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Derahan

Ever doubtful
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Oct 30, 2009
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Greetings there reader! I welcome you to yet another astounding issue of the new AARlander which you will hopefully find very interesting. So as usual I want to give my gratitude to those people who made this new AARlander possible. First and foremost, my thanks goes to Canonized and the others, who along him, worked on the first AARlander and made this one possible with their work there, otherwise this AARlander would not be here (most likely). Secondly I want to thanks the moderators who made it possible for me to do this and came up with the idea to revive the AARlander for a second round. Thirdly I want to thank Gen. Marshall, the one who has made the graphics and also is spreading the word about the AARlander on the forums and last but not the least all of those who has contributed to this number of the AARlander, a many thanks to you all who in the end makes this possible with your articles.

And yet, a final thank you to you readers who when you read this, makes us others who work with the AARlander filled with the spirit to continune our work here! Thank you!

And as usual the feedback thread! Critique on!

AARlander is, as always, available in PDF or iBook format. (comming soon)

Code:
[SIZE=4]
[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?727134-The-AARlander-Edition-12&p=16258948&viewfull=1#post16258948"]Open Letter to the Forum - Misterbean[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?727134-The-AARlander-Edition-12&p=16258954&viewfull=1#post16258954"]The History of AARland - DensleyBlair[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?727134-The-AARlander-Edition-12&p=16258960&viewfull=1#post16258960"]Avindian's AARland Academy[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?727134-The-AARlander-Edition-12&p=16258963&viewfull=1#post16258963"]Twelve Questions with Tanzhang[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?727134-The-AARlander-Edition-12&p=16258971&viewfull=1#post16258971"]Apoliticism is Useless - Merrick Chance'[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?727134-The-AARlander-Edition-12&p=16258979&viewfull=1#post16258979"]A Paradox Book Review - Misterbean[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?727134-The-AARlander-Edition-12&p=16258982&viewfull=1#post16258982"]WritAAR Introduction: Pigbin - Belgiumruler[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?727134-The-AARlander-Edition-12&p=16258987&viewfull=1#post16258987"]Editor's Note - Derahan[/URL][/SIZE]
 
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It started out as an addiction to all things related to Dungeons And Dragons. As friendships died out, I found myself increasingly unable to play D&D. Heck, I even tried playing the published adventures on my own, if that says anything about the level of my addiction.
But of course, there was not much fun in it. So I turned to this wonderful new medium: computers and gaming consoles.
Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy II (or maybe it was III), you name it, I bought them.
Some were good, others less than stellar. But I had lots of fun, and my addiction melted like snow in a microwave.
Then I discovered Baldur’s Gate, and the successor and both its expansions,and my old habit came back with a vengeance.
I played it from start to finish at least 3 times, and untold numbers more where the character class I had chosen didn’t appeal to me. If you know the game, you can imagine just how many hours were spend wandering Faerûn’s Sword Coast. I was over the moon with gamer’s happy.
Eventually, other great games found their way into my library.
The original Castle Wolfenstein for one. Splinter Cell. Medal Of Honour.
That last one had a truly masterful mission to Arnhem. Defusing German bombs, saving British paratroopers from an angry-looking Tiger tank. Sniping, killing (and dying) filled several days in all, as I would start a new game, just to get back to Arnhem, over and over again.

Maybe this is where my new addiction began, in the blood-soaked streets of Arnhem, on that legendary bridge, desperately trying to find out where the heck that sniper was.
This addiction was World War II.

Now, I had always been heavily into history in general. Still am to this day. If I see a new documentary on TV about, say, Queen Elizabeth I, the world still stops spinning.
Up to that point, World War I and II had just been part of history. Nothing more and nothing less.

But I discovered that I really didn’t know all that much about it. By this point, Arnhem had even become kind of “been there, done that” and I went to my usual game store to find a new high.
The guy behind the counter knew my taste in games, of course, so he pointed something out to me that was about World War II.
A strategy game.
I had always been lousy at strategy games. Red Alert, and others of its ilk, had been tried and found wanting. So I was about to turn him down, when he assured me that this game was “different”.
I looked at the box.
A German Iron Heart alongside a US medal.
“Prepare For War”, it said.
On the back was a picture of the Boeing team being assigned to research the B-29 Super Fortress, and a couple of screenshots that reminded me of Risk, a game I had always been fascinated with but never managed to master properly.
175 Playable countries, 2700 provinces, 350 techs, 12500 real historical military and political leaders.

Don’t ask me why I bought it, because it sounded absurdly difficult.
But, then again, so had Arnhem been the first time.

