CONSCRIPTS! 10th May to 12th May 2019, Nedensdorf, GERMANY

The Magnus

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Feel free to pass on the message to the Wallenbergs and the Bonniers. I'm sure they will answer you.
Why would I even contemplating contacting somebody from the Wallenberg or Bonnier families? Are they God Almighty?

The Wallenbergs and Bonniers can vote in the upcoming EU election with exactly one vote per adult family member. So can I. And so I will.
 

Mister T

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Personally, I much prefer our tournament mode. It doesn't penalize players without the time and leisure (or inclination) for week long preparations, and it doesn't give the stronger player yet another advantage. We have a more level playing field this way, and that adds to the fun and excitement.
Personally I do like blind rounds. However i think they tend to favor more experienced players. While the "resistance coefficient" of players tends to be relatively homogeneous with some prep, it is my experience that some players can "explode" (making fatal blunders) when facing new scenarios which of course leads to a pretty unsatisfactory outcome for both sides, winner or loser. It also means longer setup times, unless fixed times are strictly enforced (this may be possible in Germany but not elsewhere). I think the Supporting Fire tournament found astute ways to propose an attractive package and i encourage you to have a look at it, FWIW.

Taking about "level playing field" when the one who selects all the blind scenarios wins the event is probably a stretch, don't you think? :)
 

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You are getting to a lot of tournys Magnus - I'm jealous :) See you at Double One.
 

The Magnus

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Personally I do like blind rounds. … I think the Supporting Fire tournament found astute ways to propose an attractive package and i encourage you to have a look at it, FWIW.
I am afraid I do not follow your logic. You do not like blind rounds, and yet you praise Supporting Fire which consists of blind rounds only. Main difference is that you have a choice of 3 scenarios per turn and you can bid for sides at Supporting Fire, but they are still blind. And the persons selecting the scenarios mostly attend the tournament as well, as far as I can remember.

Personally, I prefer pre-published scenarios as well, but I think there is room for all kinds of tournament formats, and if you do not like them you do not attend.
 

The Magnus

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You are getting to a lot of tournys Magnus - I'm jealous :) See you at Double One.
Well, this was "a freebee" as I just happened to be in the neighbourhood with a valid train ticket.

And a nice tournament at that, the least competitive ASL tournament I have attended so far. . . although the political discussions around the eating table were quite "competitive". I have now been told that I am to be killed, for example. In all friendliness, of course.

See you at Double One.
 

JoeArthur

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Well, this was "a freebee" as I just happened to be in the neighbourhood with a valid train ticket.

And a nice tournament at that, the least competitive ASL tournament I have attended so far. . . although the political discussions around the eating table were quite "competitive". I have now been told that I am to be killed, for example. In all friendliness, of course.

See you at Double One.
If it is an ASL player that threatened to kill you Magnus I would not loose much sleep over it :) None of us are in the best physical shape.........

Hopefully it did not spoil the event for you.
 

The Magnus

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If it is an ASL player that threatened to kill you Magnus I would not loose much sleep over it :) None of us are in the best physical shape.........

Hopefully it did not spoil the event for you.
Well, actually it was an ASL player, but I was part of a very large group to be killed, and it was in the indeterminable future. Personally, I do not see that future happen. So I still had a good event. But for me it was a flashback to some very different times in the 70's and early 80's, now mostly on the scrapheap of history.
 

WuWei

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Personally I do like blind rounds. However i think they tend to favor more experienced players. While the "resistance coefficient" of players tends to be relatively homogeneous with some prep, it is my experience that some players can "explode" (making fatal blunders) when facing new scenarios which of course leads to a pretty unsatisfactory outcome for both sides, winner or loser. It also means longer setup times, unless fixed times are strictly enforced (this may be possible in Germany but not elsewhere).
I'm in the lucky position that I don't have to convince anybody that "our way" of doing it is the best, or even better. Most likely, it's just a matter of taste. 100% of participants from 2018 came back to the 2019 event, and some more. All of us had a good time. That's what is important to me.

Taking about "level playing field" when the one who selects all the blind scenarios wins the event is probably a stretch, don't you think? :)
Best man wins, that's the way it usually is.

If it is an ASL player that threatened to kill you Magnus I would not loose much sleep over it :) None of us are in the best physical shape.........
When I compare us with pictures from other events, the attendants at Conscripts! seem to be younger, more active and in better shape. On average. ?
 

Genosse Gelb

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Mr. T has one rather good point he made in an email to us: Blind scenarios might favour the attacker. We are in the process of thinking about remedies for that. Personally, I would like to think that reported ROAR values are assuming setup times for the defender, that are different from what is possible (and in fact wanted) in blind rounds.

