Partner
|
Sponsor
|
Brutally Clever Empire
From EVEWiki
 | |
| Alliance Name | Brutally Clever Empire |
| Alliance Ticker | BRUCE |
| Executor Corp | None |
| Created By | Friedrichstooge Psitalon |
| Created On | 13.10.06 |
| Current leader | None |
| Website | Brutally Clever Empire Website |
"A place where boldness and determination is rewarded; where duties are shared;
and leadership rests in the hands of the corporations which make us great.
A place where the Alliance serves the corporations, not the other way around.
A place where every hand helps carry the load, and every voice is heard."
Contents |
Aims
As described by the founder and leader of BRUCE, Friedrick Psitalon:
"The alliance is founded on the idea that well-run corporations with careful, thoughtful leaders can band together and achieve things far greater than their numbers or game history might otherwise indicate. It is a "White Hat, Tin Star" alliance - not only do they not tolerate piracy among their membership, they actively and aggressively maintain an anti-pirate doctrine.
BRUCE corporations work together towards a focused goal, and although all parts may not be identical, every corporation does as much as it can in order to support the goals of the alliance. They are a multi-purpose, self-sustaining alliance; the corporations mine, manufacture, fight, mission, and trade. It is far wiser to ensure that you have a steady supply of ships before you commit them to war, and far wiser to ensure your goods will be bought and sold well before creating them. As a result, corporations of all stripes are welcome in BRUCE: Industrial corps, missioning corps, PvP corps, etc. It is expected that all corporations will contribute to the common defense, but it is understood that not all corporations will be as skilled or numerous - merely that they try as best they can."
Background
Aeschee - Trial by Fire
As The Dead Parrot Shoppe Inc. (FOOM), the founding corporation behind BRUCE, moved into the Essence region they envisioned to create a place for new pilots who believed that careful, intelligent play could outdo the masses of grizzled capsule veterans. The initial move into Aeschee was not without troubles, but FOOM managed to grow and adapt to the many pirate entities inhabiting the area. Eventually the area was secured well enough that FOOM felt it was time to invite like minded corporations. Together with The Raging Armada, Tadakastu-Obata Corporation and many others, BRUCE was formed on Friday, October 13th, 2006.
Its resilience was immediately put to the test by the local pirate alliance 9th Fleet. The conflict started badly for BRUCE, being outgunned, outskilled and out-experienced by the 9th Fleet's gangs. Through the assistance of a local mercenary group, Turbulent Subversion as a diplomatic and military entity, sections of 9th Fleet were removed from the conflict through diplomacy and others destroyed. 9th fleet went on to hire several small mercenary corps (including MENTL) to aid them in the latter stages of the war, but TBSV and BRUCE were able to defeat these and claim total victory.
Shortly thereafter, 9th Fleet was unable to handle the now highly-motivated wrath of BRUCE, and was forced to move away, facing total collapse. BRUCE and TBSV pursued them for a time, and 9th Fleet essentially collapsed as a result, falling to 6 members and going inactive. They have since rebuilt.
In response the 9th Fleet hired the arguably best pilots-for-hire in the Eve Universe, the Mercenary Coalition. Obviously, BRUCE as a fledgling alliance was no match for the likes of MC. BRUCE avoided suicidal fights and learned what it could whilst weathering the storm. No decisive victory was won by either side, MC impressing BRUCE with the skills shown and BRUCE impressing MC with the resilience shown in the face of complete superiority. BRUCE survived; no mean feat for a small alliance.
Hardened by its experiences and armed with its lessons learned, BRUCE set out for more dangerous pastures as life in Aeschee became easy. Syndicate was to be the next stop.
Syndicate - A Turbulent Start
When BRUCE first arrived in Y4Y7, a constellation in southern Syndicate at the invitation of COE, they were forced to also become friends with Anarchy Empire - a rather unpleasant group of pirates that COE had befriended. BRUCE held a closer philosophy to that of the OSS at the time and became blueboxed to both OSS and the COE/AE pair. This was a strange step as the OSS faction and COE/AE faction were hostile to each other, and led almost immediately to problems in the area.
