Monday 26 February 2018

OCS: On Learning a System, Supply Lines and Story Lines

My very first contact with war gaming was with my father: when I was very young (10 years or less), I remember trying to play a couple of war games with him, including Luftwaffe (which, after rebuying it for him as a Christmas present, was actually worse than my prior recollection) and Tobruk, which unfortunately was far too difficult for me to play correctly. Both me and my dad, however, preferred video games, and largely that was my primary hobby, with board war gaming too difficult and "boring" for me to bother to get into heavily.

I do think that this brief start into the hobby was, however, the germination of my subsequent love of board war gaming. About 7 years ago, I became heavily invested into board gaming and from that sprang a renewed interest in board war gaming as well. 

There was still one issue that bothered me: most of my war games at the time were either CDGs or COINs and the only hex 'n' counter games that I played were No Retreat or Unconditional Surrender. I always wanted to try one of those good old fashioned hex games and with no interest in tactical exercises, my attention was drawn towards OCS, a series that, at least in my circles, had drawn nothing but praise.

With years of practice of reading rulebooks, the series rules for OCS didn't seem that daunting, but my initial foray into the game was, quite frankly, a disaster. OCS is one of those games where reading the rulebook can tell you how to play the game, but doesn't tell you how to play the game. What I mean by this is that OCS suffers from that peculiar issue that Napoleon's Triumph also suffers from: the rules can tell you how to move and attack with your pieces, but this hides the intricacies of the system and the tactics and strategies required to actually bring the fight to the enemy.

Most other war games I had played previously were what are pejoratively known as front-pushers. Usually this is due to the scale, but in those sort of games you don't really need to worry about supply inasmuch as you just need to insure that there aren't any enemies between you and your back line. When I first looked at my troops in an OCS game, I had no idea of how to bring them to combat with the required logistical network that would allow them to fight. My previous experience in war gaming had not prepared me for the requirement of figuring out where to set up my supply dumps and actually get supplies to that point.

Plagues by indecision (and this coming from someone that considers himself a fast player), my troops stood still, and minutes turned into hours. Finally, I gave up. OCS had beaten me already and I barely had played a single turn of it.

At that point, I sort of gave up on my attempts at the series. I wanted to get into it, but learning how to actually play the game seemed too large a step, and I felt that I neither had the time nor perseverance to actually be able to enjoy the series.

This sorry state of affairs remained until MMP released Reluctant Enemies. Reluctant Enemies is a low counter density OCS game based on the oft-forgotten battle in Syria between the Commonwealth and Vichy France. Reluctant Enemies was made primarily to get people into the system: along with the low number of counters, the box has a very useful "Learning OCS" booklet. I ordered the game almost immediately: if this didn't manage to teach me OCS, then it was clear the system was not for me.

Starting setup of Reluctant Enemies
Fortunately, I rather enjoyed my time with Reluctant Enemies. The game is a bit of a microcosm of the OCS experience, including a small but important air war, sweeping tank advances in the Syrian desert, and entrenched infantry fights nearer to the coast. Crucially, the game taught me the importance of setting up supply dumps (and protecting them) along with the importance of setting up reserves so that you can react to the actions of your opponent.

The latter is especially important in terms of understanding how to play the game properly, because setting up reserves is crucial to the flow of the game. Reserves are primarily used either offensively or defensively. When used offensively, you can release them during the exploitation phase in order to exploit gaps in your opponent's defence. Defensive reserves can either be used to plug up gaps in your line before they develop (as reserves are the only units that you can move during an opponent's turn). 

The other important lesson that Reluctant Enemies taught me was the importance of initiative. OCS doesn't use a simple I-GO-U-GO system: instead, at the start of each turn, both players do a straight dice-off to see who gets to decide which side moves first.This can potentially lead to someone getting two turns in a row, which is more than enough to crush a weak defensive line. The key to the game is therefore to put your opponent into situations in which they have to go first, thus continuing to allow you to get a double turn in the future. 

With this small success under my belt, I went on a veritable spree of buying all the OCS games that interested me (many of which were out of print): Sicily II, Tunisia II, Korea, DAK and Burma. Sicily II was my next serious attempt at the series, and although I stumbled due to the heavy emphasis on amphibious assault, it was an enjoyable experience.

Tunisia II starting setup.
My next attempt was Tunisia II. Overall I think Tunisia II is a better start into the system than Reluctant Enemies. The start of the campaign has a similar number of units present, and Tunisia II has the benefit that the battle gets progressively larger as more reinforcements arrive, allowing you to expand the game as you learn. As well as that, Tunisia II is quite an interesting tactical/strategic exercise in comparison to Reluctant Enemies: this is due to the fact that there are only three avenues of attack in Reluctant Enemies and all three bog down due to either rivers, mountains or both. As such, success in Reluctant Enemies is heavily reliant on rolls going your way, rather than tactical acumen. 

