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Table of Contents
| Part of World War Bee 2 | |
|---|---|
| Date | 2020-06-04 to 2021-08-01 |
| Location | Delve, Fountain, Querious, Period Basis, Paragon Soul, Esoteria |
| Result | PAPI announces a full retreat late July 2021, The Imperium wins the war. |
| Belligerents | |
| PAPI | The Imperium |
| Commanders | |
| vily, progodlegend, others | asher elias, elo knight, others |
World War Bee 2
World War Bee 2 was a conflict between the Imperium and the PAPI coalition, that lasted from July 4 2020 to August 1 2021. It was the largest conflict in the history of New Eden so far, with an estimated loss of more than 200 trillion ISK and over 580 supercapital ships. It also included the battle with the most players involved and the most players fighting concurrently in a single system (The Fury of FSWT-8) as well as the battle with the most ISK destroyed (First battle of M2-XFE). It ended in an Imperium victory as the PAPI coalition pulled out from the South, albeit after suffering heavy losses and widespread destruction, having lost over 30 keepstars and 4 regions glassed. TEST Alliance moved to live in Outer Passage, after having left Esoteria for Delve during the course of the war.
The War Begins
On the 22nd of June 2020, after many years of relative peace between Legacy and the Imperium, Vily declared war on the Imperium, giving them 2 weeks to prepare. Legacy was soon to be joined by most NullSec blocs, such as PanFam, the WinterCoalition, or the FI.RE coalition, among others, forming the PAPI megacoalition (PanFam alliance please ignore).
The Legacy coalition would have a double staging, with D-PNP9 on one side for TEST to hold Paragon Soul and the G-M4GK ↔ TCAG-3 regional gate, as well as FAT-6P in Catch to face Querious and the 49-U6U ↔ 4-07MU regional. Meanwhile, Panfam forces setup in Hophib to face The Initiative in Fountain.
The Glassing of Fountain
The Imperium would fire the first shot. On the 5th of July, just after midnight eve time, Goonswarm forces would reinforce 35 Ihubs in the Paragon Soul region and 6 more in Esoteria. They would not however follow up on the timers. In Fountain, PanFam forces started fighting against the Initiative. I-CUVX would fall on the 9th, and the systems of 9D6O-M and YRNJ-8 would fall a week later. It is to note that despite being outnumbered, Initiative forces would punch well above their weight, gaining admiration from their friends and respect of their foes. But bravery only gets you so far. On the 21st, D4KU-5 would also fall, smashing the door of Fountain wide open, at which point Initiative's resistance pretty much collapsed. Receiving fairly little help from their allies in the south, the region was doomed. The new staging of INIT in IGE-RI would fall on the 28th, and by August 13th, Y-2ANO, the entry system to Delve and the last major system in the region would fall, with the entire region captured the following day. It wouldn't be the last of the Imperium's efforts in the region, however, as on the 15th of August, Imperium forces managed to repel an attack on their keepstar, notably bombing an entire TEST Alliance Raven fleet. By the 4th of September, the Y-2ANO keepstar would be the last of 6 keepstars to be destroyed in the region, marking the end of the first phase of the war, and the beginning of Fortress Delve's siege.
Fury in NPC Delve
To avoid a costly fight through the regional gate between Catch (4-07MU) and Querious (49-U6U), PAPI forces would attack from the north of Querious, the only part of the south-western cluster that was in jump range from other regions. It is unclear why the Imperium did not cynojam those systems, or put up a better resistance in these critical systems. It barely took a week after the fall of Fountain for PAPI to take the first IHubs in the region, while for some reason Initiative started retaking fountain, now deserted by Horde. On the 19th, TEST Alliance would capture 49-U's Ihub, with most of the region under control the next week. The Imperium would mount a fight for the system, however, and on the 24th, a supercapital skirmish would occur in which the imperium lost 17 supers and 20 dreads, to PAPI's 1 super and 92 dreads. It did little to change the fate of the Keepstar in the system, which was destroyed much later on the 19th of November.
