The Official --( Introduce Yourself )-- Thread!

[Shad]

(participation voluntary!)

Browsing the forums I've come across a fair number of rarely observed or completely new member names. Often I flip back to PG-HQ to check the profiles only to discover that not only are these guys who joined up pretty early, they typically have empty profile descriptions...

There are lurkers among us!!!

Then we have the lads who can play literally hundreds of scenarios without filing a single AAR, yet take great delight in actively participating here in the forums.

We've also got a fair bunch of interesting avatars...

So, how about an official meet-and-greet thread to give folks a chance to introduce themselves and not have that introduction be buried deep inside the forum? Participation is strictly voluntary!

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I'm Shad. I was born and raised in Florida, USA. For many generations my family have been devout Piscatorians, hence the ichthyologic avatar and cognomen.

I started PG-HQ back in early 2010, and haven't played much PG since but I hope to get more table time starting next year.

I've lived overseas for 7 years now. I did a master's degree in Japan and for the last 5 years have lived in NE China. I'm married to a lovely former classmate from my time in Japan, and we have a 14 month old son.

In my short career I've done all sorts of stuff, but from August I'll be a Director of International Marketing. I've succeeded in making a decent living serving as a bridge between cultures, though that was certainly never my plan during school!

I prefer board wargames, but due to time and space constraints most of my gaming these days is short bursts of Team Fortress 2 on PC.

I don't have a regular face-to-face wargame opponent, but I have had the pleasure of losing to both Vince Hughes and Alan Sawyer over Skype.

My sincere welcome to everyone, and feel free to contact me directly at any time if you're having trouble with PG-HQ!

2016-01-01 Update: new photo showing infant has become child and that Shad's hairline has failed repeated morale checks!

[JoeBuckeye]

I know I signed up to PG-HQ pretty soon after you got it running.

I go through phases of game playing and I was in the middle of a PG phase when you seemed to burst on the PG scene on CSW and the mailing list. So I signed up PG-HQ to see what was what.

I also check in on CSW and am a member of the (fairly dormant) PG mailing list. I think my biggest contribution to PG was being involved in the clarification of what a safe hex is on the mailing list a couple of years ago.

So I got into another PG playing mood and checked in here a couple of weeks ago and saw there was now a forum.

Browsing around I saw I have the #2 rank for turn length played. I think that was entirely due to my multiple playings of a very small Romanian Soviet tank scenario that must have a long turn length but doesn't take long to play (it's an exit units scenario).

So now I decided to re-enter PG by playing a currently unplayed with PG-HQ scenario from Black SS since it has a large bounty. 2 maps and lots of counters.

[enrique]

I was born in Spain. I am Spaniard, but my mother is Norwegian.

I have worked in a bank. I'm retired now. I have a son.

I play wargames since 2006. I have played Napoleonic games (Simtac series, F. Berg's Triumph & Glory series, Avalanche's Eagles of the Empire series), American Civil War games (F. Berg's Glory series), World War II operational and strategic games (Bitter Woods, The Russian Campaign) and naval games (Avalanche's GWaS series). They are all excellent games, but I prefer by far PG.

My English is very bad.

[larry marak]

I'm Larry (Old Man) Marak. Born Aug 5 of 1950, spent my whole life in Burbank California. Invented board war-gaming in 1961 while in elementary school (this was a simple solo short-range missle strike game. Map out the battlefield, close your eyes, and let your blind finger plunge down, designating the target location)

Introduced to Board-Wargaming in 1970 with Panzerblitz. Was an active collector for 35 years, then pruned down to pre-retirement mode. Play just PG and the naval series regularly, and made a lot of people happy during the collection sell off.

World traveler, was in Turkey for 9-11.

Dual master's degree in ancient history and classical languages from UCLA, being put to good use as a career worker in the water and power industry. Does help me a lot while watching Jeopardy on tv.

Married, no kids (wife had a stroke at age 24), favorite uncle to plenty. Infamous for my tv appearance as a husband on the most x-rated topic to be addressed on the Dr. Phil show ever, 400 hate mail emails on that show's website to prove it.

