The Eagle Standard Presents: The Critic's Quill Volume I Edition X

[Junius]

Letter from the Editor

I'm back from my travels, and all I got was this new name. I can safely say that I enjoyed my break, but I have returned with renewed energy for all things AAR. This issue is our tenth. For a project that might not have got past it's first or second issue, I think that is something to be proud of. Of course, it is all down to a dedicated team of writers, so I would like to take the time to thank them for all their hard work. One of those has regretfully departed us, so a special mention to Total War King who was a survivor from the first issue.

Regular readers will notice the new graphics. I would like to thank Giovi and Tzar for their wonderful work in giving the CQ a face lift. Our old banner was pretty good for what it was, a little banner I mocked up in MS Paint which Hesus de Bodemloze thankfully did some polishing on.

So, get yourself comfortable, sit back and enjoy. There are some great reviews of some great AARs, and there are some special articles. Read, comment, feedback, it's always welcome.

Thanks
Junius

Table of Contents

• An AAR of France Review
• Royaume de France Review
• A Duffer at War Review
• Hurons on the War Path Review
• Characterisation in AARs
• My Thoughts on AARs
• A Screenshot Guide

An AAR of France Review

[MT2W] An AAR of France by PureInfantryWins
An AAR Review,
By SonOfAlexander

Now, as some of you may well know, my usual field of expertise as the CQ’s Resident Professor (Juvenal, I am NEVER gonna let that go now ) is in the field of RTW AARs. I haven’t got MT2W or ETW, only RTW Vanilla, BI and RS. So usually my reviews are of RTW AARs. However, this issue I have decided to move out of my comfort zone a little to review a MT2W AAR. So, here goes.

First of all I want to talk about the name of this AAR. ‘An AAR of France’. No prizes for guessing the subject matter. However, that’s not a problem. I always say simpler is better (just look at examples like Antiochos VII’s famous saga, The Eastern Eagle - just simple lines of text, but oh boy…), but only on conditions. I thought to myself before I read it “I know what this AAR is going to be”. It’s going to be polarised - either it will be very amateur, with no real effort put into it, or on the other hand it could be excellent, with dramatic battles or spellbinding narrative - or both, of course!

I was right - up to a point.

As I guessed the beginning is simple, with a short explanation by the author, PureInfantryWins about how the AAR will run. He then opens the AAR by showing us a picture of France at the very beginning of the campaign and says:

“What our soon to be empire starts out as. Looks innocent doesn't it ”

He continues by showing us several simple, explanatory screen shots of France’s situation then gives us a sitrep of France’s problems too, with a very determined and military style in mind. The plot continues, as he shows France’s struggles to capture all of… Gaul (If I say France then that sentence makes no sense…), and how money is tight and his land is very hard to defend, etc. He doe’s accurately give a good sense of the difficulty and dilemmas that face the surrounded nation, speaking to us on the level of a normal man whilst portraying a leader who has the insight of someone far more powerful.

So, you think that’s OK. He was right; it’s a great piece of work. And it is - very nice to read and very easy to familiarise with. But from here is where my predictions were false omens. Because, for no reason I can fathom, PureInfantryWins decided to change the layout of what I believe to be a potentially explosive format and style. And that’s where this AAR becomes and amateur and is in need of improvements.

He changes the font to a garish, bright blue in a massive size. His speech instead becomes immature, hardly reflecting the strength with which he so wrote earlier. It was a shame, reading this large section of his AAR. He had wasted the brilliance of his former style. But all was not lost. Fortunately for me and the other readers, although he kept that annoying blue, he resized the font and started to write like a king again. Again, it’s not necessarily that his writing is extra fluent, inventive or intelligent necessarily, more very apt. He writes exactly like you want to imagine the man speaking - a hard task for anyone, and certainly one which I have always struggled with. He has returned to writing like this:

I attack Tunis, and win. I wouldn't expect any other outcome from me after all. The wierd thing is, the crusade hasn't been called off. Maybe because we are excommunicated. That bastard Pope! Trying to turn the rest of his faith against me. Fine, send them all, as I will beat them all.

