Duel of the Fates - April 18, 2020

Geonosis Arena

Here we go again, Duelers!

Everyone is still stuck in quarantine, so we played the sixth annual Duel of the Fates match online, like we did last month.  God bless Zoom for making all of this possible!

We also had fun with one of the Zoom features, the ability to alter your background.  For those who had computers of the less ancient variety, you could create a backdrop of your character.  Otherwise, you were stuck renaming yourself with a clever character related twist.

My daughter Riley drew the board before the evening started, and we got Geonosis.  Folks were once again thankful to avoid the Emperor's Throne Room.

They're smiling now...

Ben H. was a last minute sub, coming in as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he made a huge impact in his first turn.  He moved up next to Diego's Mace Windu and attacked with a Force Control.  That rearranged the board by putting Diego in a kill box and squishing the rest of the light side together, minus Sam's Yoda, behind the pillars.  Kaleb's Luke Skywalker sought safety on the dark side too, but all he heard were crickets in return.

Ben H. wasn't done - he then used a Jedi Attack to retreat all the way to the last row of the dark side.  Poor Diego!  To make matters worse, Diego didn't have a defense card in his first four cards.  It was Lucas' Zam Wessell who landed the kill shot with a three point attack.  For just the fourth time in league history Mace Windu finished last.

Diego with a good sense of humor about his demise.

With Yoda left exposed, Grant's Emperor Palpatine decided to rock Sam's world with the You Will Die Card.  Rob moved his Count Dooku all the way to the back line to Force Push Sam into a kill box deep in dark side territory.  With a naked hand there was little he could do.  It was a one point attack from Christopher's Storm Trooper that killed the diminutive Jedi in eleventh.  Brutal!

Hand it to Ben P., he wasn't going down without a fight.  He Wrathed over to Rob's Dooku to take a swing.  They tussled but the dark side advanced on him faster than he anticipated.  Cut off from retreat, it was Ben H. who sent him packing with his second Jedi Attack of the night.  His card luck was outstanding.  Give Ben P. some love, though, this marked his sixth Duel, meaning he's now professional.  Congrats Ben!!!

Kaleb was desperately trying to improve his situation, and he even landed a sneak attack on Christopher's Vader with Leia, but his last alliance member betrayed him when Elliot's Han and Chewbacca attacked Luke.  Lucas used a controversial Rocket Retreat attack on Christopher's Vader to fly over and finish Kaleb in ninth with a four point attack.

Kaleb's sense of humor was on point

With eight Duelers left Ben H. tried to paint Alex's Maul as the next victim.  The rest of the Dark Side was reluctant to go there, so in an attempt to appease them, he turned against Rob's Dooku, who was now nestled behind the columns with Han and Jango.  This made Rob/Dooku and Lucas/Jango cranky, so they focused their efforts against Obi.  Ben H. had a trick up his sleeve, though.  He played Force Balance, making everyone drop their hand and draw three new cards.  As his never-ending luck would have it, he got a Force Control as one of his three and played it on Dooku.

The realignment of the board ended up working against him, though.  Alex hadn't forgotten the original target Ben placed on him and he finished him off with a four point attack.  That left seven.  Elliot's Han had saved Rob's Dooku earlier, so Rob had intentionally not attacked him.  But he could tell the rest of the dark side wanted the smuggler dead, so he used two Super Battle Droid attacks to end his night in seventh.  That's a career best finish for Elliot, though!

Light saber on in the brain

With six to go Lucas Fired Up the Jet Pack back to the dark side to try and prove, once and for all, he was still loyal.  But with six to go...somebody had to go next, and that ended up being Lucas when Ryan's Boba stung him with his Deadly Aim attack.  And then there were five!

Obi's Force Balance had left Rob's Dooku weak carded, and he saw Alex's Maul creeping towards him behind the columns.  Dooku rolled out on his move, and landed near Ryan's Boba.  For his first action, he drew a Taunt, and hoping to keep the attention off his wounded Dooku, he played it on Boba.  As it turned out...Boba drew two Thermal Detonators on the redraw!  He promptly used them on Rob, much to his amusement, and the Count was done in fifth place.

This left a final four of Ryan/Boba, Christopher/Vader, Alex/Maul, and Grant/Emperor.  This was pretty much the core alliance for the entire game, so the end politics was fun to watch.

