David might like this one as it focuses on the role of the item (in this case, a giant ship with capacity to wipe out a civilization) in a game where the mechanics of any 'formal' rules would be a fast death for the PCs and their allies.

[Spoiler Alert! Flee if you Must!]

The source is Book 3 - The Fall of Tinath from the Mongoose 2e Starter Set.

If you want to play the starter set series of adventures, probably stop reading.

In the setting, the folks on Tinath were about to be wiped out by some bad aliens. The massive ship they brought is mostly an orbital bombardment unit that deals with undefended planets (Tinath kinda fits the bill).

So, much like Yavin 4, there are a few rag-tag ships, and one group of PCs with their trader or whatever they have. There are some fighters and some small ships.

There are a number of scenes leading up to the final fight vs. the big bad ship for all the marbles (while Tinath tries to evacuate a small number of their people so their civilization is not destroyed, though likely it will suffer gargantuan losses).

The author of the adventure instead came up with some mechanics to handle small ship 'attack runs' on the big ship where fighters and bombers and whatnot would be attrited on each run. There were choices, places for player skill to affect a lot of the fight, and the notion the PC's die rolls also indicated the general success of the overall battle.

In doing so, they create a scenario where it is probable the players can buy enough time to get tens of thousands of people evacuated, and there is a faint chance they can stop the beast (and buy the planet enough to totally evacuate) though that isn't likely.

They found ways to let the players rally the pilots beforehand and in the fight, to give them some pointers, to have a PC lead the fighters, to have other PCs do attack runs in a loaned ship (then later with their own ship), and so on.

It is an excellent example (one of the best I've seen) at making a vastly disproportionate fight something which could be played out. And it is done with a 'game play' focus vs. any particular focus on the realities of that fight.

If you like that idea, check it out if you can find it.

TomB