deManglers First Try at an AAR

[deMangler]

**deMangler's Journal. Winter 268 AA**
While poring over the latest intel reports yesterday a detail caught my eye.



Hornstaat have a city called Errisvale.

Last night I had a dream that was obviously based on a racial memory of actual events. I won't go into the details as they are too horrifying to repeat, however, it is now clear that I must bend all the resources of the Erisian nation to reclaim our ancestral home from the evil usurpers.

[deMangler]

**deMangler's Journal. Winter 268 AA**
I have been digging deep into our capabilities so that we can fulfil our rightful destiny and restore the natural state of affairs re. Errisvale.
I decided to bring in Silidark to the early planning stages. No need to let anyone else know yet, I don't know who I can trust. He seemed very interested to discover how ignorant everyone is of our true situation and had a lot of ideas about how to move forward. I am glad I chose him to speak to. He said asymmetrical warfare was our best shot. I had a think about that and recommended that perhaps we should just commit completely and go for the entirely lop-sided approach.
We are drawing up plans. But there are spies everywhere.

[deMangler]

**deMangler's Journal. Early Spring 268 AA**
Apparently we are entering a period of fanaticism. Can’t see any signs of it yet but I will certainly stay alert.
Zero Darling, the governor of Waldau, requested a personal guard. I said yes, Newt said ‘Arrrgh’. Things are getting back to normal.
Dutch had some news for me today. He thinks Narbonensis Commune have agreed a victory pact with us. Silidark must have realised that in order for our plan to succeed we need to drug some of the more capable directors. Dutch has always been far too capable for my peace of mind.
In any case, Narbonensis Commune are at war with Hornstaat so, everything is favourable for us to act.
I am arranging what little of our forces remain for a rush on Errisvale. It is near our border and if we can take those usurpers by surprise…

[deMangler]

**deMangler's Journal. Summer 268 AA**
We have begun our push towards Errisvale. The fates pulled a few pieces of ancient tech out from somewhere – shielding and some kind of combat robot which are now with our troops on the front.



Narbonensis have been helpful in moving some of their forces into the fray – not sure what their intention is but it is confusing things for Hornstaat I am sure.

[Malagant]

I hope Narbonensis doesn't get there first!

[deMangler]

**deMangler's Journal. Summer 269 AA**
Narbonensis Commune are still at war with Hornstaat, but you wouldn’t know it for all the good their forces have been. There were some hanging about trying half-heartedly to look fierce but they have now wandered off somewhere, leaving us to deal with the stirred-up wasps nest of the usurpers.



Still, we are pushing on - it has been a happy year of manoeuvres and parties. We are all so excited to be soon re-united with the soil of our forefathers, or something.

ORIGINAL: Malagant

I hope Narbonensis doesn't get there first!

Maybe they are going around the back way?

[deMangler]

**deMangler's Journal. Summer 270 AA**
Just got back from Freiheim City – They had a parade in my honour! They have decided to become allies! Great city! Nice columns and fountains. I took the liberty of buying a small chatau on the outskirts, just in case I need to retire at any point.

Talking of which, Narbonensis Commune appear to have completely abandoned the area. We are within sight of Errisvale, but Hornstaat forces vastly out-tech us. I shall have to have Silidark look into this.

[deMangler]

**deMangler's Journal. Late Autumn 270 AA**
It is becoming clearer why we have not seen Narbonensis Commune for a while.



Silidark says Narbonensis are doing rather a lot worse than us with only a third of our population and all that implies. We ourselves are nearly out of ammo and Hornstaat show no signs of running low on things we have never even heard of.


Freiheim Hansa: Green
Narbonensis Commune: Blue
Hornstaat: Salmon
Erisians: Brownish

[deMangler]

**deMangler's Journal.Winter 271 AA**
Hornstaat officially won the universe. deMangler has escaped to exile in his chatau in Freiheim.

This was very much a learning experience for me, my previous games have not gone over about 70 turns or so. This one was over 160. Concentrating more on the character side of things meant that I continued to enjoy playing past the point where in any game other than Shadow Empire I might have given up. Losing is definitely *fun* in this game, as in other great games like nethack or Dwarf Fortress.
I will continue to tidy up this thread and work on the .pdf, but it really is after game analysis time now.

Final save here

[Malagant]

I really enjoyed reading that and going on the adventure with you! Hoping you do another for your next game!

[lecrop]

Thanks for the AAR, and waiting for the analysis

[deMangler]

I will continue this soon, and hopefully start a new one as well.
I have been busy making some sofware to help with PBEM games for people like me who like to keep things simple.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=5024246

Anyway, now that is working I can get back to analysing the game

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

[deMangler]

Having looked over the game with fresh eyes - it seems that there are two glaring areas of the game that I did not really use to any advantage.
First of all I made no effort to construct and field units in a coordinated way. My units were not supporting each other really. This is primarily due to my ignoring the model design and OOB, OHQ options. I will focus on learning those in my next game.
The second major omission is that I was not using strategem and fate cards in a coordinated way. I do like deck-builders as a game genre, if they are good, and I prefer a small efficient deck to a large loaded one. In deck-builders generally the key is to choose cards that support other cards, and that is not what I was doing in this game.

Of course it is impossible to produce a proper AAR given that my gameplay was so generally random, however I think I learned how some aspects of the characters are deeply connected with the underlying machinery of the game at the same time as being quite fleshed out as people.

[Bleek]

I haven't read it all yet, but so far - this is rather satisfying. Thank you for putting it together!

[nscrutable]

I really like your AAR! It's inspired me to start working on my own Have you thought about making another? I'd be interested to read it.

[deMangler]

ORIGINAL: nscrutable

I really like your AAR! It's inspired me to start working on my own Have you thought about making another? I'd be interested to read it.

I am happy you liked it! This is a really great game with so much variety and I too enjoy reading about peoples games. I will look out for yours.
I am looking forward to being able to dedicate the time to doing another one. (Loads going on IRL at the moment) It has been too long since I played.