So after spending a weekend at la casa d'Ard playing through an entire Correlian Campaign (more or less) with Ard, Brik, and another forum peeper (Logan), we had enough time left for a single game... Ard, Brik, and I thought it would only be fitting to stream the match that would have happened 2 weeks earlier, had our Regional gone to 4 rounds.
There was a twitch stream of it, which I'm sure they'll post later/have posted already, somewhere. So you can go watch it for full context, but I'm going to go ahead and do a comprehensive write up here, to capture my still fresh thoughts. And I feel like it's important, given recent discussions concerning the Rebel Squadron game versus ship dominance. This literally could not be more of a perfect matchup to capture that dichotomy (except, of course, that both are Rebel lists).
The lists: Ards infamous Mothma MC30 swarm versus my flavor of the Pelta/Yavaaris Rieekan Aces. (I promise, it is unique to those other successful Pelta builds, and RLB isn't the only major difference)
The bids: Ard-395; me-396. Ard takes initiative. Chooses most wanted.
Setup: I place the station the same way I always place it, given the chance—right up next to my opponents edge in the middle of the long edge (I'm almost to the point where I could do a write-up on developing engagement areas and planning out the obstacle deployment given objectives and matchups). The other obstacles are relatively scattered about, leaving the middle of the field pretty much barren, except for the station and an asteroid placed exactly across from it. You'll see the importance of the asteroid in Rounds 2/3.
Deployment: I had 8 deployments (Nora+Bs in the bays) to his 7, and he was deploying first. I could easily outdeploy 2 of his 30s before placing down either Yavaaris or PH, so he had to go for as general of deployments as he could. Flotillas went smack dab in the middle of his side, right behind the station at speed 2. His, Admo, a normal Torp, and Lando (in that order, from outside in) went all to my left of the flotilla group in tight formation, while the other went to the right. They were all focused on a central point in that open space I mentioned and going either 3 or 4 speed. My fleet was deployed in order from left to right: BCC, Yavaaris, PH, Toryn, Rieekan (shielded from the 3 MC30 pack). They were fairly well spread out, enough to make an arc somewhat mirroring Ards arc and all focused on the same point. Squads deployed mostly central to the engagement area.
Most Wanted: I agonize over which MC30 to pick. I could easily kill the one by itself, but then he could also veer that one away, still hit me with 3, and I'd lose the objective Ship. The same was true of the other standard 30. I know he's bringing in Admonition for sure, but that'd be the only ship I could take out if I gunned for it. Lando was in the position that I would easily choose, if not for Lando. Because Lando was on the inside and going speed 3, any attempt to veer off would disrupt the other 30s, and possibly give me the edge I needed. So I choose Lando and Bright Hope.
Edited by ParkdaddyEditted to break it up