NEWS FLASH: Per Maj Bill Hatting at HMGS South, HMGS Rocky Mountain is disbanded, but a new HOGS West, focusing on northern CA and the central valley is created in Provisional status. More info to follow. Hope the HMGSW rep sends me some info (hintl hint!).

No new clubs!!! That hasn't happened in awhile. However, I did receive several informative and friendly letters from some of our less well known groups. Charlie Clay of the Riverbluff Irregulars in Memphis wrote to inform me of their new location in Gamemasters hobby shop. According to him, the owners Shawn and Melodie have provided a very gamer-friendly atmosphere for the group to play in. Dedicated space for miniature warming, linked computers to facilitate game play, and of course a wide selection of items that Garners need to pursue their hobby. The Irregulars are informal, meet every Thursday there at 1800 hours, and play almost everything. Lately they have enjoyed DBM ancients and Armati, wild west skirmish using Desperado!, Sword and Flame colonial, WWII naval using General Quarters, and WWII land warfare using Command Decision. Members also support NASHCON and other local conventions. Good to hear from you Charlie!

Next is an update from the Confederation of Friends in Indiana They meet in Owensville, and have recently expanded their numbers to eight regular members. Duke Robinson, their President, relays that these guys have really gone Napoleonic crazy the past few weeks. Games have included the invasion of Sicily by Naples, North Italians vs. Austrians in 1814, Poles vs. Swedes, Bavarians vs. Portuguese, the Imperial Guard vs. 30,000 British, and a tournament pitting French vs. Austrians in 1809. Their next event is Poles vs. Northem Italians. Obviously we have some budding marshals out in the American breadbasket. How about an article for MWAN guys discussing your tournament format, the rules you use, or campaigns you have rurt?

Rodney Fernald wrote asking me to inform all of you that his address for contacting the BattleGroup Boston gang has changed to 123 Forest St., Watertown MA. The club has moved, too. They are renting space in Maiden MA. They have now added some club storage, and have room to run 34 games simultaneously, or, if you're a real masochist, one very large game with billions of figures!! Okay, maybe not that many. However, you can join these folks every Friday and Saturday night, and they post their game schedule on their web page at http://lynx.new.edu/home/httpd/b/bgb/bgb1.htm. Recent events include Overlord, Clear for Action (Napoleonic naval), Command Decision, and Johnny Reb III. For a twist, the occasional Warhammer 40K (go Gobbos!) game is played. They are also working toward a Samurai skirmish event in the future (paint faster!). Thanks for the note Rodney.

Leon Stone (unfortunately no relation to Sharon Stone) sent me an informative report about the 13th Regiment located in Princeton IN. They have been working hard to spruce up their gaming digs, installing more lights, fans, and another table, bringing their gaming area to 4' X 40' or smaller portions thereof. An air-conditioning vent is next on the list. Fire and Fury using I5mm has kept them busy when the tools are not in their hands. In the past three months they have fought Gettysburg, First Bull Run, Champion Hill (twice), and two scenarios created by member Rick Roney Club President Roy Massey ran a couple WWII games including the North African Operation Crusader, as well as a port assault using Brits and Gamans (doesn't anyone call than Krauts anymore??). Congratulations are also in order. The club passed its 4th anniversary on 15 October!! They are always looking for new members, so give them a call.

Tornado Alley HMGS returns to our pages with issue #28 of their magazine Tornado Alert. President Richard Houston leads things off with an interesting letter from Bill gray of HMGS evaluating the number of boardgamers (~20,00.0) and miniature wargamers (~35,000) in the US of A. Very interesting as I remember the days when the boargamers numbered nearly 100,000 and miniature garners under 5000. Barrie Lovell wrote an interesting article about small unit actions in Vietnam and the game Free Fire Zone, including some interesting scenarios. Other notes, figure reviews by Jonathan Keepers and others, game club listings, and upcoming evenb round out the issue. Don't forget their flagship convention Twistercon Vl in March 1998 in Oklahoma Crty. If you live in Tornado Alley, consider contacting these hearty garners for a game or three.

Heart of America HMGS continues their tradition of excellent publishing with the latest Communique. The issue opens with a lengthy and informative article discussing the strategic and military implications of Pearl Harbor, and includes a nice bibliography. A DBM 200 point Late Imperial Roman Army is highlighted. And Greg Costikyan writes a fascinating article on the death of boardgames. Mark Duncan rourids out the rag with upcoming events (3 pages worth!), notes on HAHMGS contributions to Historicon, including the very colorful armor games in the bocage, and his essay on "how I blew my summer " As usual, HAHMGS is a fine group of garners who would love to have you drop in for a game. Next issue should recount their October con Border Wars. Enjoy.

