After Action Report
An After Action Report, often known simply as an AAR, is a piece of creative writing that uses text and/or images to tell the story of a user's gameplay. In the context of Total War Center, these usually have a heavy emphasis on showing relevant moments in a game through screenshots (such as faction event messages, battle results, and the 'war situation' map layout) followed with explanatory text. Though they are usually based on Total War, an AAR can be created for any game, limited only by imagination.
Creative liberty is often used to smooth over the rough edges of a game's mechanics with plot. An unexpected clunky event may be explained differently, edited to be something else entirely, or straight up ignored. A writer may also reject the context the game gives partially or more extensively, rewriting the game's premise to better suit their story.
What exactly makes up the content is up to the writer. A fairly simple form is to take screenshots of relevant events, compile them and add a little text in explanation of each. A writer can take that simple premise much farther and accompany screenshots with paragraphs detailing a particular character's place in the faction's events, or completely omit screenshots and explain by text how events play out in or out of character. Situations can be followed 'by the book' as per the game or changed to any extent the author wishes - after all, an AAR is the user's piece of creative writing, and nobody can tell them that they are interpreting things wrong.
Sections on TWC
AARs are a large portion of TWC's content. The catch-all forum is found here, which includes the following subforums:
- Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia AARs
- Total War: WARHAMMER I & II AARs
- Total War: Attila AARs
- Total War: Rome II AARs
- Total War: Shogun 2 AARs
- Napoleon: Total War AARs
- Empire: Total War AARs
- Medieval II: Total War AARs
- Total War Eras AARs
- Non-TW AARs
Specialized subforums and indexes of AARs exist. They are listed below:
Rome: Total War
- Extended Greek Mod (XGM) AARs
- Invasio Barbarorum AAR Library
- Rise of Persia AAR library
- SPQR Total War AAR library
- Fourth Age: Total War After Action Report Library
- Chivalry: Total War AAR library
- Terra Expugnandae AAR Library
Medieval II: Total War
Additional Reading
Though they have been inactive as of late, there are elements of Content which include AAR material including the Critic's Quill and the Monthly After Action Report Competition.
Beyond Total War Center, relevant AARs can be found in the following places:
- Europa Barbarorum Gameplay Guides and AARs (totalwar.org)
- AARs at GamerTales (archive.org, only surviving link)
