Hi there and a big "Welcome" from the staff here at StrategyCore!

Below you'll find more information on some of the staff members you might have seen pottering about the site or chatting away on the forums.

We've listed some basic details here for you, but if you want to know a little bit more about our interests and hobbies, click the "More Info" link at the end of each introduction!

If you'd like to get in touch with a particular member of staff and have signed up as a member (it's free!) of the site or its forums, you can contact us by clicking on our names below and sending us a Personal Message (PM). If you're not a member and would still like to get in touch, click the Contact button on the menu at the top of the page and we'd be happy to hear from you!

Core Administrators

Pete Staff Role: Site Creator & Webmaster Real Name: Peter Burlingham Occupation: Web/Graphic Designer

Hi there, my name's Pete and I'm from northwest England where it's pretty much always cold and mostly raining!

I'm self taught in the area of design and pick up most of my ideas from playing about with Photoshop and Dreamweaver as well as from good tutorial sites like... err... Good-Tutorials.com

I started building my X-COM site - X-COM.co.uk about five years ago now in an effort to drag all the X-COM information into one place. Five years later there's still a lot of work to do to get there, but we've got a nice new site and a huge community of strategy gamers supporting us now so it's still really interesting work after all this time!

When I'm not tinkering about with this site, I'll be in front of my TV watching DVD's or reading a good Discworld book. Occasionally my girlfriend will get me out of the house for the odd meal or night out on the town which is always a laugh.

Upcoming projects I'm working on are a complete rewrite of The Last Outpost, branching out to cover a lot more than just games, and I'm also working sporadically on getting a Discworld fansite up and running. I'll keep everyone posted on both of those

Slaughter Staff Role: Site Co-Creator & Webmaster Real Name: Olav Lognvik Occupation: Economy Student

My name is Olav, and I currently reside in a city called Stavanger, Norway. I have studied computer science, and am currently studying economics. Studies are mostly an excuse to do the things I enjoy, like running this site. I started running UFOAftermath.co.uk for Pete in March 2003 and liked it a lot. Then, at some point in 2004 we decided we wanted to expand. In February 2005 we started moving content from X-Com.co.uk, UFOAftermath.co.uk and S2HQ.com into this site. We're quite happy with how the new site has turned out!

Besides running this site, I am very fond of Books, Games, Music and P&P RPGs. Below I'll list some of my favourites, though not all. Too many to be listed really. I also like to go out for a beer or 10, and to bitch over politics and morale. That's about it I guess.

Bomb Bloke Staff Role: Smiley Admin & Forum Moderator Real Name: Jeffrey Alexander Occupation: Call Centre Op

I'm one of those guys who have an unnatural ability with computers. This may have something to do with my programming experience (starting at the age of 10), or perhaps curiosity (which sometimes has me poking around inside electrical appliances without waiting for them to be turned off). Found the world of forums about five years ago, and quickly bumped into XTCF (which is one of the sites that is now StrategyCore). I'm not sure what I do around here, aside from bugging Pete to give me admin rights whenever I lose them.

Interests? I'm not sure what doesn't interest me... Oh, that's right, cricket.

Accounting Troll Staff Role: Forum/Site Administrator and Aftermath Fan Fic Moderator Real Name: Mark Reynolds Occupation: See Username D.O.B. 1976

I live in a small town in the Usk valley in Wales. It is so remote that a pub on the outskirts of the village has put a sign up that lists the turnpike charges (I wish I was making this up). The main highlight of the local social calender is the May Day duck race.

My hobbies include astronomy, fish keeping, walking in the local countryside and writing low quality UFO AM/AS fanfiction. I'm also quite interested in history and archaeology.

My favourite authors include John Wyndham and Terry Pratchett. My favourite music includes Petula Clark, ABBA, Enigma, Sibelius and JS Bach.

If anybody was wondering, I picked my username before I found out what a troll is in forum speak. Oh well...

Zombie Staff Role: Forum/Site Administrator and X-COM Moderator Real Name: Dettmar Behm Occupation(s): Student, landscape designer/horticulturist/florist, painter, handyman extraordinaire

From my name you may guess that I’m from Germany. Alas, you would only be partially right. I was born in the United States, and my German father named me after a (famous?) soccer player. I currently reside in an upper-Midwest city named Sheboygan, which is located between Green Bay and Milwaukee along the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan in the state of Wisconsin.

