The Fall Brawl - September 21, 2024

Eravana Cargo Hold

It was supposed to be mentioned in the preview blog, but the 2024 Fall Brawl was a historic 12-way Duel for the league because it was our 150th battle!  You have to love big round numbers like that.  Here we are in season 11, still surpassing milestones.  I'm not crying...you're crying!

Smile if you're thinking about releasing the rathtars...

It was nice to be back in our old Dueling headquarters of the North Village Fine Arts Studio.  The room wasn't available to us last year, but setting up was just like slipping into a comfortable set of Mandalorian armor again.  It was much less comfortable playing the Eravana Cargo Hold board, and for two reasons:  RC and CJ - AKA - the two rathtars locked in storage, just waiting for a Dueler to release them into the wild!

Guess how long that took...

Run!!!

...it took no time at all.  Never change, you cutthroat Duelers!!

A lot of positioning for control of the center four squares of the board - the only four squares immune from the path of the rathtars - started just as the rathtars were released.  Connor/Death Trooper #1, Joe/Paz, and Kiera/Mace's Clonetrooper all made it to the middle.  Joe couldn't help it and let out RC, who immediately terrorized the light side of the board...which was Joe's side!  Some Duelers just want to see the world burn.

A secondary door opening by Kiera inadvertently left Alex G.'s Obi-Wan Kenobi open to multiple attacks.  He soon found himself tussling with numerous dark side operatives.  Alex lost a lot of momentum when he attacked James' The Stranger, only to lose an action to Kortosis Armor.  Grant/Tobias Beckett got the kill shot though with a brutal undefended Trust No One.  Alex wanted a third trophy for his collection...but not the Golden Jar Jar!

Duel Arm Rests

Joe's Armorer continued swinging and throwing her hammer and tongs, and there was no rhyme or reason to the violence.  This turned the light side of the board volatile.  It reached a fever pitch when Joe tangled on the board with his real life wife, Michaela/Bo-Katan!  In-fighting had left Bo-Katan weak, but it was quite the shock when Joe knocked out Michaela in eleventh.  We're looking for confirmation Joe spent the night on the couch...

Joe was pretty banged up, but he earned as many admirers as he did enemies with his loosey-goosey style of play.  In the end, though, James retired The Armorer in tenth with The Stranger's Force Blast, which all things considered, is a pretty cool way to go out.

What's behind door number two?

Curtis' Cad Bane was taking shots with his Pyke troopers, but he left the safety of the middle four squares to try and collect his bounty on Jonah's Fennec Shand.  Jonah had already lost Black Krrsantan, but he was able to put some surprise damage back on Curtis.  There was fresh blood in the water and Curtis' alliance started chomping at the bit.  Rob/General Grievous made a pact with James/The Stranger and they worked together on Cad.  Curtis was NOT happy about that betrayal.  James' minor character Mae used Deadly Daggers to send Curtis home in ninth.  Rob will try to make nice with him at lunch on Monday...if Curtis will sit with him.  To be continued...

Give credit to Jonah - he was an early target in the game and ignored his moral compass by betraying his light side alliance to push himself deeper into the night.  But when Grant/Beckett popped some shots, Fennec was damaged.  Kiera, whose Mace Windu had to navigate the light side collapse, exacted sweet revenge with a Whirlwind Attack.  Jonah was dust in the...whirlwind.

Bloody nose incoming...

With seven Duelers to go we were dealing with some chaos above the board.  First, poor Connor got a spontaneous bloody nose that was quite severe - Jillian had swung by to check on her dad Grant and played a couple of rounds for Connor while he went into the bacta tank.  Then, rookie Dueler Noah/Rey nervously broke the base of one of the eliminated MagnaGuards!  

But Rob finally called a pause to the game because something happened that had never been considered before when playing in the Eravana Cargo Hold.  By pure coincidence, Jordann's Darth Maul landed on the starting space of one of the rathtars and then was joined on that square by the CJ rathtar.  It was Rob's turn, and he realized, for his two actions, he could close both doors and trap Jordann/Maul with the rathtar!!!  How would that even work??  Would it be a four point attack on Darth Maul each round until a door was open?  Or two points of auto-damage!?!  We had to break out the Jedi Council on the spot to discuss the implications and render a ruling.  As you could imagine, Jordann was NOT happy that her game might be in jeopardy.  We ended with this decision: Jordann would not have reasonably stayed in that square, with the rathtar approaching, if she knew she could be locked there with a rathtar.  So Rob said he wouldn't close the doors but that, moving forward, if it happens again a character CAN be locked in with a rathtar and the rathtar would attack four on their turn until a door is open again or the character is eliminated!

