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Caylus
comes with lots of the colored wooden "bits" for which
Euros are known. |
Our finalists go for the gold.
Only Richard Meyer managed a return trip to the Final |
Steady as she goes, but needing
a new hand at the helm ...
In 2008 we repeated the 2007 format by only having two heats
instead of three. Attendances remained steady with a drop of
only one player. The Tuesday heat was well attended, accounting
for 36 of of the 43 total for the year. Wednesday, afternoon
drew 20 players, including seven new faces, but considerably
less than Tuesday night, probably due to conflicts with similar
Euros. The one difference was that we played all 4-player games
and eschewed 5-player matches. This seemed well received since
games can be finished in about two hours. We saw a wide range
in scoring with totals ranging from the 50's to 90s depending
on the strategy of the players.
The semi-finals filled four tables with the winners advancing
to the Final. Once again, only one of the finalists managed
to repeat, indicating that the field was very competitive. The
Final featured Mike Kaltman who squeezed by defending champion
Andy Gerb, Rich Atwater and Rod Davidson in a ridiculously close
semi-final by a 78-78-77-68 tally. This tie-breaker win was redemption
for Mike who was on the short end of a similarly close Final
at the last Euro Quest. Californian Sam Atabaki was the hot player
coming into the round scoring 106 in the heat and 92 points in
the semi. The last two seats were held by the always dangeous
father and son team of Jeff and Richard Meyers.
Richard took the early lead in the Final; 16 to Mike's 10,
Sam's 8 and Jeff's 7 after the Dungeon Phase. The game tightened
in the Castle Phase with Richard at 33, Sam 33, Mike 27 and Jeff
27. In the end, the hot hand won out as Sam beat Mike late in
the game with four batches to three to gain the critical late
favors. The Final score was Sam 90, Mike 74, Richard 73 and Jeff
65. This capped a very impressive run for Sam who averaged 96
points per game and a 12 point margin of victory.
From a strategy perspective in most games there was a battle
between the strong building favor technique and the early wood
building including the mason strategy. These two approaches were
used most often and to the best effect. However, the prestige
point favor track, money dominance and even the widely considered
weakest track resource track were used effectively.
For next year's event, I would recommend keeping the two-heat
format with Tuesday night and another TBD, but reducing the number
of semi-finalists to 16. At the present time, I am not planning
to GM this event in 2009 so anyone wishing to bring it back should
act accordingly.
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