Forging the First Fantasy Wargame - A Companion to Tony Bath's Hyborian Campaign

Tony Bath’s Hyborian Campaign stands as one of the most ambitious and influential wargaming experiments of the twentieth century. Drawing inspiration from Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, Bath constructed a fully realised, pseudo‑historical world—complete with its own geography, cultures, economies, and military systems—capable of sustaining years of strategic play. While the mechanics of the campaign are preserved in Tony Bath’s Ancient Wargaming published in 2021, this volume tells the rest of the how a friendly contest between Bath and Don Featherstone grew into a sprawling, international campaign involving pioneers such as Charles Grant and Joe Morshauser, many of whom issued orders by post for years on end. Hyboria was more than a battlefield. It was a living world where rulers schemed, armies marched, treasuries rose and fell, and characters developed ambitions, rivalries, and consequences. In doing so, Bath helped pioneer the long-form, open-ended style of play that would later define role playing games. This book charts the rise and eventual end of the legendary campaign and includes, Bath’s earliest medieval rules, his micro‑wargaming system, and an overview of his never‑published World War II project.