Armchair Dragoons Forums
Wargaming => The Modern World => Topic started by: bob48 on November 17, 2021, 03:27:58 PM
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Focus On...............'Old School Tactical' (OST).
Published by Flying Pig Games and designed by Shayne Logan, OST is a series of WWII tactical games that now runs to three 'core' games and several expansions, which are as follows;
Vol.I - Eastern Front plus 'Stalingrad' expansion.
Vol.II – Western Front with several expansions' these being as follows;
Airborne.
Ghost Front.
Phantom Division (with three small paper maps)
Pocket Battles, which is a collection os scenarios only.
Vol.III – Pacific plus 'Hell Bent' expansion.
Rumour has it that Vol.IV will be centred around the Sicily/Italian campaign and will feature British and Commonwealth forces, which I for one will greatly applaud since its largely an area that has been ignored by designers/publishers.
All the games feature huge mounted maps (the exception being three small maps included in the 'Phantom Division' expansion) and large, very nicely produced counters. All the supporting material is again extremely well produced and robust and the games come in coffee table size sturdy boxes.
I have seen it said of this, and other similar scale tactical games, that they are viewed (by some) as being 'ASL Lite', a view that I do not share at all. Personally, I tend to think of such games as being 'ASL Alternatives' but that's just me. What do I know?
I digress.
I find that the games play well, are easy to learn and flow along nicely. For additional replayablity, I would recommend Norm Smith's Campaign Rules which you can find on BGG. These are well thought out and have the additional advantage of using the full area of the gigantic maps. I can only think of one scenario with a Vol.II game that does this, which is a pity as the maps are very nice graphically.
Oh, and some Vassal mods are available, at least for Vol.II, which is the only one I have (plus expansions).
Anyroadup, as we are wont to say; we solicit your views/comment and so forth, so get cracking and lets hear it for what will be the last of our 'Focus On' series.
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I know a lot of people that LOVE how the games play, but I was put off by some.... 'questionable' graphic design choices.
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Colour me intrigued. I'd like to hear about that ;)
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There is a VASSAL module for Vol. 1… I know because I did it. ;)
Great series of games. Large counters for us blind old guys. The variable command points for activating your units and the impulse system make it easy to play double-handed solo.
They make a great addition to my ever growing tactical game collection. I, too, am eagerly awaiting the Italian campaign volume. But there is also rumours of a modern Afghan module coming… with Canadian troops! :hug:
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....just wait until you see more about 'Assault Red Horizon 41' talk about flexible scenarios and campaign rules.
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Colour me intrigued. I'd like to hear about that ;)
+1. This ain't Band of Brothers he's talking about. :whistle:
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Exactly, Mike.
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I played it very briefly. I did like the mechanics and I enjoyed it. I didn't like the one big map... of have preferred half a dozen or so polymorphic maps.
The components though, including the map, we're excellent.
IIRC Brant didn't like the font used...perhaps among other things but I do remember that being a thang
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I'm with you all the way on the maps. Small geomorphic maps would have been much better.
The ones that are included with 'Assault - Red Horizons 41' are excellent, but I'll be covering that game in a later thread and in more detail.
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IIRC Brant didn't like the font used...perhaps among other things but I do remember that being a thang
Comic Sans...you either love it or hate it.
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IIRC Brant didn't like the font used...perhaps among other things but I do remember that being a thang
Comic Sans...you either love it or hate it.
That was Band of Brothers not OST....
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^That.
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BoB - a truly excellent game totally spoiled by some really poor artwork choices. Those cartoony counters and dreadful red Soviet counters still give me nightmares.
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One of the things I really ended up liking about OST is the rulebook. It's nothing but numbers and sentences. If you have a rules question it is a simple matter to go to the Rules Index where you are pointed to the exact page and sentence number that you are looking for. No paragraphs of extra wording that could add even more confusion. I don't remember a case where just the sentence wasn't enough.
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I remember having a couple of queries, but the designer answered pretty fast on BGG. Mind you, I do sometimes have a habit of over thinking rules.