The vast majority of my game play is solitaire. Love reading (and printing out, and filing) the AAR's on this site. Where possible, I illustrate my files with photos of the battlefield and men and vehicles involved to create living books of other peoples game play.

Just reviewed this thread, and I noticed that if you take my glasses off I'm Enriques's twin brother by another mother. My wife just saw the picture and is laughing.

[waynebaumber]

Hi, My name is Wayne Baumber, brought up in Leicester but now living in Surrey. I am 53 years old. Joined the Royal Air Force and served for 24 years now working for the Metropolitan Police as a communications supervisor.
Like many I started out figure gaming with my main interest being Napoleonic war gaming but also played Micro-Tanks WWII and Modern, started board gaming in about 1979 with the original Squad Leader and then started collecting board games and had many SPI and AH titles. However after my divorce I had to downsize rapidly and really only played ASL from 1995 till Vince Hughes introduced me to PG.
Now remarried I also enjoy reading and all sport (watching now only, though I still do the occasional road race). I am lucky that I have a regular FtF opponent for both PG (Vince) and ASL I also Skype PG which is a great way of meeting and playing people from other countries.
The Llama in my avatar is called Dave, and because you can never have too much of a good thing here is another photo.

   


Click to enlarge if you dare.

PS Enrique your English is good

[Matt W]

I am Matt Ward, living in Richmond, VA for the past 19 years thus breaking a record for living in one town for a period of time (Pittsburgh, PA for 18 years and Amherst, MA for 18 years). If you add all that up you will get 55 years which is right. I have been playing board wargames for 42 years or so starting with the hoary old AH classics and progressing through S&T/SPI and The Gamers, stopping about the time The Gamers sold to MMP as we suddenly had two kids under the age of two and other activities took up my evenings/nights/weekends.

My single most memorable early gaming experience was at a friend's house in winter. We were playing Midway and since we played Midway about 100 times I can't even remember which side I was or who was winning but we looked out and it was snowing like crazy. Once we finished the game there were about six inches on the ground. My friend had a large and decrepit set of naval models, destroyers, cruisers, battleships and carriers. We split the collection in half, took them out into the snow and set up our fleets at opposite ends of the yard and proceeded to have a naval snowball battle. I seem to remember that there were rules of some sort but quite frankly, who cared? It was a ball.

I've been married for 32 years and after a series of medical misadventures for my wife we adopted two lovely triracial girls (white, black and Cherokee). They are now reaching the age where they know so much more than we do that parenting has taken on the aspect of warning the girls about the consequences of their actions and then trying desperately not to say "I told you so" although, of course, we did.

I work in the medical industry in the United States providing business support services to physicians and hospitals (I turn what they do into money, legally) and have done so my entire career in a variety of positions. I travel extensively for business (thus the occassional explosions of small PG scenarios from, say, Airborne) although age and medical conditions (a DVT of all annoying things) may cause me to become a little more tech dependent in the future. I am a Luddite when it comes to technology. I still view what I am doing right now as a version of an electronic typewriter and, although I no longer look for the correction tape I haven't been able to successfully incorporate images into my electronic life. Thus, no picture, for which most would suggest a certain level of thanks is in order.

My gaming has been primarily solo over an extended period of time since my travel and family obligations have been quite disruptive. As I enter into late middle age (the over the hill stage) I find that I can actually carve out some time and have been playing ftf with Hugmenot (Daniel) regularly. I will learn to Skype (and that should cause my children to consider me less of a Neanderthal) over the next year or so.

I came to PG through a sale on APs web site. If I remember correctly it was called the Bulk Man Special and included 30 or so PG games and supplements for $300. It included all of the boxed games in print at that time and many of the supplements. I have kept current with the system since then and have actually picked up most of the out of print items as they have become available (Thanks Kevin!!). I played PanzerBlitz when it came out and enjoyed the level of engagement. When Squad Leader and ASL came out I rebelled at the rule books. I work with plenty of government and insurance company regulations on a daily basis and do not need to be wallowing in hundreds of pages of rules in my leisure activities. Let's face it, when there are on line instructions on how to put together your ASL rules binder(s), something has gone horribly wrong.

