Zill and I had this conversation and what we can determine is, Chango creeped in to test the waters, Smollett called him on his bluff committed him to the attack and rushed in.
28:11 @
http://www.twitch.tv/qwerty2jam/c/2121425 The Bahamut is moving forward, but is also starting to turn right to bring his left side around to resume sniping, at this stage there was no spots, at 28:17 the dirty duck gets spotted, at this point already moving forwards towards the Gents, at 28:22 The Bahamut realises whats going on and brings front guns around, and gets ready, and a few moments after the first shots are exchanged.
Before 28:17 it doesn't seem that the gents had visibility on the Dirty duck, and seemed to be getting ready to continue the bombardment of the Lucky Duck.
This is my impression based on both being there and reviewing the stream afterwards.
Anyway, it was a great match regardless of this minutia, and I agree with your assessment of the other two matches.
Imo the crows should have slammed into reverse when they came around that corner, as once the ship order is
|Crow spawn| <Crow1> <MNS1> <Crow2> <MNS2> |MSN spawn|
Crow2 can go at MNS2 and get MSN1 up his butt, or try to turn to deal with MNS1 and let crow1 deal with the ship that flew past, none of the options are that great, even more so when you have hawach, which you really don't want behind you, as once your engines are blown, you are dead in the water, and just dead soon after.
All the subs really hurt the crows it seems, and I hope to see them spring back from this!