And the Pendulum Swings

          The Amarrian Militia (24IC) has been at T4 for over a week now, the Minmatar Militia (TLF)simmering at T1 - a situation almost opposite of the environment in my last major FW piece.  I will fully admit to partaking of the fruits of the 24IC's collective labor (although I've been slacking of late), though I haven't made much money yet because of my short, strict list of acceptable LP/ISK ratios (Navy Armageddons dropped 35 million overnight after I cashed out LP for 8 of them, but before I could put them on the market. -_- )

          I sadly was not present for the battle of Arzad, a system the Minmatar were proud to hold, but by all accounts there wasn't much of a battle at all.  I'll let Poetic Stanziel, an actual participant, describe the operation.

Did we get fights from the Minmatar? Unfortunately, no. You'd think Late Night Alliance could have mustered some support for their Iron Oxide brothers, but such is the selfishness of the Minmatar. We actually saw more resistance from non-militia organizations like Heretic Nation than from Minmatar themselves. Since we had no fights, and since plexing is so god-awful boring, we had people keeping up the community spirit. We had Scort Tofusin live streaming some oil painting. We had Pinky Feldman and others streaming movie and TV nights. A lot of work was done to keep spirits high and boredom down.

Poetic Stanziel even mentions the effects of DUST on the operation to capture Arzad.

Let's not forget the DUST 514 players. Since Uprising, DUST actually can matter in faction warfare. Battles now happen in faction warfare where plexing is happening. Because of the plexing activity, probably 70+% of the faction warfare DUST fights were happening in Arzad. And because Amarr players took to their Playstation 3s, DUST ended up giving the Amarr a huge plexing advantage. It shaved eight or so hours total off plexing the entire system into Amarr control. DUST 514 played a key role in Arzad's capture.

          Fweddit's been a boon to the militia, and while I might not want to venture onto their comms for fear of my sanity, I'll miss their presence in the warzone.  Any corp that is both willing, able, and grasps the concept of "teamwork" is a welcome addition to the usually shady and unreliable militia.

          In fact, the loss of Arzad was so sudden that despite being home to both Iron Oxide (of Titan fame) and Smile 'n' Wave (who may have just left because of T1 and losing Arzad was just the proverbial straw), both alliances were unable to evacuate in time and had to leave the militia in order to regain access to their ships.  The fall of one of the Minmatar strongpoints and departure of one of the larger and more active TLF alliances (though they remain in the area and likely TLF friendly) was a victory for sure, leaving Huola and Auga as the remaining TLF strongholds.

Courtesy of  Vagrian Omaristos

          If momentum keeps up (currently the Minmatar lose a system around every 3 days), even at this tempered-off rate, then taking Huola is certainly possible.  I'm more looking forward to the capture of Kourmonen, however, as a couple of rather expensive ships (I miss my legion) never made it out before the FW lock out mechanic change.  Part of me would like a quick and painless takeover of the warzone just so we can claim totaly victory, no matter for how short a time, and just get it over with.  The otehr part, despite my miner origins, does hope for intense and frequent fights as the Minmtar get cornered.

          Even if we achieve total ownership of the Amarr-Minmatar warzone, it's unlikely to stay that way for long.  If it doesn't happen prior, a couple of corps or alliances who are less concerned with KB padding and more concerned with steady PvP will join the Minmatar and help turn the tide.  Nothing will give you more targets to shoot at than joining the losing side in a conflict.