1945 (2012)

1945 is an easy to learn, fun to play strategic card game of world conquest for 2-6 people. Players collect armed forces cards and use them to conquer territories. Battles can be changed dramatically by special action cards that have a variety of effects, from helping your troops to bombing your enemies to smithereens. Ultimately, whoever gathers enough points by conquering territories and collecting victory point cards is declared the winner!

Players take turns drawing cards from the deck. When a territory is drawn, all the players join in to battle for it. The player who drew it declares a Theater of War -- Air, Land, or Sea -- and players deploy troops from their hands face down to hide their strength. (Individual troop cards range in strength from 1 to 5, so while other players can see how many cards you've laid down, they don't know how strong your forces are.)

Players can also play special cards, which increase the strength of one's forces, allow one to see other players' cards, let a player play a card from the discard pile, drop an A-Bomb on a territory to remove it from play altogether, or various other effects. When all players have committed as many forces they wish, all of the cards are revealed, special cards are resolved, and the player with the strongest remaining forces wins the territory.

The number of Victory Points required to win the game varies with the number of players participating. One gains a Victory Point for each territory held, as well as for each Victory Point card held in one's hand. The first player to accumulate the required number of Victory Points wins the game.