A Long Overdue Imperial Victory

Sith Lord Ric, Kent the Hutt, and General Karl took to their spacecraft and launched yet another battle for galactic supremacy, fueled by Rudy's BBQ. 

 Despite my best efforts to deal a quick killing blow to the Empire, the odds weren't always in my favor.  Here's the initial setup with an enormous concentration of Rebels on Coruscant.

This set up the opening sweep through Falleen and then the remaining Mid Rim systems garrisoned only with single legions each.  Casualties were so light that the force was able to capture Gamorr from the Hutts, an unexpected bonus.  Buoyed by that success, the Rebels continued into the Wild Space and finished off the singleton Storm Troops there.  

 Unfortunately, this allowed the Hutts to counterattack and capture the Wild Space sector, something that would not be neutralized until the end of the game.  The wiley Sith was not to be counted out and on Turn 3, the Death Star struck, destroying Duro and 5 legions of the Rebellion's best troops.  The Rebels never recovered; from that turn onwards, it was a battle between Hutt and Emperor.  

The next pivotal moment of the game was when Kent the Hutt cashed in a faction card straight (7 legions) and a reinforcements card (5 legions).  He led his overwhelming forces across the Mid Rim and held 9 systems after he crushed the weakened Rebels at Ord Mandell and Yavin 4.  Only 3 Rebel squadrons on Balmorra stood in the path of a Hutt victory.  But the thin yellow line held against all the odds, costing the Hutts terribly and denying them the win.  Sith Lord Ric countered with his own faction card straight and cleared out the last pockets of Rebel resistence.  Victory, Empire. 

A Tale of Two Losses

Sides:

• Horak the Hutt
• Sith Lord LaBan
• General Kent

Game the First

As the game's first turns unfolded, the Rebels made modest gains while the Hutts found no weaknesses to exploit.  As luck would have it, the e-vile Emperor came out on the first turn.  Ric placed him on Eriadu. 

Rebel faction cards quickly pushed the Force Meter one step away from the complete Light Side.  On turn 3 the Rebels invaded Sullust with the aim of taking the Eriadu starbase, just to nudge the Force Meter one more notch.  When Eriadu fell and the Empire was found, it was game over at a ridiculously early hour. 

Victory:  Rebels.

Game the Second

Since the first game collapsed so quickly and there will be no galactic warfare next week, we elected to try a second go at it.  Here's a little of the action taken with Google Glass.

This time the Rebels were thwarted by incessant rolls of 6s by the Sith Lord.  Despite this expense, most of the Outer Rim fell into their control.  With the Rebels significantly weakened, the Hutts took out the singleton garrisons on the way to Tatooine and garnered two faction cards.  The Empire gamely counter-attacked the Rebels and took an easy Hutt. 

On the second turn the Rebels attacked again at great cost to themselves.  The Hutts climbed to seven resource planets and garnered three more faction cards of the same type.  The Storm Troopers held their ground and even destroyed Arbra and it's large Rebel force.  By the third turn, the Hutt hand would look like this: 

Since Retreat and Mine Fields are particularly weak options, the Hutts instead built up a fleet of capital ships.  These in turn got them up to eight systems and a silly set of faction cards: 

In the end, the capital ship flush plus six additional legions from a well-played Sarlacc Pit card gave the Hutts the edge they needed.  A three-pronged assault, cleared the Mid Rim, captured Balmorra, and threatened victory in the El'Rood Sector.  Attacks from Bespin to Sullust were repulsed at Correlia, but the small garrison at Duro was able to break through for the win

Victory:  Hutts.