Doubleheader #1 - August 30, 2019

Kamino Platform

We don't often play on Friday at 6PM, but when the college football season kicks off on Saturday night, you make adjustments!  And you also make adjustments when one of the Duelers is in the drive-thru at Dairy Queen because they thought the game started at 6:30!  *cough, Kaleb, cough*

No worries, it gave the rest of us time to stuff our faces with tie-fighter ties, kernel detonators, wookie cookies, and the nectar of the Dueling gods...YODA SODA!

JD is mad Kaleb didn't bring him a burger too.

As bad luck would have it, Kaleb also got the #1 chair while he was ordering french fries, so we allowed Noah to make the board pick (Kamino) and Kaleb's character, which turned out to be Mace.  I won't lie, there was discussion about swapping Windu out for a shooter.

We eventually had all 12 at the table and were ready to roll.  Fairly early in the match Lucas, playing his first ever Duel, took his Darth Maul and flipped to the light side of the board.  That was a tough blow for the remaining dark side, especially as the Jedi's agreed to make a full court press and invade bad guy territory.  Rob, playing with Boba, got the sense he would be the target so he made a desperation play by Rocket Retreating to the back row of the light side.  JD/Anakin and Noah/Luke did not hide the fact they weren't fully excited by it.  Rylie, subbing for Riley (confusing much?), also didn't take too kindly to another flip and unloaded two Force Lightnings on Boba.  Once Kaleb's Mace was fully loaded he killed Rob in last, who walked away from the table and drowned his sorrow in Yoda Soda.

The pressure mounts...

Despite being outnumbered, the dark side had the advantage of being protected by Jango's ship, and they decided to hang tough.  Both Chewbacca and Padme fell to their tactics, much to the chagrin of Ryan and JD.  But after a prolonged attack (we were over an hour into the game) Noah's Leia finally shot Christopher's Dooku into eleventh place.  Eleventh doesn't look good on paper but Christopher really hung tough in his sophomore debut.

With Dooku off the board the Jedi could poor into Grant/Vader and Rylie/Emperor's secret hideout.  JD was quite aggressive when he Wrathed in, and it resulted in some unanticipated damage on himself.  But it was an attack from Alex/Yoda's Clone Trooper which killed the Emperor in tenth.  It wasn't the night Rylie was hoping for, but things would look up for her when she got to take Grant's chair in the second Duel!  #foreshadowing

Alex maneuvered his Yoda to join JD, and used one of his big attacks to eliminate Grant's Vader.  Give Grant credit, he tried to split the majority alliance a number of times, but nobody took the bait this time around.  The rookie with all the funny quips, Sam/Jango, was the last person standing from the dark side.  He was out of options so Yoda took down Jango too.

Lucas might be new but he wasn't born yesterday.

This led to the biggest turning point in the game.  Kaleb/Mace suggested going after Ryan's Han, and Ryan threw out JD's name as an alternative.  That caused a lot of back and forth on what to do next.  Ultimately, it became clear Kaleb/Mace and Noah/Luke were going to stick together, while Ryan/Han and Curtis/Obi were tight, as was Lucas' Darth Maul to a lesser extent.  JD decided to hitch his wagon to Kaleb while Alex was more overtly neutral.  I don't remember all the details (I was spending half my time watching Solo in the Loser's Lounge) but I know Curtis used a Force Control and JD's Anakin was worse for the wear.  He made a mental blunder when, with no cards in his hand, he automatically drew two cards for his action but missed out on using Calm to retreat and get five more cards.  Ryan's Han, who was slowly healing after near death, shot him out in seventh.  Kaleb's Mace crashed out after that in sixth.

"How about we run around the ship and REALLY drag this out?"

That death caused the dam to break.  And thank God because we were well past our 9:30 start time for game two at that point!  Curtis had recently used a Force Balance while he stalked Kaleb around the board.  Unfortunately for him, he was unaware he left himself exposed for a Leia attack by Noah, and that left Obi in fifth place.

With four to go it looked like it was Han and Maul vs. Yoda and Luke.  Lucas knew he was near the end of his useful cards, so he did the brave thing and went in for a few attacks.  Alex's Yoda rewarded him with an attack, and Lucas used Blinding Surge to return some hit points while simultaneously dying.  That's a great finish in a rookie Duel!  Ryan used Gambler's Luck on Noah's Luke to send them into third.  How about Noah, though?  He's only played in two Duels and he's finished in third place BOTH times!

Trophy defended!

It was now past 10PM and it was quickly apparent Yoda and Han were going to play ring-around-the-rosey.  That's not a critique - it's what Ryan's Han had to do - but the rest of us wanted the darn thing to end so we could start the next Duel!  Ryan finally rolled a couple of small numbers and Alex rolled big to finally catch up to everyone's favorite smuggler.  He unloaded two 6-point attacks and eventually back to back Force Pushes to bring home the win!  This marked Alex's third victor, and the third time he's one the first game of a doubleheader night!  In fact, he successfully defended his Jango Fett trophy, only the second Dueler to ever do that!  And let's make sure Ryan gets some credit for being one point away from death, only to turn it around and heal all the way back to zero.  It was an amazing second place finish.

Final order of finish:

12.  Rob/Boba Fett
11.  Christopher/Count Dooku
10.  Rylie/Emperor Palpatine
9.  Grant/Darth Vader
8.  Sam/Jango Fett
7.  JD/Anakin
6.  Kaleb/Mace Windu
5.  Curtis/Obi-Wan Kenobi
4.  Lucas/Darth Maul
3.  Noah/Luke Skywalker
2.  Ryan/Han Solo
1.  Alex C./Yoda

But this was only the FIRST game of the night...on to game TWO!!!