Who's Who or Food for Thought

A very rare card game from around 1940.

There are 18 sets of three cards per set. When a set is complete, the first card will say a war-time real person's name. The second card will have a short rhyme without the last word and that word appears on the third card in the set (all the last words are illustrated by a food item, hence the name of the game). An example; General Gort (1st card) With his army in France, just in CASE, Our French pals need help to hold Nazis in (both lines 2nd card) PLAICE (3rd card)

Sets like this help to date the game because France had not fallen at the time of printing. And other sets help as well. Neville Chamberlain was still Prime Minister for instance.

The game mechanic is very much like Rummy card games. You draw and discard cards until you get a set. This is laid before you. The same applies to a second set but now you would be out of cards in your hand so then you have to spend three turns just drawing a new card each time. Once you are up to three cards in your hand, you can collect properly again.

Each set has a point value on the card. In general, the British named character sets are worth between 10 and 20 points. The German characters are worth between 5 or 10 points. Hitler is 10, Goering only 5, for example. You might find it strange that Chamberlain is worth 20 but Churchill only 15. Churchill was not Prime Minister at the time of publication so was not worth the 20 you might have expected.

The round ends when one player has three completed sets. That player collects the point value of each set (the rest score nothing) and a game will last until one player achieves a set score agreed upon at the start. The rules suggest 100 to 200 points.