Saturday, January 17, 2026

A New Hope - January 26, 2026


Eravana Cargo Hold

Welcome to 2026!!!  After a restful holiday break, we're back at it!  And for the new year, we brought along four new characters - Jabba the Hutt, Dr. Evazan, Captain Rex, and Luminara Unduli!

Smile if you plan on releasing the rathtars!

As is often the case with the Eravana Cargo Hold board, things went...slowly.  There were a lot of attacks flying but not a lot of characters dying.  For every Homing Missile Rob/Luminara sent to the dark side, Jordyn/AG Pryde healed her team with The Old Wars.  

But the first opportunity for a flip happened when Rob closed a door that trapped Justin's Jabba the Hutt on the light side.  Rather than join a new alliance, he tried to go it alone against Riley/Yord and other light side friends.  Though he lasted several hours, Justin did end up in last with a recently restored Jar Jar trophy (thanks Caden!!!).

Meanwhile, Michael/Anakin and Ian/Luthen were holding the center four squares of the board.  Both of Ian's characters were banged up, though.  Seemingly out of nowhere the dark side decided to eat one of their own:  Jordyn/Allegiant General Pryde!  That was RUTHLESS considering Jordyn had healed her team twice, keeping them strong.  Poor Jordyn!!!  James' Darth Maul made the kill shot.

Ian and Michael hold center court...

Though the dark side was now down two characters, Alex's Orson Krennic had kinda joined them.  That was enough for Michael to make a bold decision - he Wrathed over to Eric's Chirrut & Baze!  David/Rex, Rob/Luminara, and Eric didn't appreciate that.  They took the next six actions to attack Michael, and Eric finished him off with a little Staccato Lightning!

Mark/Dr. Evazan were running around the board all night, in constant danger but also hard to finish off.  Rob/Luminara became obsessed with eliminating them, spending wayyyy too many cards to do so.  "Oatmeal Face," as Rob rudely began referring to the doctor, finally ran out of cards and Riley/Yord sent him back to Brooks in ninth.

Whose side will they take in Ian vs. Rob???

Rob was bothered all night that Michael and Ian had moved so quickly into the center squares, releasing the rathtars but safe from their damaging pathways.  The top two ranked Duelers in the league officially locked horns, and they threw everything they had at each other, all while trying to convince everyone else to help them.  They both got down to their last few health points, thanks in large part to Luthen's Exit Strategy exploding on Luminara.  The Andor spy won the day, sending the newly created Jedi Luminara and Rob to the showers in eighth.

Ian won the battle but lost the war.  David's 501st Clone Trooper Made His Own Decision by shooting Ian into seventh place.  David was bopping around everywhere, trying to find a new port in the storm.

Cold Storage!!!

That left us with six Duelers to go...and well past midnight.  Rough!  It looked like Alex/Krennic, Grant/Wampa, and James/Maul were going to stick together.  Riley made one final attack run on Maul, and surprisingly for the ill-fated Acolyte Jedi, she did some real damage.  But James looked like a killing machine, determined to spend all of his attacks before reshuffling his deck.  Two Athletic Surges later, Yord had his proverbial neck snapped in sixth.

Somehow Eric and his double-minor duo of Chirrut and Baze were still in the game.  Credit Eric for deftly moving a less-than-desirable deck into the top five.  But as his last character was nearly dead, he chose death by rathtar instead of a fellow Dueler, crawling in front of a closed gate until CJ gobbled him up in fifth.

The alliance that stuck together.

The last remaining new character in the game was David's Captain Rex.  David was doing well, especially considering this was only his third career Duel.  But no matter how many For The Republics he played, it wasn't enough to save Rex from Maul.  It was good night early morning for David.

We should take a moment of pause and admire Grant, who was playing the Wampa for the second time of the Wampa's three career games.  Though he was bummed to pick him, the experience was clearly paying off.  And it was his Viper Droid who shot Maul at third place.  James had a great night, though!

The last few beings left in the Eravana...

And then there were two!  It looked like Grant/Wampa had the health advantage over Alex/Krennic, but Krennic was able to start healing since both of his minors were destroyed.  Grant still had his Viper Droid.  It took nearly an hour of slow but intentional chess play, but turn by turn Alex made Krennic stronger while whittling down the Wampa.  Grant made one last charge with his snow beast, but Alex won the day (seriously, it was almost daytime...) with Hero of the Empire!!!

Congrats to Alex, who won his third career Duel and his first since September of 2024.  But this victory was even crazier for Orson Krennic.  Krennic now has five total victories...tying him with Luke Skywalker for twelfth all-time.  This is a big deal because the first few years of the league we only played with the original 12 characters.  Now one of the new decks has caught up to a veteran character!!!

