Doubleheader #2 - August 26, 2017

Emperor's Throne Room

It was no small miracle that the second Duel of the night started by 9:30.  Austin peaced out, Ryan took his place, and Elijah couldn't be late because he was already here.

Our tradition now for the second game of the Doubleheader is to make things dorkier than possible.  To go farther past Dork Town than folks knew you could travel.

We play with Legos!

That's right, Ryan, our master architect, once again brought his Lego creations to take the place of our normal game board and figurines.  He intended to use the Kamino layout but with a Hoth overlay.  Unfortunately he didn't quite have enough pieces to make it work, so he went back to his masterpiece from last year - the Emperor's Throne Room:

Don't ask us why we own more Legos now as grown adults than we did as kids.  Just embrace the nerdery!  Seriously, though, look at that thing.  It's so awesome!!!

As you can tell by the picture of Duelers to the left, folks weren't playing any games this time around, they were getting serious.  I mean yes, technically, we were all still playing a game (and toys now too), but the gloves were off!  Or folks were tired and just wanted to get this thing over with.  Or they were hopped up from a second infusion of yoda soda.

Ryan grabbed chair number one, just like the man he replaced (Austin).  Curtis suggested a "grand reveal," meaning we all opened our character envelopes at the same time.  Three folks were stunned to see they were playing with the same character again!  Grant had Boba, Stephen had Maul, and JD got Luke!  JD was really excited about it, too.  I mean, over the moon ecstatic.  Who wouldn't be - he's the only character to never win a 12-Way in our league!

Trick Shot McGee

Rob, fresh off his Jango victory in game one, got Obi-Wan for game two and became the immediate target of the dark side alliance.  Ryan's Vader Threw Debris and soon others followed suit.  The light side was stuck on what to do.  JD stalled as he struggled to decide whether to flip or not.  Elijah's Anakin was trapped behind Ethan's Han, who couldn't move for risk of getting hit again by the dark side shooters.  Andrew's Mace was jammed behind Luke, and Kerri's Yoda was in the far corner, hoping nobody paid her any attention.

As Obi-Wan's health continued to dwindle he got bolder.  He decided to play a Force Control and move everyone around the board up to three spaces.  Suddenly Jedi and Sith lords were face to face in the center of the board while the dark side shooters were relegated to the back.  Rob conveniently moved himself into the back corner.

In the ensuing chaos it would be Ethan's Han Solo, and not Rob's Obi-Wan, who would die first.  Stephen's Darth Maul sliced him down for the second game in a row.  Elijah's Anakin Skywalker fell soon after.  Vader had already Choked Padme out of the game and Nathan's Jango put the final laser into is poor Lego body, sending Elijah home in 11th place.  But, there was fun news!  After almost a year and a half off, Elijah reached professional status as the second game was the sixth of his career.  Congrats Elijah!

"You get an 'I Will Not Fight You,' and you get
an 'I Will Not Fight You'..."

Rob was down to one card, sitting in the back corner.  JD's Luke and Leia flipped before Obi played Force Control, and they were the only ones from the dark side alliance who could move in on Rob.  He pleaded for Kerri to move her Yoda directly in front of him so JD couldn't attack.  But instead of doing that, she Force Lifted him!  It was crushing for Rob, who was going to play his last card next - Force Balance!  The remaining ten players all would have discarded their hands and picked three new cards.

From there JD really wrecked shop.  He played three straight "I Will Not Fight You" cards on Andrew/Mace, Nathan/Jango, and, most comically, Grant's Boba Fett.  Those three were all weakened and the rest of the board pounced.  Kat's Count Dooku moved in on Mace and sent Andrew packing in ninth place.  Boba was next to go, he dropped nearly his entire hand thanks to young Luke Skywalker and Ryan used a Storm Trooper to put on the kill shot.  Boba wouldn't be winning his own trophy this night.

Kerri fell asleep with her eyes open

That left seven Duelers on the board, all more or less in the same alliance.  Kat tried to take charge by going after Stephen's Darth Maul.  But Ryan/Vader, Curtis/Emperor, and Nathan/Jango wouldn't follow suit.  Abandoned, Kat suffered a barrage of Maul attacks and petered out in seventh.  But Kat made a heck of a splash in her first two games!

With six to go it looked like Kerri/Yoda and JD/Luke were next to depart, but Curtis flipped his Emperor with a Royal Guard to join them on the other side of the board, and Stephen's Maul jumped in too!  It was a stunning turn of events for Ryan's Vader, who looked like he was well on his way to the final two.  He wasn't easy to topple, but the Emperor finally eliminated the Lego mastermind in sixth.