That was, of course, Hearts Of Iron II.
It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
I didn’t have internet at the time, and had no clue there were forums to learn things, and ask stuff.
I just made it up as I went along, just like in a RPG. The first time I defeated the French, my girlfriend came looking because I was cheering like a madman, or so I was told.
Then I learned not to invade the Soviet Union in winter, and my cheering quieted down considerably.
I learned to hold Nationalist China off as the Communists while attacking “that green warlord on the other side”.
Hearts of Iron III happened and I was happy, but I didn’t know all that much about actual historical OOBs and such, and I wanted to know all there was to know.
Then I discovered two things that would only serve to intensify this newfound thirst for knowledge.
The first was internet and Wikipedia.
The second was the Paradox forum. I came across it because I was googling something like “HMS Ark Royal”. One of the first hits led me here. I read a couple of things, and found I had to “enlist” in order to ask questions.
Spending a couple of months just lurking, mostly in the AAR section, I finally found the courage to sign up because the supply system was driving me crazy and I just HAD to ask someone.

I have not gone a week without at least checking my subscriptions ever since. Sometimes I check them several times a day.
I am happy.
Thank you Paradox, for the games, and for creating the most mature, helpful forum on the internet.
I have now spend more time with your games, than I ever have with D&D and the Baldur’s Gate sage combined.
I don’t know what the future may hold. I may stop gaming tomorrow, or I may keep going until my fingers are cramped with arthritis, but I will always keep the memories.
Thank you all for the memories.
Misterbean.
 
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Before I start the article-proper for EU2, I would like to say a few things:

First of all, I have to say a massive thank you to all my readers, who have provided be with the valuable impetus to keep going. This, as I'm sure you're all full aware, is no easy task. And as my colleges will be more than happy to tell you, I'm not always able to get things sorted in a timely manner due to various factors. I cannot thank you enough for ensuring that, when I do get a chance to write, I am motivated by the thought of all the positive feedback (and just feedback in general) that really makes writing worthwhile.

On this note, I'd like to reassure all of those who have given feedback thus far that I do read and make note of what you say. I've decided that I'll revise this series and publish it in one place once it's finished its serialisation. This will be when all of the extra details and things I've skipped over will be added.

And finally, I'd like to once again thank my AARlander colleagues for a wonderful publication, and for putting up with my erratic ability to update in a timely manner.

DB



EU2 - 2001/2002

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Right from the outset, it was always clear that a new age of AARland had begun with the opening of the EU2 forum. Compared to the testers' hegemony of the EU1 forum that lasted for months, beta-testers made relatively little impact. That's not to say that their work was ignored by the EU2 reader population at-large – quite the opposite, in fact. Johan's (yes, that Johan) Multiplayer Teaser story : ) is spread over ten pages and garnered about 180 comments[1], a figure which would still be considered decent by today's standards.

Instead, I mean to say that, in the grand scheme of things, beta AARs are not such a big part of the EU2 forum. One can look at the EU1 section of AARland and, if one is thusly inclined, one can find pages and pages of one-or-two-post threads by beta testers. By the time EU2 was released to the masses, on the other hand, only 20 beta AARs had been written.[2]

A few beta AARs even won OscAARs. Havard's The Golden Lion of Benin – a semi-narrative tale of a Maghreb advisor to the rulers of Benin; Vijayanagar- defending the faith by hjarg – notable in its status as EU2's first non-European AAR, largely written in the standard, gameplay format; and Warspite's Encyclopedia Warspite : Hungary 1419-1820 (a somewhat misleading title – The Swert's fantastic LibrAARy has the AAR ending in 1540) – a history book-style AAR that placed third in the most Original AAR category at the OscAARs.

These AARs were proof that the AAR was a viable creative medium. With EU2, it was made clear from the outset that one did not have to follow the very formulaic (and, dare I say, prosaic)[3] format of telling the reader what happened at each significant date in game – a formula which, even in 2001, was beginning to look outdated.

It is perhaps ironic, then, that this new trend of using the AAR as a creative medium didn't catch on immediately once non-beta testers began to write AARs. The first four regular AARs for EU2 were written in the date/event formula, with one – Harvard's On the road to Mandalay - a full-length AAR, the second non-beta AAR, even ending after only one update in a throwback to the earlier EU1 AARs.[4]

The diversity would soon improve, though. hjarg's Austria- the recreation of the Holy Roman Empire was written in the style of a dissertation on Austria's history, and, on the 20th November 2001, a legendary AARland legacy would be born.

Lord Durham et al's magnificent octopus Burgundy: The Origins of the Free Company is a true bastion of our community, and, I'm told, longer in than the Lord of the Rings trilogy.[5] Spanning seven books, and covering thousands of posts and pages, The Free Company series is a behemoth in every sense of the word, making names such as Bloomfielde,York and 'Captain' famous amongst a certain generation of AARlanders. The Free Company's format – having a multitude of characters actually furthering the story with their own input – was completely different to anything on the EU2 forum at the time (the the idea itself was by no means new.)[6]

Though this new narrative style was certainly becoming more prevalent – especially when compared to EU1 – it was still relatively rare as a genre. The works of people such as Mr T showed what a pure-breed narrative could look like, though his style was rare amongst authors. Instead, diversity and innovation came through the gameplay format, where, hindered by the real use of only one genre[7] but still wanting to differentiate their work from that of others. Sometimes some sort of chronicle or 'newspaper' (though one doubts how well a broadsheet would have sold pre-printing press...)[8] was also utilised, or a personal diary from an advisor.

