Tactics (game)


Tactics is a board wargame published in 1954. Primitive by modern standards, it was nonetheless the birth of modern wargaming for the commercial market, and generally credited as being the first commercially successful printed wargame.

History

Tactics was designed by Charles S. Roberts in 1953, and self-published in 1954 under the company name of The Avalon Game Company. Roberts sold the game on a mail order basis from his home in Catonsville for the next six years, selling 2,000 copies and barely breaking even. The design was similar to other wargames published in England and elsewhere over the previous half-century. It was unique as a self-contained printed product for the commercial market not requiring miniatures or building a map.
Tactics II is a revised version published by Avalon Hill in 1958, then reissued in 1961 and 1973. It uses hexagons instead of squares, after Roberts saw a picture of a RAND game Life magazine that used hexagons which he believed would provide more realistic movement. In 1972, the game was discontinued due to rising costs, but was redesigned in 1973 with less costly components and used as a loss leader as it was an introductory wargame. In 1983, Avalon Hill released a 25th anniversary edition of the original Tactics, although with a different map.

Play

Tactics pioneered many game mechanics which became standard in the board wargame industry, including the odds-ratio combat results table and variable movement costs for entering squares containing different types of terrain. It also evolved the use of cardboard counters which had been previously introduced with the 1911 "invasion literature" genre game War Tactics or Can Great Britain Be Invaded?. Pieces include the armored units, headquarters units, regular infantry units, and specialized units consisting of mountaineers, paratroopers, and amphibious units.