JOHN TILLER SOFTWARE - Key Persons

Andrew Bamford - Andrew is a military historian who has authored or edited a dozen books on the military history of the eighteenth century and Napoleonic Wars. He obtained a PhD from the University of Leeds with a thesis examining the performance of the British Army's manpower systems during the era of the Peninsular War, which formed the basis of his first book and also left him with a bank of unit strength data ideal for wargaming purposes. A fan of the Tiller games since the Talonsoft days, he offered this research to what was then the HPS team and ended up doing the bulk of the OOB and unit research for the two Peninsular War titles. He is now pursuing his eighteenth century interests within the Musket and Pike series. In his day job he is a commissioning editor for the publishers Helion and Company, and lives in Staffordshire with his wife and their cocker spaniel Luna.

Andy Edmiston - Andy has been interested in Military History for as long as he can remember and like most he gravitated from table-top wargaming through board-based and then onto PC computer wargames. He lives on the South Coast of the UK near Portsmouth - the Home of Maritime England. He is married to Sara and in 2021 they celebrated their thirtieth wedding anniversary. Their son Cam has inherited his father's love of military history and is just finishing his degree at university. In their spare time they enjoy travelling and improving their golf. He has been a professional Software Engineer since 1982 and specializes in Windows C++ and C# development. In May 2021 he approached WDS to offer his services and is currently working on the Naval Campaigns, Squad Battles, Strategic War and Modern Air Power series.

Bill Peters - Bill is a native of the Los Angeles area and began playing boardgames and miniatures as a teenager. He joined a local club at Cal State Northridge and also played at the homes of his wargaming friends and also at several local game stores. He joined the US Air Force in 1979 and served for four years as an analyst at NSA. During this time he joined a wargame club and served as its President. Once out of the military his work and school and church work took him away from active gaming for almost thirteen years with some time in between where he resumed his miniature gaming for a short time. During the period 1983 to 2004 he served in the fields of Industrial Security and Information Technology for three defense contractors. In the 1990s he got interested in computer gaming and by 1995 had bought his first Talonsoft Battleground game. By 1998 he had cracked the game text file codes for the Napoleonic games and was creating a module for Wagram when a friend recommended that he contact John Tiller about working with him on game projects.

Dave (Blackie) Blackburn - Born in the UK, moved to Canada in 1976. Served 15 years in the British Army, 4 years with the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards in all armored trades, wireless operator, gunner, driver and commander, plus time in armored cars, 12 years in the Army Air Corps as a helicopter pilot. Flew in Canada as a helicopter pilot doing all type of bush and then government work from coast to coast to coast, with time in every province. Glenn Saunders proposed we partner up for working on wargames, which we did, initially for Talonsoft's Campaign Series. Then we stayed with John Tiller and work primarily on Panzer and Modern Campaigns also Total War in Europe. I am the map maker for these series and have also done maps for a lot of other John Tiller Games' series.

David Freer - David is from Australian where he lives with his family. He has worked as a senior executive in the Information Technology industry since the early 90's and specifically in the cyber-security sector for the last 18 years. David worked with John Tiller Software from 2010 on and founded Wargame Design Studio (WDS) in 2016. WDS resources provided programming, research, graphics and artwork as well as project management capabilities to greatly expand the capabilities of the core JTS team. With the acquisition of the JTS line David continues to wear multiple hats and plays a key role in keeping the company moving forward.

Doug Strickler - Doug was the chief public defender for South Carolina's 5th Judicial Circuit, which is made up of Richland and Kershaw counties. In that post, he supervised more than 50 lawyers and other staff. Known for his 12-hour work days, wrote a widely used manual on S.C. criminal laws, S.C. Criminal Offenses and Penalties, and was regarded as an authority on numerous areas of crime and punishment. He served on the board of the S.C. Commission on Indigent Defense, the agency that oversees public defenders around the state. Doug was a tremendous contributor to the Civil War Battles team over the years not only publishing the Campaign Gettysburg title, but also doing all the mapping work for Antietam, Overland and the yet to be published Valley Campaigns. His efforts yielded mappings of most all the East Coast Civil War battlefields and surrounding territory.

