The Inkwell - Advertise Your AARs Here

[Alex Borhild]

The Collected Works of Alex Borhild
I've been lurking around here for a while. I first learned of Hearts of Iron and Hearts of Iron II from a play-by-post historical role-playing forum I used to frequent, and after getting HOI2 for my birthday one year I was hooked. Later I borrowed Victoria from a classmate and the rest, one might say, is history.
Real life (that is, my senior year of high school and freshman year of university) intervened and I forgot HOI2.
One day I rediscovered Hearts of Iron 2 and the Paradox forums, played a few games, and began coming up with ideas for new AARs, but after updating my OS I could no longer play HOI2.
Shortly thereafter I decided to buy Hearts of Iron II and Victoria online, which then led to buying Crusader Kings through GamersGate and, eventually, Crusader Kings II via Steam.

But enough about me...

I'm pretty sure I can count on one hand the number of scenarios I've completed. The number of AARs I've started and then abandoned, however, would (unfortunately) probably require two hands.

After-Action Reports:

Crusader Kings II

Sea Kings: The House af IvAAR
My first CK2 AAR. The last of a Norse dynasty that once ruled Dublin and York dreams of his family's return to greatness, but what will the future hold for his line?
Updates: 1
Views: 13
Game time: September 15 1066 -
Began: May 16 2013
Status: In Progress

Crusader Kings

Liber Iudicum - a story of SAARdinia
My second CK AAR. Torcotore I, Judge of Cagliari, is a minor count ruling the southern half of Sardinia in late 1066. What does the future hold for his family?
Updates: 10
Views: 1198 (as of 15 December 2012)
Game time: 26 December 1066 - December 1088 (so far)
Began: 15 July 2012
Status: In Progress

The Mountain Princes
My first attempt at a narrative style AAR while playing as the House of Mathrafal, who ruled Gwynedd (north Wales) in 1066.
Updates: 6
Views: 1311 (as of 1 June 2012)
Game time: 26 December 1066 -
Began: 28 January 2012
Status: In progress

Hearts of Iron II

Our Gulf - A Persian GC AAR
Very possibly my best one thus far. Persia attempts to re-establish its empire in HOI2 v1.3, with additional core provinces added in 1937.
Updates: 9
Views: 2905 (as of 26 Nov 2010)
Game time: 1 Jan 1936 - 26 Nov 1943
Began: 25 February 2007
Status: Abandoned as of 4 September 2007

Un nuovo impero romano? - an Italian AAR
The other 'good' AAR I've started thus far, and my second (I believe) with HOI2 v1.3.
I make some ahistorical choices and end up fighting in Spain, making several strategic blunders.
Updates: 8
Views: 1973 (As of 26 Nov 2010)
Game time: 1 Jan 1936 - 30 September 1938
Began: 16 April 2007
Status: Abandoned as of 26 August 2007

Hammer and Sickle; The USSR, 1936-194
My very first AAR began a mere nine days after joining the forums. It seems slightly embarassing to include here... As for the game, I conquered Afghanistan, won the Winter War, defeated Sweden and then... quit. I don't know or remember why, but it might have been an interesting game had it continued. Of course, it might also have led to the Wehrmacht defeating the Red Army at the gates of Moscow.
Updates: 5
Views: 1016 (as of 26 Nov 2010)
Game time: 1 January 1936 - 18 April 1940
Began: 27 May 2005
Status: Abandoned as of 21 June 2005

(Several other abandoned AARs have been excluded)

Victoria

A Catholic Empire - A Spanish AAR
Unfortunately, I haven't been updating this nearly as often as I would like...
Updates: 3 (so far)
Views: 681 (as of 19:36 GMT -6, 25 Jan 2011)
Game time: 1 January 1836 - 1 January 1845
Began: 11 December 2010
Status: In progress as of January 22 2011

Seven States, Two Sicilies, One Kingdom - a Two Sicilies AAR
My first Victoria AAR - a promising start, perhaps, but unfortunately it was abandoned.
Updates: 2
Views: 1083 (As of 26 Nov 2010)
Game time: 1 January 1836 - 1 December, 1839
Began: 3 September 2008
Status: Abandoned as of 18 September 2008

[BigBadBob]

At the time of writing, I am a relative newcomer to AARland. However, I do intend to stick around for a while and overstay my welcome. Unless there is some sudden change in my worldview, the great majority of my AARs will be with nations from the Anglosphere.

