How to find Incursions

Incursions.E-UNI mailing list

Normally there will always be a recon mail in the Incursions.E-UNI mailing list with information about the current constellation we're in.

The recon mails will have all the information you'll need. It will list the staging system, the various vanguard and assault sites as well as the headquarter system. Most of the time it will also have additional information about distance to our home system, closest tradehubs and general travel information and warnings.

How to find Incursions

Open up your Journal (either from your shortcut or the Neocom) and go to the Incursions tab and then click the Global Report. There you will see all current incursions that are active in EVE, which can be sorted by security for convenience.

You can also find the incursions by opening up your Star Map (F10), click the Star map if it isn't already in map-mode, go to the Star Map tab and under Stars select Incursions. The incursions will then show up on the map. Staging systems will show up in yellow and other systems in orange.

The journal will tell you how many incursions there are and where.

Not as easy to use if you quickly want to see where the incursion is, but the starmap shows incursions too.

As of March 12th 2014 you can also get information about incursions from dotlan.

You can quickly get an overview of active incursions on dotlan, with information similar to that of the journal.

There's also detailed information available for each constellation, such as when an incursion spawned, changed state, despawned etc.

Another useful feature is that the constellation map clearly indicates all the systems under incursion with a visual effect. This is quite useful when roaming in low and null security space, so you're not caught unawares.

In March 2015 Shadowlauch launched with even more specific information.

You can quickly get an overview of active incursions on shadowlauch, with some additional information not readily available on dotlan.

The most recent history of incursions.

Constellation layouts

While the incursions will spawn in a random constellation, the systems of a given constellation will always have the same type of sites. There is only one requirement for a constellation to be a potential incursions constellation it must have at least 7 systems with the same security status (high, low, null), some systems are also taken out of the "incursion rotation", such as major trade hubs and starter systems.

See constellation layouts for more information on what systems will have vanguard, assault or headquarter sites, without having to visit the constellation first.

Choosing which constellation to go to

This is a collective effort and anyone can and should send out a new focus mail when we need to move. If you are unsure whether we should move or not, discuss it with the people online before sending a mail because sending a mail is the same thing as committing the community to a new focus.

Sometimes we have several Incursions active at the same time and we have to choose which one to go to. Here are a few things to consider:

• How easy is it to picket?
• Favour going to systems close to Slays (close to "home").
• Constellations within Amarr regions.
• Proximity to major trade hubs like Jita and Amarr.

When given the choice we should strive to go to Incursions close to home. This allows new people to come fly with us, who normally might be put off by the 30+ jump trek. It also puts us near reinforcements. People who know how to PvP would also be much closer to their stockpile of PvP-ships if they needed to reship to deal with war targets.

Since Amarr hold sovereignty in the majority of high security space, odds are higher that Incursions spawn in Amarr space than anywhere else. So if you have the choice between between two fairly similar constellations, it makes sense to pick the one closer to the main Amarr region. This usually means we won't have to move too far the next time we move.

If we can avoid the major trade hubs, that's a plus too, as those constellations get a lot more attention from gankers and griefers. Major trade hubs are also favourite hunting grounds for many so called "high security warriors" corporations and alliances that declare war on us. This is more of an issue during war than it is during peace, as the threat from gankers and griefers is minimal unless you're flying very expensively fitted ships (far beyond what most fly in our community).

Of course, sometimes we don't have a choice and will be forced to pick a less than ideal system. But try to keep these things in mind when you decide where to go.

Finding an ideal staging system

The actual staging system of a constellation isn't necessarily the best system to stage out of, in fact it usually isn't. When you look for a good staging system there are a few things to consider.

• Easy to Picket during wars.
• Availability of repair facilities.
• Being a convenient location.

So for a really good staging system, try finding a system that has the type of sites you want to run, has a station with repair facilities and has jump gates leading directly to the other systems of interest.

Updating the mailing list

Whenever we move to a new constellation, someone has to send out a mail to the Incursions.E-UNI mailing list. This is done so that people know where to go when they log in or when they feel like doing incursions after having done something else.

And as the note says in the beginning of this second, this is a communal effort, it's not something only a select few will do. Just make sure you take the time to make a proper mail with the right information; Look at previous mails for an appropriate format. Even if you don't have a template to use you can click on the forward button on an old mail, that way you won't have to retype everything. Just remember to remove the "FW:" part of the subject line, change the system names and links.

Longevity

Incursions can theoretically last close to eight days (but realistically last much less), and go through three different stages; Established, Mobilized and Withdrawing.

Stage	Explanation
Incursion established (up to 5 days)	Whenever an incursion spawns, this will be the first stage. Sansha Kuvakei's forces are trying to take control of the systems. While beating down the influence seems to increase the chance of a this stage lasting longer, the exact mechanics are unknown (ie, this can be as short as a day).
Incursion mobilized (2 full days)	The incursion has been around for a bit and Sansha Kuvakei's forces are either getting ready to finish off the incursion or they are losing too much ground and prepare to withdraw from the constellation. This phase always lasts 48 hours unless someone runs the mothership site prematurely.
Incursion withdrawing (1 full day)	The incursion is ending, either due to Sansha Kuvakei's forces overrunning the constellation or because the incursion community managed to keep them at bay. If the mothership site is not completed within 24 hours, the incursion simply disappears (and no loyalty points are paid out).

