![]() Choosing to hit BNI first was an easy decision: only the south-eastern N3 (who were advocated as a target by one faction of PL leadership) were as vulnerable, and Hero Coalition have proved more willing to keep showing up for fights than one suspects N3 would have been. ![]() Obviously, without renters another B-R would be extremely damaging but with no fixed resources to be hit, PL are free to do what they like, to whom they like, without any concerns about having to defend sovereign assets. PL – 9/10 – Pandemic Legion were the boldest of all in their response to Phoebe, selling their renter space and returning to their traditional footloose and fancy free shenanigans. Others are probably due for the recycling chamber. If Nulli’s leadership becomes more active, then that alliance will survive: they’re too experienced and skilled not to. The American political landscape is less widely divided. The withdrawal of the CFC from the South-West threw a spanner in the works there, and my personal feeling is that N3’s split across south-western and south-eastern areas makes them effectively split into two entities, despite some cross-holdings, and renders them little more than a loose political alignment. N3 were focussed on an attack on the CFC on two main fronts, aimed at taking the Delve/PB/Querious region. N3 – 3/10 – N3 only barely exist as a concept now, united by little more than a broad dislike of Goons. Nobody wants to be harassed in their rear areas, after all. I would say that NCdot have further hard choices to make ahead of them, but I suspect those choices have already been made, but that the south-eastern half of their rental empire and allied bloc just doesn’t know it yet.įurthermore, NCdot have yet to work out a good answer to the constant harassment by well-known non-existent groups like Reavers in their rear areas that led to the loss of four supers last week. Further, NCDot are no longer in a position to defend their Eastern N3 allies without giving up their Fountain harassment and leaving their western allies exposed. That said, the NA renter empire is too distant to be effectively defended, and is already falling to the Curse Russians and others. Particularly with the new limits on jump drive range, holding Querious acts as a hand on the throat of whoever is in Period Basis and Delve, while allowing the residents to take shots at Catch and, with a little more work, Fountain. ![]() NCdot acted boldly, re-enacting the Goonswarm move of 2009 in some ways, and has taken rich space that has great strategic importance as a result. NCDot – 7.5/10 – I was speaking to Vince an hour or so after the Phoebe jump drive changes were announced and he was already thinking radically about the impact. Closer relations with BL are a strategic ace in the hole but they do need to watch out for the traditional skimming-off of their best members as a result. I remember the effect of Goonswarm killing Shrike’s titan in 2007 and the last couple of weeks could be similarly exploited by BNI to create a different view of themselves than was the case in the past. The tinfoil hattery over PL’s motivations was a bit daft but killing two of PL’s titans has given BNI in particular a swagger that they’ve not had before. Still, having decided to stay put, they were clever enough to neutralise the Providence front with diplomacy, and they’ve been lucky that the various Russians who might have been a threat have been ineffectual or distracted by other targets. Their ultimate response was that nobody felt able to make the call on their options. Brutally frankly, they didn’t remain where they are because they thought it was the best option – although that might turn out to be true in the long run – but because they, and specifically BNI – don’t have the structures in place to make radical decisions. Part of Hero’s to Phoebe response was born of sheer inertia: BNI had a few options available (some of them radical, some less so) offered to them by N3/NCDot, the CFC and others. Hero Coalition – 7/10 – A perfectly respectable passing grade which improved due to resilience and the willingness to follow through on their decisions. Now that Rhea is upon us, I thought I would write a quick assessment of how each of the major blocs reacted to Phoebe, and to the major changes it implied as to how and where alliances hold space.
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