Goonfleet vs. Band of Brothers

KenZoku still has its Titans and should outnumber GoonSwarm in Capital Ships. Bringing immense firepower to bear on discrete spots; trying to force a confrontation on favorable terms, might have been a workable strategy.

We still don't know where the Titan superiority has gone, but I may be able answer where the Dreadnoughts are now: behind those bubbles. I had presumed the "fleet" in there was simply a battle fleet of Line ships and Support as had been used in the previous days. But I've seen a passing comment about KenZoku's "Capital Fleet" in PR-8CA.

As to how those ships got there, regardless of what class they actually are, I suspect it was a failure of either courage or leadership. Or perhaps both. Concentration of force could have been a good strategy, and hiding behind station shields while the enemy has numerical superiority on the field is a reasonable tactic. In this case though, the ships kept trickling in and going to the same place, and still they wouldn't come out; until GoonSwarm became disgusted and walled them in. Perhaps low morale caused pilots to dawdle and straggle in before and after the appointed rally time. Perhaps the orders for when to arrive were vague. Perhaps the losses from the earlier battles made them hesitate until they were sure of their strength so they wouldn't be venturing out into a trap. Perhaps errant officers simply never gave the order to leave. Any of the above possibilities could be true...

...because it is very much looking like KenZoku morale is indeed Broken.

Here is a quoted battle report from today written by a Morsus Mihi pilot:

I was in MO-G setting up 4 resist-stars and a little bit of maintenance on 2 other starbases. Five of these had no defences at all and I had to warp between them in an indi maybe a hundred times, with no friendlies in local besides a couple of afk logistics guys and ~10 hostiles (mostly docked). Usually in such a situation I'd expect to eventually come out of warp and end in a bubble with a lone sabre killing me or whatever. Even outnumbered that's the kind of asymmetric thing you can do to fight back, and I guess it's what I always expected from BoB not least when their home region was being overrun, but I've hardly heard of any resistance at all. They've just suddenly switched off. It's begining to remind me a bit of the dissapointment when MC got overun.

That said some 8+ frieghters evacuated MO-G last night (we captured it at DT today), so there's some logistical effort going on behind the scenes. Strategically, at least as long as -A- won't deploy to Delve, Ken's only option seems to be to lay low until/if they get some sov-timers ticking towards sov3, then hopefully start making a stand. We're doing our best to make sure they have no stations left by then but maybe they'll build a new one in some random backend sov3 system (I'm still waiting to see outpost deployment used as a war tool.

From as unbiased point-of-view as I can manage it really doesn't seem likely atm that GS/PL/RAWR/RZR/TCF will disintegrate and wander home this time before the job is seen through. Goons will have nowhere to wander home to soon (that's probably the single biggest factor likely to make this invasion suceed), PL are next-door and will back Goons to the hilt. Plus the north is highly stable currently and INIT/IRON/ME/MH are doing a great job handling minor threats (they've been great help defending RAWR assets <3).

I've still got good confidence in Ken pulling through in some sense but I'm at a loss to say what I'd do in their position. In some ways all they can do is just sit back and hope that their past descions created an alliance with enough internal strength to ride this out.

So, even to the extent that individual pilots could fight back, they are not doing so.

I also have a quote from an Executive Outcomes pilot. Executive Outcomes (EXE) is a freestanding coalition-mate of KenZoku that holds Sovereignty over the Southern-most half of Period Basis, below Delve proper. EXE has shown some internal strain in the last days with two of the larger constituent corps going from dislike of each other to open enmity. One of the two quit the Alliance entirely and "fire-sold" much of their equipment, affecting ship-equipment prices in the region (much to the annoyance of unaligned battlefield scavengers who are picking over the wrecks). There's no word on where this Corporation is now or what it is up to. Regardless, the poster is from one of the Corporations remaining in the EXE Alliance:

From my standpoint as an EXE grunt, the ability to hold any systems in Delve in any timezone seems fairly non existent at this point given the numbers of hostiles in the area and the tactics employed to lock down the pr- area. . My plan is to head back to PB, make sure I have a good stock of ships and wait to lose them all in a glorious fire when the inevitable assault on our home space begins, post delve being secure by the opposition.

