Those of you who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca (Lancaster), you know how long a trek is from here in the hinterlands and the rest of you don't care so I won't bore you with a travelogue. Suffice it to say that it was long and (thankfully) uneventful. I would like to express my appreciation to members Alan Jones and his lovely gal Stephanie Gearin for putting up with me for the weekend. Some general observations and trends that I observed: The diversity of participants was pleasing as well as encouraging. In addition to a large number of younger (remember, I'm 58 so many are younger) players, where were an increased numbers of ladies (not just wives & girlfriends) and minorities. The terrain observed was also many steps up from the old 'throw down an Army blanket and lets play'. Duke Siegfried's spectacle this year was 25mm Pirate ships ... Yes, 25mm Age of Sail. Ships over 24" long, and several dozen of them at that. The other trend spotted was the increased number of WWII games. I was able to sit in on a game run by member Buck Surdu using his BAPS skirmish rules. It was Poland 1939 and my mighty recon Pz I's valiantly found the enemy in the time honored method, brewing up! The other game I was able to participate in was a pickup India Uprising Colonial game hosted by member Cowan Hunter. We held the residency. Sounds bleak as far as being able to game, but with 3000+ folks looking to do something, I was fortunate. Sort of why I like the smaller shows where one usually can game until full sated. Most of my time was spent prowling the Dealers Area looking for and interviewing for what is new, as follows: Jake Kovel, (Silver Eagle Wargame Supply 4417 W 24th PI., Lawrence, KS 66047 (785)838-4480 eaglewars@aol .com). Irregular Miniatures 25mm F&IW, Ancient 25mm Egyptians & Assyrians and for our avian fans 25mm Buzzards, Vultures and Eagles. Also 10mm Fantasy and Historicals in Games Workshop's Warmaster series. Lastly, 54mm Gladiators. Mike Gustar, (the Quartermaster, 290 Amberly Blvd., Ancaster, ON L9G 3Y6 (905)64 8- 1250 thequartermaster@ interlynx. net) One of the crazy Canadians who we've gotten to come to NASHCON (Ah, the power of John Barleycorn .... :0). Mike has Falcon(UK) figures and what's new are several 15mm lines including 'Civilians and Other Useful Bits' which have a Carrochio (we Italian Wars of the Renaissance gamers know what this is) and an Arc of the Covenant and Farm Animals. Other new lines include War of 1812 (93+ figs. incl. Highlanders in bonnets and trews) and a line of The 'Ever Victorious Army' (China) and some 'big' 25mm Assyrians. The also have Neva Productions buildings in 6, 15 and 25mm. Johnson Hood, (Wargames, Tridelphia WV) One of Johnson's big sellers this time was DBM 3.0. I got my copy Friday and by the following day, he was sold out and taking mail orders. Sadly, I was unable to complete the interview but we'll see at least Ed at NASHCON and till then just look inside the front for the Wargames ad. Loren Schwindenan (Viking Forge 1727 Theresa Ln., Powhatan, VA 23139) Loren has some 30 new 1/2400 ship models, including 1-WWI, 19- WWII, 10-Post War/ Modern. Many of the ships that Loren carries are the 'odd' ones that nobody else does in metal. Looks like I'll have to pick up some ..... DPC (Dayton Painting Consortium, POB 24185, Huber Hights, OH 45424 (937) 667-1037 or radetzky @prodigy. net) Mo re than a painting service, they carry the Rusty Scabbard 20 & 25mm lines and Musket Miniatures(MM) 15mm. New items included 15mm MM WWII Russian front buildings (sold out at the show) and AWI French 15mm and French and Bavarian 15mm Marlborough. Look forward to seeing the at NASHCON. Steve Jamison (19th Century Miniatures, Jamison, Steve 13595 Green St., Grand Haven, MI 49417 616- 846-4764) 19th Cent worked out an agreement with Old Glory(O G) to do their 15mm line (save WWII) so they have new figures in OG Ancients . of Late Romans, Picts, Sassinads, Goths, Lombards Franks and Palmyrians. In OG Napoleonics, there are the Waterloo 4ritish Allies, and an entire line of Franco-Prussian war figures. In their 25mm WWII Battle Honours line are British ETO 44-45. Vince Clyant (the London War Room, 41 Beverly Hills Loop, Petal, MS 39465 (601)584-8533 tlwr@thelondonwarroom .com or WWW.thelondonwarroom.com) has a new line he's carrying. It is Newline Designs which do 25mm Ancients. I picked up several Imperial Romans and they look good. As an aside, Sharon (Vince's B.W.) commented that if Brookhurst (out in CA) kept dropping lines which they're picking up, that the LWR would soon surpass them (Yea, Go For It!) Well, that's about all the MidSouth members who are also in the business that I interviewed, but I was able to interview a couple of others in which you might be interested. Russ Dunaway (Old Glory) has a huge number of new items: 25mm Hundred Years War and War of 1812, 1/700 Age of Sail ships, 1/144 scale WWI aircraft by Red Eagle, Also becoming available are 25mm resin buildings by Herb Gunt and some 25mm WWII equipment and vehicles. Coming in the future include more 25mm ancients: Sub Romans and Dark Ages plus some Eastern Renaissance including folks like Count Dracula (VIad the Impaler ) Talked to Marty and Steve from SIMTAC (20 Attawan Rd., Niantic, CT 06357 (860)739-3269 WWW.SIMTAC.COM From them I picked up some mew 15mm Renaissance Jacobite line figures, mostly some neat Italian Wars Swiss. They really wanted me to plug their new web site, so there, consider it plugged... The last figure dealer I interviewed was an Antipodean, Gerry Webb from Australia He is the sculptor and owner of Castaway Arts (POBox 7599, Cairns 4870 Australia ph/fax 61 (0)740412079 or castawayarts@ozemail.com.au or www.castawayarts.com.au) Aside from 25mm Gladiators!!! (someone asked me about these before) he also has a fascinating line of the Ashanti War (Brit Colonial) with I strange but accurate figures. Fascinating stuff. Last, but certainly not least was Russ Lockwood of MagWeb. (magweb@magweb.com & www.magweb.com) Russ is quite happy that their stock of articles is now over 18,000 and they've just added their 78th magazine (Kriegspielek of Australia) and have initiated a new service where you can get a card that allows you to get 100 articles for a mere $5. I should also note that in this quarter this newsletter (the Dispatch) ranks #8 in popularity. So if you write something, expect it to be seen by a great many more people. Obviously another incentive to write for this rag ... (grin) Back to Dispatch August 2000 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com