Greetings from soggy Virginia. Not much winter this year, just rain, rain, rain. However, I think California has been hit worse as I don't see anyone here standing on top their pickup to stay out of the flood. Our first new club this month is the Triangle of Fire, North Coast Gaming Association. Their leader David Mebust wrote a short note introducing his group to us. They play in David's house in Astoria OR and are looking for new recruits. They can be reached at 19 Nehalein Ave, Astoria OR 97103. Welcome David and gang.

Our next newcomer is Henry Thomson and the Western Oregon Wargamers (WOW). Henry started WOW in 1972 ?!?!9` 1 using an SPI mailing fist for Oregon. Amazing. They get together on Thursday. Friday, and Saturday in a rented office space in Portland, thus paying monthly dues. They muster nearly 100 members, with 40-50 in regular attendance, playing all manner of periods and rules. There are currently four campaigns in progress including ancients, space, fantasy medievaL and stock car racing. They hold an annual convention at the Portland Convention Center in October. Sounds like these folks have their act together. You can reach Henry and WOW at 145 Yale Ave., Gladstone OR 97027 or hthomson@teleport.com.

Useful articles fill the latest Citadel - from HMGS Northwest. John Frietag starts with a Napoleonic refight of the Battle of Thalmessing (Austrians vs. French) featuring nice terrain maps and battle blow-by-blow. I especially enjoyed the non-game mechanics description of ebb and flow of battle. Jim Mead wrote a nice piece on the critical naval battle of Lissa in 1811 which crippled Napoleon's attempt to invade the Ottomans. Finally, Dave Shueler gave us a conversion piece for AM, Conliffe's Crossfire rules in Vietnam, including detailed OB's and leader personality quirks. Support their cons, Salute98 in March and Enfilade! in May.

I was pleased to read a letter from Mike Demana of HMGS Great Lakes. He informs me that they are under new management and that Matt Davidson has taken the helm. Their major gaming area is Dayton OH. but are actively seeking members in other Great Lakes states. Membership currently stands at about 180 and I added several of their regional clubs to the Mega List. They plan to hold their flagship convention Advance the Colors in the Holiday Inn in Morraine OH in September, so mark you calendars. They are also supporting Pete Panzeri's effort to gather new gainers from the unenlightened fantasy masses at Origins through Pete's "HMGS Origins Team" or HOT '98. Their newsletter is reformatted and included several good articles on DBM, and ancients campaign, figure reviews, events, and much more. Drop in on these lads-I plan to next time I'm in town. Your point of contact is Matt Davidson, 193 Rosemarie Dr., Lebanon OH 45035, (513) 932-1232 or jmd@your-net.com.

Lion's Den Wargamers continue to be busy. The Penny Whistle reports several of their upcoming events including support for HMGS Tornado Alley's Twistercon in March. The highlight, however, was a lengthy Don Featherstone article on "Fighting Assessment"-how to rate the troops you want to use in relation to their enemies. Ideal for those doing primary research and wanting to tweak their current rules or write new ones. After reading the article I immediately saw where the ideas of regular and irregular troops evolved, and other tactical factors that populate current rules sets. Other notes included the results of their electric football tournament. Sounds fun if not historical. Go Lion's Den.

I United States Pike & Shot Federation sends out congratulations to their Reiter Champions from 1997. They run a year long tournament/league using up to 6 different rules covering various pike & shot armies/wars, thought DBR is the most played. You get points for win, lose or draw, factored by your opponent's army score. It's somewhat complicated but not tied to rule sets so it doesn't matter what you play. Neat! Total of 47 participants this year and over 200 games played. Loren Deitels won, receiving a $25, a gift certificate, and free club membership for the, year. Great idea. Lesser prizes to 2nd and P.

Tornado Alley HMGS has their annual Twistercon in March at the Tradewinds Best Western in OKC March 22-24. Besides ginning up for that they have created some interesting articles in their newsletter. The first concerns the Southwest Pacific Battle of Vella Gulf, fought as an air campaign. The second is the Dervish campaign of 1889 in Egypt. Lots of good OB's and tidbits here. Nice job Scott Saylors. Mark Megehee adds a set of WWII air-to-air rules. Hopefully they are all hiding from the bad weather out there.

