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

[Coniglius]

Hi guys,

My name is Louis Coniglio (call me Lou please) and I am new to the PG-HQ.

I live in Spring Hill, FL (a little north of Tampa on the Gulf Coast) with my wife and kids (all daughters... no gamers there). I work in the IT industry as a Service Manager and I am also a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy Reserve. I just went past 20 back in November, and I have a lingering back issue which I incurred during a tour on the ground in Afghanistan. That retirement package is starting to look better and better each day!!!!

I've been gaming in one way or another since 1980 (age 10). My Dad took me to a miniatures show in Chester, PA and I was in absolute awe. He started me off painting some old Hinchliffe 25mm French Napoleonics. My first games were Column, Line and Square, The Sword and the Flame, and D&D. My first army was Ral Partha British and Zulus which he bought for me in 1983 after I won a scholarship to a private High School.

It was probably around 1984 when I got around to investigating all those old Avalon Hill boxed games he had on the shelf. We would end up playing many battles of D-Day, Afrika Korps, Waterlooo, Gettysburg, etc.. I also went to my first Historicon in 1984 where I was introduced to Squad Leader. From there, I went through all the SL modules, then Panzer Blitz, Panzer Leader, Arab-Israeli Wars and many more AH and SPI titles.

I got heavily involved in GDW's Command Decision in the early 90's (CD, Over The Top, Combined Arms) which brought me into the GDW camp for several years. While CD satisfied the miniatures craving ( I was an ace recon player) other GDW board games caught my interest. I got into the Assault series, Air Superiority, and the big one: Europa. I was heavily engaged in all things Europa for many years, almost entirely forgetting my Avalon Hill roots. It wasn't until about 1998, while deployed to the Submarine base in Groton, CT that I got back into AH games. A local game shop, The Citadel, had a regular group that played ASL. Once again I was hooked on the small unit action games.

I guess it was around 2002, while working in NYC, that I wandered into the Complete Strategist, a long standing gaming store in Manhattan. I bought my first PG title there: Afrika Korps. I was told that it was 'Panzer Blitz all grow up' and that if I liked the old AH titles, then I would really enjoy this. I was a bit skeptical because I was going through my ASL and Europa phase, but I tried it and I have to say, I loved it!!!

For the longest time, I only owned the core PG titles (Eastern Front, RTB, HotSU, Desert Rats, Afrika Korps and Airborne). I found a few of the cheap scenario mods on Ebay, but then I struck gold and found a lot on Ebay that would bring my collection to around 50 titles!!! Now that I am salivating at the prospect of so many potential games, I have come to this site in search of opponents and camaraderie.
I really hope some of you would be interested in PBEM or some other type of remote play. I see a couple guys live not too far away in Jacksonville, Lakeland, Clearwater so maybe there is opportunity for FtF play as well.

Wow, my intro is long!!! Ok, time to sign off. Thank you for having me and I look forward to meeting some of you and gaming with lots of you!!! ~Lou (The Chief)