Saturday, June 22, 2013

Two-thirds of a Trifecta

After winning an unexpected Rebel victory, Darth Horak took the field as the Imperial Overlord with an eye towards an easy victory next week for a trifecta.  The Stormtroopers did passing fair by clipping the Hutt wings early on and aggressively targeting Rebel Ric's strongholds.  Dice and faction cards won the day (June 13 BTW) and put the trifecta within reach.

On the 20th Horak the Hutt took up the dice of power in an epic struggle of good against evil against spice trade.  Alas, my dastardly opponents conspired with a pre-game pact:  to assault the Hutts mercilessly and only take one system from the other each turn.  Amazingly, with all those Stormtroopers and Rebels arrayed against the Hutts, the Hutts still held on for three turns.  Unfortunately, with 20 Imperial systems on the board against 19 Rebel systems, they called for a draw, having defeated the Hutts--their sole ambition.  We have no idea how a one-on-one battle between the Rebels and the Empire would work out. 

Game:  Draw.

Friday, June 7, 2013

A Rare Rebel Victory

So, peace and prosperity reign throughout the galaxy as Rebel Leader Karl vanquishes the e-vile Empire and keeps the Hutts at bay.  It began in this wise....

Seven Rebel invasions against single Imperial garrisons ==> seven planets taken.  Toss in one easy Hutt on Eriadu and it made for a sweep with no casualties.  The Hutts took two planets, just for the cards, but suffered a huge setback when the "Clumsy as he is stupid" card destroyed his first invasion against the Rebels.  Then the Empire responded.  The dice conspired against Sith Lord Ric and he consistently lost win values like 3-4, 1-2, 2-3.  An astonishing number of 1's were rolled by the luckless Sith. 

With only 4 or 5 reinforcements coming in each turn, the Empire was hamstrung.  The Hutts struggled gamely on, but had difficulty getting into the bonus points for faction cards.  The Death Star at Sluis Van protected that avenue of growth and between the Empire and the Rebellion, the Hutts were denied Bespin, Duro, Sullust and other systems outside of the Mid and Outer Rim.

Gradually the easy starbases were picked off, pushing the force meter to the Light side.  That gave the Rebels still more faction cards and those turned into five (count 'em, 5) faction card straights for a total of 35 extra troops.  Eventually the Rebels controlled the Ison Corridor, but even after losing the El'Rood Sector to a Death Star attack, they continued to strengthen and slowly eliminated starbases one by one.  Ultimately they burned through their entire card deck with the "One in a Million" card being last.  Somewhere around turn 4 they were able to use a "All troops must flee" and an "Add 2 to all your dice" card, managing to destroy the Death Star and capture Duro. 

With despair his only friend, Kent the Hutt thought all was lost.  But a last turn draw of the cards gave him a straight, a chance for up to 6 additional reinforcements, and an easy path to victory.  Unfortunately, the Rebels had one last opportunity to attack the sole remaining starbase.  Overwhelmed by superior numbers and crippled by bad luck, the Emperor was captured.  Victory Rebels.
 

Ric Wins Again

Is it any surprise that after Darth Wood/Deputy Rebel Leader Kent/King Tut the Hutt swore undying vengeance (at least for the rest of the year), Sith Lord Horak/Rebel Leader Karl/Horak the Hutt would never win another game?  Of course the flip side of that is that Darth Ric/Rebel Leader LaBan/Peetza da Hutt would score hugely.

And so it has been that Ric has won again -- I don't remember the details through the haze of a blitz trip to Belgium and back.  [Insert details from Ric and Kent here someday.]  With that he has amassed three consecutive Hutt victories, if one doesn't count last week's anomalous end game.  This may be a first for any one of us, although I'm pretty sure there have been longer Hutt winning streaks.