A few more rules and observations about the OCS series have come up and you might want to play around with them and give me your thoughts. A number of these have arisen because of the playtesting of Enemy at the Gates (EatG) which has put the system into different environments which has allowed me to look at it from new angles and further refine its concepts.

1. Reserve Release and Enemy Units

One of the least favorite rules (yours and mine) in the first edition OCS was the little bit about moving enemy units adjacent to Reserve Mode units so as to 'pop' their reserve status. Even though I didn't like the (then) final version, a decent alternative was not available so I stuck to it. Now, thanks in great part to the work of Rod Miller, here is the version which will be in the version 1.5 rules in EatG:

Delete rules regarding the loss of Reserve Mode because enemy units move adjacent and replace them with the following:

If a unit in Reserve is released while an undisorganized enemy unit is adjacent to it, it must attack that enemy unit before conducting any other operations (such units cannot conduct anti-overrun barrages at all). Furthermore, if a Reserve Mode unit still has an undisorganized enemy unit adjacent to it during the Reserve unit's next Mode Determination Phase, remove the Reserve Mode Marker. Lastly, since Reserve Mode units might now be attacked, they defend at 1/2 strength if forced to do so. Any Reserve Mode stack which is attacked on the ground automatically loses its Reserve Marker (regardless of result). A Reserve Mode stack which is struck by a barrage (aircraft or artillery) must be given at least a DG result in order to cause the reserve status to be removed. Units in reserve still cannot move adjacent to enemy units under their own power.

Discussion:

The new rule allows the enemy to interfere with reserves (to a point) but also allows a player to free up his reserves and still use them. For instance, if an enemy unit moves next to a stack of your reserves, you can call in an air strike (hip shoot, presumably), DG them, and allow the reserves to function normally. Alternatively, a stack in reserve may have one of its units released which will attack the pesky enemy unit. Assuming that attack destroys, DGs, or causes the enemy to retreat, the remaining units can be released to go about more important things.

Forcing units in reserve to defend at 1/2 allows a number of nice effects. Units in reserve tend to be concentrated for rapid reaction to new orders into assembly areas or pre-set road columns, either way they are not in a very good posture to defend themselves. A case could also be made that units in reserve should get a shift to the right when attacked by the Barrage Table, but I don't want to get into that yet...

Also by halving the defense of these units there is (finally) a bad side to reserve. Always before there was the temptation to put everyone into reserve since there were a slew of benefits and no ill effects. Now a choice must be made. Look for this rule in the next edition of the OCS rulebook.

2. Revised Low Supply Level

Originally, Low Supply had adverse combat effects but nothing in the way of movement effects. That can be Corrected with:

Units in Low Supply are subject to the following:

1. All attack and barrage values are xl/2
2. Movement Allowances of units with Truck or Track movement points are xl/2.
3. Remaining values are normal.

Discussion:

This keeps mech units from doing full speed movements when in low supply. Recent playtesting shows that the above is generally not worth the price in playability. Use it if you like.

3. Recon by Force

This rule brings on more detail in the reconnaissance battle-or how to see under the first counter in the stack. There are two ways of doing a recon on a stack: ground or air. Each is handled below in a simple manner. Feel free to embellish these to any extreme you like.

Ground Recon

To do a ground recon you must have a friendly unit adjacent to the potential probe hex and it must be in a hex from which it could enter the probe hex using normal movement. Expend 5 MPs to probe the hex. At that point announce the probe and the target hex of the probe. The probing player may now ask any one of the following and the enemy must answer truthfully. Only one question may be asked per probe attempt.

A) Is the hex "weak", "medium". or "strong" ? Weak equals 6 or less raw combat strength. Medium equals 7 to 12 raw combat strength. Strong is 13 or more.
B) Is there mechanized or armor units in the hex?
C) Is there "few" or "many" REs in the hex? Few is 3 or less, many is more than 3.
D) Is there a hedgehog in the hex?

Air Recon

This is handled in a similar manner as the above except that an air unit may make only one probe per hex and only one probe per phase. The additional MP cost is the same. In the case of air recon, only questions A and D can be asked.

That's all I had for this time. Let me know of any homebrew rules you are using so we can share them with everyone and possibly include them in future editions of the rules.