After a nasty, spell of writing like this:

They will have to stop this, or I will have to fight Spain now.

To summarise, even though there was a disastrous change of direction, this AAR has been redirected by an author with good vision and effort, if only after a little experimentation. We look forward to seeing the continuing expansion fo France, from Nottingham to Vienna to Tunis and beyond.

Royaume de France Review

An Empire Total War AAR...
Written by the energetic Zhangir...
Royaume de France
AAR review...

Overview
I have read this AAR from top to bottom, browsed through it and I must say it is mediocre at best - I won't say it's a terrible AAR, but it's not a good one.
Zhangir has done quite a nice job with the introduction and the prologue allowing a setting for a very nice start of an AAR, but fails to provide on it later on in the AAR, disappointing me to say the least.

Writing Style
Zhangir brings to the table a unique writing style, providing a very nice background and really thinking through the whole story before starting the AAR, but it has some errors that, sadly, carry a huge weight.

Zhangir makes several rather remarks with his new AAR, they do not hinder the AAR as it is, but it makes it impossible for the AAR to create an alternate reality of some sort aside the game, and make you actually read a story, instead of a report of what a certain player did with his game.
There are grammar errors and misplaced words, yes, but those are not too harmful either. What is harmful, however, is that commas tend to start random sentences after the sentence was cut in the middle with a random picture and spoiler, this can easily disorient the reader and confuse him/her - And it does.

As an example, the following sentence implies that the characters in the AAR have no control of their fate, and in addition, it pretty much tells you what the player is planning to do, instead of showing this line in a dialogue between two of the characters, allowing for a much more coherent storyline which is far easier to connect to, these kind of sentences tend to snap you back into the thought process that this is a game, and nothing more.

Strangely enough, one more map was rolled up and leaned against the wall. It was the map of Indian subcontinent, where the French didn't have colonies...
Yet.

He has done a great work implementing real world features, for example, the Ghazette, into the AAR and really opening a new spectrum for you to read, it makes this AAR all the more unique... However... This AAR speaks nothing of the battles of the game, it only speaks of the broad spectrum of the government and the ruler, yet, it speaks nothing of 'action' - Battles for conquering and such, whilst it is not necessary for an AAR to be successful, it does not mean we do not miss it when it isn't there.

Pictures
The pictures provided by Zhangir are truly unremarkable, there's nothing I can really say about them as I see nothing wrong, he provides screenshots of the game and tries to create an illusion of an alternate reality outside of the game with pictures from the real game, for example, of the Gazette.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And the screenshots do not fail to provide, whilst not contributing much to the AAR, they do not take anything from it either, really harmless, some of them are even expendable.
What I am trying to say is, that whilst the screenshots do tell you the story of the Empire, they do not tell you of anything else, not the battles, not the warring, and rarely the conquering, and this is one thing that this AAR lacks.

Conclusion
Zhangir has the potential to become a great AAR writer, but there is no doubt he has a lot of work to do in order to get there. He needs to work about his wordings at times, and to try and lure the reader more and more into an 'alternate reality' beyond the game, try to revert from snapping the reader again and again back to the game, it makes the reading experience somewhat tiring.
For now, his AARs are mediocre and okay, but nothing above that.

Critique
Zhangir should try and work more about improving his grammar errors with sentence coherncies and remarks which snap you back into the 'reality' of the game, and try more and create a more absorbing alternate 'reality' outside, yet inside, the game - As others have succeeded before him.
Overall, I would say that this AAR needs a bit of more room to develop... But it is definitely below par.

By Nazgûl Killer.

