Dan Cermak Collection
Dan Cermak is a retired videogame developer who has an extensive collection of board games. Many of these are wartime games like those in my own collection, and he has dozens of rare titles that I have not been able to get my hands on. This page shows 29 such games from nine different countries, published between the late 19th Century and the end of World War II.
The Game of 5th Column Spy Hunters
USA, 1940, Koboco Games
5th Column Spy Hunter is a point-to-point movement game for 2 teams. The board is a map of the United States that features dots for both cities and major military bases.
Players act as either the 5th Columnists or the Spy Hunters. Each player in turn spins the "Decoder". The spinner has numbers from 1-20, and these numbers mean different things to each team, as listed in the "Codes" below the spinner.
5th Columnists score points for achieving goals such as stealing documents from a military base by ending their moves there. The Spy Hunters get points for frustrating the 5th Columnists, and the winner is the first team to 15 points. ending their moves on designated spots (for example: air naval or army bases to steal documents), the Spy Hunters get points based on failures by the 5th Columnists. The winner is the first team to 15 points.
Air Raid
USA, 1939, Gee-Gee Co.
This pre-war (for the USA at least) game is very similar to German air war game Adler Luftkampfspiel, published in 1935.
The board consists of two player areas separated by no-man's-land. Players try to move their bombers across the board to the far side of the opposing board, where they can drop bombs on enemy buildings and ammo dumps. At the same time, they must use their fighters either to escort the bombers or defend their own home board. The game has pieces for four players who then work in teams.
Planes start from their own first row, move into the owning player's preferred formations. Bombers only move 2 spaces straight ahead or 1 space and turn. Fighters move 3 ahead and one less if turning. Points are awarded both for bombing the enemy and shooting down planes. The player with the most points wins.
Attack
USA, 1943, Gano Games
This mid-war game offers everything: infantry, mortars, artillery, tanks and airplanes. Players also plot the placement of minefields. Pieces start in the camp, ammo dump and airfield. The objective is to move across the field and capture or destroy either the opposing camp or ammo dump.
Units are moved one at a time within their allowed movement ranges. Units can capture multiple enemy units simply by entering their square. Alternatively, they can shoot within their range and destroy a single enemy. First player to capture an enemy dump or camp wins.
Battle of the Tanks
USA, 1942, Milton Bradley
This extremely rare Milton Bradley game is, as the title suggests, about tank on tank warfare. The board has a track six spaces wide. Starting from their own end, opponents move toward each other and try to eliminate the other's tanks. The game is intended to be played in matches of five games to determine the winner.
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Each player in turn rolls two dice and moves 2 tanks. One tank must move the number of spaces indicated by one die and the other tank moves according to the second die. A lone remaining tank may choose either die roll.
Movement is orthogonal only and cannot be back and forward in the same turn. Landing by exact count on an enemy tank captures it. Each captured tank is worth 5 points, as is winning each game in the match. The player with the most total points wins.
Benedicto
United Kingdom, 1941, United Canners Ltd.
The name of the game Benedicto comes from its publisher, the makers of Benedict Peas, who then added the alternate title "Beat the Blitz". The board is colorful, but the game's most interesting feature is the ad-filled back of the envelope that contains it. Its four-verse ditty boasts of the company's long reliance on British peas, a big plus now that "the war has come - and foreign peas, No longer fill our docks and quays."
The game is described on its envelope as a thrilling race against air raids, time bombs, traffic jams, tank traps and diversions. However, it actually is a very ordinary roll and move from the pea patch through the factory and into the home. First player to reach the home wins.
Blitz: The Air-Raid Game
Canada, 1940, Somerville Ltd.
This is a war-themed variant of Reversi or Othello. The board has 60 squares representing properties including railway stations, shops, factories, armouries, an airport, a hospital and anti-aircraft defences. Each space has a different point value. The playing pieces are 60 wooden bombs, red on one end and black on the other.
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Players start with two bombs each, diagonally opposed in in the four middle squares. The red attacking player places a red bomb on any space where it will bracket a black bomb. The bracketed bomb is flipped over to red. The black player then does the same. Play continues until all 60 squares are filled. Players then add up the point values under their bombs, with highest total winning.
