Sign-In
Cart
Hexes Of History: The Rise And Fall Of SPI: The untold story of the company that changed wargaming forever.
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 8 2026
Pages: 68
Weight: 0.23
Height: 0.16 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The history of modern tabletop wargaming cannot be told without Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI). For just over a decade, SPI transformed a niche hobby into a thriving industry, publishing hundreds of groundbreaking games, redefining historical simulation, and inspiring generations of designers whose influence still shapes tabletop gaming today.
Hexes of History: The Rise and Fall of SPI tells the remarkable story of the company that changed wargaming forever-and then vanished almost overnight.
Beginning with the origins of military simulation in nineteenth-century Prussia and the birth of commercial board wargaming through Avalon Hill, this comprehensive history follows the rise of visionary designer James F. Dunnigan, graphic design pioneer Redmond Simonsen, and the talented team that built one of the most innovative publishing companies of the twentieth century.
Through meticulous research, contemporary sources, magazines, catalogs, interviews, and historical analysis, this book explores how SPI revolutionized the hobby with bold ideas that are now taken for granted:
- The legendary Strategy & Tactics magazine with a complete game in every issue
- The groundbreaking Quadrigame format
- Beautiful map and counter design
- Massive monster games with thousands of counters
- Historical simulations spanning ancient warfare to hypothetical World War III
- Early science fiction and fantasy games
- The ambitious roleplaying game DragonQuest
- Military consulting that blurred the line between hobby gaming and professional simulation
Along the way, you'll meet the designers, artists, editors, historians, and entrepreneurs who made SPI a creative powerhouse. Discover the stories behind classic games, the company's unique design philosophy, the rivalry with Avalon Hill, and the loyal community that eagerly awaited every new issue of Strategy & Tactics.
But Hexes of History is more than a celebration of classic games.
It is also the story of how rapid innovation became a company's greatest strength-and ultimately its greatest weakness.
As SPI expanded at a breathtaking pace, financial pressures quietly mounted beneath the surface. The subscription model that fueled explosive growth also created dangerous cash-flow challenges. Ambitious publishing schedules and ever-larger projects pushed the company to its limits.
The dramatic climax comes in 1982, when TSR-the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons-acquired SPI in one of gaming's most controversial business deals. Employees were stunned. Subscribers were outraged. Designers scattered across the industry. One of gaming's greatest innovators disappeared almost overnight.
Yet SPI never truly died.
Its ideas survived through Victory Games, GMT Games, Multi-Man Publishing, Compass Games, and countless independent designers. Modern board games and historical simulations continue to reflect innovations pioneered inside SPI's Manhattan offices.
Whether you're a longtime collector, veteran wargamer, tabletop historian, or simply fascinated by innovation and business, this book offers a compelling behind-the-scenes look at one of gaming's most influential companies.
Inside you'll discover:
- The complete history of SPI from 1969 to 1982
- Profiles of the designers who changed tabletop gaming
- The evolution of Strategy & Tactics
- The development of SPI's greatest games
- The business decisions that fueled explosive growth-and eventual collapse
- Rare stories from behind the scenes
Beautifully researched and richly illustrated, Hexes of History: The Rise and Fall of SPI is a history and a love letter to an era when cardboard counters reshaped an entire hobby.
Also in
General World History
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Kendi, Ibram X.
Paperback
Titanic: The Ship Magnificent - Volume Two: Interior Design and Fitting Out
Beveridge, Bruce
Braunschweiger, Art
Hall, Steve
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth, 1890-1960
Van Slyck, Abigail A.
Hardcover
Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal: A Food Science Nutrition History Book
Bittman, Mark
Hardcover
The Rise of Thomas Cromwell: Power and Politics in the Reign of Henry VIII, 1485-1534
Everett, Michael
Paperback
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Loewen, James W.
Paperback
The Allies: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and the Unlikely Alliance That Won World War II
Groom, Winston
Paperback
Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World
McNeill, J. R.
Paperback
Dangerous Games: Faces, Incidents, and Casualties of the Cold War
Baron, Scott
Wise, James E.
