On December 2 nd and 3rd of this year the HMGS Pacific Southwest Chapter held their winter convention in Glendale California. As it is only a 4 hour drive to "civilization" from where I live, I thought I would take a trip west and see what was going on.

The drive over surprisingly wasn't bad and accommodations near to the convention were easy to find and actually fairly priced. So far so good, I thought as I arrived two days early to spend a mini-vacation in LA. Being how this was a gaming expedition I will limit my comments to gaming stuff.

As we were walking around I stumbled across the Last Grenadier. This was a hobby shop of legend for me as I had never been there and had only heard or read of it second hand. With a bit of excitement but also dread I entered. I remembered going to a "great hobby shop" in Mountain View California only to be totally disappointed. The Last Grenadier however, delivers!

About as large as Eagles in the Seattle area, the Last Grenadier was well [it, clean, (yes, yes, I know, get to the good stuff) and very well stocked with gaming supplies. Books, paints, figures, figures, and more figures. From Old Glory to Games Workshop the Last Grenadier had a large stock of figures available. Also it had a large selection of painted lead for sale at actually reasonable prices. The guy behind the counter was helpful and well informed. Really a nice surprise. Anyone getting down to Burbank California should pay them a visit if they have a chance.

The next day I went to the convention as I was putting on a couple of games. I had been told ahead of time that the date of the convention had been changed at the last minute, as the location (a BSA hall in Glendale) was available only on this weekend. I had contacted an officer and everything was set ... well sort of.

It's hard to say negative things about gamers who are putting on a convention. I started Breakthrough (how did it go this year anyway?) so I can understand what it takes to run a successful convention (watch for Desert Wars 2002 in Las Vegas!). I also have gone to quite a few Enfilades. Anyway, I will just relate how it went.

The convention program was very limited, as were the selection of games. There were a total of ten games over two days and I put on two. There were no formal gaming periods as the program just listed Saturday Morning, Saturday Afternoon, etc. Pretty laid back, but as I found out later by talking to the gamers, that's how they choose to run things ... like, it's LA, you know?

World War II is the "big dog" in Southern Cal. In fact there were 3 ancients, 1 Napoleonic, and 7 World War II games. The gamers played mostly homegrown stuff. As for the games themselves ... well there was one game (WW2) where the terrain was awesome, definitely in the top 5 games I've ever seen and believe me, Enfilade events put out some awesome terrain. After that though the terrain went down hill to a couple of fair looking boards to a lot of felt strips and string terrain boards. For once I didn't have to wince when someone looked at my terrain!

How were the figures? They ranged from a few excellent paint jobs to games being played with the unpainted (gasp!). But no matter what all the gamers seemed to be enjoying themselves which is what it is all about.

There were only 2 vendors, one a gaming store (not Last Grenadier which surprised me) and the other a guy selling Navwar. That's it.

During the middle of the con I counted bodies and if more than 50 showed up I'll be surprised. The reasons behind it are plentiful, change of date ( I know how that works), little advertising, and nice weather with a lot of things available to do. But whatever the reason, those that did show up had fun. They are putting on a spring convention but I don't think I'll be attending. All in all, it was more like a NW gaming day and not a convention.

Which brings me to the last few comments. The gaming climate in the Northwest is excellent and you guys should be proud of it. The conventions are better and better attended. Being in Arizona I've got access to other cons and more info. I've met and talked to a lot of national gamers from Alabama to New York and they all agree.

The 250 some odd (some not) attendees at Enfilade places it in the top ten most attended conventions. Heck, the original Breakthrough drew 120 and that's more than many others around the country. For quality and quantity of games Enrilade is one of the best. Who'd have thought it?