Warfare & Tactics

When considering the Burn Huola campaign, one must first look at the Arzad campaign. 'Ourzad!' The Amarr made a big thing about the fact that the Arzad campaign lasted 5 or 6 weeks in an effort to convince the Huola defenders of the relentless assault that would continue against Huola. The two campaigns were completely different, but none the less both sides took on board the lessons of the Arzad campaign and decisions and changes made had huge impacts on the Burn Huola campaign.

First off, the Arzad campaign was primarily a TimeZone war between farmers with some fighting in the Euro TZ. Amarr farmers would plex up the system when nobody was around during the late US and Australasia TZs. Minmatar PvPers would be forced to deplex Arzad in the Euro and early US TZs. In about the third week of the campaign, the Amarr attempted to fight the Minmatar during the Euro TZ. In the main Iron Oxide and friends wiped the floor with the Amarr, but the fights were primarily about delaying the Minmatar deplexing effort. The Amarr failed in that objective, but it had its results, after another 2 weeks of winning virtually every battle, Iron Oxide pilot were getting sick of logging in each day to find us still only clinging to the system by our fingernails. It wasn't an enjoyable experience and fewer and fewer pilots were logging on each day.

A meeting of the directorate of Iron Oxide in the forth week of the campaign decided that win or lose, once the Arzad campaign was concluded we would relocate to Huola where we could rely on LNA and other US alliances to provide the cover we lacked in other TZs. The question was asked do we give up and move straight away or continue to fight, knowing ultimately that the fight was hopeless? Even at that point we sub consciously looked toward the future Burn Huola campaign and decided we had to fight to the end, make it as painful as possible for the Amarr, so that they will think twice about following us to Huola and trying the same thing again.

For another week we fought on and to be honest there were clear signs of Amarr burnout occurring and for a brief moment it actually looked like we were going to win the campaign. At that point the Amarr finally turned to Fweddit, a massive blob was brought in for the final weekend, with around 120 pilots continuously in system. The handful of Iron Oxide pilots online decided to blue ball them rather than feed them kills. Let their massive PvE operation be as boring as possible. It is interesting to note that at the conclusion of the Burn Huola campaign the CEO of Fweddit stated that after Arzad, they were so burnt out just orbiting buttons that they could not consider a similar strategy for Huola and went for a PvP orientated one.

Having said that though, it is clear that the intended Amarr strategy for Huola was not a PvP one. It was a blobfest, surprise, headshot one. I say that without meaning to sound critical, it was a good plan, intended to take Huola within 48 hours before the Minmatar could react. To mimic the final weekend of the Arzad campaign, where Minmatar pilots didn't even try to fight the Amarr horde.

It was about Pay to Win and I do mean that critically. It is clear now that the Amarr sank hundreds of billions into the campaign. It is also clear that certain elements of the Amarr, particularly Biohazard abused the crap out of the Buddy Invite and Power of Two programs to set up a number of second and third accounts for the sole purpose of flooding the system with Amarr Militia characters and frightening the Minmatar away with sheer numbers - to actually avoid fighting. I suspect that a great deal of account sharing took place with these accounts too, but that is difficult to prove. These accounts were opened in May of 2014, clearly indicating that planning of the campaign had began well before that.

June of 2014 saw one of the lowest ever activity months in FW for the Minmatar / Amarr Warzone. I suspect this was more coincidence than plan, the World Cup was on and it was a beautiful Summer in the UK. It served to lull the Minmatar to sleep still further, fewer and fewer people were logging on and almost all the fights were against Neutrals/Pirates like Anslo's Scope Works.

The Assault began at 2100 (EvE) on Sunday 6th July. Credit where due, it caught us (the Minmatar) completely by surprise and was perfectly timed to hit us as our strongest TZ waned, too late for us to respond and then give them virtually 16 hours of uncontested plexing.

Prior, or as the assault began, at least 9 Amarr Militia POSs and 1 Caldari Militia POS, 5 of them large deathstars, were set up in Huola and filled with hundreds of reships. As midnight approached, Templar Dane started the infamous 'Burn Huola' thread in the Warfare and Tactics forum, it was immediately signed by the CEO of Biohazard and then a shed load of other Amarr militia corp CEOs. The purpose of this thread I assume was to further frighten the Minmatar defenders off with the show of solidarity and commit the weaker Amarr corps if the going did get a bit tough. But there was an element of arrogance and 'look at me' to it and in doing so, it was the first shot in their foot that the Amarr made.

The Amarr had taken us completely by surprise. It would normally take until the next evening before half the Minmatar even became aware of the attack. Then it would take another 24 hours before those Minmatar could muster their friends. But that thread warned everyone from the off. Our friends particular the GalMil were ready to join us on night one of the campaign, instead of just hearing about it then.

