Ship to ship, the advantage is all Galactica. Yes, the Mon Calamari probably has the small-arms advantage. Its compliment of lasers is far more powerful and longer range that Galactica’s compliment of close-range engagement zone weaponry. The Galactica’s trump card is it compliment of nuclear weapons and armor. It could last a long time and deal a ton of damage in small bursts, but so long as the Calamari keeps its distance and makes an effort to knock down the nukes and missles before the reach target, it could take as long as it wants. Of course, manueverability is a tie. We never saw the Galactica turn, and the Calamari famously had a hard as hell time turning after the trap was sprung.
Fight-to-Fighter combat is 100% in favor of the Calamari. Vipers are great, but they’re limited to forward gunnery cannons and one missle spot. That’s half the firepower of an only slightly less maneuverable X-Wing, and merely matches the Calamari’s fastest, most underpowered squad of A-Wings. As far as heavy ships go, Raptors definitely have the edge over Y-wings (since really their only advantage is a large stock of torpedoes), but would easily get outmaneuvered and outgunned by the X-wings (which, so far as I can tell, are almost as well-armed as the Raptors themselves).
Fighter-to-Carrier combat favors the Galactica. I don’t care how many small lasers your X-wing has, it won’t hurt that ship’s armor, and you sure as heck aren’t getting through the engagement zone in one piece. Some surgical missiles or machine gun fire from vipers, however, could do some serious damage to the more frail organically-grown Mon Calamari cruiser. The Calamari’s a bigger ship, but it’s not quite so tough.
Technology favors the Calamari, but only slightly. The ace up the Calamari’s technological sleeve is Ion Cannons. Unfortunately, the ship doesn’t have the power output for operations, engine, and lasers to have a functional ion cannon big enough to take out the Galactica’s power (remember, the massive power generator for the entire rebel Hoth base could only fuel a single cannon, and we’re talking about a ship here). Maybe a coordinated strike from an entire Y-Wing squadron’s worth of fighter-class Ion cannons could disrupt a system or two on the Galatica, but it wouldn’t have lasting harm: Battlestars are built with seperate, independently-operating systems.
In a knock-down, drag-out fight, it’s got to be the Battlestar. The ship’s intense engagement zone almost completely negates the Calamari’s fighter advantage. And while, yes, on-top, alert gunning by the Calamari’s laser gunners could theoretically knock out lots of the Battlestar’s heavy weapons payloads before they ever reach target, the practical situation is that at least one or two would get through – especially with those pesky yet effective vipers requiring attention as well.
Close fight, though! Wonder what a base star vs. a star destroyer would be like…
