Trench Warfare and Trenchant Views: Thoughts on Early Access All Quiet in the Trenches

When Ignatius, my hard-to-please shoulder gnome, says All Quiet in the Trenches “lacks teeth” I know he’s thinking about the gruesome sawtooth Seitengewehr 98 that we occasionally handled as youngsters. Why my father owned a WW1 ‘butchers blade’ I couldn’t tell you. Although interested in military history, he wasn’t a weapon collector. Maybe it had been bought cheap from some local bric-a-brac emporium. It certainly wasn’t an inherited souvenir. My great-grandfather didn’t bring anything back from the Western Front, not even himself.

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Friday Foxer #161

Every Friday, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. All are welcome to participate.

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A2Z

A is for Alphabetised wargame, sim, and site news. Now and again, assuming I can persuade Austerity’s Blackburn Cirrus Bombardier engine to perform the miracle of internal combustion, I spend a few days scouring Simulatia and Grognardia for stories with the potential to fascinate, startle, cheer, dismay or amuse. Those stories are then dehydrated, alphabetised and delivered, via articles like this one, to people who’ve got better things to do than plough through puff and platitudes.

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Permit me to railroad you into buying Railroader

If there’s a more fortunate variety of vehicle simulationist than the rail simmer, I’m unaware of them. While the likes of the truck, bus, boat, and airliner enthusiast might, if they’re lucky, have a couple of strong, singular, supported titles to choose from, the iron horse fan has, by my calculations, at least six. Up until the end of last year, I’d have classified three of that half-dozen – Derail Valley, Diesel Railcar Simulator, and Train Simulator Classic – as truly indispensable. Now Early Access Railroader has arrived, I’m tempted to say there are four ‘essential’ commercial rail sims.

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