Kriegs-Spiel (1880)

This is a two-player German war game published in about 1880. The playing board features a castle in the center surrounded by a two-layer multi-colored track running from 1-70. On each side is rectangular block of colored numbers, with 1-35 on one side and 36-70 on the other. There are illustrations of fighting in the four corners, with uniforms representing the then-recent Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. To start, the players each put an agreed amount into the pot to fund the war. They then take turns rolling a single die, and advancing that many spaces on their respective tracks. The first to reach space 70 wins the war and the pot. The color of each space has an effect on play. If a player lands on a green space, the opponent must drop back to the nearest red space. A player who lands on a blue space must pay one mark to his opponent. Landing on a gold space means paying a mark into the pot, while landing on a lilac space grants another roll of the die. The board consists of a sheet of paper pasted onto thick cardboard. A second game is pasted onto the reverse side.