Out of timezone

The Amarr-Minmatar faction warfare zone is currently being dominated by the Amarr, for several reasons. What those reasons are is, of course, up for conjecture, but here's mine;

Fweddit and the US timezone. I have, in previous posts, mentioned how the Minmatar militia was going to have trouble dealing with T1 logi, as it brings entry-level hero tanking for gangs; this has panned out. So, too, the arrmour tanking T1 cruiser doctrines are a mainstay of Fweddit. However, we do take them on from time to time - the problem being that in the US timezone, Minnie militia is dominated by guys whose game revolves around camping the Kamela to Kourmonen gate with 30-40 ships straight from the cutlery drawer, and no FC.

IFW and company are avowedly lazy and won't go more than 3 jumps from Huola without a definite promise of something to gank. They are also quite used to flying as a chaotic rabble, and act as one great organic machine of chaos, which doesn't need an FC, especially while camping a gate. They will get their game face on - but not against Fweddit's 20-50 man armour cruiser fleet. To be fair to IFW and company, it does take organisation to face off against that fleet, and reshipping from kitchen sink to AHAC doctrine takes time, which could be better spent avoiding the fight.

Nevertheless, at least half the actively PVPing semi-organised forces of the Minmatar in the US timezone spend their night camping a single gate, blobbing and ganking. Skilful? No. Contributing to the warzne as a whole? Fuck no. A fun way to spend time with your mates? Absolutely. This has, however, seen Fweddit and the Amarr's organised plexing fleet dominate the warzone elsewhere - and they are organised, with squads of 6-8 hitting the targeted systems hard while the Minmatar is reduced to soloers and skirmishing, and gets run out of plexes and the systems get wound up.

Then, of course, in the EU timezone, Minmatar dominates, and at least in Essin in the AU timezone, we repair the damage. But until the US timezone presence gets further than Kamela, in an organised fashion, I think we will not roll the Amarr back.

Dealing with Fweddit is, ironically, up to Fweddit. I've previously said on the forums to Pinky Feldman, who complains a lot about booster alts and blobbing, that Fweddit is the prime practitioner of these practises. No one sane is going to take on 8km/s Stiletto's to break off the tackle and harass the armour blob. No one is going to take on a 40 man fleet with 12 Augorors. And thus, it is up to Fweddit to split up, move around in smaller gangs of 6-12, and get the fights - maybe even without their boosters. Until then, they will not get the fights they want.

We are hoping for a US timezone presence to turn up in Essin; several options are mooted, and some small corps have joined. This willl really solidify the constellation and help control the US timezone plexing. We will also see how this push on Kamela alters things - it is, oddly, IFW and company doing the pushing, so it is anyone's guess what they will do once the Kam/Kourm gate camp is pointless. Maybe move to the Otelen gate? For some of the laziest people in FW, taking Kamela seems a little counter-productive.