Hello pilots. Cinnamon Rage, here, bringing you more news from lowsec; specifically the Amarr/Minmatar Warzone. The Tribal Liberation Force have clawed their way out of the oblivion that the 24th Imperial Crusade had consigned them to when they secured the whole Warzone following the mass surrender of most of the Minmatar Militia, so it seems like a good time for an update on the renewed conflict.

As things stand, the Minmatar have secured a third of the Warzone and appear to have the momentum in the eternal conflict. Seven systems have been captured and held within the past 30 days (on the date of writing) by the TLF taking an average of almost two systems a week from the Amarr Militia. This momentum is not just expressed in territory, considering that in January the TLF had over one thousand fewer enlisted pilots than the Amarr; again at the time of writing, this gap has at least halved.

So the author caught up with some of the current major players in each Militia to see what’s going on. On behalf of the TLF I spoke to Ushra Khan (UNITY), Ghosts of Deep Space (GOD5) and Hoplite Brigade (HPLT) for their views; meanwhile on behalf of the 24th IC I spoke to Pyre Falcon Defence and Security (PY-RE) and Dirt ‘n’ Glitter (D-N-G). Before i’m accused of bias I did attempt to get official comments from Terpene Conglomorate (TERP) on behalf of Amarr Militia however RL prevented a response being formulated. So who are these factions that are currently dominating the major Militia conflicts?

With allegiance to Amarr Militia there is Tiberious Thessalonia on behalf of PY-RE and their alliance MCF1B:

“MCF1B is a new Faction War Alliance made up of Faction War veterans Pyre Falcon Defense and Security, and the Fluffy Puppy Fight Club. We formed earlier this month after a long period of flying together after we broke off from i.law. MCF1B focuses on small-gang and small ship warfare, but has the capability to roll around in bigger boats due to the higher than average skillpoint levels of most of our members, though we certainly love our newbros as well. Pyre Falcon specifically comes from a core group of State Loyal RPers though we expanded to become truly multicultural and more RP-lite than anything. Some members wouldn’t know what to do if you handed them a robe and wizard hat, and that’s just fine.”

and Tristan daCuhna CEO of D-N-G:

“I first joined the Amarr militia on 25/12/12 and founded Dirt ‘n’ Glitter (DNG) on 04/07/13 after leaving Fweddit who were deploying away from FW to join the CFC offensive against TEST in Delve. DNG are currently ranked #1 in the Amarr militia. We are well known for the questionable quality of our Reddit posts, being a new bro friendly FW corp and our obsession with Kesha.”

Meanwhile for the TLF DeT Resprox of Ushra’Khan:

“The Ushra’Khan is a role-play alliance operating predominantly against the supporters of the Amarr Empire. We are New Eden’s oldest ‘Freedom Fighter’ and the first alliance in EvE. On 1st July YC114 (2012), the Ushra’Khan enlisted in the Tribal Liberation Force in order to directly support the war effort against the Amarr Empire in the ongoing Empyrean War. The Masuat’aa Matari are one of the original corporations who only recruit Minmatar pilots. The alliance is led by DeT Resprox, the last remaining original founding member (former SMaK Enterprises CEO).”

Odd Vector of Ghosts of Deep Space (GOD5):

“Ghosts of Deep Space is a casual Minmatar FW Alliance. I started my EVE career in null security space but quickly moved to FW space. I’ve been in FW for over two years now. We don’t roleplay and we don’t take EVE too seriously. We’re just here to have fun.”

In addition the author has spoken to Indius Lux (CEO) and Agharaster (Director) of Hoplite Brigade however I will discuss their significance later in the article.

As mentioned earlier the momentum in the Warzone appears to lie with the Minmatar at present. I decided to see what the representatives from the TLF thought of this:

“Both the Minmatar and the Amarr miltias can currently field forces of near even numbers and we both have capable fleet commanders. The momentum is a pendulum of back and forth. As we move to take systems, they move to reclaim those taken from them. As they move to reclaim lost systems, we move to hit an area away from their current focus. While they currently hold the majority – we are by no means are the minority when it comes to fighting on equal terms, though at present the Amarr are able to field more separate fleets than the Matari. The number of Amarr encountered during a roam outnumbers our own. There are fights to be had and there will be blood.” (DeT Resprox, Ushra’Khan) “We will keep going on the push until we get tier3, after that our farmers will finish the job (I’m not proud of it but this is the reality), the Minmatar faction market will drop, and again, until CCP finds a way to change the FW mechanic, hopefully applying in the FW the new nullsec sovereignty system.” (Agharaster, Hoplite Brigade) “Minmatar/Amarr FW seems to be cyclical. My assumption is that Minmatar will continue to gather active pilots and plexers and we’ll see T3 at some point. This type of thing doesn’t really effect the FW die hards. We’re here for the space combat thrills, win or lose.” (Odd Vector, Ghosts of Deep Space)

