Convention Co-Director JP Roberts presents Peter Putnam with a plaque for first place in the Caylus tournament. |
GM: Peter Putnam Ass't GM: Rod Spade |
| Total Participants: 25, Total
Games Played: 13
|
| Results |
| 1. Peter Putnam |
| 2. Raphael Lehrer |
| 3. Michael Kaltman |
| 4. Rod Spade |
| 5. Kevin Walsh |
| 6. Sam Atabaki |
|
| Schedule |
| Fri, 3:00PM |
(Demo) |
| Fri, 3:30PM |
(Prelim) |
| Sat, 4:00PM |
(Prelim) |
| Sun, 9:00AM |
(Prelim) |
| Sun, 12:30PM |
(Finals) |
|
|
Caylus was back for a 2nd year at Euroquest. This year’s attendance was up very slightly from 23 players and 10 games played in 2006 to 25 players and 13 games played in 2007. Everyone seemed very happy to see the format change to 3-4 player games for the heats rather than 4-5 player games. The final was the only 5 player game of the tournament. Caylus was set up as a 3 hour time slot but the combination of games with less players and having mostly experienced players reduced the average playing time to under 2 hours. I would recommend keeping this change for Euroquest and WBC and reducing the scheduling time down to 2 ½ hours.
There were 8 - four player games with the average winning score of 92 and 4 – three player games with the average score of 103 and 1 – five player game (the finals) with a winning score of 77.
This year four players (Rod Spade, Kevin Walsh, Raphael Lehrer and Peter Putnam) won 2 heats and automatically qualified for the finals. The fifth seat at the final table came down to heat #3 where Michael Kaltman and Sam Atabaki were matched up in a game that would decide who would go to the finals. In the end Michael Kaltman would score the highest single game score (123 points) and triumph over Sam Atabaki (who came all the way from California to play at Euroquest). However, thing worked out for Sam as he ended up winning the Puerto Rico Final. Also, just missing the final table was the WBC finals winner, Andrew Gerb who finished in 7th place and Alex Bove (8th place) who won in the 3rd heat but had the misfortune of being matched up in heat #2 against the #1 (Peter Putnam) and #2 (Tom DeMarco) best Caylus players from last years Euroquest.
The starting order for the finals was Peter Putnam 1st, Michael Kaltman 2nd, Kevin Walsh 3rd , Raphael Lehrer 4th and Rod Spade 5th. The game started with a fairly tough set up because the stone and cloth neutral production buildings were close to the provost. Michael started scoring early by building wood buildings using the carpenter. Later, Kevin opened up the stone building to everyone by building the stone mason. Rod build at the castle and started heading down the building favor track. Rapheal build the 1st stone production building but seemed to be playing the cube hording strategy. Peter got one favor and started down the prestige point track. The score after the dungeon phase Kevin 17, Michael 12, Rod 12, Peter 9 and Raphael 4.
The Provost was relatively quiet during the dungeon phase but became very active during the critical Wall Phase. During this phase Peter would shoot past the leaders by jousting most turns and taking points. In the mean time more stone building would come out and players jockeyed for gold and favors. The score after the wall phase Peter 32, Michael 30, Kevin 24, Rod 24 and Raphael 21.
The Castle phase went very quickly as the Provost moved forward almost every turn. Peter continued to build his lead by jousting almost every turn. With 2 turns left there was a mad rush for the castle as four players rushed to help finish King Philips castle. Michael, the last player to deliver batches on this turn decided to extend the game 1 more turn by not delivering the very last batch to King Philip and this gave him and the other players one last chance to catch Peter. Peter’s lead quickly evaporated on the last turn as Rod was able to build 2 prestige buildings (the statue and the granary) and Raphael was able to build a 14 point prestige building. Meanwhile, on the last turn Michael made the last castle delivery and horded 3 gold cubes (worth 9 points). The final score was incredibly close as Peter held on to win with 77 points, Raphael had 76, Michael had 76, Rod 68 and Kevin 54. The tie breaker between Raphael and Michael was decided by turn order at the end of the game.
From a strategy stand point, I’ve heard people complain that the building favor track is too strong in Caylus. This years Euroquest finals shows that Rod’s building favor track could be countered using one of the top 3 players strategy, Peter-Prestige Favor Track, Raphael-early cube hording strategy or Michael – early wood building strategy.
One final note, I’ve volunteered to GM Caylus at WBC so we’ll be changing the format to 3-4 player games. See you in August.
|