WuWei
Elder Member
Conscripts! 2019 After Action Report
We had a very pleasant tournament this weekend! Four games within 48 hours is quite demanding, and I didn't take notes, so this is just a quick recapitulation out of my head.
My first game on Friday evening was OA10 Monty's Mess, against Magnus. I played as the German attacker and had to take a few buildings from the British.
A few things make this scenario stand out: There's a „sudden death“ VC – the game can end after half the time if the Germans don't control the buildings he needs by then. And there are a lot of high ranking SMCs in the OOB. The Germans start with a 10-3, and the British with a hero. They also get a 10-3 of their own as part of their reinforcements.
The game started very mixed: I made some progress on my right flank, but on the left, a British MMG was very effective in holding me back. I managed to take out the British hero early on, and got a hero of my own, but it all felt too slow, and Magnus played his defense very good. Before his reinforcements arrived, I took an insensible risk and moved my 10-3 and a fanatic squad across lots of open ground to one of the victory buildings. This stunt succeeded, and I held on to this building, and won in the end.
…..
The Saturday morning game was OA18 Parry and Strike, against Björn. Here, I played as the Russian defender against attacking Germans. The Germans have to take a hilltop and have lots of troops and four Panthers (with a 9-2 AL) to do it. The Russians have a 76L ART and later get lots of IS-2s and T-34s as reinforcement.
There was some discussion at the start about which hexes count as victory hexes and about some LOSs, and there were a lot of rulebooks involved, but in the end we agreed on a way to handle it. It was a nice game, and I didn't play bad, but at one point, I forgot to move my tanks one hex forward so that they could have LOS to the hilltop – so they didn't, and Björn could take it easily. In trying to take it back I had to sacrifice a lot of my tanks, but in the end, it was no use, so I lost. It was a good game that could have been more exciting if I hadn't made that one big mistake. And I was really disappointed that my perfectly placed ART didn't do anything. I landed one hit after Björn advanced a nice stack right in front of my barrel, but had no effect on the IFT, and it broke when I used intensive fire.
…..
Saturday evening was a long game, FT51 Harmless Steel against John, again with me as Russian defender. Both sides have lots of tanks in this scenario, but the Russian ones have to deal with low ammo and low fuel – they have to roll every turn to not become immobilized. And some of the tanks (determined randomly after setup) even start the game without fuel and/or without ammunition.
There are lots of VCs. The Germans win at game end if they have enough squads and tanks in a victory area. They also win immediately when there are no more Russian tanks with working MA on the map – that forces the Russian player to think twice before shooting. The Russian can also win by amassing casualty victory points.
It was an interesting game with lots of crazy manoeuvering. At a later hour, I tried to force a win and made some rather questionable decisions like rolling for ESB. Did you know that vehicles with red MP add another +1 per MP you want to the roll? I didn't. But Conscripts is a place to learn!
Some time after midnight, we assessed the situation and concluded that with one additional tank in the victory area, the Germans would likely win, but if I could kill that tank – it had to cross a single hex where I had line of sight to it from an immobilized KV-1 – I could probably win by casualty victory points. We rolled that one attack, I missed, and conceded the game.
Most frustrating moment: Three squads and a commissar moved next to a straying German tank to take it out in CC, but before the APh we had the only sniper activation in the whole game, and it pinned the commissar.
…..
On Sunday, the scenario was AP52 Into Vienna Woodlands against Tim, my German attackers against his Russian defenders. I played a good game and by the time his reinforcements arrived I had already conquered the whole hilltop. But as it often is with ASL, a few rolls can turn the game. One of his AFVs hit a trench with my 10-2 and two squads, they all failed a louse 2MC (or something) and then were eliminated for failure to rout, because there was a CC next hex, and had LOS to another Russian squad on the other side. From there on, it got suspenseful. In the end, I only had to win a CC to take back control of a single hex. I needed a 5 to kill all his squads and rolled a 6, and lost.
