yspahan  

Updated Nov. 23, 2012

2012 WBC Report  

 2013 Status: pending December 2012 Membership Trial Vote

Rob Kircher, RI

2012 Champion

Event History
2008    Nate Hoam     42
2009    Cally Perry     49
2010    Andy Latto     38
2011    Eric Freeman     39
2012     Rob Kircher     46

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rob Kircher        RI    12     36
  2.  Andy Latto         MA    11     28
  3.  Eric Freeman       PA    12     22
  4.  Cally Perry        MA    09     20
  5.  Nate Hoam          OH    08     20
  6.  Tim Mossman        MD    12     16
  7.  Chris Yaure        PA    10     12
  8.  Rob Flowers        MD    09     12
  9.  JR Tracy           NY    08     12
 10.  Jeff Mullet        OH    12      8
 11.  Alfred Smith       NC    10      8
 12.  Daniel Eppolito    NV    09      8
 13.  Scot Palenshus     OH    08      8
 14.  Keith Galbraith    PA    12      6
 15.  Deb Yaure          PA    11      6
 16.  Henry Dove         MD    10      6
 17.  Davyd Field        SC    09      6
 18.  Chris Trimmer      TX    08      6
 19.  Mike Kaltman       PA    12      4
 20.  Eric Brosius       MA    10      4
 21.  Paul Bean          MA    08      4
 22.  Rob Kilroy         PA    11      2
 23.  Bob Wicks          CT    10      2
 24.  Eugene Hourany     CA    09      2
 25.  Matt Peterson      MN    08      2

2012 Laurelists                                         Repeating Laurelists:

Tim Mossman, MD
2nd

Jeff Mullet, NJ
3rd

Keith Galbraith, PA
4th

Mike Kaltman, PA
5th

Eric Freeman, PA
6th

Past Champions

Nate Hoam, OH
2008

Cally Perry, MA
2009

Andy Latto, MA
2010

Eric Freeman, PA
2011

Rob Kircher, RI
2012

Thomas Morris, Bob Wicks, Curt Collins and Nick Henning

Ashley Kilroy and William Herbst

The Kilroys Were Here!

Players in Yspahan enjoy the game, but the Kilroys made it a family event with Kathy, Ashley, Stephanie and Rob playing in the Mulligan and Rob and Kathy continuing in the next heat (Stephanie won her Mulligan game). I hope they all come back next year. Speaking of coming back, 34 of our 46 players played more than once.

Yspahan is a great, short gateway game that also has a lot of depth. Some games had extremely high scores for the winner. That usually occurred when two of the corner souks (barrel and sack OR barrel and vase) were held allowing two tokens to go to the caravan for most of a week or even two. In some cases, the cards obtained fed the player the camels needed to keep the souks occupied. Its pretty frightening for the other players. Don't let it happen to you!

In the Final, that was harder to achieve, at least for more than one of the game's three weeks.

The Yspahan Final demonstrates expert play and a variety of strategic options in use. The initial turn order (and seating) were: Rob Kircher, Jeff Mullet, Keith Galbraith, Tim Mossman. Three were first-time YSP finalists.

Week 1
Day 1:
Rob takes a card, Jeff, too and uses it for a move to the caravan. Keith takes a Camel. Tim takes a card
Day 2: Jeff gets to place four pieces in the vase district for 16 points. Keith takes a camel & builds the paddock. Tim and Rob take a card.
Day 3: Keith takes two camels and builds the shop. Tim takes two gold and uses a card to convert them to camels and builds the shop. Rob takes barrels, builds the corner souk and plays camel and coin cards to build the caravanserai. Jeff builds the sack corner. Three different players have the corners for this week.
Day 4: Tim takes a card. Rob moves the supervisor with gold and moves a non-corner piece to the caravan for two points and a card. Jeff takes a card. Keith takes a card and plays it for caravan placement (two points).
Day 5: Rob takes three gold and cashes in a camel card to build the hammam. Everyone else takes a card.
Day 6: Jeff takes three camels (using a card for one) and builds the caravanserai with the card for a build without coins. Keith takes four gold. Tim takes a card. Rob moves the supervisor to the corner of sack and barrel, moving he and Jeff to caravan. Jeff goes first for a card and two points, then Robb (who saves his piece with a camel) for a card and two points.
Day 7: Keith builds a souk in the coffin district (three pieces for six points). Tim takes three gold and using a card builds the caravanserai with no camels. Rob sends his last piece to the caravan for a card and a point. Jeff takes a card & uses it with gold to build the hammam.

End of Week 1

 Scoring

Rob

Jeff

Keith

Tim

 Previous

5

4

2

0

Caravan

6

2

1

0

Souks

0

16

6

0

Total

11

22

9

0


Jeff has an early lead with his vase build and Tim is biding his time and collecting cards and buildings. Notice that of 21 total moves, 13 were to take a card.

