Birthday Surprise #2 - April 22, 2017

"Don't worry, Boba.  I got this."

Carbon Freezing Chamber

Despite going MUCH longer than it should have, the first Duel finished around 10PM and once again we gathered around Rob's kitchen table, not to break bread, but to break bones.  We had a change of personnel as the night shift joined those still conscious enough to play round two.  Either folks were getting loopy from being too tired or somebody spiked the Yoda Soda.

So...tired...

Kaleb got chair number one, while Rob was seated in #12, meaning he would get the last character left.  Curtis thought it would be fun for everyone to open their characters all at once.  And he was right, it was fun!  Until Rob realized he was playing with Emperor Palpatine for the FOURTH GAME IN A ROW, having already won with him that night and now stuck towards the front of jealous Sith Lords hungry for their own glory!

As it turns out, though it was thoroughly considered by JD/Dooku and Ryan/Maul, they let the wrinkled old man live.  I'm going to fast forward this recap by two hours...because everyone was still alive and somehow very little had happened.  Until Kaleb/Boba Fett betrayed his alliance, that is!  After Grant, who was wounded early, used a Force Control, the main Sith baddies were stuck in the back two rows.  On Kaleb's turn, he stepped forward two spaces, turned around, and chucked the THERMAL DETONATOR!  He then Rocket Retreated off Curtis/Darth Vader's face and chaos ensued.

WHIRLWIND!!!

Leia was dead at that point so Chris/Luke Skywalker requested Liz/Yoda Force Push him into the wounded pile of dark side characters.  While he originally intended to drop a Justice on Curtis the birthday boy, guaranteeing a last place finish, his guilt overwhelmed him and he turned it on Emperor/Rob, who somehow died first despite playing two hours before expiring.  This is the second time Rob has been first and last with the same character, but the first time to do it on the same day!

While Chris was merciful, Ryan was merciless!  Turning on his own alliance, he dropped an Athletic Surge on poor Curtis -  he was pretty grumpy to finish in eleventh place at his own special double header.  Ryan just giggled as he dropped a load of attacks on Grant's Obi-Wan.

Luke (the Dueler, not the character)/Mace decided to further rock the boat by Whirlwinding his own alliance, which was all kinds of awesome, and then Wisdoming down to the other end of the board.  But when he arrived, he eventually took down JD's Count Dooku!  He also got the drop on Joel's Han Solo, who spent the whole night looking for a Bowcaster buried at the bottom of his deck.

Grant, how many cards do you have?

With eight Duelers left, something bizarre began to happen.  A lightly regarded minor character, perhaps the most teased character in our game, decided to flip his switch to boss mode and take this game over.  I'm not talking about a Storm Trooper or any of the Clones,  Heck, I'm not even talking about droids.

I'M TALKING ABOUT GREEDO!  AND IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW DANGEROUS GREEDO IS YOU BETTER ASK SOMEBODY!!!

With Luke's Mace running wild and slicing everyone in sight, Greedo capped off a laser and sent Master Windu home in eighth.  Ryan/Darth Maul, who was somehow still alive and scaring people with his defensive rebound card, finally caught the wrong end of a light saber, this time provided by Nathan's Anakin Skywalker, who was flying so far below the radar he was tunneling underground to get places.

That left six Duelers:  Liz/Yoda, Kaleb/Boba Greedo, Grant/Obi-Wan, Nathan/Ani, Chris/Luke, and Ian/Jango.  Grant's Obi-Wan was bleeding pretty badly the entire game, but as the final six were tentative with how to proceed, he took the target off himself and placed it on an unsuspecting Liz/Yoda.  Despite her protests and warnings about Obi-Wan being the bigger threat, they went after her instead.  Luke Skywalker got the final hit on her, but not before Liz played a Force Lift and a Force Rebound on him.  Liz finished the night twice as good as she started it.

Now at five Duelers remaining, the group was once again passive about who to attack, so maestro Grant conducted his hit squad orchestra, this time on Nathan's Anakin.  Nathan begged the group to get Obi-Wan first, but Kaleb's big green bad boy, GREEDO, zapped him for the kill.

Chris, right as he realizes he's getting done dirty.

So...that left four!  And yet again...Grant kept the attention off himself!  This time it was Kaleb, nervous about Chris/Luke's I Will Not Fight You Cards, suggesting the young Skywalker should go next.  Ian/Jango, who survived the dark side collapse, obliged by shooting Luke and handing Chris fourth place.  That was a nice rebound after the first match.