[Fenrir]

Ollo, Fellow Panzergrenadieristas!

I lurk unseen most of the time as I have little to say other than a few comments hither and thither.

My Name is Matt Garretson and I haunt 36 1/2 St. in Minneapolis, MN, USA.

I am somewhat of a gaming recluse and really don't game socially. Wargaming is really just an extension of my childhood hobby of playing with plastic toy soldiers. .....Nowadays I also enjoy some history content in my play.

I'm 43 years old and married to a clever and attractive woman that tolerates my hobby and it's odd needs such as a 4' x 8' gaming table that takes up a large portion of our furnished basement and the hundreds of games piled about.

I susbscribe to numerous military history periodicals and read....mostly history....a lot.

I began gaming in 1981 when a chum showed up at my house with Dungeons & Dragons. I was hooked! A few years later Panzer Leader showed up one Christmas and a slowly growing interest in board wargaming was born. Throughout the 1980s I explored Ogre, Car Wars, any of the Microgames I could locate, Battletech, Traveller and later, Warhammer and Warhammer 40K. I was a cook and had limited means so I put my wargaming experience to use and made all of my own "miniatures" for the tabletop wargames by just drawing and painting emblems and designs on cardboard squares and playing the games with 3D terrain....a sort of 2D/3D hybrid. All true minature gamers look upon this with suspicion, but I was able to field massive and diverse armies limited only by my time and paint supply. I still have them all and occasionaly pull them out for a go....

I play PG, GWAS and Infantry Attacks. I really enjoy the small clever games coming from Victory Point Games. The States of Siege series, in particular.... I played Squad Leader for a while and waded through CoI and CoD but no further. ASL seemed obnoxiously expensive and it looked like it was the realm of rules lawyers and plano-wielding OCD patients from where I stood. I play and really enjoy ATS. I think it's a remarkable game engine and I really got into the Berlin game and module. I was thrilled to find a tactical treatment of that apocalyptic urban gotterdammerung. I subscribe to S&T and have a stout collection of back issues/games many, if not most, are unplayed....for now. I also enjoy the small but potent games put out by Minden Games in Panzer Digest.

After 12 years of providing contracted office services specializing in shipping & receiving for corporate customers as an employee of Xerox I was layed off following the recent economic downturn. My lack of college degree and narrow field of experience made the job hunt a somewhat futile search.... After some soul-searching and mid-life crisis-ing I made the radical choice of re-imagining and re-inventing my old career in the Culinary Arts. I'm enrolled at a local Culinary Arts academy and cultivating the mentorship of a few truly remarkable individuals hoping that hard work and sheer moxie will make a career for me. Needless to say, my disposable income for games that cost $50-100 each has dried up. Luckily, I'm one of those fools that pre-ordered hundreds of dollars of games from Avalanche Press over the last 5 or 6 years and hopefully that absurdly slow trickle of incoming games will keep me sated.

I will now resume my lurking......


   

[beast013]

[attachment=46]My name is Kevin Combs and I live in Columbia Maryland. I have been wargaming for over 40 years. I started in 1972 with Afrika Korps and have not turned back. Wargaming/gaming is my passion. During the toast at one of my marriages (divorced three times), my best man summed it up by saying “Kevin has a mistress and her name is wargaming.” How true!

At one time or another, I have played and owned every game Avalon Hill produced. Also played lots of SPI and GDW games as well as others (People’s Wargames, Taurus Games, Battleline, Phoenix Games, etc.). I also do roleplaying games going all the way back to D&D 1st edition (white box) to the current rules as well as Traveller, Call of Cthulhu and others.