Bombers Aloft
USA, 1941, Milton Bradley
This game is a three-dimensional anti-aircraft shooter using a multi-purpose spinner. The bombers move counter-clockwise around a circular board with 30 spokes. In turn, each bomber makes three spins. The first determines which of the four lanes it will move to. The second determines its new altitude, marked by sticking the nose of the bomber into a metal stand at the appropriate height. And the third sets the number of spaces it moves forward. Many spaces are marked with numbers from 1 to 14, increasing with the length of the journey.
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After a player's bomber is moved, he gets a shot with the AA gun by choosing a spoke (from 1 to 30) and making two spins. These show its aiming point by lane and altitude.
If the result matches a bomber's location, it is shot down, and the shooting player scores points based on the value in that space. The game ends when all bombers either have been shot down or have reached the finish line. The player with the most points wins.
Cargo for Victory
USA, 1943, E.E. Fairchild Corp.
This mid-war game focuses on the challenge of moving vital Allied goods by sea in the face of enemy surface ships and submarines. Cargo ships are drawn randomly, with each showing the nature of the cargo, its starting point and its destination. Each player tries to deliver those loads while using his surface ships and submarines both to protect his own cargo ships and to sink enemy ships and submarines.
In turn, ships and submarines may move one space in any direction. However, cargo ships can move faster by jumping friendly ships and submarines as well as enemy cargo ships. A submarine destroys any enemy piece by jumping it. The destroyed piece is removed and set aside for scoring. Ships that reach their destinations also count for scoring. The game ends when the last cargo ship is sunk or reaches its destination.
Commander in Chief
USA, c. 1900, publisher unknown
This is a turn of the century game on the familiar theme of rising through the military ranks, from Private to Commander in Chief. The central illustration appears to reflect the Spanish American War, with the right-hand part showing a distinct resemblance to Frederic Remington's 1898 painting Captain Grimes's Battery Going Up El Poso Hill. It is a simple roll-and-move game, with the winner being first player to reach Commander in Chief.
Commonwealth Navy
Australia, 1913, National Game Company
This is a naval target-practice game. The target ship is in the middle of the board, with 11 spaces numbered from 1 to 5. The metal playing pieces are ships that move around the edge, taking a shot from each of the 32 spaces with colored dots or red-bordered squares around the rim.
A player's ship starts on one of the colored dots, and moves one space clockwise each turn. Each player then spins the teetotem and counts that number of spaces following the inward arrow from that space. If the result is a space with a number, the player score that value.
When all players have completed the circuit, the player with the highest score wins.
Empires
USA, 1940, Selchow & Righter
Empires is played on a world map, with up to six players starting in the the Atlantic Ocean. The six Powers are the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Japan. Parts include 6 pawns representing each country, 20 Markers for each player, 48 resource cards and 48 armament cards with values of 1 or 5 representing Air, Navy and Army units. Colonial areas have a value from 3 to 6.
Players move from point to point around the map. When moving into a vacant space, they gain one resource for a territory, and place a marker to take control of a colony and get resources equal to its value. Resources are converted into armaments at 3 for 1, with armament cards drawn randomly. Once all colonies are taken a colonial war begins. As players land on opposing colonies, they choose an armament class and attack. Highest strength wins the battle and takes the colony. The loser gives up resources equal to the colony's value. Once all armament cards have been drawn, the first player back to start triggers a winner-take-all battle based on total armament values.
Le Grandi Manovre
Italy, 1937, S.I.G.l.
This pre-WWII Italian game is both very rare and remarkably sophisticated. The game board is a detailed topographical map showing elevation, rivers, lakes and marshes, primary and secondary roads, and defensive wire and trench lines. Also marked are bases, airfields, and ammunition dumps. The metal playing pieces include cavalry, infantry (with elite units such as Bersaglieri), machineguns, field and heavy artillery, anti-aircraft guns, tanks, air squadrons and supply trucks.
Each player in turn rolls two dice to begin a turn. The total is the number of points available to take actions with one or more pieces. Infantry moves one square per point, cavalry two, tanks three and airplanes four. Movement of some pieces is restricted by terrain. More than one point may be spent to move a given unit. Each attack requires 2 points.
No more than three units can be placed on any given square on the board, including units moving through and even the arrival of a supply convoy. In moving, artillery batteries cannot be placed forward of their own infantry or cavalry troops.