Ryan was the first to break the ice, and suggested Alex's fully healthy Darth Maul seemed to be the most dangerous character left.  The others reluctantly agreed, and committed to whittling him down.  Beside's Grant's Emperor, though, they weren't getting many attacks in.  Grant used three Force Lightnings to severely damage the horned Sith.  But that also managed to move the target to himself, as he was the last character left with full health.

Ryan pointed this out, and did a combo of Deadly Aim and Kyber Dart.  Grant wasn't expecting that level of attack and, shockingly, died in fourth.  It was good to see Grant back in the top four, though, after a minor slump as of late.

With three to go Christopher and Ryan made a shaky alliance to try and finish off Alex's Maul.  Christopher wasn't using distance attacks, though, preferring to use his Storm Troopers while Ryan's Boba feigned attempts at lining up shots he couldn't make due to Maul hiding behind the columns.  Boba finally got too close and suffered a near fatal attack from Maul.  Ryan knew he couldn't attack Maul after that, or Alex would use Blinding Surge to kill him.  In desperation he attacked Christopher.  Vader was forced to use a Throw Debris on Ryan.  That's two top five finishes with Boba for Ryan in the last two games - well done!

Pay no attention to the unnamed Dueler holding the
Duel of the Fates trophy on Alex's phone pic.

Everyone watching the Duel assumed Christopher was saving his two Throw Debris for his final confrontation with Alex's wounded Maul.  What we didn't know, though, was Vader lost the first Debris on the Force Balance and, in a terrible bout of deck luck, had yet to retrieve it again.  Alex could sense the weakness and moved in to attack.  Hand it to Christopher, he played his last Wrath and attacked twice, but Alex was prepared and finally killed Vader to secure the win!!!

That's Alex's sixth victory, improving his first place standing in the league, and moving him less than a percentage point behind the all-time leader in career win percentage!  That's incredible!  This was also career win number ten for Maul, who is now the second character in league history with double-digit victories.  There's no doubt he's been the hottest character in the league over the past year.  Let's also tip our caps to Christopher, who finished a career best second place!  A little better card luck and he might have been able to pull of his first win.  He'll get there one day!

Final order of finish:

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

We have two Duels coming up in May to finish out our Dueling season.  The first is our traditional May the 4th Be With You Duel, which, naturally, occurs on May 4th.  But, we have a special Birthday Duel the very next day.  Riley, the youngest winner in league history, was born on May 5th, aka Cinco de Riley, aka, Revenge of the 5th!  And it's also her TWELFTH BIRTHDAY.  You know what must be done - we're having a 12-Way for the 12 year old's birthday.  Those invites will go out soon, look out for the email.

Thanks everyone, that was a solid night of Dueling!  If you want to see how the final three played out, enjoy this video!

Rise of Skywalker - December 19, 2019

Chances are if you're reading this post, you've already seen Rise of Skywalker.  Don't worry - I'll keep this spoiler free!  I'm still processing my feelings about it, but I think I liked it, particularly the parts with this motley crew pictured above.  That was good stuff.  I'm sure I'll see it again, if not three or four more times.  And I can't help but think this isn't the last we'll see of these friends...

...or these friends!

That's right, as is our custom, we Dueled before a new Star Wars movie!  It's always slightly strange to Duel while the sun is in the sky, and even stranger when we actually get done in three hours.  Imagine that! 

Our Rise of Skywalker Duel was momentous for a couple of reasons, including the debut Duels for Diego and Jeremy as well as Lucas turning professional.  Congrats to all three!

Curtis chose chair one and repeated his 2019 Championship character pick with Luke Skywalker.  That's not a good thing on Carbon, though.  Rob (Emperor Palpatine) and Kaleb (Anakin Skywalker) also doubled their character picks from the Championship.

The face of a madman.

The fireworks started early when Jeremy made the decision to wreak as much havoc as possible.  His Darth Vader zeroed in on Rob's Emperor among others.  Rob couldn't convince Lucas to work with him to eliminate the threat, and thus the wrinkly old man (wait, is that Rob, or the Emperor?) started taking damage.  It was Jordan's Bowcaster, though, that extended Rob's lead in most times finishing last.  He was really glad to take vacation time for that experience.