One of the games I really loved from Avalon Hill was Panzerblitz - great tactical game. Things got better with Panzer Leader. I kept looking for tactical games to build on but ASL/SL was way too deep for me (actually I think ASL is a way of life)! I came across Panzer Grenadier years ago and thought I found the golden ring. I built on the tactical level of Panzerblitz/Panzer Leader and added more depth and meat without having to have a Ph.D. to play. I sold the game at one point and honestly forgot about the system. A few years ago I read an article on the system and decided to get back into it. I won a 25 module set on eBay and decided to keep expanding. Then I found PGHQ and the rest was history. All of my play to this point has been solo though I am looking for some ftf action at WBC this year.

For work, I am the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services for the State of Maryland. Thanks to the State, I got lots of furlough days the past few years that has allowed me the time to play lots of PG games. The job is busy (we are a 24/7 operation overseeing about 100,000 “customers” between corrections and community supervision) but rewarding at the same, knowing what I do each day makes it safer for the citizens of Maryland.

I have the three best children in the world. My two daughters are in college and my son will start his last year of high school this year. My son games with me as well and love attending conventions with me. We are going to GenCon again this year and he is running his first event with D&D 4th edition. Very proud of him!

I am hoping to expand into more ftf with PG (Matt – I need to get you and Daniel up for a weekend) as well as anything else game related. I found the group to be very helpful and support of the system as well as the hobby. Thanks again Shad for taking the time and energy to put together such a great site.

[Pippers]

I'm somewhere around 38 now. I work in technology doing a little bit of everything for a bank for the past 13 years. When I was knee high I ran into this cool little box that had the word OGRE on the front. It confused me because I knew about Ogres from the AD&D monster manuals, but this had a futuristic tank on the front. I didn't really play games back then, I basically pushed the chits around making up sound effects and looked at the pictures in the books. When the road warrior came out, I got into car wars pretty heavily. Actually played some AD&D with friends when I hit middle school.

Fast forward to this past year when a friend introduced me to the Ghost Stories and Galaxy Trucker board games. Now I'm a bit hooked and decided I needed a hex based wargame to try out. Panzer Grenadier was one that seemed to have the most available from all the different operations and periods of WW2, so I went with that. Glad I did! I really like the mechanics now that I'm getting used to them.

[tlangston28]

Hello All - I am Tony Langston, born in Chicago and living for the last 16 years in Elk Grove Village, IL with my wife and three daughters. I am a consultant at a technology firm, specializing in application development. In addition to wargaming, i enjoy sports and actually still play ice hockey in an over 40 men's league. I am also an amateur home brewer.

I started wargaming at 12 when I walked into a local toy and hobby store and saw the "bookcase" games lining the shelves. I was in awe and bought Panzerblitz (which seems to be the game that most cut their teeth on). through the rest of middle and high school I met friends who played D&D and played the basic and expert and AD&D versions (red and blue box... Does "Isle of Dread" or "Keep on the Borderlands" jog any memories out there...). All the while, i retained my interest in wargames as I was always an avid reader of History. I purchased tons of games, including Squad Leader but only played it once or twice. I played mostly solo at that time so the games that I remember playing alot were games such as Ambush, Patton's Best and RAF (the original). I did have a friend who would play occasionally and we would play Firepower, which was a decent, quick game.

I put the cardboard wargames away for a while and sold off those I figured I would never play again as I got married, tried to build a career and had kids. I would still continue to play microarmor games and medieval miniatures (DBA, DBM, etc) on occasion as these were my 'escape' times as my wife called it.

I did come back to cardboard wargames after I had started cleaning the attic and came across all the old wargames I had. I found my original PanzerBlitz and decided to find if there was anything out there to supplement it - I found two new things instead - Lock N Load and PG. I downloaded the free version of PG, constructed it and played out a scenario and, though not overwhelmed, I did enjoy it. I bought Elsenborn Ridge and played the first scenario and started to realize some of the finer things about the game. I was starting to enjoy it more and was reading about playing via Skype and so my interest was piqued. I put out feelers, along came Vince H. and that is when PG really began to shine. i have played Lock N Load once or twice but I will go with PG if given the choice.

This site is just the icing on the cake and once the forums started, I was hooked.