Tony Bath's Hyboria

A collection of links and material related to Tony Bath's legendary Hyboria campaign. If you have any additional resources, please let me know ...

Tony Bath playing a game using flats (probably early 60s). Clearly visible are the elephants, the dreaded "Pachidermi Horrendi Antoninii"

What are the lessons of Hyboria? Well, firstly, what you get out of a game is in relation to the amount of effort you put into it. Secondly, a well constructed fantasy soon takes on its own life, and from that point needs only minimal guidance. Finally, if you want to test the limits of your imagination and still keep the whole thing within a logical framework, there is no better medium than creating a fantasy world. Besides, it's fun!
(White Dwarf #4, December 1977 / January 1978)

Articles and materials by Tony Bath featured on this blog

 

(Wargaming) Books that discuss Tony Bath's Hyboria

Tony Bath's Rules

It is somewhat difficult to track all the variants of rules written by Tony Bath, because there are sometimes small changes in publsihed material to be found
 
Ancients
  • More Wargaming Pioneers (edited by John Curry, History of Wargaming Project), has a chapter "War Games of the Middle Ages and Ancient Times by Tony Bath 1956", originally published by the BMSS Bulletin, June-July 1956, pp 248-252, and continued in BMSS Bulletin, Aug-Sept 1956, pp 266-269
  • Wargames (Don Featherstone, 1962 - reprinted by the History of Wargaming project), has rules for the Ancient Period, attributed to Tony Bath. It also contains an extensive battle report, "The Battle of Trimsos" between Hyrkania and Hyperborea.
    The ancient battle of Trimsos (from Wargames 1962, Don Featherstone)

    		   

    The ancient battle of Trimsos (from Wargames 1962, Don Featherstone
    .
  • Donald Featherstone Lost Tales (edited by John Curry, History of Wargaming Project) has "Rules for Ancient Wargames 300BC-AD500". These are in some summaries of this book and some sites attributed to Tony Bath, but not in the book itself.
  • Tony Bath's Ancient Wargaming (edited by John Curry, History of Wargaming Project) has the Peltast and Pila Ancient Wargaming Rules (rules originally published in 1976).
  • There is The rules for the ancient period in this book are attributed to Bath.
Medieval
  • Donald Featherstone Lost Tales (edited by John Curry, History of Wargaming Project) has a number of rulesets by Tony Bath. The rulesets in Lost Tales are collections of rules that were previously published in Wargamer's Newsletter.
    • Medieval Rules -- see also this blogpost on the Prometheus in Aspic blog for the original pamphlet.
    • The ruleset "God for Harry, England and St. George" is also included in Donald Featherstone's Lost Tales, and these rules are almost identical to the Medieval Rules attributed to Bath in this same volume. They are a clear descendant, possible a variation written by Featherstone.
Pike and Shot
Naval
Image from Naval Wargames, 1965

Articles written by Tony Bath

Many of the articles written by Tony Bath seems to overlap, or were later reused as part of other publications (e.g. Setting Up a Wargames Campaign, or the various chronicles of Hyboria)

War Games Digest
Slingshot (w.r.t. rules and campaigns)
  • A Points System in Wargames [for Society Rules] (1/8-9 rp.121/4-5, 16/4-5, Tony Bath)
  • A Simple Map Campaign (6/25-26,Tony Bath)
  • Moving, Firing & Fighting (Slingshot 9/5-7, Tony Bath)
  • Campaigning with the Aid of Fantasy Fiction (9/10-13, Tony Bath)
  • On Rules (Slingshot 15/16-18, Tony Bath)
  • A Potted History of Hyboria (24/6-13, Tony Bath)
  • Characterisation in Hyboria (29/23-25, Tony Bath)
  • On Rule Writing [Peltast & Pila] (83/15-16, Tony Bath)
  • The Tony Bath Rules –Jurassic Park for Wargamers (Slingshot 257/41-43,Kevin Large)

Others

Sites featuring Tony Bath or Hyboria

This is a personal selection as I encounter interesting materials. Not everything is included, since a good search can also do wonders! :-)
 
Photographs
 
Websites
Blogs
Videos

Timeline

This timeline is very incomplete. I want to track the various publication dates of Bath's rules, since  there is quite some evolution in the rules he used. Any additional information welcome.

  • 1926: Born in Southampton
  • 1955: Joins BMSS
  • 1956: “War Games of the Middle Ages and Ancient Times” in BMSS Bulletin.
  • 1962:  Ancient rules in Wargames (Featherstone)
  • 1965: Starts SoA; Naval rules in  Naval Wargames (Featherstone)
  • 1966: ??? Rules for Ancient Wargames 300BC-AD500 ???, published by Wargamer’s Newsletter; Rules for Medieval Wargames (6p booklet), published by Wargamer’s Newsletter;  ??? Rules for 1750 Period ???, published by Wargamer’s Newsletter
  • 1973: Setting up a Wargames Campaign, 1st edition
  • 1974:  Article describing “Hyboria” in Games&Puzzles
  • 1976: “Peltast and Pila”, published by Tabletop Warfare
  • 1977:  “Hyboria” article in White Dwarf
  • 1978-1979:  15 part series on “Hyboria” in Battle and Battle for Wargamers
  • 1986: Setting up a Wargames Campaign, revised 3rd edition
  • 2000: Passed away

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