CL Training Duel - August 11, 2015

Emperor's Throne Room

It's hard to believe, but with the student staff back on campus and the new academic year about to start, the 2015-16 Epic Duels 12-Way season is off and running!

The first fight, as always, is the CL Training Duel, which takes place during the CL retreat at Glen Lake Camp in Glen Rose, TX.  There was an early buzz that more than 12 folks were interested in playing.  That turned out to be quite the understatement!  Not only did we quickly fill all 12 seats for the main event, but ten additional folks played on the spare game Chris brought.  That made for 22 duelers playing at one time!!!  Here's to hoping this bounty of interest will continue once classes start!

Six first time duelers joined six veterans for the match, giving it a nice mix of rookies and pros.  The newbies weren't afraid to make their presence known, as Max used his Luke Skywalker to get into early scrapes with multiple folks, including JD's Mace.  That ultimately didn't bode well for Max as he was out first. 

The roughest death of the night might have been Josh in eleventh.  Though he was new to 12-way duels, he had played smaller games before.  He was confident that his Darth Vader was in a good alliance with his surrounding dark side, but he was soon betrayed by Christian/Emperor and Steve/Maul.  As Josh himself said, "I'm feeling salty!"  The game had reached over an hour in length by the point JD was ousted in tenth.  He was feeling good with Mace, but Christian dropped the brutal "You Will Die" card on him, and he was done for.

That death set off a chain reaction of sorts.  The light side was feeling vulnerable and agitated by the strong dark side alliance.  Chris overextended himself with Anakin and got Wookie-tossed by Stevie to finish his night.  (Big thanks to Chris for helping the new folks playing at the other table at the same time as the 12-way duel).  Nathan/Boba was in tight on the dark side, but had taken some damage, especially after an early thermal detonator he threw had disgruntled some folks.  David P's Dooku, who had been trying to stay neutral, fell in line with the remaining Jedi and finished off Boba.  Stevie's attempts at an isolationist approach with Han did him in too.  Sakina/Yoda couldn't trust him and unexpectedly killed him off.

That brought us to the halfway point.  The Emperor/Maul alliance was still rock strong, including their third member, Ian/Jango.  Sakina and I (Rob/Obi) were solid, and David P. was more or less on our side too.  David and I were able to charge in and start doing some damage on the dark side alliance, who were a bit weak carded at that point.  Once my final decent defense card was used, I dropped Obi-Wan's "Force Balance" card, and forced everyone to discard and draw three.  That brought me some good offense which was used on Christian's Emperor.  David P. couldn't make it, though, and was gone in sixth before Christian exited in fifth. 

With four to go, it was still Sakina and I against Ian and Steve/Maul.  I used my "Force Quickness" and the attack card that lets me move folks up to three spaces to create the cool pic to the right.  Ian was almost successful in running away, bloodied and bruised, but both Sakina and I rolled "5's" to trap him and put him down.  That was bad luck for Ian, though his top four finish keeps his string of strong finishes alive. 

Steve was hurting with his Darth Maul, and it didn't look good as he had to go against Obi-Wan and Yoda.  He made a valiant effort, but couldn't repel either character.  His fate was sealed when he played an "Athletic Surge" on Sakina's Yoda but Sakina countered with the "Force Rebound."  Still though, what a great rookie duel for Steve!

With two left, Sakina and I wished each other well and started dueling!  Sakina force lifted Obi-Wan and also played "Insight."  She discarded my 12 defense but left me my three 6-attack cards.  I used two of those on Sakina and discovered she didn't have any defense left, but I didn't have enough to finish her off either.  Sensing she still had a trick or two up her sleeve, I retreated.  It was a good thing, too, because she still had another force lift and two force pushes! 

Sakina pursued me a bit too aggressively, allowing me to strike her first and doing enough damage to secure victory for a fifth time in our league's 13 match history.  Sakina's second place finish was excellent and a nice bounce back with her favorite character who was gutted in the 2014 Championship match.  Obi-Wan wins his second career duel too, with the first being last Spring under the control of Curtis.  The final order of finish:

12.  Max - Luke Skywalker
11.  Josh - Darth Vader
10.  JD - Mace Windu
9.  Chris - Anakin Skywalker
8.  Nathan - Boba Fett
7.  Stevie - Han Solo
6.  David P. - Count Dooku
5.  Christian - Emperor Palpatine
4.  Ian - Jango Fett
3.  Steve - Darth Maul
2.  Sakina - Yoda
1.  Rob - Obi-Wan Kenobi

And by the way...welcome to the new blog!  Bookmark it now for all your 12-Way Duel needs and information.  The Player and Character ranking tabs are up to date too!

Tentative date for the next match is August 29 - it will be a double header!  That's right, we're playing twice in one night.  More details to come...