It was with these variations, as with natural selection and evolution, that allowed the AAR to develop into its current form – the sapient AAR, if you will. Sometimes a genre experiment would work – sometimes not. And this was the process that was vital in allowing the AAR to develop into what it is today.



[1] Out of 188 posts, Johan is responsible for 7.

[2] A big part of this may well have been also to do with the differences in the period of time for which the games were actively being written about. For example, when one considers that the EU1 forum in AARland was used actively for about a year compared with the twelve years between EU2's first and most recent offering (2/5/2001-8/8/2013). It would therefore seem only natural that, given the drastic time difference, more non-beta AARs would be written – a point which cannot be argued with. Regardless, the way in which people approached the AAR (and the beta-AAR) had inherently changed.

[3] Obviously, not in the original sense of the word.

[4] The piece actually ends with Harvard's total defeat, which of course ends the AAR.

[5] I can't find an exact quote to support or debunk this; if someone could correct me (or blithely tell me I'm right) I'd be much obliged. ;)

[6] The wonderful Who Killed Charles Cromwell? by Ariel et al follows the same format and was started five months prior. It was even still active by the time The Free Company came around.

[7] To some extent, it could be argued that two genres were prevalent during the time. Many of the AARs that were classified as gameplay could pass as what we might call 'history book' AARs. Using the premise of a history textbook of sorts was a common way to give some life to the date/event formula.

[8] Mind you, the Daily Mail always claim things were better in the old days – and everyone would have shared their views on women, Muslims and foreigners.



Next Month: Interlude – A Study of Genre​
 
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Avindian’s AAR Academy II: Electric Boogaloo

or

Playing the game

As both an AAR writer and a AARland DM, I read a lot of AARs. In addition, I’ve written non-fiction both in my collegiate career and for fun on a blog with a very good friend of mine. I also teach writing – or at least try to – as part of my history courses. Please feel free to send me questions and I’ll try to answer them in the next installment!

So, you’ve decided on the game, topic, and type of AAR you want to write. Great! Don’t pick up that pencil (metaphorically speaking) just yet, though. You have to play the game first.

“I’m not an idiot, Avindian.”

Of course you aren’t, dear reader. After all, you’re visiting the Paradox forums, which makes you among the smartest and/or most attractive human beings on Earth. It’s scientifically proven!*

*I am not a scientist and it has not been scientifically proven.

However, playing a game with the purpose of writing an AAR is different than playing it for your own amusement. Now, of course, if you played the game already and want to write the AAR, you can’t adopt most of these suggestions, but you can do that for your next AAR in any case.

Suggestion 1: Figure out what you want to do for pictures.

Most, but not all, of the very best AARs have pictures. TekcoR’s Nightmare is one of the best examples of an effective AAR that has very little or no pictures. EtzelHoveri’s recent Game of Thrones AAR is another. However, you’ll almost certainly want to include pictures.

What kind of pictures? Game screenshots are the easiest, and the most effective, way to tell your story. You probably already know this, but most Paradox games let you take screenshots with F11 and maps with F12. (I assume you’re using a PC – I don’t know what you use in MacLand.) Some people use software like FRAPS to help them (Google it). I am not one of them, but to each his/her own.

If you’re writing a narrative AAR that relies a lot on historical characters, you may wish to use images from various websites. That’s okay too. My personal preference is for AARs that have screenshots so I can follow along with the game, but the historical photos can be really well done too. loki100’s Great Patriotic War is a superb AAR and uses almost no in-game photos, even when a certain readAAR constantly bothered him about it.

Suggestion 2: Find a good image host and stick with it.

Countless AARs have gone down in flames because a writAAR lost his/her pics. I personally use Imageshack and pay $6 per three months for unlimited hosting. It’s a great deal and works well for me. Photobucket can be good too. Imgur is free and very popular, although I haven’t used it. The exact host matters less than that you use the same one, consistently, and that you make sure you are prepared if you run out of bandwidth. Above all, don’t even think about trying to use Paradox’s native servers, as you get a pitiful amount of space.

Suggestion 3: Decide in advance how you will edit your photos.

I have horrified many a person with this deep, dark secret. I know I risk losing my entire audience with this fact, but it is important to be truthful.

Every image in every AAR I’ve ever done has been edited with MSPaint.

A lot of other AAR writers use much more advanced software. GIMP is free and very popular (although I found it cumbersome and not very user friendly). Photoshop is pricey, obviously, but you can get CE2 for free by Googling for it (and it is entirely legal!) Again, the watchwords here are consistency and how comfortable you are with the tool.

What kind of editing will you need to do? You will almost certainly need to resize photos. Cropping is usually a good idea if you just want to grab part of an image (like a battle in HOI3, or the birth of your new heir in CKII). Additional graphical enhancements are entirely optional, and since I have no competence with the field (I use MSPaint, after all) I will leave it to those more qualified to instruct you.

