Another Fall, another NOVAGCON! For those of you who missed it, my condolences. We have MANY good (and good looking too!) games, a good number of vendors and flea marketeers, and attendance was pretty good also, though a little lighter than last year, I think. Of course, I'm using the SWAG method of judging that, since we don't really track the number of people very well...

We had about 25 games run on Saturday, and many were really good looking games. And though I'm admittedly biased, I think that NOVAGCON, on average, has the best looking garnes of any show around. This is why I am convinced that we should try to organize a "NOVAG Room" at future HMGS East Conventions, starting with the upcoming Cold Wars. If you have run games there, or are already planning on it for next year, and are interested in participating, let me know. We can do this!

Going back to NOVAGCON now... Games run on Saturday morning included BOTH a DBM and a WRG Tournament; a truly MASSIVE Warhammer Fantasy Battle - "The Siege of Kislev" put together by Andy Faris (it lasted ALL DAY, so pity him!); Several games (American Rev War, WWII, and Modern) run by Old Dominion Gameworks (Thanks Jon!); Hailey Wynn pht together a real nice looking "Normandy Counterattack" game; multiple Warhammer 40K Demonstration Games were run by John Haire, Games Workshop Outrider; the ever-present and under-appreciated Hal Dyson with Aerodrome was there (all day!); Scott Fisher graced us with a Battleground WWII scenario covering part of the battle for Sedan in 1940; Vince Rowe brought back his French and Indian skirmish game "Death in the Deep Woods" back again; and Tim Tilson and John Brown ran Ancients (Bibracte 59 B.C.).

In the afternoon, Bob and Cleo ran "Welcome to Mr. Akbar's Neighborhood" (ask 'em about it!); Tim Tilson and John Brown were back with 18th Century (Dettingen 1743) scenarios; I tried to control my zany "Gorkamunda" game; Rob Wayment and Don Hauser ran a Spanish Civil War scenario; Hailey Wynn gave us a dose of NAPOLEONIC Brother Against Brother (or would that be "Bruder gegen Bruder??"); Dan Willey brought back the Old West with his "Wanted: Dead or Alive"; Roxanne Patton ran another Brother Against Brother game, Civil War this time, but in 15mm!; and finally, Ray Koch finished off the evening with "East Front - 1760".

Sunday's action included a smaller, if no less intense set of games. Hal Dyson returned with yet more Aerodrome (where he finds the patience, I'll never know!); Hailey Wynn ran a stunning WWII East Front game of "The Tractor Factory"; Michael Byrne ran a "Pig Wars" game, John Haire gave us a little game of Piquet; and I ran ANOTHER (can you believe it!) game of Brother Against Brother, this time an ACW game in 25mm.

I know, I know, I missed some. There were a few games added and some I most surely overlooked, but despite my poor administrative skills, you can be sure that your efforts ARE appreciated! Thanks to everyone who helped make NOVAGCON such a fine show, and an unqualified success!

Thanks from me personally goes out to the all the guys that sat at the front desk performing the dull chore of admissions desk work. This convention, as simple as it is, still needs the help of a number of people to work. Thanks guys.

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding NOVAGCON and the way we handled it, feel free to send them in! Of course, any suggestions that hint at doing something new, or that involves work, expect to receive a reply like "That's a GREAT idea! How'd you like to organize that??" I guess, even though I like having these conventions, I am only willing to put so much time into them. (If I had wanted to go nuts and run a big/complicated convention I could have volunteered to help out with an HMGS-East con.)

That said, I can't control the internal desire to do new things and try out ne ideas, which leads me back to my concept of having the NOVAG membership work together to sponsor a room full of games at the upcoming Cold Wars. I don't need full descriptions now, but I will need commitments from you. Information that I will need consists of the game's Time Period/Theme; what day and time you think you might run it; how big an area you would need; and any other details that might affect scheduling of your game. I would like to get a GOOD list of games together before the beginning of December, so use the next month to think about it.