Fall has fallen. Many of us will not see sunshine for many months. We must have much gaming in the long winter to come, to keep us strong and sane. Well, mostly sane.

In an effort to help us keep our marbles during the Time of Gloom , Ed Teixeria will be conducting BREAKTHROUGH '97 in Marysville again this November. The weekend before Thanksgiving, right before the in- laws arrive. I think this should simply be referred to as 'EdCon', because he does it pretty much by himself. This year he is enticing people to put on games by offering a free Saturday dinner for those who do. if Ed's wife Robin is cooking, this may be the Deal of the Century. We can only hope the weather will be kinder this year, and not dump a foot of snow on B.C. that weekend, like last year, so that our Canadian members and allies can make it.

I would, as usual, like to encourage the membership (and 'near-membership' - you know who you are) to submit material for The Citadel. I'd like to thank those of you who have stepped up in the past, some of you quite often. Please, make this job easy for me by sending me stuff to fill the pages. Don't make me beg, it isn't pretty!

I recently went to England to visit relatives there. We Americans think that England is a wargamer's paradise shops everywhere, conventions every weekend, figure manufacturers just around the corner, great book stores. To some extent, this is true - there are some great book stores (Foyles and Motor Books in Leicester Square, London come to mind) and there is generally a show every weekend somewhere in the country. This later phenomenon, however, eliminates the market for big game stores (except for the omnipresent Games Workshop stores). All the manufacturers go to the shows, and since there's bound to be a show within driving distance during any given month, everyone goes there to buy figures. So there isn't a big call for hobby shops.

I went to The Guardroom in Dunstable - the same one that advertises reliably in one of the English glossy magazines. It's about the size of an apartment bedroom and this is a well-established shop. On the other hand, it can be quite easy to visit the actual manufacturers and get exactly what you want, so I guess the pros evens out the cons.