The War so far.

After almost two months of faction warfare, I have been promoted to Aegis Commander and the Gallente have supposedly, lost influence in Verge Vendor. The split between how the Caldari and Gallente view faction warfare is as far apart as ever and it's doubtful if both sides can ever meet in the middle.

On the one hand, the Caldari has grabbed 'control' over Verge Vendor - flipping the system and ensuring a semi-permanent presence of Caldari Navy and Caldari Militia pilots. However, nothing else has changed: the stations are still there, services and transport remain unimpeded and apart from the little change in the status of the system map, there is no evidence of any Caldari influence.

In fact, the 'capture' of Verge Vendor didn't even make the news, not even the regional news such is the non-impact of this happening though there was some bandwidth over in the GalNet forums amongst some of the capsuleers involved. While, I am 100% against the fascist Caldari state and their mad dictator, Tibus Heth, I think the lack of any recognition to the 22nd Black Rise, PERVS and CAIN (to name three) Caldari Faction Warfare corporations for their hard work is a tad unfair though not unexpected. Afterall, the leader of the Caldari State is the mad fascist, Tibus Heth. What do they expect?

However, this reflects the odd situation where the Caldari state has asked pod pilots to take the fight into low-security space and then try to secure it by attacking selected military installations and complexes. No effort is made to capture major systems and planets or even the star gates. The war, if one can be called that, operates with specific battlefield areas. The prize being a change in sovereignity on a map and nothing more. It is almost like ritual warfare.

Of course, if capturing systems (I use the word loosely) is the goal of a corporation; then the achievement of this by a corporation is a reward in itself. This is the goal of the 22nd, PERVS and CAIN - they want to change the colour of the map to be more Caldari blue and they're achieving it. In contrast, the Gallente are not as interested in map changes and I know many a Gallente pilot, for example, in Oulletta (which 'fell' to the Caldari Fascists) happily living and shopping and flying in what is now classed as hostile space. There is no discernible change in environment. Not even the service charges of stations change to reflect the will of the fascist provosts.

So what now?

Oddly, there is a call by the Gallente Federation for a concentrated campaign into Black Rise, and this recognition by the Federation has galvanised some sections of the the Gallente Militia into relocating into Black Rise and start seizing Protectorate assets. However, will we do enough to change the map? Probably not. Will the majority of the Gallente militia care? Nope.

I, however, will move to a system in Black Rise and see what I can do.