Pandemic Cohort

So… B-R5RB happened, Pandemic Legion lost between a third and half of their titans (pardon if the numbers aren’t quite right; I don’t know exactly how many they have, but 59 is a lot), and took a drumming to the tune of 4.5 trillion isk.

I have to respect them for escalating.  If there ever was a time to escalate – with the majority of your war assets locked in a station you can’t access – this was it.  And Eve got the massive supercap brawl it always wanted.  Nor did it dissapoint… 21 hours, nearly a thousand capital+ ships gone, the seventy five titans…

It was epic.

But now that it’s over, I admit to feeling a little disappointed.  But I’ll get to that later.

Why might some other people be disappointed?  Well, the majority of Eve is probably a little sad that this great battle didn’t result in the destruction of the CFC.  Titans were really the only possible threat – a large enough threat that CFC fleet commanders had to seriously think before every battle, lest N3/PL simply drop their supers and tip the scales.  That threat is now gone, and I don’t really see any barriers to the CFC rolling over pretty much anyone they want.  Yes, N3 will put up a mighty fight, and they’ll most assuredly win some timers, but I think it’s safe to say an existential threat has been eliminated – or at least a significant bit of time must pass before the CFC faces that threat again (after all, I’m sure PL will rebuild).

CFC alliances are probably going to be a little sad that the anticipatory even of their time in the CFC is in the rear window, rather than the future.  In the future, an epic brawl holds so many possibilities, but once it comes, all those possibilities distill down to a single experience, and one experience is never as satisfying as the sum total of “what if” games people had been playing.  That’s a little sad, even though everyone involved was pretty sure it was an epic fight.

PL is obviously going to be disappointed, since they took the majority of the beating and the reputation and outright fear they earned over all these years is somewhat reduced.  I’d expect them to carry out a high-profile titan drop very soon just to remind everyone that only some of their titans were destroyed, not all of them, and that it only takes one titan to bridge an entire fleet onto someone, and only one cyno to bridge more titans than most people have ever seen on someone.  But they’re facing the prospect of either building their own titans – likely in B0T space), or paying the usurious prices titans have risen to in recent days.  150 billion isk for a titan is a little steep, and PL could find themselves back up to force, but with no war chest remaining, though I suspect even PL would have problems replacing so many titans at that price.  They are a fraction of what they were before B-R5.  A sizeable fraction, of course, and even a Roman cohort could do serious damage, but not as much as a whole legion.

And N3 are likely extremely disappointed at losing an ally.  This will turn the south into Tribute II at best, and a complete collapse at worst (I’m betting they keep up their resistance and demonstrate their resiliency).  It’s worth noting that N3 leadership is repsonding as well as you could hope.  They’re retreating to a more defensible position and regrouping with an eye to resuming the fight.  I’m certain PL’s withdrawal from the war is going to throw them for a loop, but they’re playing the cards they've been dealt quite calmly, and you have to respect that.

Personally, I’m torn.  This was the best possible outcome for the CFC, and for that, I’m delighted.  I had actually just re-joined Razor, and my comms roles hadn't yet trickled down during the day, so I wasn’t able to participate in anything but a small side conflict to save one of our Titans that had been tackled.  I was flying around, guessing at the anchor and following primaries through the fleet window, since I couldn’t yet hear the FC in Teamspeak.

But I’m also a little sad that PL is leaving the war.  The scope will diminish, the fear will diminish, and as a result, some of the excitement will be gone.  Sure, I’ll still lose ships, but the escalation process probably isn’t going to be as unpredictable anymore.

Maybe it’s just that after every massive high, everything else seems a little fainter (maybe).  Or maybe I’m just bummed I wasn’t able to participate (probably).  In either case, it’s still a good day for the CFC.  And for that, I’m delighted.

Awesome Side Notes

1) First, The Mittani definitely knows how to do it right.  He doesn’t need to make a big speech, or announce how awesome his coalition is.  Instead, he uses his opponents’ words against them.  “If a super 'fight' actually happens, it isn't going to be an actual fight, it is going to be a [gang rape of the CFC].”¹  I love it.

2) For those of you who haven’t seen it, look at around 3:20 of this video.  The first salvos of doomsdays before this point are mostly N3/PL hitting the dreads of the CFC; the concentrated burst demonstrates the CFC strategy of hitting the N3/PL titans.  I was mesmerized.

3) For those of you who were curious, the term Titanomachy comes from Greek history, and was the war between the Titans and the Olympians.  Now, it’ll be a tourist destination in B-R5.

4) And a bonus one... From time to time, when I plug hyperlinks into blogger, it removes a space randomly from the text I'm linking.  In this case, it changed the sentence above to read, "And N3 are likely extremely disappointed at losing anally."  No, I'm not making this up!