Bloc warfare

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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 nullsec, this mostly consists of fights over Upwell structures, Territorial Claim 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).

Doctrine 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, i.e. 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

The Megathron has fallen out of favor recently (along with the Rokh) due to the poor damage and tracking of railguns. It is mainly used as a hybrid turret alternative to the more popular Apocalypse line of ships (Apocalypse, Apoc Navy, and Paladin).

 Apocalypse

The cheapest of the Apocalypse line of ships, and the weakest. Mainly used by poorer alliances and those who have trouble sourcing the Navy version.

 Leshak

The Leshak has fallen out of favor with the emergence of marauders, but still sees use due to its thick tank and many utility hislots. The Leshak can potentially bring very hi dps when fully ramped, but struggles to fully ramp when targets die quickly. The Leshak is also very expensive and difficult to source.

 Drekavac

The Drekavac is essentially a cheaper, slightly worse, more mobile version of the Leshak with the same set of strengths and weaknesses.

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

 Guardian

The Guardian is used for bigger engagements where it is easier to coordinate a cap chain that is more resistant to ECM

 Oneiros

The Onerios is used for smaller engagements where a cap chain is extremely vulnerable to ECM.

 Nestor

The Nestor is mainly used by richer alliances to whom the 10x higher cost is not as much an issue. The Nestor has more repping power, thicker tank, longer rep range, and significant drone capability than either the Oneiros or the Guardian, at the expense of speed.

Shield doctrines

DPS Ships

 Eagle

The Eagle is the shield equivalent to the Zealot. It tends to be more popular than the Zealot, however, owing to its better tracking and thicker tank.

 Muninn : The Muninn is the shield equivalent to the Sacrilege. The Muninn and Sacrilege see about equal use due to their opposing strengths and weaknesses. The Muninn is faster, has a smaller signature radius, has better application, and an extra utility low slot. The Sacrilege is tankier, longer ranged, has more drone capability, and has a utility hislot.

 Hurricane : The Hurricane is the scaled down shield tanked version of the Tempest Fleet Issue. Its advantages can be summed up in one word; cost. The Hurricane is less than one tenth the cost of the TFI and is faster and has better range, but it is worse in about every other way; tank, DPS, range, drone capability, and utility hislots and midslots. The Hurricane is mainly used by alliances that either cannot afford TFIs or want to minimize their exposure to loss.

 Ferox

While the Hurricane is the cheaper, slightly worse version of the TFI, the Ferox and its relative the Eagle have a more equal relationship. The Eagle is tankier, faster, has more fitting space, and has better tracking, while the Ferox has higher damage, longer range, lower cost, and a utility hislot. The Ferox is mainly used by alliances that either are poor or again want to minimize risk of financial loss.

 Rokh

The Rokh is unpopular due to the Ferox and Eagle being faster and cheaper, but it still sees some use due to its thicker tank and much longer range. The Rokh suffers from low speed and tracking, as well as poor damage for a battleship.

 Nightmare

The Nightmare is the shield version of the Paladin. The Nightmare brings a thick tank, high damage, two utility hislots and relatively high speed at the expense of being very difficult to source in large numbers. Due to being a Pirate hull, the cost is comparable to a Paladin. The Nightmare is mainly used in smaller numbers by richer alliances.

Logistics Ships

 Basilisk

The Basilisk, like the Guardian, is mainly used in larger engagements. The Basiliks suffers from a lack of lowslots and shockingly low speed for a cruiser.

 Scimitar

The Scimitar is mainly used in smaller engagements, and benefits from high speed and 4 low slots.