A Duffer at War Review

A Duffer at War Review by Reginald Keene-Inglethorpe-Dempsey 3rd

Introduction

A Duffer at War is the First AAR of Empire : Total War that I could manage myself to read, due to my resentment of the game itself. (But I shall not start a rant about that.)
It first attracted my attention because the Duffers are a political party from a Thema Devia game in which I myself participated. This AAR reenacts the (fictional) events of a Duffer (Reginald Keene-Inglethorpe-Dempsey 3rd) during his time in the India’s. Oh yeah, the mod used is King Louise Assurbanipal's "European Wars" Mod.


Story

It all starts with the India rebellion in the spring of 1857 and the 92nd Regiment was one of a few, who were sent overland from the Crimea through Persia and into the Punjab, to join up with their allies and put a stop to this petty unrest. The first big army they come in contact with is numbering over 5000 heads. Through the command of Dempsey 3rd and his second-in-command John "Farty" Hodgson victory is gained over the Sikh and Hindu soldiers. That night it’s Stilton and port all round to celebrate their great victory in a traditional English style.


Pictures

As explained in this same issue by Junius (formally known as fergusmck.) pictures are a important part of an AAR and they should be somewhat edited so that they fit in nicely. Dempsey the 3rd has most certainly did this and by that his pictures fill in his AAR nicely.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Not all the pictures are from E:TW, some are to illustrate the humourous side of the story. Likt this picture of the Stilton and Port from the feast after the battles.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Critique

Seeing that this AAR is based on a Thema Devia game I’m not sure everyone will get the sometimes subtle (and sometimes less subtle) humor in this AAR. I got all those little pun because I participated in the event, but people who never heard of the Duffers before could miss them.


Conclusion

Whether you know who the Duffers or are not, give this AAR a change to lighten up your mood with some fine British humor. There is certainly more room for improvement but it has even succeeded to grasp my attention as a E:TW hater. (Must resist..urge to… RANT!
Ratbag

Hurons on the Warpath Review

An Empire Total War AAR...

Written by Big Pacha...
Hurons on the Warpath
AAR Review...

Overview
This AAR uses a nice prologue in the first chapter, with it Big Pacha provides some background information from Wikipedia and starts off his campaign, the AAR is somewhat below par, does not satisfy in terms of storyline and does nothing to try and bring anything new to the table.

Writing Style
Well, Big Pacha's writing style is anything but unique, it is a sort of writing style you see in most AARs and is simply nothing new, and whilst he does try and provide some nice background information (Somewhat successfuly), the rest of the AAR fails to come to par.

The paragraphs are too thin, the story is non-existant and the only new thing about this AAR, is that it shows pictures and excerpt(s) from Wikipedia, but it does nothing to supply the storyline.

This AAR is what you like to call a "Screenshot AAR" as it simply shows you pictures, explains what happens in the general scope and shows some battles, it doesn't even try to draw you into it further.

Pictures
Compared to the number of words, there are overwhelmingly too many pictures, the same effect you could achieve by simply starting a campaign in Empire: Total War with the Hurons.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

But, now let's not give up. The pictures Big Pacha supplied from Wikipedia generally succeed in making you read further and not get bored, as you would with other AARs - But... It's too little, too late.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Storyline
As I have established, this AAR fails to provide through storyline, especially in the first update - The second update is a somewhat desperate attempt to save it from its bad start, but it is, once again, too little too late.

The storyline is the 'good' old regular "They moved here, we moved there" that I sadly see in so many AARs recently, the players do not even try and build a storyline, they just give you the play-by-play of their campaign, and disappoint yet again.

Critique
This AAR is definitely below par, and Big Pacha should improve far more, the pictures brought him off to a good start, but the fact that there are hardly any big paragraphs or solid storyline(s) throw this AAR into the woods and it has no idea how to get out, and Big Pacha can't do much to help it either.

