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Strategy & Tactics Magazine

SPI also produced box games during this period, and other tactical titles found their way to market in the early 1970s, including Grunt, Red Star/White Star, Soldiers, and Combat Command, either in boxed form, in the magazine, or both. The magazine served as an advertising vehicle for the boxed games not released in its pages.

By 1973, S&T's circulation was 20,000 (as compared to Miniature Warfare (8,000), Moves (5,000), The General (5,000), Panzerfaust (1,000), and The Courier (1,000).)³

Greg Costikyan, in an online opinion article dated 1996, remarked that

It is hard to overemphasize the importance of S&T to the history of wargaming; indeed, the rise and fall of the hobby can virtually be correlated with the rise and fall of S&T. SPI's staff freely discussed future plans, down to details of marketing and distribution, in the pages of the magazine; its subscribers began to feel a personal stake in the company's survival, going so far as to write long letters of advice and volunteering time and effort to help the company survive. The historical articles were of the highest quality, and quite unlike anything being published in the historical magazines of the period, since SPI, befitting its gaming orientation, tried to quantify almost everything, providing copious tables of comparative data on, for instance, the merits of World War II-era tanks. Other journals tended to be far more descriptive. As a result, S&T acquired a readership even among military history devotees who had no interest in the games.⁴

By the mid 1970s, S&T's circulation exceeded The General's and paid staff at SPI numbered as many as forty individuals, with as many games being produced annually included boxed titles. Despite annual income declared at two million dollars, SPI's sales declined, and increasing inflation decreased profits. James Dunnigan left SPI in the late 1970s, and the departure of marketing manager Howie Barasch's was never properly addressed. Founder Chris Wagner returned as a consultant and found poor communication between the company and its own sales representatives was a major concern. When full-blown recession hit the US, financial mismanagement led to SPI seeking a buyout. The Christmas season in 1981 hit SPI hard, who had borrowed large sums of money from three investors. Work stopped in January 1982 and by March "the company sought financial relief in the form of someone who might lend money to buy or acquire Simulations (Publications, Inc.)."⁵

TSR indicated initial interest, and SPI, desperate for cash, asked for the loan of a few thousand dollars to meet its payroll. TSR agreed, requiring that the loan be backed by SPI's assets, making it a secured creditor. Shortly after SPI paid its employees, TSR demanded repayment of the loan. SPI agreed to be taken over by TSR, for no cash money.

 

TSR sent out a press release announcing that they had taken over SPI. Soon, however, they realized the extent of SPI's liabilities; and, horrified, "clarified" their own initial announcement, claiming that, instead, they had assumed SPI's assets but not its debts.

 

Now, while TSR had been a secured creditor, it was a tiny one. SPI's printers and the venture capital investors were owed far more money. Legally, TSR's position gave them first crack at SPI's assets, but hardly entitled them to take over the company, lock, stock, and barrel, without assuming any liabilities. However, no one in SPI's management was going to sue over the ownership of a bankrupt company, and TSR's takeover seemed the only shot at keeping the company together. And TSR quickly paid off the major creditors, at some cents on the dollar, to avoid the possibility that anyone else would challenge the transaction.⁶

By the time of the buyout in 1982, SPI was selling, it is estimated, some 60-70% of all wargames in the world. Avalon Hill remained a bigger company, but only because it sold many more sports and general interest games than wargames. By this point, S&T boasted 30,000 subscribers and the magazine was truly the flagship of SPI.

In Issue 91 (Winter 1983), S&T announced that SPI had been too ambitious:

Simulations Publications lost money on every copy of S&T™ and Ares™ magazine. This loss was written off as "advertising expenses" since the magazines were intended to promote the SPI line of games. The trouble was that putting out twelve issue games per year cut down on the number of non-issue products Simulations was able to create...As fewer boxed products were available, less money came in from these products. Without this profit coming in to offset the loss from the magazines, there was an inevitable downward spiral to collapse.

Another innovation of S&T during its history was its feedback system, in which readers could answer various multiple-choice questions on a return card, whose data would then be entered into a Burroughs minicomputer for analysis. Thus S&T always had good information about which games readers were looking for.

