Derc Plays Through World History

[Turkafinwë]

Every time I see something about honour and the Japanese, I'm reminded of the song No Place for Disgrace by Flotsam and Jetsam (like the chapter in the Lord of the Rings ). I don't know how heavily the "Honour before Death" thinking is romanticized but it's still a wonderful piece of history and culture. As ever, loved the death poems! Looks like the game is reaching full speed and has become rather challenging.

I would pour out a drink for fallen homies and all that, but I think it's a sin to pour out drinks on the ground

The mere thought sends shivers down my spine.

[Derc]

Shogun 2
Rise of the Samurai
#4

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Our men follow the Fujiwara and conquer Aizuwakamatsu. Fukushima is green no more! We have finally brought war to the Fujiwara lands! The times are trying, taking a heavy toll on us all, but we can't accept that as an excuse to let our guard down. Vengeance has come to the doorstep of the Kajiwara. Their story ends here! We now share a direct border with the Taira. We make contact with the treacherous enemy. They walked straight into our ambush. Taira and Fujiwara both suffer multiple defeats at our hands in the snowy fields of northern Japan. More dishonourable scum tries to bring our noble rule to an end. Their trees will be fruitless. We made much progress in the following year, wrestling the provinces of Uzen and Miyagi from the Fujiwara. They are almost defeated! The population is elated. The Minamoto seem to turn the tides of this war to their favour! It looks like the Fujiwara finally come to their senses, realizing that any more war against the Minamoto is futile. We don't trust them, so peace negotiations are harsh. The ceasefire led to chaos inside the Fujiwara. Peace only held for a few days. Our enemy is not only dishonourable, but also dumb. All the money they used to buy this peace - gone. To the better part of Japan. To us. It is clear that this new war springs from the Kubota clan. The Hiraizumi may be exhausted, but the Kubota are still strong and pull the strings now. That ended when they ran into our ambush. What followed was an onslaught. The north of Japan sunk into chaos, in the end resulting in the utter annihilation of the Kubota. This has gone too far for the Taira backed Puppet Emperor. He declares us an enemy of Japan! We! Enemies! Of Japan! Hah! Some believe the lies of the Emperor and abandon their ways just to appease him. This was just formality. The Fujiwara were already defeated half a year ago. The city of Morioka sheltered the last members of this fallen family. An old friend has crumbled under the pressure he was put in. He too abandoned his path. Farewell. All of Japan now stands united against us. We accept this challenge. Out of the ashes a new Japan shall rise!

⚙️ Authors Note - Technical

This is the longest chapter of this campaign. Good lord, it would've been overkill without the contentboxes. x_X

I liked this one, and the culture stuff at the end is interesting. Sorry about your cousins though dude. I would pour out a drink for fallen homies and all that, but I think it's a sin to pour out drinks on the ground

For heaven's sake, don't do that!

The first picture fits your comment quite nicely. Funny coincidence.

As ever, loved the death poems!

I love them too. They manage to instill such a melancholic feeling.

Looks like the game is reaching full speed and has become rather challenging.

I think the last image of this chapter speaks for itself.

[Kilo11]

Your presentation of Shogun II is really making me feel like I've missed something by not buying this TW title. I might have to remedy that in the near future, see if I can't run a campaign to challenge your own!

[Welsh Dragon]

Well I started reading this this afternoon after seeing it was also up for MAARC this month, and I've already finished reading the Medieval 1 part of your tale as it kept me hooked. Loving the image heavy posts combined with the humourous and at times a little sarcastic narration, which really makes it stand out. And I also really enjoy your various Authors notes, especially those looking at both the history but also the alternate history related to the campaign.

Plus it was also fun to take a trip down memory lane to where my Total War story began, with Medieval 1. I felt a slight chill seeing and hearing the opening cinematic after all these years, thank you.

I look forward to reading the rest when I get the chance. And good luck with MAARC LXXX.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Turkafinwë]

I love them too. They manage to instill such a melancholic feeling.

Exactly! Melancholy is one of those strange emotions but I absolutely love it. I breathe melancholy.

I think the last image of this chapter speaks for itself.

I always liked the colour red.

All I can say is this; 2:09

[Skotos of Sinope]

The Emperor does not share your optimistic appraisal of the situation. (To quote Darth Vader.)

