EVE University is going to war against RvB today!

We do have our fair share of experience with highsec wardeccers, as anything else, we use these always as an opportunity to teach our members about safety protocols, such as using voice coms and standing fleets as well as organising QRFs when targets show up around our campus locations. Of course, these wars are also a great opportunity to organise bigger fleets to take out the enemy’s war HQ as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This war is going to be a different beast altogether though. RvB and EVE University have taken up their old tradition and agreed to a mutual war with some specific rules, with the most important one being: keep it classy! We are looking forward to a week full of fun fights around the clock and constant opportunities to learn for all involved parties.

Of course propaganda and banter is part of any good war in EVE, so our Communications Department (now War Propaganda Department) has created some dashing media you might have seen pop up around various channels already. Most notably this animation by Fudster:

And these amazing posters by Marcel en Distel:

We are also holding an ongoing internal propaganda competition which has already yielded some gems as well:

Throwback to the Battle of Aldrat

We are lucky that Jalxan – a seasoned veteran who led the battle of Aldrat against RvB almost a decade ago – has recently returned to the Uni and found some time to share his thoughts:

Back in 2013, we were facing a war with RvB, with their intention of taking down the Eve University Player Owned Station (POS) in Aldrat. At the time, we were in a transitional phase, where the Ivy League Navy (an ancient predecessor to our now existing FC Team) was leaderless due to real-life commitments from its leadership, and we had no organized defense against them.

I decided at the time that I wanted to defend the POS, and requested permission from Kelduum Revaan (Eve Uni’s then-CEO) to help run the defense of the POS. In the end, I was given the temporary rank of “ILN Commodore”, to oversee the war.

From there, I got the ball rolling; after RvB put the POS into reinforced, I knew I needed to drum up interest to defend it once Reinforced Mode ended (old POS mechanics worked differently than today’s reinforcing of structures). I wrote up a lengthy heroic-style speech via Evemail, and hoped that I would get the numbers. I was blown away; by the time the fleet formation was done, we had enough to fill one fleet of 255 members, and the remainder which added together to about 450. It was – and may still be to this day the biggest fleet Eve University has ever fielded.

Leading such a fleet would not be easy, but thankfully I took the time to prepare. One of the things I organized before the battle was to split up my fleet into wings of 50 (which was based on how Eve Online handled fleets back then as well), with each one having their own individual shot-callers (to spread out the damage and make it harder for enemy logistics to protect their fleetmembers). I had most of my Wings hold at the Aldrat gate – this is where I wanted to hold them for the duration of the battle. I also had one Wing as a “firefighting” unit where they would respond to any escaping RvB members attempting to re-ship in-system (and oh boy did they try!). If I recall correctly, I was able to let logi set themselves up in their own squads, allowing them to do their jobs independently.

Separately, an RvB spy reached out to me, and helpfully provided me the name of the enemy FC; this was pivotal in the early minutes of the engagement, as their FC’s had to keep rotating for quite some time until they switched to out-of-corp ships. Eventually, RvB arrived.

At the time I thought they had numbered 150, but recent days I learned that they had at least 250, based on newly dug-up footage of the battle I found from the RvB side. Equipped with decent ships versus our kitchen-sink fleet of whatever we could pull together (back then we didn’t have doctrines nor SRP), it wasn’t going to be an easy fight.

I mostly-silently oversaw the battle, and allowed my Wing Commanders to make their shot calls, while I listened in carefully, giving boosts to the entire system in my Vulture 350km off-grid but within visual range of the battle (back then boosts worked system-wide). Occasionally I would interject with special orders (ie. “Spread your points” to the tackle, giving orders to my “firefighting” squad, giving priority targets against the enemy FC’s, etc). The battle raged for quite some time.

That being said… don’t be afraid to take risks either; after all, when I led the Battle of Aldrat, I had never FCed any fleet with more than 50 members before, and I was honestly going by the seat of my pants. I may have led the Battle of Aldrat and some other battles to victory, but I’ve also lost some as well. And that’s okay! We’re all here to learn.

If you’ve never done PVP before, this is a great time to learn it. This is also a great opportunity to sign up for the FC Team! It is not often when we get to fight a war with terms, instead of having to defend ourselves in a war with none. Expect lots of good-fights, and expect lots of explosions! Don’t forget the SRP program, which means your losses will be covered if you follow doctrines.