·event
Battle of X47L-Q
Largest peak-concurrency engagement post-B-R5RB: 6,270 pilots in one system, ~10 trillion ISK destroyed across 58 titans and hundreds of dreads/FAXes over the Pure Blind Keepstar.
Battle of X47L-Q
Background
Two years after the Casino War, the Imperium had rebuilt from Delve and was ready to project force again. The first major post-Casino-War Imperium offensive - fielded under the Imperial Legacy banner (Goonswarm + The Initiative + TEST + Bastion + others) - targeted the Northern Coalition's Keepstar in X47L-Q, Pure Blind.
The engagement
A multi-timer campaign - armour timer 1 August 2018, structure timer ~9 August 2018. CCP's official report on the armour-timer fight gave the numbers that defined the era:
- 6,270 capsuleers across the engagement
- 738 Titans on grid (58 destroyed, including the first Molok-class Titan ever killed)
- 585 Supercarriers (23 destroyed)
- 663 Dreadnoughts (424 destroyed)
- 394 Force Auxiliaries (309 destroyed)
- 546 Carriers (21 destroyed)
- Up to ten trillion ISK destroyed in the engagement window
Decisive moment - Heavy Warp Scrambler super-tackle
Named directly by CCP in the official report. Imperial Legacy supercarriers, fitted with Heavy Warp Scramblers, were jumped directly on top of the NC titan ball at zero range. The HWS-fit supers acted as damage-resistant tackle, denying the defenders' Doomsday-tether escape and trading sub-optimal anchor positioning for the kill window. NC's titan formation could not break free in time.
This is the doctrinal innovation X47L-Q is remembered for, and the answer to the long-standing "how do you tackle a titan ball" problem.
Aftermath
The Keepstar fell at the structure timer. Imperial Legacy was now the dominant offensive bloc going into 2019. Razor Alliance's Flickr archive holds multiple X47L-Q albums (Round 1, Armor Timer) - the canonical contemporary battle photography. The cinematic videos posted to YouTube became reference viewing for the engagement.
Returning player note
X47L-Q is the mid-2010s benchmark for "biggest fight since B-R5RB."
If you left during the Casino War aftermath, this is the moment the Imperium turned offensive again - and the doctrinal innovation (HWS super-tackle) that turned otherwise-defensible NC Keepstars into kills.
Battle stats
Imperial Legacy held the field- System
- X47L-Q · Pure Blind
- Sides
-
Goonswarm Federation
Anchor
On side: Imperial Legacy (Goonswarm Federation + The Initiative + TEST + Bastion + others)
The Initiative.
Partner
On side: Imperial Legacy (Goonswarm Federation + The Initiative + TEST + Bastion + others)
Test Alliance Please Ignore
Partner
On side: Imperial Legacy (Goonswarm Federation + The Initiative + TEST + Bastion + others)
The Bastion
Partner
On side: Imperial Legacy (Goonswarm Federation + The Initiative + TEST + Bastion + others)
Northern Coalition.
Anchor
On side: Northern Coalition (NCdot + PandaFAM + allies)
Pandemic Horde
Partner
On side: Northern Coalition (NCdot + PandaFAM + allies)
Fraternity.
Partner
On side: Northern Coalition (NCdot + PandaFAM + allies)
- ISK destroyed
- 10 T
- Decisive doctrine
- Imperial Legacy: Heavy-Warp-Scram super-tackle vs NC Doomsday-tether titan ball - HWS supers jumped on top of the NC titan formation at zero range
What does “held the field” mean?
The badge marks the side that held the field at the end of this engagement — who was still on grid, who walked away with the objective on the day. It is not a verdict on the wider war or campaign, which often turned on logistics, attrition, or political fallout in the weeks after. The full strategic arc lives in the deep-dive above.
Caveats & contested numbers
The 835 figure that appears under one side is CCP's combined-both-sides capital-ship total (58 Titans, 23 Supercarriers, 424 Dreadnoughts, 309 FAX, 21 Carriers); CCP did not publish a per-side split, and the figure is attributed to one side here rather than guessed across the two. TAGN's eyewitness estimate places per-side Titan losses at roughly 27 to 29 each; subcap losses across both sides were not aggregated. Pilot count is 6,270 capsuleers across the engagement, also without a CCP-published per-side split; Talking In Stations gives ~330 Goonswarm Titans against ~300 NC Titans, which supports roughly even pilot estimates. The ISK figure is CCP's "up to ten trillion" qualified phrasing; community battle-report aggregators report 9.7-10.2 T. The first Molok-class Titan ever destroyed died in this fight. The armour timer fell on 1 August; the structure timer fell around 9 August.
Context at this date
vs M2-XFE's all-time peak (29.11 T)
- Killmails
- - total ships destroyed game-wide that month, from CCP's killmail feed (aggregated by EVE Ref).
- PLEX
- - Jita market price of one PLEX (30 days of game time), in ISK.
- Maps
- - quarterly sovereignty / coalition / faction-warfare snapshots from verite.space (Verite Rendition).
Gallery
