The Wargamer (magazine)

The Wargamer was a magazine devoted to the hobby of board wargaming. It was founded by Keith Poulter and published six times a year by World Wide Wargames (3W), although initially it was only published four times a year.^[1]

Poulter founded the magazine in 1977. In the May/June 1988 issue, it was announced that 3W acquired Diverse Talents Inc., who published Fire & Movement, Battleplan and Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer. A planned merger of the two operations would see 3W publish all three of these magazines, as well as Strategy & Tactics. Volume 1 of The Wargamer was rolled into Strategy & Tactics and ceased to exist.

Poulter, however, wanted a magazine to continue to support S&T, by providing wargame reviews and general hobby news and information. Christopher Cummins, knowing that 3W had also acquired Moves, expressed his interest in returning that magazine to print. Poulter made Cummins assistant editor, co-ordinating various strategy and analysis articles. Cummins felt that the previous audience of The Wargamer was better served by a revival of that title, and in 1988 beginning with Issue 6 began offering "timely reviews on time" under the banner of Volume 2 of The Wargamer. By the end of the year, Poulter had offered Fire & Movement to Cummins, which at that time was the main competition for readership. Cummins agreed, and brought F&M back to a regular publishing schedule in 1989.

Volume 2 of The Wargamer printed issues on games by a variety of publishers, and printed a series of anthologies in of various categories of wargames, giving a historical look at the development of the wargaming hobby through the lens of its collective published works.

By 1990, Cummins and his staff felt that The Wargamer, Volume Two was "suffering from a split personality" in that it had reviews like F&M had, and strategy and scenario articles like the older Moves title had. The decision was finally made in June 1990 to reintroduce Moves magazine. The Wargamer ceased publication with Issue 25 of Volume 2 in the winter of 1990.

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