III. M2TW AAR of the Month Competition - The Winners

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

Thanks to all AARtists again for keeping us entertained, and for entering the competition. Give your congratulations and your +rep to the winners of the III. M2TW AAR of the Month Contest!

Champion: Musthavename - 6 points - Bronze Medal

Musthavename made his name finally, by gaining a crushing victory in the poll. It was his third entry in the competitions with his third AAR. Persistence bore fruit (and Bronze Medal ), well done!


Cuman Cake Confederacy

Mod: Stainless Steel 6.1 (with SSTC, Crimson Tide & Barsers FL Mod)
Faction: Cuman Khanate
Difficulty: VH/VH

Description: A Cuman migration campaign turned comedy. Where will they end up on their endless search for the best cakes known to man?

Comments: This is my third AAR, and is completely different to the other two, so even if you never read the others or absolutely hated them, give this one a look! (And w00t, 1st Nomination ).

Teaser:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

READ THE THING! DON'T JUST BROWSE EVERYONES!

Interview with Musthavaneme

Q: First of all congratulations on your victory. Now get down to the facts. Is the cake a lie?
A: That fact will come eventually. I've got my own plans for what happens when they finally open the door (though the door will obviously open at one point). You'll just have to wait long enough to find out.

Q: What made you start your AAR? What was your inspiration?
A: After my first AAR I really got into writing them. After reading AARs like "Oh-Dear - A Turkish Sultanate" (which may I add is the best AAR ever), "Robbossary" & Laconian's Kievan Rus AAR, I figured the sort of comedy people laughed at was the sort I liked. Putting 2 and 2 together I just felt like writing a comic one. Though my main influence in the way its written is notenames master piece. I don't mean ripping off his jokes! What I mean is that the way its written is very similar. Mostly everything is just speech, even the Narrator is a character in his own right.
If you read closely (or rather loosely) there's a couple of references in there to some of these AARs. The Kiev one is rather obvious though.

Q: What is your technique to gain inspiration and overcome a "writing crisis"?
A: I've never found myself having a writer's block so far. I've found when i'm playing out a prospective update, i'm thinking "crap, i'm totally out of jokes here". So I just tend to proceed, take a lot of screenshots and then start writing, and all of a sudden it just comes. In the update when they were at Sicily, I only had one joke in my head before I started writing. In the end I probably had too many and it was a bit jumpy!

Q: What was the most dramatic and the most comical moment in your story?
A: I suppose the most dramatic moment was when everyone thought it had died! On a serious note I really don't know. Though the most iconic joke i've made, one of the few recurring ones is the Slav Suicide Squad (SSS for short). They're still alive.. and still getting into situations which result in... well their death.

Q: How would you encourage others to write after action reports?
A: Find what style works best for you. If you're fearing a negative reaction, don't! 99% of posts are pretty constructive critiscm, and there's some brilliant FAQs to get you started. The best advice though is to have something that makes you distinct in whatever way. Either a style or a plot (like migrating Ireland to Baghdad, people would rememeber it!), just something that screams unique!

Q: What is your "secret ingredient" to success?
A: Obviously that's just general comedy (though some would say its the lure of cake in the title). Looking back over my previous two AARs I can see this is the style I favour. I'm not a serious writer, and believe or or not I absolutely hated English as a subject and still do to this day (though thankfully I don't have to do it anymore). I think the realisation was that if I try to right a pure narrative, something lacks, and it just becomes overshadowed by other AARs. But I think knowing my strengths & weaknesses helped a lot.

Q: Do you have a favourite AAR?
A: I think I mentioned "Oh-Dear" already didnt I? I'm also a great fan of "community" AARs, like Babagitta's, Zhangir's & Kallum's.

Q: Anything else you want to say?
A: A big thanks to anyone and everyone that voted for me. Also, congratulations (or should that be commiserations) to Kallum. I was disapointed to see him miss out last time round and he deserves a lot of credit for his AAR. It would have been no shame for me to have lost to him, and I was expecting him to win this month.

Q: What kind of pain do you wish me for asking these annoying questions?
A: I'd send the SSS on you but that would be useless. Though i'd love to see you mashed up and baked in a cake... though that would obviously taste awful. Forget it then, it would involve the effort of someone killing you.

Runner-up - Kallum - 3 points

Basileia ton Romaion book 2 - The Gates To Asia

Author: Kallum
Mod: Broken Crescent
Faction: The Eastern Roman empire
difficulty: H/H

Description: A sequel to the AAR Basileia ton Romaion, written in a multiplayer fashion. The Byzantine Empire expands further into Asia.

