For sure!
The part of the game that is Redesigning Failure is different from each sides point of view:
The Imperial player is slowly being eaten away at over the course of the game. Every misplay and every lost territory corrodes their possibility space, and likewise, every time they take back territory they gain it back, giving them opportunities to rebound and collapse do to major chokepoints in their infrastructure being taken out. It’s similar to some games where they have you slowly lose the ability to lose your limbs over the course of play from taking damage, but this time from the point of view of a galactic empire instead of a mech suit or fantasy hero.
The Rebel player experiences a different form of failure because they can A) come back to life if they are ever fully wiped off the map, and B) they can utilize the same star system multiple times in a turn. So, if they are ever confined to a single system, or are cut in half after an amazing Imperial turn, they can bounce back instead of just being entirely crushed by the weight of the evil empire! Like getting caught in a stealth game, but then finding safety and recovering.
In both the Imperial player’s and Rebel player’s POVs there are multiple stages and kinds of failure (failing to be able to go through with a plan, failing a crucial attack, failing to predict the enemy player’s movements) some way worse than others, all but one being recoverable (the Imperial player losing their Capital). Which is what I believe the theme was all about.
And also, it only turned into Star Wars after I added the Death Stars- I MEAN “Annihilators” ;)
Before that, I was thinking of a book series called “The Lost Fleet”, highly recommend it. It’s like the TV show JAG, but in space, and mixed with the Lost Roman Legion.
Should have called the Empire Syndics then. Are the sequels with aliens any good? I've never gotten around to reading them.
Also it seems like the best usage of the Annihilator is to clump the rebels up, deny them systems and lock them into place, rather than fighting with the thing given the time cost of fixing it. Does that square with your experiences?
Also given the number of systems involved, and the activation limits, how much of the Sector will typically see play?
Man, I didn’t get around to reading them either, smh. I only got the original 5 books read to completion.
To be honest, I didn’t get to playtest it. My wife and I were busy all weekend. That was my assumption with the Annihilator, kind of like in Star Wars, the point of the Death Star wasn’t to destroy the rebel fleets, that was the Star Destroyers’ job, the Death Star just blows up planets and is a serious tank.
You've made Star Wars Rebellion out of an astonishingly large pile of dice. You gave me a huge grin reading that. :)