Again, from Greg Costikyan:

Perhaps S&T's most important innovation...was its feedback system. Using primitive Burroughs, later IBM, minicomputers, Dunnigan put together a highly sophisticated system to obtain marketing information from his customers. In every issue of the magazine, there was a response card, with 96 numbered blanks. At the back of the magazine were a series of questions, to which a reader could respond by entering a number between 0 and 9 on the blanks of the card. Some questions provided marketing data, e.g., average age of the readership; some were used to provide competitive rankings of SPI's and other publishers' products, charts that S&T's readers pored over when deciding what game to buy next. And some were used to ask the readers what kinds of games they'd like to see. Indeed, every issue provided brief write-ups of game ideas, and SPI would design the games which received the highest ratings.

 

This kind of market research was astonishing for the field, remains astonishing for the field, would be astonishing in any field. SPI had immediate, timely data telling it precisely what its most valued customers thought. For years, the sales of SPI's games correlated very closely with the feedback results; SPI could predict, with virtual certainty, a game's sales before embarking on its design.

Through this feedback, it became obvious that S&T's readership included many of the avid wargamers - over 50% of readers claimed to own 100 or more games; many bought a dozen games every year on top of those contained in the magazine. SPI estimated that 250,000 people in North America had ever bought a wargame based on the total number of games sold by all companies to date, and felt that its subscribers probably owned a disproportionate share of those games. In other words, these subscribers were the key market audience for the entire wargaming industry. And SPI had its finger on their pulse through the feedback system in S&T.

SPI's assets included a company library of 5,000 volumes, including Jane's Fighting Ships for various years, the official US Army military history of the Second World War (the "Green Books") as well as other official histories, and other academic and populist accounts in addition to technical works, atlases, maps, and other reference material in addition to a large library of wargames, back issues, and game design materials, all of which was shipped to TSR at the time of the takeover. However, when TSR took over SPI, they refused to honour commitments to existing dedicated S&T subscribers, about 1,000 of whom had been granted "life-time" status with entitlement to all future issues without any further payment. Greg Costikyan claims that this was the turning point in the wargaming industry; few S&T subscribers renewed, even though the magazine continued to be published (TSR published issues 91 through 111); as importantly, Costikyan further claims that these disenchanged magazine subscribers also refused to buy any TSR titles due to bitterness over the handling of their subscriptions.

SPI's design staff moved on to Avalon Hill to form subsidiary Victory Games. Although TSR continued making games in hopes of recouping its investment, and even despite a more efficient distribution chain than SPI had established, its wargame line was never successful. S&T Magazine was eventually sold to World Wide Wargames (3W) who at that time was publishing The Wargamer, a direct competitor that also put a game in each issue. By this time, the wargame market had splintered and 1970's era sales of 50,000 copies per title were gone in favour of 10,000 being considered successful and 20,000 astronomical.

3W continued publication of S&T from issue 112 to 139 under three editors (Keith Poulter from issues #112 to #119, Ty Bomba from #120 to #129, and a returning James Dunnigan from #130 to #139). Though circulation began to increase again, subscriptions never recovered, and third parties cut into profits since most sales were via retail outlets. In Issue 140 in February 1991, it was announced that Keith Poulter "has had enough" and sold the magazine to Decision Games. beginning with No. 176 S&T was introduced for sale on newsstands (without a game) and by No. 216 more copies were sold without the game each issue than game editions.⁷

