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Derahan

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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 anonymous4401(please be right name correct me otherwise),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 for feedback and critique to us, head to the subscription thread where you can also subscribe to the thread and get a notice when the next edition is released!

Code:
[SIZE=3][URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?760289-The-AARlander-Edition-16&p=17015707&viewfull=1#post17015707"]AARland's AwAARds - Seelmeister[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?760289-The-AARlander-Edition-16&p=17015730&viewfull=1#post17015730"]Avindian's AAR Academy - Avindian[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?760289-The-AARlander-Edition-16&p=17015736&viewfull=1#post17015736"]The History of the AARland - DensleyBlair[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?760289-The-AARlander-Edition-16&p=17015749&viewfull=1#post17015749"]World Conquerors of EUIV - Seelmeister[/URL]

[URL="http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?760289-The-AARlander-Edition-16&p=17015759&viewfull=1#post17015759"]Editor's Note - Derahan[/URL][/SIZE]
 
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February AARland Awards

Many of you will already know, and a good number of you have also been nominated for, the regular AARland awards. This is not the first time that an incarnation of the AARlander will have highlighted the awards, and I thought it would be good to bring you a regular overview of the writers and AARs which have been recognised by the community

Fan of the Week

Anyone who has written a single AAR chapter will know just how important it is to see that someone is reading what you write, and this month we have named another three very deserving fans of the week. All three are previous winners of the award, indeed all three previously won the award over five years ago – which is testament to their presence and longevity in AARland. Congratulations all!

2nd to 9th February: Stuyvesant

9th to 16th February: volksmarschall

16th to 23rd February: Kurt_Steiner

At the time of writing the next nomination has not been made, but hopefully we will soon have another Fan of the Week to recognise.

Weekly AAR Showcase

The Weekly AAR Showcase recognises a specific AAR, and we have had four nominations during February. Interestingly, all four come from different games, including March of the Eagles and EU: Rome

2nd to 9th February: In the Shadow of Greatness by Seelmeister

9th to 16th February: Pax Quaeritur Bello by MondoPotato

16th to 23rd February: Return of the Spartiates by wriener

23rd to 2nd March: The Little Lion That Could by John Forsetti

WritAAR of the Week

The WritAAR of the week is one of the most prestigious awards in AARland, tracing its routes back to EUII

16th to 23rd February: BogMod

23rd February to 2nd March: Nononir

Roleplayer of the Month

The Roleplayer of the Month award has been running for over a year and a half now. Our winner for February is Jako473, cited for his actions as General Van der Goltz. Congratulations!

Character Writer of the Week

The Character Writer of the Week award recognises a particular creation by one of our writers. We have had two nominations in February;

2nd to the 9th February – unc15 for King in the North

9th to the 16th February – Aidun for The Little Cub

Please note that nominations are currently open in the thread – so if you have a character in mind that you feel deserves recognition, head on down!

2013 WritAAR of the Year – Voting Round

This year, Avindian has launched two new annual awards, and the first of these is the WritAAR of the Year. The award is intended to recognise a prolific writer for the quality, quantity and breadth of their writing. The criteria is that they have written at least three updates in two AARs across different games. The four names nominated for the inaugural WritAAR of the Year are;

Avindian

DensleyBlair

Migthy

Tanzhang


Voting ends on the 1st April, please head over and cast your vote if you haven’t already!

2013 NewcomAAR of the Year – Voting Round

While the WritAAR of the year award is intended to recognise the most established of our writers, this second award is to recognise a new writer who has had a major impact on AARland since arrival. The criteria are that a writer must have made at least three updates to an AAR, between November 20th 2012 and the end of 2013. A total of six names made it through to the voting round;

Ab Ovo

DensleyBlair

GreatUberGeek

Migthy

MondoPotato

Nachopontmercy

SomeDude


Like the WritAAR of the Year, voting ends on the 1st April so please head over and cast your vote!

These are our award winners for February, I’ll be back next month to give you an update on the next group of winners.
 
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AARlander Academy IV: A little bit louder, peanut gallery

The title might escape a non-American; there’s an old saying, regarding hecklers at the theater, of “no comments from the peanut gallery”. Since peanuts were the least expensive food available at such performances, this is also telling poor people to shut up. According to Wikipedia, it came from the positively ancient American series “Howdy Doody.” This show also provided the world with the word “Cowabunga”. These two facts may be more significant than anything else I write later: I shall leave it up to you.