We had a very pleasant tournament this weekend! Four games within 48 hours is quite demanding, and I didn't take notes, so this is just a quick recapitulation out of my head.
My first game on Friday evening was OA10 Monty's Mess, against Magnus. I played as the German attacker and had to take a few buildings from the British.
A few things make this scenario stand out: There's a „sudden death“ VC – the game can end after half the time if the Germans don't control the buildings he needs by then. And there are a lot of high ranking SMCs in the OOB. The Germans start with a 10-3, and the British with a hero. They also get a 10-3 of their own as part of their reinforcements.
The game started very mixed: I made some progress on my right flank, but on the left, a British MMG was very effective in holding me back. I managed to take out the British hero early on, and got a hero of my own, but it all felt too slow, and Magnus played his defense very good. Before his reinforcements arrived, I took an insensible risk and moved my 10-3 and a fanatic squad across lots of open ground to one of the victory buildings. This stunt succeeded, and I held on to this building, and won in the end.
…..
The Saturday morning game was OA18 Parry and Strike, against Björn. Here, I played as the Russian defender against attacking Germans. The Germans have to take a hilltop and have lots of troops and four Panthers (with a 9-2 AL) to do it. The Russians have a 76L ART and later get lots of IS-2s and T-34s as reinforcement.
There was some discussion at the start about which hexes count as victory hexes and about some LOSs, and there were a lot of rulebooks involved, but in the end we agreed on a way to handle it. It was a nice game, and I didn't play bad, but at one point, I forgot to move my tanks one hex forward so that they could have LOS to the hilltop – so they didn't, and Björn could take it easily. In trying to take it back I had to sacrifice a lot of my tanks, but in the end, it was no use, so I lost. It was a good game that could have been more exciting if I hadn't made that one big mistake. And I was really disappointed that my perfectly placed ART didn't do anything. I landed one hit after Björn advanced a nice stack right in front of my barrel, but had no effect on the IFT, and it broke when I used intensive fire.
…..
Saturday evening was a long game, FT51 Harmless Steel against John, again with me as Russian defender. Both sides have lots of tanks in this scenario, but the Russian ones have to deal with low ammo and low fuel – they have to roll every turn to not become immobilized. And some of the tanks (determined randomly after setup) even start the game without fuel and/or without ammunition.
There are lots of VCs. The Germans win at game end if they have enough squads and tanks in a victory area. They also win immediately when there are no more Russian tanks with working MA on the map – that forces the Russian player to think twice before shooting. The Russian can also win by amassing casualty victory points.
It was an interesting game with lots of crazy manoeuvering. At a later hour, I tried to force a win and made some rather questionable decisions like rolling for ESB. Did you know that vehicles with red MP add another +1 per MP you want to the roll? I didn't. But Conscripts is a place to learn!
Some time after midnight, we assessed the situation and concluded that with one additional tank in the victory area, the Germans would likely win, but if I could kill that tank – it had to cross a single hex where I had line of sight to it from an immobilized KV-1 – I could probably win by casualty victory points. We rolled that one attack, I missed, and conceded the game.
Most frustrating moment: Three squads and a commissar moved next to a straying German tank to take it out in CC, but before the APh we had the only sniper activation in the whole game, and it pinned the commissar.
…..
On Sunday, the scenario was AP52 Into Vienna Woodlands against Tim, my German attackers against his Russian defenders. I played a good game and by the time his reinforcements arrived I had already conquered the whole hilltop. But as it often is with ASL, a few rolls can turn the game. One of his AFVs hit a trench with my 10-2 and two squads, they all failed a louse 2MC (or something) and then were eliminated for failure to rout, because there was a CC next hex, and had LOS to another Russian squad on the other side. From there on, it got suspenseful. In the end, I only had to win a CC to take back control of a single hex. I needed a 5 to kill all his squads and rolled a 6, and lost.