Weekly AAR Showcase: The Necronomicon in Byzantium

[Malurous]

Congrats Chris Taylor!

[Chris Taylor]

Wow, thank you Director! What an unexpected pleasure.

Now I feel like I'm under some pressure to crank out another update.

[Chris Taylor]

Although I'm mainly an EU3 player, I've been drawn to Victoria AARs lately—perhaps a side effect of reading so many while trying to make voting decisions for the AARland Choice Awards.

In EU3, there are some mechanics which no longer exist in the Vicky2 timeframe—the Holy Roman Empire, Papal controller, etc. So when I saw an AAR about one of these faded medieval relics trying to make their way in the Victorian era, I was intrigued.

I'm partial to plausible roleplaying over tactically optimised gameplay, and theim manages to clothe his Vicky2 Papal State AAR, God's Empire, in plausibility and good storytelling. In the mid-19th century, the See of Rome no longer wields the sort of temporal and spiritual power it did hundreds of years ago, and it must also head off nationalism and rebellion at home. How well will this theocracy survive a Europe hurtling toward political and social modernity?

The story's only just begun, with just four entries thus far, but I can't wait to see what happens next!

(And congrats, theim, on having this week's showcased AAR!)

[loki100]

great choice ... its very well written and intriguing, congrats theim

[Qorten]

Congrats, theim.

[Lord E]

Well done theim. Congratulations!

[Malurous]

Congratulations theim!

[mayorqw]

Congratulations theim!
I have begun reading your AAR! Very good indeed!

[loki100]

Since Theim seems to not be on line since his award (please come back it is a really brilliant AAR), I've asked Chris Taylor to have another go at picking the next showcase.

[Chris Taylor]

It goes without saying that we all love one or more Paradox games, and we must also enjoy writing about them (else we would not be here in particular). But to carry a game (and AAR) beyond the limits of the developer-provided infrastructure—from one product into another—is its own particular labour of love. Though some gifted folks have lately crafted converters to aid the process, there are always many hours of slogging through manual edits to saved games and, if one is able, perhaps some coding to speed the process along.

I'm currently enjoying Dewirix's EU3->Vicky2 conversion AAR, Yet this will go onward the same: the Yamato Destiny, 1836-1936.

His EU3 AAR chronicled the rise of Japan from humble beginnings through expansion, exploration and westernisation. The Vicky2 AAR is naturally more focused on internal development, and the challenges faced by a large empire with low literacy and a relatively unskilled workforce. Whether Dewirix's Japan will be able to keep its place in the world alongside faster-teching European rivals is the great unanswered question—and I look forward to finding out.

It is an odd bit of synchronicity—and also a measure of just how long a game conversion could take in the pre-converter days—that the predecessor AAR was nominated for this same award exactly one year ago today.

Congratulations, Dewirix!

[Malurous]

Congratulations, Dewirix! Extremely well deserved, I'm not sure there's any current AAR I'm more thrilled to be able to read. I know that's a lot to say, but the whole Yamato "saga" is just that good, even if I'm not as familiar with Vicky 2 as a game as I'm with EU III.

And like I've told you before, your writing has been an inspiration for me to try to improve my own. It's simply impeccable.

[loki100]

congrats Dewirix .. exceptionally well deserved for both parts and, as above, the quality of the writing is a joy

[mayorqw]

Congratulations Dewirix! I only read a bit, but I'll endeavour to catch up

[Qorten]

Congrats, Dewirix!

[safferli]

Congratulations! Always nice to read V2 AARs, for the sheer amount of different things to do with even a single country in that game!

[Selzro]

Congratulations Dewirix! I've been enjoying reading the Yamato Destiny, and this honour is very well deserved.

[Avindian]

Congratulations Dewirix!

[Dewirix]

Thanks to everyone for your kind words, and to Chris in particular both for picking this for the Showcase and for giving me a much needed prompt to get a move on with the conversion!

This is turning out to be a much bigger project than I envisaged, but nothing particularly new in that. I hope I can keep everyone reading till the end.

[morningSIDEr]

Many congratulations on a richly deserved award! As you know I greatly enjoyed reading the original AAR for EU3, the V2 AAR is proving even better thus far. Truly great stuff.

[Lord E]

Congratulations Dewirix