Series wargames seem to exert a special control over wargamers. Buying another game in the same series feels in some way less significant than buying a wholly new standalone title. It's just a few new counters, a couple of new maps, several scenarios... you know - an upgrade, an extension, a kind of rounding out of what I already have... and next thing you know you've got 900 scenarios on the shelf! I think we've all been there.
When I took my first tentative steps into the PG universe with Eastern Front, given to me as a gift from my wargame buddy, I found more chaos than order. I only had 112 scenarios to worry about back then - but it didn't take long for me to uncover some as-yet-undocumented errata. And what about player aides? You might as well be panning for gold. Rumors abounded of "some guy" who had once designed "some stuff" that was "really great" but no one seemed to have copies of the files. Occasionally you'd come across something special - perhaps in the form of an expanded-hex assault chart - but there really just wasn't much out there, and it certainly wasn't organized and easily accessible.
And then came the LOS saga. Estimates vary, but the chapter of the LOS saga I originally witnessed was somewhere between the 37th and 6,000th time it had been discussed, argued over, and ultimately left unsettled for another day.
In short, in my mind this excellent game series was in crisis. A rallying point, a unifying call, a headquarters was sorely needed. Unfortunately, at the time this realization hit me (summer of 2008) I knew nothing but HTML. That was not going to be enough. I asked around, sharing my idea in the hopes that I could find someone with the skills to make it a reality, but despite lots of encouraging feedback no programming hero appeared. The idea was shelved.
A year passed, and heading into the summer of 2009 I found myself changing careers. With a one month layoff, I resolved to pull my dream of a "headquarters for Panzer Grenadier" down off the shelf and see just what I needed to learn to get it done. Finding motivation was easy enough - the salary at my new job was half that of my previous job's, so it was going to be a long time before I could afford to buy another PG game. Wanting to stay actively involved in the community, I turned to creating PG-HQ (which cost nothing but time), and this site quickly became my all-consuming desire.
After ten months, hundreds of hours of study and programming (I had to learn it all from scratch), and a tremendous data entry effort from a volunteer team of hardcore PG fans - I proudly present Panzer Grenadier Headquarters to the world. It is certain that a real programmer could have created far better, far more quickly. My site is humble, and of uneven quality. But it's real, it's here, and it's for you.
At your fingertips are every game, scenario, map, and unit ever released - and much, much more. And yet, intellectual property has been protected. The core requirements to play a scenario - map orientations, starting locations, OOB unit counts, and victory conditions - have been strategically omitted. Even with PG-HQ's vast library, you cannot play a single scenario you don't own.
In a sense, I am late to the party - after all PG is already a decade old! But wargames are ageless, and PG-HQ is just getting started. I invite you to enjoy what we offer now, and I hope you will stay with us as we grow and develop into the global community hub this excellent series deserves.