Rebel Leader Han Horak Claims Victory

As the seventh turn began, there was only one hope for the Rebels and it was a forlorn one:  destroy the Death Star, overrun the starbase garrison on Sluis Van, and attack a second starbase on Excarga.  With Sluis Van destroyed, there was no chance of an indirect assault through that flank.  At least there was a half a chance that the Emperor was hiding under one of these two starbases in that sector.

But I get ahead of myself.  First there was a turn of Imperial conquest, with the storm troopers resisting the Rebel's initial attacks and then swarming over lightly held Rebel outposts.  The Hutts gradually expanded their influence.  The Death Star on Omwat stifled any efforts to control the Wild Space.

Then the Rebel forces had an uncommonly good run and set the Imperial battalions back.  The Hutts struck sharply at the Empire as well.  And in turn, the storm troopers continued to punish the Rebels. 

In the third turn the Rebels continued to focus on outlying single garrisons, using a bomber plus overwhelming concentrations of troops to cause large numbers of casualties.  The Hutts continued to gain strength and obtained a threatening number of systems.  The Empire responded by setting lose the Death Star, destroying Sullust and its garrison of four Hutt legions, a significant blow to the Green Hoard. 

On the fourth turn, the Rebels finally swept from Mimban to Byss, past the starbase on Bakura, and on to Bespin for control of the Ison Corridor.  The Hutts attacked out of Kessel and across the El'Rood Sector as far as Hoth, denying the Rebels that sector.  Then they went one further and captured Bespin.  The storm troopers replied by concentrating on the Mid Rim to good effect.  However, their assault pulled up short after their attack with three 6s was defeated by a single defensive roll of 6.  And only two systems later, Darth Kent rolled three 6s again only to be similarly stopped by a single defensive roll of 6.  (If you listen carefully, you can hear is cries of anguish.)

By the fifth turn, the Rebels were struggling to recover lost ground and assemble a fleet with a significant concentration of forces.  The Hutts used powerful faction cards to cripple Rebel defenses and destroyed their major concentration.  In the end they were in control of 8 resource planets, including both in the Core Worlds,  The Empire stuck back against the Hutts in the Mid Rim and then used the Death Star to take out Duro and a small Hutt garrison.  

Finally, on the sixth turn the Rebel tide was beginning to return, but only barely.  The Hutts who had been largely neutralized, were still not to be dismissed as they regained both strength and systems.  Many non-Hutt resource planets had only single garrisons.  The Emperor made his appearance (finally) and a slip of Darth Kent's tongue let loose the secret location (not that it mattered). 

With an assembled fleet and reinforced legions on Derilyn, the Rebels attacked Sullust, a starbase protected by the Death Star.   Fortunately, the Rebels had card bonuses, Force Meter bonuses, and a faction card that allowed two dice to be rerolled.  In the end they added up to 19 and the Death Star was crushed.  A hard fought battle on Sullust ended with a weakened Rebel force.  Those three legions faced a single garrison of the Empire's best at Eriadu.  When they failed to hold, the Rebels found that the Emperor was indeed their prisoner.  Victory Rebels. 

Damn Those Hutts, Damn Them to Hell

Pepperoni pizza and beer, definitely the high point of the evening.  After that it was just laser blasters, death star superlasers, and mayhem.  Darth Horak took on the dastardly Rebel Leader LaBan and Kent the Hutt. 

We knew we were in for something special when the Empire let the Hutts get six resource planets straight away.  He then dumped over a dozen legions onto Omwat while the Rebels loaded up their Wild Space garrisons and the Hutts put a sizeable force on Elom.  The resulting battle left the Rebels crippled and the Empire in full control of the Wild Space.  The Hutts made a hasty retreat with most of their forces intact.

Unbeknownst to the Rebels, the first starbase out concealed the Emperor and it protected the Wild Space from the Hutt's significant forces on Sluis Van.  Early on the Empire was able to destroy Gamorr and it's Rebel garrison with the Death Star.  Thereafter, the Rebel counter-attacks on the Empire continued to grow.

Meanwhile, the Hutts held on to Bespin, Sluis Van, Sullust, Kessel, Ord Mandell, and Tatooine.  Battles raged in the Core Worlds as the Hutts struggled to take Balmorra and move on to Duro.  In the Mid Rim the Rebels and Hutts fought a seesaw series of battles that left both sides dangerously weak, but the Hutts closing in on 7, then 8, and finally 9 resource systems.  But each time the Rebels pushed them back, occasioning a frustrated fist blow to the table that registered 7.6 on the Galactic Richter Scale.  (Today, three days later, I found four Hutt game pieces scattered around the game room.)

In turn four a huge force of Storm Troopers were assembled on Omwat, poised to overrun the Hutts on Sluis Van and Sullust.  As luck would have it, the "Money is Power" faction card in which "The orders never come" stopped the assault cold.  This gave the Hutts the breathing time to muster a force to attack across the Mid Rim.

When the Hutts started picking off Mid Rim planets in order to cement their victory, they had to veer around the asteroid field where Gamorr once orbited.  Even with five additional legions on Bothawui, the Storm Troopers could not stop the Hutts.  The surviving green hoard simply went around the blockade via Toydaria and Falleen to reach their tenth planet, Rodia.  Victory Hutts. 

Trifecta Averted, again

With Kent's recent victories as Empire and Hutt, Ric and I graciously permitted him to pick up the Rebel forces and try for a trifecta.  As Darth Karl, I loaded up on Elom in the Wild Spaces and blockaded them with a garrison on Gamorr.  Ric in his alter-ego of Peetza da Hutt snagged Bespin, Duro, Sullust, Sluis Van, and Ord Mantell. 

The Rebels quickly knocked off the lightly defended Hutt systems and a few of the Empire's outlying ones.  But with overwhelming forces on Elom, the first wave of Storm Troopers captured the Wild Space after a bloody battle with high casualties on both Rebel and Imperial sides.

The initial starbase went on Corellia as a distraction to pull the Rebels away from the Wild Spaces.  Amazingly, the lone garrison survived the first assault. 

The Wild Space was reinforced with starbases and the Death Star sacrificed the lone garrison on Gamorr to block that egress.  Later the Death Star was able to destroy the Hutts on Sluis Van, but a faction card allowed the Hutts to take away the final blowee-upee card (that's the technical term). 

The Rebels finally were able to use a faction card to invade through the asteroid field where Gamorr once orbited.  That denied the Empire the Wild Space bonus, but the Death Star was able to protect the Emperor in Elom.  Imperial forces also made serious sweeps of the Ison Corridor. 

While Rebel and Storm Trooper struggled in the Wild Space and the Ison Corridor, the Hutts patiently gathered their strength and their faction cards for their final push.  Victory came in the sixth turn, as Peetza da Hutt denied General Wood his trifecta.