After breaking into 49-U, the next big objective for PAPI forces was to take Delve. The best way to do so was anchoring a Keepstar in NPC Delve. Unlike sov systems, NPC Delve couldn't be cynojammed. As such, for an entire week, PAPI and Imperium forces would battle it out in Delve. On the 5th of October, the first keepstar would be placed by Fraternity. Imperium forces would drop over 300 dreadnoughts to kill the first Keepstar, successfully, resulting in a loss of one trillion isk. Fraternity, however, would drop another keepstar immediately, with the following battle scheduled for the next day. The ensuing battle would end up being the largest battle in New Eden history, with over 9000 capsuleers involved, with as many as 6000 concurrent characters. It would however be another pyrrhic victory for the imperium, losing another 320 dreadnoughts, as well as 1200 battleships. On the 11th of October, it would be Horde's time to drop a keepstar. Having seemingly lost more dreads than it could handle, for the time being, the Imperium switched tactics, relying more and more on battleships. This time, only 115 dreadnoughts would be lost, but at the cost of another 1200 battleships.
Horde would try again the next week in the same system, but before that battle could take place, an important engagement would begin in YZ9. Having sent a portion of their supercapital fleet in the system to deal with Imperium structures, PAPI started sending fighters while their supercaps were in a close “ball” formation. It wouldn't be lost on the Imperium's strategists' minds. On the fateful day of October 14th, PAPI super pilots watched in horror as 20 Imperium titans got on their positions, and started activating their Bosons, Area-of-effect doomsday, and watching their health bars slowly crumbling. PAPI rushed their own titans in, but it seemed like it was too late for the supers. But as is too often the case with Eve Online's biggest battles, the servers couldn't handle it. It was now for the Imperium's pilots to watch in horror as their Bosons refused to deal more damage, despite being activated. Before long, the Imperium would lose 16 titans and 30 supers, in the first real supercapital engagement of the war. Sometimes mocked, sometimes respected by PAPI pilots, Goonswarm's operation “ENHO” ended in failure. But it wouldn't be the last time CCP's servers would play a key role in this war…
Horde's 2nd keepstar in NPC delve, the 4th keepstar overall, would meet the same fate as her sister's however. This time, the imperium committed an incredible 2200 Raven-class battleships to destroy the citadel, as well as 100 more dreads and 50 more carriers, who hadn't seen much activity yet on the Imperium's side. It would prove to be a breaking point, however. On the 18th of October, Test Alliance would drop the 5th and final keepstar in NPC Delve, in the system of YZ9 where they had defeated the Imperium titans the week before. Having set up large amounts of bubbles to trap any warping battleships, the challenge would be too much for the Goonswarm and their allies, who had to concede the battle to their foes. The gates of Delve were open, and PAPI's fury could now be unleashed.
Massacre at M2
Following the keepstar drop in NPC Delve, things quickly went south for the Imperium. PAPI's strategy was fairly simple: take Goon sov, constellation by constellation, and wait. Indeed, after owning an IHub continuously for 35 days, the owner can place a “cyno jammer”, allowing them to destroy Imperium's keepstars without any risk to their super fleet. PAPI would grind their way through the region, and week by week, constellation after constellation, Delve's sov would be ground down.
The first of many Keepstars to suffer this fate would be in NOL-M9. PAPI would however make a costly mistake with one such keepstar, the now infamous M2-XFE keepstar. During the armor timer, the cyno jammer was turned off, allowing the Imperium to jump their own supercapitals into the battle. Once again, records were simply destroyed: both sides lost over 120 titans each, making it by far the costliest battle in New Eden.
M2 massacre, breakout, Helm's Deep, home front
The Glassing of Delve
Keepstar losses, Legacy moves into Delve
The Siege of 1DQ1-A
Battle for 3-DMQT, the long pause, the final push
The End of The War
After months of stalemate during the Siege of 1DQ, a big push is announced to force a change in the ongoing war on July 24th 2021. However, during the week of preparation for said last push, CCP decided to lower NPC station market taxes below the value of the TTT. Without TTT money and with some allies pressuring to exit the war, the push was cancelled and instead a full retreat and evac of PAPI forces was announced. The war was officially over with no final battle. Goonswarm stood triumphant. TEST abandons all the sov they previously held in the South and instead begins a move towards the Dronelands, to find a new home in Outer Passage. The Legacy coalition also disbanded during the moveop.