Suggestion 4: Take notes.

In one of my own AARs – Novum Romanum Imperium and the sequel – I had a problem where I had character regularly living into their 100s because I consistently forgot to record a birth date. For my Hohenzollerns campaign, I have a detailed Excel spreadsheet to prevent exactly this situation from happening again. I recommend something similar.

In addition, you’ll want to remember what happened in your game, obviously. My personal method is to take screenshots of everything even semi-significant and sort out which ones I’ll actually use once I’m ready to write. For my HOI3 AAR, I have a notepad I write down orders on and then use in the game. I’ve also printed out countless pages (when I had a printer – at present I lack access to one). You’re probably tired of hearing this already, but pick one and be consistent.

Suggestion 5: Roleplaying can be fun. So can min-maxing. Choose one.

If you’re writing a gameplay AAR – and statistically, if you aren’t writing an AAR for CKII, you probably are – you will probably want to do your absolute best. If you’re writing a narrative AAR, though, you need to create tension to keep readers guessing. Nobody likes reading a story where the good guys win every time with no difficulty. (Well, maybe you do. Weirdo.) You need obstacles to overcome. Therefore, you will probably find yourself doing something stupid or choosing a sub-optimal outcome for an event, for example. That is not only okay, it is encouraged.

The important thing is not to mix the styles. If you win all the time by min-maxing, you don’t explain how your characters feel or how they don’t commit suicide out of boredom. If you roleplay in a gameplay AAR, people might laugh at your ineptitude.

I won’t even say consistency here. Okay, except for right there.

Suggestion 6: Decide how long you want updates to be and save each time you hit a benchmark.

You have almost certainly never written an AAR before if you’re following my guide, which makes this one difficult. Still, you want to make sure that you have a carefully chosen interval for each update. If you play too far ahead of your story, you’ll get bored and want to do something else. If you do not have a perfect memory, you also risk mixing things up in your head, no matter how religiously you follow Suggestion 5. (If you do have a perfect memory, you are contractually obligated to either fight crime or become a super-villain.)

I like nice, even integrals for my play sessions. For Vicky 2, it’s usually 10 years. For EU3/4/CKII, 25 to 50 years. For HOI3 or March of the Eagles, 3 to 6 months. Of course, you will inevitably have something exciting happen that might force you over your arbitrarily defined limit. Go ahead, then, keep going, but make sure the moment you finish your war or whatever that you save and quit. You (and your readAARs) will thank me.

Those are the six rules I try to follow whenever I do my own AARs; may they serve you well! That concludes this installment of Avindian’s AAR Academy. Next month, I’ll talk about your first posts in an AAR!
 
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Tonight we talk to one of AARland's most prominent, influential and enduring figures, a staple of the fora who this year is celebrating his fifth anniversary* as an AAR author. Half a decade on, Tommy4ever remains as popular an author as ever, with recent works such as his Egypto-Norse duology proving to be a smash hit amongst the fora faithful. A living master of the historybook craft, Tommy also counts amongst his successes the revolutionary (in more ways than one) interactive AARs Let the Ruling Classes Tremble and Vive La Republique which perhaps remain his most popular works to date. Never the kind to rest on his laurels,* when Tommy is not writing of the continued exploits of the Egypto-Norse, the ever-busy AARland artisan is occupied with applying the final touches on his latest project, Blood and Iron a Prussian interactive AAR cast in the same mould as his two previous interactive AAR successes. His truly massive (though slightly incomplete) repertoire of works may be found here.

1. We're probably going back quite a few years here, but can you still remember the first AAR you ever read? Did this AAR influence your future works in any way? if so, how?

Whilst I can’t remember the very first AAR I read, I do remember the first that made a real impression on me. Back in the halcyon days of mid to late 2008 I came across WIELKOPOLSKA - Rise of the White Eagle - A Polish AAR by robw963. It was visually stunning; to this day I’ve not read an AAR that looked better, and was very entertaining to read. This was the AAR that convinced me to start reading AARs regularly, and eventually begin to write my own in December of that year.

2. As one of - and I don't think I'm at all overrating you when I say this - the more influential authors here at AARland, who exactly are the AARland authors who played a major part in influencing your own AARs back when you were first making your name here in Paradox AARdom?

Well, there are a good few authors who had a big influence on me in my early days. A surprisingly strong Victoria contingent with robou and Treppe being significant influence (their AARs are near the top in the most viewed Vicki AARs), but I think the most influence came from a guy called demokratickid. He was one of the regular commenters on my first AAR, so I naturally looked into his and found what were undoubtedly my favourite AARs of my early years on the forum, so they had a big impact on me. I’d also credit General_BT who authored my all-time favourite AAR, although I have never been talented enough to write anything in his style, he got me into the CK forum and his work was always in the back of my mind.

3. I've talked with a lot of authors here in the past about the influence that real-world history can have on the writing of an AAR, but what about politics? As an author of more than a few history political AARs yourself, how important a part would you say politics plays in the shaping of the AAR?