Other than that, I think nobody is forced to come to the tournament, and those who attended seemed to enjoy it. There are other and more competitive formats. I think it is beneficial to try to find a niche that is unfilled instead of trying to compete with all the other fine European events. Having blind rounds is our main motivation for doing the event, if you take that away, there would be no tournament at all to begin with, so this leaves me a bit puzzled.

@fairness:
As I played Björn in the finals, I feel right in saying that I lost due to my own mistake in the penultimate turn. Had I placed just some MMC differently, even Björns snake-eyes with his kill-stack (which brought him back from a rather hopeless position) wouldn't have helped. So I feel the Blind Scenarios, none of which Björn had played or prepared a setup for, were positive additions to a positive experience. And the better player won. I am sure, had we switched sides just for the last one and a half turns, Björn would still have won.

As for the other points Mr. T is making: I am very grateful for him taking his time and sharing his experience and would love to attend a tourney where he is TD/DO, in order to get inspired & learn from him. I think there is no other game that is as much an example of "lifelong learning" as ASL is.
 

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Regarding personal liberties in Germany: all cultures have their blind spots and awesome areas. German teenagers can buy cigarettes, beer and wine starting at age 16. Also, our government is not trying to teach us to stop drinking via taxes (Sweden?), yet. Our Autobahn is a free-for-all, our version of the 2nd Amendment. You may & can eat raw pork (and you should). You can show nipples in daytime TV and prostitution is not only legal, but prostitutes can even get health insurance without lying. Weed is basically legal to use. That is on the liberty side.

But you may not cross the road on a red light, mess with the taxes or do or say anything eccentric (or original) stirring up harmony in "polite" company.

Such it is, every culture has its cons and pros re liberty.
 

Mister T

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I am afraid I do not follow your logic. You do not like blind rounds, and yet you praise Supporting Fire which consists of blind rounds only.
Read what I wrote before uttering nonsense. I said i do like tournaments with blind round (emphatic form in English). Actually i convinced ASO to introduce a blind round at Copenhagen. I think i can still issue opinions, if this is allowed of course. And i refrained from issuing a opinion before the tournament took place, so as not to prevent people from coming (in the unlikely case people would pay attention to what i say). :)
 

Mister T

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I'm in the lucky position that I don't have to convince anybody that "our way" of doing it is the best, or even better. Most likely, it's just a matter of taste. 100% of participants from 2018 came back to the 2019 event, and some more. All of us had a good time. That's what is important to me.
I agree with you, that what's matter. You will carve out a niche market, just like Alpenfestung did, maybe with 10 players instead of 4. I'm fine with that, only disappointed that there isn't a second great event in Germany like Grenadier.
 

Mister T

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As for the other points Mr. T is making: I am very grateful for him taking his time and sharing his experience and would love to attend a tourney where he is TD/DO, in order to get inspired & learn from him. I think there is no other game that is as much an example of "lifelong learning" as ASL is.
I'm happy that you take these remarks as one constructive attempt to share my experience, instilling a certain dose of frankness attuned -i think- to the German mentality (he he). I did scenario selection and adjudication for some French tournaments but i do not belittle the logistical aspects which are a critical factor in the persistence of a given event. Returning customers are a good sign in this regard. Obviously if the crew were to attend other events and go outside Deutschland, they might get an opinion by themselves on what is working and what isn't.
 

WuWei

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I agree with you, that what's matter. You will carve out a niche market, just like Alpenfestung did, maybe with 10 players instead of 4. I'm fine with that, only disappointed that there isn't a second great event in Germany like Grenadier.
Conscripts! is just the way we like it. Small, cozy, low prep, rustic. We still have room to grow, but only a little until we hit our boundary constraints.

And I agree: A second big event in Germany like Grenadier would be great! I would likely attend such an event myself if it'd fit in my schedule. I just won't organize it (any time soon).
 

Genosse Gelb

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I agree with you, that what's matter. You will carve out a niche market, just like Alpenfestung did, maybe with 10 players instead of 4. I'm fine with that, only disappointed that there isn't a second great event in Germany like Grenadier.
Just in case anybody is wondering: our hard upper limit for the format & event is 16 players. This is partially due to the venue but mostly because we have a rather hard limit for four rounds of swiss. Our aim for next year is 12 players.

I think if you think it worthwhile to invest energy into helping to grow a second large event, you might have good chances in participating in the/a Westwall-revival. I got the feeling last year that the old crew was partially thinking about getting back together and maybe with some help and motivation, they might just do it! The location would also be very beneficial to BENELUX, FRA and DACH of course. One of the main honchos from the olden days is "Bismork" here on GameSquad, and as he announced in one of the threads here, he was expecting to become a father in 2018, so maybe it's just that that made his idea more difficult to go through with. Back when he was thinking about it, I offered him our support and said if he ever wanted to do it, we would even move our date, if it happened to be too close to Westwall's.
 

WuWei

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And of course, we would also advertise your event at Conscripts!
 
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