Tactics (1954)

From the box cover: "The new, realistic land army war game! Designed and perfected by an infantry officer... A war game with the professional touch... Actual principles of war apply... A real mental exercise... An excellent gift for the 'Chess and Checkers' type"

Tactics is a landmark game in that it was the first cardboard-counter commercial board wargame that was intended (albeit with limited success) to accurately simulate warfare and command.

The game was self-published by infantryman Charles S. Roberts, who would go on to found of Avalon Hill Games. The original edition of Tactics was published by the Avalon Game company, with a print run of approximately 2000. Roberts sold Tactics by mail order out of a garage in Avalon, Maryland.

The game portrayed a modern day strategic conflict between the forces of two hypothetical countries. The opposing units included infantry, armor, and airborne forces. The game was played on a mapboard which used a square grid rather than the hex-based style map which would later became preferred in the board wargaming industry. However, many of the conventions and mechanics established in Tactics still live on, in one form or another, in many of the wargames published today.

Based on his success with Tactics, Roberts decided to expand his operation and in 1958 he formed Avalon Hill Games. The initial line-up of games from Avalon Hill included Tactics II, a revised version of Roberts' original wargame. Avalon Hill would go on to publish a 25th Anniversary edition of Tactics in 1983, which represented a modified version of the original game in that it used a prototype mapboard which had not previously been released.

Re-implemented by:

• Tactics II
• Tactics (25th Anniversary Edition) (25th Anniversary Edition)

from The Avalon Hill Company History, 1980

Tactics (1952) Discontinued in 1958
Designed by Charles Roberts

The original TACTICS came in a 14" x 22" two color (black & red) box. Its combat results table featured not the conventional "back 2" result but "back 3," "4," "5," or "6" depending on the odds. Otherwise, aside from mountains which resembled comic book ice cream cones, it was not far removed from the more famous versions which followed it.