He who controls the ice, controls the Universe…
Ah, Kenneth McMillan in Dune. A better Baron Harkonnen I cannot imagine.
While I’ve been running around and looking after things post yet another large earthquake here (6.6 magnitude and again bloody scary), I’ve had a little time to ponder the whole Goon icecapades.
While we may be carebears (with teeth) there are some things that can be put in place over and above supertanking T1 industrials and waiting for the inevitable. This may take some political will, and larger and more active corporations to take part, but here goes:
1/. War dec the Goons (or offer support to the current ones) and take part in guerrilla warfare… the idea of ganking Goon freighters on the way in or out of Jita amuses one greatly 🙂
2/. The ice belts are no longer static and spawn in a new place every time. This greatly lessens the likelyhood of a logonski gank and forces them to travel to different systems to trap miners. Setting up intel channels to monitor their movements a la low/null sec is a darned good idea.
3/. Having insta-lock high alpha ships to pop the destroyers as they land. Artillery gives range and falloff enough to keep you out of the blaster envelope… and the standard goon destroyer set up has no prop mod (and no tank) at this point.
Speaking of which – here’s the standard Catalyst fit
8x Light Ion Blaster 1s (CN AM)
1x low meta SEBO
1x low meta Warp Scrambler
3x mag stabilizer 1s
Average cost is about 2.5 mil per unit… so figure that into your costings.
The average high sec dweller or corporation can’t go head to head with the Goons, and it would be futile to try. We do have some advantages though, not the least of which is the ability to run and hide in an invulnerable station from which we can launch attacks to our best advantage.
We also don’t have, by comparison, anything like as much to lose. Any significant loss by the almighty Goons is an embarrassing one, especially at the hands of the “carebears”. To bring in significant numbers can potentially weaken their home turf… and I can imagine Test (and others) would love any opportunity to give them a bloody nose while they’re concentrating elsewhere.
So… put out your feelers. See what others are doing. Combine forces as needed. Train up a cheap alt or two as specialist Catalyst killers. Together we may be able to do mighty things indeed.
FS
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Aggressive Logistics 
Not to rain on your parade but very very few organizations run freighters under their own flag. I swear there should be an npc corp named Liberia
m
Knowledge is power, or put another way, intel is everything 😉
All I’m saying at this point is that we have ways and means to at least in part counter the ice interdiction.
We have tools at our disposal that have the potential to make life uncomfortable or downright embarrasing.
Unfortunately, without a charismatic individual to forge (and one with a great deal of time on their hands) such a group of disparate individuals together, it’s really unlikely to happen.
But can you imagine it? Ten thousand angry carebears hungering for blood…
I can see 10 Thousand Carebears grumbling and complaining about something needing to be done. A handful would take up arms and charge forth in anger – only to be massacred, the last sound they hear being taunting Goon laughter. The other 9,997 Carebears would turn away, mumbling about not wanting to encourage the Goons further.
I can see that too, and acknowledge that is the likely reality.
But the thing is this: it’s an unfocussed, and unrealized powerhouse. Someone with some smarts who could get them headed all in the same direction could potentially helm the greatest alliance EvE has ever seen.
Put another way – ten thousand peasants with pitchforks still makes for one hell of a lot of pitchforks…
The raw potential is there, even if the motivation is not… unless an external force provides that motivation.
The ice interdiction isn’t too much of an inconvenience at this point. The cost of doing business if you will. Where it might get interesting is if conditions change. A charismatic leader emerges coupled with the rise of a widely disliked enemy.
Provide sufficient motivation, and even the sleepiest of carebears might well be out there polishing the tines….