This very early diplomatic challenge for BRUCE was, in their own words, handled poorly. BRUCE ended up dumping the OSS bluebox less than a week after gaining it because they, understandably, did not want to fire on COE whom invited them to Syndicate. Despite BRUCE's loathing of Anarchy Empire's philosophies they valued their word to COE more.
As Anarchy Empire was driven out of the TA-A7V constellation by VLINC, a long time ally of the OSS at the time, war erupted between BRUCE/COE and the OSS.
Syndicate - The First War
Once again, BRUCE entered a war with a veteran alliance, and again the odds did not favor them. It is believed that at the time, BRUCE had no capital resources available and extremely limited battleship resources. OSS and it's allies easily won the initial period of the war with heavy battleship gangs and superior tactics. BRUCE changed tactics and resorted to using very cheap cruiser/frig sized fleets to engage their opponents. Providing both a cheap yet effective counter platform and increasing their tactical repertoire the balance of the fights shifted more to an even plane.
During the second phase of the war OSS and allies were still winning a considerable amount of the battles, but were also losing increasingly higher numbers. This was caused by several factors: the increasing tactical ability of BRUCE, the increase in BRUCE's numbers and the unrelenting attitude of BRUCE to bring in reinforcement ships no matter what. In response, one of OSS's allies, TFC, put up a POS within the Y4Y7-Q constellation. Countering that, BRUCE responded by hiring The Cartel, a mercenary alliance which has since disbanded.
With The Cartel assisting them, BRUCE got a first introduction into large-fleet and POS warfare. The POS in the Y4Y7-Q constellation was destroyed and a new phase in the war began; Pandora's Box had been opened - OSS had elevated the war to POS combat, and BRUCE had learned how to fight on those levels.
During the third phase of the war the battleground shifted more towards the home systems of the OSS. BRUCE now actively began searching out and marking OSS POS's. Two OSS and one OSS-allied POS's were taken into reinforced by BRUCE shortly after. OSS's response to these events was a measure beyond BRUCE's coping abilities. An estimated 150 support ships and 20 capitals attacked a BRUCE POS in the JH-M2W system. Unable to resist these numbers, the POS was destroyed. OSS then struck into the heart of BRUCE's space, putting three other POS's into reinforced within a span of two hours. OSS and some observers felt this called BRUCE's future into question, but BRUCE leadership was quick to point out the grisly losses of supporting vessels going into and away from the POS siege system. OSS's inability to return to finish the POS's blunted the impact of their otherwise impressive counterattack. As POS strikes occurred from both sides the war degraded into the 4th phase, timezone warfare.
With OSS and allies being prominent in European timezones and BRUCE in the US timezones both sides resorted to only striking in their prime time. This resulted in lighter skirmish warfare that lasted an estimated one month, with one OSS POS falling during this timeframe, and several going into reinforced, but BRUCE lacking the ability to finish the job. After this period clear reporting on this event becomes unclear. One story goes that OSS was losing significantly larger numbers and was driven back into their home cluster. Other rumors persist that OSS simply grew tired of camping BRUCE in their home system.
No matter what the reason, it is known that there was internal dispute within the OSS. Exact details are unknown but several pvp corporations left the OSS. Furthermore several of their allies took a new stance to the war. Again, sources go both ways but a NAP, no aggression pact, was agreed upon by both sides. The OSS would inhabit the JQV5-9 constellation and BRUCE/COE would inhabit the Y4Y7-Q constellation.
Control of the semi-lucrative TA-A7V constellation, held by both No Trademark and The Greater Goon at the time, was brought up during the negotiation, yet BRUCE declined the offer. At that time, the Syndicate 10/10 complex was located in the UTK system of the TA-A7V constellation, and there was near constant conflict among several different groups over control of the area. However shortly after the NAP was settled, complexes were changed with the new exploration system and were no longer permanent fixtures, resulting in GROON among others moving on, leaving only No Trademark remaining. At this point, BRUCE leadership encouraged its membership to make a move towards occupying the constellation, their stated goal was for access to the crockite found there. Unfortunately only a very small contingent of BRUCE membership made any effort to occupy this space, a fact which would lead to their abandonment of this constellation later on to a much smaller enemy.
