Posted - 2008.01.10 09:58:00 - [1]

 

Before I move on to the main topic, let me speak about myself for a bit. I’ve been a longtime EVE player, and I want to spread some ideas which I’ve come to. My ideas are by no means right or wrong, just my personal views. The reason I am posting on this character is I do not wish my allegiance to detract from my message. I plan to post whenever I feel I have something worth posting.

Overwhelming Force

Mercenary Coalition is a very successful alliance; there is no doubt about that. Their success was built upon an early strategy of focusing on capitals and supercaps. They realized early on that instead of a conventional BS fleet, they could accomplish their goals by deploying large numbers of capitals with a small number of support.

Everybody knows of MC’s success of hotdropping, and to many this also created much annoyance. The annoyance was warranted, but the annoyed were at the receiving end of a strategy that everyone soon would be following. As much as I dislike analogies, German Panzer divisions that focused tremendous force on one point of a line epitomize MC’s strategy. The ability to deploy carriers with spider tanking, and also retaining the capability of jumping out was brilliant. Nobody had done it on such a grand and consistent scale before.

The Future in a Void

By focusing on capitals, Mercenary Coalition’s capital fleet grew by leaps and bounds. However, MC’s small player base would ultimately prove that they would never win an arms race. When a player possesses capitals and supercaps, the player can go no further. The buildtime and capital for a Titan, and also their limited use means the arms race ends with Motherships, at least in capital battles.

With a core of 500 players, it is no surprise that Mercenary Coalition begins to fall behind. Goonswarm, Tau Ceti Federation, Red Alliance, AAA, along with the rest of the Eve community all adapted and grew their own respective capital fleets. With enemies numbering in the thousands, and a capital ceiling, there was simply no way that Mercenary Coalition could maintain its lead. As one see’s today, Mercenary Coalition is no longer the impressive juggernaut it was. While still formidable, there is no way they can match their success of destroying D2 in the future, or ever at all.

Dissecting a Reputation

Everyone today would admit that Mercenary Coalition has quite a reputation. They have steamrolled many opponents, and fought in the trenches none-stop. However, one needs to break down their opponents to see Mercenary Coalition’s true effectiveness.

Mercenary Coalition’s grand claim to fame was the destruction of D2 and many of D2’s allies. In what would be known as a cleansing of the North, Mercenary Coalition and friends took apart D2 as nobody thought they would. Impressive if one looks at the surface, but beneath the surface is what is interesting.

Dusk till Dawn is an old organization with a great deal of history. They were the powerhouse of the North, and effectively controlled the region through a series of NAPs and overwhelming threats of force. The problem with their approach, however, was their skill on the battlefield was never consistently conditioned. Many of the mistakes of their fleet losses and Titan losses were due to a lack of experience in warfare on the capital scale. With the disintegration of D2, one can also see the scale of their battlefield prowess. Mostly Harmless is an industrial powerhouse, Kraftwerk is more or less similar, and Evoke, a small alliance, remains the only potent pvp force.