In order to raise awareness for sick children who need expensive medical support, CEO Bacchanalian of Rote Kapelle organized an event that would attract the attention of capsuleers across Eden. As he explains here
'Kill a Nyx for Kids & Charity', he decided to sacrifice his Nyx supercarrier in exchange for charity donations from capsuleers across Eden. To officialize these donations he set up a charity page here:
'Extra Life Donation Drive by Bacchanalian' where he aimed to collect 400 billion isk! (10.000 $ )
As Concord Command Personnel(CCP) heard of his pledge & charity drive, they offered their assistance, in order to create more awareness to this event. They even pledged that CCP would match the capsuleer donations 1 on 1 up to 200 billion isk! (5.000 $)
This event would occur in a yet to be named system on 25 October at 20H.
In an effort to create even more awareness, several capsuleers informed Bacchanalian they would sacrifice their capital alongside them, upping the total of capital ships to shoot at in exchange for donations to 6 ships. These were two Archons, a Phoenix, a Revelation, a Thanatos and the fabled Nyx!
5 CCP officals kept an eye on it all, to assure things ran smooth and assist when it was needed. These officials were: CCP Explorer, CCP Foxfour, CCP karkur, CCP Logibro and CCP Manifest. They kept an eye on the event through their advanced Enimga Observer Frigates.
A lone Thanatos and the mighty Eagles!
At the start of the event, the target system was announced: the
Ostingele system in Placid region! And so, across the cluster ships undocked & made their way to the target system. However, unlike previous events, this one caused far less issue for Gate traffic control, causing a smoother flight!
And so begin the first fights in Ostingale, in an attempt to claim dominion on the battlefield grid. Among the notable early arrivals was one of the event capitals, the Thanatos carrier, piloted by Bobmon. The early fighting was focused around him, but he did survive the ordeal, as he managed to successfully demolish ships from various fleets, like Providence Bloc, VeGA and ILaw. It's important to note that these early fleets were mainly composed of smaller ships like various frigate types & destroyers.
Initially, most skirmishes were small-scale, where early fleet arrivals were testing each others strength while waiting for more backup to arrive. And then the first big fleet engagement happens! The Overload Everything Vexor Fleet enters the Gallente warfare complex housing the event capital ships and proceeds to clear the area, massacring anyone unable to escape their onslaught on time! And so they were the first to establish solid dominance inside the Event Complex...
While several fleets continue their skirmishes across Ostingele, Snigwaffe decides it's time to move as well, before Overload can entrench itself.
As they enter, the Snigwaffe Eagles descends upon the Overload fleet, driving them out as Vexors explode left & right!
And with that, things just got serious.... Fleets readied themselves to launch their massive attacks on the Gallente complex, the small scale skirmishes left alone to those few stragglers flying around. The Eagles of Sniggwaffe were about to face some serious opposition...
No matter what comes through that gate, you will stand your ground!
And so it begins... the Great Battle for the Gallente Medium Complex housing the event capitals... The Sniggwaffle Eagle fleet holds the place, barring the gates to enter. But several fleets readied themselves for a large attack upon the complex, how long would they stand against them? They would soon know... as several fleets warped in to the gates of the complex....
As the various fleets descended upon the Medium Gallente complex, there is surprisingly little infighting among the various fleets as they all warp through the gates! It seemed that they hope to overwhelm the Sniggwaffe Eagles by their massive presence before they would fight for the spoils of victory!
Eve-Uni, Overload Everything, Spectre/RvB, Goonswarm, VeGA, Brave all these fleets would warp in, sometimes together, sometimes by themselves, all with the desire to drive out the Sniggwaffe Eagles and claim the complex as their own!
But despite this overwhelming opposition, the Eagles stood their ground, blowing up ships, left & right, while suffering little losses themselves. At the highpoint of this battle, hundreds of ships perished to Sniggwaffe in just 30 minutes!