The Fetts (Alex and Christopher) flipped early too in order to stay in the majority.  While that majority started picking off the remaining dark side, things took a brutal turn when Diego's Yoda went after David's Obi-Wan.  That included a Force Lift, which was a real back-breaker for David.  Ben's Mace eventually killed Obi in eleventh.  They did you dirty, David!

Lucas' Darth Maul, who had refused to help Rob against Vader, was now being targeted by Jeremy.  And to add to his worries, Curtis' Luke Skywalker played I Will Not Fight You on him too.  There was little he could do after that as the majority block rained down lasers.  It was Curtis' Princess Leia who got the final hit on Maul.  Lucas finished tenth in the Duel, but debuted as the eighth ranked professional on the charts - congrats Lucas!

Plotting and scheming.

Jeremy's Darth Vader kept up his chaos mission when he Threw Debris at Alex's Boba Fett.  But Natalie's Count Dooku was allowed into the alliance late, making Vader the only remaining target.  There wasn't much Jeremy could do after that.  Alex got the last laugh when, in a slightly risky move, he used Greedo's Desperate Shot for the exact seven points of damage he needed to oust Jeremy.  It worked, and Jeremy was a goner.

That left eight Duelers on the board, and Christopher had the unfortunate honor of being the next victim.  He tried to retreat to the other end of the board, but Kaleb's Anakin Wrathed to that side and dropped a five point attack to lay Jango to rest.

Once it got to seven Duelers, the light sabers were still nervous about the shooters, particularly when Jordan publicly announced he was going to use Never Tell Me The Odds to shuffle his Bowcaster back into his draw pile.  Nobody wanted to see that 11-point attack come back into play, so the Corellian smuggler got popped.  The final blow as a three point attack from Natalie's remaining Super Battledroid.

Curtis and Natalie in happier times...

And then there were six.  Alex's Boba was still limping from the Throw Debris, and Ben's Mace was fully loaded.  He wanted Curtis to follow him on an attack of Boba.  Curtis was a bit reluctant and, in an unexpected turn of events, Ben instead turned his attention to Curtis and attacked Luke!  That caused a lot of confusion as Diego/Yoda and Natalie/Dooku had to decide who they would follow into battle.  Curtis ended up winning the argument and the collective directed their ire on Mace.  Ben tried a desperate Wisdom to escape the situation, but Kaleb was waiting with an attack from Anakin to seal Ben's fate in sixth place.

After that stunning turn of events, the rest of the board was no longer comfortable with Yoda in the game.  You have to give Diego credit, as a rookie Dueler, he wasn't afraid to call his shots and be aggressive in order to advance.  It was out of respect for both the character and newbie Dueler came to a halt in fifth place.  That's a great Dueling start, Diego!

With four to go, Kaleb/Anakin and Curtis/Luke got into it with each other, but when Natalie was reluctant to join Curtis, Curtis tried to weaken Dooku with a Justice as a means to solidify their partnership against Ani.  It didn't work.  Natalie committed to go after Luke and before Curtis knew it, it was three against one.  Alex's Boba got the kill shot.  If you told Curtis he would have Luke on Carbon and finish fourth before the game, he'd gladly take it.  Well done, Curtis!

How romantic!

Then there were three!  Folks watching the Duel assumed Kaleb/Anakin and Natalie/Dooku would team together to play against Alex's Boba Fett, but that's not quite how it went down.  All three traded attacks with each other, but it was Natalie who bore the worst of it and quickly started running out of defense cards.  Kaleb finally dispatched her in third place.  Hand it to the amateur, though, Natalie has two top-four finishes in three career Duels!  We've got ourselves a natural!

Despite fawning to the rest of the table they didn't trust each other, Kaleb and Alex were clearly working together most of the game.  But Alex was fully loaded with all of his best cards, and topped some monsters after he reshuffled.  It would be a Wrist Cable that would prevent Kaleb from doing a double Anger, as he lost an action.  Alex stayed adjacent to Dooku as he Thermaled himself and the Count, and then unleashed a final Wrist Cable for the win.  Boba Fett!!!  Congrats to Alex, who is performing at an unprecedented level in league history and now has five career wins.  Here's the final order of finish:


12.  Rob/Emperor
11.  David/Obi-Wan
10.  Lucas/Maul
9.  Jeremy/Vader
8.  Christopher/Jango
7.  Jordan/Han
6.  Ben/Mace
5.  Diego/Yoda
4.  Curtis/Luke
3.  Natalie/Dooku
2.  Kaleb/Anakin
1.  Alex/Boba freakin' Fett

Folks...that ends things for 2019!  We'll be back in January, probably on the 11th, for the annual A NEW HOPE Duel, stay tuned for more details on that.  And go see RISE OF SKYWALKER, give them all the money so they'll make more!!!

