To Darryl Smith (ATC Dealer Coordinator)

I wanted to drop you a line on this year's Advance the Colors. I know that somedealers will tell you they had a good show no matter how badly they did, but we had the best show ever for an Advance the Colors this year. The dealers area was very well run, with no complaints from me. Iftherewere problems, I didn't experience any of them.

I'm not at all surprised at the favorable feedback you've been getting. This years Advance the Colors is in the top five of all of the "small" HMGS cons that Rich and I have attended. One of the neatest improvements is a quantum increase in the number of showcase quality games thaVwere put on. Advance the Colors should now consider itself as one of the top echelon conventions just based on game quality alone. We now rival even Heart of America for top honors in this category.

As for getting more dealers to stay until 2 pm Sunday, I think this is a good idea, but then I'm from Dayton and don't have far to go! I was pleased to see that with only two exceptions, all of the dealers stayed until a pretty decent hour this year. The out of state folks may continue to leave earlier unless there is a very good reason for them to stay. Getting the local gamers to come out for Sunday is a good idea, but you may have to do some serious brainstorming to get that to happen. Pray for Sunday rain!

Rich and I made an assumption, that based on the number of games run last year, we didn't bring a game to this years convention. We could have run one on Saturday evening, as there seemed to be a lot room available for another game. Next year, we'll not make any assumptions and bring stuff to run a game!

Musket Miniatures

Mike,

While in Denver this week on business, I had the privilege of touring Musket Miniatures' factory and conversing with the co-owner, Jeff McCarron. Very interesting tour! He invites all wargamers to stop by it in Denver for a similar tour.