@Gnaw,
RE your query about "who's right", it's an exceptional situation...usually things are more clear-cut when applying the ancient targeting rules. The rules state
One of the other players rolls the dice for the Ancients and the GCDS. If possible, the dice are assigned so that your Ship(s) are destroyed, the largest possible first. If no Ships can be destroyed, the dice should be assigned to inflict as much damage to your Ships as possible, the largest possible first.
So by one interpretation, you should prioritize killing as *many* ships as possible. In my original 4-hit scenario it would be correct to kill both interceptors and 1 cruiser.
By another interpretation, you should prioritize killing the large ships first if any ships can be destroyed. The 4-hit scenario made it possible to kill 2 cruisers, so it would be correct to leave the interceptors alone and kill only the 2 cruisers.
As for which is the proper interpretation, I'm not sure, but the conflict of interpretation is probably pretty rare in practice. I think it's best to just leave it to the mod to interpret case-by-case unless it might confer some unfair advantage in one of his/her own battles. If the mod is in conflict just leave it to the group or arbitrarily pick the most advantageous scenario for the player/ancient to which it applies.
EDIT
Also @ Gnaw,
Not sure if you moved my ships around correctly after battle. I see 4x ships up in SS's hex (reflective of the original combat outcome), when there should only be 2x. If you just haven't gotten around to making the re-roll updates then no worries.
This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 25 September 2013 - 11:34 AM