Week 2
Day 1:
Tim discards a card and takes four camels, then plays a card to place in the barrel district corner souk. Rob takes four sack dice, building the corner souk and starting the 8-point souk. Keith and Jeff take cards.
Day 2: Rob takes five camels using a card for one and builds the paddock for five points (16) and then plays a card to place on the corner of the vase district. Jeff places three pieces in the sack district, starting the 6-point souk. Keith takes a card and turns in a card for three camels to build the caravanserai for five points (14). Now everyone gets a card whenever they move to the caravan. Tim takes a card and plays cards for camels and gold, building the ship for five points.
Day 3: Jeff rolls four 5s but uses them to move the supervisor and go to the caravan for one point (23). Keith and Tim take a card. Rob moves the supervisor to go to the caravan for one point.
Day 4: Keith places three in the barrel district and uses a card to complete the 6-point souk. Tim places two in the casket district to complete the 4-point souk. Rob moves the supervisor 0 and pays a camel to keep his piece on the souk starting row 3 of the caravan. Jeff moves the supervisor taking his piece to the caravan and uses a card for another move to the caravan.
Day 5: Tim moves the supervisor and pays a camel.

The full caravan score.

 Scoring

Rob

Jeff

Keith

Tim

 Previous

16

23

14

5

Caravan

15

15

1

3

Total

31

38

15

8

Rob moves the supervisor and pays a camel to start the caravan for two points (33). Jeff takes a card. Keith takes three gold and builds the hammam for five points (20).
Day 6: Rob rolls five barrels and builds the 8-point souk and uses a card to move to the caravan for two points (35). Jeff takes a card and uses it to move to the caravan for two points (40). Keith takes a card. Tim moves the supervisor and pays a camel for two points (10).
Day 7: Jeff takes two camels to build the paddock for five points (45). Keith takes four gold and uses them with a 3-camel card and a camel to build the bazaar for five points (25). Tim plays a card for three camels and then moves the supervisor and pays a camel to go to the caravan for one point (11). Rob moves the supervisor, removing a piece from the 6-point sack souk to the caravan for one point (36).

 Scoring

Rob

Jeff

Keith

Tim

 Previous

36

45

25

11

Caravan

6

1

0

4

Souks

15

0

6

4

Total

57

46

31

19

Rob takes the lead by doing well in both caravan and souk points in Week 2.

Week 3
Day 1:
Keith builds four in the barrel district, completing the 3-point souk and starting the 8-point souk. Tim gets five gold with a card and builds the hoist for five points (24) and uses a card to place in the vase corner souk. Rob places two in the 4-point coffin souk using a card. Jeff takes a card.
Day 2: Tim uses the die in vase area with card and the hoist to build the 12-point souk. Rob builds the 6-point coffin souk, adding a card. Jeff builds the 3-point sack souk with a card added. Keith finishes the 8-point barrel souk using a card.
Day 3: Rob fills the 4-point barrel souk and puts 1 on the road in the 6-point souk. Jeff moves the supervisor, taking one from the sack souk to the caravan for one point (47). Keith takes a card. Tim moves the supervisor using the corner vase to the caravan for one point (20) spending a camel to keep the souk.
Day 4: Jeff moves the supervisor taking his other non-corner piece to the caravan from sack. Keith moves the supervisor to take a non-corner piece to the caravan from the barrel souk. Tim moves the supervisor to take the barrel and vase corners to the caravan. Tim spends a camel to save his vase souk. The caravan scores, but Rob is not in the top row this time!

 Scoring

Rob

Jeff

Keith

Tim

Start

57

47

31

25

Caravan

6

9

6

12

Total

63

56

37

37

Rob moves the supervisor taking a piece from the 6-point barrel souk to the caravan for two points (65).

Day 5: Keith takes three camels and plays a card to place on the caravan for two points (39). Tim plays a card to swap two gold for camels and then moves the supervisor for a double move to the caravan from both barrel and vase corners, throwing in two camels to keep the souks for four points (41). Rob takes a die from the coffin placing two on street shops of the 8-point souk using a card. Jeff takes a card.
Day 6: Tim moves the supervisor to the barrel and sack corner. Jeff (57) and Tim (42) go to the caravan for one point each and neither has camels to save the shop. Jeff is first and they take the last cards. Tim plays a card for three camels, then builds the paddock for five points (47). Rob takes three camels. Jeff takes a card and plays a card for three camels and another to build, without coins, the shop for five points (62). Keith takes a card and plays the coin to camel card for one conversion then four camels to points for eight points (47).
Day 7 (with 4-player turn order in reverse of score): Keith with one yellow die, rolls four die in sack and with his last card fills the 6-point souk.
Tim takes gold to complete all his buildings for ten points (58).
Jeff takes three camels and builds the bazaar with no gold for five points (67). He uses two cards to move two to the caravan for two points (69). He uses another card to score his last camel for two points (71). He has two cards for six coins and his last card turns them into six points (77).
Rob takes the barrel die to move the supervisor and moves from the 8-point coffin souk to the caravan. He plays a card for three camels. Another card converts them to gold and his last card scores five points for gold (70).

 Scoring

Rob

Jeff

Keith

Tim

 Start

70

77

48

58

Caravan

6

6

1

6

Souks

20

0

18

20

Final

96

83

67

84

And now for a boring statistical summary of all game results:

Finish

High

Low

Average

Median

1

168

73

100.8

94

2

96

67

82.4

84.5

3

87

60

72.7

71.5

4

75

42

60

60.5

Jason Arvey and Kevin Wojtaszczyk

Chris Palermo, Eric Freeman, Deb Yaure and Blair Morgen

 GM      Richard M. Shay (2nd Year)  72 Fulton St., Norwood, MA 02062  
    rshay@me.com   NA

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