Teaser:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Fall of the Ruling Dynasty

At the council it was agreed. Georgia had to pay. The Ayyubid matter was to dealt with another time. The Georgian kingdom will pay for what they did to our noble lord. At the council every strategos and general was present. The body of the great emperor had been buried like Christian customs and it was housed in a mausoleum. It would stay there until the great church of saint Zigavinos would be finished. Then it would be laid to rest in the church of his fellow name holder. We gave our emperor the honourary title saint and magnus or the great. As it was he who stopped the collapse of the Roman Empire and gave it again it's ancient glory. It is said that Pelekanos Solomon hanged himself when he heard the news of the dead of his friend. Wishing to serve him in the afterlife. Eitherway the great horse commander Pelekanos died in Ani still waiting for orders of the Emperor.

Captain Carolus was still on his mission as the Turks had besieged Tarsus. But thanks to Carolus' speed the Turks were beaten and driven out of our lands. But Carolus was still hot on their trail eager to finish the old archenemy of our empire for good. The Imperators and the rest of the chief Roman military were catching up and told each other their stories and experiences. Every time the stories were bigger and the experiences more death escaping. But nevertheless they al liked seeing their old friends. However in the corner two men stood. They were new but they had shown courage on the battlefield. It were me and my best friend Ammonios Palaeologus

The plans were made and the Legions were ordered to muster at the Citadel of Aleppo. Every man would take the army that had served under him with him to their new target. First the plan was to muster at the Eufrates but due to increased Georgian acivity at the borders this plan was given up and Aleppo was chosen. However as good as it all would seem. Efstathios time as emperor ended as sudden as it began. The new emperor was going to get his army from the hills of northern Cilica where he had fortified his army when he was ambushed. He couldn't escape and he tried to fight a way through the Georgian lines but it had no use. The newly appointed emperor died after being twelve days in the seat of Imperial power.

The new emperor, He had served in the army of his father. The only son of the great general. It was the son conceived at the wedding night. It was the one who choosed to serve under his father's army as an officer of the heavy swordsmen. It was I Constantine Basilacius, son of Draganos Basilacius. The only Basilaciusian boy who actually had blood of the great grandfather in his veins.

After hearing the news of my uncle's death my grandmother according to rumors died out of sorrow. My father, Draganos the builder, didn't forbade me to become emperor seeing what happenend to his brother he simply asked if he could be fired out of the army. He didn't want to serve anymore. There were lots of more talented generals and he prefered to govern a city. I made him governor of Jerusalem. And with his departure, the last of the generals who fought in the war against the Turks under Emperor Saint Zigavinos the Great had left the militairy. The top of the Roman military now existed out of the noble council of senators and the new generals. I tasked my good friend Ammonios to take the open position in my father's army.

My first act as the new Augustus was to send a letter to the Mekurian king.

Honoured king of Mekuria...

Second runner-up - AnthoniusII - 2 points

Times of hard choices...

The idea behind this AAR is to help the players that wish to start a "byzantine" campaign,to feal the atmosphear of those dangerus times and learn as much as possible about the medieval Roman world via the Empire's actions and units!
Armed forces were a mirror of the medieval Roman society and through them we will discover the advandages and disadvandages of that Empire which could become a world dominator as easy as to disapear from the earth!
See the "diplomatic" and political wars that are under the real ones!

AAR in detail...
Mod:Stainless Steel 6.1.
Submods:Basileia ton Romaion,Master Zumas Stone forts for SS 6.1,Agart's new castles v1.0,Argent User's Real horses v1.0.
Campaign:Early.
Dificulty: Very Hard/Very Hard.

Category wins

Best Narrative: "Comic - "A Lost Cause"!" by mollsomg

Best Graphics: "Battle for the Baltics" by Greve af Göteborg

Best Historical AAR: "String your Colors High!" by Vandal Warlord

This AAR is about the unification of Ireland (till now). Truly, the island was in the stage of unification under Norman rule.

Best Battle Report: Betrayed!! : A Spanish AAR by Elvallie

Excellent descriptions to these siege battles. The accompanying pictures also help to capture the spirit of the battles.

[molls]

Gratz to everyone. especially Musthavename, who really deserves (and desperately needs) this great victory after being crushed in the Assassin game

[Babagitta]

Absolutely fantastic job! Congatulations everyone!
+rep for the winners

[Musthavename]

Thanks everyone! I'm still getting over the fact that i've actually won! Well done to all the other contenstants and congratulations to Kallum & AnthoniusII for 2nd & 3rd. +rep to you both.

And thanks Molls. Losing that game broke my heart.

EDIT: Ooh, shiny badge.

[Graf zu Adler]

I can only say one thing to the winner....
KILL RAPE PILLAGE! And give us those cakes!

[molls]

T'was about time that you guys started congratulating..

[Kallum]

+ rep for the deserved winner Musthavename

[Romanos IV]

Congratulations to all the competitors! I really enjoyed all the AARs, it's one was very enjoying in it's own way.

[AnthoniusII]

I realy enjoed this "nice fight" the best won!!
Congratulations to all!!!

[Giovi]

congrats to everybody

[AnthoniusII]

Finally after all that time my AAR came to an end!