Chinese Civil War (wargame)

Chinese Civil War is a two-player board wargame designed by Bob Fowler and published in 1979 by World Wide Wargames, known as 3W. It simulates the historical conflict between Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang forces and Mao Zedong's Communist army during China's civil war. Play alternates between the two sides, each managing reinforcements, unit movement and combat across the game's map; one player commands the Kuomintang, which begins the game with regionally organized conventional forces, while the other commands the Communists, who start as guerrilla units capable of infiltration. The Kuomintang side depends on supply lines running from the south, while the Communist side can convert its guerrillas into conventional forces at the cost of losing their infiltration ability. The game runs eighteen turns, and victory is decided by which side holds the most cities when it ends. Its rules deliberately model real historical asymmetries between the two forces: Kuomintang stacking restrictions represent that side's internal fragmentation, and a reliability mechanic in which an attack roll of six causes the operation to fail reflects the historical unevenness of Kuomintang command.