Notes and Comments
I wish you luck with your next AAR, Big Pacha, if it will ever happen, and I hope you do improve next time, and once you do start a new AAR I would be glad to review it as well.
This AAR has also been declared canceled due to technical difficulties on Big Pacha's side, and for that I don't say "What a shame" - Because it's not. However, one should not give up, learning from your mistakes is a good way of life, and I wish you luck once again, Big Pacha.

By Nazgûl Killer.

Characterisation in AARs by Juvenal

Characterisation in AARs

Introduction
I hope that everyone would agree that interesting and believable characters are a vital part of AARs. You can write them without characters, and this is a perfectly valid form, but it does limit the viewpoint to just that of the player. In my experience even in this type of AAR authors often still find themselves starting to refer to their generals as if they had a semi-independent existence.

Making Characters
A wonderful thing about Total War games is that they provide you with so much material to fill out your characters in the form of pictures, abilities, ancillaries and traits. But this is a two-edged sword, as anyone who has tried to use traits in an AAR can testify. Strict adherence to traits is just too constraining to the story. You really need the freedom to create dynamic tension and have satisfying conclusions to sub-plots. So I think the best approach is to treat this bounty of traits and ancillaries from the game as a resource from which to pick only the ideas that fit the tale you are trying to weave.

So, you want to write a character-based AAR? Well, those characters are going to have to be interesting otherwise your story will remain unloved by the fickle masses of TWC. The first question is - which characters to include? Many writers don't even consider this. The games presents you with a faction leader and a family tree. The family members will be leading your armies, so it is entirely natural to write a story consisting entirely of them, with a few bland interchangeable subordinates, and a faceless mass of loyal soldiers ready to die for some as yet undefined goal. Doing this creates a kind of frame that constrains the possibilities for your story. It also creates practical difficulties, an army often has only one family member (the commander), so there is no one interesting for him to talk to when describing battles.

If you want to write something a bit different from the run-of-the-mill, then strong characters are a good way to break free from just describing the gameplay.

An AAR can either follow the campaign, or it can be a free-standing story using the game merely to provide illustrations. With this latter form, you are completely free to create whatever characters are required for the plot, but you also bear the responsibility for creating a good plot in the first place. It would be wise to prepare your cast in advance by writing profiles for them. These people have to be interesting and distinct. They need motivation and goals. They need different relationships, fears, hopes.

Making Characters Interesting
I must admit that I haven't yet been brave enough to write in this way. I play the campaign and meditate on what is going on “under the covers”. My own characters start simple and gradually acquire depth through my description of the campaign events and from the inspiration I get from my “detective” work.

Try assigning roles to your characters to make writing easier: Hero, villain, protagonist, antagonist, family, rival. Also give them some primary emotion: jealousy, love, loyalty, honour, weakness, obsession, nobility, duty. Creating a profile makes your character distinct and also helps to keep them consistent during the long period during which you are likely to be writing your AAR.

There are two types of character: major and incidental. I think you would do well to have something in the game that represents each major character. They don't all have to be family members. They could be ancillaries or agents, or even tied to particular military units (say a Centurian, or even a common soldier or camp-follower). Incidental characters are created as needed to fill out an episode. They often appear only once and are never referred to again.

I think that choosing the right characters is a great way to reduce the scope of your story from an epic world-spanning multi-volume history of the (ancient) world, down to something of more human proportions. It is entirely possible to write a whole AAR focussing on a single army, while leaving the rest of the campaign undescribed. Writing the whole campaign is a great temptation (one that I have succumbed to myself), but again it steers you into writing a “standard” AAR, much like many others already published.

Point of View
Having created some characters, you then have to decide how to write about them. There are three choices: First Person, Third Person, and Objective.

First person narratives are incredibly useful. The reader gets strong identification with the character. You can use this in several ways. The character can make unwise choices, raising tension as the reader wills them to do the right thing. The character can perform evil acts, making the reader angry at their unwilling complicity in the crimes. Finally, the character can lie to the reader (or at least be mistaken). Revealing the lie later in the narrative can create great scenes, the stuff of a famous AAR.

