Hello to all, my name is Ed Beach.

I'll be stepping in for Joe Leonard, our former German emperor.
In keeping with the rest of the players, here is my introduction.

I've never played a game with any of these opponents before.  For me
that's a plus; I continue to be amazed at how many great, dedicated
gaming opponents there our now that we have the Internet to link us.
In keeping with that trend, I am very committed (perhaps overcommitted!)
to PBEM right now.  I have two games from Avalon Hill's Great Campaigns
of the American Civil War going right now, along with this game of 
Empires, and PBEM games of the computer versions of Advanced Civilization
and History of the World.

I have owned EotMA since it came out, having been a big SPI fan from
the time I started gaming (at about age 10 in 1973).  I played it some
solitaire and a bit more in college, but this is my first chance to
play it seriously with some experienced opponents.  I'm looking forward
to it.  I've played a lot of multi-player games, with Advanced Civ,
Britannia and Maharaja among my favorites.

My most serious gaming involvement these days is with Avalon Hill's
Great Campaigns of the ACW series.  I got hooked on them when they
first came out and have been playing in or running some of the tournaments
at Avaloncon ever since.  In 1996, my involvement with the series led
to the publication of my first design, Stonewall's Last Battle.
Now I'm working in conjunction with Joe Balkoski on the sixth game
in the series, On To Richmond!  It's looking like the strongest
game in the series, and will be out this spring.  Check out the web
site (below) if you want to learn more.

At home, my very tolerant wife and I have two kids, ages 7 and 4.
I am a programmer by trade and currently work doing development and
software management for a young company that writes software tools
for the wireless communications industry.  I had worked for NASA
on space science projects for 10 years before that.

That's enough ... on to the Middle Ages!

-Ed Beach
__________________________________________
Ed Beach
email:     waveland@smart.net
Web page:  http://www.smart.net/~waveland

Check out the Great Campaigns of the American Civil War home page at:
   http://www.smart.net/~waveland/gcacw.htm