Modern Era Tactical Games Published in Strategy & Tactics

Cover Gallery/Issue Listing - Regular Issues

Jan 1967 Vol 1 No 1	Feb 1967 Vol 1 No 2	Apr 1967 Vol 1 No 3	May 1967 Vol 1 No 4	Jun 1967 Vol 1 No 5	Jul 1967 Vol 1 No 6
Aug 1967 Vol 1 No 7	Sep 1967 Vol 1 No 8	Nov 1967 Vol 1 No 9	Dec 1967 Vol 1 No 10	Jan-Feb 1968 Vol 2 No 1 (No. 11)	Mar-Apr 1968 Vol 2 No 2 (No. 12)
May-Jun 1968 Vol 2 No 3 (No. 13)	Jul-Aug 1968 Vol 2 No 4 (No. 14)	Jan-Feb 1969 Vol 2 No 5 (No. 15)	Mar-Apr 1969 Vol 2 No 6 (No.16)	May-Jun 1969 Vol 3 No 1 (No. 17)	Sep-Oct 1969 Vol 3 No 2 (No. 18)
No. 19	No. 20	No. 21	No. 22	Sep-Oct 1970 No. 23	No. 24
No. 25	Mar-Apr 1971 No. 26	No. 27	No. 28	No. 29	Jan 1972 No. 30
No. 31	No. 32	No. 33	No. 34	No. 35	No. 36
No. 37	No. 38	No. 39	No. 40	Nov-Dec 1973 No. 41	Jan-Feb 1974 No. 42
Mar-Apr 1974 No. 43	May-Jun 1974 No. 44	Jul-Aug 1974 No. 45	Sep-Oct 1974 No. 46	Nov-Dec 1974 No. 47	Jan-Feb 1975 No. 48
Mar-Apr 1975 No. 49	May-Jun 1975 No. 50	Jul-Aug 1975 No. 51	Sep-Oct 1975 No. 52	Nov-Dec 1975 No. 53	Jan-Feb 1976 No. 54
Mar-Apr 1976 No. 55	May-Jun 1976 No. 56	Jul-Aug 1976 No. 57	Sep-Oct 1976 No. 58	Nov-Dec 1976 No. 59	Jan-Feb 1977 No. 60
Mar-Apr 1977 No. 61	May-Jun 1977 No. 62	Jul-Aug 1977 No. 63	Sep-Oct 1977 No. 64	Nov-Dec 1977 No. 65	Jan-Feb 1978 No. 66
Mar-Apr 1978 No. 67	May-Jun 1978 No. 68	Jul-Aug 1978 No. 69	Sep-Oct 1978 No. 70	Nov-Dec 1978 No. 71	Jan-Feb 1979 No. 72
Mar-Apr 1979 No. 73	May-Jun 1979 No. 74	Jul-Aug 1979 No. 75	Sep-Oct 1979 No. 76	Nov-Dec 1979 No. 77	Jan-Feb 1980 No. 78
Mar-Apr 1980 No. 79	May-Jun 1980 No. 80	Jul-Aug 1980 No. 81	Sep-Oct 1980 No. 82	Nov-Dec 1980 No. 83	Jan-Feb 1981 No. 84
Mar-Apr 1981 No. 85	May-Jun 1981 No. 86	Jul-Aug 1981 No. 87	Sep-Oct 1981 No. 88	Nov-Dec 1981 No. 89	Jan-Feb 1982 No. 90
Winter 1983 No. 91	No. 92	No. 93	No. 94	No. 95	No. 96
No. 97	Nov-Dec 1984 No. 98	No. 99	No. 100	No. 101	No. 102
No. 103	No. 104	No. 105	No. 106	No. 107	No. 108
No. 109	No. 110	No. 111	Jun 1987 No. 112	Jul-Aug 1987 No. 113	No. 114
No. 115	No. 116	No. 117	Mar-Apr 1988 No. 118	May-Jun 1988 No. 119	Jul-Aug 1988 No. 120
Sep-Oct 1988 No. 121	Nov-Dec 1988 No. 122	No. 123	No. 124	No. 125	No. 126
No. 127	No. 128	No. 129	No. 130	No. 131	Jan-Feb 1990 No. 132
Mar-Apr 1990 No. 133	May-Jun 1990 No. 134	No. 135	No. 136	No. 137	No. 138
No. 139	Feb 1991 No. 140	Mar 1991 No. 141	May 1991 No. 142	Jun 1991 No. 143	Aug 1991 No. 144
Sep 1991 No. 145	Nov 1991 No. 146	Dec 1991 No. 147	Jan 1992 No. 148	Feb 1992 No. 149	Mar 1992 No. 150
May 1992 No. 151	Jun 1992 No. 152	Aug 1992 No. 153	Sep 1992 No. 154	Nov 1992 No. 155	Dec 1992 No. 156
Jan 1993 No. 157	Feb 1993 No. 158	Mar 1993 No. 159	May 1993 No. 160	Jun 1993 No. 161	No. 162
Sep 1993 No. 163	Nov 1993 No. 164	Dec 1993 No. 165	Jan-Feb 1994 No. 166	No. 167	May 1994 No. 168
Jul-Aug 1994 No. 169	Sep-Oct 1994 No. 170	Nov-Dec 1994 No. 171	No. 172	No. 173	May-Jun 1995 No. 174
Jul-Aug 1995 No. 175	No. 176	No. 177	No. 178	No. 179	No. 180
No. 181	No. 182	No. 183	No. 184	No. 185	No. 186
No. 187	No. 188	No. 189	No. 190	No. 191	No. 192
No. 193	No. 194	No. 195	No. 196	No. 197	No. 198
No. 199	No. 200	No. 201	No. 202	No. 203	No. 204
No. 205	No. 206	No. 207	No. 208	No. 209	No. 210
No. 211	No. 212	No. 213	No. 214	Mar-Apr 2003 No. 215	May-Jun 2003 No. 216
Jul-Aug 2003 No. 217	Sep-Oct 2003 No. 218	Nov-Dec 2003 No. 219	Jan-Feb 2004 No. 220	Mar-Apr 2004 No. 221	May-Jun 2004 No. 222
Jul-Aug 2004 No. 223	Sep-Oct 2004 No. 224	Nov-Dec 2004 No. 225	Jan-Feb 2005 No. 226	Mar-Apr 2005 No. 227	May-Jun 2005 No. 228
Jul-Aug 2005 No. 229	Sep-Oct 2005 No. 230	Nov-Dec 2005 No. 231	Jan-Feb 2006 No. 232	Mar-Apr 2006 No. 233	May 2006 No. 234
Jun 2006 No. 235	Jul 2006 No. 236	Aug 2006 No. 237	Sep 2006 No. 238	Nov 2006 No. 239	Jan 2007 No. 240
