ASCN vs BOB

[5150]

Does it still take 1 person to fly titan or is it a team ship?

Well its a 'team' (or should I say 'alt') ship as much as any other capital ship (Carrier, Dread, Mothership) in that you need someone in the system you want to jump into to create a cyno field for you - but its flown just like any other ship (albeit probably much much slower  :-D)

[Roac]

The ship itself can be flown by just one person, but it has a few significant drawbacks.  One, you can't dock at a station so either you leave it floating in space, in a POS, or you have one char who always flies the ship (this is the only way to take the ship out of the game while you're offline).  Second, the Titan can't use jumpgates so you always have to have someone else (or alt) open up cyno fields to jump between systems.  You can, in theory, jump to any cyno that other people open but you never know what you will land on when you get there and they are fairly rare, so it's best to avoid.

Realistically, because the thing is so obscenely valuable you'll never want to take it out without fleet support.  Even then, you could afford to rebuild the entire fleet cheaper than you could replace a Titan so it's not the sort of ship you just go ratting in.  Not to mention you can't insure a Titan, so a loss is a total loss.

[sinij]

So why is it a good idea to fly Titan... ever?

[gimpyone]

epeen.

[Vedi]

There's a new update on Eve Tribune on this war now. It seems ASCN has lost 263 battleships and some dreads, while BoB has lost 33 battleships and no dreads. Those are some quite horrible stats!

[Roac]

So why is it a good idea to fly Titan... ever?

You get a ton of slots: 21 total, in a 8/8/5 or 8/7/6 layout.  You can fit several warfare links which assist your gang's strength.  You get a huge weapon, which can outright kill everything smaller than a BS and leave them crippled.  It has somewhere around 60k shield and armor each (BS has 5k-6k each).  It's also immune to electronic warfare.

All told, it's not worth the cost; if you could field a dozen battleships you could replace one for sheer power, and the massive expense means that in most cases people will only field them in order to use the doomsday weapon and then leave.  If fielded, it could significantly affect the outcome of a fight; but because it takes months of effort by the largest alliances to construct, that's unlikely, leaving big weapon and epeen.

[MahrinSkel]

It's mostly about the e-peen.

--Dave

[Yegolev]

Titans, they can equip clone vats and hangar bays and whatnot?

Not only is the titan mostly for e-peen, it's pretty much the reason BoB is attacking ASCN.  BoB likes swinging the biggest dick in the galaxy.  Now I suppose we get to see if a combat dick can defeat an industrial dick.

[TripleDES]

There's a new update on Eve Tribune on this war now. It seems ASCN has lost 263 battleships and some dreads, while BoB has lost 33 battleships and no dreads. Those are some quite horrible stats!

I call bullshit on that, alone for the reason that BoB has never been honest about their losses.

[Vedi]

I think the BoB losses are from the ASCN killboards and vice versa.

[ajax34i]

Now I suppose we get to see if a combat dick can defeat an industrial dick.

Didn't we see that already with the Taggart Transdimensional thingy years ago?

I think the answer is "yes" simply because the combat guys are getting the gameplay they want, so they'll keep at it, whereas the industrialists are being denied the gameplay they want.

[Merusk]

Economic powerhouses should never fight a gun war.

Of course, the problem is EvE disallows Economic PKing in favor of Combat PKing.  ASCN is doomed to die.

[Margalis]

As an outside observer this thread is pretty fascinating with all the acronyms and such. So an entire super-guild spent months building a single ship?

[Yoru]

As an outside observer this thread is pretty fascinating with all the acronyms and such. So an entire super-guild spent months building a single ship?

More or less, yes. Not exclusively, but it does represent a significant portion of their overall economic output.

[Roac]

So an entire super-guild spent months building a single ship?

Think of it this way.  Estimates put the cost of the Titan at around 160 Billion Isk.  Mid level players make somewhere around 5-10m/hr.  All the while, the alliance (super-guild) is involved in wars which costantly drain resources of the alliance and guild members, so not all of that is going toward the Titan.  Plus, not everyone is quick to empty their pockets into the alliance coffers so not many are going to be fronting 100% regardless, although some do or get close to it.  The amount of effort required is staggering, and apparently they materially affected the game economy (with over 100k active players) due to their efforts.

[Vedi]

As an outside observer this thread is pretty fascinating with all the acronyms and such. So an entire super-guild spent months building a single ship?

And as a "reward" they are attacked by the top Pvp superguild, deployed their supership and apparently killed more of their own than the enemy.

I imagine the Death Star in the hands of Jar-Jar Binks and crewed by Ewoks.

[Yegolev]

As an outside observer this thread is pretty fascinating with all the acronyms and such. So an entire super-guild spent months building a single ship?

Maybe you want a short rundown of the acronyms?  Just scanning back...

IGB is the In-Game Browser which is a mostly-useless piece of junk unless your computer is so gimped that you can't alt-tab or run EVE in a window.