Happy New Year!

Final order of finish:

12.  Justin/Jabba the Hutt
11.  Jordyn/Allegiant General Pryde
10.  Michael/Anakin Skywalker
9.  Mark/Dr. Evazan
8.  Rob/Luminara Unduli
7.  Ian/Luthen Rael
6.  Riley/Yord Fandar
5.  Eric/Chirrut & Baze
4.  David/Captain Rex
3.  James/Darth Maul
2.  Grant/Wampa
1.  Alex/Orson Krennic

Next month is the Valentine's Duel!  We'll be debuting the newest board in the league - the Death Star!  This thing is GORGOUS!  You won't want to miss it.  It looks like we'll throw down on Friday, February 6th for that one.  Stay tuned for the official invite.

Congrats again, Alex!  That's more hardware for the Teal trophy case!

PEW PEW!


Thursday, January 15, 2026

Preview: A New Hope - January 16,2026

 

We are back at it, folks!  I can't believe it's 2026...where does the time go?  This month it will go into the ravenous mouths of our rathtars!  That's right - we're playing the Eravana Cargo Hold board, made famous in Episode VII, when Rey and Finn met Han and Chewie for the first time.  This is the most complex game board we use, so it's quite a challenging way to start the new year!

The other big news, of course, is that we're debuting four new characters!!!  Jabba the Hutt, Captain Rex, Luminara Unduli, and Dr. Evazan will make their first-ever appearances, and each of them bring some new tricks up their sleeves we  haven't seen before.  If you want to check out their decks in advance, head to the "new character" tab above!  (Just a heads up - that page struggles to load on phones, you might need to use a PC/laptop to see them all...)

HISTORY OF A NEW HOPE DUEL:

2025 - Rob won with Darth Vader on Arvala-7
2024 - Ian won with Darth Maul in the Trash Compactor
2023 - Michael won with General Grievous in Ewok Village
2022 - Duncan won with Emperor Palpatine in the Geonosis Arena
2021 - Rob won with Lando Calrissian on Arvala-7
2020 - Curtis won with Darth Maul in the Emperor's Throne Room
2019 - Joel won with Darth Maul in the Geonosis Arena
2018 - Ethan won with Anakin Skywalker on the Kamino Platform
2017 - Nathan won with Mace Windu in the Carbon Freezing Chamber
2016 - JD won with Anakin Skywalker in the Geonosis Arena
2015 - Rob won with Mace Windu in the Emperor's Throne Room

MEET THE DUELERS:

Here are the lovely Duelers throwing down in the A New Hope Duel, and they were kind enough to share their new year's resolutions with us to boot!

Alex G. - Alex's resolution is to get back in the winner's circle!  2025 was a tougher year for him, but he's easily capable of taking home a trophy or two in 2026.

David M. - David's resolution is to turn professional in 2026.  A New Hope is just David's third career Duel.  He's committed to locking in and playing more!

Eric - Eric's promise for 2026...?  His first career win!  He's certainly come close on more than one occasion.  Will January mark win #1??

Grant - Grant's resolution is...playing more Han Solo! staying out of last place!  He still has zero career 12th place finishes, the most impressive streak in league history!

Ian - Ian's resolution is being a better father than Darth Vader!  His first child debuts this March, and don't be surprised if his son is overflowing with midichlorians.

James - James' resolution for 2026 is to keep collecting that hardware!  It's hard to argue he's not the best student Dueler in the league right now.

Jordyn - Jordyn's resolution for this year is to take over the Teal Mafia and add her first trophy to their showcase.  The punniest Dueler in league history is up to the task!

Justin - Justin's resolution is to make sure the HRC wins more trophies this year than any other residential college!  The competition will be fierce...

Mark - You may not realize it, but Mark is currently ranked 4th in the league!  His resume sure could use his first win, though, so that is definitely his resolution for 2026.

Michael - Michael barely qualified for the 2025 Championship, having only played twice last year, but he showed little rust when he finished fourth.  His resolution this year is to log more games!

Riley - Riley became the first woman and first minor to win a league Championship last month!!!  Her resolution is to make the jump to the college rankings this fall - welcome to BU, Riley!

Rob - Rob has just about seen and done it all in this league...except win the singles tournament!  His resolution is to win that this July, with a rumored 64 characters playing in it!!!

MEET THE CHARACTERS

You already know four of the new characters playing, but here's the whole crew trying to avoid rathtars on Friday night:














There you have it everyone!  We play Friday night in the Fine Arts Studio.  All are welcome to come and check it out.  We're starting at 8PM - see you then!  PEW PEW!!!