Well, I know quite a lot of people tend to be turned off by AARs that are overly political in focus – but those that grasp the grubby world eagerly with both hands are always my favourite. AARs that ignore political realities entirely can sometimes be a little frustrating for someone so focused on that aspect as me, as they can break my suspension of disbelief. So I think for a fully immersive AAR world you should at least take politics into account, although you don’t necessarily have to go into too much detail.

4. What about your own personal political beliefs? Am I correct in assuming that were it not for the rather left wing political views you yourself hold, something like Let The Ruling Classes Tremble never would have came into being?

This is certainly the case. When I wrote that AAR I was 17 and starting to really form my political beliefs, this involved reading a lot of material by and about far left figures of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This understandably gave me a bit of a passion that evolved into Let the Ruling Classes Tremble. Unsurprisingly, other lefties loved it and that AAR also got me in touch with some people who further helped my real life political development. So if it wasn’t for my slide towards* far left politics in real life, I doubt that AAR would have been written, and it certainly helped me out in settling down as a Marxist in real life as well.

5. And speaking of Let the Ruling Classes Tremble, that really was something of a milestone in the recent history of AARland as it pretty much single-handedly resurrected the dormant "Interactive AAR" genre after the Realpolitik debacle, thereby paving the way in some sense for the "Interactive AARs" which exist today. Curiously though, these newer, primarily "character-driven" RPGs which are quite popular today seem to owe very little stylistically to the "second-person" nature of either Let the Ruling Classes Tremble or your subsequent French Interactive AAR . As the author who revived the interactive genre, just what exactly is your opinion of these newer, RPG-based works?

Well, one thing I noticed after I came back from my ban that ended Let the Ruling Classes Tremble.* was how ‘Interactive AAR’ had come to basically mean these RPGs. I tried to get into a few of them, but once they’ve started I’ve always found that the time commitment to catch up and stay caught up is just too much. So I’ve never managed to really experience one. Personally, I would prefer to be able to take part in a ‘’second-person’’ interactive AAR to see what the experience is like on the other side, alas that style of interactive AAR just doesn’t seem to have caught on.

6. Okay, I think that's enough ancient history for now; let's move on, shall we, towards Medieval Egypt. Your latest AAR (or AARs, I should say) centre around an old Norse Viking dynasty which invades and subsequently settles in Egypt. That's quite an interesting and unusual setting to say the least! Just what was it exactly which possessed you to come up with such a... unique setting for your latest AARs?

Well, after coming back to the forum I saw that the Old Gods DLC had come out for CK2, played it and absolutely loved it. There and then I decided that I had to write a Viking AAR, but I’ve always liked to have an unusual ‘hook’. I thought it would be fun to set up a Norse settler state ‘somewhere hot’, in game the opportunity arose in Egypt and I seized it with both hands, never looking back.

7. I'm sure amongst our readers there are quite a few aspiring AAR authors searching for advice on how to start an AAR. As a veteran author yourself, how important would you say setting (that is, the country or dynasty which the author writes about) is to the success of an AAR?

It doesn’t necessarily matter which country or dynasty you start with (although one that you either have some prior knowledge and/or a passion for is always best), but to have a successful AAR you have to do something different from what everyone else is. Maybe that will be in your style of writing, or spectacular gameplay accomplishments – I tend to try to make the starting set up slightly different from IRL. People are drawn to novelty, so lure them in with it. Then you can write whatever story you want, if they like it they will stay.* :p

8. Now I did allude to this earlier, but your latest AAR is in fact part two of your burgeoning "Egypto-Norse" saga. This begs the question, just how far exactly are you prepared to take the "Egypto-Norse" Dynasty? Will we see a sequel for the upcoming game "East versus West" for instance?

Well, I never actually intended to continue into EUIV, but the game was new, the converter excellent and I was still having fun with the Egypto-Norse so I decided to keep going. At the moment I think I’ll end the saga with EUIV, but you never know – if things are still interesting in the AAR at the end of EUIV and there is a good converter I may well take it another step further.

9. What about other, non Egypto-Norse related projects? Do you have any in the pipeline that you might like to share with us, particularly any for EUIV?

Well, I’m not sure if I will create another EUIV AAR in the near future – but I’m eagerly awaiting East versus West. My hope is to make a return to interactive AAR writing with the new game – following either Italy or Turkey, both countries with very interesting politics in the Cold War era. Beyond that I’ve been considering a CK2 Pecheneg AAR to fill the gap between the end of the Egypto-Norse saga and the release of EvW.

And what about your new "Prussian project"? You have of course written both interactive and non-interactive AARs set in 19th and 20th Century Germany before, what makes this new AAR different from those?

