Year of the Rat Deluxe Ed

Publisher: Decision Games
Theme: Vietnam War — Easter Offensive 1972
Game System: Operational hex-and-counter wargame
Players: 2–4
Playing Time: 90–240 minutes
Recommended Age: 14+
Language: English
Release Year: 2026
Original Design: Enhanced and expanded SPI classic

On March 30th, 1972, North Vietnam launched the massive “Easter Offensive” against South Vietnam. Caught by surprise, South Vietnamese forces struggled to contain the invasion while relying heavily on elite formations and American air support.
Year of the Rat Deluxe Edition recreates this pivotal campaign through an asymmetrical operational system featuring mechanized offensives, urban sieges, airborne deployments and logistical warfare.

Components & Features

This Deluxe Edition revisits the original SPI design with decades of additional historical research and expanded gameplay content, including:

• Enlarged maps with updated graphics
• Redesigned counters
• Three campaign scenarios
• Fifteen order-of-battle variants
• Expanded Allied airmobile operations
• Revised North Vietnamese divisional structures
• Australian, Thai, Cambodian and Khmer Rouge forces
• US and Vietnamese riverine naval units
• Extensive optional rules for advanced simulation

The game strongly emphasizes mobility, deception, logistics and the growing impact of American airpower during the 1972 campaign.

Gameplay Experience

Both sides offer radically different operational challenges:

• The North Vietnamese player must exploit surprise, maneuver aggressively and preserve fragile supply lines.
• The South Vietnamese player must hold strategic cities, coordinate elite reserves and maximize US support assets.

This asymmetrical design creates a tense and highly dynamic operational experience.