Number of Incursions and respawns

There can be up to seven incursions up at any given time, three in highsec and four in low- and nullsec. The incursions will all spawn new incursions in the same type of security space as the one they are replacing. This means that whenever a highsec incursion is despawned, either by Sansha withdrawing or when someone finishes the mothership site, a new highsec incursion will soon spawn in its place.

The delay between an incursion ending and a new one spawning is 12 - 36 hours according to CCP, but there has been respawns recorded to have been delayed for far longer than 36 hours.

Mothership sighted

The mothership site can occur as early as within the first established stage, the influence only needs to hit 0% and a single headquarters site must be run. Once the mothership has been sighted, the incursion can be ended by destroying the mothership at any time. As such there is no guaranteed longevity for incursions, other than the brief period before the mothership site is unlocked (which can be mere hours).

Community drama

Sometimes it's a tactical decision in order to spawn a new incursion for the weekend. Other times they just try to beat the crowd and do it just before it enters the withdrawing stage. Sadly, sometimes they finish the mothership site several days in advance for various personal reasons, often contributed to petty things like hurt egos and lost competitions.

Moving between Incursions

Incursions are nomadic in nature with a single focus lasting less than a week, often only for a few days, forcing the incursion community to constantly move in order to continue taking part of the content.

Given the profitability of suicide ganking and how hard it is to actually use the extra cargo of a freighter, it is usually much better to travel fit your battleship and fly it than to carry it around in a freighter, especially if you have a faction battleship or costly ships. Flying a ship yourself as opposed to hauling a ship inside another ship means the ship itself as well as the rigs lose their value, as they are destroyed if they suicide gank you. This drastically reduces the value of ganking you. Also remember that if you're carrying an expensive defensive module, fit it.

Since moving is the most dangerous part of incursioning, try to avoid moving your incursion ship as much as possible. For example, if you need to go elsewhere it is best if you leave your incursion ship in the system and simply use a shuttle or a rookie ship to fly back and forth (or an interceptor or a covert ops if you like). That way you only put a very cheap ship on the line, instead of your more expensive incursion ship.

In order to facilitate moving more than one ship at a time, you can either use the Orca, the Bowhead, or your racial freighter of choice.

The Orca excels at moving several smaller ships, like logistics and strategic cruisers, while still having good maneuverability and an excellent buffer (see training up an Orca alt for more information about training up for and using the Orca.). The Bowhead has an enormous ship maintenance bay able to move multiple battleships, but is slower and has a smaller cargo hold. Freighters have a much larger hold but are much slower and are limited to courier contracts if they are to move assembled ships.

Wartime logistics

We highly recommend unistas to train a valet alt to move their ships safely between incursions during war, so as not to serve your ship up on a silver plate for our war targets.

You should never move your ship to an incursion constellation alone when your corporation or alliance is at war. The only exception would be if you have a scout (alt or someone helping you) and you know how to travel-fit with stabs, microwarpdrive and cloak.

War targets relish catching slow and expensive ships fit for PvE. Even if there are no war targets logged on, they could be waiting offline with their main characters, while keeping an eye on you with their alts.

Use an alt to move your ship(s)

Not everyone will have alts to do this (or have the appropriate skills on their alt), but the fastest and safest way is always to fly the ship yourself on an alt. Just contract or hand over the ship to your alt, let them move it, then move yourself over in a fast and cheap frigate or interceptor/covert ops. See valet alt for a quick overview of the skills needed.

The main benefit of moving the ship by itself, is that the cost of the hull and the rigs become somewhat irrelevant. If you were to haul a pirate faction battleship in a freighter or the Bowhead, then the hull and rigs would be potential loot. But if you fly it, the ship and rigs would be destroyed and thus not potential loot for suicide gankers. Also remember that if you're bringing a deadspace hardener or other defensive modules with you, keep it fitted on your ship instead of moving it in your cargo hold where it does no good.

Travel fleets

If the last incursion you were in just disappeared and you all need to move, the simplest thing to do is to take the whole fleet, including everyone else who wants to come with you to the next constellation and move as a fleet. Strength in numbers.

Keep your incursion-fits, including logistics and work on your aligns and fleet warps on the way, keeping one fleet member a jump ahead acting as a scout (and possibly someone a jump behind as well to cover the rear). Unless the war targets amass in considerable numbers, they pose no threat to your fleet as long as you keep the fleet together, warping together, never leaving anyone behind. Only one person needs to have PvP-experience for this to work, the rest just have to keep their wits and follow orders.

Freighter services

There are several options to have your ship freighted to the new constellation. You have Red Frog as well as people within the community offering to haul ships with their alts. Depending on how fast the courier contract can be fulfilled this might be a less than desirable option, as you might lose valuable game time waiting for your ship to arrive.

The microwarpdrive and cloak trick

The microwarpdrive and cloak trick does not mean you should travel alone, you should still have someone scouting ahead for you to avoid gatecamps. The cloak is just to reduce the chance of getting caught, it doesn't ensure that you'll make it. A proper gatecamp will catch you, especially if you're in a battleship or something with a high signature.

Using a microwarpdrive and an improved cloaking device is an additional layer of safety you could use. See Seamus Donohue's video on how to do this.

Make sure you practice this in a less expensive ship, like a frigate, before you attempt to do this on a battleship. Getting the timing right is everything with this trick, if someone locks you up before you cloak up you'll be unable to cloak. Preventing you from cloaking usually gives them all the time in the world to catch up and point you, keeping you in place, which means you're dead.