Grossdeutschlands Stadtespiel (1940)

This 1940 geographical word game was designed to teach Germans the names of cities within the boundaries of the recently expanded Third Reich. The rules booklet includes the names of each major city together with a representative drawing, sometimes with a coat of arms or other symbol, and a short verse about the city. The game board features only the illustrations and symbols for each city, not the names. Players are encouraged to read the booklet before starting the game. The stock of small red and black letter tiles is placed in a bag or opaque bowl, and players take turns drawing blind, one tile at a time until a red letter tile is drawn. The player drawing the red tile must place it as the initial letter of one of the cities. After that, the player may place as many black letters in his hand as possible that continue the spelling of any city name that has been started with a red letter. Play then passes to the left. Each player in turn first draws another tile from the stock and then places as many letters as possible. If a player draws a red letter, he must place it immediately. If he is unable to identify a suitable city, he must place the letter in front of him, after which the first player to call "Halt" may take and play the letter, and then continue his turn. Play then passes left from the seizing player. Players must continue to draw a letter at the beginning of each turn, even if they have no tiles left. The winner is the player who first uses up all his tiles after the last tile has been drawn from the stock. The map board includes Vienna, Graz, Prague and the major cities of occupied Poland as German, but still shows Denmark as independent, meaning it was based on the borders as they stood between October 1939 and April 1940.