As you can see, even though the momentum seems to be with the TLF there is a belief that this is partially the nature of the Warzone, which is heavily influenced by the activities of those players who use Faction Warfare as an economic endeavour rather than as a PVP activity (known as ‘farmers’). Meanwhile the Amarr Militia representatives had the following to say on the subject:

“The Minmatar are gaining momentum but the Amarr still hold higher WZ control. The Minnies have a long way to go until they return to the level they were at prior to Amarr achieving 100% WZ control. People say that FW is a pendulum war. I think it’s overdue a change of direction and that we will see the more active Amarrian core groups start to really dig into their home systems.” (Tristan daCuhna, D-N-G) “The momentum is only with the Minmatar Militia because there is only two directions you can go from 0 systems – Either you get more systems, or you don’t get any new systems and that just leads to a no-fun situation for anyone. Looking at the situation in the Cal/Gal militia you can see that just leads to a big power imbalance and that’s just no fun for anyone; Not to mention the fact that Deplexing such large areas of space is both time consuming and not worth it from a payment standpoint. The push into Todi shows that when we want a particular set of systems, we will have it.” (Tiberious Thessalonia, PY-RE)

It sounds as though perhaps the Amarr have not been particularly concerned by the Minmatar advances, indeed the comments of PY-RE make it sound like some Amarr groups have let the Minmatar recover from their recent predicaments in order to ensure future content. Tiberious has referred to the battle of Todifrauan as an example of the Amarr stamping their authority on the Warzone. The systems of Todifrauan and Lamaa do appear to show some weak links in the Minmatar advance across the Warzone as they were both seized by concerted Amarr operations. To give our readers from outside the conflict some context, Lamaa is a system in the Bleak Lands region of the Warzone which has stations. As such it could serve as an ideal forward operating base for the TLF to strike at Kourmonen (1 Jump), an Amarr Home System of Auga (2 Jumps) and then Huola itself (2 Jumps), thus securing a major morale boost for the TLF in recapturing what was once the Minmatar Militia’s Capital System.

Likewise Todifrauan was another System in the Metropolis region that would put the TLF within striking distance of MCF1B’s home system of Lasleinur and its satellite systems of Evati and Ofstold. A major TLF offensive from ‘Todi’ had the potential to remove MCF1B from the Metropolis Region and with them any real Amarr potential to prevent the Minmatar from recapturing the remainder of their traditional territories in Metropolis. It is an issue of minor controversy for the TLF that elements of the Amarr Militia were immediately aware of Ushra’Khan’s planned deployment to ‘Todi’ as soon as it had been agreed within the alliance…

“I missed a lot of the Lamaa action but in short, the Gal Mil had been plexing it for a while. Minnies arrived on mass. Took the system then lost it a couple of days later. Todifrauan was a case of the right place at the right time. We received intel that the minnie were looking to stage in Todi and make yet another push on Evati. As we were deploying to the area anyway we decided headshot the system before the Minnies could get this plan off the ground. It seemed to take a couple of days for them to figure out what was going on, but Ushra’Khan, Goats of Deep Space and Hoplite Brigade eventually began to put up resistance. A lot of plex and gate fights went down but with the help of Multicultural F1 Brigade the system fell before they could get enough assets in to defend it.” (Tristan daCuhna, D-N-G) “I can’t tell you much about Lamaa as we were not involved in that, but Todifrauan was the first major action of our coalition with Dirt ‘n’ Glitter, the YOLO Coalition. We received intel that Ushra’Khan was looking to move into Todi as a forward base for a push into Fortress Lasleinur in an attempt to dislodge us, and so we decided the best tactical move was to hit them before they hit us. A 2 day offensive took place where all three timezones our coalition touches pretty much did nothing but plex Lasleinur – The Minmatar formed up for defence once it was at 98%, at which point things were already all but sealed as we had long since held plex control.” (Tiberious Thessalonia, PY-RE)

Meanwhile some views from the TLF:

