News Bulletin: BK4-YC, Amarr, KBP7-G

A brief news bulletin for the residents of Providence covering the recent developments in and around the region.

BK4-YC system, Providence region

Curatores Veritatis Alliance [CVA] lost sovereignty over the system after downtime on the 21st of June. Sources claim the loss was due to unpaid bills by the corporation which owned the system at the time, The Ostrogoths. 

Logistics problems caused the system to remain unclaimed long enough for Northern Coalition(dot) [NC] forces to take notice. Attempts to reclaim the system were rebuffed by [NC] Super Carriers, with the station conquered by them as well. 

After a day of back and forth with Providence Bloc and [NC] destroying each others' Territorial Claim Units, [NC] managed to get out with its hand on top, taking the system. 

The loss of the system is further aggravating as it allows [NC] a safe staging in the middle of the Providence region, from which it can strike at the R3-K7K system, the last relatively safe gateway to the region.

Amarr system, Domain region 

The Burn Amarr campaign has concluded. From downtime on the 19th to downtime of the 22nd of June, Imperium forces (Formerly CFC) camped the space lanes leading to the Amarr system in Domain. For the 3 day period, no Freighter or Industrial were safe traveling to and around Amarr. Though the event officially ended, remnants may still linger, travelers are advised to exercise caution.

KBP7-G system, Providence region

 

Fighting continues over the system, as [NC] forces push to take the system and sever Northern Providence from Empire space. A battle occurred between [NC] and Providence Bloc over the final Infrastructure Hub timer, with Providence Bloc suffering defeat and losing the Infrastructure Hub. A full article covering the fight will be posted at a later date.

News: Burn Amarr Confirmed, Date Set

Burn Amarr has been confirmed and is scheduled to go ahead from the 19th of June onwards, according to unnamed sources. The event will see GoonSwarm Federation [CONDI] and their allies using disposable ships in order to suicide gank ships in the Amarr system, Domain region.

Unlike the usual suicide gank which is after high value ships and cargo, this event will see ships targeted regardless of cost. Since the Amarr system is one of the busiest trade hubs in New Eden, the operation is certain to disrupt logistics across the region, as well as the South and South-East of New Eden, as the hub is used to supply these regions with the equipment and materials needed to maintain fleets.

This event is considered a precursor to the Imperium's invasion of the Providence region in order to uproot loyalists of the so-called False Empress. Pilots flying under the banner of Providence Bloc are advised to use alternative trade hubs and avoid the Amarr system entirely as long as the event continues. Stocking on ships and equipment before the event starts is recommended as well.

Below is the post released by [CONDI] leadership:

BURN AMARR STARTS 19TH JUNE

  

A Life's Work, Ending Lives

The Ministry of Love was founded three years ago, just after the original Burn Jita, an event so inspiring and powerful that it spawned a renewed and powerful passion for suicide ganking, well beyond that of past jihadfleets or ice interdictions or Hulkageddons. Each year, we've gotten cheaper and better at grinding Jita's freighter and jump freighter traffic to an utter and unequivocal halt - as evidenced by the following destruction figures:

- Burn Jita Classic: 518.47 billion ISK all up

- Burn Jita 2: 578.35 billion ISK all up

- Burn Jita 2014: 586.7 billion ISK in freighters, jump freighters, and Orcas alone.

And now, as the Imperium, we turn our eyes to that other trade hub, home of the false Empress (no, not the crappy 0.5 hub that would be a sheer joke to interdict). The Imperium will not tolerate heresy, and it is our duty to purge all unbelieving and unrepentant fools that choose to inhabit or otherwise utilize this apostate bed of false idols. And, with Amarr burned to the ground, we will move on to the next great victory - Providence, where Unbeliever moneychangers toil and hoard their measly specks of property.

Preparation for the Second Coming

The God-Emperor needs you ready to spread his wrath. Take careful heed to these directions (seriously read this shit it's really crucial to our success).

