Through My Eyes - A TFH AAR
that glorious stallion of a man said:Author's Note:
Well, here I go again, attempting one of these AARs. My last one (The Sublime State, or TSS) has been on a *cough* hiatus *cough* for a number of reasons. Mostly because I'm as lazy as sin, but also because I decided initially to place it on hold while waiting for Magna Mundi to come out. "Aha!" said I, twirling my mustache, "I can take a break while I wait for this new and exciting game to come out, and then finish my AAR with it instead! Oh DoD, you devilishly handsome cad, you have shown yourself to be a genius once again!"
And then Magna Mundi got canceled, mustaches got untwirled, and instead of trying to do all the hard work of restarting the AAR I decided to get on with real life post-graduation. While working I managed to complete a little with my AAR, but I was moving more into short story territory and I felt like the spark had gone. But not all is lost! After all, EU4 is coming out! "Aha!" I declared to myself, twirling my long-neglected mustache, "This time I know I can continue my AAR in a new game! Oh DoD, you and your powerful brain-meats have done it again! This is totally not another example of you finding an excuse to ignore what needs to be done by using the publication of a new game at some vague point in the future as an arbitrary marker for when you might begin work again. You're just trying to preserve your genius for later!" At which point I told my melodramatic sub-conscious to shut up and get stuffed, but the damage was already done.
A story which leads neatly into why I am here: it is time for me to start trying to express myself creatively again. The Doctors say doing so is a positive sign of rehabilitation. Frankly I'm more concerned with my fondness for the second option whenever given the choice between a) writing something or b) sitting on the couch and watching an episode of 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' on YouTube.
And since the development of EU4 is a perfect excuse not to do the hard work of picking up where I had left off before I was left trying something new. And while I do love my copy of CK2, well, I wanted to do something focusing more upon a number of individuals rather than an entire extended family, complete with more bastards and incest than you can shake a stick at. As to Vicky 2... well, if there is one thing trying to do AARs before 1860 has taught me, it is that there are a severe lack of photographs available. That, and don't try to build armored cruisers because you will be destroyed by a fleet of three hundred British men-at-war.
Which leaves me with HoI3, a game I quite enjoy, but perhaps not for the same reasons every else does. My favorite part of HoI is the ability to organize command structure to create realistic armies and corps. I love to create armies down to the smallest formation, even when it is pointless and wasteful from a game play perspective. I'm the sad, Rain Man like figure who sits there and isn't satisfied until both the Oberkommando der Marine and the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe are represented on the map. When it comes to OOB, I'm OCD. My favorite part of the game are those wonderful pre-war years when I get to balance everything just right, creating a nation with a strong and organized military that reflects its national character and gives a true sense of historic gravitas to the entire game.
And then war gets declared and messes it all up.
What I'm trying to say is that I play HoI3 like it were Microsoft Excel. But then I had a moment of inspiration: "What if I were to create an AAR that would embrace my compulsive OOB-tinkering, letting me show the world how much fun it is to accurately name every Rifle Brigade in the Soviet Union!" I shouted loudly as I sprang to my feet, startling my dog. And then I smacked myself hard across the face a few times. "No, wait, that is stupid. That is a stupid idea, and you are stupid for suggesting it."
It might have been the first signs of a mild concussion, but I felt another flash of inspiration. "What if I were to create an AAR focusing on one division - nay, one individual within that division - and used my compulsive OOB-tinkering to flavor the world around him instead of being the focus of the entire endeavor!" I shouted again, driving my dog to leave the room. "That... is a less stupid idea. You are less stupid for suggesting it."
And thus my decision to do an AAR surrounded one man serving within the Panzer-Grenadier-Division 'Großdeutschland'. It is a big honking division (and eventually a corps) that provides me a unit that is strong enough to make following worthwhile (although if I get enough interest I may just begin an AAR exploring the exciting history behind 'Flak Regiment 103'), yet is small enough that I can have it inhabit the world rather than dominate it. Next, of course, was to come up with a name. At first, considering it was an AAR inspired by my love of OOBs and spending time naming irrelevant digital entities, I wanted to have OOB in the titles as well as HOI3, the name of the game. And then I thought that I should have TFH, as it is the latest expansion I purchased. But I had to trim it down when the title began to look like this: The Großdeutschland Division - A HOI3 TFH OOB AAR OMG BBQ LOL. A bit acronym heavy I think, and not too likely to draw in my target goal of several readers.
But then I started to realize that I was moving away from doing a story about a division and it became more about one man - as I wrote I was enjoying writing from his irreverent, sarcastic, greedy point of view. And thus my scope has changed. By focusing on one individual (although the Großdeutschland division will be his most prominent posting) I can explore Hearts of Iron from a different perspective - from the bottom up rather than the top down. Although my love (or as the judge said, my "violently compulsive obsession") of OOBs will need to be filled, I like the idea of not showing everything, always. We get to see the Wehrmacht in small doses, through a single man's eyes. If he is fighting the Russians, it is hard to imagine how he would have a perfect grasp of how Italy is handling the Greeks, after all. Instead of godlike omnipotence, I have to work to breathe life into the smaller details of HOI3. I hope I can do it justice.
But with this AAR I plan on doing much more than just watching one division go from one side of the map to the other. I've been working loosely on an overarching story that will change things up. Even though I am playing as Germany, I don't plan on reaching a point where I am pondering the best way to invade Uruguay. Despite the fun I had developing and writing my main character, I plan on having things turn out to be realistic and believable. I've been turning my amateur skills towards a few custom events with a goal of seeing how I can change things up and provide for a different experience, for myself and my reader.
My story is going to be in the first person in the form of the soon to be published memoirs of a German officer recollecting his sordid past as a drunk, lecherous coward who happened to get lucky now and again, the other (more important and capable) figures around him, and what it means for Germany as a whole. His will be the only voice in the story - although Herr Schneider, his editor, will contribute the odd detail or factoid that our "hero" Karl Ludwig Ritter von Weißbrücke happens to forget. It is a huge, roller coaster of an AAR in four hundred sizzling chapters. A searing indictment of military service in the twentieth century, with some hot gypsies thrown in.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! And I hope you don't hate the color green, because if this page is anything to go by, there is going to be a lot of it around here. And please, feel free to send my a message whenever you see a bit where I screw up the grammar, the spelling, the plot, etc. I don't send as much profanity in my responses, I promise. And apologies for this mind-numbing wall of text.
Game Notes:
Hearts of Iron 3 TFH 4.01 with plenty of little tweaks by yours truly.
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