Sometimes the simplest of things can turn a campaign, the butterfly effect as an EvE promotion once talked about, can be so devastating. On that night a simple engagement had occurred at the end of the Euro TZ as the Amarr were testing to restart their contesting effort. By then they were in the habit of just letting the Euros deplex back the system during their strong TZ, but as the Minmatar fleet started to wane the Amarr would wake up and start testing. That night it was Biohazard who had the job of taking the initiative from the Minmatar. Around 160 people were in system, maybe 40 Minmatar and allies, 40 neutrals and 80 Amarr, but it was known that the Amarr were in the habit of leaving chars logged in while /afk. The Minmatar fleet was only about 25 actually active. We were ghost running a large with a single ship while the rest of us were in Sniper Cormorants already undocked waiting for the next small to spawn. The ghost runner reported two Amarr snipers warping in at range and the order was given to the Minmatar fleet to warp to the large at zero. Hardly had the fleet gone to warp when the intel report was modified. "Large gang of WT Merlins landing on large at zero, 30 plus."

Crap! We were in warp, we were in 25 Longbow fit Rail Cormorant with no tank about to land on 30 brawling Merlins. Change to Antimatter was the only order that could be given. We landed, the fight lasted all of 45 seconds and when the smoke cleared 20 brawling Merlins were dead and the rest had run, no losses on our side. WTF?

It always amazed me where the Amarr had got the numbers from. The next day a lot of pouring over KMs and employment histories from that fight was done. Remember how I said that the Amarr abused the crap out of the Buddy Invite and Power of Two programs?

We never looked back. After that we never feared the Amarr, we fought them outnumbered 3, 4 even 5 to 1 and slaughtered them. We stopped giving up when there were 150 of them in system to our 30. Sure it wasn't all plain sailing they still had the numbers and some successes, but the psychological war was won in that battle. There is more to the story, the campaign dragged on for another week and then the POSs had to be dealt with, but that was the turning point and that is where I end my story.

There has been conflicting reports as to how many ships died on both sides, how much isk was lost. Who won what etc. This campaign was about system contestation and never intended to be a PvP one, but it turned into the biggest PvP campaign in FW history. For 17 days Huola was at the centre of a great big red blob on the in game map. Friends, enemies and neutrals were drawn likes moths to the flame by that blob. Each day I would start work and sneak a look at the stats on Dotlan. I recorded the number of ships and pods that had died in the last 24 hours in Huola, in the CTRL-Q recruitment thread linked in my signature. All in all I recorded 22309 ship kills and 3841 pod kills during the period 7th to 18th July. I stopped recording at that point but one last significant push occurred during 21st/22nd and then there was significant skirmishing for the rest of the week.

I thank all for the good fights and killmails, I thanks all the allies, I thank my fellow Militia pilots. I hope nobody is offended for not getting a mention, my story is purely how I saw it play out. Aspects of that story may be slightly wrong and I know there are plenty of facts, important battles, skirmishes and accomplishments I have missed. Feel free to add a comment.

Most of all I'd like to say:

"Remember Ourzad!"

Excellent writeup from the MinMil POV. Glad we could help buy you guys time - it was great to stretch our legs against a new crew!

The Huola campaign was no doubt one of my Top10 Eve experiences. Happy to have been there. And that fight exactly was the turning point.......some small things, changed the tide of the war. I still have the feeling, that if we d lost that night, the Amarr side would have won.

Not such a bitter post I supose... a skewed analysis but everyone has their point of view, and we both whelped our fair share of fleets. Our memories are selective to a certain extent...

I want there to be a Huola 2.0... but I don't think our militia was ready for it, the timing was terrible. We shall return in the future o7

Pretty slanted view there major,

All in all I still can't believe CCP did not acknowledge 'Burn Huola' as a significant EVE incident. If even half the amount of ships that died in Huola had died in some nullsec system it would be all over the internet.

In the end though hats off the CCP for the patch that made it impossible for two week old toons to farm a medium and large plex. That really put the control of the warzone back int he hands of the pvp'ers of both sides instead of relying on the unreliable flipflopping of farmers and riding the wave they made.

We are seeing more and more actual PvP corporations take leading roles in either offensive or defensive campaigns on all sides. And to be honest isn't that what all the pvpers of all sides wanted in the first place?

I'm in the OPs and alliance and it was TL;DR

1) XG was in system as the POS where being set up. I remember hopping on TS and expressing dismay at the 'Burn Huola' thread. Laughter and 'Spais!' Was the response. Templar kept tabs on Huola local for a week to gauge presence. It was also thought hitting Minmatar in the middle if tier 4 rather then tier 1 (bored and sitting in Huola) would maximize surprise.

2) The whole FW meta has changed. Farmers no longer plex your home system immediately as soon as you leave. Small groups can live in the war zone without 24/7 coverage. As long as the majority of Amarr bases in Egg and Minmatar bases in Huola I fear our warzone will be stale.

TL'DR

TL;DR = too long, didn't read