Bloc warfare

Bloc Warfare is the blanked term for the large fights in nulsec (and occasionally lowsec) where the largest alliances in Eve fight for objectives while utilizing extremely large fleets.

What is Bloc Warfare?

Bloc warfare is, at its simplest, when large alliances fight each other over objectives considered to be important. In sovereign nulsec, this mostly consists of fights over Upwell Structures, Territorial Control Units, and Infrastructure Hubs. In lowsec, this consists of fights over Upwell Structures and Faction warfare objectives. The "Bloc" part of the name refers to the fact that these objectives are commonly fought over by coalitions of multiple large sov-holding alliances. These fights may be part of declared wars between large alliances. The defining feature of Bloc Warfare is their size. Most Bloc fights have 100-200 players per side, though the largest battles can have upwards of 2,000 players per side. In Bloc warfare, more so than anywhere else, Fleet Doctrines are extremely important. Fleet commanders must know the capabilities of the ships under their command, and if all players in the fleet are flying the same type of ship with the same fit, than this becomes much easier. In all but the largest fights, all ships in the fleet have the same type of tank (armor or shield).

Doctrines overview

Most large alliances have a closed wiki available only to their members where the fits for all of their doctrine ships can be found. Most alliances require their players to fly the exact fit in the wiki to be eligible for SRP. All doctrines fall into one of two categories; armor or shield. Within these categories there are subcategories based on the type of weapon used, ie missiles or turrets. within each category, armor or shield, some alliances allow multiple types of ships into their fleets; for example, an armor fleet might allow both Sacrilege and Zealot class ships into fleet. The ships selected for bloc warfare are universally passive, not active tanked, and are often extremely long ranged. Heavy assault cruisers are the most common class of ships used, thought with the 2022 Uprising Patch, battleships are coming back into favor. Drones are extremely rare in bloc warfare due to their vulnerability to smart-bombs. Missiles also tend to be less popular than turrets due to their delayed damage, though most if not all alliances still use missile ships. Most alliances also have doctrines for Capital Ship, but these tend to be looser in their fitting requirements and more restricted in who can access them. Especially for dreadnoughts, the strict armor or shield uniformity is significantly reduced with capital doctrines.

Armor Doctrines

DPS ships; these are the ships that will be actually dealing damage.

•  Zealot The Zealot is the only armored turret HAC used in Bloc warfare, and it is usually used as a beam laser fit sniping vessel. The Zealot tends to be less popular than its shield counterpart the Eagle, due to its lower tracking and thinner tank. Its lack of midslots also gives it less flexibility.
•  Sacrilege The Sacrilege is the armored version of the Muninn missile boat. The Sacrilege is more common than the Zealot due to its much thicker tank, and is also tankier than its competitor the Muninn.
•  Tempest Fleet Issue After the Muninn's role was changed in the 2022 HAC rebalance, the TFI took its place as the preeminent artillery platform for bloc warfare. In fact, the TFI is one of the most popular bloc warfare ships currently. Its popularity is partly owed to its high speed, and partly to its many utility high and mid slots, allowing it to fit a good mix of midslot ewar and hislot capacitor warfare. The TFI is the highest alpha ship in the current bloc warfare meta, allowing it to quickly kill targets before logi have a chance to react.
•  Paladin The Paladin is popular with richer alliances due to its high damage and relative durability. The Paladin stands as the closest competitor to the TFI. In comparison, the Paladin is longer ranged, has higher DPS, and has more utility hi slots, but depends on the bastion module for much of its DPS, this being a disadvantage as ships in bastion cannot receive remote reps. The TFI, on the other hand, is faster, does not depend on bastion, has much higher alpha, is much cheaper, and has more utility midslots.
•  Apocalypse Navy Issue The Apoc navy is essentially a cheaper, high tracking Paladin. The Apoc Navy sees use among poorer alliances that are unwilling to risk using the Paladin's Bastion module and who value the Apoc Navy's extra low slot.
•  Megathron

Logistics Ships; these are the ships that will repair the DPS ships as they receive damage.

•  Guardian
•  Oneiros
•  Nestor

Support Ships; these ships fill a variety of roles such as tackle, ewar, and scouting.

•  Heretic