At present, I am studying to become a chemist and work a few jobs to pay the bills.

My interests are large and very diverse. Physical fitness is important so I take pleasure in mountain biking to work almost every day (weather permitting), and frequently take long walks. On occasion I play soccer, basketball and volleyball, and like to run down a tossed Frisbee too. Listening to music and reading help to pass the rainy days, and tinkering with everything from toasters to computers fills those otherwise empty voids. Did I mention that I like playing X-COM? These days it’s more for business than pleasure though.



I became a member of the old XTC site in January 2004, but visited fairly often before that time. After joining, I fit right in and enjoyed sharing my research with everyone. My interest only grew in this website after the merge and I somehow felt accountable for its future. Current responsibilities at StrategyCore include: site administration, providing content, researching, and moderating when necessary.

Core Staff

Azrael Staff Role: Forum Moderator and General Game expert Real Name: Matías Laíno Occupation: Computer Engineering student

Hey, my name is Matías, and I am from Montevideo, Uruguay.

What to say about myself? I'm currently studying to become a computer engineer, or trying to, at least. I joined StrategyCore in 2004, after the Merge, though I think I recall visiting the old X-COM.co.uk long ago, and lurked for many months until I got dragged into the site by the community and eventually decided to grow roots on the place.

I'm also a member of Project Xenocide, open source project to recreate X-Com using new technologies; been a member there since 2004 as well, joined the Creative Text Department and became its leader in 2005, deciding to resign in 2006.

I like a good science-fiction book, being Isaac Asimov one of my all times favourites; I can read anything written by that man! From history essays to robot tales. Medieval fantasy is also amongst my preferred genres, I'm very fond of the Forgotten Realms books, with R.A. Salvatore's books being on top of my list.

Games? I enjoy a good strategy game, of course, but I also like to play some FPS from time to time, especially when I don't feel like thinking. My top strategy games are probably X-Com: Apocalypse and Master of Orion II.

baby arm Staff Role: News Poster Real Name: Jason Konoske Occupation: Jazzercise Instructor

They say that on muggy summer nights, if you climb a certain hill in Southern California and utter the phrase "Magical Taco Bandit" 3 times in a row while spritzing yourself with grapefruit juice, he may present himself to you. He will have the appearance of 30-something year old man, with a shuffling gait and an intimidating beard. He may be muttering to himself about "those damn ignorant monkeys" and have a battered 'Arcanum' manual clutched tightly in his hands. Be calm, don't approach him. Let his senile mind become aware of you naturally, without causing undue alarm. Then his eyes will meet yours and you will think/feel "At last I know True Peace. At last I Understand."

But whatever you do, don't loan him any money. Trust me on this.

Crazy Gringo Staff Role: Forum Moderator and General Game expert Real Name: Peter Nygaard Nick: Crazy Gringo or CG for short. Occupation: Building constructor aka the glue/mainstay of the building/construction industry/business.

Peter is the name and I have tried and done quite a bit in my 30-ish year long long life.

The latest major thing in my life was moving to Malmö, Sweden last summer.
It was an idea that had been lingering for a couple of years because the grass seemed greener over there. But I kept my job in Denmark as a buillding constructor so the ties to the motherland is in no way servered.

Of previous job experiences I can mention working as a postal worker, warehouse worker in a wine company and installing office landscapes.

I have also been through the education mill spanning from a technical high-school degree in machining which was expanded with a high-school degree in business around a first semester in computer something (called datamatiker back in 1994/1995) which I left due to boredom and onward to my study to become a building constructor.

Therefore I do consider myself a jack-of-all-trades even if I do excel in the area of computers hardware and problemsolving wise where I am a self-made man (coding is for the orderly creative where I am chaotic creative).

I did my tour of duty in the danish armed forces as a panzer infantry man and learned a bit about tactical warfare and combat which skills I developed further through playing those kind of games (Steel Panthers, Panzer General, Jagged Alliance and so on).

I joined the ufoaftermath.co.uk forum back in 2003 and after a period of inactivity resurfaced in Strategycore when I got my hands on the first Silent Storm. I do play lots of games and do have quite the collection of some 100+ games ranging from turnbased tactical/strategic to 1st/3rd person shooters. I do prefer RPG-style games with a scope of epic proportions even if some general anti-social behaviour sometimes sneaks in depending on my mood.