If you want your viewpoint to skip around, then Third-Person is best. But why not consider the Objective viewpoint, it is still Third-Person, but leaves out the thoughts of the character. This helps bring back some of the uncertainty you can get with First-Person. Your characters become enigmatic and you can spring plot surprises when their true motivations are revealed.

Afterword
I hope I have given you something to think about. Experiment with the different modes I have described above. It will help increase your arsenal of writing skills for tacking future projects. With writing, the more you learn, the more there is to learn. At every stage more possibilities become apparent, each one an opportunities for future study.

Juvenal

My Thoughts on AARs by Junius

My Thoughts on AARs

One of the things that I have learnt over the course of writing for the Critic's Quill is what a person needs to be a good reviewer. That was perhaps my main reasoning for asking for this series of articles, so that you, the reader, as well as the reviewers themselves, knew what it was that they wanted. A reviewer needs to know what they want. They need to be on the lookout for several things which they feel make a good AAR, or anything really. It is different for different people, that is why you may favour one reviewers opinion over the other. A reviewer cannot be like a child at Christmas, wanting everything (I want a bike, roller skates, PS3, puppy, etc.), so they have to know what is more important and what is less important.

For me the most important thing is story and plot. Story and plot are similar, yet distinct. The plot is the series of events, which can be summarised without needing to refer to specifics. For example, the resurrection of the Roman Empire would be a plot. The story is the specific characters and events. So, a plot point could be a battle, and the story could be how King Phillip won the battle by using his calvary to out flank his enemy. A strong plot is key for me, it gives the AAR a rhythm and intent which keeps it moving along, while also containing a strong sense of coherency. It isn't hard to come up with a plot, and stick to it, so I find it almost unforgivable to see an AAR which is meandering and has no course.

I find a story keeps the reader more interested. While a plot can exist without a story, 'Taking Europe back from the Timmy's' is an example, a story cannot exist without a plot. A story holds a reader, it creates characters which we can relate to, either hating or liking. A good story needs investment, on both the reader and writer's parts. I can, and will, read an AAR without a story, but it doesn't grab me the same way a story does.

Pictures aren't as important to me as they are to others. While I appreciate them, and realise that they are a big draw for some people, a good AAR can exist, at least for me, without pictures. If the writer decides to include them, I want to see interesting and informative pictures, which compliment the writing instead of replacing it. Editing of pictures is a must. Seeing the whole campaign map, when the writer only wants you to focus on the character sheet, or seeing the battle map and UI during a battle scene really breaks the immersion and the flow of an AAR for me.

I like things to be different. One of the best recent AARs I have read was 'In Hoc Signes Vinco', which I reviewed for the CQ in issue 8. It followed the Crusader States as they tried to conquer Britain, it still is being written. What made it really interesting was that it started with the Crusaders already in an established position, in Northern France, which was different from what you find at the start of a regular game. This new starting situation, and what could result from it, was what really grabbed me, and kept me interested before TemplarLord developed his story. Story and plot do not need to be excessively unique, but they have to be different. There used to be a glut of Byzantine AARs, with each having the same goal in mind. Though the writing may have been interesting, the central premise made for boring reading. This was not the fault of any individual writer, but was caused by the similarity of the AARs.

AARs are different from regular short stories, or historical fiction. Though they are primarily written to follow the rise, or fall, of a particular faction in a particular game, that does not mean that they should be limited to that. It serves as a useful, and interesting, starting point that will certainly keep people reading and win the writer some fans, but it can be used as a backdrop for an even more interesting story. My current AAR, 'The Kingdom', which I have written keeping in mind all the things I have learnt reviewing for the CQ, uses that as a central premise. Not to advertise it too much (I like to think I can be afforded a small degree of self promotion), I have tried to stick to the things I have found which I like in AARs, while trying to eliminate those that bug me.

