AAR question

[Ghaust the Moor]

this is probably a noobish question, but If I were to write an aar that was so long that it took place in Europa Barbarorum through Medivel 2 total war and maybe Empire total war, where would I post it?

[Molinaargh]

Mead Hall: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=37

That's where I have my RTW + MTW AAR.

[DaciaJC]

Since it starts within EB's timeframe, I would keep it in the EB AAR section, at least initially. Can you offer details?

[Ghaust the Moor]

Mead Hall: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=37

That's where I have my RTW + MTW AAR.

Oh dangit. I thought I was the first to think of that. oh well

@frontline: like what kind of details?

[DaciaJC]

Oh, like what faction you're planning to play as, the tone of the AAR, your goals, etc. Unless, of course, all of this is purely hypothetical.

[Molinaargh]

Oh dangit. I thought I was the first to think of that.

I doubt anyone was ever the first to think of something.

It does make sense to keep the EB part in the EB AAR forum if you're not going to play the different games simultaneously (which I'm doing).

[Ghaust the Moor]

I actually plan on doing it, but as to what faction I have no idea. I still have to do some research. I plan on doing it like a history book that plays a realistic campaign (vh/vh) and playing the story in succsesion, starting from eb all the way to etw hopefully. I'll take any suggestions. It will be written from the faction leaders pov. It is going to be rped as a book that has been passed down form king to king that each one records what has been done during his reign. I'll occasionally give insights to the culture of the time, depending on the cicumstances of the game

[DaciaJC]

Most forum members, including I, would caution you against a battle difficulty of Very Hard, as it completely skews the effectiveness and use of units. Some may even warn against a Very Hard campaign difficulty, which may leave no course outside of blitzing. 'Tis your choice, of course.

[Ghaust the Moor]

Oh, Alright. I sort of figured that that was the most historiclly accurate setting, but I didn't know. What would you say is the most realistic?

[DaciaJC]

The EB team recommends Very Hard campaign, Moderate battle. Certainly I wouldn't go above Hard battle; Moderate is the best, as neither you nor the AI gain any artificial bonuses in unit stats.

However, in this thread, several members are arguing that Very Hard campaign leaves little room for role-playing/AARs, and so M/M is the way to go. Personally, I'm fine with VH/M. Depends on which faction you want to play as, I suppose.

[Ghaust the Moor]

What is a good faction to play as that can be represented in EB, M2TW, and maybe ETW?

[Owen Glyndwr]

this is probably a noobish question, but If I were to write an aar that was so long that it took place in Europa Barbarorum through Medivel 2 total war and maybe Empire total war, where would I post it?

Well, If I recall correctly, Olaf Blackeyes started an AAR with the Sweboz, and is now into Invasio Barbarorum/BI, and his is on the EB AAR section.

I suppose if you really wanted to you could start as Romans in EB, and then roleplay on as the Byzantines into BI and MTW, however, it wouldn't go much further than that. It's really hard to do one that goes on to E:TW as there aren't really any nations that I can think of which reigned continuously from 270 BC to the 1700s (Many of the "European Nations" which we have now originated in some way or form from the various migration which occured in the late Roman Empire, i.e. Franks=France, Angles=England, etc.)

If anyone can think of one, let me know.

[Ghaust the Moor]

I probably won't go into ETW. There are too few factions to be worht it and like you said, it would be innaccurate.

I was thinking, maybe doing:


Scotland
/
Casse-- England
\
Saxons

Portugal
/
Lussotanna--Spain
\
Moors


Venice
/ Holy Roman Empire
/ /
Rome---- Papal states
\ \ \
\ \ Milan
\ Byzantine Empire
Sicily


Gallic tribes--Denmark
\
France


Getae-- Hungary



All of this depend on how the game turns out though. I am not goin to make this a conquer the world AAR. Towards the end of the EB campaign I will let the country fall into a decline, I won't let it be destroyed ever though. I plan on starting M2TW as if the new king has become ambitious and he has made his mind to renew the greatness of his kingdom. There of course will be a time gap between in the story, to illustrate the harsh times the kingdom was going through as if a dark age has been entered.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

I think it is a GRAND idea! I wanted to do a RTW + M2TW one someday, but (hehe) I'd need to get M2TW first.

But all THREE would really be something! And if you added expansions to get Barbarian Invasion to cover between RTW and M2...

Of course, you would have to do a considerable amount of writing between the joints of RTW > M2 > ETW, to make it plausible.

Or you could kinda start in ETW and rp that an archaeologist found some records of the X tribe, and then go into RTW from there...


The Casse or Gauls would be easy; they are pretty important in all three games.

Anyways, I will SO balloon you if you do it. And if you finish I will put you in my sig for OTHER people to balloon you, untill you have a whole fleet of them.

Good luck!

[Ghaust the Moor]

I would have to get ETW first as well. I don't think I'll go into it though. Not enough variation in the factions. I will stick to EB- M2TW. What is a good faction to use?

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Well, if you have BI you could do some more variation.

