AARbitrary stuff EUII

[Craig Ashley]

First off I'd like to say welcome! Secondly do whatever works best for you. Try to pick a unique voice or style and see what happens. If you conquer the world great, if not that's ok too. Some of the best AARs out there are about plans that went awry. Most Important: Have fun.

 

[Lord Durham]

Cool. There's some interesting AAR action happening there.

MGO's always been one of my favourite sites for info and neat stuff.

 

[Lord Durham]

Done. Good read.

 

[unmerged(9340)]

A nickel's worth of free advice: Set goals for the game you plan to AAR. They don't have to be realistic ... they could be something really wacky, like using France to wipe out Buddhism. They'll help give you an ongoing story for your AAR, or in the case of a humorous AAR, a running gag. Of course, if you're a megalomaniac you already have your goal.

Best of luck, and happy writing ...

 

[unmerged(9863)]

How you do AARs in procedure?

How do you do your AARs in practice, for example in how long periods you play it and then start writing it?

Any hints?

 

[Craig Ashley]

I'm new but this is how I do it. I'll play about a 40 year block, taking notes of things not in the history log. Then I go back and check the log. After that I start to write.

I feel that 40 -50 years gives me enough distance to put things in proper perspective. It lets me know how so-and-so's reign is going to work out, ect.

But that's just me. I too wonder how some of our veterans so it.

 

[Hamilcar]

Re: How you do AARs in procedure?

Originally posted by Atte
How do you do your AARs in practice, for example in how long periods you play it and then start writing it?

Any hints?

My current AAR is VERY slow paced, so so far I've played not even a year.

It really depends on the type of AAR I guess.

 

[Norgesvenn]

Thankfully, there's the history log to refer to for some dates and stuff. Otherwise, I use a pad and a pencil for making notes along the way, whenever something... ahem... noteworthy happens.

As I've had a nasty tendecy of having savegames that crash upon loading, vapourise, smell funnily and things like that, I like to be at least 50 years ahead in the game before even attempting AARing. That gives me time to cure savegames, smash down some empty beer cans and things like that.

I suppose this all depends upon, as Hamilcar says, the type of AAR you're doing.

 

[unmerged(9863)]

Thanks for help, I should start making an AAR some day. Though I'm not bold enough to post it here as I progress in it, I complete it on Word first and then see if it has came tolerable

Still waiting for more comments.

 

[Bismarck]

What tone of AAR are you looking at? Humorous, serious, historical, character-driven?

M

 

[unmerged(6777)]

For me, it really depends on what type of AAR I'm doing.

I usually play for long periods at a time (maybe 12+ hours of game play) and take lots and lots of notes. Then also refer to the history log for other things too.

I generally try to write about 3-5 pages in Word for each post, so whatever period of time that covers is what ends up getting written about. When I was doing my Timurid game, I'd usually be 50-100 years ahead of the AAR in gameplay, but that was a fairly "fast" AAR. In comparison, when I did my French AAR I had completely finished playing the game several months before I finally finished posting. My latest effort is even "worse". I've played through the entire game but the AAR will only cover a very brief period of about 5 years that happened early in the game.

 

[unmerged(9863)]

Originally posted by Bismarck
What tone of AAR are you looking at? Humorous, serious, historical, character-driven?

M

Since it would be my first one, i think serious would be "easiest". What type of AAR is character-driven?

 

[Warspite]

After doing several AARs I take notes while I play in all of them. Then with the notes I sort out key points and how to implement them into a story or historical description.

I like to do Encyclopedia or History Book style AARs mostly with tid bits of Story thrown in. Also I prefer short and sweet AARs so I try to cram as much info in the text.

You will see exactly what I am talking about in my next AAR which will be posted in a week or two (Cambodia) . Its much like my Ethiopia AAR from last year. Short and sweet text descriptions of each Monarch as I play the game. It will be more like a History Book and you will barely be able to tell I used a game to base it on (thats my hope anyways )

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Just a reminder to folks...about a week to go before I start doing the data entry for this month's new AARs and completed ones. If you haven't already, get yours in now.

Thanks very much to the people above who've already done so.

 

[unmerged(9046)]

Coming Soon:

John Gill and the Library at Alexandria

- a new John Gill AAR on the Mamulukes

 

[unmerged(4007)]

Actual time I play the game varies. For me to take good notes I need to be interested in the game. And for that to be the case, I need to be flexible. That said USUALLY not less than 3 hours.

I'm normally about 100 years ahead in gameplay of what I'm writing about. I use chapter divisions based on game events. I try to keep the chapters more or less similar in length, but I don't have a word count going on them and I don't mind if one covering a long period of peace is longer than others. Generally similar length chapters go over better than totally irregular lengths--though an occasional "interlude" marked as such can help move things when you have less than a full chapter's material.

Pacing the AAR is entirely based on events. I could fly through time sometimes in Nippon due to a large variety of similar events (that is, revolts). This AAR I'm constrained to do things (at this point anyway) a little more slowly because so much is happening in so short a period of time. To me, flexibility is important here. I don't like AAR's that compress 50 yeas of war into a paragraph. But if nothing's happening, don't feel forced to manufacture events to make something happen (though sometimes a couple zany events in an otherwise quiet time can be used for something special, like my "Mad councillor" in Brandenburg).

 

[Dragonheart]

http://dingo.care-mail.com/pictures/54/540/038/540382399.jpg

 

[Dragonheart]

Wow it works!!!

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Yes, it works just fine...

And that's a great big behemoth of an Austria you've got going there.

 

[Dragonheart]

I m just working on my austrian AAR Report. I finished gameplaying yesterday.
And now a lot of work is awaiting me.
In the last screenshot austia is a bit larger than in that one
Cheers Dragonheart