First moves in the grand game

Wednesday finally saw the beginning of something which many of us have awaited for a number of months, Band of Brothers has begun its attack upon the Northern Alliances. Mid week saw some 70 or more DICE main battle line vessels, plus support vessels and freighters make thier way to H-PA in venal.

For those of us who are students of history, this is the same system that DICE pilots, in their previous incarnation as the 5 alliance, used to launch thier attack upon the Pheonix Alliance.

The move itself has been long awaited, with those who thought it would be sooner and those who thought it would be later. BoB forces have not made any attempts since thier arrival to instigate any major engagements, though Mercenary Coalition in their traditional role as BoB support organisation has declared against D2 and its various allies.

Friday saw MC forces become active in the empire region between Jita and Taisy, at the same time D2 despatched several fleets across the northern region, with a number of attempts to force a decisive engagement with local pirate coporation, Toxin*, based out PF-Q. Toxin would not be drawn into battle, so thier local POS position was assaulted.

In the meantime, BoB forces have remained quiet, if standard BoB battle tactics are to be expected, a large scale capital assault upon a single or number of D2 outpost systems can be expected at some point over the weekend.

D2 itself seems not to have been idle during this early 'phony war' period, shifting substantial assets into H-PA itself. A decisive engagement of the two sides in H-PA can be expected, on a strategic level, the immediate path of the war will be dictated by events in H-PA in the next few days.

A series of decisive victories by BoB will mean a push northwards and bitter combat in Branch. Decisive victories for D2 will weaken BoBs bridgehead, perhaps forcing a redirection of BoB's attack. More likely, perhaps, is grinding trench war in H-PA for the forseeable future.

Notes:
* Toxin or Outbreak - Pirate Corporation based out of venal from the later half of last year, replacing Russian Thunder Squad (RTSQ) and Burn eden (BE) as regular pirate force in Tribute / Venal / Branch. Toxin is actually the corp ticker, though northern residents will normally refer to them as Toxin.