Fukushima is green no more!

Well, it's kind of radioactive green nowadays though.

Man, I can't believe how far behind I got on this. Derc, you work fast bro.

[Derc]

Shogun 2
Rise of the Samurai
#5

-------------------------- (Click to view) --------------------------

The Inoue from the little island of Sado see it as their duty to "liberate" the Fujiwara lands from our rule. They will find nothing but death in Honshū. Our forces further south deal with the Okura, but they are too far away from the Inoue. Our forces in Iwate will take them on. Kyōto is well defended. So close yet so far. Our forces did not have to come to the Inoue. They came to us. The next years put us under heavy pressure. We had to constantly repel enemies from their shores. The enemy attacked everywhere. We had no chance to build a navy. Sugawara became the new central power in Japan. 1198 was one of the darkest years for the Minamoto. The pesky Inoue clan from little Sado Island managed to push deep into our land, humiliating us. Taira held the waters and opened another front in the East while the Sugawara and countless other clans pushed on from the West. Defeat seemed imminent. We held in for a moment, witnessing the beauty of Japan in the brute summer heat. We knew we had to go on. Winter wasn't there yet, and this wouldn't be our last stand. The beautiful lady we hired a few years ago, when Japan was still relatively peaceful, proves her worth. She becomes one of the most useful assets in this exhausting war, most of the time distracting enemy armies, making them much slower. That is what we needed the most. Time. Every pressure lifted from us felt like a bliss. The fields of Mino, Owari and Mikawa are the ones where most battles of the Genpei War are fought. Each statue represents a great battle. We push the invaders back. Times and times again ... ... and again ... ... and again. This is leading nowhere. We know that we have to take great risks or the war can not be won. Our men are brave and loyal, ready for everything. We do take a risk. And then ... success. 📝 Authors Note It's hard to see, but I was really close to collapse there. Just look at all these statues. Each one represents a battle with a minimum of at least 1000 soldiers. I was swarmed by countless elite stacks and I had to tackle them all with my few Ashigaru units. It felt as if the Persians had attacked me. Except that they had good troops.

Your presentation of Shogun II is really making me feel like I've missed something by not buying this TW title. I might have to remedy that in the near future, see if I can't run a campaign to challenge your own!

Oh no, I accidentally became a SEGA® marketing expert.
That's actually the biggest compliment I could get. Thanks.

I think Shogun 2 is a great game. It has an superb atmosphere and some nice challenges, but at the same time it has a very weird balance, an awful A.I. and quite some unforgivable bugs. You'll see in the next part.

I can only give a glimpse of the game. If I managed to do that, that's cool. But keep in mind that watching someone play a game and playing it yourself can be two entirely different things. Everyone has to figure it out for himself if it is his cup of cake or not. I do not want to be responsible for smashed keyboards.

Well I started reading this this afternoon after seeing it was also up for MAARC this month, and I've already finished reading the Medieval 1 part of your tale as it kept me hooked. Loving the image heavy posts combined with the humourous and at times a little sarcastic narration, which really makes it stand out. And I also really enjoy your various Authors notes, especially those looking at both the history but also the alternate history related to the campaign.

Plus it was also fun to take a trip down memory lane to where my Total War story began, with Medieval 1. I felt a slight chill seeing and hearing the opening cinematic after all these years, thank you.

I look forward to reading the rest when I get the chance. And good luck with MAARC LXXX.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

Another one who started with Medieval 1! Always glad to have norse things and welsh dragons on board!

Oh yeah, I know exactly what you felt. M1 is just nostalgia overflow.
Glad to have you watching this, enjoy the rest of this crazy ride.

PS: Watched parts of your AAR too. Loved Ceasar in Gaul. Good luck with LXXX to you too.

Exactly! Melancholy is one of those strange emotions but I absolutely love it. I breathe melancholy.
I always liked the colour red.

All I can say is this; 2:09

This fits too well.
I only ever watched snippets of Blackadder. I liked what I've seen so far.

Well, it's kind of radioactive green nowadays though.

He understood the pun! I am so proud of you.

Man, I can't believe how far behind I got on this. Derc, you work fast bro.