“The fight for Lamaa had a lot more opposition from the Amarr than the Todifrauan fight. Pirates in the area particularly affected the assault on Lamaa. However, both systems have fallen back into Amarrian control in recent days. The strike by the Amarr to reclaim Todifrauan came in huge numbers and the system fell fast as the militia found ourselves outnumbered. However, while they were making their attacks to take Todifrauan, the militia were able to focus on Ebolfer which is now under Minmatar control.” (DeT Resprox, Ushra’Khan)

“I can’t really comment on Lamaa. Todi was lost rather quickly as we were heavily outnumbered most of the time when fighting for it. After the loss we’ve refocused our efforts locally and have been preventing further system loss.” (Odd Vector, GOD5) “Talking about Lamaa and Todifrauan falls, we have to admit it was a fail. The situation is kinda complex. We went there with kitchen sink fleets, no doctrines, no organization. Even if most of the contestation was made by 24 on 24 LP’s farmers (you know, they are capable of anything, even to fit 2 warp core stabilizers on a worm…) we were not able to defeat their doctrines. If the Lamaa fall was clearly hard because of the distance from our home systems and the lack of logistics providing fitted ships to support the fights, the Todifrauan one has no excuses and it proves also a lack on management from the corporations and alliances in Minmatar militia that are currently active. I don’t blame us though: who wants to give the order to his corp members to spin buttons in the few hours they have to play the game? We all know FW mechanic is broke and you need a full squadron of button-spinners-monkeys to take systems. That’s my opinion.” (Agharaster, Hoplite Brigade)

It sounds like the TLF have some organisational issues still to iron out – however what is almost as certain is the fact that whilst Amarr were victorious in these instances, the TLF seem determined not to be stopped and learn from their errors in these two system assaults. The battle report for the Amarr capture of Lamaa is here and Todifrauan here

It may not have escaped your attention that our Amarr representatives have declared that MCF1B and D-N-G are now in a formal coalition together which can only be an ill omen for the Minmatar as their enemies have arranged new heights of organisation to contest the Minmatar resurgence. It is therefore not surprising that when the reps from each group were asked who they most get along with in their Militia they responded with:

“Dirt ‘n’ Glitter are the sparkliest allies we could ever hope to have.” (Tiberious Thessalonia, PY-RE) “We recently reformed an old relationship with the former Imperial Outlaws. member corporation Pyre Falcon Defence and Security and now fly alongside them and their alliance Multicultural F1 Brigade under the banner of the Yolocolo.” (Tristan daCuhna, D-N-G)

Meanwhile the Minnies answered the same question in the following manner:

“The Minmatar Militia is very much in the stage of a rebuild – a few months back it almost looked like all was lost. Since then, a coalition of Minmatar corporations have formed together to work together towards the same goals as one. Entities such as Hoplite Brigade, Bionesis, Ghosts of Deep Space, Murientor Tribe are just some of those involved in working together as a united front against the foul Amarr.” (DeT Resprox, Ushra’Khan) “I was saddened to see so many pilots leave after the Amarr started taking systems. FW is cyclical. That being said there are some great groups out there fighting. U’K, Hoplite Brigade, REPUBLIC are all great.” (Odd Vector, GOD5) “The most active corp/ally in Amarr are Dirt & Glitter, Terpene, Neos Fleet, Pyre Falcons and Old Man Gang, supported by Dead Terrorists, Flex Point and Already Disbanded; on Minmatar side we have Hoplite Brigade, UK, Gods of Deep Space, Sanguis Inceptum supported by Total Eclipse (Gallente Militia).” (Agharaster, Hoplite Brigade)

Agharasters comments highlight that it appears that Amarr Militia may have substantial support from some of the more powerful pirate groups living in the Warzone, if that is the case it is again another obstacle the Minmatar will have to fight their way through if they wish to reclaim their former glory, Agharaster elaborates further on why the Amarr Militia are a more favourable ally for some pirate groups at present.

“Minmatar Militia has no third parties on his side, and this is because our IHUB bashes in the last few months were the opportunity for neutral entities to get some fights, sad but true they seems to lack on content. It’s because of that, you can understand, I was calling for destroyers and stealth bombers for the last bashes, because if we drop an organised fleet with Logi and such we will have to deal with fleets of sacrilidges and guardians or t3’s with carriers dropped by neutral entities, and unfortunately we can’t afford that now nor we have anyone to batphone at the moment.” (Agharaster, Hoplite Brigade)

It is a common complaint in faction warfare that the Militia’s rarely field high tech doctrines to meet their objectives, the above quote is a good example of why that is. If you are the team tasked with creating content (a Militia trying to capture a system I-HUB) and all the neighbours will take a look to see what they can kill then bringing a powerful fleet increases the chances that you will get dropped on by any pirates with a larger/upshipped fleet and by default grant victory to the defending enemy militia, if you can get the job done in dessies and stealth bombers then why bring anything bigger?