Connor won his own personal Krennic deck.  Game used.

Once that ruling was administered, it was back to Dueling.  Kiera had done a heck of a job to survive the light side implosion, but despite trying to put the target on Rob/Grievous, she found no allies.  James added to his trophy collection with a Trakata Attack.  Kiera took out her homework to be productive while cheering on fellow BRC-er Jordann.

The lone light side character left at that point was Noah, who was playing his first-ever Duel and flying by the seat of his pants trying to avoid rathtars.  One ended up eating his minor character Finn!  Connor decided to spill somebody else's blood instead of his own and blasted Rey with Hero of the Empire.  Noah - you played great!  A top-six finish in your first Duel, on the most complex board in the league - well done!

CJ headed straight for Darth Maul

With five to go, the melee characters had a softly spoken understanding they weren't too keen on working with the shooters (Grant/Beckett and Connor/Krennic) any longer.  That was tough for Connor, who had worked very closely with James/The Stranger all night.  Before the board could eliminate Krennic, though, Connor managed to play Peace and Security, which dumped everyone's hands.  James stayed aggressive, though, and used a four point attack to finally let Connor go to an urgent care.

Rob/Grievous was moving to engage Grant/Beckett when out of nowhere, his alliance partner Jordann/Maul stabbed him in the back with an attack!  Rob was equally miffed and impressed by the blind side.  That basically turned the table into two teams:  Rob and James vs. Grant and Jordann.  But Grant was well protected by closed doors and the repeating loops of the rathtars, forcing Jordann to fight on two fronts.  She couldn't sustain that and James once again used Trakata Attack for the kill.  Jordann has a nice run of high finishes going right now!

It takes two to make a thing go right.

After many hours of Dueling Rob finally needed a bathroom break, knowing good and well Grant would try and persuade James to team with him against Rob.  Rob did a lot of the heavy lifting against Grant since James had done a lot against Maul.  Grant was on his last points of health, pleading with James to let him weaken Rob, but James stuck to his alliance and delivered the kill shot.  Grant was out in third, and we had a Sith-tacular final two of The Stranger vs. General Grievous!

Rob had agreed to card up a round before attacking James when James agreed to off Grant.  With that stipulation, Grievous retreated to the middle four squares on the board just in time to play Reinforcements!  Grievous' minor characters had been a nuisance for many throughout the night, and now The Stranger was going to have to cut through them to get to Rob.  This cat and mouse game lasted a long time, but Rob was able to slowly weaken The Stranger.  James fought valiantly, and even surprised Rob with a Kortosis Armor, but the prequel villain finally laid down a five point attack to win the night!  James is still just an amateur Dueler, but that second place finish was awesome, as was his kill count on the night.  But in the 150th Duel in league history, it would be Rob's night, marking his 30th career win.  That's gross!

Final order of finish:

12.  Alex G./Obi

11.  Michaela/Bo-Katan

10.  Joe H./The Armorer

9.  Curtis/Cad Bane

8.  Jonah/Fennec

7.  Kiera/Mace

6.  Noah C./Rey

5.  Connor A./Krennic

4.  Jordann/Maul

3.  Grant D./Beckett

2.  James/The Stranger

1.  Rob/General Grievous

Next month is extremely busy, but it looks like we can squeeze in the October Duel - FIGHT NIGHT - on Friday, October 4th, at 7PM.  Rob will send out official invites soon.  Until then...here's to the next 150 12-way Duels!  PEW PEW!

A New Hope - January 14, 2023

 

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!

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!!!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

Doubleheader #1 - August 28th, 2021

 

Trash Compactor

After a couple of hiccups leading up to the Doubleheader (the round table we ordered wasn't delivered and we had a couple of late Dueler switches), it was a welcome relief when all 12 Duelers were able to sit around the square table to take in the frightening glory of the Trash Compactor.  Not only do the walls close every time three main characters die, there's also the dianoga, who randomly swims under the surface to pull people down for two points of damage!

 

Let the games begin!

