EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Misapplication of Force: When the SoCo didn’t need numbers, they had numbers; when they needed as many ships as possible, their forces weren’t there. At one point the SoCo mustered 700 pilots to destroy a SBU - a strategically trivial task best suited for a mop-up crew - yet when their main conquerable staging system, C3N, was assaulted, they couldn’t find more than 400 for its final timer.

Staging Errors: The CFC/HBC staged in three separate locations in unconquerable NPC Delve stations: F20Y, 1DH, and KFIE. They remembered the last time a major bloc war had broken out in Delve, which ended with Band of Brothers humiliated and camped into the PR- station 23/7 for more than a month while their empire burned around them. The SoCo moved every one of its alliances into a single NPC Delve station, 319, which was promptly camped around the clock, making it difficult for the SoCo to form for ops, even though this wasn’t a PR-style hellcamp. Multiple adjacent staging systems allowed the CFC/HBC to break camps on each other’s stations, while the SoCo was always at risk of being caged without a hope of an allied bailout.

Missing Command Structure: The leaked Skype logs of the SoCo command channels makes it clear that the SoCo not only failed to have a coherent command structure to coordinate ops, but that they specifically avoided creating one out of hubris, stating that they ‘don’t need a Mittani’. These Skype logs are fascinating, as they show the highest level of a coalition at war squabbling like children, even though tens of thousands of pilots are relying on them for leadership and the defense of their homes. The most powerful alliance in the SoCo, Against All Authorities, was expected to lead and coordinate the efforts, but -A- not only did not lead, but made it clear that -A- didn’t care if their allies lost their space. By contrast, the CFC/HBC warmasters worked in close concert with one another coordinating targets, with dedicated staff diplomats ensuring that infighting did not break out.

Conclusion:

Due to the exceptional level of penetration of the SoCo command by CFC/HBC spies, we have an impressive archive of data showing exactly how the SoCo failed. What is surprising is not that the SoCo lost, but the fact that their mistakes were so banal and elementary. The idea that a bloc would go to war in EVE without an aggressive defense, the use of capital ships, and without a command structure is jaw-dropping; such mistakes might have been commonplace in 2006, but the level of competition at the bloc level has evolved substantially over the years. If Delve 2012 is any indication, the SoCo is lucky that what remains of their bloc lives in space that is so poor that no one deigns to take it from them.