The basic gist of my title, however, was to introduce the reason we’re all here: comments. One of the greatest advantages of writing an AAR is near instantaneous feedback (compared with, say, submitting a story to a literary magazine). By far, the single best way to ensure plenty of comments is to write a good story. (I imagine you, dear readAAR, with a pencil and paper, eagerly receiving my wisdom, and underlining “good”, possibly with an interrobang. Please don’t disillusion me.) If you follow the advice in the first three AARlanders, you should be well on your way (I hope) to improving the quality of your own AARs. Yet there is more to it than that. To wit:

Solicit specific comments on your AAR. While including in an update or two an admonition against lurking isn’t a bad idea, calling for comments as a zombie does for human flesh, brains in particular, makes you seem whiny and needy. These are not good things, my friends. However, asking for something specific (“Did I make a good decision here?” “What do you think of the overall style in the last update?”) is both smart and an excellent way to learn. (I do not advise asking, however, “Have I lost my mind, or…” as you will get a positive response, in 99% of cases.)

Try to respond to every comment. This is the flipside of receiving comments; you should always respond. Sometimes this leads to interesting discussions, and again, your own AARs (or even just your general knowledge) will improve as a result. Even if it’s a simple “Thanks very much!”, it’s the polite thing to do.

Cliffhangers, used sparingly, are commenting gold. If you’ve made a captivating story, a cliffhanger will encourage speculation amongst your readers, perhaps even inadvertently giving you excellent ideas for the future.

Comment on other AARs. If you wish to receive, you must give. The more active you are in AARland, particularly if you give excellent comments, the more other people will visit your own AAR. In connection with this, you should make sure you post in the appropriate librAARy thread and include links to your own AARs in your signature, with having an Inkwell as an excellent medium-term goal. This will make your devious efforts more rewarding.

Now, as writing quality comments is part and parcel in receiving quality comments, a few words on that:

Update begging, in small quantities, is okay, especially paired with a better comment. The constant parade of “MOAR!” can occasionally be gratifying to a writAAR, but not always, and especially irksome when it is clear they haven’t updated/will not update in quite a while. It is always good, however, when paired with something else.

Constructive criticism is the very best comment you can give. General comments of praise are soothing to the ego, but constructive criticism is even better. Whether this is questions of continuity (although not in a Comic Book Guy sense), advice on improving writing or graphics, or offering an alternative in a gameplay AAR, these are always well received and helpful.

Question everything! Questions, both in your daily life and in AARs, are the key to starting quality conversations, which is where AARs are often at their very best. (Please do not literally question every single thing an author writes, though.)

Don’t be a jerk. This is good advice in general. (I recommend highlighting the word “don’t.” Do not, however, highlight the computer screen.) Don’t use an AAR to do anything that breaks forum rules, obviously, but don’t be a pedant either. Gentle criticism is okay; printing out an AAR, circling all the parts you don’t like in red ink, then scanning it and reposting it is not.

While I will return next issue with a general edition on English grammar, this is the formal end of my series. If there’s something I didn’t get to, by all means ask, and I will address it in the future. Even if it has nothing to do with the Academy, I always solicit recommendations! I hope you’ve found the series useful, or at least got a laugh out of it. Thank you very much, dear readAARs!
 
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AARland Branches Out

Or: the Evolution of the Beta-AAR



Thanks

I'm beginning to think that this series should be called "Dicing with St. Expeditius". It seems inevitable with the beginning of every month that I will end up writing my article just before the deadline, however noble my intentions to do otherwise may be. Thankfully, for the most part this strategy has worked and I have been able to produce an article. As we know, however, it can also backfire – especially if I find myself unusually busy around my scheduled weekend, as is sadly quite common. To this end, as we near summer and inexorable exams, I imagine I may have to take a few breaks from putting an item out every month. Due to this publication's frequency, this will have the unfortunate effect of meaning that there will be months between instalments – something I'm very keen to avoid. We'll see where we get to, but this is just to ensure that all of those people who actually do take an interest in what I'm doing and read the series – people to whom I am always incredibly thankful – aren't too shocked or disappointed if I'm forced to have a month's hiatus.

Now that that's over, I'd like to thank Derahan for putting together this publication, my colleagues for making it as good as it is, the people of AARland for making AARland and, chiefly, yourselves for reading.

As a brief foreword to what is to come, this article will provide very brief notes on the formative periods for the three main franchises not yet covered in this history – namely, Hearts of Iron, Victoria and Crusader Kings. Naturally, I will be revisiting them in more detail at a later date.

