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

[PaperTiger]

My name is Phil Jose and I'm 54 years old. I live in Florissant, MO, a suburb of St. Louis. After a brief stint in aviation I currently earn my keep at a window factory. I've been married 25 terrific years to my lovely wife Laura.

I've always been interested in history. A good history book or biography has always been some of my favorite reading material.

Over the years, I've often found myself interacting with the past. For about ten years I was an historic reenactor, focusing on the F&I era. During that time I wrote a series of web-based articles on how to get started in reenacting. Shortly before the Lewis and Clark bicentennial I had the honor of leading a local historic preservation group that helped restore the Fort Bellefontaine site. (It was the site of the expedition's very first and last night on the river as well as the first American military fort west of the Mississippi.)

I got interested in wargames durning high school and right after. In those pre-web days it was harder to find likeminded people, so I eventually lost interest.

Then this past January I walked into my local game store with some Christmas money. I found Eastern Front there and picked it up. My first reaction while playing some homemade training drills was "Where've you been all my life?!" I found PG-HQ while playing my very first scenario. Frankly, I'm as happy about finding the PG-HQ community as I am about the game itself.

[zovs]

Hello my name is Don Lazov, I am 46 years old/young and started war gaming back in 1977 at the age of 11 (or about 35 years ago), I served in the US Army from 1987 to 1991, and I have over 500 or so war games (or add on's, mods etc., not including PC war games) to this day. Not sure if you can access this link or not:

My War Game Collection...

I have play-tested and done some scenario design work for PC war games (Matrix Games War in the East and Decision Games CWIE-II as well as some scenarios for Steel Panthers World War II) and done some proofing for both MMP and DG.

I have played a lot of war games in the last three and half decades of gaming, and done everything from the old SPI Sniper single man vs single man to a small one map 100 counters grand strategic WW1 war game as well as SPI's Terrible Swift Sword, Wellington's Victory, Enemy at the Gates, and Afrika, to D-Day from Avalon Hill. But I have always enjoyed the tactical games (and the War in the East/Fire in the East and okay War in Europe, lol) type of games such as Tobruck, PanzerBlitz, Panzer 44, Red Star/White Star, and even Firefight...lol

Currently I mostly only play ASL and I play ASL with one of my sons (I have 3 sons and 2 daughters, but both daughters and the oldest son are moved on out, oldest son is serving in the US Navy overseas) this war gaming son is 16 and has been playing ASL with dad for about 2 years, we play everyday just about (wife left me, lol, yeah it's sad, but never-mind). I downloaded the erules and stuff for PzG a few years ago and almost purchased Airborne for 10 bucks, but if you know ASL, I should have cause its out of print now. I have been playing ASL since about 1986 or 1987 and I got into Squad Leader back in 1979 or 1980 or so.

My other son is 12 and he plays a little ASL.

I found a good site where I ordered Eastern Front Deluxe for 42 bucks so I figured with 8 maps, 800+ counters and 112 scenarios it may be a great place to start and get my son in on it.

This week end I was thinking (and have been thinking about it for a few years) of picking up a rotary cutter, some mat boards and some Avery labels and trying to make some PzG counters and print out of the sample counters and push them around a bit.

Not sure how to add in an avatar on my profile yet.

My trade is a Software Engineer, I have been writing code (now java) since 1995 or so.

I have no idea on how to play PzG.

Lets try a photo, hope it does not scare you way...



anyway I am rambling on now, so where is the next stop?

[Matt W]

Welcome Don,

I think I saw your note on CSW as well. Elsenborn Ridge is a great starting point. It has a wide mix of scenarios and troops. More importantly, as a boxed game it includes everything you need. Many of the supplements pull from a number of games. The HQ makes it very clear which supplements require which games by scenario. As a possible addition to the starting point I might suggest War on the Equator. It is only six scenarios but it focuses on a unique subject and can be purchased from Avalanche as a DYI pdf which makes the cost minimal. I would strongly suggest that rather than just the free scenarios on the web site. In War on the Equator you get a wide variety of situations with nearly all arms shown.

PG is an easy game to get into as the rule set is compact. This does not mean that every rule is intuitive but it does play well and has a surprising amount of depth for the sparsity of the rules.

With over 1,700 scenarios published to date there are a number of majorly unbalanced scenarios but the ones that are out of balance are easily noted through the HQ or through the scenario descriptions themselves. Many will play well solo but not ftf and vice versa; again look at the AARs on the HQ as this is often mentioned as a factor in the description.

Many of the people who frequent the HQ play via Skype or other on line applications (I am to date a Luddite but hope springs eternal) and would be glad to work with someone new to the system.