Though AARs have a narrow scope, they are constrained by the game after all, they do allow for some great stories. It is those writers which manage to give us an AAR, that would be thrilling just on it's own, with an enthralling story, interesting characters and a unique style, that keep me coming back and reading more. There are several promising new writers, as well as the old stalwarts, that make me look forward to reading many more.

Junius

A Screenshot Guide by Junius

Screenshot guide

One of my pet peeves about AARs is when bad, unedited and buggy pictures are included. While I do not think that pictures are essential for a good AAR, a lot of writers use them, and some continue to implement them badly. This is not a fault of their own, very often it is hard to figure out what you are doing wrong, and out of politeness, many commentators will not mention it. So here is a little tutorial for all those aspiring AARtists who may think their photo editing skills let them down a tad.

Before I launch into the meat of this guide, I'd like to share with you one very helpful tip. When taking a picture of a unit on the battlefield, just hit 'Enter' before you take the pic, as this will get rid of any ugly green arrows under the soldiers's feet. This makes the image a lot better looking, and more 'professional', if there can be such a thing in this amateur game.

There are many ways to take pictures in-game. One of the most basic is the simple Print Screen key. Very often it is shortened to PrtSc (or it is done so on my keyboard at least), or something similar. Look around on your keyboard for it, very often you can find it above the Number Pad, though it will be in different places on different models.

Once you have hit Print Screen there are several things you need to do. On most games you'll have to Alt+tab out of the game, bring up paint, and 'paste' your screenshot into it. On M2:TW though the pictures are saved automatically to a TGA folder (/:C-->SEGA-->Medieval 2:Total War-->tgas).

My preferred way is to download a small program, my favorite is Fraps. You can get a demo version for free from fraps.com. It will have all you need for taking pictures(the premium option adds much to video capture, but nothing essential to screenshot taking.), and is very easy to run. It will save pictures to a designated folder, in a designated file type, which you can setup on the easy to use console. There you can also bind a key to take screenshots, usually f10 or another of the function keys.

X-Fire offers a way to capture in-game images, and an easy way to upload them to a web hosting facility. Due to the lack of editing tools, and the nasty watermark that x-fire puts on them though, I wouldn't recommend this.

That is a nice segue to the next section of this guide; editing. There are, again, a number of ways to edit your picture. You can use MS Paint, Photoshop, GIMP or another offline application. You simply load up your images and go about your merry way. These applications are very often quite complicated, but are very good if you want to do a lot of editing to your pictures, beyond the usual cropping and editing text. I won't go into how to edit with these programs as they are quite different and complicated, and this is not the place for that.

If you are happy with your picture you can upload it to a photohosting site. Very often you will have to create an account, which I recommend doing, as this will make it easier to organise all your pictures, keeping them in one place, in one album. There are a host of free websites that you can use. Flicker.com, imageshack.com or, if you have used X-fire to take your pictures, xfire.com.

My personal choice however is photobucket.com. I prefer it because you can upload multiple pictures, easily, at a time, and there is a powerful editing suite available. Simply upload your images, there is a tutorial for new users, then select the 'Edit' option underneath the newly loaded thumbnail. You are brought to a new page with a list of options running along a toolbar above your picture. The most useful of these 'Basic' options is the cropping tool. I urge all AARtists to crop their photos, preferably to a common dimension.

I hate seeing the UI, the thing running along the bottom and sides of the game window with the unit cards, map and other in-game information, in pictures. If you want to highlight something, a character sheet or the result of a battle, cut out all the unnecessary UI clutter, it will make it easier to read and look a lot better. Cropping is such a simple operation, all you have to do is click a drag a box around the are you want to keep, that I find t quite unforgivable that some writers still don't do it.

