It was 5:60 p.m. at the New London Train Station where 21 wargamers waited for the bus that was twenty minutes late. I was concerned about it because I was the one who arranged for this Origins 78 bus. I asked Jim Tamargo where he would be if he were a bus that was supposed to be at the train station.

"The bus station," he replied without hesitation.

Steve Dinsmore's father drove me to the bus station where, not to our surprise, the bus had been waiting since quarter after five. We hit the road forty minutes late. On board there was a trophy for the best armoured miniature tactician held by one Charles Cottle. I understood that it has been in his possession since 1975's Origins I. He is part of the trio that took first place in that event all three years; the other two are Carl Olson and Leon Glaine.

The bus was not going non-stop as originally planned. We had a stop to make at the George Washington Bridge bus terminal to pick up the "SPI refugees." If you know of anyone that got to 0-78 on the SPI bus, they, in fact, rode The Citadel's bus. There should have been two buses but someone in New York got nervous with about 30 days left to go.

"Hey, Pat, this is Howie Barasch of SPI"
"How ya doing?"
"How many people have you got on your bus?"
"Twenty tickets sold."
"We have 24. Do you think we can get together on the buses?"
"'No, I've got a 40-passenger bus with 4 seats pulled for tables."
"Can't you get a bigger bus . . ."

Well, I got a bigger bus and told Barasch to send the money and a list of names and tell everyone where to pick up the bus. I had, and still have, mixed feelings about that. I was elated that there would be no money lost for sure; though as it turned not, I would not have lost anyway. There were quite a few folks who got turned down. One in particular was Carl Olson. He had asked earlier if there would be any risk in waiting a few weeks to reserve a seat and I had said no. He called back later and the bus was suddenly full. I was glad to learn from his running mate, Cottle, that he found a way out.

Do you know that a guy who pays $60.00 for something and gets $18.00 back is a lot happier than someone who pays $39.00 and has to cough up $3.00 more?

The New York riders proved to be a good group. There were a few big guns like Steve List and Bill Watkins. It was most unfortunate that I had to give up my place in Diplomacy to get these folks on board. As France, I allied with one of the Morgor brothers (Germany) to do in Joe Geer (England), because he had taken Belgium from me. Germany and I were next going south to do in Bob Kazee's Italy, with a good possibility that Frank Hollo (Turkey) would stab him. It was a good game brewing, with participants from the Worchester Wargaming Association and The Citidel Wargamers. Alan Chiras was officiating. I had to let John Stangle take over.

After everyone got seated and $3.00 collected from each of the newcomers, I managed to slip into a couple of games of Nuclear War. I have never seen a game with so much pure vengeance built into it. Many of the Groton, Connecticut, guys were submariners and these taught the other the FBM battle cry. We rolled through Pennsylvania playing Nuclear War and shouting, "Nuc 'em till they GLOW!" Besides the three Nuclear War games going, there were two, possibly three, D&D games in progress. Bill Ponder and Tom Griffith were the gamemasters. I don't know how Diplomacy ended.

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the bus driver was more pilot than driver, as we pulled into 0-78 at 8:00 a.m. Friday. We deposited our things in our rooms and went to the opening breakfast. I had two cups of coffee with my meal and had put sugar in one of them when Mike Bartinowski got up, welcomed everyone, told a joke and introduced Paul Wood, President of Metro Detroit Owners, who also told a joke. I had to agree with Harold Burger who said, "I hope their conventions are better than their jokes." I then picked up the second sugar pack and tried to figure which of the two cups of coffee was and which wasn't

Metro Detroit Gamers in my opinion did a first rate job. They really knew what to do. You don't have to tell these guy. how fast a few thousand wargamers can go through all the soda machines on any given college campus in the middle of July. Someone told a caterer or did the catering himself. The only things I did not like were the long walks and the prices of campus food, though the latter isn't controlled by MDG

I also ran into Geoff Barnard of Perfidious Albion Friday morning. Th. folks of P.A. are really on top of things. It's usually the first zine to find problems in new games, and as such has been an excellent source of intelligence at The Citadel during its first year.

The long trip had its effects. Bill Ponder, one of the Citadel's elite Dungeon Masters, did not win points with TSR when he was caught sleeping in a D&D tournament. On the other hand, TSR didn't win points either after sending a party on a recon mission against giants and then awarding victory points according to how many giants were killed.

I went to the exhibition to see what was new and talk to some of the manufacturers. Coming across Howie Barasch, I asked him why War in the Pacific hadn't made it to my store yet. He said that they were waiting for the new packaging for the retail releases. At least it was a new excuse. I was going to ask why all the other releases got to the store late, but figured if I didn't want excuses, I shouldn't ask for reasons.

There were a lot of people at the Avalon Hill booth looking for those "New Releases," just like it said to do in The General. With the exception of Cross of Iron, all they found were empty boxes, and there was not much Cross of Iron. When is a promise like an empty box? I learned that they put Don Greenwood on extra hours to work on getting those things out, which might explain why The General was late. An Avalon Hill staffer pointed his finger at Dicky Dott for putting out the word on new releases. Being a dealer, I naturally inquired about C.O.I.'s retail status. Don Greenwood said probably mail order only and gave same sort of excuse for a reason.

