy? - Wrangler
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Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:11:00 -
[16]
Conclusion
This was a hard fought and epic siege.
The Ushra'khan despite now being clearly outgunned by the Amarrian 'bloc' fought tooth and nail to hold on to 'Unity'. They pushed us to our limit and beyond and the fact that eventually the ENTIRE 55 moon system was 'POSed up' was an indication of the determination of both sides to win this siege.
The CVA and our friends did take heavy losses in the early days. The loss of 6 capitals in one evening is not to be sneezed at, nor was the fact that the Minmatar alliance managed to break into one of our home systems and take down one of our capital shipyards in the face of a large opposition fleet. However, these losses were gradually balanced out as the CVA maintained its interdiction on the system over the month.
Before I post a few stats I will put a disclaimer on these as I did for the QR battlereport.
These figures are off the CVA killboard. The sheer number of allies on either side means that at best these figures are a 'representation' of the kills/losses during the siege. While CVA did make up the bulk of the active 'Amarrian' forces and activity in 9UY we did have allies and not all their losses are included. This means that the figures have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Neverthless these pure CVA figures for the entirety of the siege up to the 5th June give some indication (albeit not perfect) of the scale of combat losses.
Total - Kills 1196 - Losses 448
Assault frigate - 33/28 Battlecruiser - 50/27 Battleship - 137/69 Capsule - 390/67 Carrier - 0/3 Command ship - 9/3 Covert ops - 22/10 Cruiser - 112/29 Destroyer - 20/2 Dreadnought - 1/2 (does not include two allied dread losses on first Saturday - also does not include BUM dread killed when pilot fell asleep mid-pos siege as these stats are only from 9UY) Frigate - 173/41 Heavy assault - 16/5 Industrial - 17/2 Interceptor - 93/123 Interdictor - 28/22 Logistics - 1/3 Recon ship - 26/12 Shuttle - 35/0 Transport - 2/0
Yes Ushra'khan have now been forced out of Providence and yes we know that they are upset about that. There has been more OOC smack in this siege than any other in the history of the two alliances but that is kind of understandable when the stakes were so high (and so many non-RPers were involved).
So what does the future hold? Well for Ushra'khan I cannot say. They have had an amazing history in Providence and played a large part in the story of the region. But whether they will be willing to butt heads with a CVA that has outgrown them economically and militarily is a question they will have to ask themselves.
Maybe they will continue to plague us 'guerilla-style'? Maybe they will focus on hitting the Empire based Amarr RP corps such as PIE, VV and AM that provided so much support to CVA? Maybe they will finally unite the rest of the Minmatar RP groups and come back to seek revenge? Or maybe they will simply fade away now that they have lost their 0.0 foothold?
I don't know but I for one would certainly like to see them survive and prosper in an OOC sense as they are a bunch of brave scrappers and good folks.
And for the CVA? Despite claims to the contrary we have not lost sight of our roots and our objectives. Our goal is still to create an extension of the Amarr Empire in Providence and that is still a long way off and we face plenty of challenges securing our 'borders' and providing security to all residents.
We still have lots of enemies - some of whom have taken advantage of our absence over the past month to bring terror to systems that we had previously cleansed such as Kheram.
Now that the 'second great siege of 9UY' is over we shall return to smiting all pirates and heretics who enter Holy Amarrian Providence and low-sec Empire space to prey on CVA, our friends and the neutrals who live under our Amarrian shield.
------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Gutsani
Chaos Reborn
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:13:00 -
[17]
I havnt really followed these events, but after reading this all i can only congratulate you on your achiefments against these enemys. ------------------------ Stop reading my siggy! |
Sakura Nihil
Tabula Rasa Systems The Star Fraction
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:13:00 -
[18]
And the Amarrians complain about the length of our war reports on the IGS ...
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Hardin
Amarr Imperial Dreams Curatores Veritatis Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:14:00 -
[19]
Thanks
Firstly, a huge thanks to all our allies and friends who assisted in the siege and put in many long boring hours. Your commitment and willingness to persevere was what made the eventual difference. PIE, VV, AM, s3verance all played a significant part as did NOS, North Star Confederation and laterly Sylph (when they eventually decided what side they were on :wink: )
Secondly, we wish to congratulate our enemy's allies (and I know that is easy to say when you are the victor). Outbreak, EVOKE, Einharjar, BUM and Establishment all proved yet again that they are class acts and supremely talented at what they do.
There is no doubt that their intervention on the Minmatar side seriously stymied us and delayed the taking of 9UY. Similarly we have to applaud their attitude (with a few exceptions) in local and on the forums.
Thirdly, we wish to thank UK for giving us many good fights over the years and helping make Providence one of the more 'interesting' regions in the EVE universe.