So, back to recent events; it would appear that after the Amarr victory at Todifrauan one section of the YOLO Coalition (D-N-G) have chosen to take advantage of the apparent Minmatar weakness and have redeployed to Gultratren. This is a low sec system that borders but is not actually in the Warzone, it is also the staging system for Ushra’Khan and Ghosts of Deep Space. Access to the Warzone for these two Minmatar Alliances was already dependant on flying very close to MCF1B’s Home Systems and now places the enemy in the same stations as them whilst D-N-G have allies no more than 3-4 Jumps away, additionally if the Minmatar try to form fleets in this staging system the Amarr will know almost instantly and can re-ship accordingly. I approached the various representatives of the Militias for their comments:

“We officially moved on Saturday 28/03/15 but have already upset the locals which has led to the ever elusive “gud fites” taking place in Gult and the adjacent FW systems. This is the first time we have deployed as in independent corporation. The deployment puts us closer to our fellow Yolocolo members and right in the midst of the more active Minmatar groups.” (Tristan daCuhna, D-N-G) “In the past few days, Dirt n Glitter have moved into the area, multiple cyno’s have been seen daily and we can confirm the sightings of Amarrian capital ships in the area. There have been small scale skirmishes so far but we do seem to have the upper hand. The Amarr moving into Gultratren we consider as a declaration of all out war by Dirt and Glitter against the Ushra’Khan. They shall be torn asunder.” (DeT Resprox, Ushra’Khan) “I wouldn’t call it a siege. As far as I can tell it’s just another DnG deployment which is great as we’ve been getting a lot more action recently. We’ve had a few skirmishes on station that were fun but nothing that has stunted our logistics or had any impact on us.” (Odd Vector, GOD5) “About the siege in Gultratren I have no infos, no one is calling for help and honestly I don’t care that much since is a system out of the Warzone.” (Agharaster, Hoplite Brigade)

It certainly does not like the deployment has paid dividends for the D-N-G yet as the besieged Minmatar are not reporting much effect on their operational capabilities and do not appear to have requested assistance from allied groups.

Out of interest I asked each of the Militia reps who they thought were their most worthy foes in the opposing Militia and received the following responses:

“They are all worthy opponents, especially Terpene Conglomorate, with the exception of Pyre Falcon Defence and Security, because they always try to overship, they don’t care about FW and they don’t move to fight away from home, plus they call for third party help and the overall attitude is more like a nullsec alliance than a FW entity.” (Agharaster, Hoplite Brigade) “Anyone that’s willing to fight is a worthy foe in my opinion. The only un-worthies are Hek station campers and local spammers” (Odd Vector, GOD5) “Pyre Falcons are one of Sarum’s fleets capable of fighting to their last shot and a number of times have hit militia fleets hard. Dirt n Glitter have always been more than capable and we look forward to our clashes.” (DeT Resprox, Ushra’Khan) “At present I would have to say Goats of Deep Space. They bring regular action and take part in some great local / public channel sperg. I’d like to mention Ushra’Khan for pushing the limits of how many warp core stabs can be fitted to a single ship.” (Tristan daCuhna, D-N-G) “Hoplite Brigade has shown that they are willing to put up serious fights back. That’s pretty cool.” (Tiberious Thessalonia, PY-RE)

Whilst things are improving for the Minmatar despite a couple of key setbacks when the Amarr have chosen to assert their strength there is one success story that appears to have flown under the radar for the past few months. The author started to hear about Hoplite Brigade on his travels and chats with Warzone residents as one of the better Minnie groups out there and as I mentioned at the beginning of this article I would introduce them later…

