|Who Would Win:| Barsen'thor and The Commander of Havok Squad [VS] The Emperor's Wrath and Cipher Nine

Morality: [Off] - not exactly sure what this is supposed to mean, but if you mean neither side takes morals into consideration when planning tactics, that is kind of a big advantage to the pubs. Not having morality is a big tactical advantage for the Empire at the cost of the ability to work in a proper team; giving the pubs no morality without sacrificing their teamwork is unfair IMO. Under these constraints I find it impossible for the Empire to win. As such I'm going to ignore this and assume the pubs will be working within moral constraints. Also I'm assuming an amalgamation of AC's - Barsen'thor is neither a Sage nor a Shadow, but a sort of semi-stealth Sagey type with skills from both, Wrath fights with 1 saber and keeps a second on his belt just in case, etc. This is just so the assumptions I'm making apply more universally rather than being valid for 1 AC and invalid for the other.

Given the pubs moral constraints and the fact that Nar Shaddaa is a populated city-world, I'm assuming high explosives are out of the question for the pubs; not so for the Imperials. As such Round 1 would automatically go to the Imperials - The Wrath sets up a place for Cipher 9 to ambush Barsen'thor and Havoc Squads commander, given Cipher 9 specializes in stealth and deception I think it's fair to say she's able to survive long enough to distract them (despite the fact she would inarguably lose in the long run) while the Wrath, from far away, blows up the entire promenade on which they stand. Cipher 9 is sacrificed for the Wrath's victory. Cipher 9, of course, came up with the plan to sacrifice herself for the Empire, as the Wrath is too direct for such a course of action. A chance Barsen'thor figures it out as it's happening but given she's a Jedi, she'll probably not have even considered blowing up the entire promenade with millions of people living on it, and so I think it's fair to say this absurdly out-of-scale action catches her mostly off guard and that she's not likely to survive it. Whatever preparations they prepare will likely have been smaller scale preparations, for ground combat in a street, and will thus be unlikely to have any effect on Cipher 9's plan.

Round 2 is more in the air, and I think I'll give the advantage to the pubs. Most likely the Wrath will command Cipher 9 to do something which will get her killed in the process of opening a path of attack for the Wrath, rather than trusting her judgement and trying to fight as a team; Cipher 9 (mine at least) being fiercely loyal to her Sith masters, she will obey despite knowing better, she will die, and the pubs will work together to bring down the Wrath. It's possible the Wrath will take out the Commander before he goes down, but I'd put the odds at 50/50, and he definitely won't finish off Barsen'thor.

Last one is a tossup and could go either way. Wrath brings DS Jaesa and Barsen'thor brings Kira. The Wrath and Jaesa have a particularly strong relationship for Sith, so I'll give them a boost to teamwork for this round, though Cipher 9 will obey every order without question the instant it's given; as such, she must be prepared to carry out orders, preventing her from attempting to carry out any absurd plans. I can't actually put my finger on why honestly, but I have to give this one to the Imps; the Pubs have a wild thinker in the Commander, but the two Jedi would be unwilling to do anything which would endanger the citizens. Commander has a slight freedom-of-action advantage over Cipher 9, given she'd be worried about protecting her masters, but I think she's wily enough to deal with it while the Commander is too direct a person to be able to deal with Cipher 9's confusing tactics, so I think they even out. Actually, I think I did just figure out why I think the imps would win - the Pubs are fighting to protect something, while the imps revel in battle and victory. Two Sith, Sith who know each other and feed off each others emotions, fighting together and enjoying the thrill of battle would, I think, have an advantage over two Jedi, trying to maintain their center and focusing their attention on lofty goals. The Sith would be laughing and enjoying themselves while the Jedi "endured a trial" or something to that effect. That may not be too big an advantage, but when they're this even I think it matters.

All in all a pretty even match that I think I ended up giving to the Imps out of preference rather than real reasons. The Imps definitely win round 1, the Pubs definitely win round 2, and round 3 is a tossup. I give round 3 to the Empire only because Imperials revel in combat and are thus more likely to be on point, but I'll freely admit that's a shaky advantage at best and it could go either way.

/r/swtor Thread