ASCN is the tag for Ascendant Frontier, apparently the largest alliance by number of pilots.  Others can be seen here and should be easy to figure out: BoB is Band of Brothers, FIX is Firmus Ixion, RA is  Red Alliance (yes, they are Russian).  F13 used to be part of -V- (Veritas Immortalis) for a little bit.

There might be others, just ask if you need a program for the show.

[Vedi]

There is also

BS - battleship, the largest non-capital ship. Most players can afford one of these after some months. The basic types cost around 100 million.
POS - Player Owned Structure, a space structure you can put up around moons. Used to control space and as a field base. Costs around 150-600 million to put up.
Dread - Dreadnought. Capital ship. Costs around 2 billion.

IAC, MC and FIX are other alliances. IAC is under attack by MC and FIX. FIX is almost a vassal of BoB, and MC is a mercenary alliance. BoB is fighting ASCN, and ASCN had some skirmishes with MC, but have now patched it up.

[Yegolev]

More wacky rumors from the Q2T forums:

This in from the front lines! Nothing much has changed in a week. We still hold TCAG system on the doorstep of BOB space, they are still claiming to be 'teh ubz0r!'.

In other news, our leadership inform us that BOB have told them that this war is their big last gasp before they all bugger off and play Pirates of the Burning Sea (!?).

The first reply summed up my thoughts: "Trap!"

[TripleDES]

FIX is almost a vassal of BoB, and MC is a mercenary alliance.

You forgot to mention that MC is a suck-up alliance for BoB.

[Comstar]

News from the IAC front is they have beaten back the McFIX attack with some losses, but the assault seems to have been a complete failure. No IAC systems have fallen and the McFIX attack has petered out. It hasn't stopped, but it from IAC's point of view, it was a failure.

[Comstar]

Further update: McFix is apperntly claiming the misson was a sucess as they tied up IAC. Tied up IAC from WHAT isn't clear, though my guess is was so IAC couldn't go help ACSN (not they they probably would).

All I think it accpolished is IAC got some good practice at PvP fleet and POS warfare and is now more able to go on the offesive.

[MahrinSkel]

Since I don't know if the MC is telling the truth for the motivation of the client (some billionaire with lots of money who wanted to stir up trouble), I don't know if the overall mission was a success or not.  But FIX got everything we wanted out of it, so we consider it a success.

--Dave

[Vedi]

What did you want to get out of it, then?

[MahrinSkel]

To simplify: Live fire combat excercises and an IOU from MC.

--Dave

[Simond]

On a possibly related note, MC lost two of their member corps fairly recently.

[Simond]

Speaking of BoB vassal corps...oh dear.

[Raging Turtle]

Speaking of BoB vassal corps...oh dear.

That just made my day.  Thank you. 

[Fordel]

On a possibly related note, MC lost two of their member corps fairly recently.

MC Member corps often disband from the alliance to carry out solo contracts, then rejoin upon completion. It has something to do with the mechanics of +/- standings or something.

[Endie]

Any chance of some context for the politically naive here?  Does this seriously impact the ability of Xelas to support BoB to an extent where the effect on BoB's war effort is noticeable?  Would a coherent strategy of targeting smaller, vulnerable corps be likely to peel them away from BoB's alliance?

What I mean is: is this an Ardennes, 1944-5, Battle of the Bulge thing where local superiority and tactical surprise can be temporarily achieved, but where on a strategic level BoB can, ultimately, always win any large-scale (ie fleet) action ASCN engaged in?  Or is it a Napoleonic wars thing, where ASCN's (as I understand it) economic power can allow them to draw off support from BoB?

[Simond]

At the moment, it's too early to say really, but if ASCN et al. can keep this second front open (or even open up a third front as well), and if they can hang on to their own territory, and if the rest of the south keeps going up in flames (LV/-V- booting KOS and then wardeccing them, AAA vs AXE, RA/Goons (and KOS?) vs everyone else)...BoB may just find the situation untenable in the longer term.

Especially if other corps (*cough*D2*cough*) think that they've got a chance to start nibbling at BoB's borders. Hell, I'd imagine the only reason that the Goons aren't taking potshots at BoB right now is that they're working with RA atm and they have to keep RA sweet so that they get first pick of the new regions opening up with Kali.

[5150]

[totally glib and unconfirmed comment warning]

D2 seem to be occupying themselves by camping in and around ISS station atm

[Endie]

Does any of it have any effect on F13?  Where are you based?  Nowehere near the fightiness?  Last thing I remember was you getting charged, like a million-billion ISK per month per member by your alliance (which put po' me off in my poverty).

[Strazos]

F13 is currently un-aligned and just surfing around low-sec.

[Yoru]

Does any of it have any effect on F13?  Where are you based?  Nowehere near the fightiness?  Last thing I remember was you getting charged, like a million-billion ISK per month per member by your alliance (which put po' me off in my poverty).

We told them to screw off when they came up with the 500m isk bill. Most folks are off in some lowsec area, a few others are missioning, and I'm quietly working on skills and plinking omber rocks in my Fortress of Solitude.

So, really, it doesn't affect F13 much at all, except indirectly through market forces. Wars mean demand for our stuff. :)