Drew Wagenhoffer - While having no armed forces experience or academic training in history, Drew has always been interested in a wide range of military subjects. During his teen years he became an avid board wargamer, but quickly gravitated toward the fledgling computer wargames market, fueling an interest in game design and modding. During the 1990s, his study and gaming interests shifted from the Napoleonic Wars and World War II toward the American Civil War, where they have largely remained. Involvement with John Tiller's developing efforts and HPS Simulations began in 1998. In addition to playtesting various HPS titles, creating a scenario pack for Campaign 1776, and designing the four Civil War Battles series titles Campaigns Corinth, Ozark, Peninsula, and Vicksburg (the last with Lee Hook), he also reviewed books for several print magazines and ran the website Civil War Books and Authors.

Gary (Mo) Morgan - Gary Morgan was the son of an Army mathematician who inherited his mom's creative art and music talent. While attending college to study commercial art and graphic design, Gary's Vietnam vet tank commander friend challenged him to a game of Panzerblitz and he was hooked on wargaming. Gary dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot after seeing The Blue Max and played fighter combat manual simulations from SPI to learn more. He joined the Air Force and was blessed with an assignment in fighters; during his flight training Gary discovered game system inaccuracies so he decided to redesign his favorite game, Foxbat and Phantom. Originally published by the USAF as Check Six!, Flight Leader was later released by The Avalon Hill Game Company and Gary's commercial wargame design career was launched. While Flight Leader worked well at the individual aircraft level for air combat engagements, Gary realized that a theater-level scale was needed to portray the environment of the fighter-bomber in the ground attack role. TAC AIR (first released by the USAF as FEBA) was Gary's first scratch-built game design and followed the meteoric rise of Flight Leader for manual jet fighter simulations to win a Charles S. Roberts award. Gary's teaching assignment to Maxwell as director of wargaming for Air Command and Staff College, and a new job at Air and Space Basic Course eventually put Gary in touch with John Tiller during the Connections wargaming conferences. ASBC's use of Starcraft inspired John to design the Modern Air Power series and Gary became the series designer, with commercial releases War Over Vietnam and War Over the Mideast.

Gary McClellan - Gary's first exposure to wargaming came when his brother came home on leave in 1979 and brought several Avalon Hill games with him. Soon enough, he scrounged together enough money to buy a copy of Panzer Leader and his interest in wargaming was off and running. Gary has been interested in computer wargames from the beginning, starting with SSI's Tigers in the Snow. He took a bit of a break from wargaming while in school, but was drawn back in by the Battleground series. He's been actively playing a variety of games ever since. Gary's first efforts in scenario design were in making a variety of hypothetical scenarios for Jutland. He's also participated in playtests for several Napoleonic games, as well as HPS Renaissance. Gary is now a lead designer in both the Naval Campaigns and Musket & Pike series of games. He has a BA in History and a Masters of Divinity.

Glenn Saunders - He hails from the eastern most province of Canada, but came west with the oil boom in the early 80's. While growing up, he was always interested in "things military." Started playing board wargames at age 12, joined Army Cadets at age 13, and went on to the Reserves and became an Officer in Her Majesty's Canadian Forces. Got into computer wargames when a 486-33Mhz with 4MB of RAM was about all the PC anyone needed. Became active on the Talonsoft forum and was given an opportunity of a lifetime - to help test Battleground Bull Run. In 1999, as Talonsoft was dissolving, he received an email from John Tiller in which he said "Glenn, let's keep in touch, you might have a game in you someday." Since then, he has partnered with Dave Blackburn to create over 20 titles for John Tiller from WWII and the Post WWII periods.