I did some calculations. There are currently 31 campaigns. Let's say each campaign gets 10 chapters, I upload 2 chapters a week and make a pause of one week between each campaign. Not accounting any additional pause times, lazy weeks and campaigns that are way too long, it comes to (31*10/2)+31 = 186 weeks in total. That's around 3,5 years. Quite a mess I got myself into, eh?
I doubt I will finish it all to the end, but let's see how far we can get.

[Alwyn]

Wow, as you said the statues on the campaign map tell the story of the heroic efforts of your ashigaru to save your clan. It's a great moment in a campaign when you're taking a desperate risk - at least, it's a great moment afterwards, if it suceeds! This looks like a challenging and fun campaign, it's certainly an enjoyable AAR.

[Turkafinwë]

Those are some badass ashigaru, they should rename the title to Rise of the Ashigaru, the real heroes of Japan! It takes me back to my Shogun 2 campaigns, after the "Realm Divide" you'll never know peace; each end turn at least 5 battles. The Shogun 2 AI really wants to fight you even if the odds are in your favour (Kamikaze much ).

Stay strong Derc, the endless stream of enemies will end,
.....
.....
.....
eventually.

This fits too well.
I only ever watched snippets of Blackadder. I liked what I've seen so far.

I've seen all 4 seasons of Blackadder and I absolutely love them all, though I must say that my favourite the 4th and last season is. It has the darkest sense of humour and I often rewatch them when I feel bad to get a good laugh. If you ever get the time I would recommend you watch them in their entirety.

[Derc]

Shogun 2
Rise of the Samurai
#6

-------------------------- (Click to view) --------------------------

The enemy is not tired. Countless armies are ready to be shipped to our shores. If we want to end this, then we need to be at least partially in control of the waters. The Samurai Code is mastered and tested against new Taira invaders. We make no progress in the South. But that isn't our goal. We have to hold the line there, binding troops while our armies in the North advances. With success. The fall of the Inoue has relieved us from great pressure and we bring it now to the enemy. Our Agents are very potent in this war. Without them, we would be lost. Our Sou, Kunimitsu, reaches Enlightenment, making him all the more efficient. The pressure of the enemy is immense, despite all our success in the North. We try to talk some of them into peace, but it is of no use. ⚙️ Authors Note - Technical After being declared Enemy of the State, diplomacy is essentially dead for you. As this does not work out, we have to rely on other, dishonourable methods. We plunder cities and put a war tax on our citizen, then bribe enemy armies. We are disgusted by ourselves. But desperate times demand desperate measures. Rewarding dishonourable men by doing dishonourable deeds is the path of ruin and not one the Minamoto or Japan will take in the future. It is a great shame that our enemies forced us to such methods. We lower our heads to the ground and ask for forgiveness. 📝 Authors Note This was the point where I realized that I couldn't finish the campaign if I do not advance. 115 turns had passed, 60 more to go. The time limit is very strict. Thank the gods that Athena isn't here. Wait ... no, don't do that. Japan wasn't even halfway conquered and this war had turned from a tour of conquest to one of utter survival. I had to do something. Fighting up to five grand scale battles every turn was out of the question. So I used the infamous tax exploit. It's easy: Your settlements rebel only when they are red (=unhappy) for two turns. If it's only one turn, it's perfectly ok. So pump up the taxes to the max, cash in, then turn them back. I only use such measures when I am indeed in dire trouble. Or troll around. The first one was the case and I congratulate Shogun 2 that it managed to bring me to the edge by pumping out one elite army after another and throwing it at me. A cheating A.I. is obviously ok, right? This exploit was used only two times, but nonetheless, exploit is exploit. I felt bad afterwards. And I should. "No exploits" - failed. :/ ...But wait, it gets even better! All seemed lost when an alliance of the Tatara, Ishikawa and the Akamatsu approached our small navy. ⚙️ Authors Note - Technical To this moment I was rather inexperienced with ship battles in Shogun 2. I had only fought battles with 3 ships at max so far. This one was special. The enemy had surrounded my ships and autoresolving would just have ended in an instawipe. So I did it manually. My goal: using hit and run tactics and destroy as many ships as possible. What happened? Just check it out in this video, but do so at your own risk. Your ears will hate you. Spoiler for Video, watch your ears!:  "Our ship has been destroyed. All hands are lost!" "Our ship has been desthroyyyyyed! ALL HANDS ARE LOST!!" "Our ship has been destroyed. All hands are lost!" "Our ship has been destroyed. All hands are lost!" "Our ship has been desthroyyyyyed! ALL HANDS ARE LOST!!" -_- *Puts on LegendofTotalWar-Voice* "This was ... terrible. It was so bad. So bad. The A.I. was like ... it didn't even try." The worst of it was ... the battle was fun. Except for the horrible controls and that annoying announcer sound bug. Turned the volume down at one point. "No exploits" -> -1. Our fleet miraculously survived, preventing a greater invasion of our lands. We thank Amaterasu for her mercy. Yet we couldn't prevent all enemy ships from passing through. We retake Owari and Ise, but Kazusa is lost. In the West we prepare for a grand offensive. Time to bring these fields to rest. They are soaked with blood enough. Another important ship battle is fought in the ethereal light of Japan's morning sun. Our large ships have just been finished and we test them against countless small Taira ships that kept harassing our merchants. They can now harass the fish. Blessing in disguise. The army that took Kazusa was very weak. We are relieved. The Minamoto can breathe again.