Ah, well I decided to go with the AAR starting in Prussia 1861 as it seems to be the perfect moment to look at the emergence of modern party based politics in one of Europe's foremost countries. Its also quite different from the other interactive AARs I've done. On top of this its simply a really interesting time to look at German politics, historically a decade after the start date Germany had been unified, I wonder how successful this alternate Prussia is going to be. I'm hoping the AAR can be about as successful as Vive La Republique was last year, I have my doubts that the 'second person' interactive AAR will make a notable comeback in the near future - but it would certainly be nice to see others embarking on similar projects.

10. Leaving AARland aside for one moment, is there anything that you might like to share with us about the "Tommy" behind the screen? Your hobbies, interests, etc.?

Well, I’d say I’m entering into the happiest period of my life so far. Entering into my third year at university (after a couple of rather more chaotic years before), I moved in with my girlfriend early in this summer and feel more settled and contented that ever before. I told her about this interview and she would have been gutted if I hadn’t mentioned her haha.

11. We're getting a bit towards the end now, but just before we move on to the infamous final question, are there any other words of advice you'd like to share to those butting young AAR authors out there?

My advice would be to simply write and read as much as possible. The more you write the better your actual writing, as well as your graphical presentation will become whilst reading provides ideas and inspiration for your own works.

12. And now the traditional final question: Out of all the AARs you've yet written, which was your personal favourite to write and which is the work you are most proud of?

This is a tricky question. I’d say that Through Rivers of Blood and Mountains of Gold - The Story of The House of D'Albon was the most important for being the AAR that I really established my writing style with – it was also one that was pretty unpopular at the time, only having a few thousand views at completion. Vive la République! - An Interactive French AAR was the one I had the most fun writing, interactive AARs are shedloads of fun to write – and I think I enjoyed this one a little more than Let The Ruling Classes Tremble. But I think I’m most proud of the way my most recent Egypto-Norse AARs have turned out.

Thanks Tommy for your time.
 
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”I hate the indifferent. I believe that living means taking sides.”
-Antonio Gramsci

(note: while this may be a slightly controversial article I’m aiming more at fostering discussion and attempting to explain my perspective)

If you are writing a historybook AAR, odds are that you are going to be writing your history like so many other histories you have read: with a voice detached from the events you are describing. We’ve been taught for years that this is the best way to write history, and this teaching goes from explicit teaching in the classroom to implicit teaching through reading. We even see such an approach taken in contemporary journalism, where the phrase “both sides”is used to assume a kind of objectivity on the part of the writer. But this perspective is wholly useless, and actually harmful, when you are writing about the ‘Big Events” of an AAR.

These events can be revolutions (as you see in Vicky and EU), epic wars (as you see in any Paradox game), the spread of capitalism (as you see in Vicky), or religious inquisitions. Taking an apolitical, ‘objective’ perspective to such an event denies the possibility of engaging the event and the reasons behind the event. From an ‘objective’ perspective, events like wars, revolutions, or inquisitions are either natural occurrences or sadly avoidable events, but neither of these perspectives give us any insight to the event itself. Why did the event happen? What did the people who lived through the event think about it?

The last and perhaps worst problem with an indifferent perspective is that, as Gramsci notes, it is impossible not to take sides with certain issues, and thus an indifferent perspective ends up taking a side even while seeming objective by decrying both sides. Let’s say you’re writing your AAR and a war between your country and France comes up. You as a player are not going to be impartial to the results: you want your country to win and you want France to lose. Beyond that, even in the world of the AAR, you have given your country a long and compelling backstory compared to any country you go up against, so the reader is rooting for your country, so why not drop the pretense?

Or take a real life example. The histiography of the French revolution is plagued with people who decry the actions of both the Ancien Regime and the Revolutionaries, and ask if only there could have been another way. What these histories miss is that during the time of the late 18th century and in the minds of the people who participated in these events, there was no ‘other way’, there were only the Revolutionaries and the Counter-Revolutionaries. Thus, to take an ‘objective’ perspective when such an idea did not exist at the time makes it more difficult to engage in the thinking of a period.

So how do we deal with this? One way is to drop the pretension of objectivity and write from one perspective (as one can see in several Vicky and HOI AARs, perhaps because the ideologies of the 19th and 20th centuries are most discernable to us?), or to take the perspective of one or several actors within the time period (as one can see in The Republic and perhaps my favorite AAR of all time, So Far From God). But perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps an indifferent perspective can be useful (I’ve certainly used it for most of my AAR writing). And it’s worth it to note that So Far From God has been inactive for some time--taking multiple perspectives and retreading over old territory can go in the face of the problem I brought up in an earlier article, the problem of too much detail bogging down your ability to write.

So it’s a balance, but in the case of particular events, I hope that this article helps push you towards thinking about how you present your perspective when dealing with the big events of your AAR.
 
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The Communist Campaign In Karelia.
A HOI3 Strategy guide by Jason Pitruzello (Secret Master)

A while back, news on the forum was that PI was going to be releasing books. We were all curious about what to expect and now we know, because the first in what hopefully will be a long line of excellent books is among us.
It can be bought, probably among other channels, on Amazon. For those of us who are curious but never buy anything online (like me), I present to you a review of Secret Master’s work.

