The General Magazine

The General

General Volume 23, No. 4 (1987)
Categories	Wargaming magazine
Publisher	Avalon Hill
First issue	1964
Final issue	1998
Country	United States
Language	English

The General (1964–1998) was a bi-monthly periodical devoted to supporting Avalon Hill's line of wargames, with articles on game tactics, history, and industry news. It was the first professionally produced wargaming magazine for the nascent cardboard and hex-map wargaming hobby. Over the years the magazine was variously called The Avalon Hill General, Avalon Hill's General, The General Magazine, or simply General. It was headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. With the sale of Avalon Hill to Hasbro in 1998 the magazine ceased. Its unofficial heir was Operations Magazine published by Multi-Man Publishing to support the line of Avalon Hill games that remained in print, but that too went out of print in 2010, replaced by Special Ops magazine in 2011.

When the first issue was published, wargaming in the modern recreational sense was still in its infancy, and The Avalon Hill Game Company had been producing wargames for a mass market for only five years. It was the first professionally produced wargaming magazine ever published for the nascent cardboard and hex-map wargaming hobby.

The first issue was published on 1 May 1964; twelve pages in length with a six-issue (one year) subscription valued at 4.98 US dollars. The third issue featured a $0.25 discount coupon that could be used in any purchase direct by mail from Avalon Hill (with small print indicating a minimum of four coupons had to be redeemed at a time); these coupons would be a regular feature of the magazine. Volume Two featured the addition of area editors based geographically around the United States; article submissions started to appear with such frequency that area editors were dropped after Volume 2 Issue 5. Volume Three, Number One boasted an expansion to 16 page format. By the fourth year of publication, many fanzines and amateur publications began cropping up, and Avalon Hill promoted the sale of such, wisely suggesting that these amateur publications were good for the growth of the wargaming hobby. Volume Four also marked the change from dull paper stock to glossy paper.

In 1972, editorship passed from Thomas N. Shaw to a young Don Greenwood, who was just graduating from college. Volume 9 Number 1 would be his first issue, and he would remain at the helm until January 1982 when Rex A. Martin took over (Volume 18 Number 5). In July 1992, the editorial duties were passed on to Don Hawthorne (Volume 28 Number 1). Hawthorne was a published science fiction author before joining Avalon Hill, and left the company in 1992 to return to writing full time, creating the "War World" series with John F. Carr. He was succeeded by Robert Waters (Volume 29 Number 3) after an issue with Gary Fortenberry as associate editor and Donald J. Greenwood as executive editor. In 1995 (Volume 30 Number 4), Stuart K. Tucker became the editor until the Hasbro buyout in 1998.