Birthday Surprise - October 5, 2017

Carbon Freezing Chamber

We did it!

Ian turned the big 3-0...THIRTY!  And we dropped a surprise Duel right on top of his old, decaying body.  AARP sponsored the match.  We told those pesky kids to get off his lawn.  It was great.

Diagonal shots are always the worst. 

We had two brand spanking new Duelers play for the first time, just to make Ian feel that much older.  Lydia, one of Ian's residents in Heritage, and Ben G., a Martin CL.  And speaking of Martin...that's where we played!  Our normal room in North Village was booked so we made coming over to Martin part of the birthday surprise ruse.  Poor Ian, he never saw it coming.

JD picked the number one chair and he got first crack at the board and characters.  He chose the dreaded Carbon Freezing Chamber.  He also grabbed Boba!  That was nice of him, to take a shooter out of the pick pile right out of the gate.  Everyone else grabbed their characters, introductions were made, and the Dueling commenced.

The first big action of the night was Curtis' Darth Vader dropping two Chokes on Jonathan's Padme.  Brutal!  Jonathan Wrathed Greedo with his Anakin in return, and Chris' Leia advanced and started shooting the dark side but it looked like the light side alliance was in early trouble...until Rob's Jango flipped!  Worried that Ian would die early on his birthday Duel, just like Curtis did on his (#neverforgetwhatryandid), Rob was determined to change the tide.  He used his Rocket Retreat and Assassination cards on Daniel's Count Dooku and relocated to the other end of the board.

Kerri's Yoda next played an Insight card on Lydia's Emperor and dumped her You Will Die Card!  But that wasn't enough to stop the dark side of the board from converging on an exposed Anakin.  Ben G. got his first career kill when his Maul took out Jonathan for 12th place.  Rob forgot to bring the Jar Jar trophy and Jonathan was glad that he did.

Classic Kerri and JD faces.

Chris' Leia died soon after that but he moved his Luke Skywalker towards the dark side nonetheless.  He took some damage but dropped two Justice cards on Ben G.'s Darth Maul!  The dark side was stunned, the light side laughed, and Ben took it all in stride.  Alex's Han Solo dropped a long distance attack to put Ben out in eleventh.  It was a tough break for a rookie Dueler, but hopefully Ben will be back again in the future!

Rob continued to ride Daniel's Count Dooku like a donkey, using Rocket Retreat, Wrist Cables, and Fire Up The Jet Pack against him.  He even took a moment in the middle of all that to publicly call for his son, Boba/JD, to defect with him.  But it was a sniper shot from Zam that finally ended Daniel's night in tenth.  With nine left to go Chris' Luke stunned the board by playing an I Will Not Fight You on Toby's Obi-Wan!  Though Toby was loyal to the light side his alliance partners felt like he needed to be doing more to pull his weight.  The light side agreed to go after Toby/Obi (that rhymes!) and Toby was stuck with his back against the wall.  That's when he dropped a Force Control and rearranged the board, a dangerous thing to do in the Carbon Freezing Chamber.

Han/Alex picked up another kill after Ian's Mace helped whittle down Toby in ninth.  But the rearranged board proved to be dire for Rob's Jango.  No longer hidden behind Chewbacca and Yoda, Curtis' Vader and Lydia's Emperor moved in on the Fett and killed him in eighth.  That was Jango's first finish out of the top five in almost a year, which is insane.

You can see the new gray hairs sprouting on Ian's head...

Curtis begged for his life to no avail, and he knew the writing was on the wall.  Ian's Mace clobbered him for seventh.  The rest of the board then turned their attention to Lydia's Emperor Palpatine.  Lydia hung tough, even Meditating twice, but she eventually succumbed to her wounds in sixth place.  That was a heck of a debut for Lydia, though.  Well done!

With the Emperor out we were left with five Duelers:  Kerri/Yoda, Chris/Luke, Ian/Mace, JD/Boba, and Alex/Han.  JD's Boba had spent his big attacks on the Emperor and Ian saw an opportunity to get rid of the bounty hunter.  It was then that JD's dark secret was revealed - of the eight cards he was holding...they were all Greedo!  And Greedo had been dead a long time!!  Mace took quick care of him after that.

Down to four, Chris made another unorthodox play by dropping I Will Not Fight You on Alex's Han...but Han didn't have any attack cards above 1!  He didn't drop anything!  Baby Skywalker was doomed and suffered the indignity of dying at the hands of Kerri's Clone Trooper.  Still, not a bad first appearance since last spring for Chris!

Ian can't read Alex's poker face.

And then there were three...  It became clear that Kerri's Yoda was the target.  Ian slyly carded up as he danced around the Chamber, trying to get into position to double whirlwind both Yoda and Han.  Alex stayed out of reach, though, and despite Yoda Force Lifting Mace Windu twice, Ian finally burned a Whirlwind to end Kerri's night in third.  That's the second game in a row for Kerri with a third place finish with Yoda!  She's moved into second place on the amateur rankings list.

Alex's Han and Chewbacca began their dance with Ian's Mace.  Their pot shots rained down while Mace slowly advanced, careful to stay high carded.  Alex managed to launch his second Bowcaster of the night, which definitely impacted Mace's health points.  He fought valiantly but Ian's expertise and strength of character were just too much.  As they both were on the bottom row of their health points Ian was able to drop a final attack on Alex, killing Han for the victory!  The birthday boy won!!!  Congrats to Ian, who picked up his fourth career victory.  That also marks Mace's fifth win, which ties him for second place on the character rankings.  And a big shout out to Alex too!  His second place finish with a shooter on the scariest board in the game was masterful.

Here's your final order of finish:

12.  Jonathan/Anakin Skywalker
11.  Ben G./Darth Maul
10.  Daniel/Count Dooku
9.  Toby/Obi-Wan Kenobi
8.  Rob/Jango Fett
7.  Curtis/Darth Vader
6.  Lydia/Emperor Palpatine
5.  JD/Boba Fett
4.  Chris/Luke Skywalker
3.  Kerri/Yoda
2.  Alex C./Han Solo
1.  Ian/Mace Windu

And tomorrow we do it all again!  Fight Night - Saturday, 8PM.  Come on by and watch!!!