EVE Fiction

Hi Everyone of late a discussion broke out as whom has the most powerful army in Eve with various list drawn up etc. Well having read a lot of Eve's fiction and the Chronicles here is my take on why its a fools folly to argue about who has the most powerful Navy in New Eden.


The Amarr Navy ( Might makes right, a war of attrition )

The Amarr have the most straightforward ship design in Eve, their tactic has always been the use of heavy armored slow ships and advanced devastating weapon batteries, they also use overwhelming numbers of ships as part of the their mainstay strategy. They also use drones, which are fast little ships which complement their heavy slow lumbering ships. They also make use of tracking disruption and energy draining technology, which means that they weaken their foes and perform the coup de grace crushing blows.

The Amarr have the largest space in New Eden, which has also meant that to protect that space you need a vast fleet and the Amarr have an incredibly vast fleet. Bigger than the Caldari and Gallente combined - BUT- they also have the oldest ships in Eve many of the them decades old and in need of retrofit. So even though they have numbers some of their ships are out of date.

Furthermore much of their fleet is separated and is spread across the vast space of the Empire. Which is one of the reasons why the Elder Fleet in the Empyrean Age was able to cut and smash through vast swaths of the their fleet and pushed into Amarr space so deep they were at the doorstep of Amarr Prime itself.

All in all the Amarr have vast numbers, but they hardly have the capability to project those numbers, they were caught out by the Elder Fleet and they were also caught out by the Jove, although that is arguably as a result of sheer arrogance and even if if the Amarrians numbers were greater the sheer superiority and unparalleled power of the Jove would have would have won anyway.


The Caldari Navy ( technology is a means an end )

In order to understand the Caldari you must first understand the circumstance in which they were created, and that was during their war with the Gallente, the planet they developed on was also not particularly rich when it came to natural resources so efficiency and maximization of what is available has always been at the core of military doctrine. The Caldari have the smallest population lore wise ( even though the game is full of Achura missile spammers ) their small numbers mean that they have had to develop a way to multiply their fleets firepower.

Caldari fleets would tend to be small comprising of a series of vessels each with their own specific duty. This is evident when looks at their line with either dedicated missile ships and electronic warfare vessels. The EWAR ECM can also be attributed to the Caldari’s small numbers and the strong sense of self preservation that they have, after all if you can’t lock onto a target you can’t do the target any damage.

The Caldari also have the most advanced ships in Eve. However for all that firepower they are still a military very much geared and made for defence, I know that they launched a bold assault on Gallente space but that was due to secrets that they got off a corrupt general in the Federation navy, an assault of that nature from Caldari space into Gallente space would not have been successful because for all their advanced nature the State military is still a war machine suited for defence than offence. The Caldari were also the first faction to use pod pilots, the technology having given to the mighty Ishukone Corp by the enigmatic Jove.


The Gallente Federation ( Masters of indirection aggression and espionage ).

The Gallente Federation are the drone race of Eve, they are on the surface the most passive and least outright aggressive of the factions in Eve but are capable of summoning a warmachine so formidable it would have certainly won the war against the Caldari had it not been for the Jove pod capsule, and put off an Amarr invasion despite being vastly smaller in number.

The Gallente war doctrine is similar to but-a-watered down version of the Amarr, for defence their ships have strong armour ablative like armour which uses nano bots to repair itself at an incredible rate, but can also be shield tanked in certain circumstances. Their weapons of choice are the drones and incredibly advanced hybrid blasters which fire bolts of superheated plasma whose destructive capabilities are such that few ships in new eden can survive long short ranged engagements.

The EWAR of the Gallente also goes with the theme of range, they use sensor dampeners which reduce the lock on range and force opposing fleets to get closer and thus be in range of some face melting damage.

It has also being stated on a few occasions in the lore and in the books that the Gallente have the most wide spread spy network in New Eden, so advanced that it only rivaled by the Jove
themselves.


The Minmatar Republic ( Shock and awe, you never saw that coming.)

The Matari are so haphazard, so versatile that they themselves probably don’t know what they want to be. But whatever people may think of them and their ships they are an incredibly powerful hard hitting army who use very clever tactics and brazen courage that they can give anyone not taking them serious a bloody nose. The Elder fleet did after all attack Concord themselves and pushed deep into Amarr space rescuing countless of the Empire’s slaves and were only stopped by Jamly’s special Adaddon.

Their target painters also fit in with the hitting hard theme, the Matari move in fast, they hit fast and they GTF out just as fast.

Sorry, Dev's already waded into the topic ...

Keep in mind that Vak'Atioth was the result of betrayal, deliberately arranged by a treacherous Amarr commodore, the Federation, the Matari resistance, and the Jove to make the Empire look bad and encourage it (and every other empire) to avoid the Jove forever. The commodore deliberately downplayed the threat of the Jove to convince the Empire that only a small fleet would be necessary, told the Jovians exactly where the Imperial fleet would attack and the composition of the fleet, enabling the Jove to prepare the perfect counter, probably provided them technical schematics to enable the Jove's weapons to more easily pierce their shields, did nothing to ensure battlefield cohesion (causing chaos in the Amarr ranks), and at some point had his treachery revealed and caused the fleet to begin firing on his command ship.

It's likely the Empire would have done a lot more damage to the Jove if the war had proceeded properly. Jove technology was certainly superior, but the war was lost because of treachery.

At Op, you seem to know a lot of information when it comes to the empire Navies, I also seek more information pertaining to the strength of each empire, but so far have no luck.

Do you mind linking or pointing me to the right direction as to where I can find some of these info?

Found information about the empire navies a long time back through evelopedia, but that was a long time ago but cant seem to find the same information now.

Also never heard the lost of Vak'Atioth was the result of a betrayal? where can I find the lore for it?

Thanks

Hi

My main sources of information have been Evelopedia, Chronicles and the Eve Books in particular the Empyrean age and Templar One, Burning life also has plenty of information but that book is geared more towards the Pirates of Eve and a journey of a few characters than the Empires's business.

Also it is based on ongoing information as well, such as the recent push back of the Caldari by the Gallente from Gallente space. and the fact that the Amarr are using more drones than ever and the Matari have more dedicated missile boats in their arsenal.

Hope that helps.

So are these strengths and weaknesses evident in faction warfare, or is that play style mostly driven by PvP?