DB



Hearts of Iron (2002)

On the 1st October, 2002, we found ourselves in familiar territory in AARland. Once again, the place was full of beta AARs made by a privileged few for the many people eager (and unable) to see the upcoming title for themselves. The title in question was Hearts of Iron; a new game by Paradox set in and around the Second World War.

This would change AARland dramatically, not because of any radical new stylistic changes or different approaches to writing an AAR, but because, like the UK in the 50s, and much to the chagrin of both UKIP and the Daily Mail, AARland was diversifying.[1] Also like the diversification of the UK in the 50s, this was a good thing. For one thing, and with no disrespect to my readers with EU as an alma mater, the boards would be, well, boring is everybody was waiting about their experiences in playing what is now a 14-year-old game. Instead, the coming of new sub-forums was perhaps more beneficial simply for its role in expanding AARland and infusing it with we ideas.

It is only natural that a game dealing with a period wholly removed form that of EU1 and 2 would bring new approaches to AAR writing. Now, learning from the earlier days of dry beta-AARs and Proto-AARs, beta-AARs were disguised via narrative framing devices or as orders of battle – the rigid structure naturally befitting what is essentially a bug report. Indeed, the first AAR we find in the sub-forum – King's "The Greatest Gamble" – conveys the author's thoughts on the game as it was during testing via the Nazi haute cour. It is a strange hybrid of narrative and gameplay, mixing the two genres in a way I had never seen before – remarks about the game supposedly being made by Hitler, Dönitz and Göring. Nonetheless, it marked a definite improvement on the works of the original EU Proto-AAR writers.[2] It was also significant as it sparked interest in who would become a highly popular part of AARland – at times almost autonomous from it, I find, such seems to be the unique prevalence of people who only comment in the area when compared to exclusively CK-oriented readers, for example. To date, the HoI section of AARland is objectively the most popular – the only sub-forum to have achieved over half a million posts and five thousand threads, respectively.[3]

Victoria (2003)

This diversification did not stop there, however. Not by a long shot. A year after Hearts of Iron was given its own space in AARland, a new game received similar treatment: Victoria.

The first beta-AAR for Victoria came in the form of Syt's "All Quiet on the Western Front" – a piece unique in its field for its liberal use of pictures and its non-Grand Campaign start. Syt guides us via the voice of an apparent lecturer through the years that make up the Great War. For me, this marks a definite shift in AARland. Pictures – and editted ones at that – are now de rigueur, and each AAR tends to have a distinct style. Even aprof's "Diario de Mexico" – the second beta-AAR published in the forum – written in the standard "diary" format adapted from the earliest of Proto-AARs and used by many around the turn of the millennium, has been adapted to follow its own unique vein, incorporating manifold "sources" and other texts in a good example of a "hybrid" AAR, even mixing elements of narrative in with the "diary".

The first few forays into writing for Victoria were further proof of a clear development within AARland. If one wants a succinct measure of progress within the field of AAR writing, one should look no further than the beta-AARs posted here throughout the years. From the very prosaic event logs to, only three years later, full blown AARs with edited images that could stand up reasonably well today.

Crusader Kings (2004)

This trend continued with the introduction of Crusader Kings in 2004. Pictures, quality prose and even text formatting were now de rigueur with luminaries such as Mettermck and the Father of AARland himself, Radical Jack— I mean, Lord Durham, taking up the proverbial pen to highlight the new game. Half a decade on from the first few Proto-AARs, the only thing separating beta-AARs from the standard fare was the fact that one had to comment in a different thread to the actual narrative. Indeed, the first AAR to grace the CK forum – Tamas' "The Deeds of Salamon" – is written in the form of a diary, much in the same way as one would see a "diary" style AAR for Crusader Kings nowadays. Mettermck, meanwhile, offered a history book style effort via his "The Lion in Winter" and Lord Durham gave the community one of his trademark narratives with "Norman Knights".

Excepting a few small details, the forum as it was in its inception was essentially as it remains today – a mix of styles, all fully formed and polished, with a ready, enthusiastic audience. This wad the seminal thing about the birth of the CK forum in AARland – with its arrival, we saw the creation of a fully-formed entity. Very little polishing was needed in the months that followed, and, of the three exams looked at this month, this would be by far the most recognisable to someone today not versed in AARland's history.

To conclude...

