The Come-back Kid Comes Back Again

General Horak started the game off with great concentrations, good positions, and excellent connectivity.  Then it got better--a tremendous run of good dice rolls pushed Darth LaBan to 15 systems.  Kent the Hutt finished the job by kicking Ric to the curb and knocking him down to 4 reinforcements. 

Despite all that initial goodness and a steadily growing fleet, Imperial stormtroopers kept multiplying, starbases were proliferating, and the force meter was darkening.  Faction cards poured in and soon Darth LaBan had the Ison Corridor. 

Meanwhile, the crafty Hutts, led by the uber-crafty Kent, were knocking off resource planets left and right.  A major assault on Mon Calamari en route to the Empire's stronghold at Kessel demolished a major Hutt concentration, but did little to slow them down.  When they hit 8, alarm bells went off in Rebel headquarters. 

I played the dreaded "Name an opponent.  Randomly remove any two of his faction cards" faction card.  Busted the winning straight. 

But Kent didn't respond by crippling the Empire.  The result was a hamstrung rebellion and, with faction cards for fleets and troops, the Darth LaBan conquered the galaxy. 

Imperial win!

Hutts, again...

Darth Ric and General Kent took up there respective forces with a wink and a nod towards "keeping the Hutts in check."  Initially things swung back and forth with about equal reinforcements and no sector bonuses.  The Hutts nibbled away at the Imperial and Rebel crumbs left behind.  Everyone seemed to be getting two faction cards per turn.

But when Gen. Kent attacked a resource planet in the Mid Rim, that was going too far.  "Money is Power" came out and the orders never came.  First, a Hutt capital ship made good on assaults in the Mid Rim to protect weak resource planets.  Then a bomber followed that led to the capture of Balmorra.

The e-vile emperor struck back, but could only get as far as Elom.  While that was a tragic waste of a resource planet, the garrison belonged to the Rebels.  Gen. Kent misjudged the Hutt threat when he went after stormtroopers in the 4th turn.  The Hutts held a faction card straight.  With 10 legions they struck out from Balmorra through Yevin 4 to Tatooine, thence to Duro, and still had a surplus.  Without defensive cards, both stormtroopers and Rebels were helpless to halt the overwhelming assault.

Victory Hutts.

Due to work-related travel, we will resume this regularly scheduled battle for galactic supremacy in three (count 'em, 3) weeks.