Attacking troops may go after enemy infantry, cavalry and tanks, but not artillery in the same location. The batteries may be attacked in a subsequent action if they have not managed to take cover, or in the rare instances when they find themselves isolated. Normally, attacks require forces at least equal to the defending forces, not counting any protected artillery, but there is provision for a coup de main by a smaller force.
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Artillery can attack at range, but has only six units of fire before needing a resupply convoy from the ammunition dump.​
​​Air units must take off from an airfield and return to one within the turn. If they run out of fuel, they are lost. No ground actions are allowed on a turn where an air unit is moved. Air units coming in range of an anti-aircraft gun must either attack it or return to base.
Each of the dice used in the game has a blue face. A player rolling a single blue face has the right to carry out and complete an air attack before the opponent can respond.
If both dice show blue, the rolling player can still make an attack, but the opponent gets a counter-attack with either an air unit or an anti-aircraft cannon. An opponent who brings in air units must roll two dice and fly from current airfields. Air-to-air victory is determined by which player has the most pips of movement remaining. Alternatively, the opponent may use the roll to move and fire with anti-aircraft guns. A single attack damages the attacker, causing it to lose 2.5 points of movement; two attacks kills the attacking plane.
To win the game, a player must capture both of the opponent's starting bases.
Guerra Aereo-Navale
Italy, 1940, Editrice Carroccio
This "Air-Naval War" game was published on June 10, 1940, the day Italy entered WWII. It has wooden pieces representing both targets such as a railway station, ammo dump and bridge, and attacking airplanes, ships and submarines (two per player) along with a single torpedo boat.
The playing board has a red home area on one side and blue on the other. Pieces move along colored lines across the ocean between them. There is a small island in the middle.
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Players move one piece each turn, and must alternate between ships, submarines and airplanes. A die roll determines how far an eligible piece can move. Players capture a enemy unit or target by landing on it. Pieces only move forward until reaching the far side, then planes reverse course and ships reset to their starting spaces. Players get the torpedo boat, which can move in either direction, after losing three units. The winner is the first to destroy both enemy planes and half the ships.
La Guerre Moderne
France, 1915, Publisher not shown
This roll-and-move game was published early in WWI, and shows the full scope of military operations on and over land and sea. Naval scenes include surface to surface and air battles and a troopship at dock. Air units shown are monoplane fighters and airships. Ground scenes include both siege guns and howitzers firing, trench warfare, a cavalry charge and urban fighting. Neither a title nor a publisher is shown on the sheet.
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Jutlandia
Mexico, 1942, publisher not known
This naval game features metal ships. Each side has a flagship and two other battleships, one aircraft carrier, 4 cruisers, 5 destroyers, 2 submarines and 2 squadrons of aircraft, along with coastal batteries, a fort and a base flag.
The checkerboard playing surface is 9 squares wide by 8 deep, with a 2-deep home base with staggered rows of 5 and 4 spaces. The rules are not known.
Kriegspiel Junior
USA, 1915, Parker Brothers
This seems to be a WWI remake of the 1895 game Waterloo with a map of interlaced roads with black dots. Berlin and Vienna are at one end of the map, with Paris and Brussels on the other. Each of these cities has a triangle of 3 grey spaces. The Rhine River wanders across the middle of the map, and two other cities are shown (Strassburg and Cologne) that have no impact on play. There are six fortresses, each containing a grey dot. Playing pieces are similar, with 8 wooden infantry pawns and 2 taller cavalry per side.
The winner is the first to occupy 2 adjacent grey dots on an enemy city. In turn, players roll 3 dice. Each die can be used to move one piece that many dots. Two or even all three can be used to move a single cavalry. Doubles allow 2 pieces to move in tandem, and another roll. A piece cannot move through any other piece, and captures an enemy by landing on it be exact count. Pieces in forts and pieces adjacent to another friendly unit cannot be captured.
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Assuming the rules are parallel to Waterloo, the game can be played by two or four. With two players, only Paris and Berlin are in play. With four players, each side plays as a team, and can win by capturing either enemy city.
Miltry
USA, 1915, Playwell Games Co.
