This issue represents both an end and a beginning for The Grenadier. It marks the end of The Grenadier as a house publication of Game Designers' Workshop. Of what it is a beginning will only become clear over the course of the next several issues, to readers and editor alike. John Astell and his colleagues at the Workshop have set a standard of editorial excellence which would be hard to equal, let alone surpass. I would not presume to claim that the new version of The Grenadier will be better than the old, but it will be different.

Starting next issue, The Grenadier will be enlarged to full magazine size, and as soon as it become practical, it will be appearing on a bimonthly schedule. From its inception, it was intended that The Grenadier would do more than cover the Workshop and its products, but for various reasons the desire to provide more of a hobby-wide overview has never quite been fulfilled. As an independently published magazine, we hope to be in a better position to present such an overview. Our publisher, Jeffry Tibbetts, has pledged to put all the resources he can muster at my disposal to achieve this end. But the success of The Grenadier depends not only on its staff, it depends also on you, its readers. The intended two-fold expansion will require that we publish two or three times as much wordage as in the past, and this must come from somewhere. If you think you are knowledgeable on some aspect of military history or of the wargaming hobby, and are able to express your ideas well on paper, please do not be shy about submitting articles.

Our greatest need is for in-depth reviews of new and innovative game systems, but everything that is submitted will be carefully read and considered.

In the course of making this expansion and these changes, we will not neglect the past and forget our origins. The Grenadier grew out of the Europa Newsletter, and its first twelve issues have been dominated by articles relating to the Europa system. Europa will continue to be a major part of every issue of The Grenadier. Several regular contributors have expressed an interest in continuing to write for us, and we hope to have at least one substantial Europa related article plus a Europa Notes column in each issue.

We are gratified with the expressions of support we have received from readers and with the large number of subscription renewals we have received. We hope to prove worthy of your trust. If there is anything you like or dislike about what we are doing, or if you have suggestions or ideas about how to improve The Grenadier, or just thoughts that might be of interest to the wargaming public, please write. As editor, I need some idea of what readers think I am doing right and what I am doing wrong. If I know what you think, I will be better able to serve you. Letters that are of general interest to readers will be published in a letter column.

This issue has stronger links to The Grenadier's past than to its future, in content as well as in format. The lead article, on French armor in 1940 by long-time contributor Paul F.X. Dunigan, is the kind of carefully researched study readers have come to expect from The Grenadier. Some features are new, however. The State of the Art column has been replaced by Short Arms: Reviews in Brief, which will attempt to cover, briefly and as promptly as possible, most of the new games that are published. Shelton Yee, who reviews SPI's Battle of Austerlitz in this issue, will be a regular contributor. The View from Our Bunker by Clint Bigglestone and Terry Jackson, and 9:00 by Jack Radey, will be regular features if they meet with reader support. I await your comments.