The book tells the story of a group of students on a Soviet military academy in 1986, who have to deal with a self-righteous instructor who seems hell-bent on taking out his frustrations on them.
While he goes out of his way to belittle them, he also teaches them about ground combat, division composition, doctrine research and tactics.
This is done through the study of an old diary from 1939, that used to belong to the general in charge of the Soviet forces during the Winter War. In this diary, the general speaks about his failures, his doubts and fears, and about the many lessons he learned from the disastrous campaign.

In 4 chapters, Secret Master elegantly shifts between the students and the book they are studying. You see the mistakes we all make when we’re new to the game through the eyes of a WWII general.

“Message for you, sir!” The general looked at his enlisted assistant. Spit and polish were watchwords at the headquarters in any army, but young Aleksei shined brass just by entering a room. The general had considered eating some of his meals from the young soldier’s pristine shoes. He may be rubbish on the shooting range, the general thought, but I’ve never had an order or communiqué garbled for the length of his service. I must remember to promote him at some point.
“What is it, Aleksei?”
“Sir, some of the division commanders want to know if there will be any changes to the chain of command before the invasion. They say that…”
“Wait, don’t tell me. Let me guess, they are whining about the lack of staff officers in their own divisions and want to steal some of the officers from the headquarters above them.”
“Almost word for word, sir. Well done! What reply should I give them?”
“ Tell them to shut up and mind their own business. I’m going to take a nap, and I don’t want to hear any more about it. If I decide to change anything, I will let them know.”


In every chapter, the general learns something new during his nap. In this case, for instance, he learns that you should have at least 100% officer ratio before going to war.

The book subsequently switches to the students, who then discuss the general’s findings, much as we are used to doing on the forum. Inevitably, they are found wrong by their condescending instructor.

Katukov paused to give the entire class a disappointed look.
“It is clear that despite my stated goal of having all of you actually think for a change, I am doomed to listen to petty disagreements that show a real lack of judgment. First of all, everyone seems to forget that an army group might contain up to 125 divisions spread out in five armies with five corps each. So, anyone can afford to put one skilled commander at that level of command if supply consumption is deemed excessive. But there is nothing stopping anyone from doing what both of you have suggested. Logistics wizards can be placed at headquarters all up and down the chain of command in addition to placing a good leader at army group. The two courses of action are not mutually exclusive. But regardless, you must still prioritize what is most important for the campaign.

The guide is written in an entertaining mix of HOI theory and fiction, that I find very appealing. There is not enough space to fully flesh out each character, but that is not the purpose of the guide. It’s goal is to teach new players how to plan and win ground wars. Despite this, each character is given enough of a personality to be interesting, with more than a few funny tongue-in-cheeck-moments (one of the students is called Bagration and is fond of maneuver warfare with lots of tanks).


The guide is very good at showing first-hand what happens when you go wrong, and then to show what you really should have been doing all along. In the chapter about division composition, the students are given, as homework, the task of designing the perfect division for a specific situation, and I found myself playing along, thinking about what I would do before reading the student’s response (which, invariably, is found wanting by the hateful instructor, who then gives us his own “perfect” solution).
It is here that Secret Master’s extensive knowledge of Hearts of Iron truly shines. His divisions are both cheap in terms of MP, supplies and fuel, and as efficient as the situation allows. His reminders of what to keep in mind when planning for war are spot on.

Another fine point to me is his highly functional use of screenshots to illustrate how , for instance, a different axis of attack may drastically alter the fight. Especially in the chapter dealing with division composition, he shows every division structure that is mentioned as it appears in the division build screen, along with terrain modifiers. The perfect illustration of what would work, and what wouldn’t.
He doesn’t use them off-hand, but very deliberate so as not to distract from the text.

I have only 2 gripes with the guide.
First, the chosen style of mixing fiction and instructions requires a sharp and attentive mind, but chances are that, if you choose to invest in this guide, you have that in spades.
The second gripe is the fact that in-game stats and terms are used with only the basest of explanations.

“Sir, he can’t because he still can’t see past combined arms operations. He is forgetting about width. A division’s width determines its operational footprint. Every battle can only sustain a finite number of divisions, and the limitation is based on the width of individual divisions versus the frontage in a battle. A single axis attack against a single province will only sustain a total of ten width. Since support brigades add no width to a division, the number of divisions capable of joining the battle will be determined by the width of their combat brigades.” “Aha, so are you saying that we should minimize width and maximize support brigades?”

Stacking penalties are barely touched. Defensiveness, Toughness, Hard Attack and Soft Attack are used and not explained.

The writer obviously targets an audience with at least some working knowledge of combat stats. There is nothing wrong with that, but any real newbie will probably not understand everything.

These are minor gripes, really, in what is, otherwise, a strategy guide that I can fully recommend to even experienced players.
What’s more, by the end of the guide, the students, by way of final test, are given the task of pooling their skills. They have to bring the Winter War to a succesful conclusion within 1 in-game month. Whether they succeed, and how, along with the epilogue, is a wonderful end to a guide that will remain on my hard drive for as long as I play Hearts Of iron.
 