While much of this would not have been easy, or possible, without the unfortunate click of a mouse button of a disgruntled bob director, the coalition has done a great job in terms of pos assaults and locking down stations and friendly gang activity in Delve. So props to that.

Note the resignation.

The Psychological War on the Forums has shifted yet again. KenZoku is basically not posting. Or if they are, it is with non-Alliance alt characters. The Goons' organized effort, centered on the alt characters posting under the stolen corporate name Band of Brothers, is putting up approximately one new thread an hour. They are still satirically posting from KenZoku's point of view. But rather than facetiously pretending things are going fine for KenZoku, they are now posting faux surrender offers, clemency pleas, and evacuation announcements. Playing along, the Goons post refusals in reply. One poster inquired where remnants of KenZoku could flee to; The Mittani replied "Let them eat Feyth~", referring to Feythabolis in the territory the Goons have just abandoned. The Goons have numerous spies amongst their opponents and the direction of the psy-offensive is certainly influenced by intelligence on the enemy's current state of mind. The meme that all the Goons are quoting is "NO LEADERS! NO FLEETS! NO HOPE!".

But beyond the play-posting and trolls, the Goons are not happy with the situation. They want to fight. They want the clash with their arch-enemy. Here the Goons are in their home territory, tearing down everything that makes it belong to them, and they won't put up any resistance. This isn't funny anymore.

Like hearing those words spoken by the Joker, the Goons holding that opinion could be a very, very bad thing.

The final nail in the perception of KenZoku's morale is a Team Speak transcript of KenZoku's Dianabolic posted by GoonSwarm. Dianabolic is the sometimes-Fleet Commander and full-time PR manager for KenZoku. He is the reasonable, friendly public-face for the Alliance that chuckles gently before politely trying to undercut enemy statements. There's no way to confirm this transcript as literally true, but Goons have made posts of this kind in the past that have been acknowledged by their speakers. Even if it is false, it is close enough to the facts for Goon Intelligence to expect it to be believed:

Right, there isn't much we can do about anything right now .. and I've got better things to do

(small sigh)

If you are BoB, remember the tower comes out in 14 hours, just keep the tower on approach, if it dies, there are ways to avoid getting killed here

(pause)

if you are non-BoB ... just stay at a safe spot I guess

(small sigh)

if you want to stay in gang, go ahead, some one could FC but I don't know what you could do ... so ... um

(big sigh)

buh bye I guess

Nn....

In closing this post I was going to point out that during the fifth, when BoB had vanished and no one knew what was going on, Dianabolic issued a public challenge. He said to all BoB's enemies in the game: you all need take your very best shot, because if you can't beat us now, then you never ever will; so bring it. It was a very confident statement, gauged to unnerve the enemy. I find it a painful irony that it is BoB/KenZoku who is shown unwilling to carry the battle.

But that's a bit too much of a downer now isn't it...?

Fortunately though, I don't have to end on that. There are some people that are still willing to fight.

I'd previously mentioned the Cruiser Task Force from Minor Threat that was stalking Delve. Over the weekend Minor Threat flew a group of Frigates through Delve for giggles and had them Doomsday-Deviced out of existence by Pandemic Legion. On Monday, the new Minor Threat Cruisers were hunting GoonSwarm ships in Delve; jumping them when they were alone and injured by NPCs. They've taken at least two Goon Fleet Battleships this way. But they were only one of three alliances involved in the Frigate incidents over the weekend. Another Alliance, The PuPPet MasTers, has one upped Minor Threat's vengeance completely.

Though they hold no Sovereignty and are a minor Alliance, PuPPet MasTers is apparently able to field at least two Dreadnoughts; a Revelation and a Moros. They took these ships unnoticed into the Fountain Region, to system BYXF-Q. The surrounding area of Fountain is nominally in possession of The Arcane Alliance, but that particular system, only a few jumps away from NPC Aridia, is under Sovereignty of Pandemic Legion. In an act of magnificent defiance, they used their lone two Dreadnoughts to gradually destroy a Pandemic Legion Tower and then vanish back into Empire-space.

The frigates destroyed in a mockingly amusing manner by Pandemic Legion probably cost PuPPet MasTers a total of several hundred thousand. In turn, PuPPet MasTers crept into the lion's den and ground down a structure worth several hundred million to Pandemic Legion.

And that is your Daily Irony...