Wow, as you said the statues on the campaign map tell the story of the heroic efforts of your ashigaru to save your clan. It's a great moment in a campaign when you're taking a desperate risk - at least, it's a great moment afterwards, if it suceeds! This looks like a challenging and fun campaign, it's certainly an enjoyable AAR.

Yeah, it was. Clearly one of the harder campaigns.
The risk wasn't conquering Sado, but the possibility to get my army stuck there. Luckily that wasn't the case. Destroying the Inoue made that risk worth it.

Those are some badass ashigaru, they should rename the title to Rise of the Ashigaru, the real heroes of Japan! It takes me back to my Shogun 2 campaigns, after the "Realm Divide" you'll never know peace; each end turn at least 5 battles. The Shogun 2 AI really wants to fight you even if the odds are in your favour (Kamikaze much ).

Stay strong Derc, the endless stream of enemies will end,
.....
.....
.....
eventually.

Damn, you got this totally right!

The basic Samurai units are extremely weak compared to Ashigaru. They get worth it when you upgrade them or get more professional Samurai. But guess what? You never have the money to do so.

I've seen all 4 seasons of Blackadder and I absolutely love them all, though I must say that my favourite the 4th and last season is. It has the darkest sense of humour and I often rewatch them when I feel bad to get a good laugh. If you ever get the time I would recommend you watch them in their entirety.

My todo list is already long enough. Oh dear. Another entry on it.

[Kilo11]

Nice update. And it was cool to have a vid of the sea battle (as a player of only original Rome TW and Medieval II, I have never played a TW ship battle)! Although, what was the deal with the announcer dude?! Is that a bug, or was he just losing his mind there? I mean, you lost a couple ships, sure, but he was saying that to the very end of the video (I turned off sound around minute 3, but then periodically flipped it back on again for a few seconds just out of curiosity, and he seemed to be saying that stupid line almost without pause to the very end!). Seriously Derc, do you know if that is just the way the game works, or is that a bug that can be fixed by patching or something? Cause that seems like a big deal to me!

[Alwyn]

It looks like this is continuing to be challenging, despite your success in the north. Is there any way to create allies, for example by liberating nations - or would that lead to more enemies as the Minamoto have been declared an Enemy of the State and diplomacy has become impossible?

[Welsh Dragon]

Well, just finished the Alexander portion of this crazy and enjoyable adventure and I have to say Derc you have achieved something that I thought could never be done... You've managed to get me to enjoy a Rome 1: Alexander campaign!

I could not stand that campaign. The single playable faction. The countdown clock of doom every turn. Athena constantly pestering you that you weren't going fast enough. It basically took everything I loved about Total War and threw it out the window! Even BRIAN BLESSED himself couldn't save the campaign for me.

Another one who started with Medieval 1! Always glad to have norse things and welsh dragons on board!

Yep, I'm an old fan. I still have my Medieval 1 and Viking Invasion disks in their cases, complete with "2 for £30" discount labels.