 -Staging, Security, and Other Preparation-

Staging: Our fleets will be running out of Amarr VIII (music) - Moon 4 - Expert Distribution Retail Center. Ensure that you have a jump clone at that station far in advance of the 19th, and ensure that you set your medical clone there before you begin spreading the Word. (This is crucial - you will get podded. Non-implanted clones are welcomed and advised).

Security Status: I give not one half a flying fuck what your security status is. Miniluv has, in the past year, adapted to leading fleets composed mainly of -10 security status pilots. If you feel you need the shield of a good security status, feel free - but leaving because "oh my sec is too low" will not be a thing.

Other Prep - Skill Training: Extremely important - ensure that you train this brief skillplan IMMEDIATELY in order to participate in Burn Amarr

Other Prep - Overview: Download this overview pack and put it into your c:/Users/{username}/My Documents/EVE/overview folder. You will want to import it and activate it before Burn Amarr.

Other Prep - Instadock bookmarks: If you warp to the staging station at 0 normally, you will die - trust me. While you are setting up your medclone/jump clone, undock from the staging station, and make a bookmark where you are in space - name it Burn Amarr Staging Instadock. When you need to get into the staging station, warp to that bookmark instead of the actual staging station, then manually dock.

-Date/Time-

We will be running from June 19th (Friday) after downtime (1100) to downtime on June 22nd (Monday), or, more likely, until we run out of Catalysts.

-Ships and Training (*important*)*-

You will be provided as many Catalysts as you can use, free of charge. The Ministry of Love, my SIG and the premier highsec ganking entity in all of EVE Online, has prepared over 15,000 fitted Catalysts for your use.

Extremely important - ensure that you train this brief skillplan IMMEDIATELY in order to participate in Burn Amarr

You are welcome to bring your own stock of ships! We recommend any of the following:

- T1 or T2 blaster Catalyst

- T1 or T2 autocannon Thrasher

- T1 artillery Thrasher

- Coercers of any flavor (because Amarr supremacy - watch out though, faction crystal cost per suicide is somewhat prohibitive)

- T1 artillery Tornados for the extra-rich

Fits for some of these can be found on the extremely helpful Miniluv wiki link).)

Reimbursement is:

Reimbursement for Burn Jita Amarr is posted to the affordable care app.  Reimbursement for GSF is as follows:

- Catalyst: 10mil

- Brutix: 50mil

- Tornado: 60mil

- Talos: 85mil

Given the fact that we are handing out 15,000 catalysts for FREE, yes, you can get paid for showing up and shooting bads.

 

Support Roles and a Call for FCs-

As with every year, Ministers and non-Ministers alike playing support roles are key to the success of any Burn event. We ask you to consider providing the following support:

Handing out ships: We have more than 15,000 hulls that will need handing out over the Burn Amarr weekend. A single player can only hold about 1000 per hangar. Ya dig? SP requirement: None

Cargo/ship scanning: We would like to know what cargo we're ganking and what fits our victims have - that's where you come in. Recommended scanner fit here. SP requirement: 1-day train's worth of SP Requires non-wardecced, non-killright character

Bumping: Just what it sounds like. Grab a Typhoon, Panther, Machariel, or whatever suits your fancy, and knock some freighters around until we're able to nail them. SP requirement: Small, 20-day train Requires non-wardecced, non-killright character

Hauling: Grab a Deep Space Transport (sample fit here), get a ton of Mobile Tractor Units, and help us scoop delicious loot. SP requirement: Small, 20-day train Requires non-wardecced, non-killright character

FCs: If you know it, you can do it. If you can do it, we need your support. RSVP with me and let me know when you can do fleets (CLEAR YOUR CALENDAR). SP requirement: butt

Intricacies of Amarr's Geography

Amarr is a trade hub, but it's also a transport hub - there is a lot of movement out to a lot of more minor local hubs that goes through Amarr. Jita, by comparison, is where EVERYTHING flows to. That means that Amarr will provide for interesting route interdiction.

On Amarr's security: the 1.0 CONCORD response is very much like the 0.9 Jita CONCORD response. Dunna' worry.

