T’was the month before Christmas..
Not a dice left unturned,
As the gamer’s life of Copenhagen,
Through cards and booze they burned!
The TO did’st Proclaim “Of humorous thematic,
A deck you each must build and bring,
If Prizes extra you do seek,
Wouldn’t you wanna add to your bling?”
A guess of wealth to Star Wars fandom,
As Jabbardy commenced,
The ones of Thrawn would stand as tall,
But before Rey’s Action cheating,
They ́d truly come to bend.
T’was the month before Christmas,
And a joyous one indeed,
When these gamers of Destiny,
From across the land would meet.
A meet with Destiny
On Friday November the 17th, 2017, a merry band of gamers gathered in “ASK – Analog board game Café” (Translated) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Their purpose? To roll dice and throw cards with a spirited theme.
To understand where this comes from, one will need to understand the Danish tendency towards ale, fish, beer, and roasted pork with a delicious brown sauce and caramelized potatoes. This is a Christmas tradition in our country, one that (or so legend holds) transcends time into the jule-tides of the Vikings, more than 1000 years ago. In modern days, it’s a great excuse to feast and have fun, usually involving loads of Snaps and delicious Danish-brewed beer! And so it was, that Vader himself (also known as Claus Staal) united with the crew of ASK and sent forth invitations: A Star Wars: Destiny themed Christmas dinner.
I showed up an hour early, and the mood was just in the right spot from the start. The café had a coziness to it, that is only definable by the Danish word “Hygge” (something more than cozy, like one would feel at home away from home).
The walls are wooden, as the stairs carry me below to the halls of Destiny. Here, the crew as led by the Papa and his son, had set up tables in white dishes and red napkins, with plenty of cups for snaps or whichever beverage one would desire. I was met by those preparing and those who were already playing games, as the proprietors explained to me about the vision for ASK, to support gaming communities that might one day run on their own.
As more participant arrived, we started playing around, discussing decks, the new meta, and having a few beers of introduction. Finally at 6.PM, Vader arrived with the food. In high spirits, they introduced the theme of tonight, along with a story. A story of how two people had sat down by these very tables almost a year ago. Of how the next week, they had gotten another to sit down with them, then another, and soon, more would come running. This was the tale of ASK, the largest Star Wars: Destiny hub in Denmark, and how it had come to this; that people had traveled for hours and hours to be present, because we all felt that we belonged.
As the speech ended, we applauded before finding our seats for the first tradition to commence: herring cooked in multiple ways, most commonly with either a vegetable-season mix or curry, on what we Danes call “Rugbrød” which is a kind of bread baked from Rye, much more filling that regular bread. We all sat down and discussed decks as we ate. The general consensus seemed to be that Qui-gon (AW37)/Kanan (EW33), Emoboyz and Bala (AW19)/Ciena (EW1)/Nightsister (AW12) would be the three big scary ones, followed closely by Palpatine (SR11) and some different Seventh Sister (EW10) builds. It was a good debate with many backs and forth, but overall a calm talk about what we thought.
The eating went on to the main course; the menu that I described earlier. Lots of toasts, to Vader, to Destiny, to Snaps, were tossed around – and the spirits were climbing even higher by the minute!
Post dinner, the TO, Casper Friis, decided that dessert could wait: it was time to bring out the decks and play our tournament.
Attack pattern Delta!
Format: I like to call it “Bait and Switch”, but I don’t think that’s official.
Concept: Each player brings a deck – preferably a thematic one. Setup and play as usual – but with a twist! Every five minutes, the TO calls “SWITCH!”, at which point each player moves to the right, taking over for the one next to them.
This meant that the game was kept at an incredibly swift pace, where we would constantly have to adapt to a new situation. Many of us had missed it when the TO had called out, how much time we would be playing, but that only further added to the excitement – because we couldn’t know, when we would be told to stop.
Sometimes the TO would call “SPRINT!” followed by a condition (such as dealing 6 damage in one resolution). The first player to accomplish the sprint would receive +1 point.
After 35minutes, we were told to stop. If we were placed at a deck that had won its ́ match, we would receive one point. By keeping tabs on our points, we would play two rounds of this format. The winners would receive prizes, sponsored by:
Feltherr gaming accessories, they donated a dice/deck bag in foam,
Buy-The-Same Token, donated a full play-set of tokens for the game.
The deck I had brought was “Broken Aspirations – Darth Vader (SR10) and Kylo Ren (AW11)”. It performed really well, winning both matches. However, I was constantly rotated to decks that had already lost their matches – so I ended up having a blast, while only scoring 0 points.
One deck I found really interesting from both a thematic and gameplay point of view, was Elite General Hux (EW 2) 
with two Tie Pilots (SR 4).This deck has some quick damage on the board, while using Hux ́ability to play events such as Fall Back (EW 120). I think the deck showed a lot of potential, and is definitely one I will have to revisit.