As far as my thinking takes me, to play any faction, you would kinda need to play parts of several different campaigns. Well, not really; only if you wanted to make it historical. If you wanted to play the english in M2 for instance, then you could start as the Casse, play that for a bit, then play as Rome and conquer a chunk of Britain. Then you would have to start a BI game and play as the Celts and get Britain back, then you'd have to play the Saxons and invade Britain.

Then you would have more or less a proper historical intro to it, unless you wanted it to be completely ahistorical. Then you could just start with x and go bonkers!

You could even conquer 3/4 of the map as x faction in EB, then rp that when you start M2, the FL that conquered the world in EB died, and his empire fragmented into all the M2 civs! Kinda like Alexader.

Or what you could do, is play (for instance Casse), win the Casse campaign, then play another game where you're the Gauls or Iberians or something, give the victory condition cities to Casse, and then play until you shove the Casse out of europe. Then you could move into M2 and play the rebirth of the British empire or something.

Anyways, those are just a few ideas as far as structure; I like to do stuff like that to break it up and set it apart from your ordinary AAR theme. I'm planning one as Pontus, but it will start out in Galatia... before the time of Mithridates I Ksistes...

Anyways, as to the faction...

I suppose there are M2 equivalents to many of the EB civs. Your web of x=x=x is quite good!

Casse=Britain
Gauls=French
Lusotannan=Spanish
Germans=HRE (to make that work you'd have to use BI) or Danish
Rome=Byzantium (you'd want BI for that too)
Carthage=one of the berber kingdoms (I assume they have one in M2? you could rp that Tunisia is
Carthage reborn)
Egypt=Egypt
Parthia+Armenia=Sassanids=Turks or any other Arab faction really.

Anyways, you already came up with those urself.
The other nomads, Bartix, and Saba might not really have a place to fit in.

I suppose each of them would be about the same method of developing a storyline...
Casse and Gauls would be the easiest I would think. If you wanted a real challenge you could play as Rome, win that, then switch sides in EB and destroy W. Rome, then play Byzantines in M2.

Anyways, I'm sure It'll be quite good! If you need help with anything (but I can't imagine what that would be; I don't even have M2! ) ring me up!

[Silence Hunter]

Just an idea: you can play as the nomads from the East devastating everything in their path.

So in EB - Pahlava or Saka (devastate AS)
BI - Huns (devastate remnants of Roman Empire)
M2 - Mongols (devastate HRE)

This would lead to a 3 similar factions destroying 3 great powers in 3 different time periods. You could also roleplay that they all come from the same background and intervals between invasions are long tribal conflicts, which ends when a great leader arises and unites the nomads.

[Ghaust the Moor]

I want to keep it remotely historical to make it believable, but I want to leave the outcome to chance. I want the AAR to be very culture based, for example if I was the lusotanians and I ruled most of spain but the carthaginians ruled a large southern area and if their citys had large enough populations, I would rp that due to the heavy eastern populations and culture impact, I would play as the moors for M2TW, to illustrate that over time spain has become very arab. I would of course edit starting positions and such.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Do you have BI? That would be a great in-between for RTW and M2.

What about Alex? If you had that one you might even be able to do a little bit of the AAR before the RTW timeframe! Only if you wanted to do a greek faction though.

I suppose in terms of which faction you might as well pick whatever you enjoy best, since most of them could morph into a M2 faction easily enough.

So, is your plan for the AAR to chronicle the events that happen in your game, or are you going to develop a storyline and play out your storyline using the game as a medium? There is quite a difference. The latter makes for a better story IMO, and can be equally enjoyable, if not more so. A lot more RP goes into it of course.

And your method will have a significant effect on how you go about writing it.

Say, I have an AAR question of my own, kinda silly perhaps:
why doesn't anybody ever finish an AAR, and THEN post it? Then you wouldn't have 95% of AARs dying half-way through. I assume its because people are just too busy. Although, it would take just the same amount of time to finish it all up and then post it as it would to post it one chapter at a time...

[Ghaust the Moor]

I do have BI and i might use that as an inbetween story, but I'm am a little worried. As most of the map is owned by the romans, I would have to add a new faction, right? I'm not sure.

I plan on making it like a chronocle to a factions history as told from the perspective of the King. He will give alot of in-depth mythology concerning the backround of his people and occasionally give insight into the regular people life.

While it will be a chronocle, It will be very rp heavy and will rely on rp to progress in the campaign. the only cheats used will be forced diplomacy in case the AI goes crazy, and the money cheat, in times of hardship, to simulate that my faction got a booster from an ally. It will be payed back, with FD if I must.

It won't be a story based AAR, but a story will be going on at all times. Each King will have his stories and they are mainly told to hint at his personal backround and charactor. They will happen in real time(sort-of) and will influence my desicions in the campaign.

I was considering playing the game in General camera. Is this a good idea? I have never played for a long time like that. But it makes sense since he is telling the story.

