Ewok Village
Here we are again. A new year is upon and still...WE DUEL. The league is relentless. Like camouflaged Ewoks protecting their moon from a battalion of Storm Troopers. And in the worst segue in this blog's history, we happened to be playing the A New Hope Duel on the Ewok Village board! Yub nub!
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| Happy pew-pew year! |
Julia secured the #1 chair and the roll to go first. The tension was tight right out of the gate. The big bridge is always congested at the start of a game in Ewok Village, but this time there were two Wookies guarding the light side! Riley B.'s Chewbacca and Julia's Black Krrsantan! That intimidated the dark side for sure. Riley B. was interested in moving his Han deeper into the light side of the board, but Curtis, piloting Luke Skywalker, kept pushing for him to stay on the bridge to allow for the other light side characters to maneuver into better positions. Rob's Beckett and Ian's Cad Bane immediately cleared a path and sent overtures for Riley to flip to the dark side...which he did! And he did it in spectacular fashion - his Chewbacca Bowcastered Curtis' Luke!!!
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| Guess which Duelers are grumpy on the bridge... |
Things seemed tough for the light side, but they immediately rallied and began focusing their ranged shots on Parker's Darth Vader, who was stuck without cover on the hut side of the board. The dark side repaid the light in kind when Kevin's Boba Fett chucked BOTH Thermal Detonators on the same turn! In the end, it wasn't enough to save Parker, who came in a shocking last place. That is only the third time in 111 Duels that Vader has come in last, and the first time since 2016!
Part of the Thermal Detonator damage included a dead Leia, which meant Curtis was free to use Justice. He just so happened to have both in his hand, and he used them both on his arch nemesis Chewbacca! Chewey was down to his last two health points, and he fittingly Wookie tossed Luke and Curtis to an eleventh place finish.
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| Marital strife! |
Things only got spicier from there. With the light side in chaos, JD M. made a personally uncharacteristic decision to forgo his current alliance and make a pact with the dark side. That included his Yoda Force Lifting and Pushing Julia's Fennec to a dark side kill box which included...her real life husband Michael B./General Grievous. Let's just say she was not impressed when Michael did indeed begin the attack on her.
Meanwhile, Philip's Mandalorian was under fire and running out of friends. That's when he decided to go rogue and inflict as much damage as he could on one turn. That included Rising Phoenix, Heavy Weapon, and Whistling Birds! Philip was in his first Duel, and eventually got eliminated by a fellow noobie, Michael T., who used Emperor's Force Lightning to zap Philip in tenth place. Julia was gone right after that, as JD's Clone Trooper landed a long distance shot on Fennec for ninth.
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| Thumbs up for blindsides! |
With eight to go, Ian/Cad and Rob/Beckett were feeling real good. Their dark side alliance was kicking butt and taking names. But you can never feel too comfortable in a Duel...because the two most experienced Duelers at the table got schooled by the newer generation! The table pulled a vicious blindside that included poor Ian in a kill box on the bridge and Kevin's Boba Fett betraying Rob's Beckett. Rob's Beckett was in a better spot on the board to try and survive, but there was no hope for escape with Ian, and his Cad Bane died in a shocking eighth place.
Rob began plotting and scheming, trying to find a weak link in the new alliance. He thought he could convince Evan's Qui-Gon Jinn to join him, who had somehow largely remained a free agent throughout the game. But despite playing every trick up Beckett's sleeves, Rob could only last so long and finally died at the hands of Michael T.'s Emperor.
JD deserves a lot of credit as the leader and architect of that move...but what happened next was painful to watch. The final six had no idea what to do next. Here, I took a great picture of it:
I'm not kidding, it took them 20+ minutes to come to any kind of a decision. It was all so polite and awkward. It was like watching a den full of bears who had no idea how to kill a baby bunny. The tension finally gravitated between JD's Yoda and Evan's Qui-Gon Jinn. JD was convinced they were super-solid but Evan felt like Yoda was a barrier to victory, and poor JD became the target. He went from Ceaser to dead in sixth. Et tu, Qui-Gon?
With JD's elimination, Michael B. put the target on Riley's Han Solo who, true to character, had weaseled and wormed his way out of trouble countless times during the Duel but finally faced a reckoning. He could not move the target off himself, and Kevin used a massive over-kill with a Kyber Dart to end Riley's night in fifth. That wasn't too shabby considering the risk of his early flip.
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| Final three on a glorious board. |
And then there were four! You could feel Evan's excitement slowly building, as he had his sights set on a back to back victory after his 2022 Championship performance. But the rest of the board finally wised up to how hard Qui-Gon can be in the end game. Evan made them work for it, but once he finally got weak enough Michael T. used another Force Lightning for the kill. Evan continues to move up the Dueler rankings, though!
It was a little fuzzy on who would team with who with three to go, and initially it was leaning towards a Michael T./Emperor and Kevin/Boba alliance, but at the last second, Michael B.'s Grievous made a pact with Kevin's Boba to unite against Palpatine. Michael T. was playing in his first official 12-way, but you never would have known it based on his performance. And he decided to use every last card in his hand against Kevin's Boba on his way out. That included a You Will Die and Meditation to dump Boba's hand and keep it empty. Michael B. hated to move against the Emperor, but it was the only logical move after Boba became cardless. Michael T. finally died after a Make Them Suffer, but tip your caps to the new Dueler on the block!
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| A flannel final two. |
Michael B. had the clear advantage after the Emperor jacked up Boba's cards, but Kevin managed to evade elimination with a Rocket Retreat to the other side of the village. But Michael took the extra time to resurrect his minor characters and heal with spare parts. It was all over but the stabbin', and Boba was gone in second. Michael B. won his first Duel!!! Congrats Michael!! That also marked General Grievous' second win. Kevin played a great game too, tying a career best finish.
Final order of finish:
12. Parker/Darth Vader
11. Curtis/Luke Skywalker
10. Philip/The Mandalorian
9. Julia/Fennec Shand
8. Ian/Cad Bane
7. Rob/Tobias Beckett
6. JD/Yoda
5. Riley B./Han Solo
4. Evan/Qui-Gon Jinn
3. Michael T./Emperor Palpatine
2. Kevin/Boba Fett
1. Michael B./General Grievous
This was a great Duel to start the year! Next month is February, so that means it's the Valentine's Duel! We're tentatively planning for Saturday, February 4th. Save that on your calendars, official invites will go out the weekend before. See you then!