Another interesting construction was Elite Temmin “Snap” Wexley (SR 29) with 2 Wookie Warriors (EW 41) . The deck featured a lot of easy to play cards that relied upon claiming the battlefield, such as Planetary Uprising (SR 97) and Drop Zone (EW 126). The creator had chosen to use only two upgrades, which were two copies of Electrostaff (EW 47). This worked really well with the wookies, allowing them to do a lot of damage over a short amount of time.
Overall, I think that this format added a lot of interesting perspectives to the game, especially since we got to try a lot of cards that might not have seen any play normally.
The Esteemed Lord Jabba, The Hutt, finds this amusing…
Around 9.pm we were called to the bar area. A display connected to a laptop had been turned on, showing us the words “Jabbardy”, followed by a bunch of categories and points. It was time for another game. With Mathias Melgaard as the helmsman, we were divided into four teams – and since it was a Destiny-themed event, we would of course have special abilities.
Team Vader: You may choose one team. That team can not be the first to respond to a question this turn.
Team Jango: You may answer first this round, but if you can not answer correctly, you lose points.
Team Rey: Gain Priority and an advantage during Ambush rounds.
Team Thrawn: When another team would pick a category, write down one as well. If you wrote down the category that they chose, they lose 100 points.
We had several entertaining categories to choose from (see picture), but most enjoyable to me was “In the name of the Force!”, where we had to answer, which Star Wars characters ́name the hint was referring to.
As you might imagine, chaos quickly ensued. With people shouting horrible sounds (UTINI!), as no one had a buzzer system, everyone wanted to answer firstly. Team Jango did what Jango does best; they rolled out at every turn, until they were in negative 1000 points. Thrawn played the role of the steady control player, reducing opponent ́s points while slowly raising their own. Vader took to the aggro, using their ability to keep Jango in check, while also scoring a few points right.
Rey was the slow starter, slowly climbing her way upwards, answering only when she was certain that the answer was right. Suddenly Thrawn was about to win, answering questions after question in succession.
Then, we all felt it; there ́s been an awakening, as Rey remorselessly took question upon question and climbed to the near top. It was the final question. If anyone but Rey could get the right answer, Thrawn’s strategy would have worked, and he would stand victorious. But Rey reached out with the Force, and manipulated the poor Henchman; “you will choose my answer for the final question, and you will crown me the victor”, she muttered below her breath. The others watched in despair, as the Helmsmen fell beneath her Jedi Mind Trick and chose her for the question that would change the fate of the galaxy, and were forced into an applause as Rey proclaimed that “Who is Sheev Palpatine” was the name inspired by a god of destruction. And so, they partied Ewok style, until they had to leave (this might not be the most accurate description of what happened, but it gets the most of it).
All good things come to an end…
I myself had to leave for home because of family, but many of the others found their way to Sabine’s Caféteria (I know, the thematics, right?!) nearby, in which they sat down to play even more Destiny, spreading word of the force to the public! They even ran into a local journalist (Lars Werge, head of the Danish Journalist union – translated), who featured them on his Instagram profile (larswerge)!
Overall, we all had a fantastic evening, and I do believe that this is an event that might just become, another Danish Tradition.
Here as the final words, I would like to extend my thanks to:
The Utzons; Thank you for letting us use ASK, and for opening your arms to even us who has never visited before. You ́re doing a great job of helping building the gaming communities, and we all appreciate your efforts!
Tournament Organizer, Casper Friis; For providing such a great tournament. It was very nice to try something different, so keep up the good work man!
The Sponsors, “Feldtherr” and “Buy-The-Same Token”; I happened to be the winner of the tokens – and I really enjoy using them. The bags from Feldtherr are truly amazing, might have to get myself some of those in the future.
Mathias Melgaard, Organizer of Jabbardy; Thank you for the laughs! And for informing us how Steel is composed! As well as your overall great effort in managing and creating this wonderful form of edutainment.
Lord Vader, Claus Staal; You have been the strongest voice in the Danish Star Wars: Destiny community, almost from the beginning. You were part of the Nordics arranger team, you brought us to ASK, you keep reaching out and bringing in more people through sheer charisma. Claus, I hope you never leave this community, and thank you for an amazing event!
And Finally: The Danish Star Wars: Destiny community. I have played sooo many cards games, but never before have I encountered a community this great at adapting to the flow, of sparring and sharing, of laughing and drinking. It was amazing, and I look forward to many more times with you all.
And so, a Merry Christmas to all,
And to all,
A Good Game.
– Alexander H. Markland, The Chance Cube – A Star Wars: Destiny Network.
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