Map and Counters

A Brief Word about the Avalon Hill Game Company (TAHGC)

The next few posts will focus on a few of my favorite Avalon Hill titles. These are the “classic” games that first introduced most of my generation of players to the (then) brand-new hobby of conflict simulations. Moreover, because TAHGC, unlike SPI and GDW, actually published a surprisingly small number of war games during its early years, virtually all of these titles should be familiar. I know that almost from the day it opened its doors, Avalon Hill has caught a lot of flak from a number of different critics, including me. None the less, it should be remembered that, whatever its flaws, TAHGC was not only a major creative force, it was the only force, in the early days of wargaming. It is hard to imagine where the hobby would be today without the contributions of people like Tom Shaw, Tom Oleson, Randal Reed, Rob Beyma, and Don Greenwood, just to mention a few. Alan R. Moon, of course, is in an “X-files” category all by himself. Whatever else one might say, the designers and developers at Avalon Hill deserve a lot of credit for how far this hobby of ours has come.

Avalon Hill has published small war games, a “monster” game (THE LONGEST DAY), and everything in between. It has published fantasy games, family games, sports games, card games, and just plain weird games. It even created a gaming system that has morphed, in the eyes of some observers, into a virtual way of life: ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER. So here they are, a few of TAHGC’s early gems. I hope that you, my visitors, find these game profiles and related posts interesting.