Hardcover
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
Green, John
Hardcover
The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail
Dolin, Eric Jay
Hardcover
1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
Ahamed, Liaquat
Hardcover
American Pope: Leo XIV's Road from the South Side of Chicago to Vatican City
Detrow, Scott
Burke, Daniel
Hardcover
Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution
Kiernan, Denise
Hardcover
The Secret War Against Hate: American Resistance to Antisemitism and White Supremacy
Ross, Steven J.
Hardcover
100 Bible Verses That Made America: Defining Moments That Shaped Our Enduring Foundation of Faith
Morgan, Robert J.
Paperback
Freedom's Daughters: How a Generation of Black Women Resisted Oppression Through Literacy and Education
Headlee, Celeste
Hardcover
How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing Women
Venditozzi, Zoe
Mitchell, Claire
Paperback
The Phantom: The Untold Story of the American Marine the Nazis Could Not Kill
Clavin, Tom
Drury, Bob
Hardcover
The East Wing: Power, Intrigue, and the Untold Story of America's First Ladies
Moaveni, Azadeh
Hardcover
How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words
Galer, Sophia Smith
Hardcover
The Housewives Underground: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the JFK Assassination Our Most Enduring Mystery
Tiffany, Kaitlyn
Hardcover
1,000 Days in America: An Illustrated History of the Moments That Defined a Nation
National Geographic
Hardcover
Two Ships: Jamestown 1619, Plymouth 1620, and the Struggle for the Soul of America
Reynolds, David S.
Hardcover
True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color--From Azure to Zinc Pink
Stamper, Kory
Hardcover
The Sea Captain's Wife: A True Story of Mutiny, Love, and Adventure at the Bottom of the World
Mazzeo, Tilar J.
Hardcover
Lightning Beneath the Sea: The Race to Wire the World and the Dawn of the Information Age
Tabor, James M.
Hardcover
The Elections That Changed the World: Fifteen Pivotal Moments That Shaped How We Live
Bash, Dana
Hardcover
A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders: Surprising Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps
Elledge, Jonn
Paperback
America in 25 Revolutions: The Story of Our Imperfect Nation's 250-Year Quest to Become a More Perfect Union
Graff, Garrett M.
Hardcover
Liberation Summer: The Moment That Changed the Women's Movement and the Future of American Politics
McElya, Micki
Hardcover
The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic
Stewart, Lindsey
Hardcover
Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight Over Free Speech in Modern America
Loeffler, James
Hardcover
The Nuremberg Women: The Untold Story of the Eight Women Who Brought the Nazis to Justice
Livingstone, Natalie
Hardcover
The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic
Stewart, Lindsey
Paperback
The Nord Stream Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Explosions That Shook the World
Pancevski, Bojan
Hardcover
The Age of Alchemy: The Secret History of Chemistry from Ancient Magic to Modern Science
Chapman, Kit
Hardcover
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
Sides, Hampton
Paperback
Aristocracy, American Style: Class Privilege and the Persistence of Elite Power
Isenberg, Nancy
Hardcover
Socialism: The Real History from Plato to the Present: How the Deep State Capitalizes on Crises to Consolidate Control [With Paperback Book]
Federer, William J.
Paperback
The Bookshop: A History of Bookselling from the Dawn of Print to the Twenty-First Century
Pettegree, Andrew
Hardcover
When America Roared: How the 1980s Saved, Then Broke, the Country--And Led Us to Today
Kaufman, Jonathan
Hardcover
The Summer of Death: The Great Heat Wave of 1936 and the Making of Modern-Day America
Williams, Geoff
Hardcover
No One's Coming: The Rogue Heroes Our Government Turns to When There's Nowhere Else to Turn
Hazzard, Kevin
Hardcover
On the Mark: From Periods to Interrobangs, How Punctuation Remade the World
Hazrat, Florence
Hardcover
The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
Kara, Siddharth
Hardcover
The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism Within Us Slave Culture
Woodard, Vincent
Paperback
The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
McGilchrist, Iain
Paperback