The Fall Brawl - September 21st, 2019

Carbon Freezing Chamber (via Dagobah)

It took us all week to find our 12th Dueler, but Jordan bailed us out Saturday morning and we were ready to Duel!

The Fall Brawl marked the return of Ben H., who is newly hired back to the department, allowing for the Hall of Famer to resume his playing career.  It also marked the debut of Natalie, who caught the Dueling bug from Rylie.  We love rookie Duelers!  #ibelievethatrookiesarethefutureteachthemwellandletthemleadtheway

Tan table?

Kaleb drew the #1 chair and also Boba Fett.  He didn't care about Boba as much as his suction-cupped minor character, Greedo.  The bromance was reignited and it felt so right!  Christopher avoided one Fett but picked Jango for Rob.  His fingers having a homing beacon for bounty hunters!

Ryan won the right to go first and he was off and running.  Literally.  His Mace Windu scampered across the middle of the board as he defected to the dark side.  It was the "Cohenour Run 2.0"!

Ian, playing with Luke Skywalker, began to coordinate a defensive strategy but was stuck going second to last on the first turn.  That's extremely problematic if you're Luke starting in the middle of the board.  Kaleb, playing Boba Fett, used the shield of Mace's minor characters to step forward and land both the 9 and 7 point attacks on poor Ian!  Ian had held onto the Golden Jar Jar since the May the 4th Duel, and his symbiotic relationship with it would prove fatal as he finished in last after Mace cut him down for the final blow.

Lucas and Sam embrace reality while Ben and Kaleb laugh.

That was a tough start for the light side, as they were now down seven to four.  They hung tough, though, knocking out Greedo and Zam as they mounted a counter-attack.  In fact, it was Jordan's Anakin that killed Greedo with an Anger, but then he used his Calm to run over to the dark side in an attempt to join them!  The dark side was fairly gobsmacked by the move, and after Rob got the nod from Rylie/Maul, they launched their attack on the Padawan.  It was Ryan's Mace again that made the kill shot and Jordan was done in 11th, his second time playing Anakin in two career Duels.

Lucas, playing just his third career Duel, had Han Solo and came to the realization that he wasn't going to advance very far in this battle.  He was faced with the decision many of us have been confronted with before: go down with the ship or attack your own alliance.  He chose the noble route and kept fighting with his team but a four point attack from Jango ended Lucas' night in tenth.

Not looking good for Obi-Wan.

The next sequence would prove fateful for the rest of the match.  Sam, who had Obi-Wan, attacked his last teammate Christopher/Yoda.  It was so dirty!  But it helped out Sam because he Force Controlled Yoda into the dark side.  Ben's Emperor played You Will Die on Yoda and Rylie's Maul went in for the kill.  Poor Christopher was out in ninth place.

That opened the door for the first strong alliance back-stab.  Rob's Jango held two Wrist Cables, and he played them both on Ben's Emperor!  The rest of the alliance was down for the attack, and it was rookie Natalie's Vader who made the kill shot on Ben in eighth.  But welcome back Ben, glad you're with us again!

A second in-fight occurred when Ryan's Mace attacked Kaleb's Boba.  Kaleb returned fire and the rest of the alliance wasn't sure what to do as those two had scored significant damage on each other.
They called truce and he remaining alliance once again fixed their attention on Sam's Obi-Wan. 

The levee breaks.

Sam still had some tricks up his sleeve, as he used another Force Control to move everyone away from him, and then a Force Balance to dump everyone's hand.  That was rough for quite a few folks.  Sam proved how powerful Obi is, even when fighting six characters at once.  Stop me if you've heard this before, but Mace made yet another kill shot...and then there were six!

The remaining alliance just stared at each other, spread out across the board, and waited for the standoff to break.  It was more awkward than a middle school dance.  Rylie's Maul finally became the focus of attack, and she bowed out after a final shot from Kaleb's Boba Fett.

And then there were five!  Nobody knew how to proceed, so Rob threw out Alex's name.  That was met with the sound of crickets and a dirty look from Alex, so Rob used his Flamethrower on Boba to move Kaleb over to Alex/Dooku and Natalie/Vader, and then Rocket Retreated the heck out of there.  Ryan moved in and did a Whirlwind to send Kaleb to the rails in fifth.

Final two!

That left four Duelers, and Alex/Dooku and Ryan/Mace were happy to make Natalie the next victim of the game.  Her Vader couldn't withstand a two-front attack and so she peaced out in fourth.  But - that's a heck of a debut for the rookie Dueler!  Good job, Natalie!

With three to go Alex was hoping he and Ryan could partner up against Rob's Jango, but that's when he was in for the rude awakening that Ryan and Rob were already in a committed relationship.  At least that's what Rob thought.  Just as Alex was approaching them at their end of the board, Ryan used a Wisdom to get the heck out of Dodge, leaving Rob alone to face Alex.  Rob made a super dirty promise to join Alex against Ryan in order to avoid an attack, and then burned that promise by attacking Dooku and Firing Up the Jet Pack to get out of there.

Rob was loaded with Zam cards ever since the Obi-Wan Force Control was played, so he had very few options, but he and Ryan/Mace managed to whittle down Dooku to near death.  Alex made one last offer to partner against Ryan, but Rob figured they were both too damaged anyway and shot Alex to secure a second place finish for himself.  Sure enough, Ryan swooped in and finished Rob off in second place.  Congrats to Ryan, who won his fouth career Duel!  He also won the Mace trophy while playing with Mace!  It also means BB-8 made the right pick - whoa!!!

Final Order of Finish:

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

That was a good Duel all the way around.  And, more importantly, we knocked it out in about three hours!  Stay tuned for details on next month's Duel - FIGHT NIGHT - it looks like we'll be playing on October 19th, so pencil it in now.

Thanks to everyone who played tonight!