Battle decades in Eve Online, or ‘as it was’

Not so long ago, Eve Online celebrated its 10th anniversary. Game Developers and players remembered what happened over the years, which both one and the other were able to achieve. Of course, they recalled the largest battles of the past decade, recalled the battle at Asakai, where a total of 12 titans were destroyed, at that time – an absolute record.

Several months have passed, and the war that began on Halloween and has been going on for a long time has finally presented us with a battle that will forever remain in the history of the game – as the first largest super-capital battle in which 75 titans died.

But, a little background.

The fighting in Eve has long crossed the line of alliance wars, the time has come for the wars of coalitions, numbering 10-20 thousand people on each side. It all started with the violation of the non-aggression pact between the Alliances Against All Authoritets (AAA) and the N3 coalition. The initiator, moreover, more than once, was block N3, they attacked border systems and tried to destroy the TCU (Territorial Claim Unit – a structure that “designates” the alliance of the owner of the system) and establish their SBU (Sovereignty Blockade Unit – a structure necessary to “interrupt” the rights per system). In response to these actions, the alliances Darkness of Despair (DD), AAA, Solar Fleet (SF) and Black Legion (BL) formed the DTF coalition, or as it is also called Halloween Koalishen. Later they were joined by the alliances Razor, CVA, Darkness; About a month ago, the Goonswarm Alliance (CFC) also announced its entry into the war. On the enemy side were the Nulli Secunda alliances, the Northen Coalition, the Pandemic Legion, and many smaller pet alliances.

It would seem that the Halloween coalition is larger and more powerful, but this is far from the case, before the CFC entered the war, there were very few super capital class ships on our side. So, for example, only PL had more than 150 titans, more than all DTF combined, while CFCs have many titans (the total number is still not known). Nevertheless, the battles without the participation of capital and super capital class ships “ours” in most cases won. The war, which began very actively, in the end became more like “space ping-pong”, some take the systems – others beat them off.

On January 19 of this year, a battle was supposed to take place, which could have become the largest, but … In total, 4 thousand people were crammed into the system, the huge DTF fleet consisting of dreadnoughts did not load due to lags caused by the N3 carriers ( capital class ship, comparable to modern aircraft carriers), which in the amount of 350+ pieces. released drones. The losses amounted to about 200 dreadnoughts – this was a very strong blow to the Halloween coalition. There was a feeling that this was a turning point in the war, and far from in our favor.

And so, on January 27 at 7.40 GMT, in the B-R5RB system, which belongs to the Nulli Secunda alliance, which is in the N3 coalition, the claim suddenly fell (ie, the territory became a draw). The reason was a bug during the transfer of the claim (rights to the system), when one alliance transfers territory to another. This system was the regroup system of the Pandemic Legion alliance, a huge number of ships and modules were stored at the station, and having lost their claim, they also lost access to those stored on it.

Seeing that the system was a “draw,” scouts were immediately dispatched to find N3 installing TCUs in an attempt to regain ownership of the system.

At 14.00 GMT, the CFC, DD and Razor fleets decide to gather fleets and try to interfere with N3, have collected about 300-400 ships. The fleet consisted of a small number of dreadnoughts, the main composition was on the Battleships (Dominix), however, they quickly managed to destroy the enemy TCU, install their own TCU and capture the station. The rights to the station went to the Razor alliance.

N3, of course, seeing all this chaos, gathers the fleet, choosing its favorite format – Wreking Ball, consisting of Matherships and Titans. Having formed a fleet, they entered the system and rushed to the station, simultaneously from the station began to undock (undock) carriers and dreadnoughts PL. Realizing that there is nothing to catch with a fleet of 300-400 people, a decision is made to introduce a fleet of dreadnoughts into the system. N3 responds with the introduction of additional super capitals and the fire of the titans (Doomsday is the most destructive weapon, the main caliber of the titans, reload time is 10 minutes), some of the dreadnoughts burst from the alpha (i.e. immediately, under focused fire).

This moment is perhaps the key one, and this is where the whole “epic” begins. Seeing the allies’ dreadnoughts bursting from the alpha and realizing that the main weapons of the titans would be silent for at least another 10 minutes (there was also a danger that all this could be a planned trap), a decision was made to bring the titans into battle with the support of the mother ships.

Fleets of titans CFC, Razor, supported by carriers and mother ships, open massive fire on the enemy. Carriers and mother ships release fighters (Fighter for carriers and Fighter Bomber for mother ships), several thousand fighters cause lags in the system, a decision is made not to release drones from battleships, fearing a node crash (when the server turns off the cluster responsible for the system).
The DTF Titans successfully work out Doomsday against the N3 / PL Titans, the enemy suffers the first losses.

