Colossal Clash Erupts in Eve Online (February 2, 2013)

[ChrisReid]

A few news outlets have picked up on an impressive story out of Eve Online. Last weekend, a mind boggling 2,800-ship battle broke out. Words can't properly describe such an incredible melee, so check out some crazy pictures of it all.

For one, it was beautiful ? the screenshots, compiled in an album here, are gorgeous renders of spiderweb lasers and stardust surrounding powerful feats of man. For another, the pictures show an absolute warzone beyond any chaos we know. But seriously, it was pretty.

The fight was in Asakai and involved a Caldari Factional Warfare alliance, the Drunk 'n' Disorderly alliance, and a few gravity wells that pulled in more ships throughout the night.

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Original update published on February 2, 2013

 

[Silent Hunter]

I don't think there has been any RL battle that involved 2,800 ships... wow indeed.

 

[Ijuin]

A few ancient Mediterranean battles involved thousands of ships (e.g. the Trojan War and Helen having a "face that launched a thousand ships"). However, the "ships" in question were mostly galleys and other primarily oar-powered vessels weighing 200 tons or less. In the Age of Sail, even the British and Spanish empires had maybe two to three hundred "capital" ships apiece ("fourth rate" or higher, i.e. more than one gun deck and displacing more than one thousand tons).

For comparison, the current US Navy has some 200 combat ships (including destroyers) plus 70 or so submarines and 10 each of heavy carriers and "amphibious assault ships" (light aircraft carriers capable of also docking smaller watercraft in an internal flood-able bay at the waterline). By tonnage as well as the number of "blue water" attack ships, it is the largest post-WWII navy in the world. In WWII the US Navy was the largest navy in the history of mankind to date, with 28 aircraft carriers, 23 battleships, 71 escort carriers, 72 cruisers, over 232 submarines, and 377 destroyers active at the time of V-J Day. Estimating from that, one might get 2,800 combat ships by adding together the entire navies of all of the main combatants of WWII.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyers

 

[gevatter Lars]

I had only a very short experiance of eve...just 2-3 month...but from that I know one thing. If you ever see ships warping in this kinda way get the fuck out of system ASAP !
Luckly something, much much smaller but similar happend to me only once. There where a bunch of bandit jumping into the system and then the lokal police jumped in and then some more guys. Even with, don't know, about 30 ships involved it was allready quite a firework. I wouldn't want to be around when something like the above would happens.

Ah EVE...I hate and love the game.