Across Suez

Across Suez is a board game simulating operational level ground combat between Egypt and Israel 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 both in a 1" accordion box with a paper map and as a deluxe edition with a mapboard. Decision Games in 1995 reissued Across Suez with additional counters and scenario variants.

Game Play

The Israeli player seeks to establish a bridgehead 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 combining two or more of the three unit types (armor, infantry, and mechanized infantry).

The Israeli player 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 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. Order of battle data is generally correct, but unit counters contain only designation and type, not size. The designers appear to have focused on , described as a "convoy of bulky bridge sections" and represented by a non-standard military symbol, rather than a pontoon bridge laid the early morning hours of October XX.

Components

100 die-cut counters (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 Dunnigan
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

External Links

• Across Suez at BoardGameGeek
• Across Suez at Web-Grognards

Sources

Elusive Victory: The Arab-Israeli Wars, 1947-1974, by Trevor N. Dupuy, 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
"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