EVE Fiction

If they're piloted by capsuleers, why are they in scrubships rather than the t2 versions? That seems awfully wasteful of human resources.

I would imagine that the naval doctrines are somewhat similar to capsuleer fleets, but with less use of logistics ships in the role of remote repair. The navies would also vary racially due to wealth and population; the Caldari, for example -- the smallest empire --are very battleship-heavy, their BSs outnumbering any other empire's despite their size, because they have the incredible economy to do so and also need to get as much out of their numbers as they can. They fight at long range because they need to minimize losses.

The Caldari, let's not forget, have obnoxiously effective ewar and a few ewar benefits the other races don't have, like ewar battleships. I imagine the Caldari war ethos as somewhat conservative and cautious: set up a firing line to wear down the enemy with torpedoes and long-range hybrids, then move up the ECM boats to begin jamming enemy heavy-hitters as they move into engagement range. Having thus established control of the field, then and only then do the shorter-range skirmishers advance to hit targets of opportunity and further stymie enemy advances. The Caldari are likely the best at strategic withdrawal, because they have a wide window of opportunity to assess the situation, and excellent ability to cover their retreat with ECM and pressure at very long ranges. This probably makes the Caldari best at victory through attrition, but a bit less adept at defending a stationary target, as multiple fleets would then be necessary to 'manage' the enemy.

The Gallente, I imagine as quite likely to use short range hot-drops. Their drones make them surprisingly flexible at damage dealing from long distances, and their hybrids have damage bonuses rather than range bonuses. Their drone boats jump in and engage the enemy while identifying targets of opportunity. Once the enemy have engaged, the blaster-fleet that has been waiting in reserve jumps in at point blank range, flanking the enemy and burning down a few juicy targets before the enemy fleet can even react. Either the enemy retreats, taking significant losses, or tries to salvage the situation after having been wrong-footed by the Gallente flanking maneuver, a tricky situation at best. Their ewar supports this tactic - sensor dampeners make locking more difficult, meaning that the initial-engagement drone wing has more survivability, and can more easily draw the enemy into a vulnerable formation. All of this would likely make the Gallente equally good at offense and defense, but less well-equipped at dealing with overwhelming force, as their tactics require commitment of forces (either destroyable drones, or short range skirmishers) with no guarantee of success.

Everyone knows what the basic Amarr doctrine is: summon overwhelming force, charge the enemy and fall on them like the very hammer of God. Amarr ships have the least tactically flexible makeup overall, but make up for it by being the toughest and having very respectable raw damage, to boot. Since the Amarr dislike retreating, their doctrine would likely favor overwhelming force, picking fights that you are more likely to win and wading in, guns blazing. Their armor lets them survive extreme punishment, and their racial ewar equipment, tracking disruptors and energy neutralizers, reduce the effectiveness of enemy offense and defense to further tilt the odds of a full-on brawl in their favor. That said, they are aware of their tactical shortcomings (slow ships and narrow optimal ranges), and so are about as likely as the Gallente to jump in at short range without warning...except here, it's the entire fleet, not just a flanking wing. Any other faction would likely dismiss such an approach as unacceptably reckless, but more than anyone else, Amarrians are likely to conceive of battle in terms of 'victory or death'. The Amarr are probably the best at dealing with defense and siege, simply by virtue of numbers, toughness, and freedom from reliance on situational tactical 'tricks', but have limited options for dealing with an overwhelming enemy force other than "engage, fire, and pray".

The Minmatar are the most likely to engage in hit-and-run tactics - they have some bruisers in their fleet, but are likely to have less durable ships than their enemy. Their speed, then, becomes their greatest advantage. They jump in and engage the enemy at optimal, dictating range as no other faction can. If the situation looks to be turning against them, they jump out, reposition and strike again to regain tactical advantage. Their ewar aids in this: their specialized webber boats enable them to shut down enemy attempts to get in close, buying them a longer strike window. Target painters, on the other hand, are the only racial ewar that directly boosts dps done to the enemy, allowing them to hit harder in a given amount of time and make the most out of their attack. Their flexibility makes them the best faction at countering the enemy's tactics: They can nibble the Gallente to death without giving their flankers the chance to drop in and raise hell (or even set up a fast autocannon wing to turn the Gallente tactic against them), they can jump right into the Caldari's face and use speed to minimize damage from missiles, and they can use their range dictation to great effect against the Amarr as long as they have the initiative. This likely makes them more effective on offense than defense, since playing to their greatest strengths requires them to be fluid and maneuverable - good traits for wrong-footing an enemy strike group, but not for withstanding a siege. Like the Caldari, they would require greater numbers and multiple fleets to keep the enemy pinned down.

agreed, lets put some brains in how do pirate fleets work.

In Ruthless winning the contract to produce the Raven for the Navy played an important role in the story because Ishukone needed the money. It seems to me that this might indicate what we would recognize as a more normal relationship between the state's armed forces and corporations. The military isn't a joint venture between the corporations that is funded by them and subservient to them (for the most part) but its own entity with its own authority (it is entirely possible that this authority does not supersede that of the corporations but exists on the same level, if not in principle at least in practice). This would also explain why the corporations tend to field their own private forces like the Ishukone Watch, Lai Dai Protection Service, Peace and Order Unit, etc.

If corporation did provide the funds for the Navy to operate then it is very odd that they would try to win contracts for the production of its equipment? They would give money to the Navy which would then turn around and give the money back to them to get hardware. Why not just donate supplies directly?

As far as de jure and de facto control Caldari society is hard to figure out. I am not aware (or have forgotten) of any case where it was explicitly stated or demonstrated that there is an official arrangement of the Navy beneath the megacorporations. That aside, I am sure at least during certain instances a megacorporation or a collection of them were able to influence military action in a decisive way but I would wager that this exercise of control was of the unofficial variety. Everything regarding Tibus Heth is probably best left aside, those were not ordinary times and he was not an ordinary CEO. I think The Empyrean Age showed that Heth was acting above and beyond his station after becoming CEO by taking opportunity of the social unrest and dissatisfaction with the old order.