This is not to say that Reluctant Enemies doesn't do a stellar job of getting people into the series, but after playing the other OCS titles that I bought, there wasn't really any reason for me to go back to it: it just doesn't have the staying power that the other games in the series have, and there's nothing exceptional about Reluctant Enemies that would make someone want to play it over Tunisia II or DAK.

The next game I tried was Korea, which was enjoyable (to a point). I played as the North Koreans, facing the South Korean and UN troops played by my regular OCS opponent.

North Korean troops driving down the peninsula
The start of Korea was enjoyable, with me quickly surrounding Seoul and then driving down to Pusan and setting up a perimeter, as US troops arrived to bolster the South Korean defenders. The game played pretty historically, with my opponent then making his landings at Incheon, quickly forcing my troops back. 

Although perfectly enjoyable, the game quickly ground to a halt due to the rules concerning Chinese intervention. The rules on that particular subject aren't great and basically meant that the US/UN player never really wanted to place his head into the noose. 

Not being a game designer myself, I couldn't really think of a way to get past this problem while still using the basic framework of an OCS game, which also highlights one of the limitations of attempting of series-style games: it becomes difficult to create bespoke solutions to specific events in specific conflicts, which is largely the reason why OCS hasn't really deviated trying to portray World War II or World War II-style conflicts. 

To be clear, this isn't the only issues with OCS: there are oft-discussed topics such as the power of air forces and the cheapness of them (in terms of supply) in comparison to artillery barrages. Or how the game due to its limited ZOC (Zone of Control) effects allows for unnatural shuffling of front-lines that would have never happened historically. I have been aware of these criticisms of the system and I don't completely deny that they are issues with the game, but overall these points do not detract from the fact that the system has provided me with incredible story lines of past battles. This especially has been an highlight of the system for me: my first attempts at any of the games described above have shown me the reasons why the battles unfolded as they did, even though if the schedules in most of our games weren't exactly the same as the real life results. And this point was made abundantly clear to me when I played Burma II.

Starting setup of Burma II (note the 17th Indian almost completely surrounded)
Burma II focuses on the U Go campaign, one of the last offensive campaigns of the Empire of Japan. The game starts with both sides attacking and defending, with an offensive against Imphal/Kohima by the Japanese and an offensive in the east by combined US and Chinese offensive. One of the highlights of the game is the rather extreme logistical position that both sides are in, especially in the hilly terrain of the Naga Hills, where trucks are basically unable to function, forcing both sides to rely on mules to cart their supplies to the front. The game progressed pretty historically, although my Chinese/US troops didn't manage to dislodge the resolute Japanese defenders and I also lost Kohima too quickly when compared with real life. With Imphal under siege, I was forced to use my planes to ship supplies there, with the Japanese pushing ever closer and using infiltration tactics to push past my defences. However, the logistical situation for the Japanese near Kohima was dire, and even with several mule convoys, it was difficult for them to both fight and remain in supply, which highlighted both for me and my opponent how crazy the attempt to attack Kohima was. 

Imphal under siege.
What was made abundantly clear to me, however, was the effect that the OCS supply rules have on the game. Although some criticise the game for bean-counting due to the way that supply is handled, forcing players to use mules and trucks to move supplies allows the game to have movement effects on the supplies in question and showcases how different types of transport have to be used: trucks are fast, but only on roads, while mules move slowly, but can be used in smaller trails. As well as that, the tightening noose of the Imphal siege made me worry about every single supply token that I used: the game finally ended with my troops opening the Kohima/Imphal road, but not before my supplies in Imphal had been pushed to the brink: a couple more attacks and potentially that whole front would have collapsed, and I only managed to open the road in the nick of time.

This, to me, was the most powerful image that I have ever experienced in a war game. My troops surrounded on all sides, with supplies dwindling and only my transport planes to feed them: the liberating relief forces slowly, painfully fighting for every inch in order to reopen the road and then the triumphant feeling of re-opening the road and the trucks finally bringing in supplies again. 

And this is largely why I've fallen in love with the system. Most of my previous wargaming was done at the strategic or grand strategic level, and now I finally understood why people were so invested into playing at the operational and tactical levels: the results feel more personal and the story lines created by the games are richer and more rewarding. It's hard to bring in the human element when you are playing something at the Corps or Army-level.

As such, if you get a chance to try out OCS, I would suggest you go for it. The system has faults, but I don't think they detract from the games, and the system will allow you to see that what was truly important was not only the location of troops, but also their access to supply and the difficulties of bringing supplies to the front. And understanding this can only lead to a deeper understanding of the conflicts in question and why certain campaigns unfolded as they did.