I have already posted about War games from the Boer War , American patriotism patents in World War I and War games from World War II . Two of the inventions given below were in fact by Frenchmen, but they were all published as British patents.
The Improved appliances for playing board games by 
Andrew Tait of Rock Ferry, Cheshire, curator and registrar, was applied for in October 1914. It is a strategic game, and Tait suggests that the playing pieces be marked with Union Jacks and the German flag.
The New or improved appliances for playing board games involved playing across a huge map of Europe, marked out in squares. Pieces represented cavalry and so on, and the battle was for both land and strategic assets such as coaling stations. The invention was by Courtney Pollock of London, sculptor.
A puzzle or game appliance was in fact by a Frenchman, 
Louis Vial, gentleman. It was a mathematical game where there were 30 numbered spaces (representing a trench) occupied by 15 soldiers of two opposing armies. Vial states "The game is played by mixing up the soldiers and placing them one in each of the divisions of the trench in such a manner that on counting round in nines, starting from number one, and removing the ninth man at each time of counting, there will remain eventually fifteen soldiers of one country only. Only one solution is possible, and the finding of it out constitutes the attractiveness of the game and gives rise to a difficult problem."
The Improved appliances for playing a game involves airships dropping bombs and fighters attacking them -- rather unusual, I think, for 1915. It was by Albert Hunt of London, shipping manager. He states in the specification "Whenever two cards showing bombs or shells bursting or being tired are turned up consecutively, the player who first' calls "bomb-bomb" or " fire-fire " if the cards are both bursting or firing of shells or bombs or " bombfire " or " fire-bomb " if dissimilar cards, will score." Here is the main drawing.
Lastly, there was the Appliances for playing a game imitating trench warfare by Charles de Laforcade of Paris, Lieutenant 20th Light Infantry. Tanks had appeared by the time the invention was filed (1917), hence their inclusion in the game. De Laforcade states "The game is played by throwing dice into one or the other of the said compartments, as chosen by the player, according as this latter considers it advisable to start an action of a given kind, either a bombardment, curtain fire or barrage, grenade throwing, emission of asphyxiating gases, manoeuvring with tanks, advance or retirement, the numbers given by the dice indicating the number of killed or wounded. Such is in a few words, the principle of the game." Here is the main drawing.
By this time, with war weariness, few military games were being patented.
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