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RFalvo69 -> A scenario we miss (well, *I*) (12/3/2021 1:31:09 AM)
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With a friend I started to have our "OCS evening". For those who don't know it, the "Operational Combat System" is considered one of the finest tabletop wargames on the market. After trying "Sicily II", an introductory title contained in the "Operational Matters" magazine, we agreed to try something bigger for the 2021-22 winter gaming (I won with the Italo/German Steel Pact BTW [8D]). So I freed some tables in my gaming room and bought two titles I was really interested in: "OCS Beyond the Rhine" (about the last push on the Western Front)" and "OCS The Blitzkrieg Legend" (basically, a study of the 1940 "Fall Gelb" French campaign).
The problem with TBL, of course, is that France lost the war on May, 13th 1940, when Rommel (acting on his own!) and Guderian crossed the Meuse river at Dinant and Sedan (ironically for the Allies, the one-turn breakthrough is the game tutorial). The Allies were out of position, in Belgium, and the following month was a gigantor mopping up (with the unanswerable question of what could have been happened had Hitler not stopped the panzers in sight of Dunkirk).
OCS allows you to force the Allies to follow their inane plan (by starting on Turn 2 with the Allied command already committed to the Dyle plan), thus creating an historical study but a masochistic experience for the Anglo/French player. More interesting is the "If I Was in Charge..." version of the campaign, where both sides are free to come up with a smart plan (I'm keeping the Allies and I start feeling that this is a rock/paper/scissor situation. What if I cover the southern flank and the Germans opt for a straightforward Schlieffen plan? Anyway, don't waste forces to defend the Netherlands.)
None of the above is the subject of this post.
Of course before choosing TBL we examined BTR, and decided that it was too big a game for our second experience with OCS. TBL was a good stepping stone about a topic that always interested me: what if the Allies were smarter in 1940?
BTR, however, presents a unique and very interesting situation (we are talking about the full campaign). The time is Sept, 1944 and three are the items of interest: the liberation of the Netherlands, if to launch or not to launch Market Garden and, later, if organise, as the Germans, a "Bulge-like" counterattack. There is much more, but one task and two very important decision are still up in the air. What if Market Garden succeeds? What if the Allied player, prudently, keeps his airborne divisions in the pocket? What if the Bulge attack is not launched and the earmarked units are used to stiffen the Westwall?
On the tabletop these will be answer for another time, but I immediately checked GG:WitE for a similar scenario. Nothing. Then I checked TOAW IV: rather curiously, there are scenarios that start with the "Cobra" breakout and end up with Market Garden; and scenarios that start with Market Garden and end up... on Dec, 16th 1944 [&:].
So I re-checked GG:WitW - only to find out that "Westwall" starts on Sept, 17th 1944 only to end... on Dec, 10th 1944. Of course everywhere you can find 1944-45 campaigns with a D-Day start and May, 1945 as the end but that's not the point.
OCS BTR presents a unique situation that, for some reason, I'm unable to find anywhere. To underline again the three "cruxes" faced by the Allies in Sept, 1944: You have to liberate Holland; You have to decide is Market Garden is worth it; and, as the Germans, if the Bulge is worth it - not to mention breaching/defending the Westwall. Each one of these problems can alter the course of the war.
So, if I'm not mistaken, what we miss is a Sept, 1944-May, 1945 scenario - unless somehow I missed it. I feel strange that the very interesting situation presented by OCS "Beyond the Rhine" is not available in the two games best suited to portray it. I would play such a scenario up stat. Any suggestions?
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