Doubleheader #2 - August 31, 2018

Kamino Platform

...and on to game two!

For just the second time in 2018, the Kamino Platform was selected as the field of battle.  And just like the first game, Ryan brought his 3D board for Kamino, complete with pretty Christmas Lights.  Twinkle twinkle, little Dueler, which of the 12 will be the ruler...?

Both Ben H. (Yoda) and Rob (Dooku) got their same characters from the first game, while Chris K. (Han) got stuck with his second shooter.  In his last four games he's been a shooter.  Thanks for taking one for the team, Chris!

We started on time - hooray!

One of the best parts about Kamino is the crazy way it disrupts the typical light vs. dark starting points.  There are three distinct clumpings on the board and anything can happen.  And anything did!  Luke, assigned Boba Fett and Greedo for the second game, used a Sudden Arrival and Desperate Shot right out of the gate, shooting toward Alex's Obi-Wan.  It was a big risk to lose Greedo right out of the gate...and he did zero damage after Alex used Jedi Block!  Greedo got obliterated, which is never not funny.  However, that also painted an enormous, Bowcaster-sized target on Alex.  Sure enough, Chris K.'s Chewey dropped the eleven point attack on Obi-Wan, and a couple of attacks later he was dead!  Brutal!!!  Alex won a first place trophy and the Golden Jar Jar all in the same night.  #hardware  This also marked the third game in a row Obi-Wan finished in last place, and I'm pretty sure that's a new 12-Way Duel record.

Curse you, JD!!!

Obi-Wan's dramatic demise sent the board in chaos.  Rob's Dooku had moved away from Vader and Emperor in the back row, but popped right back over with Obi dead.  Chris K.'s Han Solo had blood lust after bumping off the biggest Jedi on the board.  He continued an offensive press but finally bit it when Ryan's Padme zapped him in eleventh.  Ryan, at the half-hearted suggestion of Rob, then Wrathed to the dark side of the board.

It looked like the remaining light side would be pelted by more than the Kamino rain, when COMPLETELY out of the blue, JD/Emperor and Ben P./Vader jacked up Rob's Dooku with a wombo-combo!!!  Dooku was dead in eleventh.  Rob was so $$*%&*$&% ticked the #(*$&#%^ off!!!!!!  RAGE!!!!

Ahem.  Back to the recap.

Grant and Ben H., laying as low as possible...

Dooku's death gave the light side a brief reprieve, but it wouldn't last long.  Grant's Mace was getting wounded left and right by the ranged shots of dark side minor characters.  That's when Ben, for the third time that night, Force Pushed one of his own teammates to a kill box.  But instead of Mace, it was Chris W.'s Luke Skywalker!  JD said he wouldn't attack Chris...which was technically true.  Instead, the rest of his alliance did and Chris W. was eliminated in ninth. 

By the time the dominant alliance got around to killing Grant in eighth, a couple of slow, tedious hours had passed.  Just as it looked like Ben H.'s Yoda would be next, Ben P. got squirrely and started planning to betray his back row partner, JD.  JD hasn't played 40+ Duels to not sense a change in the tide and immediately picked up on it.  He rallied the rest of the board (which wasn't hard, because boy, folks sure seemed like they were kissing up to the Emperor) and Ben P. got burned in seventh.  You have to love his moxie, though, this kid has potential!

God I love this picture!

There were only six soldiers left on the board, and poor Luke suddenly found himself on the outs.  His Boba inflicted a nice amount of damage, but his alliance wanted to avoid and remaining big attacks.  Luke was out in sixth, but this also marked his sixth Duel, meaning he's a professional now.  Congrats Luke!  And even better, he's debuted in tenth place in the rankings - nice!!!

Ben H., still hobbling around the board as Yoda after it looked like he would be second to die on the night, was loud and proud about telling the remaining Duelers he was loyal to his hamburger buddy JD.  JD didn't necessarily like the extra attention.  It was pretty clear Ryan/Anakin and Joel/Maul were going to have to work together to defeat the golden oldies characters.  But instead of recruiting Kayla's Jango, Maul used an attack to remove her in fifth.  This was just Kayla's second Duel, though, and she's already landed a top five finish - good job Kayla!

Yoda/Emperor started defending each other around Jango's ship as Maul/Anakin tried to figure out how to isolate one of them.  The Emperor eventually got attacked when Joel rolled a five and unloaded on JD, who was holding a lot of special cards but not much defense.  That left little ol' Yoda versus Maul and Anakin.

And Yoda started kicking @$$.

Ben ran a clinic on how awesome Yoda is, consistently defending and outmaneuvering the twin attacks of Maul and Anakin.  The twosome were losing health points at the same rate Yoda was, which was incredible.  Eventually, Yoda started running out of cards.  Ryan went in for the kill.  For his first attack Ben defended with a 15 defense that also allowed him to draw a card.  Ryan made an even more aggressive move by using Anger, an eight point attack.  Ben turned over the card he just drew:  Force Rebound.  Eight points right back at Ryan's Anakin...who only had seven health points left!!!  It was incredible deck luck and Dueler skill.  Ryan can't complain - two third place finishes on the night is excellent work.

It took Joel a minute to track him down, but Darth Maul finally overwhelmed Yoda and Joel secured his fourth career victory in just over a year.  Amazing!  Ben H. finished second, but he put on the performance of the night by far.

Your final order of finish:

12.  Obi/Alex C.
11.  Han/Chris K.
10.  Dooku/Rob
9.  Luke/Chris W.
8.  Mace/Grant
7.  Vader/Ben P.
6.  Boba/Luke R.
5.  Jango/Kayla
4.  Emperor/JD
3.  Anakin/Ryan
2.  Yoda/Ben H.
1.  Maul/Joel

A big thank you to everyone who came out and played two games - it was an awesome night!  The next 12-Way Duel is the FALL BRAWL.  That will happen sometime in September but I don't have a date yet.  Stay tuned!  Meanwhile, the stats have been updated, feel free to peruse the tabs...