WORLDS Round 3: Dave vs Ben

After the game two thrashing, I was hoping for an easier time of it. Unfortunately, I was paired against Ben (Vergilius on the forums), who I knew to be fantastic with the Liberty. He had a Reeikan list with the LMC80 Star Cruiser type with SW-7s, a TRC90, a CR90 with HIEs and Engine Techs, flotillas, and a nasty little squadron ball that consisted of Shara/Tycho, Corran, and Dash. He had bid and gladly gave me second as he had Bail on the Lib. I missed the deployment shot, but I picked his Salvage Run and here is the close of round 1:

In the second round, I managed to really do a number on his HIE CR90, but it escaped with almost no shields and a single hull remaining. With Demo, I hit his TRC90 and ETed up into the Liberty side arc, hoping to escape his front shot on the following turn. Unfortunately, he had a Nav command ready and was able to drop to speed 1, land on the rock, and then Engine Tech to land on the rock a second time in order to get just a sliver of the rear portion on my ship into his front arc. On the squadron front, I had managed to kill Dash and Corran while losing Maarek and Ciena. Here is the opening of round 3:

In the third round, the Liberty activated first with Bail and was able to one-shot Demo and then ram his own flotilla to stay in place, taking yet another rock damage. On my side, I inexplicably turned my Gozanti inward to force myself to go into the Liberty front arc on the following turn. Here is the opening of round 4:

In round four, I managed to eliminate his flotilla, which I had damaged earlier. I lost Bossk and the Decimator while killing Tycho. I damaged Shara. Here is the opening of round 5:

In the fifth round, I finished off Shara with Morna and Jendon, but everything else got away. Ben won with a 7-4 score. He definitely outplayed me and was able to tie up my squadrons and eliminate many of them, scoring more than he lost. The Toryn rerolls helped with damage consistency. He was also very careful to preserve points and managed to keep all of his combat ships alive, despite them all taking significant damage. I struggled to concentrate my firepower and I really felt the lack of Intel on this one.