OCS: The Thread (Perpetual?)

Ok god damn it. I know I had a F:AT thread on this before but searching revealed nothing.

OCS. Soon. I want to learn it. I've always wanted to learn it. Basically, most of the non-East Front games seem to be coming into print, and OCS games don't stay in print long. East front bores the shit out of me so that has always been something that made it easier to stay on the sidelines. Anyway, I've been threatening to learn it for years. Is this the time?

1) Reluctant Enemies, the one map manageable version with a players guide, is out.
2) Korea is being printed. OCS Korea is one of the most interesting games, for me.
3) West front OCS just went up on preorder. I want that game.
4) Discussion of Italy OCS is always rumbling around in the background...

I think what I really need to do is step up my VASSAL play to live play with microphone if I want to get into OCS. I don't have any local players or potential local players, so that's really my main option. Do any of you guys play online live? How is the experience?

Also, any thoughts on these three non-east front versions of the game? Has anyone tried this intro Vichy game?

hold tight sucker

I've just filmed (never filmed anything before) a series of vids on learning OCS, will post em on youtube within a week or two (need to edit them a little).

I've just picked up Reluctant Enemies in a trade and it looks like a good place to start to me. It has the latest rules, low counter density, and critically not to much air craft. I also have Burma that has a very short learning scenario. Korea is due to be reprinted soonish (although with MMP that could mean anything).

I like the system. It isn't as complex as it first appears. I'm a bit short on time atm, and im not a vassal fan, but i would consider a game over vassal maybe in the fall.

Should be in wargames folder, also, fuck!

Duke, definitely post here when those go up. I'll watch them.

1st video. Will be uploading about a dozen or so more.

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOxW5J6nE...qLZUYQ5ek4395qFfL-jk

Wait, you're from the UK? Whoa.

Great videos, I'm watching them now. Also, coming from a constructive place, I think stronger lighting would make a big difference for the videos. Also, ordering the videos start to end in youtube would make a continuous viewing of the short videos easier.

Prior to Reluctant Enemies, it was alleged (and maybe even generally accepted) that OCS Burma was the best place to learn thanks to low-density/fast-pace and fairly straightforward application of the system. I suspect that's all true, but I found it a bit tough to really get the flow of the whole thing because the terrain *utterly sucks.* It's Burma ferchrissakes--you're looking at a logistics exercise through heavy jungle...in the mountains...on a goat-path.... And, if you take that same impassable terrain and add a road network that is largely paved and yet somehow even *worse* than Burma's goat paths, you get Italy.

I felt it was a bit like starting one's GBACW experience right out of the gate with On To Richmond's "90% heavy-forest and all of 3 roads across the whole bloody thing" map. Yea, you can learn it and maybe even have a good time, but it's never really going to offer the best possible experience for the new player.

Anyway, I suspect Reluctant Enemies is the place to start to see if you really dig the system. It should give you a pretty good sense of how it all works and thus if it's really a system for you...

In the short learning scenario in Burma, as far as i could tell, one of the allies tank re-enforcements enters in a hex unsupplied. It just sat there as i couldn't fuel it. I could have spent a turn driving a truck over to it, but i needed the trucks else where. I guess i could have paradropped fuel but it seemed a little over the top just to move one unit.

Have you ever gotten into the system, Dogmatix?

Gary Sax wrote: Have you ever gotten into the system, Dogmatix?

Yes and no. I sought out an opponent to learn the game via Vassal and took to it enough to be able to solo some turns a while back. I do really like the system, but I think it probably shines in the "Battles of Wide-Open Spaces"--perhaps one of the reasons it's most notable entries are North Africa and early-/mid-war East Front. At some level, it's sort of a "Eurogamer's dream" because there are few games more chock full of "agonizing choices" than an OCS game. Even when you're flush, you gonna have to choose where the resources go and being aggressive isn't always exactly encouraged. I think the campaign rules, which I've not explored at all to date (and haven't looked at in a long time either, so I may be confusing with another game and thus talking totally out of my ass), seem to crank the tension up even further as it seems to be about marshaling resources to activate your campaigns.

It's a limited pool and there are lots of hungry units to keep feed and stoked. (And while I suspect the East Front games and North Africa may suit OCS better than others, Hube's Pocket [Korsun] is East Front gaming at it's not so best--it's huge, stack-tastic, and kind of sloth-like..)