The board is circular, with interlocking paths leading toward a central fortress. Each player represents one of the five nations at war in the west: Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Russia. (Although this is an American game, the US was still neutral at time of publication.) The playing pieces are paper flags mounted with metal pins on wooden cylindrical bases. ​
The game is for up to five players. Each player's four flags start on the outer ring of the circular board. The aim is to capture the fortress in the middle, but the movement and capture rules are not clear.
Modern Warfare
USA, 1940, Ed Karl & Theo. Nitza
This game's units are silver and gold metal soldiers, aircraft, tanks and artillery. The pieces are large, with the soldier about 1.5 inches (3.2 cm) tall.
The board has four jagged trench-type lines across each half of the board. Players place their pieces along one or more of their own lines.
The game uses a spinner for both movement and combat. Combat is affected by the type of unit and where it is placed.
Two simpler games are included: Trench Warfare leaves out tanks and aircraft, and Hit and Miss is a straight-up shootout.
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The game begins with an artillery duel, first four rounds between single pieces and then by both batteries firing together until one side loses both pieces. Then tanks and aircraft fight until one side runs out. The winners retire to their reserve, leaving the final combat round to the infantry.
On Guard
USA, 1909, Milton Bradley
This is a simple spin and move game for 2-4 players. One player acts as the enemy Guard, while the others try to complete a reconnaissance of the enemy position. If a guard lands on a recon player, that player becomes the new Guard, and the guard player begins a recon route. Movement for all players is by a 1-4 spinner. First player to complete a recon route wins.
Pinpoint the Bomber
United Kingdom, 1942, George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
This game was published as a book that includes maps in both color and black & white. Players must copy and make their own playing pieces, compass, angle indicator and latitude/longitude finder. The book contains three games: Black is a solo effort to see how fast and accurate a player can be; Red is for up to 4 players racing to bomb Coblenz; and Green is for any number of players to find the required Pinpoints.
Movement is by die roll or card draw and players must land on the target by exact count. Mission briefings in the book may include enemy fighter attacks or other events causing the player to head off track. The solo game is to reach the objective in as few turns as possible. The multi-player games are a race to reach the target first.
The book was written by Francis Chichester, a pioneer in solo long-distance air navigation. He taught air navigation during WWII and wrote the navigation manual that allowed the pilots of single-seat fighter aircraft to navigate across Europe and back using kneeboard navigation similar to that which he had used in the Pacific.
He later became a famous yachtsman, winning the first single-handed transatlantic race in 1960. In 1966-67, he became the first to achieve a solo circumnavigation of the world West to East via the great Capes. Queen Elizabeth II then knighted him using the same sword used to knight Francis Drake by Elizabeth I.
Road to Victory
United Kingdom, 1939, BTC London
This is a simple roll-and-move game for 2 to 4 players. The 100-space track starts and ends at Berlin. The game is notable for the timing of its publication, after the invasion of Poland but before Nazi Germany seized Denmark and invaded Belgium and the Netherlands. There is even a reference to the possibility of Romania joining the Allies. Also notable are two mentions of the Polish submarine Orzel, which escaped to England in 1939. Spaces 50 and 51 show it picking up survivors of a torpedoed ship and then escaping through the Skagerrak.
Sabotage
Denmark, 1942, Clandestinely published
Sabotage was designed and clandestinely distributed by a group of Danish resistance fighters during the German occupation of Denmark in WWII. It simulates an actual act of sabotage that took place against a transformer station at the Scandia Locomotive Factory in Randers. Erik Hagen, a doctor active in the resistance, is said to have sold the game to patients and used the money to support the cause. He was shot and killed on 6 June, 1944, while returning from a sabotage mission against the Globus Factory in Glostrup. The game board and pieces are printed on a single sheet of paper which players are instructed to mount on cardboard and cut out.
The game is presented as a training simulation, and there are no fixed rules for winning or losing. It pits 1 or 2 saboteurs against 1 or 2 guards. Movement and gunfights are decided by throws of a single die. Saboteurs try to blow up as many machines and buildings as possible before being caught, killed or escaping. They first must find needed equipment like crowbars, guns and explosives on the black market. If guards discover the saboteurs and raise the alarm, the saboteurs have only a few turns to complete their mission and escape.
Siegreich voran!
Germany, 1941, Jos. Scholz
"Victorious Advance" is another early WWII air combat game from Germany.
