Battle of SH1-6P, 

Saturday 20 august, another day in the world of EVE-online.  

In the SH1-6P system, Pandemic Legion, an EVE powerhouse, had besieged a Super Capital Assembly Array belonging to Circle-of-two, where a new Titan (a large spaceship almost 13km long) was being built. The Super Capital Assembly Array went into reinforcement mode, meaning that the opposing alliance gets the time to mount a defence. And so they did. 

Preparations

Circle-of-two, the owner of this assembly array called for help from their friends TEST alliance. Together they gathered about 900 players to stop Pandemic Legion and show them that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Pandemic Legion in response called Northern Coalition and Vanguard for help, they also brought 900 players along with their capital fleet consisting of 80 Titans, 138 Super Carriers and 63 Force Auxiliaries, the healing ships of Eve. 

The fight

As always, the fight started out with two camps of battleships, cruisers and destroyers probing the others weakness.  Shortly after the fight started, Pandemic Legion decided that it was time to move in a few of their titans. About 20 Titans and Force Auxiliaries warped in to shoot at the shield surrounding the Super Capital Assembly Array. 

When the shield was nearly gone, Circle-of-two decided it was time to commit their own Titans to the fight.  About 21 Titans entered via a cynosaural field, a mechanic for moving capital ships, and bravely fought the Pandemic Legion Titans. Pandemic Legion then decided to escalate with more of their own, and now that they had destroyed the cyno-jammers, they could easily field more of their own capital ships.

More Titans (about 60) entered, and even more Super Carriers (about 138). Circle-of-two had a hard time biting through the Titans and Super Carriers which were also constantly being healed, and decided to switch targets to the Force Auxiliaries. Though many of them were destroyed, they withstood the assault and Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition pushed Circle-of-Two and TEST alliance back. 

TEST alliance tried to make a stand by bringing 60 dreadnaughts, but it failed. 51 of them were destroyed by the overwhelming power Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition possessed. Circle-of-two decided that having their Titans stay would hurt them more, than it would hurt their enemies and called for withdrawal. Already a few of their Titans had been destroyed while Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition had lost none.

Both side claim victory, Circle-of-two and TEST for the safe(?) extraction of their surviving Titans, they lost six of the 21 in total. And Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition for the damage done and the destruction of a Super capital assembly array.

Now why did Circle-of-two decide to defend itself against Pandemic Legion? After all, they would have lost a lot less if they just had let Pandemic Legion do what they wanted. Losing 120 billion in assets is better than losing 1.2 trillion right? Seems that wasn’t the case. Pandemic Legion had terrorized Circle-of-two space, burning down their infrastructure and industry. Circle-of-two had to show Pandemic Legion they couldn’t just do whatever they wanted.

Almost 3000 players were involved in the fight, and a total of 1.3 trillion isk was lost, isk being the currency in Eve online. Circle-of-two and TEST alliance lost 1.2 Trillion while Pandemic Legion and Northern Coalition lost 0.1 Trillion. 1.3 trillion isk roughly equals 28,000$ at this point of writing.

sources:

• Battle report
• Privately recorded video