Eve Politics

I haven't written in a bit due to vacation and then the inevitable slam of work when you return from vacation (as a side note, is it purposeful that corporate America trains you to fear taking vacation?). But I've still been following the Eve news world and politics. I'll give a free plug to the Lost in Eve podcast. It's run by an alliance leader in the HBC (Honey Badger Coalition) and a line member of -A- (aka "Triple A" / "Against All Authority"). They do a really good job of laying out the politics of their respective regions. And that's what this post is about. Currently, the politics of null-sec are tough to pierce. But they're critical for industrialists to understand because they really affect building strategies on a powerful level. I made a ton of money (nearly 300mil isk) building Zealots during the northern war between NC. and CFC. Then I got whacked hard because the war basically came to a close overnight and I was stuck with 3 zealots in flight that are going to lose me about 10mil isk each.

So, for other industrialists who don't have the time or inclination to read the Mittani or listen to soundclouds of alliance meetings, here's the primer on current state war.

The big players:

Goons: Owners of the largest segment of Tech mines in the North. They are a vastly wealthy alliance and the "lead" alliance in the CFC (a coalition, or collection of alliances). This coalition is what I'd call a "true" coalition. They are a collection of alliances that share offline infrastructure that keeps them with a unified identity and culture. Right now, they are the biggest hitters in all of EVE by a wide margin. Their opponents tend to deride their tactics as "blobbing" but, as has been said, "quantity has a quality all its own". Goons are predominantly a US TZ alliance though they also have a significant EU TZ presence.

NC.: This was a coalition combining Northern Coalition and Black Legion. They recently broke up leaving NC. as a coalition in name only (really just an alliance now). Black Legion moved over to join SOLAR. They pushed off Ewoks /Evoke as well. Both can only really be described as "failed" internal diplomacy.

SOLAR fleet: A largely Russian TZ alliance. They have good relations with Triple A though they don't represent a "coalition" per se. They essentially control the galactic eastern front with some northern Tech holdings scattered in.

Southern Coalition: As much as they protest that this is "made up" it's clear from listening to their coms, that it's a real entity although not in the nearly the same integrated way as the CFC. Led by Against All Authority, this is essentially a military alliance (Triple A) and a collection of renters that may or may not come to -A-'s support when fleets are called (and -A- may not go to their support either). Nulli Secunda left the aegis of this arrangement after getting fed up, purportedly because CTAs (Calls to Arm) were getting called and Nulli was contributing half or more of the fleet count but when they called for help, -A- didn't show up. There's some bad blood here now.

Nulli Secunda: They were previously in the South with -A-. After getting fed up their, they left to go to Factional Warfare. Doing this, they managed to increase their PvP chops and also their wallets. They then showed up to fight for NC. against the CFC and now are forming their own coalition. The bad blood with -A- and the impending CFC vs. Solar fight in the northeast have prompted them to go after -A- territory in the south. Recent NC. news indicates that they might be joining up with Nulli Secunda in this southerly move.

TEST alliance please ignore: Leaders of the HBC (Honey Badger Coalition). They are the largest single alliance in the game and a very close competitor to size with the CFC. HBC was formed largely from TEST (providing numbers) and Pandemic Legion (providing FCs and supercaps). They control most of the west and have embarked on a string of carnage against -A- that is impressive.

PL: Co leaders of the HBC. I don't know who is actually pulling the strings or if this is a true marriage of equals. PL is a very well respected PVP focused alliance with a long history of being space PvP nomads. They own some tech moons (I don't know where) for income but have historically not been a Sov focused entity (despite being in a coalition with TEST, they own none of the territory). They're also much, much, much less friendly with Goons then TEST. They're largely the reason that the HBC is a separate coalition from the CFC.

There's a couple other important players on the fringes:
Gypsy Band: The best, most respected stealth bomber pilots in the game. They've formed their own mini-coalition with RED alliance and are on the prowl for good fights. They have good relations with NC. and have largely shown up fighting CFC and Solar fleets but have popped up in other places as well. This has been called the NCC (Neo-Curse Coalition).

Intrepid Crossing: I know very little about these guys. I assume they have a stable relation with Solar (they're kind of in the NE corner) but very little has been written about them. They control a lot of space.

Razor Alliance: I fairly large, well established, alliance. They're nominally members of the CFC but they probably represent the largest contingent of independence in the Coalition. It would not surprise me to see them break off from Goons like TEST did.

So you've got four primary coalitions and one giant alliance right now:
CFC (led by Goons)
HBC (led by TEST + PL)
SoCo (flailingly being led by -A-)
SOLAR (and their renter family)
"New SoCo" (unnamed coalition led by Nulli Secunda)

How does this affect you?
Well, knowing the fleet doctrines of these guys is important.

CFC: Heavy use of Drakes (although expect this to change in December). They primarily use T1 ships although they have a Tengu fleet doctrine that shows up. They make pretty good use of Stealth Bombers as well.

HBC: I'm not as plugged in on these guys but the coverage from en24 and mittani seems to indicate they primarily run Hurricanes / Tornados / Drakes (similar to the CFC).

SoCo: They have run Loki and Tengu fleets in the past. They also use Proteus as heavy tacklers. They've toyed with the Navy Apoc fleet to try to make up for lesser numbers.

SOLAR: I have no earthly idea. The coverage of SOLAR is essentially nothing.

Nulli Secunda: NC. ran Zealot HACs almost exclusively. This got them shredded pretty hard by CFC due to the predictable nature of it. They went toyed with Ishtar HACs but the CFC fleet comp made that a pretty undesirable strategy. Nulli hasn't announced their fleet doctrines although they sound like they're definitely going to have a Tengu doctrine (doesn't everyone?).

So building Tengu's, Nemesis/Manticore, Drakes and MAYBE Zealots if Nulli adopts that portion of the NC. doctrine (although they indicated it probably won't be frequent).

Here's the relationship chart for reference:
CFC likes HBC and has courted (unsuccessfully) Gypsy, Nulli, Black Legion. They are still trying to finish off NC. and may come to blows with SOLAR very soon.
HBC likes CFC (strong allies) and NewSoCo (soft allies). They pretty much hate -A- at this point.
SOLAR has been at war with NC. and likely will have some kind of skirmish with CFC. They are allied with -A- and are likely to be in a very solid war with the NewSoCo soon (both carrying over the NC. war as well as jumping to defend the -A- remnants).
SoCo likes SOLAR (sort of) and hates the HBC and CFC. They really, really don't like Nulli and won't like Nulli coming after them in this new war for the South either.
NCC: They just want good fights. They are ABSOLUTELY amazing with bombers (I've never seen a battle report that shows them getting smacked around). They whelped a 200 fleet of the CFC with perhaps the best bombing run in Eve's history (popped a dictor bubble then bombed just as the fleet lit their MWDs).