L'Attaque or The Attack is a French board wargame first published by Hermance Edan in 1909 which inspired the creation of later games, such as Stratego. Two players each move 36 ranked game pieces with hidden identities and challenge opposing pieces, the results of which are determined by the rank hierarchy, in order to either capture their opponent's Flag or manipulate the board so their opponent cannot make any further moves.
Publication history
According to historian and game collector
Thierry Depaulis, on November 26 1908 Frenchwoman Hermance Edan filed a patent for a
"jeu de bataille avec pièces mobiles sur damier" (a battle game with mobile pieces on a gameboard) with the French Patent Office, based on a game she had developed in the 1880s.
The patent (patent #396.795
[The French patent, in French, may be downloaded here: (click on "Original document" tab).]) was released in 1909 and the game began being sold by French game manufacturer Au Jeu Retrouvé in 1910 under the name "
L'Attaque". It was sold in France by department store
La Samaritaine, and appeared in Britain before World War I.
In 1925, English game maker
Gibsons Games bought the rights to the game and began publishing at least until the 1970s,
initially retaining the French name before eventually changing it to "
The Attack".
Related and derivative games
L'Attaque shows similarities to the Chinese game
dou shou qi, also known as
jungle, in which ranked animals pieces capture lower ranked pieces. Some believe
L'Attaque is a later version of
jungle,
but according to historian R.C. Bell,
Jungle was first published in the 20th century and cannot have been a predecessor. The game also shows similarities to
Gunjin Shōgi, a 19th century Japanese game which uses pieces akin to
Shogi but otherwise plays like
L'Attaque.
In 1932, Gibson and Sons published Tri-tactics, which was a combination of three of their previous publications – L'Attaque, Dover Patrol, and Aviation – and consisted of various fighting units engaging in land and water combat to capture their opponent's Naval Base or Headquarters.
Stratego is a nearly identical game to L'Attaque, aside from the use of additional pieces, and historians Fred Horn and Alex de Voogt state that the idea for it was likely derived from or transmitted as a result of L'Attaque.
Gameplay
L'Attaque is played on a 9×10 board with three 2-square lakes in the centre. Both players receive 36 standing rectangular cardboard pieces of various ranks, colour printed with soldiers in contemporary (to 1900) uniforms – not
Napoleonic, as in Stratego – of red or blue. Each piece has a military hierarchal value and can only capture pieces with a lower rank than them. Players set up their pieces facing them in the first four rows of their side, such that neither player can see the rank of their opponent's pieces.
| +
!Rank
!Piece
!Count per player
!Special properties |
| 10 | Commander-in-chief | 1 | Vulnerable only to a Mine or attacking Spy |
| 9 | Brigadier General | 1 | |
| 8 | Colonel | 2 | |
| 7 | Commandant | 2 | |
| 6 | Captain | 4 | |
| 5 | Lieutenant | 4 | |
| 4 | Sergeant | 4 | |
| 3 | Sapper | 4 | Can capture Mines without being removed from the game |
| 2 | Reconnaissance | 8 | Can move any distance in a non-diagonal straight line without leaping over pieces or lakes; cannot capture another Scout; an attacking Scout returns to their space after attacking |
| 1 | Spy | 1 | Can capture the Commander-in-chief |
| | War flag | 1 | Immobile; capturing the opponent's Flag wins the game |
| | Land mine | 4 | Immobile; any piece (except a Sapper) attacking a Mine is removed from the game |
Players take turns moving one of their pieces a single space vertically or horizontally, although pieces cannot move into a space with a lake or another piece. If two pieces come face-to-face, the player whose turn it is can choose to attack. Both players then reveal their pieces and, unless their ability says otherwise, the one with the lower rank is captured and removed from the board. If the pieces are of equal rank, both are removed.
The game continues until a player captures either their opponent's Flag or all of their moveable pieces.
Reception
Eric Solomon, writing for Issue 24 of
Games & Puzzles, described
L'Attaque as "an inexpensive and unpretentious game not claiming to be realistic in any sense" and praised it for its fast pace and clarity of the rules.
External links
