Well, I thing we're in the second day, here. Or close. It's hard to keep track for me. As far as players leaving, I don't know about your side but I think many are at a loss for what to be doing right now/ are hesitant to chime in. Not that we don't have everything in control over here, just, you know... 😐. Although I haven't seen Fire in a while in here, not sure if he's still in or not. I don't think it's as bad as it may seem because of the summer.)
I'm trying my best to keep things balanced, yes.
I do actually expect the game to speed up now the groundwork has been laid out, and and much of the end of the time will be taken up in the coming battle.
The other thing is, when you complete/fail objectives, you start getting direct information about how it affects the final tactical situation, and then you can see direct results from what you do. Which is meant to work well. Unfortunately, it is taking a long time to get even one situation resolved!
It is a shame, of course- we just had our first set-piece battle, but the Rebels declined to be involved, and I didn't have a Captain or a Squadron leader or even any Imperial player up in the task force (frankly, someone important should stay there or you let Vader run everything, and the only remaining candidate is the Commissar), and so it was fought entirely off-screen!
Ah well, these things happen. For the Rebels, at least, witnessing it was a good character moment.
Well, a lot got missed out on the freighters. No-one talked to the crews in the bar, so no-one got a good handle on what the Hutt involvement with Lanzar was, and what the drews thought of it all, and what they were going to do, all of which was to culminate in a blockade run.
The first time an entire sequence has beem dropped due to plkayer action since the never-happened Starport fight on Damagran, in Episode II of the first campaign.
It was really only there to get people familar with space combat. I am sure that can be made up.
It is a shame we seem to have lost the Impeiral naval players, though, as that shuts down a theatre of war, so to speak.