Yom Kippur: The Battle for the Sinai, October, 1973

Yom Kippur is a two-player board wargame in which one player controls Arab forces while the other controls Israeli forces.

The game is part of the "Standard Combat" series published by The Gamers, and comes with a set of rules common to all of the games in this series, as well as rules that are specific to this game.^[1] The only other components are a 22" x 34" hex grid map and 280 die-cut counters.

The game uses an "I Go, You Go" system of alternating turns with a "Move – Fight – Exploit" structure first pioneered in Panzergruppe Guderian (SPI, 1976). The Arab player:

• Moves
• Attacks
• Moves motorized units a second time to exploit any holes in the enemy front that may have opened due to combat.

The Israeli player is given the same opportunities, completing one game turn. On the first turn, this represents one day. Thereafter, each turn represent two days.^[2]

The rules cover Egyptian SAMs and Sagger anti-tank missiles,^[1] as well as Israeli armored and air superiority.^[3]

The game comes with three historical scenarios:

• The entire battle, using either historical placement of military units or an option for players to set up their units as they see fit)
• The first Israeli counterattack
• The Battle of the Chinese Farm

There are also three hypothetical scenarios:

• The Israeli government believes its intelligence services and reinforces the Suez Canal before the attack
• The Arab attack across the Suez Canal is a total surprise.
• A scenario involving direct American and Soviet military involvement.

The longest scenario is 12 turns.^[1]

As a random event, the United Nations may propose a ceasefire.^[1]

• If the players agree to the ceasefire, the game is over; victory points earned to that time are added up and the player with the most is the winner.
• If a player ignores the ceasefire, the player is penalized two victory points, and the game continues.

If a second ceasefire is also ignored, Soviet forces intervene on behalf of the Arabs, and American fores intervene on behalf of the Israelis.^[1]

In 1993, The Gamers published Stalingrad Pocket, the first in a line of relatively simple board wargames called "Standard Combat Series" (SCS) that would use a common set of rules. The fourth game in this series, Yom Kippur, was designed by Al Sandrick and was published in 1995 with cover art by Dean Essig.^[3]

A French language edition of the game was published by Oriflam in 1996, and a Japanese language edition was published in Command Japan #65 in 2006 by Kokusai-Tsushin Co., Ltd. (国際通信社) with artwork by Sawshun Yamagushi.^[4]

Multi-Man Publishing bought The Gamers in 2001, and re-released several games including Yom Kippur.