Oh yeah, I know exactly what you felt. M1 is just nostalgia overflow.
Glad to have you watching this, enjoy the rest of this crazy ride.

I've never really felt like going back to those really early games, but they still have a special place in my heart.

And loving your irreverent style (as someone called it earlier.) It's an interesting change from the more narrative focused AARs I tend to read. Kind of reminds me of the AARs of Galactic Civilizations 2 that a British Gaming Magazine did once, which I still have saved somewhere. Less "a story set in the universe of the game" and more "a story about how I played the game." Kind of like Director's Commentary on a movie.

PS: Watched parts of your AAR too. Loved Ceasar in Gaul. Good luck with LXXX to you too.

Thank you. And I'm glad you are enjoying it.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Turkafinwë]

Damn, you got this totally right!

The basic Samurai units are extremely weak compared to Ashigaru. They get worth it when you upgrade them or get more professional Samurai. But guess what? You never have the money to do so.

I know right! It was one of the things it made it difficult for me to enjoy the game, the constant fighting, always having to recruit new armies and see them fall; it quickly turned each campaign into a slogfest at which point I usually abandoned it. It was however very satisfying if you continued the struggle and finally won but it takes some willpower to get to that end. Satisfying, yes; Enjoyable, not all that much!

Ashigaru really are the heroes we all need and deserve!

My todo list is already long enough. Oh dear. Another entry on it.

I know the feeling. I have like this list with books I want to read. For each book that disappears from the list, three new appear.

[Derc]

Shogun 2
Rise of the Samurai
#7

-------------------------- (Click to view) --------------------------

Finally. Kyōto is within our reach! It is well defended by Taira, of course. At the front gates of Kyōto betrayal happens. A heir of the Taira defects to us, betraying his father and his family for money, women and security. The capital is conquered! With the intel from Nariuji-san it is easy to destroy the enemy. The Fukuhara clan comes to an end. A great victory but Japan has only been united half so far. There are still the Yashima Taira. Western Japan remains loyal to them. Loyal to a lost cause. The Minamoto would never attack honourable souls willing to help. Another wrong minded fool has gone. We have learned from the recent years and will not give the enemy a chance to raid our shores again. A tragic loss of life. It was forced upon us. The Akamatsu try a counter offensive. We are prepared. There is also a counter offensive in the North. The last desperate attack of the Sugawara. A central power few years ago, all they own now is a a small coastal strip in the North. The recent successes have made us careless. They made us forget what we had learned. We will now have to make up for it.

Man, I can't believe how far behind I got on this. Derc, you work fast bro.

Skotos is right. I was quick. That has now changed.
Life has me at the choker again. I won't start a new campaign until April anyway, so I will take things a bit slower here until then.

Nice update. And it was cool to have a vid of the sea battle (as a player of only original Rome TW and Medieval II, I have never played a TW ship battle)! Although, what was the deal with the announcer dude?! Is that a bug, or was he just losing his mind there? I mean, you lost a couple ships, sure, but he was saying that to the very end of the video (I turned off sound around minute 3, but then periodically flipped it back on again for a few seconds just out of curiosity, and he seemed to be saying that stupid line almost without pause to the very end!). Seriously Derc, do you know if that is just the way the game works, or is that a bug that can be fixed by patching or something? Cause that seems like a big deal to me!

This battle was pretty extreme in that regard.
It happens that the announcer spams you on random occassions but something went majorily wrong here. Not only was the announcer completely bugged, but so were the controls and the A.I.
I played more ship battles since then. They weren't as broken as this one but the A.I. did nevertheless do some very stupid moves, allowing me to wipe entire Fullstacks with a few Bow Kobaya. It is more competent in land battles.

Maybe it has something to do with my system, altough I don't know what. Googling around brings very few results. I also haven't seen many Let's plays with such bugged ship battles as I had them.

It looks like this is continuing to be challenging, despite your success in the north. Is there any way to create allies, for example by liberating nations - or would that lead to more enemies as the Minamoto have been declared an Enemy of the State and diplomacy has become impossible?

I created a vassal in this campaign once. It was these Okura guys I destroyed in chapter 5. In chapter 3, picture 12 you can actually see in the background how I invaded them.

