Indeed. Arthurian legend is always fascinating...
That kind of thing is always great.
It's nice to know that people are checking out the thread for recommendations! I totally sympathize with having a long reading list too.
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Indeed. Arthurian legend is always fascinating...
That kind of thing is always great.
It's nice to know that people are checking out the thread for recommendations! I totally sympathize with having a long reading list too.
I've always been intrigued by the Kaiserreich setup and this AAR sounds especially interesting. I'll have to check it out.
Rensslaer
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Same, Kaiserreich is amazing for both gameplay and stories!
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Omentide
I'd like to preface this by saying that reviewing two Arthurian AARs within the first round of reviews was a coincidence. Regardless, Omentide is an AAR for Age of Wonders 4 that follows Morgana Pendragon (aka Morgan Le Fey). It is a narrative, but gameplay is mentioned. Admittedly, the introduction says that it'll be a combination of history book, narrative, and gameplay, so we might see more gameplay elements later on.
Elements of the game are mentioned in occasional interlude updates. So far, there's been a faction review for Avalon (Morgana's faction), which described how that was set up in the game a bit and notes that the game has a faction creator. There are also lore interludes, which inform the reader about necessary details of the game's... world? (multiverse, actually). These lore details serve as reminders of the game's worldbuilding, which I enjoy, particularly since I don't have AoW4.
Of course, the main part of this AAR is the narrative, which follows Morgan Le Fay. It begins in an unusual manner that raises a lot more questions than it answers, and not all of these questions have been answered yet, which I can admit is a good way to lure the reader into the story. It follows the exploits of Morgan Le Fey after she has awakened from a (probable) illusion and formed a faction/kingdom. I still can't tell how much of the illusion that the prologue began with was real since Morgan occasionally quotes from stuff that was... after her time (*cough, cough* Macbeth *cough, cough*). The sense of mystery is not helped by the fact that there's still a lot of things that Morgan doesn't know, and she's our main perspective so far...
All in all, I do enjoy this AAR and patiently await the next update. I also like the idea of adding a soundtrack to an AAR, even if I haven't listened to it yet. Of course, I'm also interested in AARs with Arthurian elements in general, which might explain why I'm enjoying this so much. I can recommend that you check it out.
Elements of the game are mentioned in occasional interlude updates. So far, there's been a faction review for Avalon (Morgana's faction), which described how that was set up in the game a bit and notes that the game has a faction creator. There are also lore interludes, which inform the reader about necessary details of the game's... world? (multiverse, actually). These lore details serve as reminders of the game's worldbuilding, which I enjoy, particularly since I don't have AoW4.
Of course, the main part of this AAR is the narrative, which follows Morgan Le Fay. It begins in an unusual manner that raises a lot more questions than it answers, and not all of these questions have been answered yet, which I can admit is a good way to lure the reader into the story. It follows the exploits of Morgan Le Fey after she has awakened from a (probable) illusion and formed a faction/kingdom. I still can't tell how much of the illusion that the prologue began with was real since Morgan occasionally quotes from stuff that was... after her time (*cough, cough* Macbeth *cough, cough*). The sense of mystery is not helped by the fact that there's still a lot of things that Morgan doesn't know, and she's our main perspective so far...
All in all, I do enjoy this AAR and patiently await the next update. I also like the idea of adding a soundtrack to an AAR, even if I haven't listened to it yet. Of course, I'm also interested in AARs with Arthurian elements in general, which might explain why I'm enjoying this so much. I can recommend that you check it out.
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Excellent! It's nice to know that people are finding AARs from this!
Same, Kaiserreich is amazing for both gameplay and stories!
It is, although I still haven't managed to get around to playing it
. I do enjoy the idea of the mod a lot, though.- 1
@HistoryDude: Thank you very much! That's very flattering. For what it's worth, I do plan on answering *most* of the questions that have arisen. I can't promise that the answers won't raise more questions though! I appreciate your input and very much look forward to hearing your feedback as the story continues. One small note though, I'm @The Kingmaker, not @theKingmaker. (But so it goes with forum handles!)
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Fixed. I think I didn't notice that the t wasn't capitalized and clicked the top option. Whoops!
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New Era, Old Gods
Time for another review.
I find novel ideas a good topic for AARs, and I especially enjoy religious alternate histories. This AAR covers an alternate Sweden that decided to break the Kalmar Union in as final a manner as they could - by breaking away from Denmark not only politically but religiously. Here, Sweden converts back to Asatru (which is the fancy name for Norse Mythology) and also decides to attempt to get rid of Christian influences (which is more necessary than you might think since the sagas were written by Christian Icelanders). From there, we follow the history of this now-repaganized Sweden as it attempts to survive converting away from the preeminent religion in Europe.
The gameplay is rather interesting. To start with, this AAR utilizes Lions of the North, which gives it many events to choose from. These are all mentioned in the AAR itself, which allows them to be showcased. However, Bergil also uses Scandinavia's historical connection with the New World to great effect, beginning the colonization of America quickly and creating Vinland. Later, this is used to further expand in that area. Despite this, the AAR also features interesting examples of pragmatism, such as how this new Sweden reacts to the Reformation and who they choose to ally with (the Ottomans). Those choices made things feel more realistic, which I definitely appreciated.