DragonHawk Staff Role: Forum Moderator Real Name: Derrick Ko Occupation: Technical Coordinator

Hi, I'm Derrick Ko, also known on the internet as DragonHawk.  I hail from the Great White North; I reside in Guelph, a relatively small city west of Toronto in Canada.  I graduated in 2004 and am currently employed in Guelph as a technical coordinator with RWDI's exhaust re-entrainment group.  It's pretty neat here, an interesting mix of practicality and theory.

I've been a long time member of the community, from way back in the X-Com Tactical Command days.  I joined the boards in the summer of 2001, and have become heavily involved with the X-Com Alliance Sim and E-mail X-Com.  For StrategyCore, my duties will involve more content-related items with regards to X-Com games, and possible help for the UFO AM folks if they need it.

Other than tactical squad-based gaming, I enjoy other forms of gaming.  Smaller scale gaming such as BattleTech and Heavy Gear is more my taste (though it's harder to find players), and I also play larger scale games such as Warhammer.  Traditional games of strategy are also on my list of interests, including weiqi, xiangqi, and chess.  In terms of physical activity, my greatest love is airsoft, though I also like martial arts, skiing, and paintball.  One will notice that gaming or support thereof comprises a great deal of my time.  

That's all I've got for now.  If you've got any ideas for X-Com-related content, feel free to contact me.  

FullAuto Staff Role: Moderator & X-COM Fan Fic Admin Real Name: Geoff Byers Occupation: None, unless you count writing.

I'm an Aries () and at the moment I'm living in Doncaster, in the UK.  I got as far as the first year of a degree, and studied English Literature, Psychology, Sociology and Law before that.  I joined X-Com.co.uk about two years ago and have recently been elevated to the near-Godhood of Staff.  My main area of expertise is X-Com fanfic, and if I can't help you on that subject I'll be able to find someone who will.

Apart from crass lowbrow humour, I enjoy books, comics, films, games and music, learning to play bass guitar (again) and writing.  My girlfriend keeps me properly ventilated  by dragging me out anytime I start looking like I'm becoming stuck to the computer.
I write a lot of stuff, including X-Com fanfic for this site and articles for The Last Outpost.

Gimli Staff Role: Forum Moderator Real Name: Lucijan Stamac (don't bother trying to pronounce) Nickname: Gimli (LeGib) Occupation: Computer science student

Once upon a time, there was a little boy living in a country in war, who sometimes went to his dad's office. At one occasion he was introduced to a character in white pants and gray hair which was supposed to be a prince (sure didn't look like one) on a flickering screen in the office. This prince could run around, jump, hang from walls, fall from loose floor, get pierced by spikes and cut in half by a guillotine if you pushed certain keys on the keyboard. He could meet other characters who wore strange hats named turbans. They, however, were not too friendly, and tried to stab the character with a sword. Luckily, the prince could pull a sword out of nowhere, and then the guys with turbans would regret not having better manners. Although there was this really fat guy, who didn't get intimidated by your sword, and there were skeletons which just wouldn't fall. There was also the Vizier who was really good at sword fighting and it took real sword-mastery to beat him. Oh and there was that reflection/shadow/whatever, but the boy never figured out how to beat it (PM him if you do). From that moment the little boy was hooked, and it all went downhill. He has played many, many games, often at the expense of his duties and social life, and still doesn't regret it.

Right now I am studying at the FER (Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), which is a part of the university in Zagreb, Croatia, a small country on the Adriatic Sea. I am studying for a degree in Computer Science, most likely programming in any of its forms, from the low level assembler programming (hooray for registers, DMA, IRQ and multiplying numbers by the method of repeated adding – it sounds worse than it really is) to Pascal, C etc. At the time of writing this I have just finished the second year, and am going with great expectations into the third. I mostly spend my time at the PC now, and am in bad need of getting into shape. This is in the free time, everything else is studying. Apart from that, I like everything young people like, music, books, movies etc. I am also a big football fan, though I don't get to watch it much lately. Sometimes I go to the local derby which looks like mayhem – just imagine some 30 000 sweaty, drunk fans yelling and supporting their club and you'll get the picture. If you see him staring intensely at a random point, he is most likely thinking about video games. Or women. Or school. I also have my own country called MyRoom. It is not widely recognized, but I am lobbying with certain powerful parties. I also have an Elite Ninja Squad. That's pretty much it.