Through looking at the beginning of the various constituent states of we can find a microcosmic version of AARland's development as a whole – from humble, really quite prosaic beginnings to fully developed, slick AARs. Of course, this has now been taken further still, though in the interests of keeping this short and not repeating myself too often, I've decided against going over the introduction of every single new sub-forum. Almost as one would study a timeline to get a concise overview of a history, one can study the first few AARs in every forum to get a small, largely accurate taster. Of course, one won't find any of the epic tales so revered and emulated today, and neither in most cases will one find particularly well-known or "famous" authors. Yet what one will find is fascinating and entertaining. Yes, not all of the pictures may have survived, and some aspects may seem dated, but that doesn't stop us reading other classics. With that, my parting message, as ever, is go and explore further. Go and read some of these beta-AARs. I can guarantee that you'll end up finding a whole host of things you enjoy.

See you all next month.



1: I might be getting my history mixed up here, but I'm pretty sure the UKIP 2002 party conference resulted in the addition of "tighter controls on the diversification of AARland" to their manifesto. (Henceforth, I see it as my God-given duty to slip a British socio-political reference into each article I write for this publication. :D)
2: This isn't meant as a criticism in any way, but rather a reflection of media available at the time. Like comparing the Wright brothers to a modern engineer at Boeing, for example. It can't be argued that the former are legendary in the status, yet the latter would have a far greater finesse to their work.
3: It must be noted that the sub-forum is also the largest in terms of constituent sub-forums, oddly including what is in all likelihood the least well known of all sub-forums in AARland – that of the HoI Card Game, containing a mere five AARs. I am also of the opinion that this popularity stems from an odd fascination the Internet seems to have with anything to do with Hitler.



Next month: If you're reading, Coz, I think it's time we had anther discussion. :)
 
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The World Conquerors of EUIV

Hello everyone, for this month I thought I’d try something a little different and rather than give you a straight up review, I’d instead have a look at more than one author who have attempted one of the most difficult achievements in EUIV – conquering the world.
First, I must confess that I’ve never once attempted a WC in a Paradox game. The mere thought of the micromanagement and planning involved is likely to bring me out in a cold sweat, so I’ll start by saying that I admire the ambition and perseverance of all three authors who have undertaken this.
This article will look at three AARs which have attempted to complete a WC; DDRjake’s Three Mountains, bleakie’s Beyond the Sultan of Rum and eugene171’s Tea and Crumpets Worldwide. All three have chosen different countries, played using different versions of the game, and have written their AAR’s in a different style, and it is interesting to contrast these different approaches.

Tea and Crumpets Worldwide by eugene171

I start with the most recent of the three AAR we will look at*today, Eugene only began his AAR in mid-January. This was just as the first expansion for EUIV was released, but the game is played with a historical old world. Playing as England from 1444 offers an excellent opportunity to secure a Personal Union over France – but only if the difficult 100 Years’ War can be tackled. It is a challenge, but one which a number of players have accomplished, and Eugene cites Bibor’s guide as being very helpful in ensuring that England emerges with a French union. Despite a Novgordian intervention, the British Isles are soon secured. A quick strike against the Iberian’s is a key strategy of many WC attempts – cutting off the colonisation before it can begin, and with a strong French Union and an Aragonese ally it is not long before both Lisbon and Toledo are occupied. Centuries earlier than real life, English pensioners begin to settle en masse in Spain as the first slice of territory is carved out, and then Eugene gets lucky when the Castilian King dies without an heir, and a personal union under England is formed. A large England, unions with France and Castile and its only 26 years of gameplay in. Can you see that writing on the wall?

This doesn’t mean plain sailing of course, and in an attempt to arrest the fine progress Eugene is making the Paradox Gods unleash an inconvenient bug. Before being integrated, Castile was able to create a colonial nation, and upon annexation of the overlord this becomes fully independent, rather than a subject of England. As well as colonial companies, Eugene has to contend with the new protectorate mechanics. An opportunity is spotted, and in the mid 1500s Sibir swears fealty to London and becomes a new-fangled vehicle of expansion.
The new mechanics are interesting, but England (now Great Britain) must still deal with the Holy Roman Empire…

In the early 17th*century, Eugene reveals his cheesiest strategy, one which has been employed from the start; tech suppression. By not investing in diplo tech beyond level 7 (indispensable due to the colonial range boost), Eugene can effectively prevent any nations from westernising following contact with his sprawling empire. To celebrate, the final HRE reform is passed and we once more change tags, from Great Britain to the Empire.

Eugene flies through the game at a brisk pace, and writes in a witty fashion which is highly engaging. From a gameplay perspective, the PU with Castile was a bit of a watershed moment, moving the question on from ‘will a WC be achieved’ to just a matter of when, and the amusing commentary keeps the reader coming back.

