Editorial

J.D.Bardsley

The need for a British board wargaming magazine has been obvious for
some considerable time. The Phoenix is a concerted attempt to fulfil
that need. At this early stage, our main aim is to get the magazine off
the ground. The production costs have been a prime consideration with
size being limited accordingly. These initial costs have been met by
S.P.U.K. but The Phoenix is not envisaged as a "house magazine" and it
must pay its own way as soon as possible. With favourable response, we
hope to produce regular issues at a very reasonable subscription price.
The key word here is "response". We're going to need as wide a range of
contributions as possible, whether game reviews, play strategy, game
reports with historical comparisons of events, rule modifications,
additional scenarios and historical articles. We also need your comments
and ideas about format and content generally. The Phoenix will try to
cover the widest scope to encourage and expand the board war gaming
hobby, but its survival depends on you.

At this point, a grateful thank you is due to all those who answered the
call for contributions in the S.P.U.K. newsletter some months ago.
Without you The Phoenix would still be an idea!

In this first issue, we think we've got off to a very reasonable start.
The game reviews range from the ancient to the modern and cover output
from four publishing companies. The strategy article concerns one of the
most recent S&T folio games. The rule modifications relate to two of the
more popular SPI games. Expanding the content will obviously be one of
our main concerns from now on. Another point in our favour must be that
we have begun by using a printed format. This re-inforces our aim to
achieve permanent existence for The Phoenix .

To cater for all tastes, all of the time, would be impossible but the
use of a "Feedback" system will help us to achieve the most acceptable
balance--so post those replies as soon as possible!