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MacGowan next contacted Mark Saha, who wrote for
The General and
Moves, and obtained access to information about Avalon
Hill's next big release, Tobruk, then being playtested.
When a copy of the review for Tobruk was sent to the
actual developer of the game for fact checking, and it was
decided to publish his reply word for word. The technique of
having developers respond in print to reviews, in the same
issue, would be repeated many times over the years.
The title "Fire &
Movement" comes from the standard military expression;
MacGowan noticed it as a chapter heading in a military manual
and realized it would be more appropriate and recognizable to
the average reader than Arquebus.1
MacGowan's quest to
find a publisher had begun in February 1975 and the first
issue saw print in May 1976.2
MacGowan served as editor and art director for two years,
while earning a living as a TV graphics director, giving up
editorship in June 1978, and resigning as art director in June
1979 after a dispute over advertising policy.3
He later went on to found C3i
Magazine for GMT Games. Baron Publishing was the original
publisher of Fire & Movement, producing issues 1 to 25.
Steve Jackson Games went on to publish issues 26 through 42.
When
World Wide Wargames (3W)
acquired Diverse Talents Inc. (DTI), they acquired F&M and
Space Gamer from Steve Jackson Games. Despite owning the
rights to several former competing propererties, 3W opted to
continue publishing F&M and Battleplan as well as
Strategy &
Tactics and The Wargamer. In 1991, 3W was
bought out by
Decision Games (Cummins Enterprises), and Battleplan
and The Wargamer were combined into a revival of
Moves.
The new trio of
magazines were described in a full page ad in the premiere
(Issue #61) of the revived Moves:
Fire & Movement: Helping
you decide which wargames to buy
-
close-up reviews of new wargames
-
profiles and player's notes
-
guide to computer wargaming
-
annual year in review issue
Strategy & Tactics:
Exploring decisions which made history
Moves: Helping you decide
which strategies and tactics to use
-
analysis, strategy and tactical
tips
-
variants and new scenarios
-
art of computer wargaming
-
annual index and mini-game
-
previews of upcoming games by
their designers
Editorship of the magazine passed
to J. Bernhard (Jon) Compton. In an interview in 2005, he
stated that he had been in the industry for "15 years", citing
Miracle on the Marne as his first design.4
He had previously worked as editor and publisher of
Gamefix Magazine and his designs also included Foxhole,
a "grand-tactical" (platoon level) game (or
microgame) which was
originally published in Gamefix. In the Spring 2009
issue (Issue 149), Compton revealed that he planned for Issue
150 to be his last, citing a new job, relocation, family
commitments, and recent automobile accident (in which his
computer containing his F&M files was lost) as being demands
incompatible with delivering a quality product in a timely
manner.
In response to
conversation at the Consimworld social networking site,
Compton responded to an allegation that the layout of the
magazine had become "bush league" towards the end:
The entire budget for the
editing, art, layout, proofing, and contributor issue
shipping was all of 550 dollars per issue. I did what I
could with what I had. That said, by any real standard the
layout was not bush league, although the printing and
over-saturation of everything certainly was. I'd dare say
that more attention was put into the layout of F&M than any
other DG pub. No trapped white space, solid widow and orphan
control, even margins, and no broken-up articles in any
issue. But the graphics were what they were since we had to
take what we got and had no budget to do anything more
professional. DG starved F&M of resources until it just
wasn't possible to continue. The printer continued to cut
the pages wrong until I finally gave up complaining about
it.5
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