Jim Dunnam - Jim Dunnam is a native of Waco, Texas. Jim and his wife, Michelle, met at Baylor University and have three children, Lauren, Mason and Rachel. Jim holds B.B.A. and J.D. degrees from Baylor, and he is a partner at Dunnam & Dunnam, L.L.P., in Waco. The firm was founded by Jim's grandfather in 1925, and Jim joined the firm in 1988. Jim was named the 2001 Baylor Young Lawyer of the Year. Jim served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives representing Waco and surrounding areas for 15 years beginning in 1997. Jim was also the House Democratic Leader from 2003 until 2011. Jim's involvement in history related gaming spans several decades. His playtesting credits run from Richard Berg's Blackbeard to Johnny Reb III Miniatures rules. Jim first began working with John Tiller on Talonsoft's Battleground Chickamauga. Jim went on to assist in several HPS Panzer Campaigns titles including Smolensk, Normandy, Salerno, Kursk and Korsun, Total War in Europe - First Blitzkrieg and Campaign Atlanta. Jim is also very active with Lone Star Historical Miniatures - www.lshmwaco.org

Marc Bellizi - As a kid he loved "Army Stuff"; from games to BB Gun wars (which landed him in hot water with the parents a few times). Started with 'Squad Leader' & 'Assault' and then got hooked on infantry simulations. By 16 he was designing his own scenarios & writing military style Operations Orders covering a WARPAC thrust through the Fulda Gap.

Mark Adams - He has been interested in 'things military' since he bought his first Sgt Rock comic book at the price of 12 . He played my first wargame when he was a sophomore in High School (Avalon Hill's Gettysburg with squares). The first computer wargame, Red Lightning, on a Commodore Amiga, while he was in the US Army from '77 to '90. Finally John Tiller came out with Battleground Gettysburg and he became an addict. Every Friday on his way home from work, he was looking for the next John Tiller game. When John was leaving Talonsoft, Bill Peters mentioned Mark to him while working on Eckmuhl using the old Battleground engine. John asked Mark to come on board to do graphics research and support for his next game that would come out with HPS Simulations. He have since worked on almost every game in every series that John Tiller has produced.

Mike Avanzini - Mike has been playing war games since 1962 starting with AH "Gettysburg" and "Tactics II". He grew up through the great SPI era but dropped out of playing in the 80s to mid 90s, with raising a family and all, but continued reading military history of all eras. In the late 90s he discovered the Battleground series and got involved with play testing the Campaign series games where he met Glenn Saunders and became friends. When John moved from Talonsoft to HPS Mike got more involved, first with creating campaign maps and then into his main focus of OOB and scenario research. Since then Mike has been involved with multiple Panzer Campaigns titles and is also working on other series of games. He also creates battle and scenario location maps for all of the various game systems.

Mike Cox - Mike Cox is a native of Sonoma, California who has always had a deep interest in history and wargaming specifically. Raised on conflict simulation classics, from Avalon Hill, SPI and others (usually tactical), computer wargaming was an easy transition. Always tinkering with scenario editors and in love with the 'sandbox' that they provide, he was quite enthusiastic with John Tiller's first title for HPS: Campaign 1776. He became very active in playing John Tiller games by email and producing amateur scenarios for various titles. His youthful interest in tactical wargaming came full circle when he was presented the opportunity to partner with Özgür Budak to design scenarios for the Squad Battles: Soviet-Afghan War title. He continues to design for Squad Battles and is involved with testing and design work in other series as well. Mike currently resides in Sonoma with wife and two children. He has been involved in the wine business for over 25 years. Mike makes wine for a well known pinot noir and chardonnay specialist in Carneros as well as has his own pinot noir brand. Of course, he still plays and enjoys boardgames and is working on raising the next generation of wargamer as well.

Nick Bell - Nick's interest in wargaming started as a teenager in 1972 with AH and SPI boardgames, and was an outgrowth of his interest in military history and model building. His passion for maps followed his introduction to topographic maps in high school JROTC. After graduating with a degree in Modern European History, Nick received a Regular Army commission and served stateside and in Germany in Air Defense Artillery as a platoon leader, executive office and S-4 Battalion Logistics Officer from 1981-1988. Since 1990 he has worked as a construction project manager in both the private and public sector. In 1984 he branched out into computer wargaming and flight simulation with the purchase of the first of many computers - an Atari 800XL. Nick worked with HPS Simulations 1993-2008 doing beta-testing and developing maps and scenarios for the Tigers on the Prowl series, Aide de Camp 2, and Point of Attack 2. During the 1990s he was also heavily engaged in hex editing and coding editors for many flight simulator and wargame programs. Apart from playing his games, my first effort in supporting John Tiller was playtesting Panzer Campaign Smolensk '41. Since 2010 Nick has been creating maps for various JTS/WDS commercial and military contract programs. In addition to his interest in military history of all periods, he also has a passion for hiking, photography and cross-country skiing. Currently living in Alaska with his wife Barbara and two cats.

