6.6 KiB
[AAR] The Black France Saga
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Author: u/Kerbal_NASA *
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Score: 7
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Created: 2015-08-28T20:51:09
Post:
Comments:
u/None [+3] (5 hours later)
The entirety of the French state is now directed towards the war effort, while every man between the ages of 16 and 60 are employed (either directly or indirectly) at the frontline.
These AARs tend to be written as if everyone helping with the war effort is male. That's utterly incorrect. Russia was no stranger to women in combat roles; they had the First Women's Battalion of Death back in the first war and the Night Witches in the second. Nursing was generally women's work, as was operating anti-aircraft batteries.
That's only people fighting near the front lines registered under their official gender. It's never been unheard of for women to enlist under an assumed name.
For non-combat roles in moderately safe territories, World War II was when women entered manufacturing jobs en masse. Naturally, those jobs tended strongly toward indirect support of the war. Also, computers took off in this era to calculate artillery trajectories now that there were batteries with ranges of a hundred kilometers -- and early programmers tended to be women.
While this example only talks about the front lines, in occupied territories, women took more direct action, having no central command capable of enforcing ordinances restricting war activities by gender. One of the most successful radio operators for the French Resistance, for instance, was Noor Inayat Khan.
I realize that's a small percentage of the AAR as a whole, but it's something that grates on me. I understand that radio broadcasts and histories written in that era would reflect this incorrect data, and people often want to replicate that style, but you can alter the style just a tiny bit to make the data you're conveying more historically accurate, and at the same time you end up being less sexist. It's a win all around!
u/Kerbal_NASA [+2] (8 hours later)
First Women's Battalion of Death back in the first war and the Night Witches in the second
Those are the most bad-ass names for military battalions I've ever heard! Also based on this:
With wireless detection vans in close pursuit, Inayat Khan could transmit for only twenty minutes at one time in one place, but constantly moving from place to place, she managed to escape capture while maintaining wireless communication with London: "She refused to abandon what had become the most important and dangerous post in France and did excellent work."
I wonder if the inspiration for Fate from Mirror's Edge is basically Inayat Khan + Parkour.
Thanks for the interesting info!
u/Kerbal_NASA [+2] (a minute later)
For the reasons stated in my comment from last week's discussion, I thought I'd post an AAR and see how /r/rational felt.
u/Escapement [+1] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (17 hours later)
I don't really play Paradox games, so my following of the game can only be superficial. That said, what I understood of the story I enjoyed, and I would not be at all adverse to occasional posts in this vein.
(I personally get my strategy fix through Dominions 4, and haven't played much of any of the Paradox games at all).
u/None [+1] (18 hours later)
[deleted]
u/Escapement [+2] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (18 hours later)
It's got a lot of good points and bad points. It's one of my favorite games of all time, but I will try to be objective/impartial.
Good:
Very large, complex game. 70+ factions, 2000+ different units, hundreds of spells, hundreds of magic items. Game is huge. Modding for additional content is easy (need text editor and paint) and so the mod community is also pretty big. Can play for a really long time and not see everything even in vanilla game.
Complex, interesting battles. Large scale strategy and small scale battles. Battles are set up with issuing orders to leaders and troops, including scripts of spells to cast, then resolved simultaneously for both sides (all action happens on central server, without human input other than setting up plans for the army). Zero execution or quick reflexes or whatever, completely turn-based.
Really interesting lore. Game is based on many different mythologies and factions. Includes Norse giants, Celtic elves, Japanese Oni, Hindu Naga, Hebrew giants, Cthulhu-based illithids and aboleths, Zoroastrian flying people, and a lot of other crazy crap. A lot of lore and description and flavor to everything. In one game I am playing a faction of lizardpeople based on the mythology of Egypt, and I have started casting spells to release insane undead gods from the pits of Tartarus to serve my empire. In another, I am playing a group based on the Canaanites/Phoenicians, and am gathering slaves to sacrifice to start summoning armies of demons.
Long games. Games are most typically played at a pace of a turn per day or less, done by Play By E-Mail. Turns can take between a couple minutes early on to over an hour by the endgame of a large empire. Games extend for in-real-life months. Some groups (steam community /v/anheim, for example) have 'blitz' games where a group of people all take turns with 5 minute maximums for several hours at a time, but I find I don't enjoy those nearly as much.
Bad:
The graphics are basically 90's sprites more-or-less. Easy to mod and create new content for, and you get used to it, but still not really pretty.
User interface is not great. As you learn and use hotkeys it goes from bad to tolerable (never really great).
Game balance isn't great. Multiplayer FFA nature of the game ameliorates this a little (people tend to gang up on factions perceived to be strong). Also, luck plays a big part in the game sometimes (both for good and bad).
AI opponents are very unsophisticated, so playing online against humans is like 100x better than playing against AI.
Occasional obtuse or opaque mechanics.
Steam occasionally has it for sale for as much as 50% off or more - if you aren't already into turn based strategy games I'd recommend waiting until it's on sale.