The Complete BigBadBob AAR Collection

Available for an unlimited time only!

Spreading the Eagle's Wings: A United States of America AAR

My first AAR, now finished. James Richard Powell's lauded history on how America went from a barren wasteland to the biggest and baddest nation in the world, under the benevolent guidance of yours truly.

AwAARds and Nominations
Q4 2010 ACA Nominee for Best Vicky II Historybook AAR

Arsenal of Righteousness: America in World War Two

Franklin D. Holloway's book on the American side of WWII has been praised by critics far and wide.

AwAARds and Nominations
Q1 2011 Nominee for Best Historybook AAR HOI3
Q2 2011 Nominee for Best Narrative AAR HOI3


In the Shadow of the Iron Cross

A UK narrative AAR, will be updated frequently, and intended to be long-running.

AwAARds and Nominations
The Weekly AAR Showcase (Feb 16th - 23rd 2011)
Q1 2011 Nominee for Best Narrative AAR HOI3
Q3 2011 Best Narrative AAR HOI3

The Presidents: 1836-1936

It's a USAAR, and it's interactive!

AwAARds and Nominations
Q2 2011 Best Historybook AAR Vicky I/II
Q3 2011 Best Historybook AAR Vicky I/II Nominee
Character WritAAR of the Week (Oct 20th - 27th 2011)

On Which The Sun Never Sets

My first EU3 AAR, using MEIOU. Still concentrating on the English-speaking nations.

Get It Done

Another side project, focusing on a fictional President of the United States and his time in the Oval Office.

Till We Have Built Jerusalem

British narrative/history-book AAR for Vicky II. God, I hope this one gets somewhere.

[Serek000]

Serek000:

Victoria:

Failed/Aborted/Technical Difficulties
Eternal Ecuador, a South American Dream
Ecuador - promised land of the Americas?
E2: Ecuador Reloaded
An attempt to bring Ecuador to glory, after the first attempt failed due to save-game corruption
Writ In Burnished Rows of Steel: America 1836-1860
A history book style account of the presidents, personalities, and occurrences from 1836-1860


For the Glory/EU 2:

Killed by Technical Difficulties:
Much Ado About Aden
Aden tries to become the dominant Arabian power

On Indefinite Hold:
Bless Me Father For I Have Sindh
Will Sindh emerge as the dominant Indian power?


Crusader Kings:

Ongoing:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...obert-Clifford

Completed:
I Think I Conn: The Little Duchy That Could
The Duchy of Connacht's quest to become the Kingdom of Ireland


Awards:
Character Writer of the Week, 29/8/10
Favorite Vicky Gameplay AAR, for E2: Ecuador Reloaded
Favorite CK Gameplay AAR, for I Think I Conn: The Little Duchy That Could

[Cornelius Rex]

A new forum member (but a frequent lurker) and a little AAR:

Ongoing. And will go very fast, as several entries are already sketched.
NavAARa: a little kingdom refusing to go down.
A very small kingdom in a hard place, trying to survive by means fair and foul agains powerful neighbours... and sometimes in spite of its rulers.

The title's not just there yet... but it sure shows the mentality of the first ruler .

Bear in mind that this AAR contains all the usual violence, scheming and general naughtiness, plus a continuous incitement to gambling.

[Svip]

Great! A thread to shameless plug one's AAR:



Link to Glory for Ulm: A Flagland AAR.

[Aliasing]

Now with 10% Less Boxer Rebellions: A Fengtien (KR) AAR

Fengtien China is best China after all (if you get reference you get a cookies)

Anyways this is my second AAR and I hope you all will enjoy it.

Things are Heating Up - The World with a Harsh Tan

Basically it's my AAR about a WW2 and Cold War if the world wasn't so cold in that period. In fact the Earth is now closer to the sun and is hotter than ever. There are huge divergences from our timeline and the terrain is drastically altered. As well as sweltering heat there is unstable deserts and Icy countries are now Perfect for living in. The Gobi Desert spreads from East to West (From North Korea, Mongolia, and into Afghanistan) and high up countries like Tibet are stronger than our world's counterparts. Come experience the sweltering heat.


To be finished by around March 31st (Entry into Tekcor's Contest much )

[hoi2geek]

The Great AARs of The Greatest Man in the Universe

Rise of the Empire (Russia, MDS v1.6) - An AAR that showcases Russia's rise from mere major power to a global hegemon. Follow every detail as the Greatest Man in the Universe chronicles in chilling detail the very steps that President Putin followed to make Russia a superpower once again.

