View: Who Killed the Northern Coalition?
This article has been written by an impartial observer to the NC/DRF conflict to address the commonly held belief that FCs, namely Kula Kain, were responsible for the destruction of the colossal Northern Coalition.
A great deal has been made of the months-long decline of the NC and various parties will all cite different dates for the beginning of the end, depending on which axe they have to grind. While the NC was still a potent organization in late 2010, virtually everyone will agree that the decision to turn the Geminate campaign from a simple, if massive, raiding exercise into a huge expansion and sov grab had terrible consequences. It galvanized the fractious Russian alliances centred in the Drone Regions into putting aside their cherished personal differences and working together for a common goal: defense and later the destruction of the NC. As Napoleon, Hitler and Lotka Volterra can tell you, this is a terrible thing indeed. The resulting coalition built on the traditional strengths of the NC in every way: colossal force projection, unified communications and immense wealth meant that the northerners were facing the mightiest threat ever—but they had faced down that sort of thing before, right?
Even to the casual observer, it was apparent that the old NC leadership—that which had humbled BoB and later IT Alliance’s threats—was increasingly disengaged from the goings on at the front and younger, more vital leadership was moving into place. This new breed met with varying degrees of success but resistance from the older grognards in the NC high command drove many away and dark rumours about where the NC’s vast monthly income was actually going plagued NC forces and sapped its early victories of their power. Even in the earliest days of 2011, when DRF forces still suffered horrific losses to the NC, it was clear that the NC was structurally rotten and a sustained push would cause its collapse.
It is in this milieu that Kula Kain came to prominence. Along with Lucian James, Kula came to become one of the leading NC fleet commanders in the later stages of the war. A glance at the Morsus Mihi records reveals that Kain’s record of success against fleets roughly equal in size to his own was mixed at best and in order to persevere, he usually needed to outnumber his foes by at least 50%. Is this strictly a function of incompetence? Given what we know about the infighting that took place in the highest echelons of the NC during this period, it is entirely likely that this had a detrimental effect on Kain’s efficiency. Further glances at the NC killboard also very clearly show that unlike most of the other great powers, Northern Coalition had not imposed a standard fleet doctrine on its membership. This is a disastrous mistake, as it means that pilots will show up with a vast variety of ships and fittings to a fleet and the presence of abaddons and drakes along with alphafleet maelstroms did not add much beyond numbers.
Exacerbating this problem was the fact that in preparation for the expected, IT Alliance-led push into the North, the NC powers had bulked up by loosening their recruiting standards and pulling in more “warm bodies” than ever before to counter the massive numbers IT was rallying around itself for MAX 2. This trend continued after that great campaign, as the core NC alliances would extend the franchise by admitting vastly inferior groups to their coalition. It was these groups that initiated the change in the Geminate campaign and when push came to shove the only advantage they enjoyed was numerical in nature. When NC supercaps became increasingly scarce in the wake of several disastrous defeats, the disparity caused by quantity vs. quality became even more pronounced. Lacking in supercapital support, a unified fleet doctrine and even basically skilled fleet participants, and facing gifted FCs like Nync and extremely skilled opposition in the form of Pandemic Legion, how could one reasonably expect Kula Kain to stem the tide?
What next?
What occurred cannot be described as a fair showcase of the abilities that Kula Kain actually does possess, as it is rather akin to tossing an amateur boxer into a heavyweight title bout; he was horribly outclassed and still far too new to his role to cope with its challenges effectively. That said, Kula amply proved that he was, if nothing else, available and willing to step up to the role and as any CEO can tell you, that is extremely rare. Probably the single best example of this is GoonSwarm Federation’s DaBigRedBoat, who has made up for his middling skills with a thick skin, practice and infernal luck. DBRB also cut his teeth on relatively easy opponents like SMASH, Atlas and R0ADKILL and was able to learn the basics of the FC’s craft in circumstances closer to ratting than actual combat.
Indeed, given a challenge more appropriate to his current skill level, it is this author’s contention that Kain could develop greatly and become a far more balanced commander. Leading a fleet driven by a unified doctrine and comms system would be radically different from what he experienced in the late NC. Finally, skilled, experienced fleet members would allow him to focus less on “herding cats” and more on actual command.
Where could he find this? That Kain is no longer in Morsus Mihi says enough about his desire to remain with his former compatriots (and it is likely that a good few, incapable of seeing the forest for the trees, blame him for their current condition) and joining the noted trolls in GSF would end badly for him. White Noise is far too Russian and Pandemic Legion probably lampooned him too much during the war for him to get comfortable there, though as dullard bmerc proves, they do not lack for sub-par FCs either. The best remaining option for Kula Kain is probably to work with the Legion of xXDEATHXx. It has the desire to develop its USTZ presence (in which Kain operates) and English-conversant leadership, for starters. More importantly, it has a battle-hardened core, tight fleet composition and a rather bumbling enemy to fight: the sad rump of Against ALL Authorities. If Kain can bring himself to join with this former adversary, he may well find what he needs to better show off and develop his abilities. In turn, XIX would gain a readily available USTZ FC to ramp up the pressure on –A-.
- Vodka
We want to give you guys the best possible intel, to post as fast as we can confirm it, but Eve being :Eve: is quite confusing. If we messed up with our intel, please contact us directly riverini@gmail.com, provide the proof of it and we’ll correct it immediately noting the change and bringing the correction on top of the article list.
If you would like to send intel or contribute, feel free to use the form below:
