Editor’s Note: For the past month, Vily has been keeping a diary of his work as one of the most active FCs in the Moneybadger Coalition, fighting World War Bee. With Vily’s cooperation, we publish that diary now, with minimal editing, to provide our readers with insight into the raw, unfiltered views of a bloc-level FC managing a complex war on a daily basis. Tone and style differ substantially from our traditional content, but we believe the immediacy of Vily’s impressions of the war and his activities are best conveyed directly, rather than through a more traditionally structured piece. What follows are the first three diary entries, covering March 20-22.

Day 1: March 20

I didn’t do a ton today, mostly helping a bunch of capitals move along the cyno chain, and moving some ships I had sitting in Otsasai into Obe. I got myself sorted with access to coalition military command. That was a biggie, but the program they are using was causing me a ton of memory loss and fucking with my computer though. I had to install an app to run it. Also watched probably half or more of the new season of Daredevil, very excellent show. Just before I formed my fleet I watched a Vagabond fucking with the P3EN-E gatecamp. I undocked an old shield Machariel and warped over to the P3EN-E gate. The Vaga was still tanking the mostly-frigate gang at the time. Surprise, motherfucker. He died. The time then came to lead a fleet out. https://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=32951790

I formed Maelstroms in Obe. We started the operation by funneling some capitals from Hakonen into Obe, and then Maelstroms in from Jita for the poorly prepared. Sort Dragon was taking out a Cerberus fleet to do some work and I felt that a core fleet would really supplement that well. NC. Also had a Cerberus/nano fleet of 100+ pilots rolling about. We had probably 80ish in fleet, and swelled up close to 80 or 90 after a reinforcement ping right before we attempted to force a fight. We basically blockaded several systems while Darkness did some Entosis work. LAWN/Bastion/CO2/GSF or some combination of those forces formed Hurricane gangs to fight, but would not commit to an actual engagement despite somewhat close numerical odds. We led the charge on two occasions attempting to provoke an engagement but were slow (as Maelstroms are) and unable to force the Canes into any engagement.

Eventually the Entosis work was done at which point I decided we would be best to head back. A group of Shadow Cartel T3 destroyers attempted to pick off a Maelstrom straggler in P3EN-E, forcing me to go back to save him to his surprise. This would be a good call, as his dangerously low shield health baited the T3Ds into staying too long, allowing the overly large amount of tackle (for a Maelstrom fleet) that I had to swarm them. This combined with the Maelstrom firepower and logistics allowed for a clean sweep of around a dozen Svipuls and Jackdaws at no cost. At this point we headed home and I called it a night. https://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=32952987

Day 2: March 21

Today was another exciting morning of preparation work, moving supercapitals quietly across shadowy regions under the nose of fervent hunters, shuttling more ships into Obe, and just doing a lot of little things. Plans were made throughout the day on coalition command about which timers we would focus on and where we would choose to strike. A general meeting was also held among the Vale commanders to determine priorities and strategies. I chewed threw all but the last couple episodes of Daredevil and ate delicious and unhealthy chicken wings while I waited for the fun to begin. As the night continued, on the first interesting timer approached. While a pre-ping had been sent out, a “keep an eye open” addendum was added.

I formed Stealth Bombers with Electron bombs. Leaving from Obe, traveling to a wormhole in Dantumi that would shave off 8 jumps with another 11 past that to E9KD-N. We left with just around 70 in fleet, almost all bombers, with a pair of Interdictors and Interceptors. When we arrived, we determined that the enemy would be forced to come into us, allowing us to prepare bookmarks and perches on all ingates of E9KD. With the word that a large enemy Machariel fleet was en route, we let our hearts quicken and our hopes rise. While our original expectation of a jump in from 6RCQ-V was incorrect, the enemy WOULD be forced to come in via FIO1-8. We repositioned and moved to our perches on this gate when the enemy was reported 5 out. At two jumps out I moved all 8 squads of bombers to closer positions around the gate: Wing 1 at 42km and Wing 2 at 45km.

