America - Kate Smith's Own Game

The game comes with 144 thick cardboard tiles: 48 states divided into four color-coded regions; 48 state capitols; 30 primary industries; 10 "favorite sons"; and 8 American flags (wild cards). There are four cardboard racks for holding each player's tiles (neatly designed to create red-and-white stripes when laid sideways in the box next to the blue-starred covered rules).

The tiles are shuffled face down on the table between the players. Each player draws a hand of 12 tiles to start. Each in turn then draws a tile and then discards a tile (the same or another). As in mah-jong, the player must announce the discard. The next player may pick up either the discard or a blind tile, but any player may claim the discard if it completes a partial set. He must reveal enough tiles to prove the set (e.g. two other states of the same color), thus revealing part of his strategy, but play then passes to the seizing player's left, with any in between missing their turns.

There are eight potential scoring combinations. The easiest, scoring 5, is a hand with three states in each of the four regions. The most difficult, scoring 30, requires three states each with their capitols, one of their industries and a favorite son. (Since some industries have only a single tile, and only 10 states have favorite sons, this can be very difficult indeed.) However, the 8 American flag tiles can be used as wild cards.

If a player needs information (such as a state's favorite son or industry), he may ask questions out loud, and pays 5 into a bonus pot for each question. As soon as a player completes a winning hand, he calls "America" and collects the value of the hand from each player as well as anything in the bonus pot. Cardboard discs in four colors are supplied, with their values to be assigned by the players.