Hear ye, hear ye. The olde Wargame Clubs of America shall come to order, by command of His Majesty, the Righteous and Imperial Tsar of All Gaming Magazines Far and Near, Hal Thinglum, Deus Rex. I am amazed that we have 11 states not represented in the MegaList below. Yes, I U Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas (can't believe this), Montana, North and South Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia. Come on you guys-I know you're out there-make up a name like the Dover Detachment and send me your club info so other can find you and joint you. I'm short on newcomers this issue, but I received an interesting booklet from the UK called the Journal of Wargame Developments (WD). The Wargame Developments folks are a non-profit group dedicated to promoting non-commercial wargame development, in some ways similar to MWAN. Membership costs 16 pounds per annum, but you get some illuminating reading in the monthly newsletter, as well as other perks like reduced convention costs. For example, John Curry and John Armatys wrote a thought-provoking article on Asymmetrical Warfare; Tim Price crafted an interesting Matrix game starring the X-Files; a discourse on carrier warfare by Ian Drury; two solo Vietnam scenarios by Matt Hartley; a "Survive the Titanic" game (great for playing with your kids); and many more items. Great read. Contact Wargame Developments at 84 Eglington HA Shooters Hill, London, SE18 3DY. Bill Krieg, leader of the Lost Command gammers in Lombard Illinois sent along their latest newsletter, The Barrage. Eastern Front WWII seems to be on of their interest, with combined arms Red assault on the defending Wehrmacht. They also run a periodic Arms Bazaar where they all show to buy, sell, and trade games & figures, eat free food (dues are Wyear), and perhaps play a game or two. Good to hear from you. HMGS Mid-South is doing well. Their 32 affiliated clubs continue to put on zillions of games, many of-which are described in the newsletter. Others write interesting articles like Jim Schmidt's piece on Riverine Warfare in Vietnam. NASHCON is at the end ofMay-see ya there. The Historical Gamers of Indianapolis ventured into Viking skirmish in 25mm last monthnothing like a good axe to cleave with and a pig under your arm, eh? This month was the War of Spanish Succession , ECW, Full Thrust with a Babylon 5 twist, and of course, the usual popular periods. The HMGS Great Lakes Herald contained more great stuff this month. Editor Mike Demana enticed our imaginations with descriptions of his travel to the ancient city of Petra. Then Dean Veneziano talked about his project with the Society for the Preservation of Military History. He's recruiting gamers (like you!) to help interview veterans of WWII to preserve their knowledge of events. Daryl Smith wrote a good descriptive listing of Ohio forts you can visit, as well as an event list for Fort Niagara. Clinton Reilly continued his excellent series on simulating combat in games-this time discussing morale and combat effects. Definitely worth the price of admission. Big Muddy Historical gameing Alliance will see a new President in June as Bob Stusse has decided to devote more time to Civil Air Patrol. Nice job Bob, These guys offer monthly game days at rotating store locations, as well as putting on several conventions, including Command Con at Jefferson Barracks this November. And the newsletter had Pat Lewis wrote a useful artillery table for use with Napoleon's Battles incorporating Howitzer fire. NASAMW has been making a yeoman effort (pun intended) to get in touch with their constituents through their regional coordinators. I know it's easier here in the Virginia because the population is so large, but Alan Spencer, my rep, has done a great job--we have regional events that are NICT qualifiers, and several tournaments going on. Spearpoint is up to 36 pages this issue, and available on Russ Lockwood's Magweb. Nice job Mark Garcia! In the news section, several web sites for ancient rules are listed, as well as downloads for reference sheets and other useful stuff. Debate continues on whether to incorporate a national ranking system including several proposals. Matt Heppe wrote a simple yet attractive campaign system for DBM. Go ancients! Cold Wars is next weekend so HMGS East is going to get more of my money. Yahoo! Besides all the usual informative stuff, this month's newsletter had a thorough article by Bob Giglio on the Chinese wars of the 19"' century. I'm an East fan-join us. HMGS Heart of America is running their Call to Anns con in a few days (as I write this) in their new location, the appropriately named Heart of America building in Independence MO. It promises to match their sterling reputation with over 30 events covering all major periods of history. Their members are busy at other cons, too. Rick Nance, member and store owner, put on a well-received double-blind 25mm WWII game at Little Wars entertaining dozens of gamers. The newsletter had some other useful stuff like how to paint plastic figures so the paint doesn't flake off and other plastic ideas, and Bill Boyle wrote a nice piece detailing uniforms of die 100 Years war. NOVAG is sponsoring their next GamcCon on May 8-a single day and evening encompassing probably 30 games of various periods and rules. Usually we see Hal Dyson's Aerodrome game, Napoleon's Battles, John Hill's ACW scenarios, ships of sail or steam, auto racing, DBA/DBM or other ancients, and much more. Lots of flea market and dealer stuff too. You can still find weekly Friday night Napoleonics and ACW battles at the Game Parlor in Chantilly. Join us! HMGS South will hold it's flagship con at the end of April in Tampa-RECON 99. It promises over 100 games and 40 dealers-nice! The newsletter I read included some interesting colonial rules by Eric Burgess called Death in the Desert. I don't know how many clubs they support (or Nice versa) but they Est at least 20 hobby stores in their region. Impressive. Good to hear from all of you-please keep those notes and newsletter coming! Back to MWAN #100 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum 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