Greetings, Wargaming Bruthas - Well, if Hal had the room, somewhere in this issue is a photo of the latest Dake project, the painting and mounting of the beautiful castle available from Hudson and Allen. Before you say ooh and ahh and pat me on the back for a job well done, dig the fact that seven year old Michael and five year old Dana were instrumental in the completion of this project - in other words, they helped a lot. Now "helping" in this case didn't mean sitting next to Dad and handing over the glue when he asked for it, Helping means I picked up a piece,. Mike picked up a piece, Dana picked up a piece, and we all started painting. They put on the basic color, the black wash, and glued down the grass and the shrubs. No kidding. I'm proud of their budding artistic skills. The only reason they didn't help me mix up the kitty litter and glue for basing is that they both started helping me do that years ago, and they are both very much burned out on that particular act.

The theme of this column could be that if they can do it, then so can you, but nay, Wargaming Bruthas, this is just a way to trick you into reading a new version of the old theme, The Graying of the Hobby. The fresh tack here is that I am not a doom-sayer. Matter-of-fact, it looks to me like the hobby is picking up steam. Whether or not wargaming stays as we know it might be another story.

Now in terms of older people versus younger people, take a look around your gaming scene and see if you can agree with this observation. I went to Historicon last year and three smaller cons after that, and none of these places were full of gray-haired old men. Quite the opposite it was, really. Historicon impressed me as having become a real family affair. I was struck by the amount of father-son combos, and there was quite a few of very sporting wives and daughters in tow as well. Every local con I went to had lots of young men with full dark hair growing on their heads, and many of them weren't yet old enough to shave. Most of these people did not look like they'd been forced to come to these events.

This greening of the hobby, if you will, is also apparent on a personal level. My friend Steve Shotwell has a seven year old son who is already a true wargaming brutha without the need of prompting from Dear Old Dad. Steve proudly complains that if his son only nags him into one wargames a week, he's doing good. On the home front, both of mine would rather paint or create than game, but hey, so would I. My son has an interest for Romans and navies, but my daughter is the one with the sincere love for miniatures. She's fascinated with any small scale buildings and always wants them for her own, a sure sign.

She was so impressed with the castle project we got her something to work on herself. I took a small Styrofoam house) cut out a small Styrofoam hill, and gave it to her to paint up, which she promptly did. Looks better than some of you mugs could do.

Enough accolades for Generation XI. Hopefully you feel there's an increasing interest from the young as well. Now what might really be scaring you is the decidedly different tack they're taking - you know, MAGIC, Games Workshop, computer games - but we are what we eat. All of us middle-aged guys were raised on tales of Daniel Boone and the knowledge that Fess Parker was Davy Crockett, so it was only natural we'd want to build log stockades, fight Indians or defend the Alamo. Things have changed. Nowadays I watch my son and cronies playing with Star Trek action figures, and if any soldiers are involved, they're blasting aliens. And so what? They're gaming. And what do you expect? Movies and popular opinion sway the young just like anyone else. It's probably politically incorrect to even argue with Indians nowadays, let alone fight them. As far as movies go, there's been Gettysburg, Glory, Last of the Mohicans and now, Rough Riders, but there's also been Star Wars, Independence Day, Men in BlackI watch--Last of the Mohicans with my son, and say, "Did you like it?" He says, "It's okay, but it wasn't as good as Independence Day."' Why? Because there wasn't enough action. The visual treat provided by action film special effects, computer or virtual reality games has captured him just like countless others. Even the marketing is geared to this kind of thought, as far as the general public is concerned. Seen any Last of the Mohican playacts? No? How about Star War action figures? Maybe a couple of those? How about a bunch of those?

Wargaming will be there in the 21st Century, because we are a discipline that will not go away. Sure, a lot of garners will take advantage of technological innovations of the time, like some new virtual reality game that puts you as a German squadie in Stalingrad. After all, we're a real want- it-now bunch, and taking the time to paint all those little guys just for the sake of a game can, well, take a lot of time. At the end however, there will always be those young boys who get a gleam in their eye when they see a bunch of well-painted toy soldiers. Like us, they won't be able to tell you I why they love it so, they just will. Like. us, they'll want soldiers of their own. They'll start looking around for figures, and it may take them years, but they'll find them.

If we're going to bemoan the graying of the hobby, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to get our name out there to help these young men film us. Heroes like Jim Birdseye who put on demonstration games in public places help a great deal. We should be putting on demos regularly at schools and libraries. Since we have a central organization like-HMGS, this would be a great thing for them to encourage all their chapters to do. It's well known that HMGS has swollen coffers, it would be great to see them give several thousand dollars to public Broadcasting stations to encourage historical films or advocate miniatures hobbies. I'm naive and idealistic enough to think that if you give someone several thousand dollars annually, they're willing to listen to what you're interests are - unless they're your ex-wife. I guess there's much we could do, and many ideas on how to do it - maybe we should ask some of these new young-gainers how best to make others aware of us, so there'll be a lot more young gamers. Till next time, Wargaming Bruthas.