Across Suez
Encyclopedia
Across Suez is a board game
simulating operational level ground combat between Egypt
and Israel
at the Battle of Chinese Farm during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. The game is an introductory level product with an emphasis on playability over simulation
value.
Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1980
issued Across Suez in a 1" accordion box with a paper map. Decision Games
in 1995
reissued Across Suez with additional counters
for new variants and scenarios.
across the Suez Canal
while the Egyptian player attempts to block this. Israeli units are generally quicker, stronger, better supported, and able to push Egyptian forces back, but stringent victory conditions maintain game balance. Games are usually concluded in 1–2 hours.
Play is divided into seven turns governed by the standard move-shoot sequence, zones of control
, a terrain effects chart, and a differential combat results table
(CRT). Artillery
fire is abstract. Air and naval power are not simulated. Units begin the game at set locations and both sides later receive reinforcements. Night game-turns (turns one, four, and seven) slow movement and disallow artillery use. Both sides may achieve combined arms effects, which result in a column shift on the CRT, for a specific attack by attacking with armor units and infantry
or mechanized infantry
.
The Israeli side achieves victory if at the end of the seventh turn the player has installed a bridge over the Suez Canal, has crossed at least six Israeli units over the canal, and maintains a clear line of communication (LOC) back to the Israeli starting point. If not, the Egyptian player wins. There are no ties.
SPI did not include variant scenarios or alternate rules.
The introductory paragraph to the rules credits only the Egyptian Third Army with launching the successful October 6 cross-canal surprise attack, when three of the five infantry divisions involved were actually from the Second Army. Order of battle data is generally correct, but unit counters contain only designation and type, not size. The map omits Nahala Road, which ran along the Great Bitter Lake between the Bar Lev Line strongpoints of Lakehan and Matzmed. And the designers appear to have focused on the role of Israel's unique rolling armored bridge, described as a "convoy of bulky bridge sections" and historically laid on October 19 across the canal, rather than a pontoon bridge put down two days prior.
Game play unfolds much along historical lines, but the LOC victory condition tends to lead the Egyptian player to rush the Israeli LOC near game end regardless of the actual military value of such a move, i.e., gaming the rules rather than gaming the scenario. Combat also typically results in substantially greater numbers of units destroyed, on both sides, than the historical record supports.
SPI did not include designer's notes or references.
(54 are blank) representing Egyptian and Israeli units; an 11" by 17" hexagon-patterned abstract scale map, one six-sided die, and a rulebook.
Physical Systems and Graphics: Redmond A. Simonsen
Development: Bob Jervis & Brad Hessel
Playtesting: Brad Hessel, Redmond Simonsen, Justin Leites, Philip Marchal
Production: Rosalind Fruchtman, Ted Koller, Manfred F. Milkuhn, Michael Moore, Bob Ryer, Patricia J. Snyder
#60, to allow for an airborne landing variant and an amphibious landing variant to the historical scenario, and a further 18 Soviet and US counters, as first published in Moves #82 again by James Meldrum, for five non-historical scenarios.
, Harper and Row, New York, 1978
"Across Suez, The Battle of the Chinese Farm, October 15, 1973", by Trevor N. Dupuy, in Strategy & Tactics #82, September-October 1980
"Across Suez", by Richard Berg
, in Richard Berg's Review of Games #7, December 1980
"Across Suez: A Game Review", by Henry C. Robinette, in Campaign Magazine #102, March-April 1982
On the Banks of the Suez, by Avraham Adan, Presido Press, 1991
"Across Suez/Go to Origins!", by Rich Erwin, in Paper Wars
#24, March 1996
"Across Suez", by Rick D. Stuart, in Zone of Control Magazine #5, Winter 1996
Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness 1948-1991, by Kenneth M. Pollack, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2002
Crossing of the Suez, The, by Lt. General Saad El Shazly
, American Mideast Research, revised English edition, 2003
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
simulating operational level ground combat between Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
at the Battle of Chinese Farm during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. The game is an introductory level product with an emphasis on playability over simulation
Simulation
Simulation is the imitation of some real thing available, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system....
value.
Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1980
1980 in games
This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 1980. For video and console games, see 1980 in video gaming.-Significant games-related events of 1980:...
issued Across Suez in a 1" accordion box with a paper map. Decision Games
Decision Games
Decision Games is a wargaming company, founded by Christopher Cummins, that publishes Strategy & Tactics magazine. The company has bought the rights to many Simulations Publications, Inc...
in 1995
1995 in games
This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and table-top role-playing games published in 1995. For video and console games, see 1995 in video gaming....
reissued Across Suez with additional counters
Counter (board wargames)
Boardgame counters are usually small cardboard squares moved around on the map of a wargame to represent armies, military units or individual military personnel. The first modern mass-market wargame, based on cardboard counters and hex-board maps, was Tactics, invented by Charles S. Roberts in 1952...
for new variants and scenarios.
Game Play
The Israeli player seeks to establish a bridgeheadBridgehead
A bridgehead is a High Middle Ages military term, which antedating the invention of cannons was in the original meaning expressly a referent term to the military fortification that protects the end of a bridge...
across the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
while the Egyptian player attempts to block this. Israeli units are generally quicker, stronger, better supported, and able to push Egyptian forces back, but stringent victory conditions maintain game balance. Games are usually concluded in 1–2 hours.
Play is divided into seven turns governed by the standard move-shoot sequence, zones of control
Zone of control
In board wargames, zones of control represent the tiles adjacent to tiles occupied by objects. For example, in hexagonal tiled maps, the six hexagons adjacent to the hexagon occupied by a unit would be considered to be in its "zone of control."...
, a terrain effects chart, and a differential combat results table
Combat results table
A Combat results table or a CRT is used in wargaming to determine the outcome of a clash between individual units within a larger battle....
