Re: Gather Round - The Next Total War Community Competition is Here!
Hey guys!
Just want to tell everyone, that if you started an AAR just several days (no more than a week) before the announcement of the contest, we may still accept it as an entry into the contest. Just make sure to clear it with us first.
Re: Gather Round - The Next Total War Community Competition is Here!
Is it allowed to submit older AARs?
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عیسی پسر مریم گفت :' جهان است پل ، عبور بیش از آن است ، اما هیچ ساخت خانه بر آن او امیدوار است که برای یک روز ، ممکن است برای ابدیت امیدواریم ، اما ماندگار جهان اما ساعت آن را صرف در دعا و نماز برای استراحت است نهان
All of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.
Otto von Bismarck
Re: Gather Round - The Next Total War Community Competition is Here!
Not if they are very old, sorry... (A week or so should be OK, if it's longer you'll have to talk with us, if it's older than a month then I guess no...)
Granted Lettre de Marque by King Henry V - Spurs given by imb39
Сканија је Данска
عیسی پسر مریم گفت :' جهان است پل ، عبور بیش از آن است ، اما هیچ ساخت خانه بر آن او امیدوار است که برای یک روز ، ممکن است برای ابدیت امیدواریم ، اما ماندگار جهان اما ساعت آن را صرف در دعا و نماز برای استراحت است نهان
All of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.
Otto von Bismarck
Re: Gather Round - The Next Total War Community Competition is Here!
Yes, sorry Atterdag, your AAR is a bit too old... but IMHO, besides awarding the community, the point of the contest is to stimulate it. I don't think it would be as effective if people could simply submit their previous work... nor would it be as fair to those writing theirs now.
Re: Gather Round - The Next Total War Community Competition is Here!
Well, technically theres nothing that says that you can't enter the contest if you already have Kingdoms... you could always just give it away to someone, or do whatever I guess. So do as you like, but we won't exchange it for a monetary sum or something else, of course.
As for the mods, I'm not sure what you mean by "retrofit-addon", but as long as it uses a Total War engine (STW, MTW, RTW, M2TW) then its fine.
Re: Gather Round - The Next Total War Community Competition is Here!
Well, the modification by Unspoken Knight that rebalances the unit stats to those used in Kingdoms (where they are actually balanced) as well as adding things like boiling oil and such, and Madrono's Kingdoms Units Add-On that ports the Kingdoms only units into the Grand Campaign (France/England get muskets, Byzzies get flame throwers, Order units are available from chapter houses etc.).
Since the contest is FOR Kingdoms, I wonder if its unfair to USE Kingdoms Units in the AAR. I only ask because I've been pondering my next AAR and I figured I might as well give the contest a shot.
Re: Gather Round - The Next Total War Community Competition is Here!
I am not sure what you mean... but I'm quite sure that Publius meant that its OK to use a mod which uses Kingdom's units in an AAR for this contest, if that was not clear.
Re: Gather Round - The Next Total War Community Competition is Here!
It stands for After Action Report (though there could exist variations on the exact wording)... but in any case, it usually means a story that is written based on in game experience of the author. For campaign based strategy games like M2TW, people often play a campaign and tell what happened... though it could be about a single battle as well. You can just describe the events straight forward, or you can invent personalities, motives, etc. and add events that were not actually produced by the game.
Besides bragging about your victories and abilities as a medieval general, or what not, they are a good way to express your writing talent, or just increase you immersion factor in the game, as you're sort of following a story or tale with goals, rather than just clicking buttons.
Pictures are often involved to better explain things, or just for fun, but they are not necessary.
Hope that helps... You can go to the general M2TW or RTW forums, and find the AAR subforum in each one if you want to see/read some.
Re: Gather Round - The Next Total War Community Competition is Here!
The AARs will be judged by the members of the CB on the following criteria: quality, originality, and their ability to grab our interest.
...so yeah, pretty much the "whatever-we-like-best sort of thing"... its hard to make specific criteria for an AAR because theres so many directions one could go in when writing it. Of course quality of language, details, etc. help; however, in the end, this is art and entertainment, not a school, and certainly not an English language school... especially considering that the mother tongue of many here is not English. And we can't expect battlefield/campaign detail as you only have to base your AAR on a TW game, but a writer can always choose to just take one character and describe his life, filling up the gaps with events (like battles) which happen in game.
So in the end, a big chunk of it is just creativity. That's not to say that a straight-forward account of a campaign or battle can't win... but since there is no "grading rubric", at least one aspect of it probably does need to stand out from the rest, which could simply be its sheer quality, but not necessarily.