This is a gameplay AAR, so the narrative is mostly implied. A lot of it is created by the events of the game, which add a feeling of causality. Many interesting things happen, but they all feel like logical consequences of previous events. This increases the AAR's overall plausibility.
I can definitely recommend it, although there are a couple warnings. The first is that there are a few chapters that don't contribute to the overall AAR (since they were a false start), although they are clearly listed as such, so you can just avoid them. The second is that every screenshot is captioned as if it were a historical picture, but they're just in-game screenshots. I think this is because they're supposed to represent these pictures in-universe (not that I can blame the author for not putting a ton of effort into the art). Even despite this, though, the AAR is still very good. It covers a highly interesting topic and one of the more famous mythologies and cultures. Furthermore, it's an AAR about Sweden during the EU4 timeframe, which are surprisingly rare (maybe because of the whole junior partner in a personal union with Denmark thing?) that helps explain a way to play as them.
I find novel ideas a good topic for AARs, and I especially enjoy religious alternate histories. This AAR covers an alternate Sweden that decided to break the Kalmar Union in as final a manner as they could - by breaking away from Denmark not only politically but religiously. Here, Sweden converts back to Asatru (which is the fancy name for Norse Mythology) and also decides to attempt to get rid of Christian influences (which is more necessary than you might think since the sagas were written by Christian Icelanders). From there, we follow the history of this now-repaganized Sweden as it attempts to survive converting away from the preeminent religion in Europe.
The gameplay is rather interesting. To start with, this AAR utilizes Lions of the North, which gives it many events to choose from. These are all mentioned in the AAR itself, which allows them to be showcased. However, Bergil also uses Scandinavia's historical connection with the New World to great effect, beginning the colonization of America quickly and creating Vinland. Later, this is used to further expand in that area. Despite this, the AAR also features interesting examples of pragmatism, such as how this new Sweden reacts to the Reformation and who they choose to ally with (the Ottomans). Those choices made things feel more realistic, which I definitely appreciated.
This is a gameplay AAR, so the narrative is mostly implied. A lot of it is created by the events of the game, which add a feeling of causality. Many interesting things happen, but they all feel like logical consequences of previous events. This increases the AAR's overall plausibility.
I can definitely recommend it, although there are a couple warnings. The first is that there are a few chapters that don't contribute to the overall AAR (since they were a false start), although they are clearly listed as such, so you can just avoid them. The second is that every screenshot is captioned as if it were a historical picture, but they're just in-game screenshots. I think this is because they're supposed to represent these pictures in-universe (not that I can blame the author for not putting a ton of effort into the art). Even despite this, though, the AAR is still very good. It covers a highly interesting topic and one of the more famous mythologies and cultures. Furthermore, it's an AAR about Sweden during the EU4 timeframe, which are surprisingly rare (maybe because of the whole junior partner in a personal union with Denmark thing?) that helps explain a way to play as them.
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Life 2.0
The idea of a megacorporation is a staple of sci-fi, normally as villains. This AAR explores what happens to the victims of such a powerful and greedy company... after they escape.
It follows a huge - and ever-growing - cast of characters, each of which has their own goals and motivations... which norma lly involve revenge of some kind.
I'm not entirely sure if gameplay has actually started yet, but it definitely takes place in a Stellaris galaxy. Life 2.0, naturally, has the Broken Shackles origin, having once been the slaves of the Minamar Specialized Industries (hereafter referred to as MSI). There is some information about the game that the author is playing in the introductory post, but the storyline has not gotten around to including most of that. What has been included is that there are many species that were victims of MSI, and that other interstellar governments exist. The diversity of species involved in Life 2.0 is, naturally, plot relevant, which brings us to the narrative.
The narrative is where this AAR really shines. The numerous separate perspectives allow the readAAR to visualize a complete world and occasionally offer hints about what is going on outside of Life 2.0's planet. The individual personalities covered are (including our protagonist - who is also an escaped slave with a dark past, her husband and daughter - who aren't human, a man who defected from MSI, and someone who thinks that she's the reincarnation of Alexander the Great) also interesting and sometimes unique, and they allow interesting dynamics (including family drama!) to emerge. Of course, this also ensures that, occasionally, subplots take precedence over the main plot, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing.
Overall, I can recommend this for the characters alone, although the storyline is also very interesting. There is a single caveat to this, though - it's decently long (82 threadmarks, although the individual updates aren't that long). I don't find this an issue since I've been following from the beginning, but a new readAAR will want to keep this in mind - if you intend to try to catch up in one go, ensure that you have a lot of time to do so. Thankfully for such a hypothetical person, CBR JGWRR seems to have slowed down the rate of updates, so catching up isn't as bad. If you can, you definitely should catch up - this is one of my favorite Stellaris AARs.
