Weekly AAR Showcase: The Necronomicon in Byzantium

[Lord E]

Nice choice. Congratulations, CatKnight

[aldriq]

Congratulations!

[CatKnight]

Holy um...cow! Thanks volksmarschal!

Winning two awards (this and WoW) for 'Tannenberg' less than two months after coming back to these forums is a little overwhelming. It certainly reminds me what a caring, generous and incredible community AARland is.

I've visited other forums, of course, for a wide variety of games. One in particular was rather mature (like AARland generally is), but readers gave far fewer comments and in general seemed a little more elitist than I prefer. Another forum I frequented had the opposite problem: Plenty of comments, plenty of support, but made up of mostly very young men who often degenerated into open warfare.

No doubt there are others deserving of this mark, but Paradox's forums really feel like a second home at times - a great mix of veterans and newcomers more or less coexisting and supporting each other, and a great number of interesting stories to read and comment on. The combination of those elements make me want to come back...and make me want to create another post or two to share when otherwise I might not bother.

"Tannenberg III" is my third attempt with the Teutonic Knights and hopefully my last with EU. It's told in 'history book' style and is relatively young: 14 updates have taken the Order through 1448, so there's still plenty of time to get involved.

I prefer more realistic stories (vs. world conquests or the like) and so far the AI's given as good as it's taken. Personally I think that makes for good drama. I have one neighbor I'm terrified of, and several more who could give me a good fight. I can't just run amuck for fear of the rest of Eastern Europe slapping me down.

Thank you again, volksmarschall, for this kind award and thank you to everyone for making AARland the kind of place I want to write for and enjoy reading in.

[Iain Wilson]

Congratulations!

[tuore]

Gratz!

[Kazmir]

Congratulations.

[gabor]

Congrats! Well-deserved!

[CatKnight]

It has been a week, more or less, and time to pass on the torch.

It's difficult since there are so many awesome AARs out there with various styles. In particular, including volksmarschall's two works (Presidents.. and the Lost U-Boat), I just found AARmy of the Rainforest, a Brazilian 1936 AAR that looks like a lot of fun, and Singleton Mosby's AAR/Preview of Achtung: Panzer 1943.

For this I will stick with Victoria, and a wonderful AAR I stumbled across recently. It's actually Part 2 (the first being in EU3) but isn't the conventional gameplay or even history type story you'd expect of a multi-genre report.

In Brandenburg III's Dante's Blood, an artist from 1980s Hungary runs afoul of a mysterious being who plans to dominate the world by using a magical tome to alter history. Far more than being a simple exercise in time travel, Brandenburg brings in numerous epic and dark fantasy elements and succeeds in creating a powerful narrative.

Congratulations, Brandenburg! I can't wait to see how this ends.

[Enewald]

Gratz!

[Qorten]

Congrats Brandenburg III!

[canonized]

Mmnnn i've been steadily reading up on BIII's series actually . I highly recommend it as well . Very good choice

[Lord E]

Congratulations Brandenburg III

[Singleton Mosby]

Very nice BIII, congrats!

[aldriq]

Congratulations!

[Hardraade]

Congratulations, Brandenburg III!

[asd21593]

Congrats, Brandenburg III!

[Brandenburg III]

I thought I’d pop in here real quick and say a few things (I’ll pass this along on Sunday to get it back on track, the real reason is that I need to read a few AARs.)

Second, thanks CatKnight

I’m not going to talk about The Dark Muse here even though they’re linked. Besides, you can probably find that explanation in one of these other threads. As for Dante’s Blood, I’ll steal my explanation away from what I wrote in the introduction (this is also located in my inkwell.)

Dante’s Blood takes place immediately after János’ imprisonment in the monastery. From there János must search for a way to escape, find out where Dante’s body lay and capture the blood of Dante Alighieri. We know Dante is now buried in Ravenna, Italy after many centuries of fighting now János must reach it. This discovery will lead János into a highly fantasy inflicted world where he’ll have to search recklessly for this elixir. For this blood.

But first János must find the book Khayr ad-Din fled with under his arm. When the discovery of the book takes place, János learns that large portions of it have been filled in, all the way up to 1865. The reasons for the advanced date are clear and will be provided as the story is told. As the pages begin filling themselves in, János must find a way to destroy the book or face an alternate world where Algiers is a dangerous world power with Khayr ad-Din at the helm.

Dante’s Blood is the conclusion to the two-part series and will feature many new characters. There will even be a character or two János finds in the real world who won’t slap him around every chapter! Imagine that.

(End Description)

--Not mentioned is that I'm trying to be as accurate with buildings and places as I can while in the modern world.--

As with Muse I’m still tinkering with the outline after every chapter so things may yet change from how I have them planned. Already I’ve tampered with the 1800's storyline to bring in a new character revealed in the previous chapter and will probably do more as the story is written. This ought to keep us both guessing throughout the writing. I’m not even sure how I’m going to end it but its likely I’ll have a few endings sitting around just as I had with Muse. But this story will have an end.

As for thoughts on time travel, I believe it has more to do with alternate realities and what is actually real. What is true? Is something real only if we experience it? Or is it also real if we don’t experience it but it happens somewhere else in another time, another place? These are a few of the questions Muse had, and while I believe they were sufficiently answered there, they are tested in DB.

It’s a weird thing because I haven’t read a fantasy novel in a long time. I’m certain its been at least a decade so to earn awards for a subject I'm not familiar with is rewarding. While it isn’t going to turn me into a fantasy writer in my private life, it’ll definitely encourage me to finish the tale.

[Brandenburg III]

I always try jumping into other forums when I can when passing along these awards and found something in the Crusader Kings area. After some looking around I decided on Alfred Packer’s latest AAR, Iceland Diaries. Its early enough so you can jump into his latest project where the rulers of the land write their thoughts in their very own diaries.

[canonized]

Alfred ! Always quality work ! Well done !

[Duke of Wellington]

Congratulations Alfred Packer