6.3 England Turtle AAR Ideas?

[Heskey]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at writing another After Action Report on a 6.3 England turtling campaign, aiming to unite the British Isles and simply maintain Caen as my 'foot in the door' of Europe. I don't intend to invade Europe but if managing the Isles gets too dull I may well do

I wrote a previous AAR, in-fact quite a few:

[SS AAR] Crusader States - The Surface of the Sun
[AAR] Rise of the Serpents [Book II]
[AAR] The Dwarves
[SS AAR] "Betrayed", Order of the Knights Templar

But I'm not so sure on the style in which they've been written. For the time they consume to write I feel the quality comes out very shoddy.

I'm looking for tips and advice, and suggestions on how you'd like to see an AAR written.

You can write them as the player "I told the king to take York" etc, or from the point of a historian/3rd person "The king marched on York with his men"... Or you can go nuts and do all the internal relationships and dialogue which would take up more time than I have.

There was a style I wanted to try; writing an AAR from the point of single general - No info about anything beyond what he knew/could see, so it would be about HIS battles, HIS spies, HIS administrations, and HIS relations with the crown, completely avoiding any input from the rest of the faction... But of course that AAR would die when he did, in about 50 turns =P It would be interesting and definately contain more detail, but I don't know how to do that without it ending abruptly; especially if I've got a whole campaign going on around me to report.

So, what suggestions for style and formatting can you guys suggest?

To confirm, the 'objective' on the campaign is to play a Holy England, just controlling Normandy, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and when consolidated help out on the crusades. Maybe, just maybe I might invade Norway/Sweden as a '2nd island nation', or even take over France; but I doubt it.

It would be:

Early Era
BGR On
RR On
Assimilation On
Limited Activity On

Probably aim to ally with France to keep Caen at peace.

[newt]

Come up with that idea yourself?
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=320711

If you haven't read that one, do it now!

[Heskey]

I did actually as I haven't ready many AARs! xD

[newt]

I did actually as I haven't ready many AARs! xD

I haven't either, it's really not my thing. But Skantarios' AAR is awesome.

[Sebastos Abdes Pantera]

Maybe focus on a general that has been given a settlement as a fiefdom. I would like the idea of that, as lordship and vassalage is very poorly represented in MTW2.

[Heskey]

I think focusing on a govorner of a region would be relatively boring though, as every turn would just be "Taxed people, new year, taxed people, priest converts people in the street, new year, taxed people" =P It would need to be one of my warring generals.

Any suggestions for which towns to get which guilds? I was thinking Exeter for thieves, London for merchants, York for theologians? Don't know about others though; might hold the theo guild and recruitment of priests until I have Edinbrough and put it in there though as that's likely to get a huge-ass cathedral.

To be honest, I don't understand the guilds very much apart from Theologians and thieves! I want to know more about them all but that guild thread is too hands on!

[JohnGlave]

I think focusing on a govorner of a region would be relatively boring though, as every turn would just be "Taxed people, new year, taxed people, priest converts people in the street, new year, taxed people" =P It would need to be one of my warring generals.

Any suggestions for which towns to get which guilds? I was thinking Exeter for thieves, London for merchants, York for theologians? Don't know about others though; might hold the theo guild and recruitment of priests until I have Edinbrough and put it in there though as that's likely to get a huge-ass cathedral.

To be honest, I don't understand the guilds very much apart from Theologians and thieves! I want to know more about them all but that guild thread is too hands on!

It wouldn't have to be that boring, the governor/Lord/Duke could raise an army and try to use it for furthering his own Duchy/Lordship, while trying to keep the King happy.

You could have disputes between the court and the governor/Lord/Duke, even a revolt. I think it could work well.

I'll read whatever AAR you decide to write though .

[y2day]

Look forward to reading your work. You could also post it and the rest of your work on the Stainless Steel forum.

http://stainlesssteel.heavenforum.com/forum.htm

AAR Forum
http://stainlesssteel.heavenforum.co...on-reports-f8/

[Heskey]

Hmm, any ideas for guilds guys?

I'm reading this thread here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=77577

But it's largely for vanilla I assume; how much of that is applicable in SS 6.3? =P

I've never really got a horsebreeder guild, swordsmans guild, woodsmans guild, or anything like that...

I'm thinking:

London - Merchant's Guild (Faction trade hub)
Caen - Swordsmaster's Guild
Winchester - Explorer's Guild (Naval base; closest to 'Portsmouth' I guess, Britain's historical naval port?)
Exeter - Thieves' Guild
Nottingham - Woodsman's Guild for Sherwood Archers from Sherwood Forest! ;P
York - Alchemist's Guild (on the borders of rebelious scotland, and the shortest distance to the border for Norman artillary)
Edinburgh - Theologian's Guild (For the great cathedrals?)
Aberdeen - Assassin's Guild
Inverness - ???
Dublin - ???
Galway - ???

