The East Is Red: The Sino Soviet War is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1974 that simulates a hypothetical invasion of Manchuria and North China by Russia using 1970s armaments.
The East Is Red is a two-player game in which one player controls the Russian invaders, and the other player controls Chinese defenders.
The game includes:
The East Is Red uses an alternating system of "I Go, You Go" turns, movement and combat first developed by SPI for (1971).
Victory is based solely based on how many Chinese industrial centers the Russians capture: 22 or less is a Russian defeat, 23 or more is a Russian victory.
The East Is Red was designed by Jim Dunnigan, with graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen. It was first published by SPI in Strategy & Tactics No. 42, then released in both a "flat-pack" box and a regular bookcase box.
After the demise of SPI, Decision Games acquired the rights to the game. Joseph Miranda revised and updated the rules to allow for more modern armaments, and a second edition titled Dragon vs Bear: China vs Russia in the 21st Century with cover art by Eric R. Harvey was published in 2014 as a pullout game in Modern War #12.[1]
In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicholas Palmer called it a "good brisk game with little innovation over the [''Kursk: Operation Zitadelle''] game system but unusual theme."[2]
In Moves No. 15, Thomas Sink noted that a large part of Russia's supply line issues stem from a proposed limited shipping capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, as Sink pointed out, the Russian railway system actually had the ability "to supply around 300,000 tons of supplies daily to dumps behind the front [...] If only half of this got through, it would be sufficient to supply the 45 [Russian] divisions."[3]
. Nick Palmer . The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming . Sphere Books . 1977 . London . 148.