(No Avatar)

Gomisan Staff Role: Forum Moderator Name: Travis Young Nick: Gomisan (aka Gomi, Biggles, Bigglesan) Occupation: IT Administrator

Hi, I'm Travis, or better known on the web as Gomisan. I lead a fast life of websites, games, and beer. I live in a crappy rented house with my 2 cats, Rogue (as in trooper) and Neuromancer, and my girlfriend Nicole. By day I work at a secondary college where I look after around 1200 users and over 300 computers. I'm a bit of a hoarder, so my place is the place to come if some obscure piece of hardware/cables/driver is needed, and that's where the name comes from to, Gomi is junk, or garbage in Japanese.

I live in Adelaide, Australia if you ever want to hunt me down  I'm into all sorts of things, a read a LOT, everything from Biggles books to William Gibson. Mostly Sci-Fi and fantasy. I also collect DVDs, computer games and anything else that strikes my fancy. Though I'm probably too old to be playing with some of the toys I buy.

I've been involved in a number of fan sites, including Gomi's I76 Junkyard, and a GTA site (yes the first one) which both clocked up around a million visitors, not bad going back in the days before the big gaming network sites. More recently I started The Gaming Lounge (on the back burner now) and a little site for a top game called Silent Storm, S2HQ. That's how I got mixed up in this lot. A massive bill from my hosting company and it needed a new home, where better than under the wing of this fantastic website.

Kret Staff Role: Forum Moderator Name: Jason Rodrigo Nick: Kret (Short for Kretoxiano, Kretine or Killer Reticulan; whichever you preffer) Occupation: IT Administrador (I think)

'Lo people, I'm Jason, 27 and live in Spain, at the Mediterranean coast side of it, though no one would believe it from the lack of tan on me. Most things I do, being work or hobbies are computer related. While I like to find out about the technical side of the workings of software and games I hate it when people ask me questions on the line "How do you do 'this' in 'application'?" in a manner like I'm actually supposed to know the answer.

Give me a broken electrical device and I'll take it apart for you... What? You thought I was going to fix it?
While I find myself entertained when finding a solution to a problem I enjoy it more to find the reason behind the problem in the first place

That's all you get from me, I might expand this some day, but other things are calling.

NKF(not NFK and in no way affiliated with said naughty person) Staff Role: X-COM Expert Real Name: Norman Floyd Occupation: Court Registrar

I am, well, an X-Com fan. I haven't actually played the games in years, but I still stick around. No idea why, and no idea how long I'll stay. But, I'm here now, and that's what's important.

As of writing this, I'm a 25 year old bachelor of information systems (although my forte is computer science) - fresh out of university and unfortunately without a job related to said degree, but I am working as a court registrar at a local court house until I can find something suitable.

For 20 of my miserable years of existence, I lived in Malaysia. Born and raised there, coincidentally. The last five have been spent in Auckland, New Zealand. I miss the food.

My hobbies... well, I play computer games. That's a given. Then I like to collect toys, Legos and Transformers, mainly, if they are appealing and aren't too expensive (although I've gone off Legos since they replaced the Space series with Star Wars (I wanted an A-Wing, incidentally), and the Technic sets are now plastic versions of Meccano). I like to doodle on bits of paper, although I've been in a bit of an artist block for the last year, with the exception of thousands of microscopic and unfinished sketches on post it notes. Then my other passion is to read books. What genres? Well, all sorts, if they're good. But I mainly focus on sci-fi, fantasy and humour - preferably all bundled together (Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, its spinoffs and a few other series he's written tend to fit this bill just nicely). Because I like reading stories, I would also like to write stories, or at least learn how to write good some day. My really geeky hobby is programming, but I'm not all that good at it. I'm a bit of a DVD collector too. Mainly comedies and movies I liked. Cartoons too, be they of eastern or western origin. I grew up on giant robots, but I'm not shy to a bit of fantasy or contemporary themes.

My background-hobby is to listen to music. Like most other things, I have no particular taste in music genre as long as it's catchy and it sounds good. Could be a western or a hip hop techno death metal ballad done entirely with tea spoons for all I care. If I don't like it, I don't like it. Simple as that. Mind you, I also don't like to actually listen to the lyrics of most songs. It kind of ruins everything once you realise what it is they're actually singing about.

