Unaffiliated Defeated By B A N E Despite E-War Superiority

Despite an apparently low-damage fleet, B A N E managed a solid win against Unaffiliated after picking off Unaffiliated's Rook electronic warfare platforms. B A N E fielded 3 battleships in this fight, including a Blood Raider Bhaalgorn, but their flagship has not yet taken the field.

Unaffiliated entered the arena with their whole team positioned at long range from the beacon, while B A N E chose to place themselves with their battleships on the beacon, their frigates and destroyers practically amongst the Unaffiliated fleet and their Curse roughly between the two.

With the signal to start, Unaffiliated launched a stream of drones, rather unusually including Acolyte IIs which, despite their potentially high damage output, are usually avoided as simply too slow to be practical in combat. They focused initially on the Curse, while B A N E's assault frigates swarmed forward and grappled a Thrasher, tearing it apart instantly, but before the light of its death had fully faded, the B A N E Curse was already following it into oblivion. The BANE Wolves switched targets swiftly, sending another Thrasher to follow the first.

To stop Unaffiliated jamming their heavier firepower, B A N E pounced next on Zuzu's Petals' Rook, tearing up the paper-thin ship before moving on to promptly tackle the Unaffiliated Basilisk. Despite the flights of armour-repair drones and the Oneiros protecting the B A N E ships, a swift shift in targets and fast, focused bursts of fire from Unaffilliated took down the two B A N E Sabres in short order. It wasn't enough to save their second Rook, however and with the loss of the recon ship, Unaffiliated were left with only three Drakes, a Nighthawk and a Tengu on the field - a very defensive array, but with very, very poor damage output compared to their opponents.

The B A N E frigates descended on the Unaffiliated fleet while the long-range battleships held their range, the Tempests using smartbombs to strip off drones attacking their Bhaalgorn. Gaius Vitellius, then Sparty Lioha and NeoFusion of Unaffiliated were alphaed down in their Drakes by B A N E's artillery, followed by Squatche's Tengu. BANE then directed all their remaining firepower onto Unaffiliated's last surviving ship, Filz's Nighthawk Command Ship which fell in the 8th minute of the match, leaving B A N E with their Oneiros, three Wolves, two Tempests and a Bhaalgorn still on the field and a very solid victory in their pocket.