I also like to add some flavour text to my images, simple captions briefly explaining what is going on. You can add these in Paint or PS offline, by using the 'Text' option, or you can do it with photobucket online. Clicking the decorate tab you will find a big T with the word Text underneath. Click it to bring up a box which you can position and manipulate to wherever you want on the screen, this is where your text will go. On the right hand side of the page will be the options, including font, size and colour, that you can use to change the text to whatever you like. There is also the option to change the background of the text field to any colour, or make it transparent. Simply type in your text and save.

There are also a whole bunch of other editing options, both online and offline. Fiddle around with these, and you might stumble upon something that looks good. I would recommend saving it as a copy, keeping your original, so that if you do mess things up (like I have done) you haven't destroyed your unedited picture.

When adding the picture to your AAR on TWC you have to use the [img] tags. Copy the link to your picture (on photobucket this is displayed below the thumbnail of the picture, with an option of having the [img] tags already in place), and that place where ever you want in your AAR, with [img] before the URL and [/img] after it.

I hope this guide has helped you. As a final farewell, at least for this article, I urge you to take lots of screenshots. Very often you cannot tell if any of them are any good in-game, and you have to wait until after your battle to see them. By taking a whole lot you can be assured of at least some you can use.

Have fun, and keeping these tips in mind, you'll soon have great pictures for your AAR, and you might soon find yourself entering and winning the UESW competition.

Junius

From the Editor's Desk

We have reached 10 issues, and may we hope that we get to issue 20. The Critic's Quill is always looking for new ways to take a fresh approach to the genre, and all criticism and feedback is welcome. Don't be afraid to ask for a certain review, I'm pretty sure Nazgul doesn't have rabies anymore. We'll be looking to give you more great reviews from great writers, like Juvenal, Ratbag, Nazgul Killer and ProfessorSonofAlexander. So keep a look out for issue 11, coming to you on the 8th of September. There will be more reviews, more articles and maybe an interview or two.

Thanks for all your support, and in been interested enough so that our little publication lasted this long, and longer. What we do, we do for you, reader. So keep reading, and keep writing those AARs.

Junius

[Reginald of the Duffers]

Excellent edition guys, some really good tips as well! Thanks for the review, and now i'm off to read a certain AAR of France

[messiah]

Very nice!

I especially like the addition on making characters.

[Ratbag]

Fine edition, on the number 20.

[Nazgûl Killer]

Woohoo!
(That was my comment on the last 3 editions )

[Reginald of the Duffers]

It may be an idea to sticky a copy of the Critic's Quill in the AAR section. Just a suggestion, only i remember i had no knowledge of it's existence until a week ago!

[master412160]

Keep on going guy's!

[La♔De♔Da♔Brigadier Graham]

Bravo, I rather enjoyed reading, Reggies AAR and the helpful tips for making characters and screen captures, well done!

[AnthoniusII]

I see no pics in the "sceenshot quide" aren't there any ?

[ALZU]

lolz very good guys, imma start reading this stuff.

[Beer Money]

AAR guide is awesome. Got some good pointers. Thanks!

[Junius]

Pictures are included in the screenshot report. Can you see the pics from the other articles/reviews?

[AnthoniusII]

Originally Posted by Junius

Pictures are included in the screenshot report. Can you see the pics from the other articles/reviews?

I can not see the "banner" icon above the title and the pics in the screeshot report...
Pics inside AAR 's are there to see..
Maybe loging via firefox causing the problem...

[Ratbag]

Originally Posted by AnthoniusII

I can not see the "banner" icon above the title and the pics in the screeshot report...
Pics inside AAR 's are there to see..
Maybe loging via firefox causing the problem...

Nope, I have Firefox and I can see them.

[Lysimachos]

The problem could be with the hosting website, if the pictures have different hosts. I guess the AAR-pics are just quoted, while you've uploaded your own graphics at a different site.

[AlphApe]

Sweet edition! If there any chance of commenting on my FF?

[Tzar]

Great job guys!!!

[Carl von Döbeln]

Exellent issue lads

[Ariovistus Maximus]

Very useful info here! Thanks, as always!

[Hindenburg]

Nice.