Doubleheader #2 - August 27, 2016 (featuring Legos!)

The Emperor's Throne Room

We promised a big surprise for this year's Doubleheader...and we think it was pretty cool!  For months a group of us dreamed of playing a Duel with Star Wars Legos, and we finally pulled it off! Though Curtis and Rob provided a bit of help with the figures, Ryan undertook the herculean task of not only finding all 31 characters needed, but actually reconstructing one of the game boards!  For that reason, instead of randomly picking a board for game two, we chose one ahead of time to give Ryan a chance to build it.  AND HE DID AN AWESOME JOB.

There are a lot of little details Ryan accounted for in both the characters and the board itself.  My favorite part of the Throne Room were the steps leading to an actual throne!  At the start of the game the Emperor is actually sitting in it.  Ryan used a dry erase marker to recreate the squares necessary for movement, lines of attack, etc.  The characters had cool distinctions too, like Clone Troopers with different cape types to distinguish if they were a main character's first or second minor character.  Ryan even added some non-Duels characters as spectators on the sidelines!  At one point he even considered raising the board a couple of inches and cutting out the sections that represented the open chasm the bridges cross.  Maybe next time...?

Still smiling, but getting more tired...

With the second game of the Doubleheader starting at close to 10PM, folks weren't in the mood for messing around.  Nathan took it upon himself to get the party started.  Having the misfortune of drawing Boba Fett twice in the same night, he finally got to play a Thermal Detonator, chucking it towards Vader/Stevie and the Emperor/Grant and then Rocket Retreating behind Mace Windu/Donald on the other end of the board.  This made the dark side angry, which is a scary thing to do. Stevie Threw Debris and Wrathed Boba, Stephen/Jango Fired Up The Jet Pack, used his flamethrower on Boba, and then pulled off his own retreat back to the Dark Side.  Soon after Grant used Force Lightning to fry Nathan in last place.  It was a tough night for Nathan, who finished tenth and last, both with the worst ranked character in the game, but it still wasn't worse than poor Ian.  Still stinging from last place in the first game of the night, Ian valiantly tried to hold the light side together after Ryan/Luke and Obi/Joel defected for the dark side.  Joel twice used his Obi-Wan attack that moved everyone around the board up to three spaces and Ian's Anakin got surrounded.  Grant played his "You Will Die" card on Anakin too, just for good measure, and Zam put him out of his misery.  Not a good night for Ian, but he'll bounce back the next time - you can't keep a good Dueler down!

Legos who die in Duels have to sit in timeout.

Heidi was creating some havoc for the light side.  She marched her Chewbacca all the way down to a corner on the dark side and Bowcasted the Emperor, putting eight points of damage on Grant.  Chewie got trapped there, though, and could no longer defend Han, who got caught in the crossfire and ceased to exist after Jango shot him, earning 10th place for the night.

Grant, still bleeding out with two points of health left, couldn't find his healing Meditation card.  It cost him his life, because the dark side decided they didn't want the Emperor to proceed in the game.  Rob/Dooku Force Pushed Curtis/Maul to the back row to kill Grant.  Grant finished ninth, but still had a victory to bask in from game #1.

With four dead relatively quickly, the game came to a screeching halt.  The alliance of six were firmly against Yoda/Dalton and Mace/Donald, but it took a loooooooong time to whittle them down.  Ryan's Leia finally put a blaster shot on Yoda good for 8th, and Jango collected yet another trophy by ousting Mace in seventh.  Dalton has improved in all three of his Duels, and Donald had a respectable night with 5th and 7th place showings.

With that bit of business finally done there were six to go, and five of them agreed that Stevie's Darth Vader was in much too good of shape to stick around any longer.  A coordinated attack ended Stevie's night, with the finally volley of death delivered by a "Does Not Count As An Action" barrage from Curtis/Maul.  Stevie finished in the top half of both Duels - not too shabby!

Your final two.

The final five, seeing Curtis was low-carded, knew it was time for his exit.  As the attacks came Curtis was having NONE of it.  He staged one of the most passionate filibusters in league history, but in the end, couldn't talk his way out of fifth place.  It was a nice recovery for Curtis after his game one showing.

With four to go Rob/Dooku suggested going after Jango/Stephen, pointing out how dangerous it is to let Jango survive this late in a game, especially on a board he can run around out of reach.  Joel/Obi was too scared by Dooku, though, and went in on Rob.  Rob quickly changed his tune and he, along with Ryan/Luke and Stephen/Jango, coordinated their cards against Obi-Wan.  Joel came to rest in fourth place, another awesome finish on the night for the Dueling rookie!

Rob liked his chances against Jango more than Luke, so the original three person alliance eroded as Dooku tried to get the jump on young Skywalker.  But Dooku was too damaged and ran out of defense cards as Luke dropped a five-point attack to eliminate Rob in third.  At that point it was Luke and Leia vs. Nathan, who incredibly was in his second "final two" of the night!  With Leia still alive Ryan couldn't heal Luke or use his "Justice" cards.  Jango inched him closer to death but a late run of Leia attack cards started to even up the damage.  Just as he was getting within range of finishing second for the second time that night, he finally shot Luke and claimed his first ever victory!  It was an awesome feeling for Stephen, who had been kicking himself for letting the first game of the night get away from him.  A tip of the hat goes to Ryan too!  The primary Lego architect played a great game with Luke.  Luke has finished second in three of the last four Duels!

"Jango Fett vs. Obi-Wan Kenobi:
The Epic Duels box cover reinterpreted"
by Riley Engblom, age 8

The final order of finish:

12.  Boba/Nathan
11.  Anakin/Ian
10.  Han/Heidi
9.  Emperor/Grant
8.  Yoda/Dalton
7.  Mace/Donald
6.  Vader/Stevie
5.  Maul/Curtis
4.  Obi-Wan/Joel
3.  Dooku/Rob
2.  Luke/Ryan
1.  Jango/Stephen

Jango now has four career victories, and is just one behind Darth Vader for the lead.  The next Duel is the "Fall Brawl," we're looking at mid-September for that one.  Stay tuned and thanks to everyone who played and/or reads the blog!!!