Ian presented the logical argument to Kaleb that the Fetts should combine their powers to take care of the wounded but healing Obi-Wan Kenobi.  BUT GREEDO DOESN'T RECOGNIZE LOGIC!  Not when he's firing cold lasers at warm bodies!  Jango managed some damage on Obi but it was our boy GREEDO who sent Boba's ol' man down in third place!

This looked like a colossal blunder on Kaleb's part, because despite saving all of his best Boba attacks for this final two showdown, Grant played Obi's Force Balance, forcing both Duelers to discard their entire hands and draw three new cards!  Goodbye, Kyber Dart,  Goodbye, Desperate Shot.  Hello Obi-Wan's penchant for stalking bounty hunters!

But if you haven't realized it by now...GREEDO WILL NOT BE DENIED!  I had the privilege of seeing the three cards Kaleb drew: Greedo 4/1 attack, Greedo 3/1 attack, Boba 3/1 attack.  It was the moment of truth for Kaleb - go for the deathblow now and risk exposing Boba, or retreat and hope for Thermals, etc.  That's when the spirit of GREEDO descended upon Kaleb and said, "Kaleb, I've gotten you this far.  Let me take it home."  Kaleb agreed, GREEDO attacked twice, and Obi-Wan died.

GREEDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats to Kaleb, who won his second duel in just his fourth match, that's unprecedented in our league!!!  And congrats (technically) to Boba Fett!  He won his third match but his first since the December 2014 Championship!

Final order of finish:

12.  Rob/Emperor
11.  Curtis/Vader - I mean, that was so ruthless Ryan!
10.  JD/Dooku
9.  Joel/Han Solo
8.  Luke/Mace Windu
7.  Ryan/Darth Maul
6.  Liz/Yoda
5.  Nathan/Anakin
4.  Chris/Luke Skywalker
3.  Ian/Jango
2.  Grant/Obi-Wan
1.  Kaleb/Boba

Stay tuned for the invite to our LAST Duel of the season.  That's right - May the 4th Be With You.  That will be on May 4th (duh) at 1PM - that's a Thursday afternoon, FYI.  Block it off now, invites go out next week.

Thanks to everyone who came together to honor our good friend Curtis!!!

Birthday Surprise #1 - April 22, 2017

Emperor's Throne Room

He took the bait!

In honor of Curtis' 40th birthday, our fair league of Epic Duelers staged a surprise DOUBLEHEADER for the birthday boy.  And it worked!  With the help of his wife Monica, she dropped him off at Rob's house under the guise they needed a coupon for the new restaurant in town.  As he walked into the kitchen he was met with a host of Duelers eager to destroy him welcome him to his Duel!  He was completely surprised!  Monica even tricked him into wearing a Star Wars t-shirt.  The pizza was bountiful, the Yoda Soda flowed, and the combatants took their seats.

It doesn't get much dorkier.

Jonathan drew the number one chair and picked the Emperor's Throne Room for the field of battle.  He also grabbed Yoda with the first character pick, breaking his streak of handicap points.  Rob got the Emperor for the THIRD game in a row and Grant got Jango for the second straight time.

The view from the Emperor's Throne.

The game was underway and it started as a traditional light vs. dark affair.  Rob's Emperor began raining down Force Lightnings and Let Go of Your Hatreds on JD's Obi-Wan Kenobi, and even dumped his hand with the You Will Die card for good measure.  But JD eventually broke the status quo with his Force Control.  After the massive board rearrangement Liz's Count Dooku got caught deep on the light side.  Despite crafty use of her Force Push, Austin's Han Solo shot her to her death in last place.  Jacob, playing in his first ever Duel, died next when Grant's Zam Wessel shot him on the bridge above the Death Star's core reactor.  Right after that Ian's Darth Maul went ballistic on Han and he got stuck in tenth place.

Just as it looked like the dark side was going to mop the floor with the remaining light side characters Ian pulled a surprise out of his dirty bag of tricks and attacked his own alliance!  Poor Chris/Boba Fett got caught in the treachery, bowing out in ninth place in his first Duel since the 2016 Championship.

Things slowed to a grind after that, as some Duelers *cough the light side cough* took their sweet merciful time in deciding a course of action.  After the merciless heckling from the remaining dark side they finally sprung into action.  Curtis/Anakin Wrathed in to jack up Jango/Grant and others, but it would be two uncharacteristic Emperor attacks that finished Curtis in eighth.  He might have lost a step now that he's in his fourth decade.