As the fight drags on, and the Eagles prove to be tougher then expected, some fleets turn on each other, trying to salvage whatever kill they could out of this onslaught. But more & more fleets began to reorganize, falling back & regrouping for a renewed attack. On top of this, more fresh fleets joined the fray, contesting the complex for their own.
Among these fresh fleets was Nulli Secunda, who successfully drove out Sniggwaffe after the destruction of a few of their ships. And with that action, the chaos was complete.... All the hatred, all the rage the fleets had for each other erupted into a fiery ball of combat & explosions...
The whole thing descended into chaos as multiple front battles opened at the entrance gates and inside the complex. Goonswarm engaging Nulli Secunda, Pandemic Legion joining the fray, firing on anything that wasn't theirs. Eventually, the Nulli Secunda fleet crumbled slowly under this heavy pressure. The chaos was complete, and many smaller fleets entered combat, hoping for opportunistic kills, yet get slaughtered by the large combat fleets!
But the Sniggwaffe Eagles weren't defeated yet.... They regrouped, fighting off any pursuers and readied themselves for a renewed attack. Determined to claim the complex for their own, they engaged warp, minds sharpened, weapons loaded.
As they land on grid, the unfortunate Circle of Two fleet who just engaged the Nulli Secunda remains got massacred by them. With this swift & brutal action, the Eagles reclaimed their stake on the complex, driving out the rest.
And so the Sniggwaffe Eagles held the ground firmly, but by now a new stage has arrived in the conflict... Various fleets had a second, more powerful force on the way... These were the dreaded Battleship fleets...
Let Ostingele BURN!
By now, most smaller fleets had disengaged or were just hunting stragglers across the system. When the Battleship fleets arrived, the combat outside the medium complex amplified & importance shifted to system control.
Whoever could control the system with their fleet would gain control over the event capitals!
As the fight inside the medium complex raged on against the Eagle cruisers, several battleship fleets arrived at the complex' gates. Unable to enter, they proceed with blasting away at each other!
By now, the remaining powerblocs in the system had minimally two fleets under their command, a mobile & agile fleet, usually composed of smaller ships, usually one shiptype of frigates, destroyers or cruisers and a large battleship fleet to lay down some serious damage on anything the agile fleet needed assistance with.
The two largest powerblocs remaining by now were the Pandemic Legion/Snigwaffe fleets and the Spectre/RvB fleets, along with a two smaller, but still menacing powerblocs; The Goonswarm fleets and the Brave Collective forces. Several of these fleets were roaming the system as well, cleaning up any small fleet or stragglers they found. Sometimes these behemoth fleets clashed, resulting in formidable engagements that often ended in stalemates as they withdraw before any conclusion could be made.
Often a battleship fleet managed to jump on one of the agile fleets, blapping several of their ships out of existence before they could withdraw. Keep in mind, at this point, the remaining fleets count in the hundreds of ships. During one of these engagements, the Goonswarm powerhouse located and annihilated the first capital ship! The
Archon, piloted by Daagin went down under the blistering heat of the Armageddon lasers and the stings of dozens of harpies. This would be the first of the Event capitals going down!
During these formidable clashes, the RvB/Spectre force had an advantage. Due to their apparently random composition of corps & alliances, the coalition fleets often got surprised by them, resulting in the loss of many of their ships, battleships included!
Especially Goonswarm & Pandemic Legion got hit hard by the roaming RvB/Spectre force! In the meantime, the Snigwaffe Eagles didn't rest either, as displayed when they massacred the CAS fleet and gave the Goonswarp Harpies a serious blow as well, defending their turf.
For hours on end, Ostingele was the battleground of majestic Battleship fleets clashing, guided by their more agile support fleets in Eagles, Harpies or other smaller craft.
During this fights often became chaotic as one fleet joined another engagement in progress, attempting to capitalize on the chaos. And yet, despite the presence of these mighty fleets, smaller entities often warped into Ostingele, hoping to catch stragglers, but many of these opportunists got slammed down when one of the big forces located them...