Rich Hamilton - A life-long wargamer, Rich became an avid Tiller fan with the discovery of Battleground #1, Ardennes. In short order he was doing scenario design for the Battleground series and joined the official team shortly before the transition to publishing with HPS Simulations. Rich has been the front man for HPS/JTS/WDS Support since 2001 handling most of the customer relations, marketing and product delivery. His 25 years in the Information Technology field and former military service lend itself well to managing the development and publication of serious wargames for his fellow enthusiast. Currently living in Central Virginia in the middle of Civil War territory.

Rich Walker - He was born in 1963, in Santa Monica California and has a BA in History and a MA in Education. Rich currently reside in Cookeville, Tennessee with his wife and has two children, Lindsey and Lane. Among other things he enjoys Scuba diving and flying, and yes, wargaming! Since 1998, Rich has worked on many John Tiller games, of which most are from the American Civil War. Look for him under the water, in the air, or tramping through some battlefield. Rich White - Born in Gloucestershire, England, he studied history at London University, specializing in later mediaeval history and the Arthurian legends for my postgraduate studies, subsequently publishing a book on King Arthur in Legend and History. After finishing his studies, he taught English and British history at a Japanese university in Tokyo, but is now back in the UK and living in High Wycombe with his wife and young son. Rich has been a wargamer since his school days, originally playing tabletop and board games, but moving over to computer games in the mid 90s when the Battleground games first appeared. He has been a playtester for a number of projects and was the scenario designer for Renaissance and Greek Wars (HPS) as well as the Napoleonic Peninsular titles.

Robert (Berto) Osterlund - In his youth, Robert "Berto" Osterlund had three passions: baseball, Top 40 pop music, and war gaming. Beginning with Gettysburg c. 1962, he played every classic AH game through the 1960s. As an adolescent, he dabbled in war game design. In 1967, his family moved to the Chicago area, his true home ever since. In 1970, after flirting with a U.S. Navy enlistment at the height of the Vietnam War, he chickened out and went off to study economics at the University of Chicago. In college, Berto subscribed to S&T magazine, and at peak owned 80 different SPI titles. Half way through his graduate studies (in economics, also at UC), on a whim he signed up for the U.S. Peace Corps and for three years served in the Philippines (hence "Berto") as an economic advisor and college teacher. With new Filipino wife in tow (still happily married after 40+ years), Berto returned to Chicago in 1981. Then it was back to the Philippines in 1987 for three more years to teach computer science. Berto worked in the IT industry as a Unix sysadmin for 25+ years until his early retirement in 2016. He designed and coded an Open Source project of minor notoriety, PIKT (http://pikt.org). A passionate devotee of early music, in 2002 Berto launched Early MusiChicago (http://earlymusichicago.org), which he has maintained ever since. After a break of nearly 20 years, Berto returned to war gaming in the late 1990s when he discovered Talonsoft. He joined the Campaign Series Legion to revive that old classic beginning in 2013. In 2016, Berto signed on with WDS to code JTS Panzer Battles, then in 2017 also JTS Civil War Battles. A life-long dream come true!