Luke's Darth Vader (the Dueler Luke, not the character Luke) was getting aggressive with his Storm Troopers and started whittling down Yoda/Jonathan's health points after going through most of the game unscathed.  But it would be Sakina's Mace Windu, sensing she was on the bottom of her alliance, who put down the Jedi Master with a Whirlwind Attack that flipped the script on the rest of the game!

No caption necessary.

With six to go it was Luke/Vader, Rob/Emperor, Grant/Jango, Ian/Maul, JD/Obi-Wan, and Sakina/Mace.  I know there was a lot of jostling between the Duelers at this point, but  playing two games in a row and staying up to 2AM has made my memory a bit fuzzy on the exact details.  Obi-Wan and Maul zeroed in on Luke's Darth Vader, trusting Sakina/Mace to take down Rob's Emperor.  Ian was in the driver's seat, as his Darth Maul was full bar health and stacked with cards.  He made short work of Vader in sixth place and then stabbed Jango in fifth.

But just as it looked like Rob's Emperor would go down in fourth, Sakina made a quick signal that the tables could be turned.  Jumping on that crack of hope, Emperor played his Let Go of Your Hatreds on Maul and then used Meditation, leaving Ian unable to card up for an entire round...and then Rob used Meditation AGAIN, even though he was full health!  Sakina took the lead and used her attacks on Ian to put him out in fourth place.  JD, who was still somehow alive and kicking despite getting so jacked up by the Emperor at the start of the game, fought for his life and offered his two attack cards as a sign of trust to make it to the final two.  Rob politely declined, revealing is allegiance to Sakina/Mace.  They trapped him in the corner of the board and Mace added another trophy to the shelf when Obi-Wan died in third place.

That left a final two of Sakina and Rob, which isn't the first time that has happened!  Just as Sakina was powering up to unleash a wave of Battleminds, Rob redrew his You Will Die card, dumping Sakina's hand and paving the way for Rob to eventually secure the win!  It was the first time (I think) the Emperor has ever won on his home board, and just his second ever victory.

Final order of finish:

12.  Liz/Dooku
11.  Jacob/Luke Skywalker
10.  Austin/Han Solo
9.  Chris/Boba Fett
8.  Curtis/Anakin
7.  Jonathan/Yoda
6.  Luke/Darth Vader
5.  Grant/Jango
4.  Ian/Darth Maul
3.  JD/Obi-Wan
2.  Sakina/Mace Windu
1.  Rob/Emperor Palpatine

...and we're only half way done!  Read the next post for game two results!

Duel of the Fates - April 8, 2017

Geonosis Arena

A nice combination of veterans and newer Duelers gathered Saturday evening for the third annual Duel of the Fates, a lighthearted romp of friendship and strategy, where players conducted themselves with honor and civility.

Two minor characters were dead before
Rob remembered to take the opening picture.

Psych!  IT WAS A BLOODBATH!!!

Jonathan, playing for the ill Ian, drew the number one chair.  His friends crossed their fingers in hopes he would pick Han Solo for the third game in a row.  He didn't!  But he did pick Boba Fett, meaning for the seventh time in his eleven Duels (64%), he chose a bottom three character!  Worst luck ever!!!  He also picked Geonosis for the board.

Things started quickly as Joel/Luke took out Rob/Emperor's Royal Guard for the first character death of the game.  The other Royal Guard retaliated against Nathan/Mace's Clone Trooper as the Light and Dark sides appeared to hold solid, six versus six.  But Joel decided to flip when his Leia attacked JD's Chewbacca, sending the board into chaos.  JD responded by...flipping too???  That's right - he used his Bowcaster on a completely stunned Austin/Anakin and commenced a Heroic Retreat.  Just a few turns later Kaleb/Vader Wrathed Ani to his gut-wrenching twelfth place finish.  Brutal!

Darth Maul, going down in a blaze of glory.

It appeared the Dark Side was going to mop the floor with the remaining Light characters when Jonathan/Boba decided to pop a Thermal Detonator on the front row of the Dark Side, mainly hitting Liz/Dooku and Samuel/Maul.  They were stunned, as was most of the alliance.  Nathan/Mace, already taking damage from the Emperor's Force Lightning, saw an opportunity to drop a combo Whirlwind/Wisdom for an additional four points of damage on the two.  It was an insane turn of events for Liz and Samuel.  Darth Maul began clawing for a higher finish, so he gutted Liz with an Athletic Surge and used the movement to drop Sith Speeds on Mace.  Poor Liz didn't survive and finished eleventh, a new career low.