Thanksdueling! - November 9, 2019

Geonosis Arena

Eighty Duels.  Eighty!!!

Who would have ever thought, five and a half years ago, we'd be sitting at eighty Duels!  With fifteen travelling trophies!  And who would have thought we'd get new Star Wars movies, and tv shows, and Thanksgiving porg recipes?!?

To all of you who have contributed to the madness over the years, thank you.  To all of you psychologically scarred by the experience...sorry?

It's almost as if Kaleb knew...

We had another calendar crisis when two Duelers showed up late because they forgot they were playing.  That's two Duels in a row this has happened.  Prepare yourself for Outlook calendar invites from now on, Duelers.  (Do students even use their Outlook calendars?)  What's the point of a 7PM start time if we don't start at 7???

Thanksdueling featured a few firsts, which is great.  Delaney and Rachel made their 12-way debuts while Christopher marked his arrival as a professional as this was his sixth Duel.  Why is six the mark of a professional?  I honestly can't remember the logic of it.  Delaney also got the first chair, and she picked Geonosis Arena for the board.  This is the fourth time in six Thanksduelings! we've been in Geonisis.  Ryan brought the Hoth board, which was ironic because it was hot as a freakin' sauna.

All-Pro Christopher

We might as well address the bantha in the room.  There was another first at Thanksdueling!, but not as exciting for one particular Dueler.  Kaleb, the second ranked Dueler and the person who hasn't finished below sixth in 2019, finally, for the first time in his Dueling career...finished last.

Whoa.

It was a rough start out of the gate as he was Luke and Leia, which is a tricky character pick for Geonosis.  He ignored the flip overtures from the dark side, and it ultimately cost him.  Right out of the gate Lucas, playing Emperor Palpatine, used the You Will Die card!  Nobody could remember that card being played so early in a  Duel.  He added a Force Lightning and Ryan's Dooku kicked him while he was trying to recard by forcing him to drop two more.  The final blow was a Missile Launch from Christopher's Jango Fett.  Pour one out for Kaleb, who fought against the inevitable for all these years.

Look closely and you can see Bagby

You would think the dark side had the advantage, but Viktor's Darth Vader unexpectedly turned on his own alliance and punched Ben's Greedo in the mouth.  His strong health forced the dark side to turn their attention on him instead of the light side.  They wasted a lot of cards before finally offing him with Boba's Kyber Dart.

Rob, playing Han and Chewey, encouraged the light side to move forward.  Rylie, operating Obi-Wan Kenobi, agreed and used a Force Control to put Ryan's Count Dooku in a kill box.  Ryan managed to escape without much damage, but Rylie did cluster the remaining dark side in a way they couldn't easily untangle.

The light side couldn't take advantage of the chaos as they were too tentative to keep moving forward.  The Super Battle Droid, who Chewbacca threw into their alliance, surviving for as long as he did was a good example of the ineptitude.  It was Natalie's Mace Windu who ultimately paid the price.  She joined Chewbacca and Obi-Wan in trying to take down the dark side, but she got diced up and went out in a disappointing tenth place when Christopher used a Rocket Retreat to both eliminate Mace and move to a better spot on the board.

So...much...talking...so...little...Dueling...

Earlier in the game Rylie played the Force Balance to try and save Kaleb, but it wrecked Rob's Han Solo hand.  But he kept aggressive by using Chewbacca, and he finally got a Wookie Toss and Bowcaster combo ready.  Ben knew it was coming, and after the Wookie tossed a Royal Guard, he unloaded on Boba for seven points of damage and tried to convince the dark side to finish off the Fett.  Chewbacca got off another attack to further injure the bounty hunter before they turned him into a throw rug.  Rob thought his Han might actually survive, but Count Dooku surprised him by Giving Orders deep into the light side area and Force Pushing Han into a dark side kill box.  Rob got two more attacks in on Boba, bringing him within to two points of death, before Boba got revenge with a Wrist Cable and Carbonite nap.  Rob encouraged the board to join together against Alex/Maul, Ryan/Dooku, and Ben/Boba before he died, but if fell on deaf ears as the other Duelers started infighting.  Rylie officially flipped to the dark side, leaving Rachel/Yoda and Delaney/Anakin all alone.  Delaney couldn't withstand the multi-front attacks, and Ryan's Dooku chopped her down in eighth.