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I remember having a couple of queries, but the designer answered pretty fast on BGG. Mind you, I do sometimes have a habit of over thinking rules.
last word is unnecessary ;)
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...so were all of yours ;D
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...so were all of yours ;D
:silly:
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Just playing a couple of scenarios from OST Vol II recently got me looking at the collective counter mix for the base game and its 3 expansions, (yes, I know, too much time on my hands).
I find the the US forces can call on the following;
4 x LMG19
2 x HMG .50 cal
3 x MMG .30 cal
9 x BAR.
On the other hand, the Germans have in their armoury:
1 x HMG34
8 x LMG42
I thought this was abit odd given how many LMG's you would expect the Germans to be able to call on, so I posed the question on BGG and did get a reply from Designer, Shayne Logan, to the effect that they only included in the counter mix what was required for the scenario's in the games.
Fair enough so why, I wondered, do we get;
18 Sherman's ( of different flavours)
22 Rifle squads
44 Airborne Squads
and for the Germans;
3 Jagd Tigers (out of only 80-odd ever produced)
4 Tiger II's but only 2 Tigers I's
12 Panthers (almost a full company!)
11 Pz IV H (ditto)
26 rifle squads plus another 12 '2nd line' squads
28 SS rifle squads.
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that does seem to be a rather odd mixture.
I'd be very curious to know if there's a scenario with 12 Panthers on the map at the same time
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No, there is not.
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No, there is not.
:whistle:
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Old School Tactical is the Deal of the Day (https://www.wargamevault.com/product/169758/Old-School-Tactical?src=DotD&from_home=1) at Wargame Vault. Only $10.00 as a download. You need to print the components to use it. Still a great deal. This offer ends tomorrow, Feb 20.
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I'm very much back into OST Vol II at present, and yesterday I commandeered the dining table in order to play 'The Big Drop' scenario from Airborne. It was a lot of fun and one I will definitely play again.
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OST Vol III has been calling me from the game shelf. I still haven't had the chance to try the Hell Bent expansion. :dreamer:
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I won a copy of V2 and Airborne via a random internet raffle. I've yet to play it... I set it up long enough to get a feel, never found anyone to play with, and on the shelf it sits. :-\
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^^I'd love to get the Vol III stuff, but its not within my budget range at present. The game plus expansion would set me back around £150.
^I would honestly recommend that you give it a try. Its certainly lends itself to solo play without too much of a problem. There is also a Vassal mod for it.
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Been playing OST Vol II on Vassal with JD for the last couple of weeks - At present, he's giving me a good kicking!
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I'm not much at using house rules in a game unless its to address something that is glaringly obviously wrong and/or is a generally accepted change to the written rules by other players.
In this respect, I have really found very little with the OST rules that require any sort of 'fix', but, having said that, there are a couple of minor tweaks that I am considering trying out.
First, turreted vehicle can fire outside of their covered arc without any penalty. This always seems a bit generous to me, so my proposal is that when firing in such circumstances against a 'hard' target, the 'to hit' roll is modified by a -1 DRM, and when firing against a 'soft' target, the firepower is reduced by 1.
Secondly, Its quite frustrating when you run out of action points while you opponent has a few left over and then closes with one of your units in order to conduct an assault. Your troops have to sit there and can't do much about it. My idea here is the hapless about-to-be-assaulted unit can conduct an intensive fire action for free but only against an adjacent unit that is capable of conducting an assault move in the current game turn.
Anyone have any thoughts on that?
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The turreted vehicle idea sounds OK.
I’m not sure about the free intensive fire though. A big part of the game is impulse point management. If you’ve let your total go to 0 while yer opponent still has enough to assault you then I’d say you deserve what’s coming. To me, that kind of decision making is baked into the impulse point numbers. Yes, it’s frustrating, but I feel it’s too large a part of the design to change.
It could all come down to play style as well.
We should setup a morning(fer me anyway) play session sometime.
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A very valid point, Vance - you are quite right. I may still go with the first one though.
Yep, be happy to do some vassal when you can squeeze it into your busy retired not-so-old-git schedule........ :biggrin:
JD and I have a scenario on the go as well at present.
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OST Vol IV is now on Kickstarter. Not cheap but, well, you know… :whistle:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/markhwalker/old-school-tactical-vol-iv-italian-theater-1943-45/description
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Who are the lucky sods that got it for $1??