Again welcome and happy gaming - and don't forget to log your plays!!!

[vince hughes]

Hi,
I am Vince Hughes and now reside in a village near Rochester in Kent, England, but I am originally from South-East London. I have no idea how long I have been 'officially' wargaming ? Started off with my first box of Airfix soldiers when I was 5 years old, so that’s 1969, although the battles then simply involved flicking marbles across the Living Room floor with each side getting a turn each ! In 1974, a friend on the council estate I lived on then with my Grandparents brought home a book from the library by Donald Featherstone simply called 'Wargaming' or some such. It had simple rules in there for a few periods (Ancients, Napoleonics, American Civil War and WWII ). This set me off and running with tape measures and dice. At 11 years old (1975 or thereabouts) I was introduced to either Panzerblitz or Panzerleader. Didn't take to it too well, and 'binned' board gaming for a while having had a bad start. However, a year later, the same mate and some others got me into 'Kingmaker' and suddenly board games did not seem so bad. At 13 years old (1977) I was shown Squad Leader and hooked into that big time. To me, it was the ultimate game and dispensed with the need for WW2 figures. I bought all the following modules and extra scenarios, making sure I had the complete collection. By the time GI Anvil of Victory came out, I was off to serve in the British Army before I could get into it.

I served 4 years in the Army as a Military Policeman and had some of the greatest times of my life, and as such things seem to go, some of the worst times too !! Those that have served will understand that I'm sure. However, when I was not on night duty, I tended to spend my time OUT socialising, drinking, wenching and all things 'entertainment'. One of the locations I served was the biggest British Military town, Aldershot. Whilst there (in 1985 I think), I spotted a local wargames shop called Esdevium Games. Low and behold, the all-new promised 'streamlined' ASL was now for sale. Snapping it up, I made my way back to barracks to break it out, the box-game Beyond Valour and the ASL Manual keenly grasped. The box contents certainly seemed exciting when I rustled through them. But imagine my extreme disappointment when I checked out the rulebook. Sacre Bleu…. Despite many attempts, I never got through it and this basically spelt the end of most of my wargames right up until around 2007/8. I immersed myself in solo sports replay games instead, but did do the occasional 6mm Napoleonic or ACW battle.

From the Army, I joined London's Metropolitan Police in 1988 and served pretty much as a patrolling constable for most of my career. However, in 2006 I think it was, I went to the main communications centre. Whilst there, I met Wayne Baumber who comes here, and it is he ho can be credited getting me back into wargames. I tried an ASL starter kit battle with him. It was OK, but I knew there would still be too much to learn. It was in 2008 I discovered PG and showed it to Wayne and…………...…………... Here we are !

Amongst all this, I have played AH games, GDW.
In the non wargaming World, I am married and have a 15 year old daughter I am extremely proud of. The Mrs accepts all my gaming and has never been one of those that has tried to rein in any of my gaming time. She's been brilliant on that. We travel around Europe quite a lot and have some spanking good holidays. I should be retiring from the police in 3 years and will hopefully do some part time work and then…. Well, it'll be a gaming and gardening frenzy.

Finally, I have managed ftf, skype and email games with the following PG players (those in italics I have had the joy of meeting). Wayne Baumber (Surrey), Alan Sawyer (Mass), John Legan (Ill), Joshua Gottesman (Nev), Joe Oppenheimer (Ca), Tony Langston (Ill), Shad (China), Joe Ladd (US and Morocco), Keith Plymale (NC), Alan Rhodes (Herts). There have been a couple of others but they are not really known well to the PG crew. My next targets are Daniel (hugmenot) and Matt W. I believe Daniel may get a game on with me soon.

Outside PG another hobby of mine is travelling Europe to sample beer and food !

Munich, Leuven, Lake Constance and Langenau !                

[plloyd1010]

Since I am being frequently addressed by my user name, perhaps it is time to do a small introduction.

My name is Peter Lloyd, 52 years old. I live in Longmont, Colorado, and have been in the Boulder Valley area for 40 years. Incidentally, those are the same 40 years that I have been wargaming. I'm married, with 2 daughters, one of whom is a big a history geek as I am.

I read a lot, mostly I think it is because I'm just curious. That would probably explain my job too. On the other hand, perhaps to see the absurdity of the past play out in present, history shows you that too. I'm a lab rat for Polycom, the guys who make that funny triangular conference phone. Actually I am a rather well paid lab rat, who has managed to avoid the management trap for better than 15 years. I'm in the engineering lab of the enterprise wireless group.

