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

[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.