Thomas Hook - Musician, songwriter, historian, Tom Hook hails from the Midwest. Growing up in the hills of Clay County, Missouri, he spent much of his childhood watching the Missouri River make its sweeping turn past Kansas City heading northwest across the Great Plains towards the Rockies. Everyday journeys took him across the Lewis and Clark trail and through the boyhood haunts of Frank and Jesse James. Consequently, at an early age he developed a deep passion for American history. Coupled with that was a consuming love for music. Beginning the piano at age three, he studied classically throughout his boyhood, eventually attending the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. However, his true passion has always been for American folk music. As a child, his mother's family would gather into the "old home place" every Sunday for dinner and an afternoon session of old-time picking. It was then, learning songs from generations past, that Tom discovered the link that music offers to times long forgotten. He is an ardent student of American popular and folk music in its many forms: the "war" music of the American Revolution, the Civil War, both World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam. The "country" music of Appalachia, the Ozarks, the Far West, and the Delta South. The "urban" music of Ragtime, Jazz, Blues, Swing, Broadway, Rock and Roll. Railroad songs, Cowboy songs, Steamboat songs, Sharecroppers songs, Pop hits... the list is as endless and varied as America herself. Simply put, Tom Hook is a student of American music.

Tommy Houston - Tommy served for 25 years as a US Army Field Artillery Officer, with assignments from Platoon Leader all the way up through Department of the Army. After retiring from the Army he spent a second career working in the Defense Industry before finally retiring in 2016. Now days he gets to spend more time on his other interests, flying and working on the games! He became interested in Wargames way back there in the 70s when he was a Second Lieutenant at the Field Artillery Officer's Basic Course. It was there that he had his first introduction to wargaming with a game called Dunn-Kemph. Back then, the US Army used the game to help teach Battalion level tactics and fire support to Lieutenants in classroom. Compared to modern day computer simulations, Dunn Kemph may seem a little bit crude with die rolls and cotton balls, but it was what they had back then. He recalls that no matter how many times the class played the game, they were obliterated by the Warsaw Pact! But the game sparked his personal and professional interest in wargaming. Although he never found the time to do the tabletop Wargaming, the computer Wargames were perfect in that you did not have to spend hours doing the set up, and the computer became your opponent. Since the 80s he has played them all - Avalon, Atomic, HPS etc. He would scout the Post Exchange and the computer game stores anticipating the next release of any new game. About the same time frame the US Army became involved with using computer games for training (the Army calls them "constructive simulations"), so his personal interest turned into a professional interest. After an assignment as a Combat Trainer (OC) at the US Army's National Training Center, his interest in computer wargaming turned to making sure that things were accurately replicated for the training benefit. As they say at the US Army's center for simulations, PEOSTRI, "Everything but War is a simulation". Tommy had seen the name John Tiller so many times over the years with the games he purchased and they eventually connected several years ago and hit it off. Their common interest was with the use of Wargames for training in the US Military, particularly in the classroom setting. But all that said about designing and playing futures based wargames, being a Military History buff, he still enjoys staying up until the wee hours of the morning playing a Civil War game and exploring "what if Lee had gone to the right at Gettysburg?" Or "if Custer could have won if he had not split the Regiment". TRAIN THE FORCE!

Özgür (Oz) Budak - Born in 1972 and raised in Izmir, Turkey. He is a social science scholar and lecturer in the Ege University. He teaches/studies sociology and political theory. He is married with two boys and a cat. He has been playing computer games since the 80's with his first computer, a Commodore64. Playing Tiller games since 1997. His first PBEMs were "campaign series" which he played quite much those days, but also the battleground series. Got into the HPS realm with the release of Smolensk '41 in the "Panzer Campaigns Club" back in 2000. He was predominantly a Panzer Campaigns player; however he met Frank Harmon whose dedication to the series vitalized my interest in Squad Battles. He started designing scenarios and mods for various titles and produced more than 150 custom SB scenarios. He also worked in the development of the "Africa at War" Mod. In 2005 Rich offered me a place among the team for a new title they were planning. The Soviet-Afghan War (SAW) represents the revival of the SB series after a long period. Working with Rich and Mike Cox for a new SB title was a great pleasure. It was also a duty to serve/improve the game he enjoyed so much. After SAW's release he took on another project, completing the game Frank started, the Winter War. Finally, he finished the biggest project he shouldered, Red Victory, which was truly a delightful experience for him.