I seem to have become the PG-HQ G2 officer, despite only being a PFC. I play with PG as much as I play the game, so I don't expect to advance very fast, but I will have a lot of fun not doing it. The PG-HQ is my own invention, but it fits and Andrew doesn't seem to mind.

When I am not playing PG, or another game (I have 100's), I hike, roam with the family, fiddle with peculiar gadgets, or shoot defenseless critters (small game hunting). My favorite comics are Calvin & Hobbes and Non Sequitor. I don't like cheap beer, or my pizzas too gooey. I'd give you a picture, but the ones I have don't have me in them.

[J6A]

Let me join the crowd. I'm Joshua Gottesman and I'm 50 years old (for the next 31 days, at any rate). Way back when, my ex-wife was in a cosplay group and whenever I'd enter the room, they'd all yell out "Joshuaaaaaa" with a very long "ah" sound. So, for a while my internet name was Joshuaaaaaa. After a while, I got tired of typing that all out, and shortened it to J6A, which is also sometimes JaySix or JaySixA or just J6. So, there's the origin. By trade I'm a CPA although these days I do more consulting than CPA work, and especially enjoy "CFO-to-go" situations.

When I was about 14, I was over at my cousin's house and he had a copy of Tactics II set up. I was instantly fascinated by it. It also turns out he was college roommates with Brad Hessel, then working for SPI. So, I learned more about the hobby and decided I wanted in. My first game was a choice between 1914 and Afrika Korps, the only 2 in the gift shop near my house where I was going to buy a game. While I knew I'd have to get the Nazi issue past my parents (being Jewish, they always frowned upon overtly German stuff, so I never owned Panzerblitz or Luftwaffe or Bismarck, among others), I was really taken by the storyline cover of Afrika Korps and got that game. Who knows if I would have even stayed in the hobby if I had started with 1914. I loved it, and from there I purchased Blitzkrieg and Richtofen's War (I don't remember which was #2 and which was #3) and a lifelong hobby was born.

Eventually, I fell in with the Avalon Hill crowd through some friends. I was in the AH Football Strategy league for a bunch of years as the Chiefs, and started doing playtesting and blindtesting for AH. I hung out with the guys (I was the junior member of the group), went on Las Vegas junkets with them, and helped out in the office sometimes. We used my house for playtesting, as I had a big ping pong table and we could leave stuff set up for months. However, in 1994 I moved to the DC area and started seeing them less frequently, and in 1995 I moved to New Jersey and barely gamed at all. In fact, I was convinced that computer games were going to totally supplant board games and before I moved out to Las Vegas in late 1996 I sold off the majority of my collection. More of it got sold after I moved here and I did virtually no gaming until 2004. That year, my ex and I went to Gencon and I saw that the hobby still existed. My first purchase back in was AP's Soldier Kings, although I ultimately never played that. I also picked up Settlers of Catan because a friend had told us how neat it was...and then, never played it. I found boardgame geek then, and saw someone had posted about Las Vegas gaming and sent him a geekmail. However, soon thereafter my ex had some serious health problems and I forgot about gaming again. In 2007, for unknown reasons, I googled Don Greenwood. I think it was just a matter of "I wonder what he's doing these days", and the google search took me to his listing on BGG. Lo and behold, I had a geekmail or 2 waiting from the guy I had written to in 2004. It turned out he lived about 3 miles from me and was still gaming with a regular group on Saturday mornings. He invited me over, and I quickly became part of the group. However, my marriage was in the process of collapse, and from late 2007 until mid-2008 I was an emotional wreck and barely showed up. These guys were almost exclusively Euro gamers, so I still wasn't wargaming. One of them told me about a game group at the local shop, and I went over there with him one evening. There were maybe 8 boardgamers there, playing Euros (as an aside, we now get 20+ every week, and may soon hit 30). As I'm perusing the shelves, I decide that I want to do more wargaming again. I missed it. They had a copy of EFD on the shelves, and it looked really neat. Plus, with 100+ scenarios, I knew it would keep me busy for a while. I bought it and instantly thought it was cool, although, being me, I didn't play a lot. However, it started me on the road back into wargaming and into AP, and from then on out I started collecting (among other things), PG, GWaS and SWWaS. I played a lot in 2009, then got busier with the Euro guys and getting back into train games, and mostly put it aside. AP's troubles also put me off a bit in 2010/2011, so I was mentally boycotting them. However, this year I forgave them and have been playing a lot more PG, and really enjoy it and see no reason to stop anytime soon!

So now, I'm still single (and looking), living with my dog and 2 cats. My house is really bigger than I need, however it gives me the luxury of having a dedicated game room. I can generally keep the cats out of that. I also do gaming on my dining room table, however that often gets destroyed by cats, so I mostly do short things there.

