Weekly AAR Showcase: The Necronomicon in Byzantium

[Lord Durham]

As I'm in the process of reacclimatizing myself to AARland, I'll confess that I haven't had the chance to read the AAR presently showcased. I'll rectify that oversight as soon as I can.

But what I really want to do is congratulate CatKnight for showing great initiative in resurrecting the original Weekly Showcase idea, and adding such a delightful twist to it by having the person honoured pass the baton, so to speak.

LD

[anonymous4401]

I know that it is bad form to nominate an AAR from the same forum as the last one nominated, but I cannot help myself. This AAR has captured my heart as a great work of writing and this author has captured my respect as a great writer. What is even more astounding is that this AAR is in fact the first AAR by this newcomer writAAR, invertigo2004.

Playing as the United States of America, this author weaves a rich, novel-like story from the point of view of multiple characters ranging from the President to the common-as-dirt infantryman of the American Expeditionary Force as they hold back the German tide from washing over Europe. The quality of writing in this AAR is seldom surpassed in this forum, and I honesty believe that, had this writer started writing AARs earlier, he would by now be known as one of the greats of the forum. That said, this AAR has, sadly, evaded the vast throngs of fans that it has earned. Hopefully, by giving this week's showcase to this AAR, it will gain the following it deserves.

Please welcome, Jumpstarting the American Century: USA 1936 AAR, by invertigo2004!

[Machiavellian]

An Interesting choice. Congratulations to you Invertigo. In truth I have not yet had the chance to check out your AAR, but should I have some free time I think I shall follow this threads recommendation and give your story a good read.

[stnylan]

Congralutions and very well deserved. Some damned fine writing there.

[coz1]

Congrats! I took a look at the first post and it seems I will have to set aside some time to read through the rest if it was any indication. I knew I should have been getting up to HoI2 more these days.

[invertigo2004]

Wow! Let me say that again. Wow!

First off let me thank anonymous4401 for the nonimation and the kind words. You've been my most loyal reader and commenter, and I look forward to what you have to say every post. Thank you so much for the recognition, and I only wish I could nominate you in turn, since I love your Secrets of the AARk so much.

Second, I must for the umpteenth time reveal how little I still know about these forums. I've gathered from reading above that it's my turn to nominate another AAR, and from what anonymous4401 said, it should be from a different forum. Aside from that, are there any other rules I need to know? How long do I have?

As for my AAR, I really never expected it to morph into what it's become, which honestly is a true labor of love. As you can probably tell by my first post, the AAR was originally intended to be a series of brief scenes from the point of view of President Roosevelt, but, after reading some other AARs, I decided I could do more. That's where my other characters came from (except, of course, for the German characters, which were Kasakka's idea). The style of following various characters of different ranks, backgrounds, services, etc, is very much in the tradition of Harry Turtledove, and the actions scenes are inspired by David Robbins, but the characters themselves are derived from people I know. And in case anyone was wondering, the 3 brothers in the story were not meant to parallel "Saving Private Ryan," although sometimes when I go back and read it seems so.

Thanx again for the recognition and all the kind words. As I've said before, I enjoy the writing almost as much as playing the game...which means I have to hurry up and finish this AAR so I can play my next game before I start having conniptions! hehe

[stnylan]

Well you have a week to decide - the first post in the thread has all the 'rules', such as they are. And AARs do have this little habit of developing all of their own accord Congrats again.

[Fiftypence]

Congratulations to all former winners and to Invertigo2004!

[Adaptation]

Invertigo,if i still played counter strike,i would say

OMG 1337 Wr1t1ng SkillZ,U pwnz!

good thing i don't play counter strike anymore.Anyway,awesome writing keep it up.

[CatKnight]

Congrats Invertigo!

Stynlan's right: The basic 'rules' are on the first post. You don't have to decide until Sunday, until then relax and enjoy your laurels If you have any questions, just PM me.