Syndicate - The Exquisite Malevolence War
With a relatively long stretch of peace in Lower Syndicate, disturbed by the occasional (and apparently usual) skirmishes with pirate factions, BRUCE continued to expand in numbers in the Y4Y7-Q constellation. Around July 2007, Exquisite Malevolence started to conduct large amounts of raids into lower Syndicate including BRUCE-controlled space. As per the BRUCE M.O. they took serious losses against a (shall we say once again?) superior opponent in both age and tactical ability. Exact details of the first few weeks are hard to come by, though it is known that losses for BRUCE were heavy at the start. Once again following their M.O., BRUCE began adapting to the tactics of EXM, though no counter attacks had been made in the MHC-R3 system (reported to be the home system of EXM). It was only at the start of August, one month into the conflict, that BRUCE began active engagements in EXM space.
The most notable large battle in this conflict took place in MHC-R3. Referred to as the 'MHC Armageddon' amongst BRUCE, an estimated 350 ships were destroyed in the course of 6 hours. The run-up to the fight, as per public availability of data, is considered the following:
Whether or not BRUCE knew that EXM had a spy within BRUCE ranks (later confirmed by public data) they intentionally distributed information through public channels that a POS strike was imminent. (Ironically, the POS designated to be struck was not the correct one, as might be expected from disinformation.) Nevertheless, this allowed EXM to prepare for arrival of the BRUCE fleet with multiple warp disruption fields in place and sniper groups at the ready. After an initial skirmish at a gate leading into the MHC-R3 system the BRUCE fleet warped to and attacked the actual EXM POS they intended to destroy. The main EXM fleet warped in on the BRUCE fleet and battle ensued. An alternation between around 40 sniper battleships and 30-40 remote repping close-range BS allowed ExM to dominate the vast enemy support fleet, which outnumbered them around 5-1, at all ranges. However, during this time, almost twenty BRUCE capitals, far more than EXM expected, were disabling the POS guns and attempting to aid their smaller cousins.
The resulting statistics point to a 10-1 favor for EXM kill ratio, including 2 capital kills. One BRUCE carrier, a Nidhoggur, was found at a planet having warped from the main fight and was quickly dispatched, the other, a Thanatos, under heavy fire at the main battlefield at the starbase. Two more BRUCE capitals came close to destruction, a Naglfar being rescued by the appearance of its support fleet at the gate to drive off EXM, and a thanatos beign saved by the timely actions of its fellow carriers. BRUCE however easily held the field and collected loot from the wrecks. It is to be noted that the EXM POS was not reinforced, for reasons unknown, as there was certainly plenty of time for the deployed dreadnaughts to accomplish this while the support fleets dueled. Fighting lasted more than four hours, with the indomitable and irrepressable BRUCE support reinforcing from their home space before the last bunch was finished being killed, leading to a potentially infinite fight. Well after 3.30 am for the EU-based EXM, and with friendly numbers starting to decline, the decision to stop engaging was made and EXM logged off at their other starbase in system. BRUCE held the field and collected the loot, before leaving in their own time.
This is said to be considered a Pyhrric victory for BRUCE, suffering severe losses yet holding the field at the end. Both sides claimed victory, and indeed based on one's criterion for victory, either side could have been considered the victor: ExM clearly inflicted a great deal more damage, but was also less able to bounce back from the amount of punishment they received only because they were significantly smaller. They were unable to truly punish the hostile capital fleet, and potentially with a mere 20 more battleship pilots, or a way to prevent the massive support fleet from reinforcing in new ships, the entire BRUCE capital gang could have been destroyed. BRUCE gained a great deal of experience and received all the loot, but lost two capital vessels in the process - not a good thing at any size. It is left to the reader to make a final determination. Both sides would consider this a fantastic night's combat and worth the whole war's effort.