Mar 2007 No. 241	May 2007 No. 242	Jun 2007 No. 243	Jul 2007 No. 244	Aug-Sep 2007 No. 245	Oct-Sep 2007 No. 246
Dec 2007-Jan 2008 No. 247	Mar-Apr 2008 No. 248	May-Jun 2008 No. 249	Jul-Aug 2008 No. 250	Jul 2008 No. 251	Sep-Oct 2008 No. 252
Nov-Dec 2008 No. 253	Jan-Feb 2009 No. 254	Mar-Apr 2009 No. 255	May-Jun 2009 No. 256	Jul-Aug 2009 No. 257	Sep-Oct 2009 No. 258
Nov-Dec 2009 No. 259	Jan-Feb 2010 No. 260	Mar-Apr 2010 No. 261	May-Jun 2010 No. 262	Jul-Aug 2010 No. 263	Sep-Oct 2010 No. 264
Nov-Dec 2010 No. 265	Jan-Feb 2011 No. 266	Mar-Apr 2011 No. 267	May-Jun 2011 No. 268	Jul-Aug 2011 No. 269	Sep-Oct 2011 No. 270
Nov-Dec 2011 No. 271	Jan-Feb 2012 No. 272	Mar-Apr 2012 No. 273	May-Jun 2012 No. 274	Jul-Aug 2012 No. 275	Sep-Oct 2012 No. 276
Nov-Dec 2012 No. 277	Jan-Feb 2013 No. 278	Mar-Apr 2013 No. 279	May-Jun 2013 No. 280	Jul-Aug 2013 No. 281	Sep-Oct 2013 No. 282
Nov-Dec 2013 No. 283	Jan-Feb 2014 No. 284	Mar-Apr 2014 No. 285	May-Jun 2014 No. 286	Jul-Aug 2014 No. 287	Sep-Oct 2014 No. 288
Nov-Dec 2015 No. 289 (mag ed.)	Nov-Dec 2015 No. 289 (game ed.)	Jan-Feb 2015 No. 290	Mar-Apr 2015 No. 291	May-Jun 2015 No. 292	Jul-Aug 2015 No. 293
Sep-Oct 2015 No. 294	Nov-Dec 2015 No. 295	Jan-Feb 2016 No. 296 (no game ed)	Mar-Apr 2016 No. 297	May-Jun 2016 No. 298	Jun-Jul 2016 No. 299
Sep-Oct 2016 No. 300	Nov-Dec 2016 No. 301	Jan-Feb 2017 No. 302	Mar-Apr 2017 No. 303	May-Jun 2017 No. 304	Jun-Jul 2017 No. 305
			303 game ed.
Sep-Oct 2017 No. 306	Nov-Dec 2017 No. 307	Jan-Feb 2018 No. 308	Mar-Apr 2018 No. 3098	May-Jun 2018 No. 310	Jun-Jul 2018 No. 311
		308 game ed.
Sep-Oct 2018 No. 312	Nov-Dec 2018 No. 313	Jan-Feb 2019 No. 314	Mar-Apr 2019 No. 315	May-Jun 2019 No. 316	Jul-Aug 2019 No. 317
Sep-Oct 2019 No. 318	Nov-Dec 2019 No. 319	Jan-Feb 2020 No. 320	Mar-Apr 2020 No. 321	May-Jun 2020 No. 322	Jul-Aug 2020 No. 323
318 game ed.	319 game ed.	320 game ed.	321 game ed.	322 game ed.	323 game ed.
Sep-Oct 2020 No. 324 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Nov-Dec 2021 No. 325 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Jan-Feb 2021 No. 326 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Mar-Apr 2021 No. 327 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	May-Jun 2021 No. 328 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Jul-Aug 2021 No. 329 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)
Sep-Oct 2021 No. 330 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Nov-Dec 2021 No. 331 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Jan-Feb 2022 No. 332 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Mar-Apr 2022 No. 333 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	May-Jun 2022 No. 334 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Jul-Aug 2022 No. 335 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)
Sep-Oct 2022 No. 336 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Nov-Dec 2022 No. 337 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Jan-Feb 2023 No. 338 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Mar-Apr 2023 No. 339 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	May-Jun 2023 No. 340 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Jul-Aug 2023 No. 341 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)
Sep-Oct 2023 No. 342 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Nov-Dec 2023 No. 343 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Jan-Feb 2024 No. 344 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Mar-Apr 2024 No. 345 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	May-Jun 2023 No. 346 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Jul-Aug 2024 No. 347 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)
Sep-Oct 2024 No. 348  (game edition omits the info box at lower left)	Nov-Dec 2024 No. 349 (game edition omits the info box at lower left)

