The Tactical Wargamer

With the arrival of Issue 150, Fire & Movement has ended its 33 year publication run. Those unfamiliar with the history of the magazine can review a brief rundown of that topic at this webpage.

As is well known now, the magazine began life as the brainchild of Rodger MacGowan, who set the tone for the board wargaming industry - that is what it had become - in the mid-1970's through his graphic design and his all-encompassing approach to coverage of topics in his ...

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Tactical Wargamer's Journal (ISSN 1918-9729) covers topics of interest on all aspects of the world of commercial tactical wargaming, with its focus set on warfare at the man-to-man, squad and platoon level in the 20th Century and contemporary era. Tactical Wargamer's Journal (TWJ) places emphasis on both military history and the history of tactical level gaming itself, with a spectrum encompassing serious depictions of military conflict at the lowest levels through the mediums of miniatures, military role playing, board wargaming, console and PC games.

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There have been many discussions regarding the “First To Fight” modules that started appearing on ebay in 2009. For those unfamiliar with them, they are a series of third party variants for ASL produced by Wild Bill Wilder, whose wargaming credits go back decades now, mostly as an unofficial scenario and variant designer for games such as Squad Leader, Steel Panthers, Combat Mission and others. The First to Fight products gained notoriety for both their quality (or apparent lack thereof) and their method of marketing which resulted in high auction prices.

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The self-publishing revolution has had tremendous impacts on the wargaming “industry”, if one wants to refer to the hobby with that term. In 1997, the editor of The General noted the growing rise of Desk Top Publishers (DTP) and had the following to say:

So what if DTP games are skimming sales from a fixed layer of existing consumer demand? Is this so bad? ...This is where the issue of the traditional game company comes back to us front and center. The boardgame company doesn't simply print and ship a paper product. Production isn't really limited by a lack of designs. For the most part,

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There is a need in certain quarters to categorize game players, whether it is to gather demographics for advertising, or to attempt to predict future sales, or to better enable fellow gamers to talk to one another. MOVES Magazine printed an article in 1975, breaking down board wargamers into the following:

• The Military Establishment
• The Military Historians
• The Military Buffs
• The Avengers
• The Social Wargamers
• The Mathematicians
• The Supercompetitors
• The Accidental Converts
• The Shut-Ins
• The Limited Interest Minority
• The Wishful Thinkers
• The Reluctant Gift-Receivers
• The

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