Daniel/Obi-Wan, who many on the Dark Side assumed was loyal to the Light, had actually been trying to flip the entire game, so he too took a shot on Mace/Nathan, as Nathan threw his hands in the air wondering how this Duel had gotten so crazy.  Jonathan's Greedo eventually used his Desperate Shot and survived, sending Nathan home in tenth, which is also the third straight tenth place finish for Mace Windu.  He's fallen from the number two ranked character to number four in that span.

I wish JD realizing he was about to die
didn't make for such great pics, but they
really do!

At this point Samuel/Maul was running on fumes.  He helped ensure two characters died before he did, but a shot from Stephen/Yoda's Clone Trooper did him in at ninth place.  It was a stunning realization for the poor young Dueler, who had only ever finished in third place before.  There's no guarantee of success in a 12-Way Duel!

There were eight Duelers left at this point, the remaining Dark Side group on one end of the board and Daniel's Obi-Wan on the other.  Folks were trying to figure out who should die next, and JD decided to play with the spirit of his character by shooting first.  In this case, he had his Han Solo start gunning at Jonathan's Boba Fett.  JD hoped to turn everyone else against him too, but his lobbying backfired when all he heard was crickets in return.  Joel ended his day in eighth place, but not before JD was gracious enough to pose for a not-quite-but-almost homicidal grin in the picture to the right.

That brought it to seven Duelers, and at that point the game was flying by.  But that speed came to a grinding halt thanks to Daniel's Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Despite his calls for new alliances and willingness to help beat up others, his six foes on the board united to take him down.  So Daniel did the only thing he could do - he played Force Balance, making everyone discard their premium hands to start over with three.  That easily added another 45 minutes to the game, especially because he was hiding behind the Geonosis columns, making it hard to deliver long distance attacks.  Kaleb/Darth Vader finally Wrathed him off the board in seventh place.

With six to go Jonathan/Boba tried to flip the board against Rob/Emperor, who had been loyal to Jonathan the entire game because he felt so guilty about their interactions at the Imperial March.  Rob outmaneuvered him and got the folks scared about Boba's unused Kyber Dart.  Boba was soon dead, with the final blow coming once again from Kaleb/Vader.

Father vs. Son, beard vs. beard,
HRC vs. HRC

 Rob thought he could get Jango/Grant, Stephen/Yoda, and Luke/Joel to focus their attention on Kaleb/Vader, who was full bar health with Darth Vader AND both of his Storm Troopers, Luke and Jango decided the Emperor was the bigger threat and focused their attacks on him instead.  Leia shot him to a fifth place finish, one spot higher from Rob than he got with the Emperor last month.  #consistency

That left four, including Stephen's Yoda, who flew so far under the radar during the whole game most folks thought he had disappeared.  But his three opponents decided to coordinate their attacks on the little green Jedi, and despite a valiant effort, Stephen logged out in fourth place.  Jango was next to go after that, as neither Joel nor Kaleb wanted a shooter moving around the board...and that's when it was revealed that those two had been in an alliance for most of the game!  Vader tallied his fifth major character kill of the game and Grant went out in third...bringing his Dueling average back to an even 5.0.

So the final two was a fantastic pairing - Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker!  Joel was a bit more injured while Vader was rolling strong.  But Luke started to whittle down Vader's health as both exchanged blows like I Will Not Fight You and Your Skills Are Not Complete.  Soon they both had to re-card.  Leia was dead, bringing Luke's Justice cards into play, while Vader was desperate to grab his All Too Easy.  Neither character ran that far away from the other in their desperate attempts to end the game.  But Vader was able to outlast Luke, as Joel had too many Leia cards in his hand with no Luke defense.  Kaleb, in just his third career Duel, was the big winner!!!  And Darth Vader reties Obi-Wan Kenobi for the most career character victories at six!

Easily our most disturbing trophy.

