A solid game with some seriously good rolling.  Per our house rule, we randomly selected the mission from the entire set, and ended up with the Targeting Beacons mission.  The Empire opted for the 1st player role, giving the Rebellion to mission advantage.  Initial setup was fairly basic, with both sides lining up pretty much face to face.  Perhaps not the most original tactic, but certainly would insure a quick combat.
The battle started as expected, both sides drifting forward towards each other. Â The Empire unfortunately found it at a range penalty, giving the Rebels the opportunity to fire first as the range closed.
Fairly quickly, the battle evolved into two separate fights, with a Rebel advantage on one side, and the Empire with the advantage on the other side. Â However, by the 5th turn, those fights had ended, leaving the remaining fleets separated by long range. Â However, the Empire’s fighter escort solidly dominated the few X-Wings, and the TIE Bombers continued to harass the Rebel command ship. Â On the last turn, burning and smoking, the turn came down to a long shot from the bombers, who could just manage to kill the ship and win the game for the Empire. Â Unfortunately, the Rebel luck held out, and the concentrated anti-squadron fire destroyed the defenseless bombers.
In the end, the score was 204 Rebel to 140 Empire, giving a solid Rebel victory. Â The Rebel fleet was in withdrawal, while the Empire simply could not reposition in order to catch up and re-engage.
From the interest level from all the new players, I suspect I might have more than a few new converts to the Armada world – several were very eager to go and purchase their own sets and fleets.