On "lawd the Goons is dead can't even burn jita:" Really, Goons and the Imperium put out more actually fun events like this one than anyone else in EVE Online. If we are dead, then we are dying laughing.

That's it. Get ready. Fuck 'em up.

Providence Bloc leadership responded to the news with the following link: You are Provibloc

News: Providence Bloc Fishes for Supers, Nets a Titan Kill

Valmu system, Domain region. On the 29th of March, at 19:04 EVE Standard Time, Providence Bloc managed to snare an Avatar Titan and an Aeon Mothership belonging to Nihilists Social Club [NULL].

[NULL], along with other groups in the Low Security regions bordering Providence itself, have long been a thorn in its' residents side, complicating logistics and dropping their super capital fleets uncontested to win strategic timers.

However, with the Phoebe changes, this behavior can lead to some disastrous results, as [NULL] learned first hand.

Providence Bloc decided to set a trap for [NULL]'s super capital fleet. A bait fleet of 30 pilots, in Ishtar Heavy Assault Cruisers was assembled, along with a couple of Dreadnoughts and a support Carrier. At the same time, a Heavy Interdictor was set cloaked beforehand in the system, and reinforcements in the shape of more Heavy Interdictors and Bhaalgorn Battleships were logged off in the nearby system of Mamet. A Capital strike force was prepared to jump at a moment's notice from Providence itself.

The bait fleet quickly attacked one of the [NULL] Towers in the system, bringing in the two Dreadnoughts and the Carrier. As the Dreadnoughts started shooting the Tower, a Cynosural beacon lit up only thirty kilometers away from them, and a [NULL] Avatar, accompanied by two Aeons and a Nyx Mothership jumped on the grid.

Quickly, the Titan used its doomsday device on one of the Dreadnoughts, while the other was quickly targeted by the fighter bombers of its escorts and melted away. However, at this point Providence Bloc sprung their trap, and their Heavy Interdictor un-cloaked, warped on top of the Cynosural beacon lit by [NULL] and lit its own, ushering in the Providence Bloc Capital strike force, some 18 assorted Capitals in total. At the same time, the reinforcements next door logged in and started pouring in, as calls were made for other active fleets to come down and help.

The Providence Bloc Dreadnoughts set to work on the first Aeon, while the second one attempted and succeeded to enter the Tower's shiled, due to some bad bumps made by Providence Bloc's sub capital fleet. The Nyx managed to warp off as soon as the Dreadnoughts showed on field, leaving the Titan tackled behind.

As more Providence Bloc reinforcements poured in, the first Aeon finally succumbed to the intense punishment poured on top of it by the Dreadnoughts and focus quickly shifted to the Avatar. [NULL] itself called for its allies to help, and a Hax(dot) Apocalypse Navy Issue gang, with Triage Carrier support, numbering less than 20 pilots bridged in to try and help. However, they were quickly occupied and swept away by the much large Providence Bloc sub capital fleet, which ballooned to almost a 170 pilots by then.

The Titan was destroyed as Hax(dot) reinforcements came in, and a short battle erupted between them and Providence Bloc on the Tower. yet, sustaining losses to the much larger Providence Bloc fleet and with the Titan already lost, caused them to quickly withdraw. 

Holding the field, Providence Bloc managed to extract its Capital strike force safely, looting their foes and celebrating a hard earned victory.

Video of the Battle from the Perspective of one of the Heavy Interdictors (Courtesy of Mangraa Dementia)

Battle report for the Valmu system can be found here.

All in all, the system hosted almost 250 pilots at the end of the fighting, with the vast majority belonging to Providence Bloc. Time Dilation was not a factor in the fighting, unnoticeable by the participants. 

Providence Bloc lost 4 Capital ships as well as 43 sub capitals for a total ISK value of 18 Bil. [NULL] and its allies lost a Titan, a Mothership, 3 Capital ships as well as 14 sub capitals for a total ISK damage of 143 Bil ISK.