“Thanks for taking the time to write about FW. Back in 08 I had been in a corp which really treated it’s members poorly. I never aspired to run a corp, but after seeing what was out there at the time, I figured I couldn’t do much worse. So, Hoplite was born. The concept was to provide a framework for it’s members to have fun playing Eve. And while many will disagree, Faction Warfare is the best place to enjoy PvP. The curve is just as steep but the fall isn’t quite as far. So, we get a lot of new recruits, and we’re set up well to train and arm them, over the last 3 months we’ve added 30 new, active, members. As you noted, we’re one of the main groups. With the change in cyno jumps, and the Amarr driving out all but the most dedicated a few months back, we rose, like cream, to the top. As for how long, it will be 7 years as of yesterday.” (Indius Lux, Hoplite Brigade) “I’m in Minmatar militia since almost 5 years. I joined the Hoplite Brigade in August 2010 and since then all my efforts goes for Minmatar Militia. I have been in the biggest and crucial fights over last years, from the the big battle for Kourmonen to the raise of Minmatar after Biohazard’s betrayal and more recently in the Houla epic defence battle. Nowadays I’m involved again in the raise of Minmatar Militia. No doubts I’m a role player even if my ships are not all rusted.” (Agharaster, Hoplite Brigade)

I thought to myself “hmm these guys have been around for a while and kept a low profile” – turns out I was very wrong, a little bit of digging reveals a real threat to the Amarr Militia manifested in this Minmatar Corporation. This corporation bases itself inside the Warzone in the system of Lulm within the Heimatar region. For those who know the local area this system is 1 Jump away from the Home System of local pirate group The Periphery, 2 Jumps from Amamake and whatever caretakers Pandemic Legion left behind and 3 Jumps from Siseidie, Home System of Dead Terrorists. It is not surprising that this corporation has seen its fair share of combat. Dig even further and these guys have been talked about often:

http://www.factionwarfare.com/the-rise-of-amarr-and-the-loss-of-lulm/

http://www.factionwarfare.com/white-lotus-disbands/

http://www.factionwarfare.com/the-current-state-of-the-amarr-warzone/

No doubt there are other articles lurking in the ether as well. If you take the time to read these other articles then the reason I suggest Hoplites are a success story for the Minmatar is despite Huola’s fame in the Warzone – historically the 2nd hardest Minmatar System to capture has been Lulm or ‘Huola-Lite’ and not only is it in Minmatar hands once more, it is occupied by the same Minmatar Veterans who gave the system its reputation in the old days. Hoplite Brigade were one of the two core active groups inside White Lotus Alliance of old and have even done a stint as members of Iron Oxide Alliance. It is heartening to see that including the likes of Ushra’Khan, not all of the Minmatar Veterans have left the cause.

If the Minmatar are looking to return to their former glory perhaps they can look to Lulm for inspiration. Still recovering from mass defection and total loss of the Warzone here is one group of veterans who’s core members can trace their battle scars through from the Minmatar Civil War and Burn Huola and whilst not giving up like so many others – they have reclaimed their Home System to terrorise Amarr Militia once more. As far as I am aware this is the only Minmatar group to have its staging ground based within the Warzone. In related news Global ISK Network (I-NET) the other active ex-White Lotus Corporation has recently returned from Null Sec and rejoined the Minmatar Militia which can only add further pressure to Amarr Militia.

Perhaps Amarr Militia made a mistake in the choice of Minmatar System to siege? Unlike Lulm, Gultratren is not in the Warzone so Ushra’Khan and GOD5 cannot be evicted and whilst the two of the main active Amarr Coalition has all of its corporations tied down in that corner of the Warzone they have left their flanks exposed to the Minmatar basing out of Lulm and its nearby High Sec systems.

So if any readers out there were under the impression that Amarr/Minmatar FW was dead think again. There is all to play for and I hope to report back to the rest of you with further happenings from within Amarr/Minmatar FW space! Special thanks to the Militia officials who provided me with responses and thanks of course to every Militia Member in both Amarr and Minmatar for fighting and generating content for me to report on. Some of the representatives left parting comments:

“If you enjoy small, fast paced fights take a roam through the warzone!” (Tiberious Thessalonia, PY-RE) “Dirt ‘n’ Glitter is recruiting. Check out our subreddit or apply now at www.dirtnglitterfw.com (Tristan daCuhna, D-N-G) “With the recent news that the Pirate Coalition are set to reform with a focus on Minmatar Lowsec space I expect hostilities to escalate. This coupled with Basgerin Pirate publicity, Dead Terrorists now residing in Sisiede and the coming changes to Nullsec I imagine we will see null holders blockading their front doors. The Warzone could well become a graveyard in the coming weeks…” (DeT Resprox, Ushra’Khan)

Let me know what you think of the article. Cinnamon Rage o7

TL:DR – Lots of frigates have died, some guy wrote an article about it.