The Draw of the Three

(with apologies to Stephen King)

Ric da Hutt, General Horak, and Sith Lord Wood took to their space pods after polishing off an entire CostCo pepperoni pizza.  Most of the action concentrated in the Mid and Outer Rim due to the Death Star occupying Elom in the initial placement. 

The Rebels did a passing fair job of hunting down and destroying lone legions on Imperial systems.  That cut their reinforcement rate down, although they made valient and sometimes very effective counterattacks.  That included denying the Rebels control of the Mid Rim.  The Hutts chugged along, biding their time. 

When the Death Star finally struck forth, it took out Sullust and a large Hutt garrison.  Then the Empire captured the Wild Space.  A large Rebel force attempted to reinvade the sector, but they were beaten off.  However, stormtroopers elsewhere were being decimated.  The Force Meter swayed back and forth before becoming lodged in the light side. 

Meanwhile, the Hutts slowly regained their strength.  After the stormtroopers captured Gamorr from the Rebels, the Hutts invaded the Mid Rim, but were stymied by a well-played faction card.  The Empire fortified their newly captured resource planets, constructed starbases in the safety of the Wild Space, and used the Death Star to block egress.  They were otherwise helpless to resist the Hutt onslaught. 

The Rebels attacked across the asteroids left from the destruction of Sullust and set up a force on Eriadu, set to invade the Wild Space.  The Hutts swept past the fortified starbases and conquered systems as far as Rodia, which fell to their Gamorran battle axes and laser blasters.

Thinking the game over, we congratulated Ric.  But in that final moment of "trust but verify," we counted systems.  Alas, the Hutts held only nine.  Gamorr was protected by the Death Star, Nar Shaddar was garrisoned by a starbase with five legions, Elom was safe deep in the Wild Space, and Sullust was gone.  There was little hope that the Hutts could take 10 resource planets until they could reduce Nar Shaddar or destroy the Death Star.  The Empire was effectively barracaded in the Wild Space and the Rebels would need many more turns (and faction cards) before they could defeat that hardened target. 

The exhausted players sued for peace and called it a draw.