Cover Gallery/Issue Listing - Special Issues

Special Issue 1	Special Issue  2	Special Issue 3	Special Issue  4
S&T Quarterly #1 Spring 2018	S&T Quarterly #2 Summer 2018	S&T Quarterly #3 Fall 2018	S&T Quarterly #4 Winter 2018
S&T Quarterly #5 Spring 2019	S&T Quarterly #6 Summer 2019	S&T Quarterly #7 Fall 2019	S&T Quarterly #8 Winter 2019
S&T Quarterly #9 Spring 2020	S&T Quarterly #10 Summer 2020	S&T Quarterly #11 Fall 2020	S&T Quarterly #12 Winter 2020
S&T Quarterly #13 Spring 2021	S&T Quarterly #14 Summer 2021	S&T Quarterly #15 Fall 2021	S&T Quarterly #16 Winter 2021
S&T Quarterly #17 Spring 2022	S&T Quarterly #18 Summer 2022	S&T Quarterly #19 Fall 2022	S&T Quarterly #20 Winter 2022
S&T Quarterly #21 Spring 2023	S&T Quarterly #22 Summer 2023	S&T Quarterly #23 Fall 2023	S&T Quarterly #24 Winter 2023
S&T Quarterly #25 Spring 2024	S&T Quarterly #26 Summer 2024	S&T Quarterly #27 Fall 2024

Notes

1. Strategy & Tactics #83, interview by Chris Wagner. Apparently payment was not made until 1975.
2. Kosnett, Phill. "From Grunt to Search & Destroy" (Moves, Nr. 23)
3. Phillies, George and Martin Campion. "A Guide to Conflict Simulation Games and Periodicals" (Moves, Nr. 7)
4. A Farewell to Hexes, Greg Costikyan, 1996
5. Strategy & Tactics #91
6. Cosikyan, Ibid
7. S&T website
8. According to the publisher's website, the "magazine-only" edition sold on line had, due to a printer's error, the same cover as the "game edition".