Friends, I usually put a lot of time and effort into these recaps, but forgive me, tonight I'm just trying to get to bed!!! I typically get the stats updated and stories posted the day after a Duel. So I'm burning the midnight oil to churn these out and have them in your hand when you wake up Monday morning (or got to bed REALLY late Sunday night). It's the Doubleheader, so that means it takes twice as long to write!
To the recap!
The first thing you might note is...I forgot to take the picture of all the Duelers at the table on the screen before we started battle. Our punishment for that mishap? A FIVE AND A HALF HOUR DUEL. Brutal and way too long. So in place of the missing group shot, here's a pic of my favorite Dueler:
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| Look closely at the painting...THAT'S NO MOON. |
Thanks for humoring me - I do the Doubleheader each year for my birthday, and I love the fact my oldest daughter loves to play this game. And I noticed this year my middle child was lurking in the living room, watching and listening. Perhaps a second daughter is nearing her Dueling destiny!? THERE IS ANOTHER.
Seriously, back to the recap. The game started roughly for the light side. After swearing up and down he was loyal to the good guys, Alex's Luke Skywalker immediately bailed and defected to the dark. That's all Lucas' Mace Windu needed to see before he came over too. The light side, particularly Troy's Yoda and Rylie's Obi-Wan, were the early targets. Retired Dueler Jonathan, playing with Anakin, tried to jump ship too. He laid a hit and started running down the alley behind the columns, but Grant's Han (yes Grant got Han again!) lowered a BOWCASTER to put a serious hurt on him. Alex on the dark side laid the final hit, and just like that, our former Singles Champion was done. Brutal.
The light side was doomed after that. Rylie, who called out Rob during the player introductions (not the first time that's happened to him), received payback when his Emperor hit her with a Force Lightning or two. It would be retired Hall of Famer Stephen B., though, who killed her with Vader's Wrath in eleventh. Troy's Yoda tried to move forward to cause some chaos, but got chewed up and spat out in tenth, dying on a four point attack from Greedo of all people (Kaleb would have been proud).
Folks, he hates it every time it happens, but there is no finer character/Dueler combo than Han Solo and Grant. It's poetry in motion. It's like peanut butter and jelly. But this day, there was nothing even Grant could do to escape a ninth place finish. And it was Ian's Greedo again! GREEDO SHOT FIRST!
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| Rob finally remembered to take a picture. |
With eight to go and Rob just finishing his turn, Alex made a bold suggestion and said the entire back row of dark side characters should kill the emperor in eighth. Rob was startled but also secretly impressed with the move. A very Russell on Survivor kind of a play. But the dark side wasn't feeling it, and that left Alex out to dry. They made Luke the next target and it was Riley's Dooku who knocked our top ranked Dueler out of the game. But newer Duelers, Alex made a good try there - learning something from it. Big moves can pave your way to victory, it just didn't work out for Alex this time.
With seven left, the attention turned to Miguel's Darth Maul. This was only his second career Duel but his second time playing with Maul. Grant temporarily brainwashed him and convinced him to flip to the dying light side, but Miguel came to his senses and killed Han. That moment of weakness, though, but a huge target on him and Ian's Boba Fett led the charge. With one point of health left, Riley's Dooku Force Pushed him to seventh for the second game in row. #symmetry.
The alliance had held together to make top six, but that's when the infighting occurred. Ian publicly named his fear of the father/daughter combo of Emperor and Dooku. Rob countered by noting Boba had not even played his best cards yet. Stephen's Vader and Ryan's Jango hemmed an hawed, while Lucas faced the painful decision of whether to back-stab Riley, who had been vocally loyal with him.
After much debate most of the board decided on Riley's Dooku and started in on her, but Rob was still fearful of the Thermals and Kyber Darts and made a bold move to attack Boba instead. That caused some chaos but Riley couldn't survive and peaced out in sixth place.
With five to go Lucas' Mace happened to be caught in the middle of the board at full health, and the other four dark side characters thought, why not? Mace got peppered by attacks and finally succumbed to his wounds after Stephen Threw Debris at him. That fifth place finish, though, was a nice little rebound game for Lucas.
The final four featured both Fetts (Ian and Ryan) with the wombo-combo of Rob/Emperor and Stephen/Vader. There was a lot of talk back and forth, and even though it looked like Stephen wanted to stay loyal to his former RHD Ian, he realized he couldn't survive two shooters on a shooter's board, so the two on two battle commenced. Rob and Stephen decided to focus their attacks on Ian's Boba, and they had him down to his last couple of health points. Rob's Emperor was in rough shape. Stephen rolled a high enough number to finish off Boba, but he reversed course and started chasing Jango instead. That frustrated Rob, who was now open for more attacks from both Fetts. Stephen did eventually eliminate him fourth, though.
Ian managed to heal up quite a bit, and Stephen finally realized Rob's banged up Emperor was the better dance partner at the end. He rained down a double-Debris and smoked Ian in third. Ouch! Stephen began chasing Rob around the columns while he desperately looked for distance attacks or defense cards after reshuffling. He moved far enough away where Stephen had a 50/50 chance to reach him for attack. Rob could draw or heal twice, which would prevent him automatically dying. He chose the double heal and Stephen rolled strong enough to attack him and use Wrath to win! And what was the first card Rob would have drawn had he not healed? YOU WILL DIE. He would have dumped Vader's whole hand!!! But that's not the real story, the real story is HALL OF FAMER Stephen coming out of retirement to show the league his induction was no joke! Congrats Stephen!!!
The final order of finish:
12. Jonathan/Anakin
11. Rylie/Obi
10. Troy/Yoda
9. Grant/Han
8. Alex C./Luke
7. Miguel/Maul
6. Riley/Dooku
5. Lucas/Mace
4. Ryan/Jango
3. Ian/Boba
2. Rob/Emperor
1. Stephen/Vader
...on to game two!
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