''L'Attaque'' is a board game first published in France in 1909 that inspired the creation of later games such as ''

Stratego ''Stratego'' ( ) is a strategy board game for two players on a board of 10×10 squares. Each player controls 40 pieces representing individual officer and soldier ranks in an army. The pieces have Napoleonic insignia. The objective of the game ...

''.

Publication history

In nearly its present form ''Stratego'' appeared in France from La Samaritaine in 1910, and then in Britain before World War I, as a game called ''L'attaque''. Historian and game collector Thierry Depaulis writes:

It was in fact designed by a lady, Mademoiselle Hermance Edan, who filed a patent for a ''"jeu de bataille avec pièces mobiles sur damier"'' (a battle game with mobile pieces on a gameboard) on 1908-11-26. The patent was released by the
French Patent Office The National Industrial Property Institute (INPI, standing for ''Institut national de la propriété industrielle'' in French) is the national intellectual property office of France, in charge of patents, trademarks and industrial design rights. ...
in 1909 (patent #396.795). Hermance Edan had given no name to her game but a French manufacturer named Au Jeu Retrouvé was selling the game as ''L'Attaque'' as early as 1910.

Depaulis further notes that the 1910 version was played with 36 pieces per player on a 9×10 board and the armies were divided into red and blue colors. The rules of ''L'attaque'' were basically the same as for the game we know as ''Stratego''. It featured standing cardboard rectangular pieces, color printed with soldiers who wore contemporary (to 1900) uniforms, not

Napoleonic Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

uniforms. In papers of her estate, Ms. Edan states that she developed the game in the 1880s. ''L'attaque'' was later produced in England by game maker H.P. Gibson and Sons, who bought the rights to the game in 1925, at least until the 1970s, initially retaining the French name before changing it.

Reviews

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Games & Puzzles ''Games & Puzzles'' was a magazine about games and puzzles. The magazine was first published in May 1972 by Edu-Games (UK) Ltd. The first editor was Graeme Levin who recruited a variety of games and puzzles experts as writers and consultant edi ...

References

External links

*{{bgg, 9246 Board games introduced in the 1900s