(CRT). Artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
fire is abstract. Air and naval power are not simulated. Units begin the game at set locations and both sides later receive reinforcements. Night game-turns (turns one, four, and seven) slow movement and disallow artillery use. Both sides may achieve combined arms effects, which result in a column shift on the CRT, for a specific attack by attacking with armor units and infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
or mechanized infantry
Mechanized infantry
Mechanized infantry are infantry equipped with armored personnel carriers , or infantry fighting vehicles for transport and combat ....
.
The Israeli side achieves victory if at the end of the seventh turn the player has installed a bridge over the Suez Canal, has crossed at least six Israeli units over the canal, and maintains a clear line of communication (LOC) back to the Israeli starting point. If not, the Egyptian player wins. There are no ties.
SPI did not include variant scenarios or alternate rules.
Simulation Value
Across Suez has limited simulation value and does not describe Egyptian or Israeli military equipment or tactics during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War or provide significant context about the events leading to or resulting from the battle at Chinese Farm.The introductory paragraph to the rules credits only the Egyptian Third Army with launching the successful October 6 cross-canal surprise attack, when three of the five infantry divisions involved were actually from the Second Army. Order of battle data is generally correct, but unit counters contain only designation and type, not size. The map omits Nahala Road, which ran along the Great Bitter Lake between the Bar Lev Line strongpoints of Lakehan and Matzmed. And the designers appear to have focused on the role of Israel's unique rolling armored bridge, described as a "convoy of bulky bridge sections" and historically laid on October 19 across the canal, rather than a pontoon bridge put down two days prior.
Game play unfolds much along historical lines, but the LOC victory condition tends to lead the Egyptian player to rush the Israeli LOC near game end regardless of the actual military value of such a move, i.e., gaming the rules rather than gaming the scenario. Combat also typically results in substantially greater numbers of units destroyed, on both sides, than the historical record supports.
SPI did not include designer's notes or references.
Components
100 die-cut countersCounter (board wargames)
Boardgame counters are usually small cardboard squares moved around on the map of a wargame to represent armies, military units or individual military personnel. The first modern mass-market wargame, based on cardboard counters and hex-board maps, was Tactics, invented by Charles S. Roberts in 1952...
(54 are blank) representing Egyptian and Israeli units; an 11" by 17" hexagon-patterned abstract scale map, one six-sided die, and a rulebook.
Credits
Design: Mark Herman with Jim DunniganJim Dunnigan
James F. Dunnigan is an author, military-political analyst, Defense and State Department consultant, and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis.-Career:...
Physical Systems and Graphics: Redmond A. Simonsen
Redmond A. Simonsen
Redmond Askel Simonsen was an American graphic artist and game designer best known for his work at the board wargame company Simulations Publications, Inc. in the 1970s and early 1980s...
Development: Bob Jervis & Brad Hessel
Playtesting: Brad Hessel, Redmond Simonsen, Justin Leites, Philip Marchal
Production: Rosalind Fruchtman, Ted Koller, Manfred F. Milkuhn, Michael Moore, Bob Ryer, Patricia J. Snyder
Second Edition
Decision Games in 1995 released a second edition of Across Suez that closely followed the original SPI version, with the exception of graphics tweaks. Game mechanics did not change. The second edition also included 16 additional Arab and Israeli counters, as first described by James Meldrum in MovesMoves (magazine)
Moves was a wargaming magazine originally published by SPI , who also published manual wargames. Their flagship magazine Strategy & Tactics , was a military history magazine featuring a new wargame in each issue. While S&T was devoted to historical articles, Moves focused on the play of the games...
#60, to allow for an airborne landing variant and an amphibious landing variant to the historical scenario, and a further 18 Soviet and US counters, as first published in Moves #82 again by James Meldrum, for five non-historical scenarios.
External links
- Across Suez at Web-Grognards
- Across Suez at ConsimWorld
Sources
Elusive Victory: The Arab-Israeli Wars, 1947-1974, by Trevor N. DupuyTrevor N. Dupuy
Trevor Nevitt Dupuy was a Colonel, United States Army, retired, soldier and noted military historian.-Biography:Born in New York, the son of noted military historian, R. Ernest Dupuy, Trevor followed in his father's footsteps. Trevor Dupuy attended West Point, graduating in the class of 1938....
, Harper and Row, New York, 1978
"Across Suez, The Battle of the Chinese Farm, October 15, 1973", by Trevor N. Dupuy, in Strategy & Tactics #82, September-October 1980
"Across Suez", by Richard Berg
Richard Berg
For the television producer see Dick Berg.Richard Berg, trained as a lawyer, is a prolific wargame designer, and recipient of the Charles S. Roberts Hall of Fame Award in 1987...
, in Richard Berg's Review of Games #7, December 1980
"Across Suez: A Game Review", by Henry C. Robinette, in Campaign Magazine #102, March-April 1982
On the Banks of the Suez, by Avraham Adan, Presido Press, 1991
"Across Suez/Go to Origins!", by Rich Erwin, in Paper Wars
Paper Wars
Paper Wars is a bimonthly wargaming magazine published by Omega Games, a producer of military simulation board games, card games for business education, and general-interest card games. The magazine's editor is John Burtt...
#24, March 1996
"Across Suez", by Rick D. Stuart, in Zone of Control Magazine #5, Winter 1996
Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness 1948-1991, by Kenneth M. Pollack, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2002
Crossing of the Suez, The, by Lt. General Saad El Shazly
Saad El Shazly
Saad Mohamed el-Husseiny el-Shazly was an Egyptian military personality. He was Egypt's chief of staff during the October War...
, American Mideast Research, revised English edition, 2003