Offensive Battle Tactics

To further their agendas and expand their control of the galaxy the Powers and Alliances can employ a number of offensive battle tactics.

Open Opposing & Open Undermining
Open Opposing & Open Undermining refers to claiming earned Power Bonds as soon as practically possible after completing the respective actions. This reduces the risk of the Power Bonds being lost from ship destruction due to interception by Powerplay PvPers and/or NPC Power Ships.

Sniping
Sniping is the tactic of Opposing or Undermining an Expansion or Control System, respectively, and not claiming the Power Bonds earned until as close to the Powerplay Tick as possible. This results in the Power being attack being unaware of the precise system being targeted unless the system is Scouted and the information retrieved from the Power Update Station Services report. The value in Merits of the unclaimed Power Bonds held is referred to as a Merit Bomb.

Sphere Flipping
Flipping a sphere is the replacing of the Controlling Minor Faction in an Expansion of Control Sphere’s systems so that 50% or more of the systems’ governments are a level Weaker for the Power. That is, if a Power is Strong against 50% of the Controlling factions in the sphere then it is flipped away from the Power if enough Controlling Minor Factions are changed so that the Power is Strong against only 49% of them. This is to change the Expansion or Fortification Trigger which will either be halved (has Trigger Reduction), normal, or multiplied by 1.5 (has Trigger Penalty) depending upon if a Power is Strong, Neutral, or Weak against 50% or more the Controlling Minor Faction’s government type.

To illustrate, in the table a Power that is Strong against Dictatorships and Weak against Patronage for the Sphere has the Sphere flipped away from the Power as the number of Dictatorship and Patronage Controlling Factions changes accordingly from left to right by column.

Weaponised Expansions
Weaponised Expansions are an Expansion deployed by a Power against an enemy Power designed to reduce the latter’s CC income. This involves the aggressor Power deliberately Prepping then Expanding a system in order that its Control Sphere will overlap with the Control Sphere of the target Power so that the systems in the overlapped section become Contested and provide no CC income.



To illustrate, in the diagram Control Sphere A has been successfully Expanded so that it overlaps with enemy Power’s Control Sphere B. The systems in the overlapped section C provide no CC income to either Power thus reducing the profitability of Control System B from what it was the previous Cycle.