After this battle, the largest in BRUCE history, the war returned to skirmish warfare for the most part. A second battle of note was fought in the PC9-AY system (BRUCE home system) resulting in the destruction of an EXM fleet with minimal losses for BRUCE. Four EXM Thanatos-class carriers were lost in this fight and it is reported to be caused by a major tactical error by the EXM Fleet Commander at the time. El Yatta, Mercenary Forces director, and co-founder of EXM would later comment "We got raped, and we did so because we felt like stretching our capital muscles somewhat, not something a tiny entity like EXM often can. We did what we do with our conventional ships - put our balls on the line in the enemy's home system. This proved to be a mistake - BRUCE had brought overwhleming force of numbers before, but we usually had a decent handle on how many were going to come. This time, I and the other directors called it wrong - and we got punished for it." This battle can be considered the only significant player vs player fight in the war to go by far in BRUCE's favour.
Another moderate skirmish happened shortly after this time in MHC-R3, and BRUCE made use of the tactics developed in the "MHC armageddon" - that of having a covops pilot run a probe on the exm sniper gang and warp the fleet on top of it immediately, as well as other delaying tactics before attempting to engage EXM small, sniper gang at close range. This tactic had originally been with poor success, but as BRUCE's tactical abilities improved as a necessity, they became impressive, and the second skirmish in MHC following the first capital battle in PC9 resulted in perhaps the second time in this war that BRUCE had managed to come out on top.
Later, BRUCE struck at 2 EXM POS once again in the MHC-R3 system. Both were successfully destroyed without EXM resistance and the war died out with EXM activity in Southern Syndicate quickly falling. EXM blamed timezones and low available numbers for being unable to defend the towers as they had the first time around, but this was at a later stage in the war, with BRUCEs morale and numbers now able to triumph over EXM superior skill. BRUCE had in many ways cemented their hegemony. EXM senior diplo guy El Yatta commented: "our activity against bruce began to diminish as internal problems, a list of absences from FCs and a lust for change, altered our alliance. We'd accomplished our goals in that we'd had a lot of fun, and dominated a far, FAR larger, richer, and more capital-able enemy for months on end, but we'd failed to prevent BRUCE from growing and thriving in Syndicate. We decided we were no longer interested in large fleet warfare, and moved on to other things. Props to BRUCE". BRUCE on the other side considered their goals completed with EXM incursions halted.
However, the EXM campaign was not without a sting in the tail. On the 11th of November 2007 samkeir, a rich BRUCE member displayed his Aeon (beleived to be one of BRUCE's first supercapital ships) on the JH- gate in PC9, and EXM, with their HUZZAH allies, once again dared to engage a superior BRUCE fleet, right in the lion's den. The Aeon-class mothership was destroyed, with main damage coming from two HUZZAH federation carriers and a Moros class dreadnaught piloted by Madaluap of MF, EXM. These three capital ships were all also destroyed by the overwhelming numbers of Bruce following the destruction of the 25bn+ ISK supercapital. BRUCE held the field and collected the loot, but the vast majority of the motherships officer-grade fittings had been either destroyed in the fury of the Aeon's destruction, or perished in the wreck of the Huzzah carrier which scooped them. This was to be the last significant strike against BRUCE during the war and their tenure in Syndicate. A further Archon-class carrier was killed during the exodus from BRUCE's constellation while their fleet was occupied in the conquest of Fountain, (see below).
Syndicate - Old Feuds return: The OSS
Mid-September 2007, relations between BRUCE and the OSS crumbled fast. When asked for the reason, OSS commented that BRUCE wanted to wage war on the OSS and broke the NAP with an excuse to further that goal. BRUCE's comments were somewhat more extensive: They stated that the reason for the war lay in a territorial dispute over the TA-A7V constellation.
For those unfamiliar with the composition of Syndicate's constellations, the lower half of the region only contain two constellations with the mineral Crokite: TA-A7V and JQV5-9. The latter is considered the richest constellation in the region, with large crokite abundance, refineries on location and the lowest security rating.
The JQV5-9 constellation was unquestionably under the control of the OSS. The TA-A7V constellation on the other hand was shared by No Trademark, a member corporation of the OSS, and BRUCE pilots, though significant disagreement exists over which party utilized the area more. (And indeed, this may be part of what led to the conflict.)
Reasons for the escalation to war are heavily disputed by both sides and can not be quoted here. Considering that, in the larger scale of things, this is irrelevant to history, it is not discussed in this article.
