Strategy & Tactics (S&T) is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a new wargame in each issue.^{[citation needed]}

Strategy & Tactics was first published in January 1967 under its original editor, Chris Wagner, intended as a better alternative to Avalon Hill's magazine, The General.^[1]: 101 It was distributed in Japan at first, then moving to the United States with Wagner.

Graphic designer Redmond Simonsen was hired soon after to improve the quality of the magazine.^[1]: 101 When subscriptions became stagnant, debts began to accumulate.^[1]: 101 Jim Dunnigan created the company Simulations Publications to save Strategy & Tactics; Dunnigan had been contributing to the magazine since issue #2 (February 1967), and when Wagner was having financial difficulties he sold the rights to the magazine to Dunnigan for $1.^[1]: 98 A persistent rumor 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 his new company SPI in a building in New York City's Lower East Side, where he published his first issue, Strategy & Tactics #18 (September 1969); starting with that issue, every issue included a new wargame.^[1]: 98 Albert Nofi became an associate editor on the magazine in 1969.^[1]: 186 The first game published in issue #18 was Crete. This challenged the cautious policy of Avalon Hill in publishing only one or two games per year (for fear of new games cannibalizing sales of old ones). Despite the diversity in themes, the style of the games was fairly consistent.

In addition to the games, the magazine featured many articles on military history, many of them notable for applying modern quantitative analysis to battles that had traditionally been described in a narrative "heroic" style.^{[citation needed]}

Avalon Hill continued to produce games other than wargames, such as party games, sports titles, and children's games. Dunnigan's focus remained primarily on military history, and he felt that there was a market for detailed historical articles as an accompaniment to detailed and accurate games. S&T now provides six new games a year. Circulation of the magazine was substantial and games that might not otherwise sell went to subscribers automatically. SPI also benefited from having the magazine as an advertising vehicle for boxed (i.e. non-magazine) games, sold directly or through local games stores.

In 1972, Strategy & Tactics spun off Moves magazine, which was focused more on how to play the games.^[1]: 101

S&T's circulation exceeded that of Avalon Hill's The General by the mid-1970s, improving its physical appearance under the guidance of Redmond Simonsen. As die-cut counters, printed on both sides in full color became more popular, they were included in the magazine games, as were two color and finally full color maps.

S&T eventually made its magazine games available for purchase in stores with standard boxes, dice and counter trays.

By the mid-1970s, SPI's annual income rose to the six-figure range, with paid staff numbering as many as 40 people, and with more than 40 games being sold through both the magazine and boxed sales annually. Competition began to spring up, with many new companies appearing in the mid- to late-1970s. Wargaming was reaching its peak just as Squad Leader by Avalon Hill was released, eventually resulting in a record of 200,000 copies sold.

SPI's sales declined despite annual income declared at two million dollars, as inflation caused financial pressure on the company. Dunnigan's departure in the late 1970s led to internal struggle at SPI in 1980. Howie Barasch departed as marketing manager in the late 1970s was never properly replaced. The founder of S&T, Chris Wagner, who was now a management consultant, was brought back to address SPI's marketing problems. He found that many sales representatives, previously independently commissioned by SPI, had no idea they were still representing the company, and some didn't even realize the company was still in operation, as no one had been in touch with them for several years.^{[citation needed]}

In 1980 Strategy & Tactics spun off Ares magazine, which focused more on science-fiction and fantasy, and featured a game in every issue.^[1]: 101

Financial mismanagement incurred additional costs to SPI, and a recession caused the financial situation to worsen. Negotiations began with Avalon Hill and then TSR, Inc. for a buy-out.

By the time of the buyout in 1982, SPI was selling an estimated 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.^{[citation needed]}

The popularity of S&T reached the point where SPI began publishing a second magazine, Moves, that consisted primarily of articles on winning strategies for playing SPI games and additional scenarios for them. A third magazine, Ares, which focuses on science-fiction and fantasy games and including one in each issue, was also published for a time.

One innovation of S&T 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.^{[citation needed]}

When TSR purchased SPI in 1982, the company did not honor lifetime subscriptions to Strategy & Tactics.^[1]: 14 SPI had no assets to its name when the takeover occurred, but there were over 1,000 subscribers who had paid for a "lifetime subscription" to S&T, entitling them to all future issues without any further payment. These subscribers were informed that their subscriptions would not be honored. People who had placed pre-release, paid, orders for certain games that had been in development were informed that they would receive neither the game nor a refund of their payment. This damaged TSR's image and caused them to lose customers.

SPI's design staff moved on to Avalon Hill, where they set up a subsidiary company based in New York called Victory Games. It produced many titles, which by the late 1980s were outselling Avalon Hill games. TSR continued making games, hoping to recoup its investment in SPI (another reason was the enthusiasm of some staff members for wargaming^{[citation needed]}), but despite a healthier distribution chain than SPI, its wargame line was never successful. TSR produced the magazine from issue #91 (Winter 1983) to #111 (1987).^[1]: 101 S&T Magazine was eventually sold to 3W in 1987, a small company which published The Wargamer magazine, a direct competitor. By this time, other companies were also stepping up production, and a splintered market caused sales of 50,000 or more per title to become nearly impossible to attain.

3W published the magazine from #112 (June 1987) to #139.^[1]: 101 It was during this decline that 3W continued its publication of S&T, and James Dunnigan returned briefly as the editor of the magazine (Keith Poulter was the editor from issues #112 to #119, Ty Bomba from #120 to #129, James Dunnigan from #130 to #139). Although circulation began to increase again, subscriptions never recovered fully, and most sales were made through game stores and not subscriptions, which meant third party retailers took a share of the profits.

3W's Keith Poulter later left the business, and in 1991 Strategy & Tactics was sold to Decision Games, which has been publishing the magazine since issue #140 (February 1991).^[1]: 101 Since issue #176 (September/October 1995), Decision Games has also offered a newsstand version at a lower price without the wargame that comes in regular issues.^[1]: 101 According to the official website, "by issue #216, more copies of the magazine edition were being produced than the game edition." In 2003, Decision Games spun off Strategy & Tactics Press as a sister company for magazine and media development. In 2008, World at War magazine was begun which covers World War II. In 2012, Modern War magazine began which covers post-World War II military history. Strategy & Tactics continues to cover all periods in history.

As S&T laid claim to being the longest continuously published wargame magazine at the 40th year of its publication.^{[citation needed]}

In Issue 7 of Perfidious Albion, Charles Vasey reviewed issue #55 and wrote, "this issue is worth getting", noting especially its article on the Thirty Years War.^[2]

Strategy & Tactics won thirteen Charles S. Roberts/Origins Awards between 1974 and 2009, and in 1997 the magazine was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Back issues of Strategy & Tactics are highly valued by wargame collectors, and some have become quite expensive.^{[citation needed]} S&T magazine games that have not been played and have counter sheets intact ("unpunched") are worth much more than played ("punched") games.^{[citation needed]}

• Perfidious Albion #9 (September 1976) p. 19
• Perfidious Albion #10 (October 1976) p. 17

• For Your Eyes Only (magazine)

• Strategy & Tactics homepage (Dead link)
• Index of Articles and Games in Strategy & Tactics Issues #1 to #90
• Checklist of Strategy & Tactics issues
• Review in the Chicago Tribune