oh sweet jesus here let me help you
Vale of the Silent has fallen, Fade is long-lost, Space Monkies and LAWN (for their sake, I have helpfully eliminated no less than 200b from SMA courier contracts) are in retreat, evacuating to Saranen, the bastion of Goonswarm and the core system of the CFC bloc. Deklein itself is now at risk, and the eyes of EVE are watching, wondering if the largest bloc in the game (with some 50k members, depending on how you do the math) is about to shatter in the face of an assault spearheaded by the Money Badger Coalition.
Six months ago, the commentariat was espousing the consensus that the CFC was almost embarrassingly invincible, that particular flavour of power which causes its enemies to beg for CCP to intervene on their behalf; now that same group heralds the CFC's imminent doom. What the hell happened? From Cloud Ring to the Gates of Deklein Peace is death in EVE, even for blocs who proudly self-identify as carebears. Overpopulated and facing no serious external threats, the CFC found itself at a crossroads. With the demise of their former foe -,N3 - the borders of the North were more secure than they had ever been. N3 and Others had launched periodic mass invasions of the North, the so-called campaigns, each of which ended in humiliating defeat for the aggressors.
Nevertheless, these attacks kept the North in a defensive crouch, huddled together in a purely defensive coalition. The North did not engage in territorial aggression like other blocs; they reacted to threats, and were willing to travel far beyond their borders to do so (such as in the Great Wars), but they did not initiate conquests - until now. In October 2015, The Mitanni, the leader of the CFC, gave permission to his fleet commanders to begin an incursion into Low Security Space.
This attack was to be a purely destructive attack on Moon Mining operations and POS’s, and an attempt to conquer and create the viceroy system in the famously undesirable Low Security Space. Responsibility for the invasion was given to the lead team of sky marshals who had not led a strategic campaign for over a year; Mitanni, who was occupied with the successful expansion of his real-world business, delegated command and control to skymarshal and stepped back. Since it was to be a 'fun war' of little consequence, micromanagement wouldn't be necessary. Unfortunately for both Mitanni and the CFC as a whole, this proved to be a disasterous mistake.
Shortly after gaining control of the CFC's military, cfc skyteam launched an invasion of Lonetrek, the nearest Low security territory to the CFC - territory controlled not by empires, but notable lowsec entities. In order to accomplish the objectives Mitanni had given him against perceived “barbarians”, Sky marshals explained that it was necessary to take and hold LS moons. Like a man who offers to split a beer and then drinks all of it, claiming that the bottom half was his, the CFC found itself attempting to control more than half of NPC Lowsec under attack by the cfc, which was seeking to expand its ‘imperium” into territory adjacent.
The growing CFC needed space for its Viceroyalty program (Where alliances would be extorted for isk gaining the ability to live in uncapturable nigh uncampable lowsec), and new territory in lowsec was the answer. Before the CFC invasion, the 'Low Sec Voltron’ didn't exist, Snuff box and Psychotic Tendencies, Shadow Cartel and Dead Terrorists spent much of their time feuding or ignoring each other. As moons fell, the CFC provided an external threat significant enough to unify these disparate groups into one organization, now called the ‘Money Badger Coalition’, with their leadership in one slack command channel for the first time since the dark days of the Fountain war.
Angered by the disconnect between the CFC's words and the reality of the situation, Pandemic Legion found themselves a contract with IWI Bankers to assault the CFC in Tribute, taking nearly all of the CSAA’s in that region. Overextended and now facing a united front, the CFC's incursion faltered and was eventually pushed back by the MBC – a enlarged bloc which now hungered for revenge. In March 2016, the DRF's campaign for vengeance began. GenEve, leader of CO2 alliance, a CFC member holding territory in Geminate (which borders Low Sec) allegedly accepted an agreement to leave the CFC at a time which coincided with an attack by the MBC. CO2 quickly left the cfc, with the carebear remnants being purged, and their stations in Geminate swiftly became a foothold for the MBC in that region.