[Blinkingsky]

Hello everybody! I'm a new person for writing AAR's, but I've been lurking for a few months, most of it without an account. I am trying to find my writing style for AAR's right now, so I may or may not change styles in the AAR's that I write. Without further ado, here's the list of AAR's that I have!
Completed AAR's

None yet!

In-progress AAR's

Venezia!-A Venice AAR

Abandoned AAR's

None yet!(let's keep it that way)

Awards that I have won

None

[robbieboro]

Not only am I new to AAR's, I'm new to HoI, HoI3 being my first venture into any paradox game and I must say I'm enjoying it very much. So much so I have decided to begin writing AAR's to make it a bit more exciting and share tha gaming experience with others. I'm sure I will learn much more this way and also gain much more knowledge of actual events of WW2! I dont particularly know what style I'd like to write or the best way to present my AAR's, but I'm going to give it a go with my first Practice AAR, any advice, constructive criticism and debating is much welcomed.



First AAR - Great Britain - 1936

In Progress - The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire

Future AAR's Planned

USA - 1941
Argentina - 1936

[Queen Lor]

I have two AAR's on the forum

One I wrote way, way back in 2004 that I had to abandon because of a game crash.
In Search of the Kingdom of Prester John: A Portuguese Adventure

My current one:
Nakonid Dynasty: The Princes of the Obotrite Confederacy

[Redandwhite]

Red & Whites AAR's





Hearts of Iron 3 Semper FI

In progress

My first AAR - Great Britain 1938

End of Empire

History Book Category Choice AwAARD winner Round 1 2011

[Zzzzz...]

Five Zeds and Three Dots Production proudly presents:


This AAR was chosen for the WritAAR of the week: Oct. 9, 2011

Lenin and the Bolsheviks were defeated on the 2nd Proletarian Revolution. Bukharin and the other surviving members went underground and resisted the weak Kerensky government.
But in January 1936, Kerensky, the man who holds Russia together was assassinated. Mother Russia's old wounds will re-open.

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A Republic of China AAR

After three failed revolutions, the Qing dynasty is still in power, the Company ruled in the south for almost a decade, warlords controls the other regions, foreign influences are still strong, and the Father of modern China is dead. The Republican Nationalists, known as the Kuomintang, are at the end of their rope. Only a massive global shock wave would then finally wake up the sleeping tiger from its deep slumber.

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[ProxyCell]

My first and only AAR so far. I think it has a great concept to it. It is highly random. I've randomized the starting date, the settings and of course the country. I am still very new in this game despite playing it for years. Which is a nice way of saying that I'm quite a bad player lol. Come in and help me out with my game.
A Noob's Never Ending Random DW AAR

[CivandEUIII]

CivandEUIII's not-as-awesome Inkwell
Ramazing! A Ramazan AAR
My attempt at possibly the hardest minor on a 1399 start in EUIII HTTT.

Glutton for (Divine) Punishment: A Bremen IN AAR
An attempt to guide the most corrupt catholic bishops through the ages, that sadly ended after two updates.

A Conquerer's Guide to BriAARnsk: A MEIOU AAR
An attempt to unite Russia under a 2PM banner that has the tendency to get gobbled by Kiev.

[olvirki]

My Victoria 2 AARs:
Iceland in the 19th century status: abandoned ?
The kingdom of Poland, 1827-1936 status: Abandoned
A Butler's story, a-Finland-AAR Status: Ongoing (though it is going slowly, hard to have and AAR in the summer).

My Victoria AARs:
Denmark, 1836-1920 status: completed
Kings of Finland, part one status, completed (btw, there was never supposed to be a part 2)

[Sandmann]

Hey, been around since EU1 but it was not until now I felt like doing a casual AAR of my Aachen game:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...lleys-of-Rhein

About me if anybody wanna know I'm a 28 y.o. casually interrested in gaming, history, anthropology and humanism.

[Merrick Chance']

Hello there

Are you bored right now? Perhaps desperately avoiding work due to finals? Well I would like to tell you about a little AAR called Lords of France. A historybook Magna Mundi/EU3 AAR, Lords of France details France's journey from a feudal state past the Revolution. And furthermore, I've just written it's 51st chapter!