Lucas lectures on the experienced and the inexperienced

Rachel's Yoda started wreaking havoc, including dumping two of Rylie's 12 defense cards, but the little green Jedi succumbed to her wounds (and I'm not talking about her bloody nose) in seventh, from another Boba Fett Wrist Cable.

And then there were six...who had no idea what to do next.  I'll save you from describing the 45 minutes of hemming and hawing that followed, but by the end, Alex's Maul made a surprising move by going after Christopher's Jango Fett, who was fully healthy and looking to go much deeper into the game.  It was a stunning move that Alex justified by his perceived cozy partnership between Rylie and Christopher.  It was a career-best finish for Christopher, who turned pro, but also back-breaking in that it was so unexpected.

An artistic rendition of Ben's final two performance

With five to go there were more cranky exchanges of who should be next.  It looked like Alex/Maul and Lucas/Emperor were together, but Lucas was also fighting for Rylie's Obi-Wan to go deeper.  Ryan's Dooku eventually became the target, and he finally died when Boba Fett threw a Thermal Detonator at him.  How was Boba still alive, you ask?  Because nobody attacked him and he healed over half of his damage!

Alex's Maul was sitting very pretty at this point.  The other three had no interest in joining together to fight the horned Sith.  Instead, Ben and Alex concentrated their attacks on Rylie's Obi-Wan, who was already battered and bruised after navigating the middle of the board for most of the game.  A four point attack from Boba had her in fourth place, but congrats to Rylie who had another strong showing.  From there Lucas ran out of partners, as Alex gleefully watched Emperor and Boba go at it.  Ben used a Deadly Aim to eliminate Lucas in third.  Lucas is now the top ranked amateur and goes professional at his next Duel!

That left Darth Maul vs. Boba Fett, and it went about as well as you'd expect for Boba.  He got off a couple of shots and then ran for his life as Maul stalked him around the columns snow drift.  Alex finally rolled a five on the dice and absolutely unloaded on Boba, who died by Athletic Surge.  Congrats to Alex, who earned his fourth career win and now has the highest career win percentage among active Duelers!  And it wasn't even a doubleheader!!!  Kudos to Ben, too, who I still can't figure out how he survived after his near death experience with Han and Chewey!

If you see Kaleb this week, give him a hug.  And the Golden Jar Jar, he conveniently forgot that when he left...

The final order of finish:

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

Our next Duel is the 2019 Championship - the Super Bowl of our league, and the toughest Duel of the year.  The top 12 ranked Duelers have first dibs, and this year's battle will be INTENSE!  Stay tuned for that, and remember, we're playing the Rise of Skywalker Duel on the afternoon of December 19th!

Here's to another eighty Duels!!!

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!!!

Doubleheader #1 - August 31, 2018

Emperor's Throne Room

Just as the twin suns of Robinson, TX, were starting to sink into the horizon, twelve noble souls gathered to do battle, drink Yoda Soda, and eat Tie-Fighter Ties.

Did you know Jess made 120 Tie-Fighter Ties during the two games, and all but four were eaten?  THEY'RE SO GOOD!

The food was nice and all, but the Duelers were more hungry for a win!  So the spots at the table were selected, but then Rob found a new way to ratchet up the tension when it comes to character selection:

We may have to make the punch box a regular part of the Duel league...what do you think???  Another special feature for the Doubleheader was the playing boards!  Ryan brought in his three-dimensional surfaces, which means we got to play on the "alternate" Throne Room...Mustafar!

If you look closely you'll notice he added some smoke/fire/explosion elements to the board.  I prefer to think of them as the dreams of winning, slowly burning away...

Hey - Rob is finally in the opening shot!

The game started fairly normally - the light and dark side alliances began making overtures to lure the first flipper of the game.  However, this time around...the sides stayed loyal!  It became quite intense once both sides realized this would be a 6 v 6 slug fest.  Chris W.'s Obi-Wan Kenobi had the rough starting point of being out front, as did Kayla's Luke Skywalker.  The dark side took advantage as they concentrated their fire power on those two characters.  The light side returned fire but Mace and Yoda's Clone Troopers had a harder time finding a lane of attack.  JD, controlling Mace, kept rallying his side to advance and force the dark side to start moving their main characters forward.