[Memenne]

Hi,

I am Manu, 44 years, living in Brussels, Belgium.
I am a freelance copywriter.

I play wargames for years. Mainly Advanced Squad Leader.

I discovered PG a the very beginning, with the first module (I still have it). But I had no player to play with. So, no play.
Then I began playing ASL. And PG stayed in the dust of a cellar.
But one day I decided to give it another chance. And, by chance, I have a friend who's interested. And we go ! We have a few modules and supplements, and we try to play each week (but it's more every two weeks ).

The most difficult for me is to stop thinking ASL when playing PG, and to understand how PG must be played. I should go in a wargame club here in Brussels to play with veterans (one of them is Philippe Léonard, creator of Fall of France). That should help !

Anyway, I'm having fun and that is the most important, isn't it ?

Cheers,
Manu

PS : please apologize for my english : I think I do a massacre each time I write something...

[Hugmenot]

Bienvenue Manu! Tu peux toujours m'envoyer un message privé si jouer un scénario via Skype est quelque chose qui t'intéresse.

Daniel

[tlangston28]

Welcome Manu!

This is a great site for PG and loads of help when you are learning/playing. You can get more opponents if you are willing to play via Skype (as Daniel has invited you to do).

Don't worry about your English - its fine. I have seen written memos and business letters here ("here" being in the USA, not this site) that give a whole new meaning to the word massacre!

Welcome, Again!

Tony

[armyduck95]

Hello Everyone. My name is Eric Duckworth. I began wargaming when I was about 9 and had my plastic Army Guys "Guns of Navarrone" battle set. I set up the terrain and used monopoly dice with basically 50/50 chances of hitting as the Yanks tried to storm the fortress. I also got involved in D&D in middle school, but couldn't keep a gaming group going.

My first REAL wargame was Victory Games' Sixth Fleet in the late 80's. I sat for two days and read the rules and played each escalating scenario from basic rules to campaign games. I was hooked. Soon after it was NATO: Next War in Europe, AH's Third Reich, Battletech, Arab Israeli Wars, and The Original Squad Leader. I played almost entirely solo through high school.

In the 90's joined the Army at 17 and soon after high school attended West Point, where I was able to thoroughly enjoy gaming through a dedicated wargame club of cadets and officers. Here I was introduced to miniature games - Ancients, Napoleonic, WWI, WWII, and modern tactical and skirmish games (DBA, firefly, MBT, Firefight, Firepower, Challenger, rule sets). I also enjoyed Sci-Fi (OGRE, Battletech, and Renegade Legion: Centurion- which I still love). I also played and enjoyed Squad Leader very much an a host of other games, to include GDW- Frank Chadwick Games and Supremacy. However, I swore I would never play Games Workshop (I eat those words later).

In the late 90's I acquired ASL and became very intimidated and bored with the rules, no matter how much I tried to love the system- it was just not playable enough to be able to game quickly. I played Sci Fi miniatures with (Ground Zero Games' Dirtside II), and then got hooked on the very playable Games' Workshop- Epic 40K. That was my gateway drug from about 1998-2007 where I picked up Warhammer Fantasy (Lizardmen) and Warhammer 40 (Imperial Guard) and played that almost exclusively because of the ease to find partners, and support.

I worked for Games Workshop for a year when I left the Army and my Imperial Guard Army has won various painting awards. In 2008 I pretty much turned in my GW playing due to cost and frustration with how much/often the rules changed to help GW generate a profit (I can't blame them). I met a fellow gamer who introduced me to Panzer Grenadier. White Eagles Fortress Poland was my first game and I was hooked. While in Korea last year I joined pg-hq through Avalanche Press and started playing by email with some pg-hq members as well as by Skype with Alan Sawyer.

I love the simplicity of the PzG rules that still capture the essence of WWII tactical combat combined arms and leadership. It has all the flavor SL without the tedium, and more realism than Panzer Leader. I have since rebuilt my boxed game collection. My two staples are Panzer Grenadier and Lock n Load for the squad level games as well as their modern modules. I have The Gamers' OCS series, but haven;t found the time to play, aswell as with with SWWAS, GWAS, and a few GMT titles.

In real life, I am a US Army Armor Cavalry Officer and General Staff planner with multiple tours in Iraq and Korea. I love military history and science fiction. I am married 12 years now to my wonderful wife and we have a 4 year old son. I am known for being long winded in my AARs; and been awarded for it. I have since had to put gaming on the back burner until I get settled in to my new house and job and make up for some lost time with my family.