[SS 6.4] Crusader States AAR: In the Holy Lands

[Strengelicher]

SS 6.4 Crusader States late Campaign (vh/vh, Gracul AI, BGR IV-E, longer assimilation, permanent watchtowers, manage all cities, no battle time limit, 2 TPY). This is my first attempt at writing an AAR, so be gentle.

Disclaimers:

a) Do not expect historical accuracy. The point is to tell a story, and historical context will be adjusted and reinvented as it suits me.

b) Characters/narrators may refer to other characters, factions or groups as being treacherous, cowardly, wine-sodden and so on. This is for purposes of adding flavour to the story and does not reflect my personal opinion towards other nationalities or ancestors of persons living or dead.

c) Crusaders and Muslims may refer to one another as “heathen”. Again, this is not meant to insult anybody or raise one religion over another.

d) Updates will be irregular at best, as I have to do a lot of work in my other life. Also, I may manipulate chapters I have already published to improve them. Maybe I will not finish this AAR, as I have a certain idea for another story in mind and just want to try out some things.

e) Readers may recognize similarities to certain other AARs. This is because I have read quite a few and of course picked up some ideas from excellent writers (Skantarios deserves special mention here). However, I will try to give it my personal touch.

f) There will only be reloading for purposes of taking screenshots I forgot to take and/or gathering information to amend the story. Other than that, the game will go on as it happens. If a battle is lost, it will be lost. If a character dies, he/she will be dead. [EDIT 13 Oct 2012: This rule was somewhat broken - but only to my disadvantage - when rule g) was introduced.]

g) [EDIT 13 Oct 2012:] Battles will not be autoresolved unless they are sure to be lost. While playing this campaign, I discovered that one unit of catapults cannot take down the first level of city stone walls in a single battle on the battle map. However, if the battle is autoresolved, they can. There was a turn when I could have taken two settlements at once which were hardly garrisoned, which would have helped me greatly. However, this seemed a cheap shot, since the AI often leaves settlements unguarded. So I decided that I would at least have to bring enough siege engines if I wanted to take advantage of said situation.

Enjoy. Feedback is welcome.