More news from the Big Muddy Historical Gaming Alliance. Their Battle of the Bulge theme day went well this past January, with 30 players and 75 observers. Membership has grown to 60 and more are joining weekly. They also have a Peninsula campaign going on and it sounds as if some very un-historical armies are fighting quite well there. Local games continue at Games, Crafts, Hobbies an Such and die Hobby Shop, in addition to the 20 regional events on their calendar. Check out this energetic bunch on their web page at http://www.apci.net/-ipw4/bigmuddy/bigmudl.htm.

El Camino Real Post is up to 26 members and still offering free regular regional gaming access for all those chaps located in the dustier regions of our country (i.e. New Mexico, Texas, and surrounding area).

HMGS East sent out their membership issue recently. Now I tossed it into my "to read" pile to make this column and forgot about it. But Bob Schram, little known neighbor of mine didn't-he read it and discovered there are 10 gainers who five in my little city of Burke VA! Amazing. Six of us gathered early on Superbowl Sunday to study Bob's 15,000 nicely painted 25mm Napoleonics [jealous Hal?], start early beer swilling, and get acquainted. Now I have a game to play only 5 blocks away rather than my typical 30+ minute drive, and five now friends. Thanks East and Bill Gray for the hard work!

NOVAG continues its strong game playing at the Game Parlor in Chantilly VA. Our Napoleonic campaign is back in gear after the holiday hiatus, and yours truly nearly got waxed by three (help!) Russian corps but escaped by the skin of my teeth. Next time Greg will get me-third times a charm. ; - ) Dan Wiley continues to run his WWI ace airplane game, drawing 10 or more gainers each night. Others have experimented with microarmor, old west gunfights, and Warhammer variants. We average 50 garners every Friday and Saturday---drop in and join us.

HMGS Mid-South continues to thrive under the tutelage of Bill Harting. The newsletter is peppered with small gaming vignettes, good ideas, news, and fun to read stuff. This large but tight knit group corresponds, passes good ideas, and plays a lot of games. Pete Panzeri mentions the incredible opportunities for modern armor/warfighting enthusiasts with all the brushfire wars going on around the world. Chris Brown describes some inexpensive and easy terrain ideas, Bill adds info about naval colors as well as a piece on Fort Monroe. Finally, Colonel Dave Beatty describes some of his excellent historical finds and adventures while riding with the Sixth Fleet in the Med. I'm saving that article for my file-very interesting Macedonia/Persian uniform information. All in all, you can't go wrong checking out Bin and his folks at Mid South.

HMGS Heart of America is busy as ever. Their two excellent cons are in April and October--Call to Arms and Border Wars respectively are in Kansas City and St Louis. Saturday simulations can be found at Fort Leavenworth KS, as well as the occasional event at the Frontier Army Museum. Neat newsletter items included Dave Conrad's instructions on how to build a foam cutter, the history of Russian and Soviet armored trains, and a cute one-page "newsletter" called Nagayka Newspaper of the All Cossack Congress, describes events unfolding in the Russian Civil War campaign. Interesting. I told you these were wild and crazy guys.

Received a short note from Pete Panzeri updating his address change for HMGS Gainers international. See Mega List. Pete is very busy impressing die crowds at Fall In with his magnificent Indian vs. Cavalry events, and trying to organize the "HMGS Origins Team '98" or HOT98. Anyone can sign up for the team, get discounts on entry for running games, cam cash bonuses for HMGS of up to $1000 for participating, spread the word to the uneducated fantasy masses, and have a good time. Demo a new game, ran something fun and familiar. Whateverjust call Pete and volunteer. ORIGINS is July 2-5 in Columbus OH this year, run by Andon Unlimited (professional convention organizers).

That's it for this issue folks. Drop me a line and tell me about your club and its latest game, campaign, event, or member's accomplishments. I love to write about that stuff. I'm on e-mail now at Izmud@aol.com so you have no excuses. Ciao!

MEGA List of 117 Clubs