Warfare & Tactics

I will begin by admitting my relatively late entrance into the War, as my interest was piqued by the new changes in Inferno. I do not know, or really care, what the War was like before Inferno (as there is no going backwards now, and no point dwelling on what was) but from the moment I enlisted, I noticed two fundamental - and almost oppositional - things:

1.) The utterly insane level of paranoia, distrust, and infighting amongst the whole Militia. Whether coming from bittervets, or nullsec alliances, the fear of "spais" made any attempt at rallying defensive or offensive fleets (not even counting the bitter hatred of the "legions of PVE farmwhores"). Furthermore, any attempt at cooperation - between the FW vets/corps and the nullsec alliances like FWeddit - was impossible not only on the basis of ego, but also on comms. The simple fear of enemy spies lurking in Militia chat created a Catch-22, wherein no one trusted the channel enough to post nor even read it. On one level, this is understandable, as intel gathered could be used very quickly against us; however, knowing spies may be listening only means you must watch what is said PUBLICLY, but does NOT mean communication on a militia-wide basis was useless.

2.) The herculean attempts by some to counter this. Fleets did form, not always quickly, and never with large enough numbers to actually affect change, but they were fun and we had some good fights. Although usually outnumbered by hordes of SFI's, there was attempts to change the war. Yet consistently, alliances and corps like FWeddit and WBR (which, may I add, DID do their part and helped in meaningful ways) almost never joined the general militia fleets, nor cooperated with our fleets in any meaningful way. For example, I remember a night when I was flying recon for a 10-15 man fleet (I think Strayshot was our FC, but I was slightly drunk), and we had been chasing a similar sized Matari fleet around Kourm for a bit, when they finally found a hole in our net and slipped thru to another system (forget which, again, I was drunk). Heedless of the risk, the fleet followed, and found ourselves having a decent brawl on entry at the gate. As it happened, a different Matari fleet was passing through, and joined the fray, and we were outnumbered two to one. As we held the concerted attack at bay, sustaining heavy losses, a FWeddit (again, I might be wrong, remember...drunk) fleet also happened to be insystem, and as they warped to the gate, we were astonished to watch them simply bypass the battle and warp off. Now, we were losing at that point, and as I said, taking quite the beating; yet, had they joined in, the fight would have become a lot more even, and the chance for victory (while not assured) would have been within sight. We never found out why they didn't join, as they never replied to our calls on comms.

Now, these two factors - paranoia and the attempt at reconciliation - are symptoms, I believe, of a greater problem. It is not that FW is somehow "broken" or that our Militia is simply full of mutually exclusive bittervets and nullbears, but that there is no true desire to work together. There is no espirit de corps, to put it simply. Yes, farming happens, and yes, there are problems within the new system (at least problems that we as a collective group have not yet figured out how to surmount and solve); but the most basic reason the Amarrian Militia AS A WHOLE has failed is a lack of individual faith in the collective benefit gained by unified performance.

The paranoia of "spais" and the disparate groups within the Militia, each with their own view of how the War should be fought and how it should be won, feed into this lack of faith. Faith, ironically or not, is the root of our own success, and the cause of our failure. This is rightfully ironic, almost painfully so, that the most faithful of Empires has lost to a mob of ex-slaves, due not to incompetence or weakness, but rather a lack of FAITH; and not faith in a religious sense, but rather faith in our fellow pilots, faith in ourselves.

So I write this open letter to ask you, O mighty forum-jockeys: Why has it come to this? Where is the pride, the joy of unity? We, the most faithful, who would convert the universe, are proven to be utterly faithless by our own former slaves. How have we let ourselves lose our self?

~Akai

PS: This is not an attempt at forum RP, but rather a serious attempt at dialog. Espirit de corps is a real and necessary thing, and the Matari (for all their chest-beating) deserve the win they have achieved, not because they are inherently better or more l33t, but because they have a legitimate espirit de corps. They won, united; not divided and devisive.

As I have just returned from Summer vacation, I did not realize things had begun to change, morale-wise, within the Militia; and that makes me quite happy. However, it seems that there has been a mass exodus, not only of the latecoming alliances and whatnot, but also of a lot of the "old guard" corps as well. To say the Amarr Militia is in a tight spot is a gross understatement, but for me, that uphill battle back to even a respectable position simply invigorates me. Yet I feel that, while there are mechanic-related issues (mostly stemming from the boredom-inducing button orbiting) there must be some solution to be had. I'd rather PVP than PVE any day, but as it does not look like any further iterations on FW mechanics are coming soon (at least not soon enough), we must adapt. There must be a viable solution, an actionable strategy available; I do not accept the fact that there could not be. We simply have not found it. While the Matari have unity of action, they also have found a way to balance (or perhaps more accurately, organize and orchestrate) the PVP vs PVE activities. In an ideal world, we could organize all the PVE-oriented "farmers" into a single corp/alliance, and the same for the PVP-oriented "fighters;" yet I do not (much as it would simplify the current dynamic) think such a thing could ever actually happen. So in lieu of such a idealistic solution, what are we to do?

