At first I did a few test runs with some stock ships from the Babylon 5 Wars boxed set. I then decided that the only way that I would get going with this is to give it a try and see what I didn't know.
For my test I used 1 Victory II Star Destroyer against 1 Mon Cal MC80. The Empire had 8 flights of 3 tie fighters. The Rebels had 4 flights of 2 x-wings. I didn't have a Mon Cal fig, so I used a stand in to represent it.
The Alliance ships entered the board moving at a speed of 5.
The Empire also entered at a speed of 5.
During the first turn both fleets moved forward. The x-wings started to move away from the MC80, but not too far. 2 flights of ties started forward to intercept the x-wings. The two ships fired a couple of long range shots with two of their twin turbo lasers. Surprisingly all of the shots hit, weakening the shields on both ships.
During the second turns the ships closed in and opened up with all of their frontal guns and some of their forward facing side guns. Both ships lost most of their forward shield, but they held. The fighters all closed on each other and exchanged some long range fire. One of the x-wings was damaged.
The third turn was a devastating turn for the Imperials. Both ships had maneuvered to face the side shots. The Mon Cal had 9 twin turbolaser batteries to fire and 8 of them hit smashing through the shields of the Victory, and knocking out some of the Victory's guns, and almost all of its hull, and some even penetrated to the main body of the ship. The Mon Cal lost it's shields but had only minor damage. 2 flights of X-wings fired their torpedoes at the Victory, and finished off it's side. (The torpedoes are not that powerful, but with the shields out, and the hull severely damaged, it didn't take a lot.) Some of the x-wings and Ties squared off. Several x-wings were damaged but none were destroyed. The flight of ties on the right of the picture lost two ships to the x-wings.
The fourth turn brought the game to an end. Both ships turned to bring their other side into the fight. The Victory managed to knock out the Mon Cal's shields and do minor damage, but the devastating broadside of the Mon Cal tore through the shields of the Victory and destroyed the left side. Two flights of x-wings managed to circle around the Victory to fire their torpedoes at the side that had already been destroyed. With nothing to stop them, they penetrated into the heart of the ship, and did enough damage to break it apart. On the other side of the board, the ties circled around the Mon Cal to the side that had been damaged in the last turn and unleashed a barrage of fire on it, but their guns were so weak that they only inflicted minor damage. They did manage to knock out the single flight of x-wings which was defending the Mon Cal. In the center right of the map, the flight of x-wings finished off the flight of ties that it had been fighting. The ties which had been defending the Victory did some damage to the x-wings there but none were destroyed.
After the Victory was destroyed, the ties had no place to run to, so they surrendered. (they couldn't really hurt the Mon Cal because their guns were too weak)
Conclusion: The rules play pretty easily, but the weapons of the ships are tremendous. Individually they may not be overwhelming, but in a volley they can almost destroy a ship in a single turn! The downside is that you then have to wait a couple of turns to fire again. The shield regeneration was enough to handle one weapon (and to make sure that the ties couldn't do much damage), but that was it. I didn't use the Ion guns because I am still not quite sure about how they work. I also didn't use the critical hit system because I am just starting to learn the other items. Fighters hitting fighters was rather difficult. I may need to look into that system again.