Bored, why not



The Lords of Prussia: from Feudalism to Modernity

It's a history-book style Magna Mundi AAR, which I'm using to spend my summer days while keeping my head in international relations writing mode.

Through the 19th century, a theory was created, suggesting that the German nation had a unique love of war. In the short term, this theory seems to make sense: Prussia-Germany started nearly all of the European wars in the century that went from 1848-1948. The Morgenthau plan, which would have deindustrialized and demilitarized Germany, came out of this line of thinking: if the German nation was left armed with weapons of war, it would be able to start another global conflict.

I would argue that this belligerence came out of the paranoia experienced by the rulers of Brandenburg-Prussia-Germany. Because there were no natural borders, the state knew that firstly they would not have the privilege of a demilitarized society that England enjoyed. Unlike France, who could afford to lose a war and lose its territories in Italy, within a single war Brandenburg-Prussia could be wiped off the map and all of its achievements destroyed. The army and state would have to be top-shape, because it could not rely on its geographical borders to defend it. Beyond this, in contrast to Japan, which von Wolferen argues 'never developed a traditional state or nation' because of the lack of an outside power, the Hohenzollerns would need to create a nation in order to defend itself against a constant outside threat.

But no matter how large the Prussian army would be, or how disciplined it would become, Brandenburg's position in the middle of Europe meant that it could always be outgunned by the Great Powers which surrounded it. This paranoia is not unique, one can see many modern and historical examples of it. Both the Israeli and Pakistani state in modern times as well as the police state in Uruguay during the mid-20th century as well as several Polish regimes (most notably the Sanacja government) shared the paranoia that came from the knowledge that any wrong step would result in destruction.

[Thandros]

My AARS

Victoria 2

North African Glory- A Moroccan AAR

This is so far my Most successful AAR. It's the only I've finished but hopefully the number completed will rise. Anyway read as I turn Morocco from a north african country facing down the Barrel of a gun meant to destroy them into a African Superpower Capable of taking on all comers. A long tale of war and peace but mostly war. I'm not sure how long I spent at peace but I spent most of it at war.

Status: Complete

Europa Universalis 3

North African Glory 2: The Tuareg Nomads

My second AAR but unlike my first got no where but at a dead end with the armies of my enemies behind me demanding my annexation. Needless to say it was a failure.

Status-failed

American Glory: The Golden Warriors

My third AAR. Watch as I to expand the Incan Empire through out most of south America and then into north America making it the hub of world technology. While I have many triumphs I bitterly fail to liberate south america from the European tyrants by one province.All in all I think I went all right but not as well as I could have.

Status-Complete

Hearts of Iron 3

War is Hell: Germany

MY forth AAR and still going strong. See the power struggles as Goering tries to take control of all of Germany and Beyond defeating all in his path to more power. Also the Navy prepares to turn the Atlantic into a shooting Alley from where no convey can pass unscathed. Also see Goering's pride and joy the Luftwaffe prepare to Turn the factories and airports of Britain into smoking rubble. This is now complete with a glorious Victory over the Soviets.

Status- Complete

Sengoku

Asian Glory: Rise of the New Ashikaga

My First Sengoku AAR and part of what can only be a policy of putting a AAR in every major AAR forum. I'm trying to reform the Shogunate as Ashikaga Masatomo and his descendants to overcome the difficulty of starting from nothing to become Shogun.

Status- Dead

EU: Rome

Seeing the Elephant

Yet another AAR from me. This time in EU:Rome As Illyria trying to find Elephants somewhere in the world and In the Process I'm hoping to pull off some half decent Comedy. And most likely fail.

Status- Dead

Pride of Nations

PON-In for the Long Haul

Another AAR this time with Pride of Nations with 1680 turns this is most certainly the long Haul. Unfortunately dead due to loss of Save game.

Status-Dead.

Mount and Blade/Dlcs

Counts and CrossBows

An AAR in the Format of a Table Top RPG. Interesting, Yes, Bizarre,Yes, Do able for a Computer RPG, We'll have to see.

Status - Dead

Alea Jacta Est.

Pontus Strikes Back - An AJE Great Mithridatic War AAR

Pontus is ready to Strike Back. Rome is weak and divided with rebels in Spain, Slaves in Italy and Pirates just about everywhere trying to bring it down. Now is the Ideal time for Pontus to strike a great blow at Rome. But will Rome be able to bounce back from this one.

