Diplomacy, a boardgame created by Allan Calhammer in the 1950s, has since been a popular past time among undergraduate and graduate students of various political and policy majors as well as having a presence beyond the academic. The game, in and by itself, doesn’t seem that impressive nor is it very interesting – until you get to the “negotiating phase.” The basic premise is that you have a map with Europe’s pre-WW1 borders and pick a country such as Italy or England to play as. In my class we divided up into groups so aside from the “international” aspect of it, there was a bit of domestic dispute to settle as well as different members have different ideas about how to approach enemies and allies.

It gave me a fairly basic taste of things to come and, in that same spirit, Eve allows a certain freedom to occur which requires a particular play style to fully grasp the game. For many people a fleet is a fleet is a fleet and who they shoot or why they are shooting them does not occupy many of their thoughts. Some have a basic grasp of “if we do A, B will happen.” But those who delve a little bit deeper, will consider that “if we do A, B, C, D, E and perhaps F will happen.” It’s also important to know that you can likewise be blinded by too much analysis and the true talent comes in not in being able to analyze everything but knowing what to analyze.

For better or for worse some have come to know me as a meta gamer of sorts, especially in the past year or so where I haven’t had as much free time as I once had. You can imagine my delight when I had found out that Brave Newbies’s scuffle with Provibloc had turned into a “serious war.” The motivations behind it are fairly irrelevant as no one’s particularly sure for the specific reason although propaganda on both sides will point to this or that item in order to have a banner to rally around.

I’ve been a pretty big supporter of BNI since joining my own alliance. It was exciting to see another group possibly emerge in 0.0. At the time, BNI did not even hold any sov and the current of opinion among many in BNI was to invade Geminate. My opinion was that this suggestion was coming forth from individuals that did not have BNI’s best interests in mind. I recommended Catch due to it being held by a weak RUS bloc. By invading the region they would garner support from N3 as well as have immunity from direct conflict with the CFC who had just pulled out of the region at the time to “deal with issues at home.” Facilitating a good relationship between BNI and CVA seemed like a logical next step and I was surprised to find out that BNI had been banned from CVA diplo channels. With help from Ironpig (Sev) we managed to at least open up communication channels between the two. Canaris of Nulli and other N3 members of leadership were also responsive to backing BNI up in their take over of Catch.

Fast forward to the past couple of weeks and BNI has done a fairly good job at fighting Provibloc. Mind you Nulli, a veteran of 0.0 bloc warfare, did not have the easiest time fighting Provibloc. As the conflict dragged on, it was only a matter of time before the RUS bloc, which has spent the past few months in Stain licking its wounds, would emerge and strike at BNI, first in true “honorable third party” fashion and more recently on an official level supporting Provibloc. GE-8 is only a few jumps away from Stain while the BNI front is on the other side of Catch. So what can BNI do in order to avoid being hit on two fronts?

In order to do this they will need help from external forces. N3 hitting RUS if they decide to make too much of a show of force is more or less a given. But how do they push Provibloc to follow terms that are favorable to BNI, and what would those favorable terms be?

Propaganda has been firing on all pistons as is normal with most conflicts. June Ting of HERO put out a work painting Provibloc as being dominated by old crusty rigid CVA good ol’ boys using and abusing their members while HERO/BNI is suppose to be some sort of liberation. In more cases than not, nullsec powers are more similar to each other than different so I take that sort of sentiment with a grain of salt. However if this sort of propaganda catches traction, it can become problematic and act as a way to discredit CVA leadership. Oh the other end, HERO FC, Blueice is accused of headshoting FCs and listening in on Provibloc comms which according to some, is against BNI’s policy of keeping it classy and their “fun per hour” motto.

In truth I don’t want to see Provibloc go. I like that they are an entity and regardless of my support for BNI or what others may like to say about Provi, they’re a unique aspect of Eve that enriches the game through their existence. Their NRDS makes my NBSI more enjoyable. But either way that seems unlikely as grinding Provi would be a monumental task especially for a newer sov holding alliance such as BNI. Fighting them to the point where they can set favorable terms such as a non invasion pact or certain rights to stations or having the rest of Catch under BNI/HERO control would be a better bet. Want to have a fight? Go for it, but I think Provibloc and BNI/HERO have more to gain from each other. Both can value each other as sparring partners of a similar size. While Provibloc may not have any grand territorial aspiration, I think HERO can find better territory to spend resources on. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops in the coming weeks and months.