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If you visit March of the Eagles AAR forum often, you have probably encountered this month's interviewee. I felt that it was time for the AARlander to look at the smaller forums, and to focus on the hidden treasures to be found there. He has done many AARs for the game already – all gameplay. (Excepting one: Once Upon a time in a Bavarian Fairytale, which is written in a comedic vein. I consider this best work thus far. ) Introducing Pigbin!

1. Though you don't comment on others' work as often as some, do you read any other AARs? And if so, do you read AARs outside the MotE forums?

I do read other AARs and do comment on the ones I've read, there are a couple ongoing that I'm reading that I haven't commented on yet. I have started writing comments then cancelled them as I'm not sure how saying "loving this but you’re writing it too slowly" would go down.
I haven't started reading any outside of MotE yet, but I intend to once I have a better grounding in the games.


2. Do you have plans to ever branch out into writing for a different Paradox game, or will you keep writing for MotE?

I picked up CK2 recently and was thinking about writing up that, but the game imploded so quickly because I hadn't a clue what I was doing. Once I get a grip of the game I may post something there but coming late to that party it may all already have been done.


3. Your current AAR is a comedy: would you ever consider writing a narrative? Or perhaps even a tutorial-gameplay style piece? I would certainly say you're skilled enough...

I don't think I could pull off a full narrative AAR, I don't think my writing is up to that task. That's nice of you to say, I'm not sure it's true though, you should see all the disasterous campaigns I don't do AARs about I'm not a very good teacher and a tutorial would be a huge task, I think I'm far too lazy to take on that much.


4. What drew you to AARland? Was it a friend? Or perhaps something else?

A friend of mine had heard about MotE coming out and knowing I'm a history/archaeology bore he suggested that it would be a good game for me, I bought him a copy too as a thank you, but I don't think he's even tried it, despite my badgering him to.
I don't tend to read rules that often before jumping into games these days and I was having a problem with something, I jumped on to the forum to look for hints and advice and one of the posts referred to this AAR. I hadn't a clue what an AAR was but I had a look and got drawn in.


5. A MotE question now: how would you convince those people reading this who don't own the game to buy it, or to check out its section of AARland?

You really are striking at all my weak points here, I'm not a very good salesman either. It's a great game, easy to throw yourself into without bogging you down in micro-management. A quick hour on this and 6 later you'll be wondering where the day went but happy that you crushed Prussia, or Austria or whoever.
And if you don't look at the AAR section then more fool you. Read and be inspired to emulate, exceed or just enjoy some great tales.


6. And last but not least; which of your AARs do you like the most?

I'd say without a doubt "Through the Sublime Porte". A lot of mistakes in the format, structure and tone but my first and who doesn't always hold a soft spot for their first in most things?

I enjoy Pigbin's work immensely, though, as with everyone on these fora, he can still improve further and make his work even better! Here are some tips for both Pigbin, and all of you reading:

- Try adding borders around images for greater clarity and cohesion.
- For added comic effect, why not try and your game so that Bavaria's flag contains the pink cake?

Seeing as I feel it is his best work, here is a short review of Pigbin's Bavarian AAR; Once Upon a Time in a Bavarian Fairytale:

In this AAR he played with his first smaller nation: Bavaria. The story is incredible funny to read, as he chronicles his Fancy Uniformed soldiers in their marching around and fighting other, not so fancily uniformed soldiers, before retreating to the opening of a local cake shop. Here is a part of the opening post which I really enjoyed:

Once upon a time there lived a little king in a little kingdom. Lets [sic] call this little kingdom Bavaria and the little king Maximilian the Fourth. The little king wanted the world to be a more Bavarian place for people to grow up happy and strong and pay taxes.

The story continues in this vein, and gets even better when the likes of Austria, Prussia and even France begin marching through his country. If you like stories about fancifully-uniformed soldiers who like cake and making Bavarians happy, this is the AAR for you! You can find it in his inkwell, posted for your convenience at the end of this AARticle.
Pigbin’s Inkwell:
Once Upon a time in a Bavarian Fairytale
AEIOU – an Austrian AAR
A bloody war or a sickly season – a British AAR
Through the sublime porte – an Ottoman AAR
 
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Greetings people of the paradox forums!
Yet another edition has been provided for you here, I'm glad you took your time to read it and hopefully you would have enoyed it so far and will continue reading it in the future. I don't have much to say in this editors note and but it feels a little lame to leave it blank and empty or with just a little bit of text describing why (which i just did! Haha!).

I hope you guys have greatly enjoyed the newest release from paradox that is EU4, I know I have for sure, but at the same time I have rediscovered Heart of Iron III and have catched on to it and it is now occupying my time instead of EU4. Just saying, if you guys haven't tried it, go do it, it is something that stands out from the rest surely.

Well then, happy reading and hope you will follow us again!

Sincerely.
D.
 
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