What's to say? They backstabbed me a few turns later. I wasn't even an enemy of the state back then. All these penalties you get for having a different clan allegiance, territorial expansion and so on - it catapults your relationship with the other clans to the bottom. It was much worse than the normal Shogun 2 campaign here. Best thing is to just stay alone and harass the enemy with your mighty agents.

Well, just finished the Alexander portion of this crazy and enjoyable adventure and I have to say Derc you have achieved something that I thought could never be done... You've managed to get me to enjoy a Rome 1: Alexander campaign!

I could not stand that campaign. The single playable faction. The countdown clock of doom every turn. Athena constantly pestering you that you weren't going fast enough. It basically took everything I loved about Total War and threw it out the window! Even BRIAN BLESSED himself couldn't save the campaign for me.

"You must reach beyond mortal ambition and do what has never been done!"

Yeah. Total War, and Alexander in particular, is pretty harsh. You either love it or you hate it. There is almost nothing in between.
I hated it myself when I first played it. But now I love it. One has to view it from a different angle. It is not primary about empire building, but about pure ownage. Alexander remains one of my most favourite TWs of them all.

Yep, I'm an old fan. I still have my Medieval 1 and Viking Invasion disks in their cases, complete with "2 for £30" discount labels.

I've never really felt like going back to those really early games, but they still have a special place in my heart.

Speaking of these old titles, I have recently discovered that all my savegames from Pre Rome 1 have vanished without reason. Grrr.
The annals of the Mongols are lost forever, just as are most of the books in their timeline. But their legacy remains. Here.

And loving your irreverent style (as someone called it earlier.) It's an interesting change from the more narrative focused AARs I tend to read. Kind of reminds me of the AARs of Galactic Civilizations 2 that a British Gaming Magazine did once, which I still have saved somewhere. Less "a story set in the universe of the game" and more "a story about how I played the game." Kind of like Director's Commentary on a movie.

The goal was basically to create a Let's play, just without the youtube part. A Let's play in text and imageform. I think that worked out and the division into all that different campaigns makes it very modular, which allows for two things:
1) Readers who get here later do not have to read much into it. They can just pick their favourite campaign from the OToC at page 1 and are ready to go.
2) I can try different styles and, depending on my mood and the atmosphere of this campaign, can do a funny approach, an immersive approach, more history, less history, whatsoever. I like being dynamic.

I know right! It was one of the things it made it difficult for me to enjoy the game, the constant fighting, always having to recruit new armies and see them fall; it quickly turned each campaign into a slogfest at which point I usually abandoned it. It was however very satisfying if you continued the struggle and finally won but it takes some willpower to get to that end. Satisfying, yes; Enjoyable, not all that much!

Ashigaru really are the heroes we all need and deserve!

Actually paused the campaign for around a month in chapter 6, then came back to continue. I'm very adamant when it comes to such things.

I usually prefer to use high quality units. It has been the complete opposite here. Ashigaru might be the most powerful base units of any TW game.

I know the feeling. I have like this list with books I want to read. For each book that disappears from the list, three new appear.

I might be very withstanding when it comes to TW campaigns but I have pretty much given up here. It's a lost cause. Better to dig that list somewhere deep.

---

That's helluva long comment section this time.

[Kilo11]

Another great update, as I would have expected, and I have nothing to add to that bit. You said one in the comment section that I found interesting though:

The goal was basically to create a Let's play, just without the youtube part. A Let's play in text and imageform. I think that worked out and the division into all that different campaigns makes it very modular, which allows for two things:
1) Readers who get here later do not have to read much into it. They can just pick their favourite campaign from the OToC at page 1 and are ready to go.
2) I can try different styles and, depending on my mood and the atmosphere of this campaign, can do a funny approach, an immersive approach, more history, less history, whatsoever. I like being dynamic.

I'm not sure if these points are in your OP, but if not, I feel like it would be good to add them there. This is a nice selling point for your AAR (series), and it would probably be in your benefit to put up front! Just a thought though.

[Welsh Dragon]

"You must reach beyond mortal ambition and do what has never been done!"

Yeah. Total War, and Alexander in particular, is pretty harsh. You either love it or you hate it. There is almost nothing in between.
I hated it myself when I first played it. But now I love it. One has to view it from a different angle. It is not primary about empire building, but about pure ownage. Alexander remains one of my most favourite TWs of them all.