The game board has an airbase on each side, separated by a landscape of woods and buildings. Each side has 1 command piece, 4 bombers, 10 fighters, 3 barrage balloons and 3 anti-aircraft units.
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Each player starts with aircraft on home base and placement of barrage balloons and anti-aircraft guns to protect that territory.
The goal is to bomb the enemy base while protecting the friendly base.
Movement is by die roll. Players may move a fighter or a bomber. Fighters shoot down bombers or enemy fighters by landing on them by exact count. Bombers succeed by reaching a target square.
Points are awarded for bombs dropped and enemy aircraft downed.
Talita
Germany, 1940, Talisman Spiele
This game consists of an envelope containing 4 cardboard cards. One one side of each card is a board for the Target Flight game. On the other are two boards for the Capture Ship game. The Flight game has start and end spaces numbered 1 and 22, and there are 20 plane outlines spread across a map of Europe. The ship game has outlines of three types of ship (blue warships, white merchant ships and black submarines) along with naval mines. These appear to be simple paper and pencil games but the rules are not clear from context.
U-One
United Kingdom, 1920, John Jaques & Sons Ltd.
This post-WWI title features a one-on-one duel between a U-Boat and a merchant ship. It has a four-panel board in heavy card stock showing the Western Approaches (the waters around Southwest England, the French coast and the Channel Islands. Minefields are marked in red and must be avoide4d by both players. The two playing pieces are metal, and take up three squares on the board.
Each player in turn rolls one die and moves that many squares. The count is from the ship's bow and moves are orthogonal, so turning a ship is gradual. The merchant player starts from the western edge and must reach port in either Southampton or Le Havre to win. To sink the ship, the submarine player must have the merchant directly in front of its bow, and then roll a number equal to or greater than the distance between its bow and the nearest square of the ship.
War
USA, 1898, Frank Prindle
This is a simple roll-and-move game, apparently self-published by Frank Prindle of San Francisco shortly after the Spanish-American War of 1898. The board appears to show a stylized view of the entrance to Santiago Bay, looking northeast to the San Juan and Kettle hills. The image shows naval action in the foreground, including a sunken Spanish ship, with land forces moving on both sides of the bay. Players start at space 1 near the bay's entrance and roll dice in a race to reach space 100, which shows an American flag waving over a cloud-topped hill, presumably San Juan.
Warfare
United Kingdom, 1900, publisher not shown
Warzon
Canada, 1940, Publisher not shown
As roll-and-move games go, this one is fairly complex. Each player takes the side of either Britain or Germany.
Each player gets 18 units (6 land, 6 sea and 6 air) of varying values (between $100,000 and $1 million).
The board has three tracks, for land sea and air. Each track is divided into red (British and allies), grey (German and allies) and green (Neutral) spaces. Each space has a designated result (for instance, collect money from each other player). Pieces on friendly or neutral territory are safe; those on enemy territory may be captured.
In turn, each player rolls 2 dice three times, and must move a unit on each track (land, sea, air) once.
To start, the first roll may be assigned to any column, the second to one remaining and the third with no choice. In future turns, rolls are applied in reverse order of value.
The game lasts 6 rounds and ends when all pieces have either completed their tracks or been destroyed. The winner is the player with the highest total value (money plus value of surviving units).
While no country or publisher is shown, the game is likely Canadian. The box has the statement "Patents applied for Canada and the United States". American games typically do not reference other countries for patent protection, and the US clearly was not at war when this game was published. As the currency is dollars, it would not be a British game.
Der Weltkrieg
Germany, 1915, AK Spiele Heimchen
This checkers variant was published early in WWI. The Allied flags on the cover include Japan and Russia as well as France, Belgium and the United Kingdom, but not Italy, which joined the Allies in April 1915. The German side shows only German and Austro-Hungarian flags.
The board is a 15 x 21 square grid laid over a map of Europe. The playing pieces are wooden disks on larger cardboard circles. Each piece has the name of a city on it.
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Players take turns placing their pieces on the enemy side of the board with city information down. They then move pieces one at a time in any direction, and move faster by jumping over friendly or enemy pieces.
When first moving a piece, its information goes face up, and stays up until it reaches its destination. The first player to get all pieces back to their home cities wins.