As the enemy jumped in and decloaked, Wing 1 approached, waiting for their invuln timers to break then fired. As this happened, Wing 2 began their approach and soon fired their deadly salvos. This carpet bombing of all the space around the gate was effective and achieved the quite expected result of a double squad hit on almost all Machariels. It did not, however, hit the Hurricane fleet expected to have jumped in with them. I’m not sure if this is due to invuln timers, them not decloaking or them just not taking enough damage. Sadly, a random friendly bubble also caught a double squad of bombers dead center, costing a dozen friendly pilots their ships. After this run, we repositioned back to our perches. With the high perch lost to a broken grid and my assumption of losses higher than it actually was, I moved the entire remaining bomber group to a side perch.

Still not trusting my own pilots 100% and assuming that the machariel fleet would have been slower repping damage, I performed a dangerous and suicidal second hard run. This required taking us directly into bubbles, but ensured that a full 2-3 more waves of bombs would hit their target. Wing 1, followed shortly by Wing 2 from the same angle. It would not be enough, as the Imperium logistics has been repping all the Machariels rather than primaries. 30-40 more of my bombers would die for this run, and I apologize for my greed. At this point we only 15 or so bombers remained. We reperched and executed two tactical single-squad runs on the Machariel group, losing a single bomber on the first and none of the slow approach second. With no more bombs, and the core PL/NC AHAC fleet now tactically retreating from the field, I headed home at best speed, seconds behind the large T3 AHAC crew. Our bomb run was not perfect by any means, but it was crucial to the success of the battle and allowed the allied forces to cherry pick and kill lynchpin hostile ships with ease. A good start. http://evf-eve.com/services/brcat/?s=3694&b=6953825&e=90&t=buefbr&r=1&ro=49.88333333333333

Day 3 March 22

I got off work and right into the fun. Started prepping perches in P3EN-E, as we had an IHUB to take! Also another ihub! Also another ihub! Also a dyspro! I can see how this is gonna go. I write up a “how to fit bombers” guide on the test forums and then it’s Right into Fleet #1 Fleet #3 Its bombers again. Shocker. Mitigating Imperium battleship ability is apparently going to be my thing for a while. We form 100. No joke. One hundred fucking bombers. We jump into P3EN-E and get setup. While we are doing this I get Sapporo’s titan into Obe while 400 people also cover him. Perhaps you should be ready at jump cap next time bud. Anyways, we set up in P3EN-E, then we get set up in IPAY-2, where I also have perches ready, then we move up to EIDI-N on the K8X-6B gate where I wasn’t ready (but got so in a hurry). Every fleet on our side was ready to brawl, with Imperium in front and behind and in system already.

Instead of trying to fight, however, they try to harass our entosis, but aren’t very good at it and we handily win the IHUB timer. Apparently Imperium FC’s chicken out and C02 calls them cowards, but I think if they had jumped into us they would all have died. It’s cowardly, but it was also probably the right call. 16 squads of bombers with the other bomber fleet would have made for some pretty fireworks. At this point we head back to Obe. Progod is taking out a gokufeet. I have issues getting ahold of a new IHUB but we eventually get one and set it up in P3EN-E. First IHUB of the war is taken for TEST.

After that’s done and while progod has a large group of gokus out in Branch, a skirmish FC took a group of caracals out to stop an Entosis of our new IHUB. I lost a Falcon to an unlucky bubble while trying for a suicide jam. I watched him rolling for a while and do my best to backseat and help him make some good calls. He danced with them 25 vs 45 for a while but needed more numbers and listened to reason. They followed him into Obe and I grabbed a Rapier to assist. They brawled a little in Obe and then a little more in P3EN-E. A 50-60 man interceptor fleet also assisted the ruptures at the start, but a wild Darkness 100-man Cerberus gang showed up and a very bloody T1 cruiser brawl basically became a wipeout for the Ruptures, although our Caracals certainly lost a bit too. I didn’t lead but it was fun little fleet to be in. https://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&adjacent&kll_id=32976051