@elorimer Hi, thanks, I also needed to add the route for internal subnet. ended up editing
/usr/bin/gen_ovpn
so while there adding the subnet might as well disable the redirect-gateway.

All working.
now looking to fix it so server and client can run as I normally would. not sure why this restriction, probably memory or CPU grunt? Ill find out.
There is a linux box onsite, but head honcho wants it in the router and this is the router given LOL.

Thanks again for the suggestion,.