These Dice are Trying to Kill Me

Leftover Lo Han Choi over jasmine rice set the stage for an evening battling for galactic domination. Somehow we settled into the typical roles: Major Ursa (Kent), Peetza da Hutt (Ric), and Darth Horak.

Game 1. Straight out of the starting blocks the Empire took heavy casualities and was never really a threat. Despite this, fortifications in the Wild Space were going to take a very long time to reduce. When the Rebels finally ground the Hutts down to a handful of planets, it was declared a Rebel victory. To everyone's surprise, the Emperor was not buried in the Wild Space but out in the El'Rood Sector with only a single garrison for protection.

Game 2. What a difference a setup makes. This time the Rebels were crippled from the beginning. With the Hutts constantly threatening victory, the Death Star stationed at Duro was a successful strategy. Eventually, the Storm Troopers were able to destroy a resource planet in the Mid Rim, hold back an invasion of the Wild Space, and lock in the Ison Corridor. Finally we called it a Hutt-Empire draw, but since I'm maintaining the blog, I'll file this post under "Imperial victory." :-))

Meanwhile, Joe from CA twittered this link for fans of Storm Troopers.

Epic Battle for Galactic Domination

A record-setting struggle for control of the galaxy took place this week. Amazingly, it ran nine turns. With each swing of the Risk pendulum, another force took the forefront only to be subsequently swept away.

Initial good luck by the Rebels led to early destruction of the Death Star and discovery of the Emperor's lair. Unfortunately, the Empire struck back with a new Death Star immediately afterward. Several Rebel attacks on the Hoth stronghold were repelled before the Darth LaBan cleared out the Ison Corridor, making it nearly impossible for the Rebels to gain access to the Evil One.

Meanwhile, the Kumquat the Hutt, who earlier were willing to call it a draw after several failed attempts to take the winning resource planet from the Empire, eventually rebuilt their strength and swept to victory.

Empire Trumps Rebels and Hutts

Game 1

An early appearance of "Clumsy as he is stupid" turned a potential Hutt onslaught into a disaster. The loss of nearly ten Hutt legions while attempting his first invasion of the second turn effectively knocked Peetza da Hutt out of the game. The Hutts were never a serious threat thereafter.

Meanwhile, Darth Horak steadily built up and fortified the Wild Spaces, keeping the Rebels at bay for the duration of the struggle. He was aided by the fact that the Emperor didn't make his debut until the 6th turn.


Game 2

Seeking revenge, the Hutts quickly overran the Rebels in the Core Worlds and Outer Rim. Vicious attacks between Rebels and Storm Troopers in the Ison Corridor and El Rood Sector gave Peetza the edge he needed to roll over Major Ursa's lightly garrisoned planets.

Quick Retro-temporal Summary

Kent, aka Major Ursa, drew the much-dreaded "Clumsy as he is stupid" card on his first turn. I, aka Darth Horak, took nearly a dozen storm troopers and destroyed a weak Hutt garrison before falling victim to the dastardly effects of The Card. The Empire never recovered although it took six turns for the good major to finish off the game.

In a second struggle for galactic domination, the Empire quickly gained two hardened sectors and grievously injured the Rebels. But a miscalculation let the Hutt take out and string of weak Rebel planets and gain victory.

Meh!