Star Wars: Risk

I have played Star Wars: Risk a number of times now with my Dad - it's a great two-player game, and not like Risk at all. It's based on the old "Star Wars: Queen's Gambit" board game, but the theme is the attack on Death Star 2 from ROTJ. The designers also designed the classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer Boardgame (another great game) and like that game this is also a very fun and fast (30 minute play time) game with a great theme.

Our first game was much like the movie. Shield Generator came down, Death Star took out a few capital ships, Luke turned Vader, but the snub fighters (Y-Wings) destroyed the Death Star in the end. Rebels win. Second game was different - Luke was killed by Vader, Falcon blew up, and the Executor engaged the Rebel fleet head on. Rebels were delayed taking out the Shield Generator with simply terrible die-rolling, but finally did it -- just as the last Rebel Capital ship was destroyed. Still a mass of X-Wings and B-Wings still had a chance to take out the Death Star, but were annihilated before they could initiate the final attack run. Close, but Imperials win.

In the plays since, the Rebels have often won, but many of the games have been close.  At the end, when the Rebels need a "6" to blow up the Death Star, there are a number of fun "stand-up and pay attention" dice rolls being made.  It appears that the Rebels are favored balance-wise, but a run of bad die-rolls for the Rebels can balance things out quickly. A few simple rule modifications can also help balance things out.
 
Components could be better (thin cardboard and cards). There is a "Black" edition that upgrades some of the components from cardboard to models.  Its about $25 and sold at the big-box stores and Amazon too.  I highly recommend it as a good, fast two-player game.