Status - Dead

Revolution Under Siege

A Republic on the Volga(RUS)

The Komuch has risen against the Bolsheviks on the Volga. Opposing them to the west lie the foul Bolsheviks. With few men and fewer leaders can the Republic on the Volga triumph against the Red menace which seeks to send Russia into a dark age of tyranny and dictatorship which could last over 100 years. With only the Czechs to support them can they triumph against the odds or will they have to turn to the Monarchist Siberians to defeat Red Tyranny.

Status - Alive

[dhomas]

There's only 1 AAR and it's going to stay that way

HoI2: The Great Kiwi Road Trip (ongoing)!
Yes you heard right, it's World Domination with New Zealand! I read in another thread that it's supposedly impossible, and for exactly that reason I tried it out!

It's a pure gameplay AAR, with some quite silly narrative, and most importantly played on standard rules (that means no cheats, events, IC takeover or anything). I enjoyed playing that game and I hope you'll enjoy reading it!

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...iwi-Road-Trip!

[Peter Ebbesen]

A bit of clarification concerning some old questions that keep cropping up every now and the before the AAR lists.

1. Sadly, the glorious screenshots that adorned many of my early AARs have gone the way of the dodo, making them considerably less interesting to read. Too bad, but nothing to do about it.
2. If you are one of the old-timers wondering "Just where did PE go? Why did his AARs often stop prematurely? Why did he abandon AARland and AARwriting?", here is a link to a post I made back in 2006 explaining the situation: link

With that out of the question, here follows links to the AARs I have written or participated in.

Europa Universalis I

Austria: From Pawn to Superpower (part 1) and part 2. My very first AAR. Let's just say that few people noticed it at the time and I've become a better writer since then.

Europa Universalis II

The Timurid Scientists - The first documented WC in EU2. Many people didn't believe it possible at the time. (And the same happened with every patch after that until at least 1.05. Somebody would start a bloody "surely now WC is impossible!" thread in the general forum and I or somebody else would go through the tedium of proving them dead wrong. Some people just do not understand that Paradox games are deliberately made so easy for normal players to play (a very sound marketing decision) that anyone who dedicates the time and patience (oh lord, the patience) to actually learning how their games work have zero problems conquering the entire world except where game mechanics explicitly prevent it (and that has only been the case once or twice and can be gotten around). This was the first AAR featuring Chief Scientist, who had a brief career interrupting other peoples' AARs. AAR Completed.

World Conquest for Dummies - Trebizond paints the world purple. Class is in session. Don't annoy the teacher. Several students graduated to writing their own WC AARs afterwards which was great fun to see. AAR completed.

It Came From the Mountains - The visit of the Transcendant One occasions much distress in Boing (nee Tibet). An adventure with, admittedly, certain martial overtones. For fun, it showed how using a very different playing style from that advocated in WCfD worked just as well. Ah, well, EU2 SP was just too easy once one realised how the AI worked. AAR Completed.

WAAR of the Worlds - Prufrock451 sent in the Zorthon aliens to conquer the world. Then he handed it over to me with instructions to fight back. This came completely out of the blue, but who could resist such a challenge? Not I.

Persian Tales - A few tales told be an unusual traveler who hooks up with some bandits on the trail across Persia. This AAR was a direct result of me rereading the Arabian nights and deciding to try writing a few stand-alone tales in a style reminiscent of those tales tempered by my own sense of humour. My favourite remains chapter 3's tale.

Knights of Opportunity: In Hoc Signo Vinces. The Knights visit Europe, Africa, the Americas, and, well, pretty much everywhere else. Abandoned due to a major writer's block around 1750 as explained here (and no, I never did write that final chapter wrapping it up).

Europa Universalis II - Multiplayer

TSUNAMI 2 - The sequel to the original marathon game tried to get an AAR thread but failed miserably after just two pages. I played two sessions, once as the Teutonic Knights, once as the Mughal Empire. Smashing human controlled Poland and Lithuania and annexing Novgorod with a diminutive Teutonic Order and an alliance of five one-province German AI minors has never been as fun. Thanks, once again, to Mowers for organizing such a fun marathon game. Just a crying shame that so few of the players wrote AARs.

Machiavelli : Europe Arising - A game of power politics and attempted roleplaying (mostly failed) with a good deal of AAR writing. A great game all in all, though playing Austria with horribly competent (not to mention deceitful and avaricious) neighbours was a harrowing experience. It made for good experience in MP warfare, though, and I gave at least as good as I got.