This engagement proves to be another example of the post Phoebe EVE universe, where the usage of unsupported Capital and Super Capital fleets can lead to disastrous results, and jump range changes as well as fatigue mechanic limit the number of allies that are able to help.

Special thanks to Judiciary Pag, of Usually Harmless, Tin Can Alliance, Fardendur, of W.A.S.P, Curatores Veritatis Alliance and vyshnegradsky, of Pentag Blade, Curatores Veritatis Alliance for granting interviews and materials, as well as Mangraa Dementia, of Blue Tridents, Sev3rance for the video of the fight.

News: Providence Bloc Locks Horns with Low Sec Entities over Moons in the Ziriert System

Ziriert System, Domain region. On the 27th of February, 20:16 EVE Time, Providence Bloc engaged a fleet belonging to Low Security space entities such as Nihilists Social Club, Legion's(dot) and Resonance(dot) alliances, over the control of an R64 moon in the system. The fight quickly escalated, with both sides dropping Capitals and bringing reinforcements, including a Titan.

Providence Bloc fielded a 200 pilot fleet divided into a Navy Issue Apocalypse Battleship main force, an Ishtar Heavy Assault Cruiser skirmish wing, a Maulus Frigate Electronic Warfare wing and a Capital task force which included 10 Dreadnaughts and 6 Carriers. 

Against them the Low Sec entities organized a Navy Apocalypse Battleship fleet of their own, consisting of 30 pilots, with Triage Carrier support. They contacted Pandemic Legion beforehand for support, and as the fight started, it brought a mixed Legion\Proteus Strategic Cruiser fleet of 76 pilots.

Providence Bloc forces were the first to enter system, situating their sub-capital fleet on the tower itself and keeping their Capital force in reserve. A Cynosural beacon was lit 250 km away from the tower, and the Low Sec entities bridged their fleet in, including Triage Carriers and Tracking Dreadnaughts. 

Providence Bloc forces warped to the cynosural beacon at 30 km, thus signaling the start of the fighting. Both forces slugged it out, and once it became clear the enemy Carriers were in Triage mode, Providence Bloc lit their own Cynosural beacon and let their Capital task force onto the field. With their Dreadnaughts entering Siege mode, the enemy's Triage Carriers were quickly disposed, allowing Providence Bloc to focus on the enemy's Navy Apocalypses. 

However, even with their Triage support gone, the enemy's Navy Apocalypses turned to be quite a challenge, as their pilots were told beforehand to bring a full Slave implant set, generating a massive armor buffer that took a while for the Providence Bloc forces to chew through.

Pandemic Legion entered the fray during the Capital exchange, landing next to the Providence Bloc Logistics wing, and managing to nab a few. With the Pandemic Legion reinforcements on the field, the Low Sec entities felt confident enough to bridge in an Avatar Titan along with a Hel and two Aeon Motherships. The Super-Capital force warped to the grid and started clearing the Providence Bloc Dreadnaughts, who were busy destroying the remaining Low Sec entities' Navy Apocalypses. 

Providence Bloc quickly changed its focus to the Super-Capital force, targeting the Hel, but unable to break its tank. When it became apparent that they could not break the Mothership's tank, and with Pandemic Legion on the field, as well as the Avatar, the decision was made to start extracting the remaining Capital ships. A mad race began between Providence Bloc clearing sub-Capitals and Pandemic Legion and the Low Sec entities clearing Capitals.

With their enemies bringing more Triage Carriers, the presence of the Titan and its Mothership escorts, and losing most of their support ships, Providence Bloc decided to concede the field, managing to extract most of their sub-capital fleet as well as some of their Capitals safely. 

For the Low Sec entities and their Pandemic Legion allies, once Providence Bloc disengaged, they withdraw as well, allowing Providence Bloc to keep the moon and bringing an end to the fighting.

