Cracken MSU vs Thrawn ISD & Dual Vics

My usual opponent, Andy, and I decided to check out a local Armada league that had recently begun to meet without us noticing. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but decided to run a Cracken MSU. I had Admonition as the flagship, three TRC90s, and a pair of naked flotillas with Shara/Tycho and a pair of A Wings. My opponent, whom I had just met, was running a Kuat (with Thrawn) and a pair of Vic1s with TIE Fighter support, including Howlrunner. I took first with a large bid and chose his Hyperspace Assault.

During asteroid setup, I tried to arrange things to disrupt his movement while allowing my small bases to move between the rocks with relative ease. I’ve found a horizontal line nearer the opponent side to be a good move when possible. Thanks to the chosen objective, I had a large deployment advantage. My opponent placed his ships on opposite ends of the board. I concentrated my ships on the ISD side and set them up for a pincer movement.

The first round went as planned, my corvettes positioning just outside of long range of the ISD. Admonition was set up to try to catch the speed three Kuat at close range after its activation on the following round. I wasn’t too worried about the Victory in hyperspace as Admonition would be able to take whatever it could throw. Sure enough, the Victory was placed between Admonition and one of my CR90s at the top of round 2. Here is the board state immediately after the Victory was placed at the beginning of round 2:


In round two, I activated my threatened CR90 first to prevent it from being popped by the Victory. It was then a waiting game for the Kuat to move. The Victory put some damage on Admonition, but with Lando and no X17s involved, it was not an issue. Admonition was able to put in a double arc shot at close range and then move line up another close range shot at the top of the following round. The CR90s added their own respectable damage to the mix and I was able to bring the Kuat down to only 2 hull remaining. Meanwhile, my fighters went to work on his. Here is the board state at the close of round 2:


At the beginning of the third round, I activated Admonition and finished off the opposing flagship. I then managed to put some more damage onto the Victory with my CR90s and then lined them up for the attack on the following round. My A-wings did more good work, thanks to the nearby flotilla, which allowed them all to activate before any of the TIEs. Here is the board state at the close of round 3:


During round four, I finished off the left Victory and moved into position to begin work on the last. My A-Wings finished off his fighter cover. At this point we called it. It was a bit of a bloodbath.

AAR:
In review, my high-activation, maneuverable, long-range fleet was ideally suited to deal with my opponent’s low activation, ponderous, short-range fleet. My asteroid placement was reasonably effective, forcing the enemy to deploy and move in a predictable way without affecting my own ships. My deployment advantage was also huge. After the Victory and ISD were placed apart, a blunder on the part of the enemy, I prioritized and placed my ships well. The whole operation was smooth and the only notable error would be the maneuver at the top of turn 2 of my CR90. Had I turned the other way, I would have been able to hit one of the Victories by turn 4. My fighter cover did good work racking up points without taking any losses. I pulled Tycho out on turn three with a single hull left.

Lessons Learned:
- When executing a post-attack maneuver, consider the next target, even if it may be a round or two before engaging.