Board wargame A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board , as opposed to being played on a computer , or in a more free - form playing area as in miniatures game s . The hobby around this type of game got its start in 1954 with the publication of " Tactics " , and saw its greatest popularity in the mid - to late 1970s . Despite the decline in popularity , there are still a number of game publishers and gaming convention s dedicated to the hobby today . In the United States , board wargames were popularized in the early 1970s and is often what is meant when ' wargaming ' is mentioned ( and this article , for simplicity , will often omit the qualifying word ' board ' ) . Elsewhere , notably Great Britain , which arguably originated the miniatures wargaming hobby , they never gained as much traction and have remained a minor part of the larger hobby . The genre is still known for a number of common conventions ( or game mechanics ) that were developed early on , but are not part of the definition of a wargame , and other styles have gained popularity since . The early history of board wargaming was dominated by Avalon Hill , even though other companies , such as SPI , have left their own permanent marks on the industry . With the purchase of Avalon Hill by Hasbro in 1998 , many wargamers long for ' the old Avalon Hill ' , and no one company is identified with the hobby as a whole . Overview . Like all games , wargames exist in a range of complexities . Some are fundamentally simple ( often called " beer - and - pretzel games " ) whereas others attempt to simulate a high level of historical realism ( " consim " — short for ' conflict simulation ' ) . These two trends are also at the heart of long - running debates about " realism vs . playability . " Because of the subject matter , games considered ' simple ' by wargamers can be considered ' complex ' to non - wargamers , especially if they have never run into some of the concepts that most wargames share , and often assume some familiarity with . Wargames are best considered as a representational art form . Generally , this is of a fairly concrete historical subject ( such as the Battle of Gettysburg , one of several popular topics in the genre ) , but it can also be extended to non - historical ones as well . The Cold War provided fuel for many games that attempted to show what a non - nuclear ( or , in a very few cases , nuclear ) World War III would be like , moving from a re - creation to a predictive model in the process . Fantasy and science fiction subjects are sometimes not considered wargames because there is nothing in the real world to model , however , conflict in a self - consistent fictional world lends itself to exactly the same types of games and game designs as does military history . While there is no " direct " correlation , the more serious wargames tend towards more complex rules with possibilities for more calculation and computation of odds , more exceptions ( generally to reproduce unique historical circumstances ) , more available courses of action , and more detail or " chrome " . The extreme end of this tendency are considered " monster game s " , which typically consist of a large subject represented on small scale . A good example of this would be " Terrible Swift Sword " , which tracks individual regiment s in the Battle of Gettysburg , instead of the more common scale of brigade s . These games typically have a combined playing surface ( using several map sheets ) larger than most tables , and thousands of counter s . Wargames tend to have a few fundamental problems . Notably , both player knowledge , and player action are much less limited than what would be available to the player ' s real - life counterparts . Some games have rules for command and control and fog of war , using various methods . These mechanisms can be cumbersome and onerous , and often increase player frustration . However , there are some common solutions , such as employed by block wargame s , which can simulate fog of war conditions in relatively playable ways . History . The first modern mass - market wargame , presented as a board game , was designed by Charles S . Roberts in 1953 . The game , " Tactics " , was published by Roberts as " The Avalon Game Company " in 1954 and broke even , selling around 2 , 000 copies . These sales convinced Roberts that there was a market for intelligent , thoughtful , games for adults . Four years later , he decided to make a serious effort at a game company . Finding a conflict with another local company , he changed the name of the company to The Avalon Hill Game Company . Avalon Hill . The beginning of the board wargaming industry is generally tied to the name " Avalon Hill " and the publication of " Tactics II " in 1958 , along with " Gettysburg " , the first board game designed to simulate a historical battle . Avalon Hill was subject to a number of bad economic forces around 1961 , and quickly ran up a large debt . In 1963 Avalon Hill was sold to the Monarch Avalon Printing company to settle the debts . The new owners resolved to let the company continue to do what it had been doing , and while Roberts left , his friend , Tom Shaw , who already worked at the company , took over . The sale turned out to be an advantage , as being owned by a printing company helped insure that Avalon Hill games had access to superior physical components . Roberts had been considering producing a newsletter for his new company . Under the new management , this became the " Avalon Hill General " in 1964 , a house organ that ran for 32 years . Avalon