In answer to your question, I think that is a good idea to do that. I think it would be annying though, because you have to set aside very long period of time to upload each chapter and if you do it all at once it would take a verrrrry long time.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Yeah, BI could present some difficulties. But then, (a) that depends on which faction you play, and (b) if you use BI, you don't have to put the BEGINNING of your campaign into the AAR.

If you wanted to play, say, one of the Gauls in EB, and take that into BI, all you have to do is play 1/2 of a game as the Alemanni or something, untill you've taken the BI territories that you had in EB! THEN you could start to show people your campaign progress! That's the best part of AAR writing is that they don't HAVE to see everything you did, as long as everything combines to make a good story.

In my upcoming Pontic AAR, I'm going to play lots of custom battles to spice it up. For instance, there's almost no way I will ever play a large battle where an ally comes to help, but I can set that up in Custom battle! Plus I can fight battles as other factions if I want to for any reason. Perhaps my character will be captured by Parthians... hmmmmm...

Well, you NEVER KNOOOOWWW!!! Anyways, that's what keeps it exciting! (IMO)

I like your method too... telling the story from the viewpoint of each faction leader. That way, you still get the first-person point of view, but you don't have to worry about who will tell the story when your character dies. It automatically passes to the next FL! Very good!

Chirurgeon's Iberian AAR is just what I'm talking about. The character starts as the son of a Carthiginian senator, and ends up chronicling the history of Lusitania!

[johnhughthom]

Say, I have an AAR question of my own, kinda silly perhaps:
why doesn't anybody ever finish an AAR, and THEN post it? Then you wouldn't have 95% of AARs dying half-way through. I assume its because people are just too busy. Although, it would take just the same amount of time to finish it all up and then post it as it would to post it one chapter at a time...

Have you any idea how much time an AAR actually takes? For an AAR like MAA's or one of Chirurgeon's doing it that way would be virtually impossible. Sometimes technical problems end AARs early, or if people don't seem that interested it is easy to lose motivation. For example, I have just had a crash right at the end of a battle for my Interactive Romani AAR that lost me 2 hours of playing, it's very frustrating having to go back to play it again and then spend more time setting up the screenshots and writing it up. I think you might get a shock how much work you will need to put into your AAR, but I'm looking forward to reading it, good luck.

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Yeah, I know Chirurgeon's AAR lasted for over a year; MAA's too.

But as far as my thinking takes me, the time amount is the same whether you post as you go or save it all up and then post it when it's done. Of course, if you wait to post it 'till its done then you would only have like 5 AARs in the forum.

Yeah, I've kept a chronicle of sorts for some of my games and it does take a long time. Although I'm thinking that the worst part will be working with zillions of screenshots. }:P ick.

I expect about a 1-4 ratio of playing to writing, and I have no idea how long it will take to actually set it up with screenies.

No, I'm not suggesting that everybody do it that way. I just thought I might try it. If I can pull it off I expect it will be quite good.

Anyways, GLHF Ghaust!!!

EDIT

Oh, unfortunately due to school I can't really get into my AAR until summertime. But I am mapping it out now.

And good luck with your AAR johnhuntington! I haven't seen it... must go check it out!

[Ghaust the Moor]

I am looking foward to starting. The only parts I am apprehensive about is taking screenies and loss of intrest. I feel distracted when I play a battle an worry about taking good screenshots. I feel my ability is weakend. I also feel less motavated to work if I don't know how people are taking my work. I like to hear lots of feedback. I plan on getting started within the week. I just have pick which faction to play as. Any suggestions?

[Ariovistus Maximus]

I'm guessing that a N. European would be the easiest, if you're going to use BI.

Also, an Asian faction would have HUGE vic. conditions, which would make the transition from EB to BI pretty impossible; you'd have to explain how your faction lost half the provinces on the map going into BI. :)

The Casse and Arverni/Aedui VCs aren't too bad. Or Germania. Lusotannan would be OK except they don't exist in BI... Unless you play as lusotannan, then rp that the berbers took over in the BI timeframe.

If you're worried too much about interest, don't play on too high of a level or you will get drained. M/M should work quite well. And M/M on EB is harder than M/M on BI or M2, so it'll be downhill all the way!!! Also Med. battles would make it easier to replay if you suffer CTDs.

[miotas]

What about playing as sweboz in eb then play as the frankish tribes in bi and then in mtw you could play as england after the norman invasion.

[HunGeneral]

I like you Idea ghaust - I wish you good luckt to it.

If I could then I would suggest you try one you think the most realistic or which you like the most. Personally I would make Saka - Huns - Hungary or something in that line but that is just my idea. You should follow what you think is most makeable. Again good luck to it.

[Ghaust the Moor]

I am currently working on a story and I should have it posted in the EB forums within the week. hopefully

[johnhughthom]

You giving up on your Epirote AAR then?

[Ghaust the Moor]

No defidently not. I just am going to work on both. There seems to be a lack of intrest lately and I havent had enough desicions made in it to post another update yet, thats all. I will not abandon it until people stop posting altogether.