Union of Blood

There’s a Russian revolution taking place in wormhole space. It’s been happening for over a year, and in spite of it being one of the largest recent developments, most of the major w-space corporations are content to just ignore it. Blood Union has been revolutionary since they started in w-space last year. An in-depth look at this most successful w-space corporation can illustrate what is to come for unknown space.

Any wormhole resident will recognize the name Blood Union, (and it’s new corollary, Quantum Explosion, which for the purpose of this article will be joined together) but for the uninitiated, this Russian alliance has been pioneering the tactic of seeding capitals to kill farming fleets for many months. Through ups and downs they are a threat that everyone who makes an income in w-space must consider. They continue to kill large amounts of ISK every month almost entirely in w-space, which is a feat that had eluded wormhole PvP alliances twice and three times their size, and they have done so outside the box that has been set up by current w-space corporations. Their fits and tactics have popularized a new set of gank specific ideas, most notably the burst tank shield capitals, and the prevalence of the logon trap in an area without local.

This is not a new development – Blood Union has been active since early last year, and at this point their existence has settled so much that they seem to be just another thread in the backdrop of sleeper life. However, their success is important. The future of w-space lies in seeding capitals – it’s clearly better than to any other method of catching farming fleets. Yet we don’t see any gravitation toward this new strategy for those looking to get kills. If a one hundred fifty character alliance can do this much damage, shouldn’t a four hundred character alliance be able to inflict so much more destruction?

To someone who has lived in wormholes an extended period of time, it should be reminiscent of the old Rooks and Kings fleet compositions. I remember the threads on our corporation forums that would link RnK battlereports so as to find certain advantages by scouring their killmails. From T3s to ECM tengus to the introduction of the Bhaalgorn, the fleet compositions of the best were slowly adopted by all of the new era corporations that were springing up around that time.

Why is that not the case with Blood Union? I know my corporation’s answer: effort. The effort involved is exponentially larger than roaming or rolling, which has a great deal to do with the respect that Blood Union is given. What is perhaps more interesting is the way in which they rose: isolated from the rest of the community, popularizing niche fits specifically for ganks, and going after everyone, from alt corps to major players, with impunity.

Two Step recently said the following in regards to capital seeding, “…that shouldn’t be the only way to catch people doing PVE.” It lead me to wonder, what is the correct balance between the additional effort that an entity like BU puts in, and the current rolling and roaming of the rest of the community? Perhaps the way to make wormholes more risky is to simply have more corporations put in the effort.