That made it the new alliance of four against Nathan's Jango.  But Curtis was badly wounded and increasingly paranoid about his vulnerability to attacks and the intentions of his teammates.  Nathan's Jango was proving to be elusive to target so the alliance eventually chose to eat one of their own.  Curtis retired in fifth place when Luke struck him down.  Not a bad night for Curtis, who got a 4th and 5th place finish.

Kerri/Yoda, Stephen/Maul, and JD/Luke were resolute in their agreement that Nathan had to go next.  But over the course of the next HOUR (I wish I was exaggerating...) Jango couldn't be defeated as he continually minimized the angles by which the others could attack.  Nathan's strategy was to wait it out, plant seeds of doubt with his verbal shenanigans, and hope they would turn on each other.

It worked.

Kerri, sleep deprived and wanting to go home, twice nearly attacked JD's Luke.  JD, meanwhile, was increasingly skeptical that Stephen's Maul was contributing enough to the hunt for Jango.  JD finally cracked, and went after Maul.  Stephen was outraged and Nathan was smirking while Luke and Maul exchanged blows.  That's a fight Luke won't normally win, and JD found himself in fourth place.

Nathan's second trophy, and Jango's second
win of the night!

Kerri's Yoda was helping JD against Darth Maul, and so the best offensive player in the game went to battle with the best defensive player in the game.  It was a sight to behold, and Nathan took advantage by taking pot shots at Yoda while Stephen dwindled his attack cards against Kerri.  Kerri eventually ran out of defense and finally came to rest in third.  What an outstanding finish for the rookie Dueler in only her second career game!

Nathan couldn't believe the turn of events, and celebrated with a Missle Launch right into Maul's gut to win the game!  This is Nathan's fourth career victory and his second trophy, the other one coming at January's A New Hope match.  And how about Stephen!!!  Two second place finishes with Darth Maul in the same night!  In his last four Doubleheader games he's finished second, first, second, and second!

Finally...Jango Fett!  He won BOTH Duels on the night and is now in a three-way tie for most career victories with six.

How does he keep doing it!?!?

Final order of finish:

12.  Ethan/Han Solo
11.  Elijah/Anakin Skywalker
10.  Rob/Obi-Wan Kenobi
9.  Andrew/Mace Windu
8.  Grant/Boba Fett
7.  Kat/Count Dooku
6.  Ryan/Darth Vader
5.  Curtis/Emperor Palpatine
4.  JD/Luke Skywalker
3.  Kerri/Yoda
2.  Stephen/Darth Maul
1.  Nathan/Jango Fett

Ok - it took me all day to get all the stats and the blog updated, I'm going to sleep!  Check your email for the next invite - September's "Fall Brawl."  Tentative date is the 16th - more details and the official invite to come.

Thanks to everyone who played at the Doubleheader!

"Wonder Fett powers - activate!"

Lego Carbon Freezing Chamber

Doubleheader #2 - August 27, 2016 (featuring Legos!)

The Emperor's Throne Room

We promised a big surprise for this year's Doubleheader...and we think it was pretty cool!  For months a group of us dreamed of playing a Duel with Star Wars Legos, and we finally pulled it off! Though Curtis and Rob provided a bit of help with the figures, Ryan undertook the herculean task of not only finding all 31 characters needed, but actually reconstructing one of the game boards!  For that reason, instead of randomly picking a board for game two, we chose one ahead of time to give Ryan a chance to build it.  AND HE DID AN AWESOME JOB.

There are a lot of little details Ryan accounted for in both the characters and the board itself.  My favorite part of the Throne Room were the steps leading to an actual throne!  At the start of the game the Emperor is actually sitting in it.  Ryan used a dry erase marker to recreate the squares necessary for movement, lines of attack, etc.  The characters had cool distinctions too, like Clone Troopers with different cape types to distinguish if they were a main character's first or second minor character.  Ryan even added some non-Duels characters as spectators on the sidelines!  At one point he even considered raising the board a couple of inches and cutting out the sections that represented the open chasm the bridges cross.  Maybe next time...?

Still smiling, but getting more tired...