 Video of the fighting, from Providence Bloc's perspective

The exchange saw Providence Bloc lose 5 Dreadnaughts, 3 Carriers and 44 sub-capital ships for a total of 27 Bil ISK in damages, while their enemies lost 2 Dreadnaughts, 3 Carriers and 32 sub-capitals, for a total of 32 Bil ISK in damages.

Battle Report for the Ziriert System can be found here.

The battle lasted for 40 minutes, during the peak of which the system saw more than 350 pilots in it. Time Dilation proved to be a major factor in the fighting, varying between 40-70% throughout. Several players complained of lag issues, such as no transition between losing ships and pods, modules not cycling correctly and other lag connected issues.

Honoring their fallen Capitals, as taken from CVA Forums

Regardless, both sides agreed that it was an enjoyable fight, and look forward to having similar brawls in the future.

Special thanks to Jin'taan, of Pentag Blade, Curatores Veritatis Alliance and Archeras Umangiar, of Delian Legion, Legion's(dot) Alliance for granting interviews.

News: Two Evictus(dot) Motherships Destroyed in the Tastela System [Updated]

Tastela system, Domain region. On the 13th of July, 19:06 EVE Standard Time, two Mothership class Capital ships belonging to Evictus(dot) Alliance were destroyed by a Pandemic Legion Alliance fleet.

The two Motherships, a Nyx and Wyvern class ships, were spotted in the system by Pandemic Legion and its allies, who investigated the Cynosural beacon to which the two jumped to, only to discover the ships. Rushing Heavy Interdictor class ships unto the field, fitted with Cynosural Field generators, the initial force managed to tackle the two Motherships, who did not manage to warp to the safety of a nearby friendly tower in time, and lit their own Cynosural beacons, allowing a large force of Mothership and Carrier class Capital ships to jump into the system and destroy the ships.

While the Nyx class Mothership was quickly dispatched by the Pandemic Legion's initial force, the Wyvern class Mothership was kept tackled for a few more minutes, in order to allow reinforcements to reach the system in time and participate in its destruction, as evident by a video detailing the entire event. 

A Clip detailing the destruction of the two Motherships, courtesy of JSSix, of CRY.NET, Nihilists Social Club Alliance

By the end of the battle, more than fifty Mothership class Capital ships were present on the field. Reports from the Pandemic Legion side claim the entire affair was organized ad hoc in response to the discovery of the two ships. 

Update
Gibguard, of FireStar Inc, Evictus Alliance Executor had the following response "Evictus were deploying outside of Providence, we had successfully deployed the bulk of our Supers. As is becoming increasingly the norm within EVE one or other of the big blobs (in this case Pandemic Legion) decided to hot dropped two late arrivals while they were traveling. As they say shit happens, both pilots have had the loses SRP'd we learn and move on"
 
The Full EVE-Kill Battle Report can be found here.

Special thanks to JSSix, of CRY.NET, Nihilists Social Club Alliance for providing the initial report and the video evidence and Gibguard, of Firestar Inc, Evictus Alliance for providing an official response to the incident.

Bulletin: Patch Day

Every patch brings new features, some very unexpected, as one Capsuleer found out. 

Lighting a cynosural beacon in the Sibot system, located in the Domain region, an EVE player was amazed to see not one appear, but two cynosural beacons at the same spot. Thinking it was a strange coincidence, the pilot checked his cargo hold, only to find his entire liquid ozone reserve spent. Weirder still, his cynosural generator was not cycling, even though he definitely activated it, and had two cynosural beacons as proof to boot.

 Cynosural beacon mitosis

Most people would have chucked it as a bug and moved on, maybe bothering sending CCP a bug report, but our pilot had a more inquisitive mind, and wished to see just how far the bug extended before reporting it in. Deciding that he needed to up the scale a bit, he filled a Miasmos to the brim with liquid ozone, activated his cynosural generator and result was as follows:

cyno'ing for Pandemic Legion is hard work

Well, just like any kid with a match box and the sudden realization of what he can do with it, our pilot wished to do one final test: Fit an Iteron V with cargo hold expanders, a cynosural generator, and shove as much liquid ozone into it as possible. one hundred and sixty-four cynosural beacons engulfed the Sibot station at once, creating a dazzling light show that is just beautiful to behold.