That tactic had limited success, especially after Chris W's Obi-Wan got sent home from Chris K's Kyber Dart.  I'm going to assume it was only a coincidence that a Chris killed a Chris.  It would mess with my mind if there was something more to that...  Kayla's Luke was bleeding out too, and just as Ben H's Yoda arrived at the front line...he Force Pushed Kayla to her death!  Was it a flip!?  It was hard to tell.

From Force Push victim to Force Push perpetrator 

The light side was in free-fall after that.  Though they continued their attacks on the dark side they began to take stock and try to figure out how they were going to get themselves off the bottom of the food chain.  Ben H's Yoda once again made a bold move, Force Lifting and then Force Pushing JD's Mace to a dark side kill box.  JD was enraged, Ben was bashful, and Rob secretly giggled because he did the same thing to Ben last game.

JD, full of revenge, convinced his kill box to let him escape so he could go after Ben for the betrayal.  Ben H. was none too pleased when JD rolled in and killed him in tenth.  Shockingly, Yoda had no defense in his hand.

The reprieve for JD was short lived.  Rob's Count Dooku dropped a Taunting and then Ryan's Darth Maul unleashed a volley that sent the CL Training champ off the board in ninth place.  Ben and JD decided to go to In'n'Out between games to hash out their differences and discuss other theological conundrums.

Ben P., playing with Anakin and not to be confused with Ben H., managed to hang back as his light side compatriots got torn up but the dark side heavies slowly advanced on his position.  He made it a point to target Joel's Emperor Palpatine but Joel made it a point to kill him in return.  Not shabby for his first Duel!

Your final three

The dark side, still six strong, made a pact to finish off the light side before the infighting started, and that's exactly what happened.  Luke's Han Solo danced around the Throne Room as well as he could, but a final Storm Trooper shot from Alex C. closed his book for the match.

Now that it was only dark side characters Rob stuck his neck out and suggested Joel's Emperor should be the first to go.  He argued that You Will Die hadn't been played yet, and that was a frightening prospect to deal with.  The others reluctantly followed suit, and Dooku's Taunt killed the Emperor in his own Throne Room.

That left a final five of Rob/Dooku, Ryan/Maul, Alex/Vader, Grant/Jango, and Chris K./Boba.  With Joel gone nobody else knew what to do.  Rob moved next to Jango and Zam, more so for cover from Boba than anything else, but when he drew a Force Push he tried to create an opportunity by tossing Jango at Maul and Boba.  Rob had made an alliance with Ryan, but Ryan surprised Rob by not attacking Grant.  Rob knew he was in trouble, and sure enough, the other four started in on him.  His one shining moment before death was using his Force Drain to successfully dump Alex's All Too Easy and Throw Debris.  And then Rob died at Maul's hands, really annoyed at Ryan.

Chris couldn't believe it when he caught Grant whispering about Boba being next, but there was little he could do to save himself.  He was out when his attack on Maul got slapped back with a Blinding Surge.  Ryan tried to work with Alex against Grant's Jango, but neither Grant nor Alex liked the idea of going against Maul at the end.  They whittled him down before Jango got the drop on him.  Third place with Maul, though, is nothing to sneeze at!

Alex's Vader was in near perfect health while Grant's Jango was roughed up.  It didn't take long for Vader to chase him around the room, jacking him up even further.  Jango succumbed to his wounds, and Alex collected his second career trophy - congrats Alex!!!  That also marked Darth Vader's tenth career win, the most of any character and the first character to reach double digits.

Here's the final order of finish:

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

...and this was just game one!  Read on for game two...

Twin Sun Slam #1 - June 16, 2018

Carbon Freezing Chamber

For the first time in league history we held a cookout before a night of Dueling.  It was so nice!  Rob tended the grill, slinging burgers while everyone who attended brought supplies and food to further the festivities.  Some brought chips, others side dishes, a couple of folks brought two-liters of carbonated liquid energy.  It was all great!  All except the dessert a person who shall remain nameless (**cough cough HEIDI cough cough**) brought:

In his own home Rob had to deal with this!!!  I give this anonymous Dueler credit (she's not anonymous, it was definitely HEIDI), that was a record for the fastest somebody tried to turn the table against Rob.  Even his own kids were eating these tasty treats...

