Hutts Under the Death Mark for the Rest of the Year

In a very different sort of game, the battle for Galactic Domination took a number of unexpected twists and turns.  Sith Wood, Rebel Leader LaBan, and Horak the Hutt replayed last week's arrangement of sides. 

Straight away the Rebels ran into trouble when their large initial concentration met with fierce Imperial resistance.  Casualties piled up and the offensive fell far short of its objective.  The Hutts did modestly well, moving up to 7 resource planets and gaining 3 faction cards.  But with the Death Star securely on Sluis Van, the Hutts in Elom had no egress to the Ison Corridor, Bespin, or the systems of the Core Worlds.  The Empire struck back and hammered both Hutt and Rebel forces.  Already it began to look like an Imperial victory. 

In subsequent turns the Hutts carefully cashed in faction cards to build up a fleet of 3 capitol ships and a bomber.  The Rebels could only field fighters and the Empire chose to use cards for troops and other nefarious purposes.  The first major Sith offensive burst into the Wild Space and took the sector.  With Sluis Van protected by a starbase, the Death Star moved to Excarga to completely lock in the sector. 

After two turns of Imperial assaults always assisted by the two reinforcements from the Wild Space sector bonus, the Rebels were seriously weakened.  The Hutts desperately threw everything onto Derilyn and struck out to Sluis Van and then Omwat, to deny the Storm Troopers the sector bonus.  Bolstered by easy victories, they pushed on to Arbra, then Elom.  Realizing that the Death Star was vulnerable to the huge Hutt fleet, the green hoard attacked Excarga.  Amazingly, the Hutts destroyed the Death Star with a 19 (5, 5, 8, +1) using only ship bonuses, a first for any Hutt, and captured the starbase. Sith Wood has vowed undying emnity for the remainder of the Earth standard calendar year. 

The Empire was still a significant threat and the Rebels unable to provide much assistance.  Control of resource planets, especially the Mid Rim, swung back and forth.  Rebels were reduced to nine systems and poised for extinction.  Amazingly, the Rebels managed to capture the Ison Corridor but were defeated on the steps of Tatooine.  Eventually they scraped together enough troops to make a run at the three starbases in the Mid Rim, but only captured one.  Little did they know that the Emperor had taken refuge on Toydaria. 

In the end the Hutts used a faction card worth 5 reinforcements, the 2 from the Wild Space, 5 legions for 16 controlled systems, and a straight for 7 troops to make a run for victory.  Hutt forces on Gamorr captured systems all the way to Kessel.  Forces on Sluis Van battled through Sullust and on to Duro for the tenth system and a surprising Hutt victory.