Beyond the Sultan of Rum by bleakie

Interestingly, the game was not started with the intention of completing a WC, but rather to unlock the ‘Sultan of Rum’ achievement, but early in game events transpired to offer an excellent opportunity to look beyond this already high ambition. The Ottomans have been sucked into a war against the Iberian infidel in Morocco, and 40,000 crusaders have disembarked on the North African coast. Castile and Aragon are bloodied until they will accept a white peace, but Portugal is put to the sword and forced to cede Porto and Madeira. The fight against the colonisers has begun.

Of course, the Near East cannot be ignored, and small wars against the Turkish Beyliks are fought, before the inevitable confrontation with Egypt begins. The second war in Iberia once again unites all three Christian powers in opposition against the Turks. The battles slowly dwindle manpower, but ever ambitious bleakie simultaneously strikes against Venice, using his fleet to keep their forces confined to Italy and trying to win the war without battles.

Byzantium, rather than being annexed, are maintained as a vassal in order to core newly acquired orthodox territory.* From the flames of the war against Egypt bleakie produces a second vassal – the newly released state of Syria. The early intervention in Iberia has an interesting consequence – Granada actually survive well beyond the first decade of the game!
The English, thanks to their alliance with Portugal, are soon drawn into the wars as bleakie begins to consolidate his grip on Iberia, which results in Leinster becoming the first part of the British Isles to answer to a Muslim overlord. The fight against the next colonial rival has begun!

By 1653, coincidentally 200 years after the fall of Constantinople in real life, bleakie believes that the chances of a WC are beginning to slip between his fingers. Around this time, bleakie also changes the format of his updates. Recognising that a narrative of the wars is perhaps becoming slightly repetitive (given the constant state of warfare), the updates instead focus on key milestones and an overview of the empire.

The problem is the HRE, which has shown itself to be incapable of much progress towards unity, and as such places a number of central European provinces well beyond his grasp. Alternatives goals are suggested by the author, including reducing the number of provinces not within the Ottoman Empire to below 150, and completing the original goal of unlocking the Sultan of Rum achievement. By 1692, however, the HRE is destroyed and disbanded. Could a WC still be possible? At the time of writing, bleakie had progressed to 1792 in the AAR – drop by and give him some encouragement!

The Three Mountains: A Ryukyu AAR by DDRJake

Started on the 14th*August, just one day after the release of the game. The title is the name of what many expected would prove EUIV’s hardest achievement to unlock; a world conquest with the tiny state of Ryukyu. To date, only a tiny number of players have succeeded in unlocking this achievement. This is a repeat of DDRJake’s Ryukyu world conquest in EUIII.

The AAR itself actually covers two games, first one starting with vassalization of SE Asian minors, and then an ambitious pacific crossing to attack the North American natives. What follows is a race to box the Spanish into a small corner of Brazil, and an 80 ducat per month deficit as the painful realisation dawns that the cost of colonial maintenance rises exponentially as the number of active colonies exceeds your colonists. The first of many exploits was discovered – the so called process of ‘vassal feeding’ where you pass of newly conquered territory to your vassals to reduce overextension, and under your vassals stewardship the land will be cored and converted, saving you valuable monarch points and gold. The mercenary fuelled invasion of Europe in the later part of the 16th*century brought predictably astronomical casualties for the backward Ryukuans, but after securing the first European province in the south of Portugal a huge invasion of Spain begins. However, this game was not destined to be the first WC, and events transpired to hugely weaken the vast Ryukyuan horde. The blotched attempt to switch to a republic, which soon collapsed back into a despotic monarchy, caused a spike in revolts and resulted in the loss of much land in Iberia to a resurgent Spain. A Hail Mary pass was thrown – an unjustified war against the Ming, and although it appears to be going well it is clear that too much time has been lost. And so begins attempt 2.

DDRJake promised that his idea for the second attempt would be crazier than the first, and he duly delivered. The first teaser screenshot showed a broken China split into a number of Ryukyuan vassals, just 40 years into the game. Shortly after, we saw Ryuku’s third war begin – not against any of the Indian, South East Asian or Central Asian countries, but against Castile in the heart of Iberia. DDRjake had discovered an incredible exploit – exiled troops were able to march all the way to Europe, looting as they went, allowing him to send vast armies right along the ancient Silk Road to Western Europe. Where the first attempt had gone boldly east, attempt two was on a lunatic’s crusade to the west.