[Evans]

Glad to see your AAR in the showcase Invertigo! As you know I've followed from start to present, a real favourite of mine

[Judge]

Congrats

[invertigo2004]

First off, let me say picking an AAR for the showcase has been an enlightening experience for me. I realize how limited my horizons have been by sticking to only the HoI2 AARs, as there are some fine and fascinating stories and authAARs out there! It was difficult to pick just one, as there are literally hundreds out there, but one did catch my eye. It's from the EU2 forum, written by the appropriately named Judas Maccabeus, and is called The Eternal City: A Roman AAR. Set in 1419, and based upon the authAARs own mod, it is the story of the rebirth of the Roman Empire as told by a pair of humorously bickering Romans that reminded this reader (and others) of other familiar comic duos (strangely enough, R2D2 and C3PO constantly came to mind). So, without further adeau (did I spell that right?), please read and enjoy the marvelous The Eternal City: A Roman AAR!

Congratulations Judas Maccabeus!

[Fiftypence]

Congrats Judas Maccabeus!

[coz1]

Absolutely deserved! Now, let's just hope you finish this one. I readily give congrats as this is one of your best, JM!

[Machiavellian]

Congratulations JM! You are indeed a fine writer and while I have not yet had a chance to read up to what you've done thus far on this tale, what I have read is quite good.

[anonymous4401]

Congrats!

[Judas Maccabeus]

Well, buy me a Cadillac and call me Elvis. Wasn't quite expecting this! At least the AAR itself wasn't moved this time; last time they did this to me (The Catholic King) they moved it and I went crazy trying to figure out what happened to it!

Sorry to nitpick about this, but the entry for my AAR on the first page is a bit wrong: The country should be Roma (note in my sig it gives the title Imperator Romanum), and besides, Germanicum is an inflected form of Germania. Again, sorry, but I felt it needed to be pointed out.

That aside, why don't we talk about the AAR?

The whole thing came, as mentioned, from a mod. My original idea was a mod of the Roman Republic, from its rise under the first Brutus, to the Punic Wars, until its fall and the coming of Augustus. I figured, however, that that was too ambitious for one person, and I didn't feel like starting a group project. So, I moved on: How about the Roman Empire lasting into 1419? Less ambitious, more fun. Still, it took a whole summer's work to get it into a playable form, and I'm still doing some cleanup work on it. In the middle, though, I made a slight change in its scope: Make it into the Western Empire only, add in Germany, and don't have an unbroken link to ancient Rome: make it Charlemagne's empire instead!

Oh, and there's yet another twist, but that's for later in the story.

The idea for making an AAR around the mod came from another AAR with the same idea: Kurek's unfortunately abandoned Welsh AAR,Dros ryddid gollasant eu gwaed. Good work on his part with what he did; and I'm in no position to complain about abandoned AARs, seeing as how I've abandoned quite a bit of them.

The "bickering Romans" (Gaius Servilius Valentianus and Manlius Farus, for those who haven't read it yet) are really two of their own products. I don't tend to plan ahead much, sometimes not even knowing what I'm going to write in my next post. Thus, they tend to form and evolve based upon what I think on that day. For example, Farus was originally supposed to be merely inexperienced but clever; instead he's turned into a loud-mouthed bigot, mostly to make a contrast for Valentianus.

Also, I did add that in for a bit of humor; I needed something to break up the long narratives on history (which probably will slow down now that I've got most of the necessary background set up) when there wasn't any real action to use. In fact, the narratives themselves appeared spontaneously; I tend towards dialogues and conversations in my writing, as in "The Trees of Autumn", but needed something for background.

But back to influences. The idea of making it a prose story (and, at least in effort, much of the style) was a carryover from the aforementioned "Trees", but that itself came from the influence of a CK AAR, frogbeastegg's The Machiavellian Adventures of Princess Eleanor. A little influence later came in from an EU2 AAR, CatKnight's Resurrection: Rebirth of the United States.

Note also that this AAR is still relatively young (I'm only a month into what will be 400 years of AAR, and hopefully I'm going to pick up the pace a bit!), and the style is likely to change quite a bit as time goes on. Hopefully, however, it will retain the virtues with which it obtained this award in the first place.

Oh, I could go all day about this, but I don't want to bore you.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have to look over the excellent AARs being written currently. And while I'm at it, I may as well add in a few updates to my own AAR. Thank you very much.

[CatKnight]

Congrats Judas, definitely a good choice! Even if your title is confusing

[Lord Durham]

Excellent choice. Congrats, JM!