Big Muddy Historical Gaming Alliance is getting excited about HAHMGS Border Wars which has moved to St Louis this year. Members are already preparing to run a variety of games covering all periods. The newsletter featured several good articles. The first covered the evolution of medieval arms and armor by Blake Walker, followed by Bob Stusse' article about the Peninsular campaign battle of Busaco in 1810. Clark Johnson added an informative article about the War of 1812, including a scenario for the battle of Chippewa. Big Muddy has a web page now, too, at http://www.apci.net/~ipw4/bigmuddy/bigmud1.htm. Any St Louis area gamer should check these buys out.

HMGS East puts out the most organized, and informative (from a club administration perspective) newsletter around. But my God it's DRY! Actually, these guys work very hard at putting on great conventions, running the largest HMGS (1000+ members), and being the leaders for the whole hobby. The new leadership is in, and the latest newsletter is filled with details about organizational changes, new convention rules for organizers and vendors, and budget stuff. The bright spots were Bob Giglio's (new Prez) description of the new convention FALL IN! in November, an eye-opening article by Otto Schmidt on the decline of Sunday gaming at conventions, and off course Scott Holder's Ancients report (208 players at Historicon!) You can't go wrong enlisting in this outfit if you haven't already.

Getting my copies of the HMGS Mid-South Dispatch, and reading the ramblings from Maj Bill is like seeing an old friend. Gives me that warm fuzzy feeling. Besides the dizzying list of events, the August and September issues held many delightful articles. M6j Bill tells you about WWII naval colors, Pete Panzeri's "Western Fort on the Cheap," a positive review of Verb Vidi Vici flags, "Redneck Etiquette" [not directly applicable to wargaming but pretty funny; i.e.

When dancing, never remove undergarments, no matter how hot it is], a 17th century Ottoman and Polish Lithuanian army lists for Armati, Blue Max errata, several WWI aircraft articles, a 25mm WWII East Front skirmish scenario by Bill Hogan, on the Junkers Dl, a refight of Hungarians and Mongols using triple-sized DBA armies and some novel light horse archer rules, and of course, the humorous Dear Nub letters. Whew! Join this merry band of wargamers and give yourself a treat.

El Camino Real Post continues to offer the southwest a useful collection of events information, gaming locations, and individual "want ads" for opponents. Dave Downs added a short bit on some mail order experiences he's had recently that is worth reading. Don Wolff keeps the package neat and regular in the mail box. If you're a Rio Grande Valley resident this is a very useful publication.

Bill Hogan continues to add even more color pictures in the HMGS South newsletter "Rebel Yell." It looks very nice and includes useful stuff like camouflage patterns on vehicles and unifonns. Their flagship convention Hurricon97 is in two weeks in Tampa FL. Äwish I could make it out there. Features of the last two issues of RY include several nice color plates as I mentioned, a Command Decision Tournament system by Thomas J. Thomas, an ACW history lesson on Fort Barancas in Florida, a continuation of WWlI microarmor listings, an article on the Russian heavy tank 2592 and 2595 translated from the Russian armor magazine "Armor Collection," a list of great and infamous commanders considered unfit for duty at one time or another [very enlightening], WWII helmet markings, an excellent article and scenario for the Russian retreat from Moscow in 1814 by Greg Sawinos, classified ads, clubs, and much more. Floridians and other southerners are encouraged to sign up.

Lion's Den Wargamers are beginning to sound like a publishing company! Guess what? They are! Their latest newsletter announced the release of Fighter Command WWII air-to-air rules at The Punic Wars convention in the Branson MO College of the Ozarks gym this past September. In addition, they also publish Theater of Operations WWII skirmish rules, Aurigae chariot racing rules, Bleeding Kansas gunfight rules, and Gnatz Air Combat rules for modem air-to-air combat. The newsletter includes some added information on the lager. They are also available on MagWeb (our own Russ Lockwood's electronic magazine). Great gamers with great minds.

NOVAG held its annual convention NOVAGCON in August. Largest attendance in years--and all weekend! I managed to play in an ACW ironclads game and get all of my ships sunk. Boo- Hoo! Guess I should stick to Air Force stuff rather than Navy stuff. I did pretty well in Hal Dyson's WWI biplane game. Had the opportunity to chat with a fellow (can't remember the name--sorry) about scale gaming in ACW. He has a marvelous terrain layout and plays in I Omm at the company level. You can field any unit you want, and he records it for posterity so that others don't duplicate it. He had lots of very interesting ideas. Watched my son Drew and a friend wade into a huge Warhammer Fantasy battle with over 3000 figures! My highlight was playing a royalist unit in a Marlburian skirmish. I killed two of three musketeers, several towns folk, and made off with lots of gold and the town cannon. Huzzah! Our illustrious Dave Luff is running Cold Wars this year--good luck Dave. Join us on Fridays and Saturdays at the Game Parlor in Chanblly, VA, or at the several Gaming Realms stores in the area. Napoleon's Battles is the favorite, but many other games show up each night. DBA/DBM on Saturdays. We have ova 250 members, and we'd like you to join us.

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