With No Trademark, The Greater Goon, and other corporations leaving the OSS, the alliance experienced a severe reduction in numbers. Realizing the inability of OSS to defend their home regions, BRUCE turned their attentions from warring in TA-A7V to warring for the more lucrative JQV5-9 constellation. Consequentially, quoting Eve-TV Episode 17, the OSS war finished at the end of October 2007 and BRUCE took control of the JQV5-9 constellation.
Syndicate and Fountain - A New Era?
In the final week of November 2007, the Mercenary Coalition were contracted by an undeclared party against BRUCE. BRUCE has enjoyed limited success using their time-honored "inexpensive fleet swarm" against MC's usual expensively-fitted operations, but it is clear that MC has been successful in disrupting standard BRUCE operations in the area. It is unclear at the moment what goals MC may be furthering.
On December 1st, 2007, the Mercenary Coalition unveiled their new Erebus-class titan by detonating a superweapon and destroying an estimated 150 BRUCE ships (including 86 battleships) in PC9-AY. [1] The damage done to BRUCE in this brief moment was considerable, but BRUCE's ability to endure significant punishment and continue allowed them to move forward with their goal for the evening regardless.
Later that evening, a 250-ship BRUCE fleet with an unknown but apparently very sizable capital fleet struck the Unicorn constellation in Fountain, targeting the outpost held there by R I S E, a satellite entity or "pet" of the Band of Brothers. Within one hour, all R I S E POS's in the system had been put into reinforced and the Outpost captured by BRUCE, who apparently had shown up less than twelve hours before RISE would have secured the Outpost with Sov 1. BoB's response to the situation was never publicly known.
Approximately one week later, BRUCE attacked a STYX owned outpost in PNQY, and began POS-Spamming BoB's 7BX Outpost a day later. The PNQY outpost was captured without a fight, probably due to an overwhelming size advantage in BRUCE's favor. For whatever reason - possibly BoB's heavy involvement in other systems - BoB did not stop BRUCE's takeover attempt of 7BX as well.
The dawn of 2008 marked the end of BRUCE's presence in Syndicate, and saw them a new, major power in Fountain, claiming approximately half of the region under NBSI doctrine.
Fountain: January 2008
The well-known campaign against the Band of Brothers was the major focus for the month of January for BRUCE, the North, and other entities. Their combined efforts, lead by Morsus Mihi, resulted in BoB's final expulsion from the area. BRUCE's intentions since then are, typically, unknown. Their combat operations have been against various small red groups in the area.
Fountain - The Reckoning Campaign
In mid-February BRUCE struck out from Fountain to a neighboring region, Cloud Ring, on an apparent campaign to expel nearby red mercenary group, The Reckoning, after a series of skirmishes in and around their space. The campaign was a total success, with less than twenty heavy ships lost throughout the entire two weeks of combat and three "Cynojammer" POS neutralizations. In all, approximately twenty POS's were brought down and all three Outpost systems were cleared. Reckoning resistance was extremely light during the campaign, citing a desire to avoid pointless suicidal defense attempts against a foe with massive numeric superiority. BRUCE made a diplomatic settlement with the other entity in the three system/outpost area, Black Core Alliance, to remain under friendly agreements with BRUCE. Since the end of the campaign, at least one other BRUCE-friendly entity has been seen moving into the immediate area under the auspices of the Western League, a new entity BRUCE has shown interest in building.
Territory
The Brutally Clever Empire no longer controls any territory after there exodus out of fountain by PL/CI/SoT.
Current status
At this time Bruce has no members, member corps, or any space. They are officially dead as of this time.
Remarks
BRUCE keeps its killboard strictly private. They present the following reasons for this decision:
- They do not wish to reveal tactical data to their opponents
- They believe public scrutiny only serves for flame and pressuring members into not posting embarrassing losses
The author can confirm that upon request, BRUCE will provide screenshots of internal statistics as long as those do not include tactical information such as ship builds. Unfortunately it has not stopped alliances from finding out their fittings like the Battleship Mark Is, IIs, and IIIs.
 |
EVE Online Ships Guide |
