Year of the Rat, Vietnam, 1972

In March 1972, North Vietnam launched a massive offensive against South Vietnamese and American forces, hoping to achieve either a decisive victory or at least a better bargaining position at the Paris peace talks.

[2] With a large 22" x 34" hex grid map of South Vietnam and parts of Cambodia, 200 die-cut counters, and rules about helicopter transport, unit supply and air strikes, the game has been characterized as "moderately complex.".

[2] The North Vietnamese have the ability to move off-road, but the Allied player's American units enjoy air mobility via helicopters, and the firepower of B-52 bombing raids.

In November 1972, only a few months after the end of the Easter Offensive, SPI released Year of the Rat as a pull-out game with graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen in Strategy & Tactics #35.

[2] In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nick Palmer complimented the evenness of the game, calling it "Fairly well balanced and skill demanding on both sides (especially the Communists, who lose heavily in all straightforward fights in the open.)"