The Winter War: A Busy Weekend

The past weekend was a relatively busy weekend for this winter's war in the south of EVE Online. Let's take a look.

Stainwagon began the weekend by finally clearing out the remains of Tactical Voltage from the constellation of BRP2-K in southern Catch on Saturday. Not only does the removal of the coalition remove an impediment to Imperium travel between Delve and the front lines in Catch, but Soviet-Union gained the constellation with the best true-sec in the region. The average true-sec in the 7 system constellation is -0.84.

Perhaps the biggest news occurred Saturday in the Stainwagon staging system of V-3YG7 when TESTCO, assisted by a large Drone Region Federation force, took down the Against ALL Authorities iHub and replaced the structure with one owned by Circle-Of-Two. Not only do iHubs aid in increasing a system's Activity Defense Modifier, but also allow the deployment of jump bridges. Reports indicate that V-3YG7 was part of Stainwagon's jump bridge system linking central Catch to the border system of HED-GP.

Whatever the reason, the destruction of the V-3YG7 iHub seemed to invigorate TESTCO. Shortly after the iHub battle, TESTCO and allies won the timer for the outpost in F4R2-Q, putting the outpost into freeport mode. On Sunday, TESTCO continued to make gains in the EM-L3K constellation, finally taking sov away from Cold Steel Alliance in 1P-WGB.

Reports from r/eve also indicate that TEST Alliance Please Ignore acquired a fortizar from The Volition Cult (VOLT). One of TEST's main fleet commanders, progodlegend, published a screenshot of a TEST fortizar in the system of 36N-HZ. The story is that TEST purchased the medium-sized citadel from VOLT member corporation Unsung Heroes, after which the corporation was kicked from the alliance. Dotlan shows that Unsung Heroes no longer is a member of VOLT, leaving the alliance at 8 January at 22:59. 36N-HZ is centrally located 3 systems north of V-3YG7 and 4 systems east of HED-GP.

In a related bit of news, Just let it happen, a member of the TESTCO-allied Foxtopus Coalition, lost three titans in Hedgiviter in lowsec Heimatar. Imperium news reported that the titans were probably headed toward their space in Tenal.

TESTCO's allies conducted entosis harassment in both Tenerifis and Impass over the weekend with little effect. The DRF activity led by SOLAR FLEET in Feythabolis is a little more serious. The alliance managed to hold onto its outpost in R97-CI and destroyed a Soviet-Union iHub in SWBV-2 in the early hours of Saturday. On Sunday, DRF-led forces freeported the Wings Wanderers outpost in BGN1-O.

I do begin to wonder about the fighting in Catch. If TESTCO finally manages to take F4R2-Q, will resistance crumble until the forces get to central Catch? The most desirable systems in the region are found in the west and southwest. I can't imagine Stainwagon would stop fighting so soon given that its control of the neighboring regions depends in large part on holding Catch. I hope to see Aegis Sov played out to see if the system truly works in a major war.