Dealers going to 0-78 looking for good news about manufacturer's attitudes toward them didn't find much. From Howie Barasch, one learns that SPI's enthusiasms for retail sales of 76 has turned into "we'd rather mail order." Avalon Hill may hold Cross of Iron on the mail order fine till the newness wears off and then graciously allow the deals to carry. it. A strong rumor has it that Heritage Models is wooing the discount chain and many a dealer is considering lowering their inventories in that line so that they won't get stuck. Does this mean that a "wargame" store is a mistake? Should hobby stores avoid catering to wargamers? Am I going the way of the slot car dealer of the sixties? The answers lie with the wargamers themselves, and in my particular case with "The Citadel Wargamers." These are hard core, sophisticated gamers. Their attitudes about games like Squad Leader, War in the Pacific, Atlantic Wall, and Cross of Iron were summed up by John Coonfield when he said, "I'll wait." It's amazing to see how firm they stand. "Ah, for another regiment of these Marylanders." The reason is that wargamers like wargame stores. This is probably due to the wargamers found at such places, not to mention club rooms and what not.

Delays aren't the only thing dealers are faced with. SPI is in the habit of slipping mail order coupons into retail games. Someone showed me one of these from a game he recently purchased. I told him that it was good in the store whereupon he promptly selected $2.00 worth of merchandise. I used the coupon on the very next wholesale purchase, which was ordered via the mail. Wargamers holding such coupons who desire to support their local wargame store should point out to their dealer where it says the $2.00 discount is in addition to all other discounts (including wholesale?).

There were other wargame publishers at 0-78 and these had lots to offer. GDW's new Operation Crusader looks superb. It uses column markers for a bit of limited intelligence. T.S.G. (Tactical Studies Group), a new publisher apparently headed by Zucker, Hardy and Nelson of SPI fame, had Napoleon at Bay, which also has a lot of limited intelligence by having only the leader counters on the board. O.C. is a monster that looks like it could be very playable while NaB is rather semi-monsterish with extra literature. They weigh in at $30.00 and $18.00 respectively and both companies profited from AH and SPI not being ready. I ran into Richard Berg at the TSG booth on the last day and he recommended NaB. I slipped in a cheap shot by saying, "I'll buy some for the store despite Mr. Berg's recommendation." However, to be honest, his recommendation did sway me to pick up a few extra.

I talked awhile with Jack Radley, who was there with his Korsum Pocket game. It's another monster that looks like it's developing well. Nothing like a well-developed monster to feed to the grognards of Southeastern Connecticut. I've heard of gamers getting devoured by monsters. Phil Driscoll likes to solitaire monsters and keeps hounding me for more. He'll disappear for about a week whenever he gets a new one. When he returns he'll chew on my ear for about two hours listing all the problems, if any, and giving a rough tactical analysis. He's been very informative except when he got Drive on Stalingrad - then he was very incoherent, and it was a good thing too, since he did not seem pleased. He's one of the potential playtesters I had in mind when I talked to various designers about using The Citadel Wargamers as such. The Korsum Pocket looks good, and I'd sure like to give it the Ol' Driscoll test.

Another company, called "Third Generation Game Company," had the makings of what looked to be a decent Battle of Britain. I forgot who it was I was talking to, but I almost started lecturing him about game development when I caught myself. Looked like just in time because, from the look on his face, he appeared about ready to tell me where to get off. Who do these two-bit-dealers-slant-third-rate-critics think they are anyway; man tries to design a good game ... he don't have to put up with that.

My weekend at 0-78 taught me that eleven years in the Navy gave me about a +3 die modifier in doing business with men and probably a -3 when dealing with women. I had to talk to TSR about something and when I got to their booth, I immediately spotted Gary Gygax's daughter by her name tag. Gary must be wine sort of king in wargaming because his daughter certainly is a princess; very winsome and polite. I asked her if there was anyone to talk to about GENCON XII (in 1979) and she pointed out another attractive red-headed girl who appeared to be a sister.

I saw the name Mary Gygax on the name tag when I went over and said, "Your sister said that you're the ..." After I debriefed from the next few seconds, I decided that referring to a woman's daughter as her sister is about the best possible way of establishing a good business rapport, and apologizing about it is about the worst. Somewhere between apologizing and delivering a tactful apology retraction I forgot what I was going to talk to her about. I don't think I made a good impression on TSR. However, their new game, Gamma World, made a very good one with gamers. It answers the question "are they still capable?" They are indeed; this one was a Metamorphis Alpha system but with a better presentation in a post world-devastation setting.

Fantasy Games Unlimited was there in force. On the other hand, they're either there in force or not at all, since it's pretty much a one man show. Scott Bizar is just a little aggressive; he only seeks to displace TSR in the role playing facet of the hobby. He introduced me to Dave Arneson, the "creator of D&D, and announced that he has him in his camp. I am familiar with Scott's products and now that I have met the man, I can predict some good healthy competition.

To Ann Arbor and Back With the Citadel Wargamers, Part 2