Afraid it ended as a savage beating for poor House Hawkwood, who ended the game with 75 points to Hazat's 375, although it didn't look hopeless until the last two turns or so.
We opted to play Call To Arms with some added terrain, so the no-man's-land between setup zones was dominated by two large clumps of density 6 asteroids, with gaps in the center of the board and both edges. Hazat lost initiative on setup and deployed centrally with the two galliots as far forward as possible with the destroyer slightly back and between them, all facing straight toward the central gap in the asteroids. Hawkwood deployed centrally as well, as far back as possible (although the table was a little narrow, costing them about 3" of safe zone), but made the crucial mistake of facing toward the enemy rather than off at a nice steep angle, or even perpendicular to them, which cost them dearly.
First turn the Hazat won initiative and sprinted forward on All Power To Engines with their whole force. Hawkwood reluctantly moved forward, unable to avoid the 16" light blaster ranges and the threat zones of the galliots' boarding, although they did stay out of the worst of the destroyer's broadsides. The lighter ships turned to starboard, lining up to run past the asteroids on that side in later turns, while the destroyer succumbed to a mad impulse to cruise into the center of the table, lined up prow-to-prow at short range with its opposite number and a galliot off each broadside. Shooting saw the Hazat galliot on the Hawkwood right crippled, with minor damage to the other Hazat galliot. The Hawkwood destroyer took moderate damage, and a few hull were blasted off one of the frigates as well.
Second turn saw the Hazat destroyer cruise forward and grapple the Hawkwwod destroyer in exchange, starting a battle that would rage over the next three turns before the last of its ten elite marines polished off the enemy troops. The damaged Hawkwood frigate attempted a failed ram on the crippled galliot in an attempt to keep it away from the other Hawkwood ships, and was surprised when its target responded by grappling. The other Hazat galliot was left behind as the action moved away from it, a problem that would persist for most of the rest of the game. Shooting saw the crippled Hazat galliot destroyed before it could board, and moderate damage done to the Hazat destroyer, which then poured all its marines onto the Hawkwood destroyer.
For the next several turns the lighter Hawkwood ships raced around (and in one case through) the right hand asteroid cluster with the surviving Hazat galliot in pursuit about a foot behind, while the destroyers' boarding action slowly resolved in Hazat's favor. As the dust settled, the Hazat found themselves with two moderately battered destroyers each manned by two elite marines, casting off their grapples just as the Hawkwoods came around the asteroids and started firing into the central gap again. The destroyers split up (they were facing 180 degrees apart), with the prize ship running into the oncoming Hawkwoods' guns and the Hazat destroyer moving away and lining up broadside shots. The Hawkwoods made the mistake of splitting up, sending the galliot after the vulnerable Hazat destroyer and the frigates to reclaim (or simply destroy) their own. Hazat firepower crippled the menacing galliot, though, and the frigates failed to score serious damage on their targets as well as failing to position for a boarding run in the next turn.
The Hawkwood galliot then followed the Hazat's into oblivion, grappling the Hazat destroyer but drawing every shot it could fire at point blank range, resulting in a roll at +16 on the destroyed ship chart. The explosion failed to penetrate the Hazat shields, though, and the desultory exchange of fire between the captured destroyer and frigates accomplished very little, although one frigate was now lined up to board, and the Hazat galliot was finally coming back into range.
At this point the Hawkwood's only hope of managing even a draw was to reclaim their battered destroyer before their moderately damaged frigates were crippled by another turn of twin-destroyer fire. Unfortunately, they managed to botch their grapple roll, and were duly mauled by their own (former) ship while bouncing mostly ineffective fire off destroyer shields and hull. Both managed to limp off the table crippled in the next turn, ceding the field and the victory to the Hazat.
All in all, it was fairly tense game throughout, and could easily have gone the other way if either of Hawkwood's own boarding actions had succeeded. The small table size (a bit less than 4x4) was a problem for them, especially with two big central asteroid zones, but the error in facing choice during setup was the real killer. Moving 6" toward the enemy forced them into light blaster and turn two boarding threat range right away, where a perpendicular or angled setup would have allowed them to move without closing significantly, giving their guns an extra turn to shoot without effective reply. The destroyer's move to the center was also an error - the chance to fire both broadsides wasn't worth exposing the ship to a boarding threat from the much better manned Hazat destroyer, and hoping for an initiative win to get out of trouble (perhaps by ramming the enemy destroyer, even - trading d6x5 for d6x4 damage would have worked in the Hawkwood's favor) was foolhardy.
Hazat's only notable error was being slightly incautious with their captured destroyer, which gave the Hawkwood frigate a shot at a grapple that could easily have turned the game around - but fortunately, the dice denied that key boarding action as effectively as the Hazat destroyer's alpha strike ended the attempt (and existence) of the Hawkwood galliot.
