Charles S. Roberts

In 1952, Charles S. Roberts began working on the first mass market board wargame, Tactics, from his house in the Avalon neighborhood of Catonsville, Maryland. It was a revolutionary design in many ways that Roberts recalled confounded new players more accustomed to rules like chess and checkers. In 1954, he began selling it via mail-order as The Avalon Game Company. In 1958, Roberts formed gaming company Avalon Hill to publish the next incarnation, Tactics II (1958). considered to be the first board wargame based upon an actual historical battle, with subsequent versions in 1961 and 1964. In December 1963, Roberts turned over Avalon Hill to one of his creditors, Eric Dott of Monarch Services, ==As a railroad historian==

Following the sale of his wargame company, Avalon Hill, Charles Roberts held various positions in the publishing industry. In 1973, he founded a small press, Barnard, Roberts, and Company, which he has described as "publishing to the Catholic market", even though Roberts himself was not a Catholic. Over time, the company's emphasis shifted away from religious publications and toward railroad history. Roberts took pride in coming from a long line of railroaders. One of his great great uncles was Thomas Swann, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1848 to 1853. Roberts's father and grandfather, also named Charles Swann Roberts, had long careers with the Baltimore and Ohio. In one of his books, Roberts reminisced about childhood trips with his father to observe the operations of the Pennsylvania Railroad, of which Roberts had always been an enthusiast. In Triumph IX, Roberts includes reminiscences about his life and movingly pays tribute to his late first wife, Patricia. ==References==