It looked bigger on the Desk...

++ INCOMING MESSAGE ++

Word has reached us of a high level of Pirate activity in the sector. This must be dealt with immediately. These Scum and Villainy are undoubtedly rebel sympathizers and must be crushed as soon as possible to spare their message spreading any further.

A newly arrived raider corvette will be sent out to find and destroy these by way of training. The crew (especially the gunners) are a little wet between the ears, and would benefit from some live action against these lowly pirates.

++ FOLLOW UP ++

The Raider has returned, the Pirates were more heavily armed than initially thought. They have dealt with the incursion - with just a single ship fleeing the scene - but I fear the pirate issue may be larger than predicted. I think further gunnery training is required... 

++END OF MESSAGE++

Well, the first game in what seems like ages, and after much catching up, only time for a short one (plus the lure of a shiny new X-Box to "Test"). In attendance were Mike, Ben and myself, with Adam a bit under the weather, and Simon watching Star Wars again ( or something ; ) )
 As implied above, the night was mainly a "tester" night for my new toy, the quite awesome looking Imperial Raider" which I was lucky enough to get for Christmas!
Now, with my penchant for small agile ships (Did I mention I love TIE fighters?) to jump to a massive ship without a single Lambda Class practice along the way was... a little trying.
That Said, with 150+ points on each side on the table, Mike seemed happy enough with 2 big S&V ships, plus a couple of small ships.
The main main gag  (!) of the night was around how the Imperial Raider, as lovely as it does look, definitely "looked bigger on the desk"!
With over 300 points of ship on the board, I was a bit concerned that a standard 3' by 3' would not be big enough... so we stretched it to 4' by 3'... and in the end managed to play in about 2' by 2'!!!
So what happened?

• I crept forward in the the raider, building up Energy reserves... 
• Mike Raced across the board, Boosting  for all he was worth to get up close to the Raider
• Mike peppered the Raider with attacks, stripping the fore of shields
• I replaced all the Shields :) 
• Mike stripped more shields... 
• I replaced shields
• I was throwing up to 14 attack dice with little lasting effect... 
• Mike stripped more shields
• I replaced Shields... 
• I failed to hit Mike ... 
• I flew into Mike's ships and destroyed them ...
• :)
• Slave -1 some how escaped... : (

So, more practice needed; confirmation that the raider is a really nice looking ship; next game - Ben vs Adam!!!!