As Geminate began to falter, the MBC and Drone Walkers commenced pushing on Vale of the Silent. The Travails of the Northern Coalition And so Deklein is at risk, with the NC trying to hold the line to buy time for the southeastern bloc (‘Stainwagon’, comprising Stain Empire and their allies) to try to draw off the MBC. It is a desperate fight, despite having the largest single force of supercapitals and members in EVE. The CFC is in a period of desperate reform, trying to fix the structural issues which led them to this point. How did this come to pass? Murky Leadership Structure: A council of councils offers no counsel at all. Made up of primarily ratting alliances in a defensive coalition, the CFC leadership is rife with the heresies of parliamentarianism; high councils and notions grandeur.
While The Mitanni is considered the ‘leader’ of the CFC, he has rapidly show signs of deterioration, and there appears to be no mechanism to propagate changes in policy across the myriad alliances in the bloc. This makes the kind of rapid reaction necessary to respond to hostilities nearly impossible; seemingly simple changes founder on the rocks of no one knowing who is in charge. Doctrinal Chaos: A reflection of divided and argumentative leadership, the CFC has no unified fleet doctrine. Individual alliances in the bloc reimburse a dizzying array of ships. A line member in the CFC will see broadcasts calling for six different types of fleet over the course of any given day, meaning that to participate that member is responsible for sourcing six different hull types depending upon the whim of whichever FC is leading.
Similarly, there appears to be no real FC to lead and call for a fleets. By contrast, most other blocs have common doctrines, and only those are reimbursed; this ensures tight fleet composition and eases the difficulties of choice paralysis for the line members.
Selling to the Enemy: One of the primary money-making activities for industrialists in the NC has been the production and sale of supercapitals on the open market; it is estimated that Tribute alone has more than 90 CSAAs in constant production. Many of the supercaps used MBC were bought from CFC sources, according to some. Despite attempting to regulate or restricting the sale of these laughably unbalanced strategic tools, the CFC finds itself losing regions to the mere threat of a fleet literally of its own creation, much like the former NC. Diluted Identity: Who or what is the CFC? As part of its policies, the CFC attempted a transition to The Imperium, to aid monetisation; this has resulted in a very rapid expansion of population, yet there is little cultural bonding between the alliances themselves.
As the size of the bloc has rocketed past 40k accounts, these emotional ties of identity and common culture have weakened significantly. Brain Drain: Until the attack on the MBC, the NC was an at peace coalition. Most FCs are bred for war - ideally the offensive sort - and seek it out; this has resulted in a very small pool of ‘bloc level’ FCs remaining with the CFC. The aggressive and bloody-minded leave the bloc to seek out organizations that cater more to their interests, and it is primarily the mediocre who remain behind. The exception to this rule is Lazarus Telraven of Goonswarm, one of the best FCs in the game, but is too busy streaming.
Best Frenemies Forever: The tagline of the NC has been ‘Valued Allies’, but in practice the only way to rise in the political hierarchy of the organization is over the bodies of your fellow alliances. The resources of the North are bountiful yet hotly contested; the only way for a member alliance to not be rolled into an alliance directly controlled by Goonswarm is to slave away generating paplinks that measure participation Supercap Array Attrition: An industrialist and his supercap construction array - like a fool and his money - are swiftly parted. The North is so rich that there are an absurd number of idiots who have no business owning a supercapital arrays; this draws hostile entities like flies to rotting meat. Almost every day during the war against the MBC, the CFC has lost one or more supercapital arrays to ganks which would have been avoided using a basic level of competence – not leaveing caps in build, not building in easy to access systems, etc.
This has taught the enemies of the CFC that if they log on and endure the blue balls while not fighting the CFC, odds are good that they will be rewarded with a spectacular killmail. Meanwhile, these expensive acts of folly demoralize the remaining competent and dedicated CFC pilots; the number of hostiles forming up increases, while those defending their home lose the will to continue. Thank you to the mitanni for source material (archived to abrogate monetisation)https://web.archive.org/web/20160405060055/https://www.themittani.com/content/62-crisis-northern-coalition