The big story of the night, besides the cupcakes, was the debut of a rookie Dueler...ten year old Riley!  We had a late cancellation and Riley, already wearing her Rey costume from The Last Jedi, was all too eager to join the fray.  After dinner the Duelers took their seats and picked the Carbon Freezing Chamber to do battle.

Samuel, playing his first Duel in over a year, took his Obi-Wan Kenobi over to the dark side of the board for an early flip.  Riley, navigating Mace Windu, threw the table into further confusion by attacking Ben's Anakin Skywalker immediately after!  Chaos ensued after that as Riley stalked Padme and other members of the light side also moved towards the dark.  That left Riley/Mace, Stephen/Yoda, and Rob/Han Solo all by their lonesome.  Chris threw a Thermal Detonator to destroy the last of Mace's Clones, who were also protecting Han.  A Kyber Dart and Desperate Shot later sent Mr. Cupcake, Rob, out in last.  Curse you, cupcakes!!!

Not the first, and certainly won't be
the last, Duels-inspired marriage
counseling session...

Ben had no choice after that but to attack Riley's Mace since she was hell-bent on chasing him.  Still, killing a kid in eleventh place does weird things to your psyche.  Stephen tried desperately to join Jonathan's Luke as they pursued Samuel and his back-stabbing Obi-Wan across the chamber.  But Alex's Zam Wessel saw an opportunity to eliminate Yoda from the game and did just that.  Stephen was stuck in tenth.

The Duel was flying by at this point, but with nine Duelers still in play, alliances and enemies weren't fully formed.  Bartering and strategery was fluid, and somehow Heidi found herself on the outs with her Darth Maul.  Kaleb's Darth Vader eliminated her in ninth. 

What happened next was one of the more amusing moments in recent Duel history.  Courtney, playing with Emperor Palpatine, decided to attack Ben's Mace.  If you don't know Courtney and Ben, they happen to be married.  Courtney was playing to win, and Ben was aghast at the move.  First he was attacked by a ten-year old, and then his own wife plunged a light saber into his heart. 

Jonathan had tried to align wit others for most of the game, specifically to put down Samuel's Obi-Wan, who was still alive and kicking.  But with Ben now dead his allies were running short and Kaleb once again took out the trash by putting Skywalker on the curb.  That made it six to go, at which point Kaleb turned his attention to Obi.  In a bit of an overkill, he used All Too Easy to eliminate Samuel in sixth. 

Chris had been maneuvering his wounded Boba Fett around the confined Chamber for quite some time, but it was his alliance partner, Grant, who stabbed him in the back with a vicious Taunting card from Count Dooku.  Grant and Dooku won the last Duel and it looked like that might happen again as now there were only four Duelers left.  But Courtney was still crushing it with Palpatine and, at the perfect moment, she hit him with the You Will Die!  Now card-less, the vultures started circling and Alex's Zam sniped him for the kill.

And then there were three!  It looked like the obvious play would be for Courtney/Emperor and Alex/Jango to team up against Kaleb's Vader, who was the healthiest character left on the board.  But Kaleb managed to talk Alex over to his side and their combined efforts stunned Courtney in a third place finish.  Still, that was an incredible effort in just her second Duel!

The final battle between Vader and Jango was...wait for it...EPIC!  They traded shots back and forth before Vader charged to make a point-blank final attack.  Alex barely survived, and had to make the hard choice between retreating or going for the kill.  He went aggressive...and it worked!  Vader's defense cards were maxed and Alex, playing his sixth career game to turn professional, won his first Duel!!!  A big shout out to to Kaleb, too, who showed again why he's so dangerous with Darth Vader.

The final order of finish:

12.  Rob/Han Solo
11.  Riley/Mace Windu
10.  Stephen/Yoda
9.  Heidi/Darth Maul
8.  Ben/Anakin Skywalker
7.  Jonathan/Luke Skywalker
6.  Samuel/Obi-Wan Kenobi
5.  Chris/Boba Fett
4.  Grant/Count Dooku
3.  Courtney/Emperor Palpatine
2.  Kaleb/Darth Vader
1.  Alex/Jango Fett

But that's not all - read the next post for game two!