Machiavelli II - The Rebirth - Bulding the biggest and baddest Russia around coupled with roleplaying induced passitivity on my side was ultimately bad for the game. I should have broken treaties and thrown my power around, dammit.


When MP, true roleplaying, and storytelling TRULY meets....

Asia - the Awakening - A handful of spirits duke it out in Asia. A fun game was had by all and it provided the inspiration for going further, much further, as Wyvern and I pooled our forces some time later for...

Throne of Heaven - Wyvern and I team up as gamemasters (he's the good GM, I'm the evil GM) for an AAR-obligatory fantastic game of intrigue, death, destruction, and many wonders in Asia. With individualized missions and doublecrossing being the order of the day, the participants had a good time. I play Gothmog and, though I rally the powers of evil to my cause, ultimately I and my allies (both the willing and those who tapped into Gothomog's power and were ensnared by it) are defeated (or SO THEY THINK!). The greatest thing was that most of those who believed they were good (and joined up fighting for the good side in the final battle) had, in fact, already slipped into corruption through their earlier choices by being seduced by other forces of evil than Gothmog, and let's just say that some of their relations came as a bit of a surprise in the final revelation after good's victory: The end of the tale. Here's an example of the sort of discussion a player could have with a GM when being offered an opportunity: Bistami (ForzaA) is not quite suspicious enough. This game also provided me with some of the greatest defensive wars I've ever played in EU2.

Throne of Heaven2: The Olympian Rebirth - Wyvern and I team up as gamemasters again for a second AAR-obligatory romp. I play as Autolycos. Watch in awe as the chosen heroes of the gods repopulate the new world trying to accomplish both their own natural desires and those of their whimsical gods... until they finally encounter the titans. (Which alas killed the game, as it slowed down to a crawl with the horde of Titan armies all over the place, and suddenly it was summertime and sessions were few and far between, but hey, it was a great game). Reading the first post of the Game Thread may make you less puzzled as to what is going on. The last five or ten pages of the thread deal with doom and gloom of the players as the magnitude of the Titan invasion hits them makes for great reading (in-between the boasting and general politics). Avernite said it best after the first few invaders were defeated:

We're doomed. We're so doomed.

25 years, 5 heroes, was needed for the Blackies. And now there's more coming. We can only hope the Gods have some power to spare for us while they battle the Titans...

So time consuming to set up and manage, so fun with the right players. A big thanks to those who participated.

Europa Universalis II - Collaborative AARs

Early on in EU2s AAR lifetime we had a couple of great collaborative AARs organized by MrT and open for everybody willing to write. With saves passed around, forgotten, or lost, with people of very different levels of competency at playing, and with everybody completely free to pursue his own goals to the best of his ability, this created some wonderful experiences for those involved.

Denmark: Fellowship of the Kings. I got the slot as Frederik V of Denmark (1746-1766) as reserve and I slightly improved the nation's standing in the world by overrunning England (annexed), France (set up ready for diploannexation), the Americas (crushing Spain), and a few other places besides. All in 20 years The link is to the story text copied clean and my entries are posts #91 - #95, but really, if you want to read part of it, read the whole AAR and see just how well people can do when they collaborate. Additionally, this AAR provides an exception to my normal writing style as it is much more serious than the vast majority of my work without, if I may say so, it detracting significantly from the quality.

Every Doge Has his Day – by the “B Team”. I got to substitute for Ariel. My first ruler was Leonardo Loredano (1501-1521) and I got handed a Venice that had just suffered a severe reverse. Needless to say, desperate times called for desperate measures, so with everybody bemoaning our beloved Venice's defeat apart from the A-team who were taunting us, I dropped my intentions of a moderately peaceful reign and and went all out on the offensive. In Loredano's 20 years of reign Venice grew from 22 to 60 provinces reversing all previous defeats, defeating all significant powers, and conquering most of Central Europe besides in one of my most concentrated conquest sprees ever. Pietro Loredan (1567-70) distinguished himself in a very different way as was sort of reported in a series of "what I did on my holidays" mails by private Giovanni Bossi as he moved constantly from war to war (and who, despite all the warring, ended up safely married to the girl his mother had chosen), and as for the brief reign of Sebastiano Venier (1577-1578), no joke can truly suffice.

