Opinion: A Song of Lies and Tears

Author: Almity, Amarr Militia

The Amarr and Minmatar fight is heating up. If you were to read Susan Black’s latest blog post you would think that the Amarr are hiding in stations while the Minmatar roam free and rule the war zone. What Susan fails to tell her loyal readers is the truth.

Susan would like everyone to think that Amarr does not work together. That we don’t talk. That there are five different fleets up at all times and we refuse to form up and fight Late Night. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Let’s forget the recent fights in Kourm. The ones where every able Amarr pilot in any intel channel who was awake was in. The fleets that fought for and pushed the Minmatar out of plexes in Kourm. Lets forget those recent fights and focus on your ever day happenings in the war zone.

For you to understand the current Amarr fleet doctrine I first have to give you a little history lesson. When I.Law first moved back to the War Zone after a much-needed break from the same old fights we made a choice. We would not fight Late Night head to head in Kourm Huola area. The Minmatar’s ability to reship quickly and counter what we brought on field made this not worth while. Being out numbered is a good fight. Being out numbered while your opponent can ship to counter what you bring on field is suicide and I’m not into suiciding my fleets for the fun of it.

Our tactics became more guerrilla warfare. We run cruisers and down. Get in. Get a fight. Get out before your enemy can double your numbers and drop a triage on your cruiser fleet. This has been working well. We have become very successful at picking away at the Minmatar.

Every night when our fleet advert goes up we accept almost all pilots. If you are in a player corp and can fly a rifter you can join us. Most nights there are pilots from five or six different corps in our fleets. Our numbers range from ten to twenty pilots. Sure, there are more online but people do have to make isk or some prefer to defensively plex instead of roam for hours. This is every pilots choice and who are we to dictate how they spend their game time?

History lesson over, on to current affairs. Susan Black tells her readers over and over the Minmatar are winning because they adapted. They formed an alliance and worked together for the greater good. Fine I will give her that. No one can deny that Late Night Alliance has become a very powerful force.

But the Amarr have also adapted and did so to survive. With the massive influx of players and cohesion the Minmatar became too powerful for the US TZ Amarr to counter head to head. The old days of ship up and ship down and meet on Huola Kourm gate had to end. The Amarr adapted by changing their fighting style. By denying the enemy the ability to apply their full force on our fleets we tip the engagements in our favor.

Dictating where, when and what we fight is adapting. Of course this does not always work and we do end up fighting out numbered and out shipped sometimes but for the most part we do what we do very well.

Susan thinks Amarr must change from a PVP fighting style to empire building to effectively adapt to the upcoming changes. This could not be farther from the truth. Holding space will still mean very little to most players. Most Faction War pilots I talk to just want to get fights and blow stuff up. Even the isk incentive is not enough to make pilots want to plex or care about holding space.

We are not forced to play the hand we are given by CCP. Many Amarr pilots took to the forums to protest the changes that they did not want. After the changes were set in stone some people decided they did not want to continue in FW. Why would someone continue on if the changes would ruin their style of play? Remember this is a game Susan. We play to have fun.

The Amarr Militia plays its own game. We will not be told where to fight or what to fly. If Late Night wants to bring twenty cruisers to counter our ten dessys that’s fine. They just have to know we will not fight them. They can sit in Huola all night and defend their space. We will roam and kill you in ones and twos and fives and tens. Once we stir the hornet’s nest and Late Night wakes up we will move on and go kill other Minmatar elsewhere.

We have adapted more than you could ever know Susan. Perhaps more so than you and your lot. We have changed our fighting style. We have changed what we fly. We have changed where we live.

The Minmatar have changed very little. The basis of your change is a huge influx of numbers and an alliance. Any side who has two to one odds every night and every fight can be smug in their assumptions of their enemy. Susan proves that. Too bad she is also wrong.