Francis Tresham

Who is Francis Tresham?

Francis Tresham is an United Kingdom-based board game designer who has been producing board games since the early 1970s. Tresham founded and ran games company Hartland Trefoil, a company well known for its Civilization board game, until its sale to MicroProse in 1997. His 1829 game was the first of the 18xx board game series and some of his board games have inspired Sid Meier computer games such as Railroad Tycoon.

Francis Tresham was the first to introduce a technology tree into his boardgames. This idea had a large influence on boardgames and computer games that were later produced.

He is currently managing director of Tresham Games and is, as of 2009, still producing 18xx-style board games.