Chinese Farm

Chinese Farm is a board game simulating operational level ground combat between Egypt and Israel at the Battle of The 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) issued Chinese Farm in 1975 as one of four games included in the Modern Battles Quad and individually in a folio format as part of its Modern Battles Series.

Game play

The Israeli player seeks to establish a bridgehead across the Suez Canal while the Egyptian player attempts to block this. Games are usually concluded in 1-2 hours.

Chinese Farm contains three scenarios. Scenario one focuses on the Israeli approach to and initial crossing of the Suez Canal. Scenario two broadens the first scenario to include Israeli efforts to secure the west bank of the Suez Canal, and adds IAF air strikes and Egyptian SAM defences. Scenario three reorients the Egyptian positions to allow a better defense, and is ahistoric in this regard. Each scenario is subject to the standard rules developed for Modern Battle Folio Series games but also contains scenario-specific rules and victory conditions.

Play is divided into eight 12-hour turns (scenarios two and three both have 12 turns) governed by the standard move-shoot sequence, zones of control, a terrain effects chart, and two differential combat results tables (CRT). Each player at the start of a new combat phase opts for either the Active or the Mobile CRT, reflecting differing levels of aggressiveness and risk of unit elimination. Air power is abstract and naval power is not simulated. The Egyptian player fields foot and mechanized infantry battalions, armored brigades, artillery, and mobile and static surface-to-air units and the Israeli player is provided armored and mechanized infantry battalions, limited artillery, and an engineer unit to bridge the Suez Canal. Units begin the game at set locations and both sides later receive reinforcements.

Victory is achieved by receiving the most points based on a combination of territorial objectives, enemy units destroyed, and unit ending locations.

Components

100 die-cut counters representing Egyptian and Israeli units; a 17" by 22" hexagon-patterned paper map, two sets of random number chits, one standard rulebook for Modern Battle Folio Series games, and one exclusive rulebook for Chinese Farm.

Credits

Game Design: Howard Barasch
Physical Systems Design and Graphics: Redmond A. Simonsen
Systems Design and Game Development: Howard Barasch, Edward Curran, Jay Nelson, I. B. Hardy
Research: Col. T. N. Dupuy, B. Garon
Production: Manfred F. Milkuhn, Larry Catalano, Linda Mosca, Kevin Zucker

Second edition

Hobby Japan in 1979 released a Japanese-language edition of Chinese Farm.

Sources
    • Profile: Modern Battles: Chinese Farm, by Ed Carran, in Moves #24, December 1975
    • Close Up: SPI's Chinese Farm and Golan, by Warren G. Williams, in Fire & Movement #2, 1976
    • Spotlight: Games of the Arab Israeli Wars, by Keith Poulter, in Wargamer Vol.1 #2, 1977
    • Elusive Victory: The Arab-Israeli Wars, 1947-1974, by Trevor N. Dupuy, Harper and Row, New York, 1978
    • SPI's Modern Battles, by Donald Mack, in Wargamer Vol.1 #13, date needed
    • A Survey of Arab-Israeli War Games, by Ian Chadwick, in Moves #55, February-March 1981
    • On the Banks of the Suez, by Avraham Adan, Presidio Press, 1991
    • 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
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