The final order of finish:

12.  Austin/Anakin
11.  Liz/Dooku
10.  Nathan/Mace
9.  Samuel/Maul
8.  JD/Han
7.  Daniel/Obi-Wan
6.  Jonathan/Boba
5.  Rob/Emperor
4.  Stephen/Yoda
3.  Grant/Jango
2.  Joel/Luke
1.  Kaleb/Vader

Congrats again to Kaleb!!!  Winning in just his third Duel - he's in rare air with that kind of achievement and he's the only active amateur Dueler with a victory.

Stay tuned for our last Duel of the year - SAY IT AIN'T SO! - our annual May the 4th Be With You Duel!  That will be on May 4th at 1PM.  Invites will go out for that in a couple of weeks.

Thanks again to all who played and who keep our Duels league alive!

Preview: Duel of the Fates - April 8, 2017

Named after the EPIC musical score in Episode I, when Darth Maul does the unthinkable to Qui Gon Jinn, April brings us...THE DUEL OF THE FATES!!!

Seriously - this song is the most stressful in the Star Wars catalog.  I'm already breaking out in fits and hives just thinking about it!

HISTORY:

2015 - Curtis guided Obi-Wan Kenobi to that character's first career victory, all in the Emperor's Throne Room.

2016 - Alex won his fourth and final Duel with Count Dooku by fending off Blake, who was playing in his first (and only) match.

MEET THE DUELERS:

Austin - the junior class president candidate hopes to take his politicking to the Duel board and carry the swing states.

Daniel - after a long hibernation, Daniel's busy social schedule (*cough, girlfriend, cough*) has opened up and he's ready to rock.

Grant - "Mr. Fifth Place" broke his streak at the Imperial March, finishing in a disappointing seventh.

Ian - his Imperial March saw him slide from first to worst, when Grant and Rob picked on his poor Yoda.  Those two hope Ian is of the forgiving sort.

JD - the trophy master has yet to win one of his own creations...can he keep his latest work of art?

Joel - this is an exciting match for Joel, he'll reach professional status.  Congrats Joel!!!

Kaleb - the HRC Chaplain took a Duel off to regather his strength as he once again prepares for the long climb to a first victory.

Liz - Liz celebrated her switch to professional status with her worst career showing at the Imperial March.  She's hoping to rebound this time around.

Nathan - after winning A New Hope, Nathan disappeared from the scene.  But he's back and hoping to add to his hardware.

Rob - this might not even be Rob's biggest game of the day!  The 7 year old girl's soccer team he coaches face their biggest match of the season against LA ARMADA!  Can his Lady Bandits beat their long time nemesis???

Samuel - this rookie Dueler nearly secured Luke Skywalker's first career victory in Waco at the Imperial March, but he was done in by Stephen's Dooku.

Stephen - he was part of the sneaky flip at the Imperial March and landed an impressive second place finish for his efforts!

MAGNETIC LEGO ADMIRAL ACKBAR PREDICTS THE WINNER:

My god!  After predicting the winner last month, somebody encased him in carbonite!  The horror!  That must mean he thinks HAN SOLO will bring home the victory.

Magenetic Lego Admiral Ackbar's Prediction Record:

2-8

Well folks, I'm sure Saturday night will be a terrible fate for all but one...feel free to come out and watch the calamity!

Board Analysis - The Emperor's Throne Room

Despite Curtis' absence at the Imperial March, he was kind enough to crunch the numbers again to give us an insider's look at how characters do on individual game boards.  So how to our combating avatars do inside the Emperor's Throne Room?

The first column after the character name is the average finish in the Throne Room.  In 36 league Duels in Waco, the Throne Room has been used ten times.  Jango Fett has the best average finish with a 4.4 and two career victories, while Darth Maul is a whopping 8.4 with four last place finishes. Given Maul's insulated starting position, his neighboring Dark Side brethren must get nervous that he'll attack first.  Obi-Wan Kenobi has the most career wins on the board with three, and that's somewhat impressive given that he starts on the front lines of the Light Side.  That also makes it easy to flip, which is what Dalton did when he won last month.

The heat map provides greater context.  Perhaps most interesting is the resident of the Throne Room - Emperor Palpatine.  He's never finished in the top three...and never in the bottom three either!  In fact, he's finished fourth through sixth seven times out of ten tries.  That's an unusual consistency.  Take a look at Luke Skywalker.  He's the only character never to have won in Waco, but he's got eight top six finishes and six in the top three.  That's impressive given his forward starting point on the center bridge of the board.  I predict if Luke ever wins, it will be in the Throne Room.

What patterns do you see?  Sound off in the comments below!