Strategy & Tactics
S&T issue 68 cover
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| Categories | Wargaming magazine |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Decision Games |
| First issue | January 1967 |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Bakersfield, CA |
| Language | English |
Strategy & Tactics (S&T) is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a complete new wargame in each issue.
Strategy & Tactics got its start in January 1967 under the auspices of its original editor, Chris Wagner, offering what he saw as a better alternative to Avalon Hill's gaming magazine, The General.Strategy & Tactics began life as a wargaming fanzine published by Wagner (then a staff sergeant with the US Air Force in Japan), at first in Japan, then moving to the United States with Wagner.
Graphic designer Redmond Simonsen was hired to improve the quality of the magazine. When subscribership stagnated, debts began to accrue.Jim Dunnigan created SPI in order to save Strategy & Tactics. Dunnigan had been a contributor to the magazine since Strategy & Tactics #2 (February 1967), and when Wagner was having financial difficulties with the magazine he sold Dunnigan the rights for $1. A persistent rumour that Dunnigan had purchased S&T from Wagner for one dollar, and that furthermore the dollar was not paid until much later was confirmed by Wagner during an interview printed in S&T issue #83 (The Kaiser's Battle).
Dunnigan set up shop in a windowless basement in New York City's Lower East Side, and published his first issue from there, Strategy & Tactics #18 (September 1969); starting with that issue, every issue included a new wargame.Albert Nofi became an associate editor in 1969. The first game published in issue #18 was Crete. Not only did this represent a break from the cautious policy of Avalon Hill (pioneer company in modern commercial wargaming and the leading company in the fledgling wargaming industry) in publishing only one or two games per year (for fear of new games cannibalizing sales of old ones), but the need for new game designs spurred research into many of the lesser-known corners of military history. Despite the diversity in themes, the style of the games was fairly consistent. They predominantly used a hexgrid for the maps and many rule concepts such as zones of control were repeated in many games.
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