An in depth breakdown on the company that specializes in war games and strategic board games.
Avalon Hill was started in 1954 when Charles S. Roberts started "The Avalon Game Company". The name was influenced by the city he sold his first game out of Avalon, Maryland. The name was later changed to Avalon Hill after the sell of the game "Tactics".
Charles S. Roberts was born in 1930 in the city of Baltimore. He was created the first ever modern war game, which was a board game called Tactics. He would later come to be known as "The Father of Board Wargaming"!
Tactics (released in 1954) was the first game of its kind! A board game that was complex, made for mainly adults, and considered the first commercial war board game. Charles created it because of the possibility of being drafted into the Korean war. This game branched out from simplistic games that followed the children’s board game tactics. This game enjoyed much success through magazine and mail order sales and recieved such a positive reception that Tactics II was released 4 years later in 1958.
Avalon Hill knew they had gold on their hands thanks to war board games! Avalon Hill decided to take realistic board games to the next level by making a game based on a real battle, in a real war, with real situations and people. That's where "Gettysburg" comes into play! The game was a hit. Avalon Hill would go on to make many more board games based after real battles such as Midway, AFRIKA KORPS, and The Battle of the Bulge.
The Gettysburg game also ushered in a new era of board layouts. When the game was re released in 1961, a map with small hexagons connected was released with the game. the primary advantage of a hex map over a traditional square grid map is that the distance between the center of each hex cell and the center of all six adjacent hexes is constant On a normal square grid map, the distance from the center of each square cell to the center of the four diagonal adjacent cells it shares a corner with, is greater than the distance to the center of the four adjacent cells it shares an edge with. Hex board layouts would become very popular and this feature would go on to be in many other war games, and even a little RPG called D&D.
Roberts made a magazine that would market Avalon Hill products, the magazine also gave out game strategies. On May 1, 1964 the Avalon Hill General debuted. Besides strategies, the magazine released new information on new war games coming out, history, and how the company was doing. The publications last print was in 1997 (with a short lived reboot in 2010).
Avalon Hill made a magazine like The General called Heroes. This magazine was based on role playing games and only lasted 10 issues from 1984-1986.
After some rough sales from trying new genres (sports and children's games), building up debt due to a recession, the game went back to their roots with hits such as Blitzkrieg and Squander.
December 13, 1963 Roberts left the company and Eric A. Dott took over. After that, Avalon hill was bought out by Monarch Office Services and became a division of the company. During the 70's the company took off, selling multiple hits such as PanzerBlitz,, Outdoor Survival, 1776, Squad Leader, and Third Reich. AH would also go on to buy games from smaller companies and republish them, such as The Russian Campaign and 1830.
Avalon Hill once had a system set up to play long complex games by mail?
Avalon Hill figured out that the majority of their sales were from return buyers (people who wanted the newest edition, etc). New buyers didn't enjoy the complexity of the games. So, the company entered the world of RPG's with games like Powers of Perils and Lords of Creation. The company also purchased the rights to RuneQuest, but none of the games had near the success of D&D. AH then entered the computer gaming scene. While sales were not terrible, the only big success was Achtung Spitfire!, released late in AH history. The game stuck to its true roots of selling realistic war games (this time in digital form), with the releases of Gulf Strike and Desert Shield. The games sold well, but not well enough. After some more tries, and years of revenue loss, Avalon Hill was put up for sell in 1995 and sold to Hasbro in 1998.
Hasbro started to release more titles under the Avalon Hill name and even put the AH name on Axis & Allies even though it was never made by Avalon Hill. The games under Hasbro have been made to target more everyday players than hobbyist (where earlier AH game were aimed at). AH made a Game of the Year under Games magazine in 2007 with Vegas Showdown.
The legacy of Charles Roberts and the Avalon Hill of old live on. Until 2013, awards named after Charles (CSR Awards Show) were given to given annually for excellence in the historical wargamming hobby. There is also a Charles Robert's Hall of Fame that recognizes people who made huge contributions to board wargamming. Realistic war games remain a huge game market and dominate the sale boards. The influence Avalon Hill left on the world of not only wargamming but gamming in general can never be ignored or forgotten.