Hill had a very conservative publishing schedule , typically about two titles a year , and wargames were only about half their line . Serious competition : SPI & GDW . This type of situation indicated a large amount of pent - up demand , and a situation that could not remain static for long . By the end of the 1960s , a number of small magazines dedicated to the hobby were springing up , along with new game companies . Many of these were not available in any store , being spread by ' word of mouth ' and advertisements in other magazines . The eventual " break - out " into a larger public was accomplished by the magazine " Strategy & Tactics " . It was started in 1966 , as a typical " hobby zine " , and despite some popularity soon threatened to go under . However , Jim Dunnigan bought the ailing magazine , and restructured his own company ( then known as Poultron Press ) to publish it , creating Simulations Publications , Inc . ( SPI ) . An aggressive advertising campaign , and a new policy of including a new game in every issue , allowed " S & T " to find a much larger market , and SPI to become a company known to all wargamers as having a line of games that surpassed Avalon Hill ' s ( at least , in numbers — arguments about quality raged ) . This caused a tremendous rise in the popularity of wargaming in the early 1970s . The market grew at a fast pace , and if anything the number of wargaming companies grew at an even faster pace . As with any business , most of these were created , produced a few products , and quietly failed , leaving little more than a footnote in the history of the industry . Two of these new companies would each last for about two decades and became well known in just a few years : Game Designers ' Workshop ( GDW ) , and Tactical Studies Rules ( TSR ) . Started in 1973 by Frank Chadwick , Rich Banner , Marc Miller , and Loren Wiseman , GDW ' s first game , " Drang Nach Osten ! " , immediately garnered attention and led to the " Europa " series . They quickly followed this with other games , which also got favorable reviews . It has been estimated that GDW published one new product every 22 days for the 22 year life of the company ( to be fair , this would include magazines and supplements , not just complete games ) . TSR was started in 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye as a way to publish the miniature rules developed by the Tactical Studies wargaming club ( thus , Tactical Studies Rules ) . While TSR produced several sets of miniature rules , and a few boardgames , it became much better known as the publisher of " Dungeons & Dragons " in 1974 . The first role - playing game , it sparked a new phenomenon that would later grow much bigger than its parent hobby . Boom : Task Force Games , Steve Jackson , et al . . . . The period 1975 - 1980 can be considered the ' Golden Age of Wargaming ' , with a large number of new companies publishing an even larger number of games throughout , powered by an explosive rise in the number of people playing wargames . Wargames also diversified in subject , with early science - fiction wargames appearing in 1974 , and in size with both microgame s and monster games first appearing during the decade . Designer Steve Jackson produced several celebrated games for Metagaming Concepts and then founded his own company , Steve Jackson Games in 1980 , which is still active today ( albeit mostly as an RPG company ) . Task Force Games was founded in 1979 by former staff of JagdPanther and lived into the 1990s , and its most popular game , " Star Fleet Battles " is still in print . " Squad Leader " , often cited as the highest selling wargame ever , was published in 1977 . Crash : The Death of SPI . The boom came to an end , and was followed by the usual bust , at the beginning of the 1980s , most markedly with the acquisition of SPI by TSR in 1982 . From 1975 to 1981 SPI reported $ 2 million in sales — steady dollar volume during a time when inflation was in double - digits . At the same time , the attempt to go from a mail - order business to wholesale caused a cash crunch by delaying payments . By 1982 SPI was in financial trouble and eventually secured a loan from TSR to help it meet payroll . TSR soon asked for the money back , and SPI had to agree to be taken over by TSR . As a secured creditor , they had first opportunity at SPI ' s assets . However , they refused to take over SPI ' s liabilities . TSR then refused to honor existing subscriptions to SPIs three magazines , which TSR took over , in addition to nearly the entire existing line of SPI ' s games . Largely as a result of this , " Strategy & Tactics " circulation shrank from its high mark of 36 , 000 in 1980 , until TSR sold it off to World Wide Wargames ( 3W ) in 1986 , where its circulation continued to shrink to a low 10 , 000 in 1990 . Meanwhile , most of the existing staff left SPI , and negotiated a deal with Avalon Hill . Avalon Hill formed a subsidiary company , Victory Games , staffed by the former SPI employees . Victory Games was allowed to publish pretty much what they wanted , and produced many commercially and critically successful wargames . However , there were no new hires to replace departing personnel , and the company slowly died a death of neglect in the 1990s . If this was not the start of a bust that affected board wargaming through the 1980s and beyond , then it was the first symptom . This period is marked by a decrease in the number of wargamers , and lack of new companies with commercial viability while the larger companies experiment with ways to sell more games in a shrinking