Well club fans, I have pitched my tent here in beautiful, hot, sticky, bug-filled Alabama. You can now reach me at 8356 Lochwood Drive, Montgomery AL 36117, (334) 272-1030 (weekdays 5-9:30pm, weekends 10am-10pm) or email of course at izmud@aol.com. So far I am underwhelmed by the gaming presence here. There are two game stores of note in town, neither large nor particularly well stocked, and the historical gaming community is mysteriously absent. Guess I'll have to change that! So, here is a formal call to all Alabama gamers, PLEASE call me so we can push some lead. So, let's check the mailbox.

Mike Brewington, kingpin of the Conflict Simulations Club in Bloomington, Indiana dropped me a line to update us on what they are up to. The club meets most Sundays in the Indiana University Memorial Union Tree Suites from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Up to ten players show for the day playing anything from ancients to science fiction, miniatures, board, or card games. Some of our recent games have included Epic Duels, WWII naval, double blind Viet Nam, and Command Decision 3. A number of members ran games at Origins this year and are looking forward to Gen Con moving to Indianapolis next year. Give Mike a buzz if you'd like to get some game time in.

Robert Jones, a Major in the Army Reserves, and senior ranking officer of the Long Island Wargamers Association wrote to tell me about his gang. They meet almost every Friday at 7:30PM in Bay Shore, New York. The club traces its roots/history back to Waterloo Hobbies in Stony Brook from the late 1970's. They play a variety of historical miniature wargames but are never really locked into a particular period or rule system. The periods they are most interested in at the moment are 15mm Ancients (ARMATI), 15mm Seven Years War (Warfare in the Age of Reason), 15mm American Revolution (American Battlelines), 10mm Napoleonic's (La Petit Armee), Micro Armor GHQ (Spearhead and Modern Spearhead), and their new venture in 15mm/20mm World War II. Most of the club members attend the HMGS East conventions, Cold Wars and Historicon though only Rob Wolsky has run games so far. The club is currently running three campaigns: the first is Sport of Kings, using Warfare in the Age of Reason; the second is Napoleon's War in the Peninsular using La Petit Armee and LPA Campaign Rules; and last is the War of the Roses, using Big Battle DBA and Avalon Hill's Kingmaker. The War of the Roses Campaign is scheduled to kick off some time in September 2002. Sounds to me like a lively group. Check them out further online at www.longislandwargames.com or get Robert directly at majjones@optonline.net.

More from Indiana! 19 &1 Game Club shows a busy schedule for September and October. Games every week on Tuesdays and Saturdays feature Advanced Squad Leader, Shako and Napoleon's Battles Napoleonics, WWII skirmish, French and Indian War, Formula De racing (I love the mega-mat game the Trumpeters in British Columbia run this on), musketeer and wild west skirmish, and Johnny Reb III. Indianapolis rocks!

Well, Mike Demana will be glad to know that I did not lose this issue of the HMGS Great Lakes Herald Mike and several of his cohorts in crime from GL represented us at Origins this summer, hosting several of the 300+ historical games offered at the mega-convention. They have two new cons of their own in November, one in Ann Arbor MI (U-CON) and one in Indianapolis (Gamefest). In the way of articles, Dennis frank continues his series on the roots of wargaming describing Don Featherstone's many innovations in wargaming from rounding wheels to artillery sticks and a variety of card systems. The pot continues to boil on the Ist century Roman campaign-Iberians and Parthians and pirates oh my! And as usual, the 24 clubs in GL offer a wide variety of locales and events to join into-what a great organization.

HMGS Mid-South is my new home HMGS so I recently sent Major Bill a check to get me signed up. I've admired Bill's work for a long time. Just like Hal he puts out the issues regularly month after month and always seems interested in getting quality information out to his audience. The report from Nashcon sounds like they had a shortage of volunteers to work the show resulting in some difficulties manning the registration booth, etc. Pat Condray wrote a thoughtful piece taking issue with Paddy Griffith's work on the ACW a few years back and discussing the abilities of the armies and leaders during the Civil War. Then Howard Whitehouse jumped into the debate on Griffith's side-quite amusing. There's also a lengthy "letter" reputedly from Charlie Daniels, the singer, who reputedly visited Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and reports that we are treating the "scum bags" in captivity there better than they deserve. While I liked the read, I had seen this via the web and think it is an urban legend. John Kerstetter wrote a nice lengthy piece on the Russian Napoleonic army at Austerlitz.

Through the pages above I learned of David Clayton's new group the Metro-Atlanta Gamers just 2 hours from me! David says they play mostly 15mm Ancients, Nappies, Alamo, Mexican War, ACW, WW2, Arab/Israeli, and Viet Nam, and 20/25mm in Nappies, Ancients, Medievals, American Rev and Renaissance. Reach David at histcolassoc@earthlink.net or 678-591-0319.

The latest HMGS East kicks off with Scott Holder reminiscing about cheap but scarce figures in 1975 compared to the bonanza we have today. Jay Hadley followed with a plug for their conventions and went on to discuss the BoD and what they are up to. Darrell Smith continued his piece on the Lombards, Fall In 01 set a new attendance record and Fred Hubig is going to run the next one. Bill Gray has completed the redesign of their website so if you haven't been lately, check it out-it's the best in the hobby.

HMGS Northwest newsletter, the Citadel, starts off with an historic overview of BosniaHerzegovina by John Fernandez, follwed by the current Order of Battle--interesting. Paul Hannah teaches readers how to make the excellent stands he uses for his 1/300 scale Mustangs game. Kevin Smyth rambles across a number of reviews and touts the YahooGroups site for getting all the wargaming info you can stand, then treads dangerous ground as he discusses how Tolkien can be as "historical" as other real wars-I buy the concept and the gestalt he set up, but it's heretical nonetheless. Ed Teixeira continues to spin tales about the Dalton gang and his refight of Coffeyville. Trumpeter Salute, Game Faire, and Enfilade all went well for Northeast, and they are looking forward to Breakthrough in November. Finally, Terry Griner tells a funny story about Enfilade and how a 10 year old girl ended up as winner of his DBA tournament but had to get a replacement general because it was her bed time!

Big Muddy Historical Gaming Association out in St Louis are a great bunch. The newsletter is packed with good stuff too. The last two installments take Harold Wones Ages of Warfare column to the Information Age. Then he embarked on a summation of Sun Tzu. Harold also gives a humorous recounting of his Sticks and Stones caveman game. The Transmorastian Times details the advance of the Napoleonic campaign in the Tyrol where the Bavarians received their comeuppance. Michael Randant reveals details about the scuttling of the Graf Spee in WW2. Michael Cooper gives a compelling account of his Italian/American battle in North Africa including OB. Command Con is coming in November to the Jefferson Barracks Park don't miss it.

That's it for this month. I hope you are all gaming your hearts out. If you have a club and I don't know about, please drop me a line.

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