In fairness, these victims eventually form their own megacorporation-esque entity that is actually heroic, which is a pretty novel idea.
I'm not entirely sure if gameplay has actually started yet, but it definitely takes place in a Stellaris galaxy. Life 2.0, naturally, has the Broken Shackles origin, having once been the slaves of the Minamar Specialized Industries (hereafter referred to as MSI). There is some information about the game that the author is playing in the introductory post, but the storyline has not gotten around to including most of that. What has been included is that there are many species that were victims of MSI, and that other interstellar governments exist. The diversity of species involved in Life 2.0 is, naturally, plot relevant, which brings us to the narrative.
The narrative is where this AAR really shines. The numerous separate perspectives allow the readAAR to visualize a complete world and occasionally offer hints about what is going on outside of Life 2.0's planet. The individual personalities covered are (including our protagonist - who is also an escaped slave with a dark past, her husband and daughter - who aren't human, a man who defected from MSI, and someone who thinks that she's the reincarnation of Alexander the Great) also interesting and sometimes unique, and they allow interesting dynamics (including family drama!) to emerge. Of course, this also ensures that, occasionally, subplots take precedence over the main plot, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing.
Overall, I can recommend this for the characters alone, although the storyline is also very interesting. There is a single caveat to this, though - it's decently long (82 threadmarks, although the individual updates aren't that long). I don't find this an issue since I've been following from the beginning, but a new readAAR will want to keep this in mind - if you intend to try to catch up in one go, ensure that you have a lot of time to do so. Thankfully for such a hypothetical person, CBR JGWRR seems to have slowed down the rate of updates, so catching up isn't as bad. If you can, you definitely should catch up - this is one of my favorite Stellaris AARs.
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Yep... although the Reformation might make the backlash more manageable.
It's nice to know that this is increasing traffic to some lesser known AARs!
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I strongly recommend Life 2.0! It's a great read so far!
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Victoria 2 - Japan
I will admit that I normally don't review purely gameplay AARs, but I'm making an exception today. This is, well, exactly what it sounds like. It's an AAR about the nation of Japan in Victoria 2. There are no outright characters involved, but I personally think there's nuance to that (see the narrative paragraph below). Eurasia attempts to make Japan a major power equal to the Europeans earlier than in OTL - and seems to be succeeding.
The gameplay is good. Japan is doing very well and has successfully modernized, even if there was a lot of people (samurai) who didn't like that and revolted. Can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, after all. After that, though, the Liberal Party seems to have successfully led the nation to expand in the Pacific.
Again, there are no characters in the AAR, although I count the political parties as characters, as each has their own goals and opposes each other. The Liberal Party has ruled Japan for most of the AAR, and their main, doomed enemies are the Conservatives, who wish to undo their modernization efforts. There are also a few other, more minor parties like the Socialists, the Anarcho-Liberals, and the Reactionaries (who are like the Conservatives but more extreme). The other parties do occasionally manage to expel the Liberals from power by uniting, but that never lasts long.
I can recommend this AAR even despite the whole lack of named people. A lot of the lines of the AAR are amusing as well, especially when the Liberals get removed from power and... don't take it well. Also, a decent amount of the technological advance notices are comedic as well. This might be an accident, but that doesn't change it from being one of the AAR's draws. This also has the honor of being one of the only active Victoria 2 AARs at the moment, so players of Victoria 2 will appreciate it.
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Excellent!
This is absolutely true! It's one of my favorite Stellaris AARs at the moment!
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Congratulations @Eurasia! I've enjoyed Victoria II - Japan for a number of reasons. I've played Japan previously, and I know it's a fun country to play (and somewhat challenging -- partly because it has the potential to play with the big boys, but with the disadvantage of starting as Unciv). I do enjoy Eurasia's humor. And I kind of miss Gameplay AARs -- I don't see alot of people doing them anymore. Eurasia's style is kind of a callback to the "original" AARs (like from EU 2 days) where a gameplay AAR was kind of a running commentary on all the stuff happening as it goes along.
Also somehow I missed congratulating @The Kingmaker , @Bergil and @CBR JGWRR - great work!
Thank you @HistoryDude for highlighting these!
Rensslaer
Also somehow I missed congratulating @The Kingmaker , @Bergil and @CBR JGWRR - great work!
Thank you @HistoryDude for highlighting these!
Rensslaer
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Thank you @HistoryDude !!! I didn't think my V2 AAR would make it to the review thread. Wow! Thank you again!
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Thought I had replied at the time....
Thanks for the review of Life2.0, I appreciate it. I've grown really quite fond of these characters over the months since it started. It's a good thing I've got enough ideas planned for the rest of the year easily.
And we've just started one of the Biggest arcs of the narrative; I'm honestly worried about doing the ideas I have justice.
Thanks for the review of Life2.0, I appreciate it. I've grown really quite fond of these characters over the months since it started. It's a good thing I've got enough ideas planned for the rest of the year easily.
And we've just started one of the Biggest arcs of the narrative; I'm honestly worried about doing the ideas I have justice.
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