One of the ???'s could be a horse breeders guild, but not sure how I get them in cities, other than recruiting merchant cavalry... But then I'd have the merchant guild lol.

What do you guys know/think? Best way to get these guilds also? (esp. the swords, woodsman, horse guilds)

[chris7ian]

Hmm, any ideas for guilds guys?

I'm reading this thread here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=77577

But it's largely for vanilla I assume; how much of that is applicable in SS 6.3? =P

I've never really got a horsebreeder guild, swordsmans guild, woodsmans guild, or anything like that...

I'm thinking:

London - Merchant's Guild (Faction trade hub)
Caen - Swordsmaster's Guild
Winchester - Explorer's Guild (Naval base; closest to 'Portsmouth' I guess, Britain's historical naval port?)
Exeter - Thieves' Guild
Nottingham - Woodsman's Guild for Sherwood Archers from Sherwood Forest! ;P
York - Alchemist's Guild (on the borders of rebelious scotland, and the shortest distance to the border for Norman artillary)
Edinburgh - Theologian's Guild (For the great cathedrals?)
Aberdeen - Assassin's Guild
Inverness - ???
Dublin - ???
Galway - ???

One of the ???'s could be a horse breeders guild, but not sure how I get them in cities, other than recruiting merchant cavalry... But then I'd have the merchant guild lol.

What do you guys know/think? Best way to get these guilds also? (esp. the swords, woodsman, horse guilds)

Dont forget the crusader guilds, they the only ones of import along with the other military related guilds imo. By the time you get great merchants and priest I seem to be well on my way to victory and have plenty of money and happiness

[Heskey]

Anyone to answer the above? ^^

[napoleonic]

some time ago I had an idea about an AAR :

1. wouldn't start at the start of the campaign, more like after a few tens of turns
2. it would have been -for that chapter- about 2 captains and a general which had fought together on a massive, legendary battle some years before

so I planned the story to be like these : (the chapter started certain years after the battle)
1. the general would had stayed on a settlement, while the 2 captains would had been sent to fight elsewhere under a different general
2. next few years they would be reunited once again, this time they would be sent to faraway land for conquest and annexation
3. after some battles, the army succeed and conquered a city/castle, but one of the captain before would be dead -unit anihilated-

that would ended the chapter

things to note :

- the story would involve many flashback on past events and especially events lead to the legendary battle mentioned before -in my case, it was a battle of 5000 vs 7000, ended on victory-
- somethings happened in the past (turns/events ) would be kept on secret, but the kingdom story would be told although not detailed yet

the next chapter would tell story in the timeframe just before the great battle and after it, involving more characters and possible return of the 3 main characters on the 1st chapter; with more detailed story about the kingdom, the king and generals

that chapter above was planned to have a backward cliffhanger ending, this mean that the next chapter would travel back into the beginning of the campaign

but since I have no time to write, lack of writting skills and lack english language skill, I didn't do it

what I'm trying to say is that you don't have to stuck in certain linearity and that's the problem with most if not all TW AARs, writters are stuck with orthodox linear storyline!

another idea I have is to do grand history AAR pick gaul from RTW, continue with france from M2TW & ETW/NTW; one uber big and long if not the longest AAR in the history of TW games

[Ichon]

You could try an AAR from the point of view of a single general during his lifetime... might be interesting but it would be relatively short but sometimes that is a good thing as a halfway well done AAR is quite time consuming.

Skantarious is interesting but bugs the crap out of me because there are no battle details and all the screen shots are edited. I feel I'm missing a huge amount of information. I'd probably enjoy it more if I didn't play MTW2 myself.

Maybe try an AAR within a single family? So as long as you can maintain the same family as FL keep the AAR going. So that should be at least 1.5 generations unless you lose King or Heir and outside member gets appointed.

Please include at least some battle details though. I get frustrated reading storybook AARs that mention battles just in passing.


Guilds- Swordsmen and Horsebreeder seem most useful for soldiers otherwise I'd do almost all Merchant/Explorer with only 1 or 2(if faction grows large enough) of Theologian, Assassin, etc...

[Heskey]

Hmm thanks guys,

I am wondering about a knights chapterhouse and the woodsmen/horse/sword guilds too.

By default, Britain (and Normandy) has the following castles:

Caen
Nottingham
Winchester
caernarfon
Inverness

I usually turn Winchester, caernarfon, and Inverness into cities as I feel due to lack of sea-raids, Nottingham is all you need to produce troops with, and the others can become cash-cows...

But if I want to put horsebreeder in Caen (Norman Knights ahoy), and Woodsmen in Nottingham (Robin Hood ahoy), then what should I do about swordsmasters? Where should that go?

And the chapter house? I prefer templars over hospitaliers, but I believe hosps give a faction wide public order bonus, and are easier to get (esp. for a BGR player) than templars; which should I get and where should it go?