Cracken MSU vs Dodonna Pelta & Yavaris

For this epic showdown, I brought my Cracken MSU list, changing out a few things from my previous game. I dropped the generic A-Wings and added Toryn/Bright Hope on one flotilla and Slicers/Quantum Storm on the other. On the other side of the table, Andy, brought Yavaris, Pelta (With Adar, Dodonna, and a bunch of other upgrades), a CR90B with Dodonna’s Pride, and a pair of flotillas with Toryn and a BCC. His heavy hitters were the fighters. He brought Luke, Gold Squadron, a pair of Scurrgs (Proxied with Lancers), Green Squadron, Rogue Squadron, and a YT2400. I took first and picked his Jamming Field.

After he dropped his first ship, I knew his general deployment location and direction of travel and deployed accordingly in order to get in front of him. Here is the setup:


Full steam ahead for me in round 1:


In the next round, I positioned a pair of TRC90s ahead of him in order to wait for him to jump forward and then pounce to limit my time inside medium range of Yavaris and its double-tapping bombers. My left most TRC90s was not so well positioned and got hit by Luke and a Scurrg after one of my aces went down. Some good rolls brought it down to a single hull remaining. It was hanging on by a hair without doing anything to show for it. Here is the close of round 2:


Round three was eventful. I moved Quantum Storm in to slice the Pelta and scooted the highly damaged CR90 out of the action. Quantum Storm went down and then Admonition moved in on the Pelta and Yavaris. The TRC90s were both able to put some damage on the Pelta and then close in. Here is the close of round 3:


Round four was decisive. I activated Admonition first, who had been burning tokens to negate Luke’s ridiculously good ability (with its own ridiculously good ability). With the side arc and CF command, I managed to finish off the Pelta. I then put some damage down on Yavaris to really soften it up. With the nav token, I jumped to speed four and landed behind the enemy formation. My next activation was the CR90 closest to the board edge, which put some double arc damage through as well. I was then able to finish it off with my CR90 out front after it had activated. We called the game at that point. My ships were out of reach of his remaining squadrons. It ended as a fairly decisive victory for me.

AAR:
First off, the asteroids ended up being something of a non-factor for both of us. The horizontal line nearer the enemy side has been a somewhat useful to me in the past, but it ended up being a non-factor this game. The jamming barrier was placed to the rear of Andy’s formation to discourage me from approaching from that direction. This was something that I had little inclination to do anyway as the forward approach better allows me to get my guns on target. My setup was adequate, though I would have been better off placing the left most CR90 between the flotillas or even on the right flank of my formation.

During the maneuvers, I would have been better served by at least holding that left-most CR90 back at a lower speed. This would have allowed me to save my meager squadron support for another turn rather than having to jump forward in order to try to protect this rather exposed corvette. My quantum storm sacrifice was useful, but the Pelta was still able to use fighter coordination teams to line up the Yavaris double taps - something I had overlooked. I think I would have been better served slicing Yavaris. I maneuvered Admonition and the other two CR90s well enough to get the job done without any serious setbacks. In all, it was a solid success.

Lessons Learned:
- Be very careful when dealing with Yavaris. A strong alpha-strike is the right approach. Hold back until ready to hit it at high speed.
- Try to save Shara/Tycho for the exact right moment, preferably in conjunction with the alpha strike on the carrier(s).