L'Attaque (1909)

Overview

This game L’ATTAQUE is an early predecessor of the nowadays more widely known Stratego. It was designed by 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 26 Nov 1908. The patent was released by the French Patent Office in 1909 (patent #396.795).

Hermance Edan marketed her own invention from 1909 to early 1930. In 1910, she named her game "L'Attaque". Gibsons obtained the publishing rights to sell L'Attaque in English-speaking countries from 1925, but kept the French name.

The game is played with 36 pieces each on a 9x10 square board. Each piece has a numeric value, which is hidden from the opponent and only revealed when an attacking piece moves onto a square occupied by an opponent's piece. In most cases, the piece with the highest value wins and the losing piece is removed from the board.

Play continues until one player finds the opponent's flag piece and takes it.

There have been some revised editions of this Game, including a very rare ‘5-bridges’ 10x10 board, later used as the basis of Sharpe's Attack, and a 100th anniversary of Gibsons games edition. The basic gameplay has been used to implement various other Gibsons games; Dover Patrol, Aviation: The Aerial Tactics Game of Attack and Defence, Battle of Britain (Gibsons English fifth edition) and Tri-Tactics. It forms the basis of the near identical Stratego produced by Jumbo. French publisher Au Jeu Retrouvé produced a version of the game Jeu de la Quille in 1975, modifying the illustrations of the parts.

Re-implemented by:

Stratego Sharpe's Attack Jeu de la Quille

Similar to:

Dover Patrol Aviation: The Aerial Tactics Game of Attack and Defence Battle of Britain (Gibsons English fifth edition) Tri-Tactics