OK, so I'm guessing by now most people here have played the above Core Book scenario.

But has anyone played it using a GR-75 or CR-90 instead of the Senator's Shuttle?

I'm thinking this could be quite a lot of fun as a toned-down version of or introduction to Epic scale.

I'm thinking keeping the forces balanced and simple - maybe double the standard forces (so 2 x Red Squadron, 4 x Academy Pilots), then add a squad leader to the Rebels and two TIE Bombers to the Imperials. (only initial thoughts, of course).

Any thoughts on adapting the mission to include the Rebel Huge ships, without overcomplicating the scenario?

Oh hell i've done this quite a lot. Generally though the mcguffin dies in regular and in epic. SRS is a problem that needs clever work around.

I'd say you're on the right track for a gentle intro to huge ship play using the escort scenario. As Darius mentioned, Suicide Run Syndrome (SRS) is almost always a problem in escort missions so you may want to deal with that in some way.

If you're not familiar with the term, SRS basically describes a situation where an attacking player becomes exclusively focused on the destruction of one target, ignoring all other aspects of the game. In escort scenarios, the game hinges on the fate of one ship, so SRS is often a problem. SRS can be a problem for balance, but also enjoyability - if there is effectively no decision-making in the game, it becomes boring quickly.

The escort scenario's 'protect' action could be a decent workaround for SRS, giving an incentive to target escorts before the actual target.

You should also be careful of how much you scale up the points limit. It becomes increasingly difficult to keep something alive as more and more ships are in play.

If you're running the scenario as a gentle introduction, you could try out different combinations of ships and points to find something reasonably balanced. My guess would be a 150 point per side game with the rebel transport (with actions, and not counting toward the squad point total) would be more or less fair.

Ah, I was wondering what SRS was!

I was considering maybe doubling or tripling the standard forces for the Political Escort mission - say two Red Squadron pilots and an Ace/Squad Leader (say for example Garven Dreis) for the Rebels, and giving the Imperials four Academy TIEs and Two Scimitar Squadrons loaded with Proton Torpedos.

My worry is when you scale up the forces like that, it makes it a bit easy for the Imperials to simply focus down the Rebel escort, then once they're gone concentrate everything on the Huge ship (especially with the Imperial Reinforcements rule).

If I were you I would just run some quick play tests. A mission like this is fairly quick to run through, and a play test is the best way to check a scenario out. But it sounds like you're on the right track overall.

It's a matter of taste I know, but I prefer assigning point values (and possibly ace restrictions) rather than actually doling out exact ship parameters.

One thing I like to do is make each ship on either side really, really limited, so basically if you lose too many ships, it can be a Pyrrhic victory. Those ships would be needed in the next mission more than the macguffin.