With the second game of the Doubleheader starting at close to 10PM, folks weren't in the mood for messing around.  Nathan took it upon himself to get the party started.  Having the misfortune of drawing Boba Fett twice in the same night, he finally got to play a Thermal Detonator, chucking it towards Vader/Stevie and the Emperor/Grant and then Rocket Retreating behind Mace Windu/Donald on the other end of the board.  This made the dark side angry, which is a scary thing to do. Stevie Threw Debris and Wrathed Boba, Stephen/Jango Fired Up The Jet Pack, used his flamethrower on Boba, and then pulled off his own retreat back to the Dark Side.  Soon after Grant used Force Lightning to fry Nathan in last place.  It was a tough night for Nathan, who finished tenth and last, both with the worst ranked character in the game, but it still wasn't worse than poor Ian.  Still stinging from last place in the first game of the night, Ian valiantly tried to hold the light side together after Ryan/Luke and Obi/Joel defected for the dark side.  Joel twice used his Obi-Wan attack that moved everyone around the board up to three spaces and Ian's Anakin got surrounded.  Grant played his "You Will Die" card on Anakin too, just for good measure, and Zam put him out of his misery.  Not a good night for Ian, but he'll bounce back the next time - you can't keep a good Dueler down!

Legos who die in Duels have to sit in timeout.

Heidi was creating some havoc for the light side.  She marched her Chewbacca all the way down to a corner on the dark side and Bowcasted the Emperor, putting eight points of damage on Grant.  Chewie got trapped there, though, and could no longer defend Han, who got caught in the crossfire and ceased to exist after Jango shot him, earning 10th place for the night.

Grant, still bleeding out with two points of health left, couldn't find his healing Meditation card.  It cost him his life, because the dark side decided they didn't want the Emperor to proceed in the game.  Rob/Dooku Force Pushed Curtis/Maul to the back row to kill Grant.  Grant finished ninth, but still had a victory to bask in from game #1.

With four dead relatively quickly, the game came to a screeching halt.  The alliance of six were firmly against Yoda/Dalton and Mace/Donald, but it took a loooooooong time to whittle them down.  Ryan's Leia finally put a blaster shot on Yoda good for 8th, and Jango collected yet another trophy by ousting Mace in seventh.  Dalton has improved in all three of his Duels, and Donald had a respectable night with 5th and 7th place showings.

With that bit of business finally done there were six to go, and five of them agreed that Stevie's Darth Vader was in much too good of shape to stick around any longer.  A coordinated attack ended Stevie's night, with the finally volley of death delivered by a "Does Not Count As An Action" barrage from Curtis/Maul.  Stevie finished in the top half of both Duels - not too shabby!

Your final two.

The final five, seeing Curtis was low-carded, knew it was time for his exit.  As the attacks came Curtis was having NONE of it.  He staged one of the most passionate filibusters in league history, but in the end, couldn't talk his way out of fifth place.  It was a nice recovery for Curtis after his game one showing.

With four to go Rob/Dooku suggested going after Jango/Stephen, pointing out how dangerous it is to let Jango survive this late in a game, especially on a board he can run around out of reach.  Joel/Obi was too scared by Dooku, though, and went in on Rob.  Rob quickly changed his tune and he, along with Ryan/Luke and Stephen/Jango, coordinated their cards against Obi-Wan.  Joel came to rest in fourth place, another awesome finish on the night for the Dueling rookie!

Rob liked his chances against Jango more than Luke, so the original three person alliance eroded as Dooku tried to get the jump on young Skywalker.  But Dooku was too damaged and ran out of defense cards as Luke dropped a five-point attack to eliminate Rob in third.  At that point it was Luke and Leia vs. Nathan, who incredibly was in his second "final two" of the night!  With Leia still alive Ryan couldn't heal Luke or use his "Justice" cards.  Jango inched him closer to death but a late run of Leia attack cards started to even up the damage.  Just as he was getting within range of finishing second for the second time that night, he finally shot Luke and claimed his first ever victory!  It was an awesome feeling for Stephen, who had been kicking himself for letting the first game of the night get away from him.  A tip of the hat goes to Ryan too!  The primary Lego architect played a great game with Luke.  Luke has finished second in three of the last four Duels!

"Jango Fett vs. Obi-Wan Kenobi:
The Epic Duels box cover reinterpreted"
by Riley Engblom, age 8

The final order of finish:

12.  Boba/Nathan
11.  Anakin/Ian
10.  Han/Heidi
9.  Emperor/Grant
8.  Yoda/Dalton
7.  Mace/Donald
6.  Vader/Stevie
5.  Maul/Curtis
4.  Obi-Wan/Joel
3.  Dooku/Rob
2.  Luke/Ryan
1.  Jango/Stephen

Jango now has four career victories, and is just one behind Darth Vader for the lead.  The next Duel is the "Fall Brawl," we're looking at mid-September for that one.  Stay tuned and thanks to everyone who played and/or reads the blog!!!