This was a hole in my combat record for a long time due to issues with the patch. Once I actually got to fly it, the patch is a bit boring... just a fancy interdictor. The battle itself is a challenge because you're in a TIE Fighter with no warheads or countermeasures. Compared to other XWA battles this is a refreshing change at first, but it gets a little frustrating. The scale of engagements would be great in a more powerful ship and fewer allies. I often would fly a mission, die as soon as I became the focus of multiple enemies, refly and hardly get a kill as my swarming allies jumped all over enemies at the spawn point. What I followed of the story was good enough, the missions had some variety and it made decent use of the platform.

Ouch... if not for those 2 impossible and 1 near-impossible missions I would give there a 4. This battle is very well built and it actually manages to provide you the feeling of being doing something which makes sense (couldn't say the same for many others) while you follow the orders of a deranged Admiral who thinks she can handle a whole civilization all alone for the glory and the whistles in her poor Picket Ship (I'm still wondering what was doing all and Admiral commanding that thing. IMHO a simple Rear or Vice Admiral Commodore would have fit much better in a 1-ship "taskforce").
Anyways, the plot is very well driven and only one question remains: why on earth those Draxxen dudes decided to attack EH all of a sudden while we were trying to help them to recover some stolen material? The final debriefing after the final mission couldn't be any other... ;P
So in the end here you have an excellent battle that would only need a couple of AI fixes here and there to make missions 2-4 more playable on Hard difficulty. Besides, it has an additional feature. No, wait, an additional *FEATURE* it is! You'll fly the unparalleled T/F in ALL missions! :D Gotta love it! GOTTA LOVE IT!!!