Re-enactment of the B-R5RB battle

Of course, there was an urgent need to verify whether this bug was localized, or whether it effected all cynosural beacons. An ally was called to test the theory in Providence, verifying that the anomaly was indeed, restricted only to the Sibot system.

Well, I guess I won't get my own light show

Completing his tests, the pilot dutifully submitted his bug report, happy in the knowledge that he helped improve the game in a little bit.

A recording of the final test with the EVE Scribe reporter present

As of the time of writing, the cynosural beacons are still up and visible in the Sibot system, well past their cycle time.

Special thanks are in order for Dragoshi and Escobar of Astrum Fidelis of Apocalypse Now. Alliance, for bringing this story to my attention

Breaking News: Against ALL Authorities Titan Destroyed

Things have been bleak for Against ALL Authorities these last few days. First, they lose a staging system, then Darkness of Despair disbands, leaving an entire flank exposed in RUS Coalition's side, not to mention the loss of many valuable pilots, and now they lose a titan.

The titan in question, a Leviathan, was purchased by Carinia of Blackwater Swat. only two days before and was still travel fitted. Unknown to Carinia, Black Legion tracks titan sale threads. The moment she posted on the thread, Black Legion started running locator agents on her. Once the titan sale was finalized, Black Legion started forming up in order to hunt her down.

Her second piece of bad luck was to jump into Mai system in the Domain region. FrEeSoUl5150, member of Mafia Redux, Phobia. Alliance, noticed the cyno in system and immediately acted upon it. "Well he cyno'd in at a safe spot in the middle of nowhere. I had a cloaked alt in system and warped directly to the cyno. HoneyPot Glaze and myself started bumping the titan. We weren't able to keep him in place and he warped off. I logged on two more toons and gave chase as well as dropped probes. He warped to planet II at one hundred kilometers, we thought he went to sun but he wasn't there [of course].  Bil Tuesday warped there at random and got a de-cloak on the titan but couldn't hold him. That's when he went to belt VII-Six. I was doing a d-scan and cought him on a five degree scan and warped my Heavy Interdictor and my Megathron there. Right as I landed he de-cloaked fifteen kilometers off of my Heavy Interdictor and I got the hard tackle. Once we got that hard tackle is when I started to bat phone...".*

Tackled titans make for strange bed fellows, especially in Low Security space. FrEeSoUl5150 contacted several entities in the region, including, funnily enough, Sev3rence,a member Alliance of the Providence Block, who holds Phobia. Alliance as an enemy. N00b FO0, of Sev3rence, told his side of the story "Well, some of my friends poked me, saying 'N00b, we got an enemy titan of Provi-Block tackled, we need your help'. So I Jump Cloned over, and called over a few guys from the Alliance, some of which got there in time, and some of them didn't. I was just psyched when I saw that it was an -A- [Titan], Providence Victor man".*

Black Legion, of course, were contacted as well by Phobia. Alliance, who their leadership keeps close ties with. Though mostly based around a US time zone, Black Legion had already a sizable gang formed, which was bridged into the system with the help of Phobia. Alliance. At that point, the titan was already going down, and the arrival of Black Legion only hastened its demise. 

At no point did Against ALL Authorities try to extract the titan, or form up a rescue fleet, possibly due to the fact the titan was newly purchased and not known to their leadership. Regardless, no contacts from -A- were available for comment, including the titan pilot.

With the current political upheaval in the sector, this might not be the last titan to be lost in Low Security space.

Chribba learning of the fate of the titan he just helped transfer

Elo Knight commanding the Black Legion gang from his bed

Special thanks are in order to Nan VanDoom, Black Legion's media contact, N00b FO0 of Sev3rence Alliance and FrEeSoUl5150 of Phobia. Alliance, for their contributions to this article.

*Alterations were made to the original conversation in order to strengthen narrative, as well as fix grammar and spelling mistakes.