Especially Pandemic Legion proved itself to be an extremely dangerous adversary, cutting a path with their Apocalypses & Harpies through the fleets of their adversaries...
Ostingele was burning... Wherever you warped towards, dozens of wrecks welcomed you to their bleak final resting place... Often disturbed by opportunistic salvagers who denied them their eternal rest... And yet, the battles raged on... adding more wrecks to the pile...
The Final Showdown
But as the fight outside the complex raged on, the 5 remaining event capitals, who wanted to sacrifice themselves to gather isk for the Children charity were still very much alive, defended by Sniggwaffe Eagles. Deciding it was time to end this, the capital pilots jointly decided to warp to the 'Top belt!' in the system (also the only asteroidbelt) and get hammered by the powerbloc fleets that remained.
By then, many of the fleets already lost quite the number of battleships and supporting smaller ships. yet, when it was announced the sacrificial capital fleet had arrived in the top belt, they all raced towards it! The resulting chaos engulfed the entire belt, dozens of ships exploding on arrival as they were alpha'd by those who had arrived just a bit earlier.
But the battle kept on raging, inbetween the dying capitals, ships exploded all over the place. To make it even more of an entangling mess, many of the earlier fleets arrived on the battlefield as wall, attempting to claim a part of the kill!
As Camel Empire, VeGA, Overload Everything and several others joined the fray dominated by PL, Snigwaffe, Goonswarm, Brave and RvB/Spectre, the battle lost the last bit of perceived control and dived into glorious chaos, as fleets mingled with each other, shooting at anything that wasn't part of them!
In the 10 minutes between the death of the last dreadnought and the fall of the Nyx, hundreds of ships were lost, battleships and frigates alike burned in the fires of destruction. But at long last... the Nyx fell...
Over 600 capsuleers battered Mishka Chinoise's Nyx into oblivion! And with that one last blaze of glory, the purpose of the event was fulfilled, the capitals sacrificed in exchange for massive donations for the children charity Extra Life!
Once the capitals were down, most fleets withdraw from battle rapidly, eliminating those foolish enough to chase them. PL & Snigwaffe remained for a while, hunting down any stragglers who didn't clear the system fast enough!
But now the action dwindled rapidly and people fled the system as soon as they could, allowing Ostingele to return to it's old faction war shenanigans.
The Aftermath: What is gained from all this?
In the end, the
'Kill a Nyx for the Children' donation drive was a humongous success, as it gathered over 400 Billion isk! (over 10.000$) As promised, CCP added 200 Billion isk on top of it (5000$) by directly donating it to the children charity Extra Life!
A big thanks to everyone who donated, making the success of this event all the sweeter!
On the capsuleers themselves, they got some good action going, with Concord Traffic Control acting in great performance as the capsuleer ships were barely restrained by Concord delay protocols!
In total 6 capitals went down in all the massive fighting. These 6 event capitals were piloted by Rote Kapelle (Nyx), Brutor Tribe (Archon), Pandemic Legion (Thanatos) and 3 by Psychotic Tendencies - a fitting name! (Archon, Phoenix, Revelation)
Below you find the kill reports on these capitals and their time of death:
All in all, it was a very intense fight, involving several fleets that were a few hundred ships strong. Important to note is that while local remained mostly stable around 900 capsuleers (with a spike to 1100 at some point), there were over 3000 ships lost in this time period! This indicates heavy fighting but also a rapid turnover, for every capsuleer blown up, a new one joined the field!
I like to thank the Rote Kapelle CEO Bacchanalian for organizing this event, both the Kill a Nyx as the charity drive for Extra Life.
Also a big thanks for those who sacrificed their capitals alongside the Nyx to enhance this combat event!
This article is also mirrored on the capsuleer news site EN24:
'Explode a Nyx for the Kids!'
Final note form the author: I did my best reconstructing the fight, but I was unable to be everywhere on time, the chaotic engagements at times didn't help either. If you spot any glaring errors, do let me know! Also, links to images and such are also very welcome! You shall always be credited for images & links you provide!
