Securing sites

Faction warfare involves territory and I have been trying to do my bit. There's many a low-sec Gallente system that has been marked as 'contested' on the interstellar maps and I have decided to see what I can do to secure them.

The steps for me was as follows:

1. Find what Gallente systems are currently classed as contested. Most people use this fantastic EVEMaps site.

2. Warp to the system and find the capture points in the system.

The capture points are usually hidden complexes so one needs to probe them out. You can either use a scan probe launcher or I find the on-board scanner to be just as good, if only a bit limited in range. I usually scan for 'cosmic anomalies' from the station and then move from planet to planet until I get a hit. Sometimes, even if a system is contested - you might not get an immediate hit. I just keep on trying until I get a hit or move onto the next contested system.

3. Warp to capture point and orbit around the point for a set period of time.

As soon as you warp to the cosmic anomaly; a dead space beacon will light up and be visible to everyone in the same system, if they have their overviews set up correctly to detect beacons. The dead space beacon will have a name such as 'Gallente Minor Complex' or some such.

Depending on the type; ship type restrictions may exist - most of the ones I have seen allow T1 frigates to cruisers and T2 frigates. Others are classed as un-restricted and any ship type can come in. I think it's possible to light a cyno in there as well.

Once inside; there should be the friendly presence of Gallente ships hovering around - the capture point is usually some structure between 50-80km away from the warp in point. To initiate the capture; one needs to be within a certain distance away from it and the exact distance required will be visible on the overview.

Hit the afterburner / micro warp drive and get into a tight orbit and start securing it - a count down will appear for the duration that you (and your corp mates) are within the required distance. Cloaking or using a pod / shuttle will not activate this process. It needs to be a combat ship.

Fight off anyone who comes in to disrupt your work.

4. Once the capture point has been secured after the set amount of time has been elapsed, it may be necessary to find more capture points until the system is secured.

I had to do this several times but with a number of fleet mates; it was possible to secure a number of these strategically important points almost at the same time. Once secured, the system name will remove the 'contested' title from the name.

5. Move onto next system and rinse and repeat. This is defensive plexing and aims to disrupt ongoing squiddie attempts at encroaching into Gallente space. You see, the danger here is that if the enemy contests enough of these capture points; then the central command bunker within the system becomes vulnerable to attack and if lost, the entire system moves over to the Caldari. The net result is that the NPC ships (currently friendly to the Gallente militia) become Caldari and infinitely more hostile.

I have been busy in Placid and the work (rather boring) of defensive work in securing existing Gallente sites is vital and has been recognised by the Gallente Federation - it's one of the few ways that you can get battlefield decorations and ranks.

As I type this, I have just seen more Gallente systems change their status to 'contested' - looks like the squiddie militia is active once more. At least we've invaded and held our ground in Northern Black Rise.