Also, who the hell is left fighting the good fight? Everytime I log on, stuck as I am docked in Kamela (which, by the way, I sadly missed the fight for...), the Militia chat is as dead as can be. I'd prefer ascii art to the silence on Amarr comms, at this point.

~Akai

While I agree that the inactive accounts should be purged, I disagree that anyone who has joined the Militia has no right to join a fleet. At it's heart, this belief stems from a view that "pubbies" are worthless, and that there are those who belong and those who do not. What is the point of fighting a faction war, if you refuse the right of other militia fighters to participate? We were all nubs once (some of us still are, we just don't like admitting ignorance or inexperience), and there is no better way to learn than to join a fleet and lose some ships. Exclusion does not help us win.

~Akai

The fact that you'd rather PVP than PVE is the worst attitude you could possibly have if your goals are pushing the warzone back. Regarding the Matari's "balance" of PVP and PVE, a lot of that is where the alt-farmers and people who have joined for their wallet come into play. The non-plex alt Minmatar have the numbers to push back any short term plexing push by the Amarr, such that the race becomes one of which side burns out and gets tired of plexing before the other, unfortunately, even if the Amarr temporarily outlast the Minmatar they have to contend with the Minmatar alt-farming horde which fills in any gaps in activity.

However, there are also other issues once you start pushing back into the Minmatar warzone. Map imbalance starts rearing its ugly head in the form of Metropolis, an entire region of dead end pipes and a single easily camped gate.

I admire your idealist attitude, however, if you truly want to "save the Amarr" your best bet is to farm on Minmatar T5 while you can and make enough ISK that if they change the mechanics enough to change the status quo you'll be in a great position to comeback. In the meantime, enjoy the PVP and learn not to sweat it as you make loads of ISK on an alt.

Thanks for such a meaningful contribution. Your chest-beating, while understandable, is a little...pathetic. You won. We lost. Can we get back to the discussion of how to fix this situation? I don't think I need to spell out why it would be important to the Minmatar that we Amarrians find some way to get our **** straight. Unless you want CCP to come and fix that ISK faucet y'all got going on. I'm pretty sure they won't let T5 payouts continue if it is only used as an ISK printer, but then again, maybe they will.

~Akai

Anger and a desire to change the status quo are not one and the same. Am I angry you won? Not really, as we sincerely did not deserve to win. Yet. But am I angered by the apathy and lack of unity? Slightly. Do I want your bloodmoney? Naw, I've got plenty as it stands.

All I want is a serious discussion of how we can move forward. And I sincerely believe it is in the Minmatar's best interests that some solution, however it works out, is found. We can all benefit from a dynamic war, rather than a static one.

~Akai

You say that like we have either of those to begin with.

I'm not looking to be some savior, and I'm certainly not doing this for attention. I'm not a leader, only a brainstormin' thinker that sees a problem and asks difficult questions about it. I simply believe that the answer is not to "wait until CCP fixes it."

There are problems with the system, fundamental problems, but any problem is only a solution waiting to happen. I don't pretend to know the solution, nor do I expect one to come easily, or even successfully. That's why I started this thread. To pose the question to those better qualified. We can hypothesize all we want about how CCP could change FW, but that's not getting us any farther out of the hole that we are in.

Bitter defeatism gets us nowhere. What is needed is adaptation, plain and simple. I doubt the solution will come at the end of this thread, but it may start here, in the brain of someone who reads it, and starts thinking critically.

~Akai

PS - I have gone out and orbited the button, and tried to do my part to take back our space. One solitary pilot will not change this war. I may not be a genius, but that's a different matter entirely.

Now that's a recruit. OP Look forward to hearing from us/me.

As far as general militia. Welcome to the grinder. When i first joined i drudged through about two or three months of being called a spy etc. Best advice?

1-Report accurate intelligence. Incomplete intelligence is bad. But a pilot that is constantly posting accurate brief intellignece gets into the upper fold faster i.e. the good intell channels. Do this often. While you never may see the results of this trust me it saves lives even if people never acknowledge it.

This intell can extend to 'heads up' info if you are in a system with a friendly gang and know of a hostile gang next door

example of bad intelligence: 'Huge WT gang in houla'
example of good intelligence 'wt gang kamela on lamaa gate 35 mix of thrashers/assualt frigs inties''

2-Have ships fitted and ready to go, good rule of thumb are one for every class of plex. This is pretty inclusive. NOT IN AMARR nothing kills a fleet and its commander like hearign the word 'I am in amarr/jita fitting a ship'. While this my not be your problem this is a big sore point for good FC's and fleets to scoff and shy away from general milita.

3-Worse case scenario join agony like I did or a corp like mine and learn to love to fight outnumbered. Sure unlike my corpmates I get ganked 9 out of 10 times But that one time I take out two or three ships fighting lonely me makes it all worth it.