About Me & This Site

About Me

My name is Andrew, though I more commonly go by dslyecxi online. I am the founder of a gaming community known as Shack Tactical, a prior-service US Marine, and an avid fan of Bohemia Interactive’s Arma series of combat simulations.

As part of my dedication towards my own ShackTac community, I’ve created all sorts of content for the Arma-verse – my tactical guides being the most well-known, along with a collection of mods, missions, and assorted bits and pieces. Together with a fantastic group of ShackTac members, I’ve filmed thousands of our sessions as a way to share our experiences with anyone interested – and, to my surprise, it turns out there are a lot of interested parties!

I have been writing on the subject of tactical gaming in various places for nearly a decade and have been playing FPS games since the original Wolfenstein 3D. These days, I spend my time primarily in the Arma series, as it’s rich mission and content creation abilities allow me and my fellow ShackTac members to weave our own large-scale narratives in a fashion that other games still can’t match.

While I am prior-service USMC, I was not a grunt or anything even remotely resembling combat arms, though I was a rifle/pistol coach and ran an Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer (ISMT) on Okinawa for a little under a year. If you’re looking for an oorah-been-there-done-that hardcore military role model, look elsewhere. I am simply someone who has a passion for what they do and an interest in sharing it with others.

Professionally, I worked with the Virtual Battlespace 2 simulation in different capacities for about ten years. I have also been a consultant for the Arma series of games since late 2006 and continue to be impressed by the support and love the creators have provided for their titles year after year.

My Site

Originally created 2004, my site was initially a place for me to host basic images and publish the occasional article on something tactical-gaming-related. I’ve long wanted to do something a bit more in-depth and frequent, and finally got around to creating a proper site in the fall of 2012.

I intend to use this site as a platform to share my creations, my thoughts on the genres I participate in, and the incredible experiences that come from interacting with a group as fine as ShackTac on a daily basis.

I hope that you all enjoy it. If you’d like to provide feedback, I can always be reached at dslyecxi@gmail.com – though I may not always have an opportunity to respond thanks to the quantity of e-mails I receive on a weekly basis. More detailed contact information, including information about professional inquiries, can be found on the Contact page.