The Hotness
Games|People|Company
Dominion: Dark Ages
Fantastiqa
Mage Knight: Board Game
Total War
Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition)
Eclipse
Mice and Mystics
Dungeon Fighter
Collapsible D: The Final Minutes of the Titanic
Lords of Waterdeep
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small
Libertalia
Android: Netrunner
Virgin Queen
The Lord of the Rings: Nazgul
A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition)
Dominion
Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game
Infiltration
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
Among the Stars
Twilight Struggle
The Swarm
Agricola
1989: Dawn of Freedom
Goa
7 Wonders
Glory to Rome
Arkham Horror
Village
Ora et Labora
Battles of Westeros: House Baratheon Army Expansion
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization
Thunder Road
Trajan
Zombicide
The Castles of Burgundy
7 Wonders: Cities
Ace of Spies
War of the Ring
Skyline
Space Alert
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
City of Horror
Race for the Galaxy
Dungeon Command: Sting of Lolth
Twilight Imperium (third edition)
Kingdom Builder
Le Havre
Battlestar Galactica

Operational Combat Series (OCS)

This blog is for all things OCS. I can't get enough!
Recommend
31 
 Thumb up
1.50
 tip
 Thumb up

An Easy Reference for OCS reviews

[1/2]
United States
Fort Wayne
Indiana
flag msg tools
MwwaHAHA
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
There aren't a ton of reviews for OCS games out there and, as you will notice, many of them address the OCS ruleset as a whole often using a game only to give context to those rules. Here are some of the reviews I felt would be helpful to those curious about getting into OCS.

Burma: Understanding Burma - An Introduction, Is this a wargame for the very heavy Eurogamer?
I am a firm believer that playing the Japanese in Burma against an experienced OCS player is the best introduction to OCS. Colin's review only helps consolidate that view for me. This is an excellent review of OCS with an eye towards people unfamiliar with wargames in general.

DAK2:A non-grognard's first look at DAK2 and A non-grognard's second look at DAK2
These two make a nice matched set showing how daunting OCS can be to the outsider but also demonstrating that with a little determination (and willingness to use VASSAL) OCS is a very functional set of rules that allows for fun and engaging gaming. I also think the list of rules mistakes goes a long way towards showing that OCS games can be fun even if you don't understand every nuance of the rules. Indeed, part of the fun is learning how to better use the rules.

Case Blue: User Review
Again, this one is more focused on OCS in general than the specific game. This is a bit more advanced and the wall of text makes it a little difficult to process but there is good information here if you take can take the time.

Tunisia: Some complaints.
Another overview of OCS, this time with a more critical eye. Some of the complaints are a little nitpicky but overall it is pretty fair. As much as it pains me to say it, OCS isn't for everybody.

Baltic Gap: The Kisner effect - The impact of Baltic Gap on the Operational Combat System
An interesting meditation on the victory conditions in one game that I think opens up the prospect of contemplating the development and diversity of OCS in general. OCS is pretty flexible and I'm curious to see designers push it to its limits.

Sicily: Triumph and Folly: Small review of a small...ish game
This was actually the inspiration for this post. I was surprised in my perusal of OCS games that there aren't more nice, tight game specific reviews like this. This review goes over very nicely what to expect in a campaign game as well as covering what makes Sicily distinctive in the OCS constellation of games.

I would like to extend a challenge to OCS players to put up a few more reviews like this that give some nice insight into a particular game. I found it useful and I'm sure many others will as well. With that in mind, I plan to try to put together something similar in regards to Burma.









As a special bonus, here is calandale's review of Burma:



Video is interesting because I think it becomes naturally more personal because the personality of the reviewer can't help but be right there. This is a nice casual review of the game with some insight into the versatility of OCS in general.
Twitter Facebook
4 Comments
Subscribe sub options Fri Feb 3, 2012 4:20 pm
Post Comment
skippen
United States
Greeley
Colorado
flag msg tools
admin
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Thanks for the list. I am slowly learning OCS. Slowly.
5 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Feb 3, 2012 4:47 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Michael Pankonien
United States
Dallas
Texas
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Nice shoutout to Calandale. I highly recommend his entire video AAR over Burma; very exciting!
2 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Sat Feb 4, 2012 7:02 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Björn Hansson
Sweden
Jakobsberg
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Great collection of reviews. I had completely missed the video on Burma! Also, I am humbled that you have included two of my own reviews.

For people reading this, that might not be familiar with OCS as a system, here's a review of what makes OCS so special as a game system.

OCS for beginners
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Edited Sat Feb 4, 2012 10:19 am
  • Posted Sat Feb 4, 2012 10:16 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Kev.
United States
Austin
Texas
TheBigBoard-Blog www.meshtime.com
Avatar
mbmbmb
Tutorial Link
2 seasoned veterans of OCS take us thru Learning the ropes in two parts.
VASSAL and Audio with crisp images.
3 
 Thumb up
1.25
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Mar 8, 2012 2:45 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Front Page | Welcome | Contact | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Advertise | Support BGG | Feeds RSS
Geekdo, BoardGameGeek, the Geekdo logo, and the BoardGameGeek logo are trademarks of BoardGameGeek, LLC.