ENFILADE! '97 was held on Memorial Day weekend the Best Western Executive Inn and Convention Center in Tacoma. All of you know that because you were there, right?. Attendance just about equaling last year's record of about 250. We had folks from as far away as Virginia come out, and a larger- than-usual contingent from California.

The new venue was bigger and better-lit than the previous site, the Landmark Inn in Lynnwood. Of course, it was kind of hard to get a hotel room in the area, but how were we to know that there was a Promise-Keepers convention at the Tacoma Dome that weekend? That'll learn ya' (or at least, me) to make reservations early.

Guest of Honor for the convention was Arty Conliffe, author of Tactica, Armati, Spearhead, etc. He helped run a few games, answered questions, and gave an excellent informal talk on Sunday afternoon about how he designs games. I found it to be a pleasure to meet Mr. Conliffe - he seems an intelligent, open-minded and personable individual. Even if I don't always like his rules sets, I think he'd be a pleasure to game with.

The Best-of-Show award went to Chris Leach for his 'Race for the Reichstag, Berlin 1945' Crossfire game, complete with a 20mm scale Brandenburg gate (including statuary on the top), a multi-level Reichstag building (open on the back to allow players to move between rooms and levels), and streets littered with the carcasses of knocked-out tanks. A most impressive game.

An honorable mention should go to John Fisher's 'Pegasus Bridge' game, which ran 3 times on Saturday and once on Sunday, and finally involved 24 different players. The final score from the 4 games was one 'marginal, deathdefying' British victory and three draws.

Plenty of dealers showed up, and plenty of money got spent - I should know. Our staunch regulars, like Fantastic Games, Hobbytown USA, and Geohex were there in force. A few new Northwest-based companies showed up, including Blood Ax Miniatures, Universal Games, Czar's Flags and Reviresco. Outland Games came all the way from Ohio - they were the folks who put on the 20' long 15mm W.W.II game called 'Drive on Smolensk'. Scenic Effects came up from California with a ton o' terrain, represented by the winsome Wendy, who was something of a scenic effect herself.

Of course, a few things went wrong. The coffee mugs weren't available because the people making them screwed up and printed them as "ENFILADY '97" mugs. A similar error occurred on the polo shirts. Because of the lack of coffee mugs, people got T-shirts instead. Because it was thought some people would want coffee mugs instead of T-shirts, there weren't enough of the latter to go around. Word is that the coffee mugs and polo shirts are finally done.

There also seemed to be a problem with either the distribution of ballots for NHMGS officers, or total voter apathy, as only 7 actual ballots were cast. The results of this were that the current officers will remain in place. There were also complaints that the flea market area was situated too far from the main hall, and didn't get a lot of traffic because people couldn't find it.