Out of the gate it looked like it would be the six light side characters versus the six dark side characters.  There were some real heavy hitters on both teams.  The dianoga did some early damage to Yoda and Boba Fett, while the minor characters began peppering the opposite sides of the board.  The first major move was when Ian, playing as Supreme Leader Snoke (which he joked was appropriate considering how many of his CLs were playing), decided to use Tied To A String.  The debate was whether to bring Rob's Mace or Grant H.'s Qui-Gon.  Rob got pressured into aligning with the dark side at the expense of Grant getting pulled into a kill box.  But Ben's Obi-Wan Kenobi saved the day with a Force Control.  His post-attack movement disrupted the dark side and freed Qui-Gon.  Rob immediately went back on his word and stayed loyal to the light side.

A lot of damage was exchanged throughout this early stage, but it would be poor Qui-Gon who fall first.  At least Jar Jar dropped the Booma Bombad on the dark side before he departed!  Grant H. was bummed.  Qui-Gon has finished last in three of his four Duels!

The tide broke in favor of the light side when brand new Dueler Jared used his Thermal against the dark side and Rocket Retreated with Boba to the light.  Riley's Chewbacca also blasted Grant D.'s Beckett with the Bowcaster.  Grant exacted revenge, though, when Val used the Grappling Gun and It's Been A Ride Babe card to do major damage on Boba and Han.  The light side was eager to close the walls to possibly catch Duncan's Emperor off-guard, so Ben eliminated the wounded Boba in 11th, much to Jared's surprise.  Welcome to Dueling, Jared!  

Elliot's Dooku was super grumpy at that point, and he moved forward in an effort to help protect the Emperor and Beckett.  But his loyalty proved to be his downfall when the light side went after him.  Rob's Mace got the kill shot to move the walls in.  Unfortunately for Grant's Beckett, he was displaced on the back line and got smashed to death in 9th!

Future Pancakes

At this point Riley's Han Solo was in bad shape post-Val's explosion, and Duncan's Emperor was low carded and vulnerable.  Rob's Mace moved in to attack Emperor, but the devious Ian hatched a plan.  He suggested to Curtis that they work together to Force Push/Force Lightning Rob's Mace and Evan's Rey to the back row, and then kill Emperor and Han to squish Mace and Rey before they could move.  And that's just what they did!  Han got leveled by Yoda's Force Strike in 8th, and JD's Grievous used Cruelest Stroke to eliminate Duncan in 7th.  As a result...Evan/Rey and Rob/Mace tied for 5th, crushed by the walls!

Ben and Ian trying to make it to the center row.

Those two auto-kills put Curtis/Yoda and JD/Grievous in the driver's seat, as they were now overtly working together against Ben/Obi and Ian/Snoke.  They concentrated their efforts on Obi, much to Ben and Ian's chagrin.  They tried to convince JD his Grievous had no chance against Yoda at the end.  But JD was confident, and his Whirling Arms killed Old Ben in 4th.  That shut the walls AGAIN...killing Ian's Snoke!

Snack time for the dianoga!

Curtis' Yoda was stacked, holding his three best defense cards as well as a Lift or two.  But two key things happened next, with only four spaces left on the board.  First, JD played Reinforcements, which trapped Yoda and buffered him from Grievous.  Second...the dianoga went to town on Yoda!  For four straight rounds he dragged Yoda under the water for two points of damage!!!  Curtis was livid and convinced the random number generator was broken (it wasn't).  The dianoga eventually hit Grievous a couple of times too.  Yoda and Grievous went back and forth, but JD was able to dump the big defense cards, and he eventually caught Curtis without defense.  He attacked twice...and won!!!  JD, playing in only his second Duel, and following up a 3rd place debut...WON!!!  He's also the first player to win with General Grievous.  Most importantly, he could finally eat tacos.  (Rob ordered tacos for everyone, but you weren't allowed to eat them until you died or the game was over - to speed things up!)

Let's check that final order of finish one more time!

12.  Grant H./Qui-Gon Jinn

11.  Jared/Boba Fett

10.  Elliot/Count Dooku

9.  Grant D./Beckett

8.  Riley/Han Solo

7.  Duncan/Emperor Palpatine

T5.  Rob/Mace Windu

T5.  Evan/Rey

4.  Ben/Obi-Wan Kenobi

3.  Ian/Supreme Leader Snoke

2.  Curtis/Yoda

1.  JD M./General Grievous

Well done everyone!  But this was only the FIRST Duel of the night....onto game 2!