Speaking of these old titles, I have recently discovered that all my savegames from Pre Rome 1 have vanished without reason. Grrr.
The annals of the Mongols are lost forever, just as are most of the books in their timeline. But their legacy remains. Here.

The goal was basically to create a Let's play, just without the youtube part. A Let's play in text and imageform. I think that worked out and the division into all that different campaigns makes it very modular, which allows for two things:
1) Readers who get here later do not have to read much into it. They can just pick their favourite campaign from the OToC at page 1 and are ready to go.
2) I can try different styles and, depending on my mood and the atmosphere of this campaign, can do a funny approach, an immersive approach, more history, less history, whatsoever. I like being dynamic.

Well, you're doing a good job of getting me to enjoy some of my less favoured campaigns. Rise of the Samurai was another one that just never seemed to "click" for me, but it's fun the way you tell it! Sorry to hear about the lost saves, that's a real pain. And trying out different styles through AARs is a great idea. I'm kind of doing that with Toutatis Favours The Brave, as I've always wanted to give Historical Fiction writing a go, but never really felt I had the level of background knowledge to give it a go. But with this, any historical errors can be chalked up to "this is based on a game and things develop differently."

I might be very withstanding when it comes to TW campaigns but I have pretty much given up here. It's a lost cause. Better to dig that list somewhere deep.

I didn't actually say:

"I know the feeling. I have like this list with books I want to read. For each book that disappears from the list, three new appear."

(That was Turkafinwë. )

But it could just as easily have been me, as I do tend to buy rather a lot of books, as well as them forming a major component of any Birthday or Christmas list I give my family. Didn't realise quite how many I had till I had to put the entire contents of my bedroom into storage last year due to some building work (as I don't tend to get rid of books even after I've read them.) Trying to get them down to a more manageable level is not easy, especially when it reminds me of authors I enjoy reading and I end up looking to see if they have anything new out!

I'm now caught up with your adventures and subscribred, so look forward to seeing where it takes you next. Looks like you have quite a war on your hands in Japan. Good luck!

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[Skotos of Sinope]

Skotos is right. I was quick. That has now changed.
Life has me at the choker again. I won't start a new campaign until April anyway, so I will take things a bit slower here until then.

Noooo! I take it back!

I'm not sure if these points are in your OP, but if not, I feel like it would be good to add them there. This is a nice selling point for your AAR (series), and it would probably be in your benefit to put up front! Just a thought though.

Agreed. This is the first Let's Play AAR I've really followed. Mostly because if I want to watch a video, I'll just go to youtube. If I want text, I'll come to TWC.

Sorry to hear about the lost saves, that's a real pain.

Didn't that happen to you with TFtB, Welsh? I thought I remembered you saying that's why you took that break from it for so long.

[King Athelstan]

Alright, I've now spent class reading through all 2-and-a-half campaigns, and you're doing a great job conveying the story. The semi-sarcastic banter is top notch, and I'm very much looking forward to reading more.

[Welsh Dragon]

Didn't that happen to you with TFtB, Welsh? I thought I remembered you saying that's why you took that break from it for so long.

It was one of the factors that caused the delay (another was my health.) I thought I'd lost the saves for a while. Then I found them again, but they were so old (Patch 17 + a few mods) that I decided that running them with Patch 20 was a bit of a risk, and as I'd only played about 20 ish turns that the safer bet was to start the campaign again (Patch 20 + No Mods) and use my very detailed notes to try and recreate the events up to the point I'd reached... except the campaign went off the rails a little and is developing differently, so now some future chapters I already had written may need heavy rewrites. I'm hoping to get back into it soon, but January-early February was rather stressful (both my parents had operations, though both thankfully were successful which is a load off my mind,) but with that and the really cold weather out of the way I'm hoping to get back into writing TFTB soon.

Anyway, sorry, going off topic.

One other thing...

Anyone notice the new Total War launcher looks a bit like Derc's first post in this thread?

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

EDIT: If you are having issues with an AAR, Alwyn's article "Dodging Bullets: Overcoming problems when writing AARs" is a very good read. I found it invaluable when I ran into issues with TFTB.