John Hill

Who is John Hill?

John Hill is an American designer of military wargames, as well as rules for miniature wargaming such as Johnny Reb 3. He is a member of the Wargaming Hall of Fame.

Hill, a native of Indiana, is most known as the designer of the extremely popular Avalon Hill board game Squad Leader in 1977. Hill founded Conflict Games Company in the late 1960s and owned a hobby shop, The Scale, in Lafayette, Indiana, for several years. Among his many titles were Verdun, Kasserine Pass, Overlord, Battle For Stalingrad, Tank Leader, Eastern Front Tank Leader and many others. He also designed Hue, based upon the fighting near the City of Hue in the Vietnam War.

In 1978, Hill was named to the Wargaming Hall of Fame, receiving the Charles S. Roberts Award at the Origins gaming convention in Chester, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 1979. He was honored as a "famous game designer" by being featured as the king of diamonds in Flying Buffalo's 2009 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck.

Hill developed what arguably is the most popular rules set ever developed for regimental level American Civil War miniature gaming, the Johnny Reb series.