Yes I know tempers frayed in the end and a lot of crap was spouted but the fact is that even though you lost and are no doubt extremely depressed and bitter about that right now you have a hell of a lot to be proud about.
As I said above I do hope this is not the end for you and that you go on to new and greater things OOC. Whatever happens you do retain my respect (even if some of you cannot say the same about us).
I also wish to congratulate my fellow pilots in the CVA who have showed massive grit, determination and sheer will to win over the past few weeks. Unfortunately rl kept me out of a good chunk of the fighting (for which I feel amazingly guilty) but even when it looked most bleak no one gave up or even suggested giving up.
And finally thanks to you, the reader, for actually making the effort to plough the whole way through this. I hope you were not too bored.
Final Word
I have tried to make this battle report as 'balanced' as I can and give the wider EVE audience a picture of the whole siege but of course it has to be written from the CVA perspective as that is the only one I have.
However I have also linked some 'UK' initiated threads to give some of the other side of the story. I am sure some will disagree with elements of this and I am happy if UK want to put their side of the story but please try and be constructive.[/i]
Amarr Victor ------------------------------ CVA - Kicking Arse For The Empire - http://eve-files.com/dl/83607
AMARR VICTOR |
Shai Faetal
Amarr Burn The Witch
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:16:00 -
[20]
my eyes get sore when i read on the monitor, when will the book come out :D
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Butter Dog
The Littlest Hobos Betrayal Under Mayhem
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:17:00 -
[21]
Hardin, damn you for posting all this now! I was F5'ing and now I'm late to meet a friend!
Anyway, I really enjoyed reading that. Congratulations on taking the station. We enjoyed fighting with you and are glad we helped ensure it was not an easy task.
The only thing I would wish to say, is I'd take the KB stats with a huge pinch of salt (our KB show a 72% efficiency against you) but you know what they say - lies, damn lies, and statistics.
See you around Providence
---------- signature removed - please do not discuss moderation in your signature graphic - Jacques([email protected])
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Neveren
Caldari Setenta Corp Xelas Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:25:00 -
[22]
Nice read.. I like the details you presented leading up to this epic seige
STC recruiting!
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Sokratesz
Paradox v2.0 Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:34:00 -
[23]
Down with the slavers! Yay for large corporations!
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Callistus
Gallente Coreli Corporation Corelum Syndicate
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:34:00 -
[24]
Very good read, thanks Hardin and congratulations on the victory. --------------
[Coreli Corporation Mainframe] |
Aran Cole
Minmatar The Aegis Militia Aegis Militia
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:36:00 -
[25]
Amarr Victor! _______________________ The Reclaiming: Nice Civilization, We'll Take It |
Malvahne
Dark Knights of Deneb Against ALL Authorities
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Posted - 2007.06.06 17:48:00 -
[26]
Great read. Sorry to hear you lost your station Ushra'khan. Unity Station was my first home in 0.0 and its what got me rolling in first IAC and now triple A
I always enjoyed local when the Curatores Veritatis Alliance came by, all that geeky rp chatter. Always a good read.
I hope that your movement wont die becous of this and that you have some good old fastion guarillia warefare fun.
As to the Curatores Veritatis Alliance; well played. Its nice to see not every is obsest with the hole BoB/Dev and flame war game so many play these days.
Enjoy your new station o/
(stoned post)
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Pilgrippa
0utbreak
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Posted - 2007.06.06 18:00:00 -
[27]
Wow nice read Hardin.
I can't imagine how mind-numbing it must be to manipulate so many POS.
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Mistress Suffering
Einherjar Rising
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Posted - 2007.06.06 18:01:00 -
[28]
Nice writeup. Couple minor tweaks I'd change here and there, but a lot more fair and balanced than most. Congratulations.
As a Providence observer over much of this time period, I think the real underlying issue for UK was their fairly gutless former allies. As fewer and fewer of them would field ships to lend support, CVA was able to rule the UK/CVA primetime with numeric strength.
This continued for long enough to wear down morale, cause even more weasels to slip away, and eventually land UK in the position of needing to defend their station alone while their former allies kissed up to CVA in hopes of begging table scraps later.
I did not come to Providence to make friends, promote security, nor build support. I simply find it distasteful when worthy men are left to fall so that cowards and sycophants can thrive.
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Kreul Intentions
Forum Moderator Interstellar Services Department
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Posted - 2007.06.06 18:03:00 -
[29]
FYI - I removed a few posts inbetween Hardin's posts, please feel free to post your thoughts again. I only did this to keep the report one smooth read.
Thank you.
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Manic Mole
VENOM72 Sylph Alliance
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Posted - 2007.06.06 18:03:00 -
[30]
good report Hardin. ---[sig starts here]--- a proud member of whatever allince i happen to be in at the time! eveything i say is my personal feeling and has no blar blar blar you get the idea. |
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