The Righteous BastAARds - Can two right bastards playing the same nation alternatingly with the deepseated desire to fix the problems of the nation when one receives it for the next 10 year period and screw up the nation in a different way for the other player succeed? Norgesvenn (leading Cardinal Fang of the Order of the Swinging Sheepshagging Sinner) and I (leading Cardinal Biggles of the Chanting Lefthanded Genuflectors) playing Spain proved that this was, indeed, the case, though it lead to remarkably silly situations, even for us. It begins with maxing out loans due to be repaid on the very first day of the next player's reign (without having the money to cover, of course) and escalates wildly from there.

Europa Universalis - Rome Multiplayer

We Three Kings - Blasted Numidia, Eternal Egypt, and Pontus of the Secret History go to extreme lengths not to fight each other. Warning: Heavy on propaganda.

Crusader Kings

The Byzantine Letters - 20 chapters of correspondence of the Eastern Roman Emperors, often with attachments. A remarkably silly romp that remains one of my favourites. From the very start this wasn't intended to be a complete AAR running until the end, just something to tide me over while waiting for the next patch, and indeed the AAR was never "completed" disappointing legions of followers, but they had been warned from post #1, so what can you do? Read this for the individual letters, not for a completed story. This AAR has the dubious honour of being the only AAR that caused me to write a small tool to help find the best eligible brides available so as to not waste so much time on the incredible poorly implemented bridefinding in the game.

Crusader Kings II

Born to Breed: The Estridsen Lectures - An ongoing tale of the travails of the kings of Denmark as they populate the world with rulers of house Estridsen. (Or Ylving, as the game insists on calling them).

Hearts of Iron I

Chopsticks in the Mist - Nationalist China overruns, well, pretty much everything you can think of with zero opposition and I throw HoI1 away in disgust, never to return to it. The highlight of the story is probably when the opposition has -88% war entry. Or perhaps realizing that most of the world is being overrun by militia.

Hearts of Iron II

Chopsticks in the Mist II - only available for Hoi2 betas, sorry.

Victoria I

Blood to the Ankles - And Rising (Beta AAR) - Japanese WC AAR from the Victoria Beta that got frozen in the middle of being released to the public due to the pre-release pirating of Victoria, which caused Paradox to clamp down immediately on any further release of information useful to actually playing the game until such time as the game was actually released and paying customers would have joy of it (a decision I inter alea completely support). As the AAR was pretty heavy on exploiting the game for maximum conquest (surprise, surprise) it was an obvious that it had to be frozen. Unfortunately, the resultant pause caused me to lose track of it as something else caught my attention and, hey, I had the Victoria release version to play rather than the latest beta. Of all the AARs that I haven't played through to the end, this is probably the one that I wish most that I had. It stops after only 6 chapters when I've just started the conquest of India + Americas but the game itself had progressed considerably further - the Japanese were mopping up Austria-Hungary and something like a WC seemed within reach.

Victoria II

Fruitcake, the Musical (beta AAR) - an AAR showcasing some of the funny things that can happen while betatesting... such as a world-spanning fruit shortage in the Victorian age.

Galactic Civilizations II

The Yor Years - Here we go again. The Yor are practical, compact, and purple. As such, their destiny should be obvious to the observant reader.

With Malice Towards None. - This writing style sucked big time. I abandoned the AAR swiftly.

Guess the Author

I have been a frequent contributor to GTA over the years. I can heartily recommend participating as a way of expanding one's arsenal of literary goodness.

A Duel: The True Story of the Dreadful Demise in a Doomfilled Duel of Dandy Dan, the Dread For Hire] - not only my longest title, possibly my best GTA entry overall, though I prefer the slightly weaker

A Moment of Horror: An Execution - loosely based on the life and death of Gilles de Rais.

Cultural Clash: Genesis - this one qualifies as probably the weirdest story I've every written. But it works, mate!

Death of a King: by a Complete Stranger - a very silly bonus entry to that month's GTA because all submitted entries (including your's truly's) were being held up pending an extra writer. The only GTA I ended up with 2 entries in.
Death of the King: - being the truthful story of Elvis Presley's death told in classic fantasy form. Honestly.

Mount and Blade

My Inevitable Greatness - Khünbish Jalair's adventures in Calradia, an exercise in just how puerile writing I'm capable of. Finally terminated in disgust at just how puerile that turned out to be.