Members have been asking what has happened to their Citadel. And with good reason, for there was no summer issue. This resulted from a number of unfortunate circumstances, not the least of which were a lack of articles and a lack of time on my part. My apologies to the membership for this lapse. Although In the interim I have learned how to use the desk-top publishing software that someone kindly donated to the cause.

EdCon (aka Breakthrough) is happening on the last weekend of October in Marysville. Yes, Ed is at his madness again, so come in out of the rain and roll dice within sight of a casino without losing any money! Well, except for the money you spend on those figures that you absolutely must have...

Enfilade '98 has come and gone and been judged a success. Attendance remained at about 250, pretty much the same as Enfilade '97. Things seemed to run smoothly enough, and I didn't hear about what problems there may have been. I hope it was good for you, too.

In case you weren't there, the results of the elections were as follows:

President - still Tim McNulty
Treasurer - Ed Teixerla
Secretary - John Fisher
VP (north) - Terry Sawchenko
VP (central) - Bob Seagle
VP (south) - Henry Thompson

Wired members of NHMGS should take an opportunity to visit our club's new Website (http://nhmgs.simp1enet.com). Webmaster Dave Sullivan has done a very excellent job, with plenty of photos, articles, and links to other sites of interest. He should be specially commended for his article tht introduces the hobby to the uninitiated without making us look like raving loonies.

The National Board of NHMGS has been having a bit of a spat on the internet. This involves allegations of Illegal elections at the regional level, the disolution/recreation of a chapter, the State of Missouri, the IRS, and the freezing of the National Board's assets by the treasurer. Quite the soap opera, and the fact that it is being fought out over the 'net makes the whole organization look foolish. Makes me glad I live far away from it all.

I went to Hisforicon this July, back east in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The convention center is big and sprawling - when I wandered around, I kept finding more rooms with games. The dealer area is in a totally different building, about the size of a high school gym. I had to overcome my 'small-town rube in the big city awe before I could get myself settled into the room I was sharing with the Military Miniatures guys. I thought a short nap was in order, until I ran into an English friend of mine who dragged me into the bar, and well, I just didn't get much done on Friday.

Except spend money. It you go to Historicon, take lots of money. I think the government treats paper money with a special chemical that makes people want to spend money. And the more money passing hands in a given area, the worse it gets. Such is Historicon. I thought about what I wanted to get before I left, and got a rough estimate of how much I was going to spend, and exceeded this estimate by about 450% once I got there. And I even managed to avoid the video booths, where every war movie you've ever heard of was for sale. Scary.

The games ranged in presentation from the primitive (a few pieces of felt for terrain) to museum-quality. The first thing I saw when I walked in was Duke Slefried's Aztec game, including a brightly-painted 3 foot tall pyramid. There was an amazing multi-table Battle of the Little Big Horn game in 25mm. I sat on the stairs above the game and watched the fun better than most western movies I've seen. A huge naval battle with a V700th scale task I orce being attacked by waves of 1/300 aircraft (which I saw at Breathrough a couple years ago, but certainly not on this scale). More WWI biplanes and triplanes than one could count. And my personal favorite, a Buck Rogers spaceman game, played with casts of original 1930s toys, and a set of rules that essentially fit on a dowel rod.

Did I play any games? One. A Command Decision III game with a bunch of guys from the CD e-mail list. Mostly I just wandered around, kibbitzed, and spent money. Maybe next time I'll make more of an effort to play - it will be time I won't have for spending money!