Soon Iberia was a mismatch of Ryukyuan land and vassals, and the allied armies were smashing apart the Big Blue Blob to the north. Soon invulnerable exiled ships join exiled land armies to extract blockade income and raise war exhaustion in coastal cities which cannot retaliate while the units are exiled. More are to follow; you can ‘store’ monarch points by starting building constructions, begin westernising, and then cancel your constructions to instantly regain your monarch points, vastly reducing the cost of westernisation. Defeat rebel missions were found to be an extremely reliable way of maintain some level of stability. The one I found most amusing, however, was that rebels use whichever unit you have designated as your unit type. For most games this means rebels will be of equal quality to your own armies, but in DDRJakes crazy world of mercenary armies the rebels soon found themselves limited to the weakest type of infantry DDRJake could select!

The ultimate exploit was so delightfully dripping in cheese that I cannot even bring myself to reproduce it here, but suffice to say that DDRjake had found a way to take advantage of Ryukyu’s rather unique available missions to effectively mint money without consequence. The AAR builds to a fantastic conclusion as DDRJake takes on the*might of a unified HRE , and the last independent nation falls to Ryukyu in early 1762.

So, two of our three authors have been successful in their attempts to conquer the EUIV world, while the third has not quite finished. All three, however, played their games and wrote their AARs very differently. DDRJake’s attempt is unlikely to be surpassed for sheer craziness anytime soon. Taking one of the weakest countries to the heady highs of World Emperor is no small achievement, and through ruthlessly exploiting many oversights in the code DDRJake demonstrates an understanding of game mechanics that few will ever match. His writing portrays an almost constant air of suspense – we know he is discovering these exploits, but the reveals are staggered throughout the AAR to keep the readers guessing. The pace of the game, or games to be strictly accurate, is quite impressive, and it is little wonder that the author needed a bit of a rest towards the end! A large number of the developers stop by to offer their congratulations, and the AAR has racked up well over half a million views (!)

Bleakie appears, through his writing, to take a more considered approach and progresses at a slower pace. Perhaps this is in part due to the fact that the game did not start as a WC attempt, and although only a few years had passed before bleakie decided to attempt one it is clear that to complete the conquest a huge amount of planning is required. I’d be interest to hear what, if anything, the author would do differently had he started the game with the intention of conquering the world. The mechanics are discussed at length, and midway through a number of calculations take place to try and establish if the goal is still possible.

Eugene’s effort was written at a lightening pace – indeed although I followed from the start I rarely had just one chapter to read at a time when I caught up. The short, humorous narrative was excellent, and made the AAR flow very quickly.

So, what can we learn from these three varied attempts? First, and most importantly, a WC attempt makes for a fantastic AAR! All three authors stared from radically different positions, and have fared differently as they work towards their goal, and yet all three AAR’s have been well followed.

There are two issues which will always have to be tackled in a WC attempt; dealing with the colonial nations and dismantling the HRE. On the colonial nations, our writers had a clear consensus – deal with them early. However, on the HRE the attempts differed. DDRJake allowed the HRE to form and become his ‘boss battle’ at the end of the AAR. Bleakie too did not meddle to early, and left mopping up the HRE towards the later part of the campaign. Eugene, but contrast, embraced imperial politics and became the HRE.

Reading the three AARs together, it is clear that one word sums up how each writer plays the game; efficiency. Conquests are carefully calculated, and especially later in the game truces are triggers at specific times in order to ensure a supply of targets. Direct conquest is not the only method of expansion of course, and all the writers make use of vassal/ protectorates/ colonial nations to further their expansion.

I thoroughly enjoyed all three of these AARs, and was very impressed by the ability of the authors to plan their games so meticulously. I’d encourage you all to check the AARs out; especially bleakie’s who has not quite finished yet!
 
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Here we go again, another edition finished, maybe a day or two delayed but I hope that is all okay with you guys. Alot of writers ran into problems along the way this month therefore this edition is slightly smaller than the one before, hope you guys can cope with that! As some have gone away some has returned, DensleyBlair continues his history of the AARland but we miss the interviews by Tanzhang and Beligumruler, Gela1212s gameplayand Misterbean, GreatÜberGeek and Trenchriflemans reviews and I believe that is all, just drawing guys from my mind. Hopefully we can get a big and cozy edition for next month! If you want to get updates of when the editions is released please head over to the subscription thread! Hope you readers have a good time reading and we will see you next Month!

OBS: sorry for the short note :p
 
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