DISCLAIMER:
The return of the multi-award winning historybook AAR series is at hand, however this AAR unfortunately will not live up to its predecessors quality. You see, this time yesterday I was planning on scraping this AAR and moving straight on the fourth installment, the narrative. I did not want to procede with this AAR because I failed to find motivation for it and did not feel I could give it my all. Unlike the previous two AARs this one is for EU3 which, by my reckoning, has a poorer log and as such my notes on this game are far poorer than the previous and to add to that, this game was played way back in Jan 2008; you can probably see why I might struggle to write this. However there were several reasons which I came up with last night as to why I shall to continue with this AAR anyway. Firstly, this series was always setup as a quadrilogy, as denoted by the fact that the logo below is quartered. The narrative AAR would still work well without this AAR but I wanted it to be comprehensive and complete. Another reason is that by writing this AAR, it would justify the narrative's presence in the EU3 forum as opposed to the EU2 forum whereby it otherwise should be placed.
So this AAR shall go on however do not expect the same level of detail as seen in the previous installments. This AAR shall mostly focus on the gameplay aspects and have less of the characterisation that I included in the previous volumes. I hope to write this fairly quickly so I can move on the narrative which is waiting in the winds. It may be as little as 6 or 7 posts. Nonetheless, let's begin...
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Liber Sancti Ioannis: The Book of Saint John
Preface:
Ladies and Gentleman I bring to you the Book of Saint John. The Book of Saint John is an extraordinary artefact which has just as much intrigue about the book itself as it does its contents. It was discovered only recently in a monastery in the hills surrounding the Tiber valley. The monastery, it is said, was once a hideaway for members of the Knights of Saint John after their expulsion from Malta by Napoleon in 1798. The author of the book is one Lionel Fortescue, a Knight of Justice, who during the occupation of the French, took to writing. Whilst one might assume he would write theological articles or the like, Lionel, in those dark days in which the Order, at least in his eyes, seemed all but destroyed, took his pen to write about the history of the Knights. But as Lionel began, he realised that the Knights history was an endless account of tribulation and failure but thankfully Lionel was an imaginative and inventive person and with this marvellous mentality he came up with the Book of Saint John.
The Book of Saint John consists of many different alternate timelines, represented as volumes, which provide insight into what Lionel thought the history of the Knights could have taken. Each volume, although providing a thorough history, tends to focus itself on one particular war or event which it provides with immaculate detail and each volume is well supported by a series of short poems scattered throughout. Although many of the volumes were either unfinished or lost, the surviving fragments provide a wonderful fictional presentation. Naturally, the original texts were written in Latin but they have since been translated into English for our contentment.
The Book of St John:
Volume 1: War of the Rhone
Volume 2: On Greece and the Byzantine Empire
Volume 3: The Tenth Crusade
Volume 4: TBA
The return of the multi-award winning historybook AAR series is at hand, however this AAR unfortunately will not live up to its predecessors quality. You see, this time yesterday I was planning on scraping this AAR and moving straight on the fourth installment, the narrative. I did not want to procede with this AAR because I failed to find motivation for it and did not feel I could give it my all. Unlike the previous two AARs this one is for EU3 which, by my reckoning, has a poorer log and as such my notes on this game are far poorer than the previous and to add to that, this game was played way back in Jan 2008; you can probably see why I might struggle to write this. However there were several reasons which I came up with last night as to why I shall to continue with this AAR anyway. Firstly, this series was always setup as a quadrilogy, as denoted by the fact that the logo below is quartered. The narrative AAR would still work well without this AAR but I wanted it to be comprehensive and complete. Another reason is that by writing this AAR, it would justify the narrative's presence in the EU3 forum as opposed to the EU2 forum whereby it otherwise should be placed.
So this AAR shall go on however do not expect the same level of detail as seen in the previous installments. This AAR shall mostly focus on the gameplay aspects and have less of the characterisation that I included in the previous volumes. I hope to write this fairly quickly so I can move on the narrative which is waiting in the winds. It may be as little as 6 or 7 posts. Nonetheless, let's begin...
-------------
Liber Sancti Ioannis: The Book of Saint John
Preface:
Ladies and Gentleman I bring to you the Book of Saint John. The Book of Saint John is an extraordinary artefact which has just as much intrigue about the book itself as it does its contents. It was discovered only recently in a monastery in the hills surrounding the Tiber valley. The monastery, it is said, was once a hideaway for members of the Knights of Saint John after their expulsion from Malta by Napoleon in 1798. The author of the book is one Lionel Fortescue, a Knight of Justice, who during the occupation of the French, took to writing. Whilst one might assume he would write theological articles or the like, Lionel, in those dark days in which the Order, at least in his eyes, seemed all but destroyed, took his pen to write about the history of the Knights. But as Lionel began, he realised that the Knights history was an endless account of tribulation and failure but thankfully Lionel was an imaginative and inventive person and with this marvellous mentality he came up with the Book of Saint John.
The Book of Saint John consists of many different alternate timelines, represented as volumes, which provide insight into what Lionel thought the history of the Knights could have taken. Each volume, although providing a thorough history, tends to focus itself on one particular war or event which it provides with immaculate detail and each volume is well supported by a series of short poems scattered throughout. Although many of the volumes were either unfinished or lost, the surviving fragments provide a wonderful fictional presentation. Naturally, the original texts were written in Latin but they have since been translated into English for our contentment.
The Book of St John:
Volume 1: War of the Rhone
Volume 2: On Greece and the Byzantine Empire
Volume 3: The Tenth Crusade
Volume 4: TBA