The 8-8-1-1-1-1 Kingmaker

With Wood's justly famous Sloppy Joes, aka Sloppy Hutts, under our belts, we resumed hostilities.  As the dice would have it, Kent drew the Hutt forces, Ric took the evile Empire, and I was left with the egg-sucking Rebels.  The setup proceeded in an fairly normal way, although truth be told, the Hutts had a good piece of the Mid-Rim resource planets and the Empire looked to easily take the Wild Space.  I vaguely recall that the game went thusly:

My initial assault set the Empire back with minimal losses to the Rebellion.  The Hutts croodled forth cautiously, but gained a 6th resource planet.  The Empire did indeed take the Wild Space and fortified it with the Death Star at Omwat and a starbase at Excarga.

Turn 2 required stern measures and the Rebels, reinforced with a bomber, fought through the Hutts at Gamorr to neutralize the Wild Space by taking the starbase at Excarga.  The initial assault on Excarga was decisively repulsed with 8-8 dice rolls.  A desperate and out-numbered Rebel force with nothing to lose continue the attack and were surprised with consecutive 1-1 / 1-1 victories.  The Hutts continued their slow advance.  The Empire, hamstrung by losses of numerous systems, struggled to gain faction cards, but did push the force meter to the dark side.  That trend continued and that alone kept them on the board as long as they lasted.

Turn 3 saw the Rebels run amok after a faction card straight.  They captured the Ison Corridor and the El'Rood Sector.  The Hutts recaptured Gamorr and ran their number of systems up to 7 for a bonus card, a dangerous situation.  However, the Hutts had now been forced out of half the galaxy.  The Empire responded to these combined threats by attacking into the El'Rood Sector at Sluis Van, which failed, and at Byfassh, which also failed.  They then destroyed the Rebel fleet and garrison at Excarga with the Death Star.  (This was the kingmaker move--had they instead reduced the Hutts at Gamorr, things would've gone differently in the end.)

Armed with reinforcements from two sectors, the Rebels continued to deal death throughout the galaxy.  The Hutts used faction cards to good effect and gained strength.  The Empire appeared to be on the ropes.

Turn 5 saw the Rebels spread thinly between the Empire who were gaining strength and the Hutts who were dangerously strong.  The Hutts continued to advance,finally taking away the Rebel sector bonus by capturing Bfassh.  The Empire continued to be the kingmaker by attacking Rebels in the Outer Rim instead of taking Hutt resource planets.

In the end, despite capturing 3 starbases and driving the Empire down to 8 systems, the Rebels could not resist huge faction card-assisted assaults that overwhelmed all that opposed them.  Victory Hutts.