Dal-uded?

Some dude, who was a military philosopher who I cannot quite remember (and google fails me) said once, something along the lines of "the study of maps informs upon the conduct of war".

It seems that our foes in the Amarr are greater students of maps than the nebulous clique of minds which are shambolically "running" the war for the Minmatar. 

Dal is a critical system in the topography of the Amarr-Minmatar faction warfare battlefield. Given the free lunch given to them by the exclusion of Egghelende from FW contestation, resulting in it being a de facto unsinkable aircraft carrier (the Midway of the warzone, in essence) and the Amarr control of Siseide, this leaves only Dal and Gulmorogod to be taken to cut off the Heimatar pocket from the rump of Metropolis.

Gulmorogod is a vital system in the Heimatar region, connecting Bosboger with Metropolis via Egmar. It was being heavily pushed last week in concert with Dal, but the proximity of Gulmorogod to Bosboger and Amamake makes it a difficult ask. Dal, however, is nextdoor to Siseide, Amamake, and abutts Hofjaldgund - which is in essence now a useless backwater system, as it has no stations.

Thus we can tease out the strategy of the Amarr, and see the paucity of the Minmatar strategy which is bankrupt if Dal falls - which at the time of writing seems more or less guaranteed.

In the past week we have seen Minmatar flip Halmah, Iesa, approach the tipping point with Ezzara.

These are all irrelevant actions compared to battling for Dal to keep it, and shows how little individual alliance XO's and corporation CEO's actually pay attention to what they are doing towards a greater war effort. We have seen hours of people's game time spent and wasted flipping isolated systems deep inside enemy territory, for no appreciable gain, at the expense of a coordinated defence of Dal and Gulmorogod.

Don't get me wrong; it is not goingg to be the end of the world to lose Dal. But it is certainly a very peculiar situation. We fought, and the Amarr fought so hard for Aset precisely because of its strategic value (and the fact that douchenozzles inhabited it). Now, we seem adrift and bereft of leadership, and are about to let a critical system be flipped while mobs of people faff about uselessly tipping isolated systems over in the back blocks of Amarr territory, only to lose them almost daily.

So. I wonder whether this is just the Christmas and New Years break? I hope so.