Two days ago, I received an email from a member of a low sec FW/pirate corp, Almity. I could feel the giddy in their request if I was interested in a story. Their corp includes Shalee Lianne, a tweetfleet person, so I must admit to having a certain level of expectation of epic battle when I responded. I was intrigued, partly because Shalee has a tendency to tweet about rather successful PVP roams on a regular basis, but also because I have a soft spot for the smaller battles of Eve. A was hoping for something along the lines of “we caught a super carrier ratting in low sec and picked it apart with 10 HACs over the course of 4 hours” or a similar tale of epic low sec battle. Turns out they live in Otosela. Otosela has been used as a staging system for Test Alliance in their campaign with PL/NCdot against SOLAR. The opening of the report went like this:
Test Alliance came into Otosela earlier last month with a bang. Our sleepy little system’s local count went from a dozen Imperial Outlaws and a few neutrals to hundreds in a matter of hours. Chaos ensued as many POS’s were reinforced then destroyed; Test POS’s went up and super capitals and Titans were brought in.
From that point on, I was hooked on what turned out to be an tale of the side conflict that Test had going on in the down time between major ops against SOLAR. Now, mind you, Test Alliance has numbers. 5337 according to DotLan. Imperial Outlaws have a total member count of 31, small enough that they do not even register on DotLan’s website. That these two entities could both have fun shooting each other is a sign of the genius (accidental or purposeful) that is Eve PVP. It is also a lesson for the whiners who use the word “blob” in conversation about battles or wars they have lost.
There was the requisite banter in local as well as outright local spam and trolling (they made a blog to commemorate some of the more epic comments here). Despite, or possibly because of the local banter, Imperial Outlaws decided to stay in Otosela and make the best of the situation. Test, always up for fights, was happy to shoot it up with them. Imperial Outlaws knew low sec mechanics well. Test have limitless funds compared to them. In the end, many ships died, and it seems both sides came out of the month of combat with smiles on their faces. Having been on deployment one or two thousand times myself, I have to give a tip of the hat to any locals who stick around and help fill the down time between fleets with the much more satisfying and fun small gang combat.
The member of Imperial Outlaws who provided the information to me very clearly saw their combat statistics as a huge victory for them. It must have been exhilarating going toe to toe with a large alliance like Test. Not to denigrate the low sec lifestyle, as I have enjoyed it quite often during my time in Eve, but it does tend to give you a different perspective on small gang warfare than that of a null sec existence. They triumphantly provided their campaign statistics:
Imperial Outlaws: Test Campaign
Which shows the impressive number of hurricanes and rifters they mowed through in the last month. Again, putting myself in their shoes, they must have had a blast.
They did catch a few choice kills: Pilgram, Broadsword, Widow (oops!), and a Navy Scorp.
Imperial Outlaws are coming out of this conflict battle tested and dripping in kills that make them the envy of other low sec groups. They likely learned a few tricks on combating enemies who bring superior numbers. They may or may not have learned some lessons about how null sec alliances fight (of note, Test doesn’t conduct combat quite the same as other alliances).
Test, on the other hand, came out of this having had a blast. A near constant supply of small gang PVP close at hand is absolute heaven for a null alliance these days.
I’m sure everyone who partook of the PVP of Otosela this last month will come away with a few entertaining stories and quotes. These are the stories and fights that keep me logging in.
Bagehi – Member of Test Friends Please Ignore
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