market . Malaise . While TSR tried to leverage its line of existing SPI property , Milton Bradley started the Gamemaster line of mass - appeal wargames in 1984 . With the financial backing of a company much larger than any in the wargame business , the Gamemaster games had excellent production quality , with mounted full - color boards ( something that only Avalon Hill could regularly do ) , and plenty of small plastic miniatures as game pieces . The games were generally simple , by wargaming standards , but very playable and successful . The first game of the line , " Axis and Allies " , is still in print today , and has spawned a number of spinoff titles . While the wargaming business continued to be poor , new companies continued to be formed . GMT Games , one of the most respected names in wargaming today , got started in 1991 . However , the popularity of role - playing games , video games , and , finally , collectible card games continued to draw in new players . These attracted the same sort of players that had gravitated to wargames before , which led to a declining , and aging , population in the hobby . The continued marginal sales of wargames took its toll on the older companies . Game Designers ' Workshop went out of business in 1996 . Task Force Games went bankrupt in 1999 . Finally , in 1998 Avalon Hill itself was sold to Hasbro . While it might have been possible for Hasbro to revitalize the company and wargaming with its distribution chain and marketing clout , it was shown that Hasbro had no interest in this with the immediate laying off of the entire AH staff and the closure of its web site . Combined with Wizards of the Coast ' s acquisition of TSR the year before , and their acquisition by Hasbro the year after , what is sometimes called the " adventure gaming market " was going through a profound shakeup . Hasbro has kept the Avalon Hill name as a brand , and republished a few of its extensive back catalog of games , as well as released new ones , and moved the remnant of the Gamemaster series ( " Axis and Allies " ) from Milton Bradley to Avalon Hill . While " A & A " is the only wargame offered by the " new " Avalon Hill , several of AH ' s wargames have been reprinted by other companies , starting with Multi - Man Publishing ' s license for the rights to " Advanced Squad Leader " . Current . Despite the long - term malaise of the board wargaming industry , it does continue and shows no sign of shutting down completely in the foreseeable future . It can even be argued that the hobby is doing better now than for the past two decades . This is made more difficult by a lack of hard figures from the publishers . " The Complete Wargames Handbook " shows sales of wargames ( historical only ) peaking in 1980 at 2 . 2 million , and tapering off to 400 , 000 in 1991 . It also estimates a peak of about a few hundred thousand ( again , historical ) board wargamers in the U . S . in 1980 , with about as many more in the rest of the world ; the estimate for 1991 is about 100 , 000 total . Another estimate puts the current number of board wargamers in the 15 , 000 range ( this is limited to people " purchasing " games , which leaves some room for groups with one person who buys the games , or people who stick to older titles — who do exist , but are cold comfort for publishers ) . During 2006 , several publishers reported that sales were up , but this could remain a short - term bump in sales . Styles . The actual subject matter of wargames is broad , and many approaches have been taken over the years towards the goals of simulating wars on a grand or personal scale . Some of the more popular movements constitute established sub - genres of their own that most wargamers will recognize . Hex - and - counter . The oldest of the sub - genres , and the one that still retains " iconic " status for board wargaming as a whole . It got its start with the first board wargame , " Tactics " ( which , ironically , used a square grid ; hexes were a slightly later innovation ) , and is still used in many wargames today . In its most typical form , a hex - and - counter wargame has a map with a hexagonal grid imposed over it , units are represented with cardboard counters that commonly have a unit type and designation as well as numerical combat and movement factors . Players take turns moving and conducting attacks . Combat is typically resolved with an odds - based combat results table ( CRT ) using a six sided die . Block game . This sub - genre was created in the early 1970s , when Gamma Two Games produced the three initial games of this type . It has long been the province of Gamma Two and its successor , Columbia Games , but recently other companies have been putting out games of the same type . The defining aspect of this type of game is the use of wooden blocks for the units . These are tilted on their side normally , and then put down for combat . Until combat occurs , the opponent can see how many units are where , but not what type and what strength , introducing fog of war aspects . The blocks are also rotated to show different strength values in a step - reduction system . Card - driven . The most recent of the major types of board wargame , it was created by the game " We the People " published by Avalon Hill in 1994 . In most aspects it is much like a typical board wargame ( on the simpler side of the spectrum ) , but play is driven by a deck of cards that both players draw from . These cards control " activation points " , which allow the use of troops , as well as events that represent things outside the normal scope of the game .