I won't get into specifics about my hobbies and elaborate on everything, or else it would take me all night, and the evenings are the only time I get to live my life these days, so, um, yes, I guess that should do

mike9o Staff Role: Official StrategyCore Interviewer Real Name: Mike Nino Occupation: Product Planning Manager

Mike Nino has conducted a number of interviews for StrategyCore over the past few years. He has been into PC gaming since the late 80's and prefers empire building (Civ & its space-based brethren) and squad based combat games (X-Com, Jagged Alliance, UFO:A). Besides gaming, he enjoys reading science fiction and history, especially alternative history which blends the two genres. Mike pays the bills by working for an Asian car distributor but plans on a second career in the PC gaming industry. His ultimate goal is to create a game based on alternative history. He lives in sunny Southern California where both E3 and the new E! for Everyone conventions are located.

Space Voyager Staff Role: Staff Member Name: Gregor Gradišar Nick: Space Voyager Occupation: An official (spare me the comments)

My friends in Slovenia usually call me Grega, which is a short version of Gregor in our country. My education is a geodesy engineer, but circumstances led me into more academic waters. While my job remains linked to geodesy I'd love to have more field - surveying - experiences.

The love for space I have is more or less limited to daydreaming, reading science fiction and playing games. And having this childish nick (made it up as a child, long before I knew I'll need it). Watching a star through a telescope isn't my thing, I would rather go there. That doesn't stop me from watching the night sky and wondering.
I have this great idea about doing some SF writing of my own, but reading and games (ok, mostly the latter) take away far too much of my free time. I'll get to it eventually. When I grow up I guess. I hoped this would happen when I turn 30 but I didn't see any significant difference.

Frankly I don't even remember how I found Strategy Core or what its name was back in the year… 1999? 2000? 2001? All I know is that I was searching for anything X-COM related and stumbled upon the site. I kept visiting and joined in 2002. I was never one of the most active members but I wasn't able to leave either. And if I can't leave I might as well lend a hand…

One of the biggest revelations of my life was when I found out I'm not a fanatic in any way. I thought I was the biggest Tolkien fan because I read The Hobbit more than 30 times - than I saw some people join clubs and dress up like dwarves or what they think dwarves should dress like.
I thought I was in love with Star Wars. Than I found Star Wars forums and saw the real fanatics.
I thought I was an X-COM fanatic. And found Strategy Core. You can guess the rest.
So you see I'm quite a moderate guy, nothing special really.

The Veteran Staff Role: Forum Moderator Name: TJ Munt Occupation: Striving for internet access, nagging for people to write in the fics...

Hey I'd like to say everyone knows me but I've been missing a lot of the goings on here lately (Whatever happened to XTC by the way?!) Anyway I've been here for a heck of a long time now and I'm still hanging in on the fringes somewhere so I'm not that easily disposed of!

I'm 20 now and in the Royal Air Force over in good old Blighty here but my incarceration unfortunately means I don't get much internet access. I like buying cars breaking them then buying new ones but hopefully I'm nearing a point when they'll all be working again very soon! I'm not going to list favourite films/books/movies; that's a waste of precious fanfic space and you need your heads clear to think up that next post!

As far as the Core goes I'm pretty die hard so I only really come here for the XCom games, especially the old ones. I love the fics here but they've been moving very slowly recently! hint hint... I'm part of a similarly slowly progressing fan game XCom 6 - Colonisation but we'll all be old and grey before that's bug free! I like writing fiction and do some of my own from time to time but its rare for it to find its way on here!

I fly online every time I get a chance but only for fleeting visits now which is a shame. Fear not however, when I return it shall be in great force and you'll know! So look forward to that day and for pity sake write in the fic!

I love Tammy. (More than everyone else does).

Thorondor Staff Role: Thorondoropedia Real Name: Pedro Bento

My name is (see above), I'm verging on 30 y.o., and I live in Portugal, Lisbon. I like reading fantasy or sci-fi books, computer gaming and go to the movies whenever I can get away with it. I have a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and I've always had an interest in game development, the inner workings of the industry and the significance of computer games, past and present.

Those of you that ever happened to attend the official UFO: Aftermath boards (or attend now UFO: Aftershock's) will have undoubtedly ran into one of my *hopefully relevant and life-changing * posts that eventually earned me the affectionate title of 'Thorondoropedia' among the forum regulars.



p.s.: I'm always looking for good fantasy, sci-fi and post-apoc. reads so, if you have any recommendations to share, just shoot...