The enemy continues to throw dreadnoughts / titans / mother ships into battle. At the same time, the enemy’s fleet on spoilers enters the system (ships of the frigate class, very small, are designed to intercept, specifically in this battle their role was in the destruction of the Havidiktors, who set up a field that prevents the enemy from warping out of the battle). The fleet of spoilers is rowing, battle spikes with smart bombs work on them, the enemy fleet is in dense “bubbles” of Havidiktors (HD), when trying to go out of the field, HDs install new ones.

The enemy reloads the main caliber, the first losses of the CFC titans (the first to die is a titan of the Leviathan class). Both sides continue to form fleets and throw them into battle, people who have lost ships are transferred to new ones. Titans and Matherships work on the titans of the enemy, dreadnoughts – on the dreadlocks of the enemy and carriers. The scales begin to fluctuate, coordination goes on in the chat, the targets are named, broadcasts pass and then the focused fire of the titans. There are about 1600-1800 people in the system.

Fleetcoms DD, Solar Fleet and AAA decide to throw all the titans into battle, to the aid of the titans CFC and Razor. Covert Ops (ships of special operations) “light up cino” (a beacon that allows the fleet located in the jump radius in other systems to jump on the beacon signal) and about 25 titans rush right into the very center of the enemy formation, with a coordinated blow carrying away “to the next world” titans N3 / PL. After the battle, Lazarus will write with a CFC fighter that it was this maneuver of the Russians that decided the outcome of the battle (We couldn’t have won without RusRus their supercap and titan numbers played a large role in the fight. In the middle of the fight they jumped in 10- 25 more titans when we needed DDs most.).

With the destruction of a part of the enemy titans, the focused fire decreases, and titans and dreadnoughts of allies die less and less often. Realizing this, the enemy introduces all the forces at the moment, the allies also keep up and throw dreadnoughts from the rear and introduce more supercapital. Information passes that the Black Legion has moved into the B-R5RB on dreadnoughts, cyno beacons are lit, and a fleet of BL Naglfar and Moros dreadnoughts enters. The number of pilots in the system increases at its peak to 2600-2700. There is a 10% slowdown, one second of playing time – 10 seconds of real time, lags, the buttons for activating weapons “stick”, because of this, titans of the Ragnarok CFC class die. For one killed titan, the enemy pays with two of his own.

The scales continue to fluctuate, Ragnaroks CFC are dying, in response there are attacks on the titans of the enemy of the Erebus class (they give a tangible role-based bonus on the amount of armor for the fleet). At this moment, the enemy gives the order to shoot the Avatar-class titan of the pilot SortDragon with a fleece, massive fire goes on him. The Avatar pilot manages to re-fit into a double tank. The distance to the titans of the enemy is on average 5-6 km, there is practically “cutting with axes”. SortDragon’s avatar slowly but surely loses its armor, does not try to leave the battle. During the time spent on killing him, N3 / PL loses 5 of his titans.

With the destruction of all enemy Erebus, they are deprived of bonuses for armor and they do not have enough DPS, explosions from dying allied ships are less and less visible. The destruction of the Ragnaroks N3 begins, the support fleet “siphons out” its own, but one of the DD titans dies, tk. he is thrown out of the game, they did not have time to pump it out due to the fact that the modules were turned off during the client crash.

The enemy’s flit gives the order to get up in acceleration and be ready to leave the battle, the dreadnoughts are given the order to Free Fire on our dreadlocks. Allied dreadnoughts suffer heavy losses, but this reduces the damage to our supercapital, giving the titans the ability to shoot the enemy without hindrance.

The remnants of the spoilers’ fleets and drones launched from the enemy’s carriers destroy the Havidictors, because of this, part of the enemy’s fleet has time to withdraw from the battle. An order is given to destroy the Avatars remaining on the battlefield, while the Matherships are ordered to work out with fighterbombers on the enemy’s dreadlocks, dreadnoughts explode one by one under the fire of fighters.

The outcome of the battle is already clear to everyone, the enemy is not trying to resist. Already in the morning, in the regroup system, some of the people leave the fleet, people need to go to work and sleep for a couple of hours. Some 1600+ people remain in the system. CFC throws more carries and super into the battle, you need to catch up to the diesel fuel and replace those that have left the battle (server maintenance, takes 15 -20 minutes), as this can save the remaining enemy ships.

All titans on the battlefield are destroyed, the execution of the carriers (Archon type) begins, then the fleets go to the regroup systems, a combined fleet of battle spikes remains near the station to protect the station from its possible capture.

The battle lasted 18+ hours, a total of 75 titans, 14 mother ships, 370 dreadnoughts and 123 carryers were destroyed, the capital losses have not yet been calculated, the eve-kill site has not correctly calculated this figure yet.