Not god, nor tsar, nor hero...

[clandini5]

Congratulations Comrade Ripster on you excellent and entertaining AAR, I have enjoyed both this and your TYW AAR very much. Such AARs I believe have the benefit of bringing these games to the attention of others, which I think help with the sales of such games. (Although I am not sure that helping capitalists in such endeavors is quite fitting for a defender of the proletariat.)

[ERISS]

probably some of the circumstances you comment would be rather improbable IMO, like
- Communists, socialists, anarchists,... living happily together.

Sure, already the very few time when Bolsheviks and SR were confident together they had started to storm the anarchists. Then I guess once anarchists are diminished, those in government would start to fight each other.

- Or French and Czechs helping the Freikorps!

French army helped the freikorps in 5 border towns in 1920 (edit: no! 1918) against the german revolution, but it was made almost without violence from the french, for people rather welcome them than waiting for the freikorps slautherers.

I would like that andatiep, Eriss,... (if the rest of RUS Gold team is still there) have the time and interest to fix the problems you have detected in your gameplay.

I would like too, if I was absolute sure about what I do. For now I don't really know as there are many different files for one thing in the database.

[Nikel]

I do not think the French and the Freikorps had the same agenda precisely.

In 1920 The Freikorps were fighting the revolutionary Ruhr army, I suppose the French interpose between them or something like that, but did not fight the revolutionaries with the Freikorps side by side. No German nationalist would welcome the French troops.

That would be surprising, because the french ultimate objective was the division of Germany, and in fact republics were created in the Rhineland and Palatinate, this is of course contrary to the right wing and German nationalist Freikorps. Finally the French would fail in their attempts, but the alternate history of Ripster with France annexing west Germany was not so far from reality.

[Random]

Victory for the proletariat! Well done Comrade Ripster. The Dark Forces of Imperialism and Reaction never stood a chance against your strategic brilliance and political acumen.

This has been a gripping adventure to follow and I thank you for the marvelously creative delivery and the incisive narrative. You even managed to insert some Dr. Strangelove into the story, always a worthy endeavor in any AAR.

With the conclusion of Not god, nor tsar, nor hero... my days will be a bit less colourful and forays onto the Internet less interesting in the future. Should you embark on another, count on and audience of at least one but the reality seems to be that you have built up quite a following and deservedly so. Congratulations, Sir.

-C

[ERISS]

I do not think the French and the Freikorps had the same agenda precisely.
In 1920 The Freikorps were fighting the revolutionary Ruhr army, I suppose the French interpose between them or something like that, but did not fight the revolutionaries with the Freikorps side by side. No German nationalist would welcome the French troops.
the french ultimate objective was the division of Germany, and in fact republics were created in the Rhineland and Palatinate, this is of course contrary to the right wing and German nationalist Freikorps

Sure! That was an unwanted help. But I missed the dates, it was end november 1918, like Mulhouse the 17th, Strasbourg the 22nd (see below), were french army ends the soviets without combat, adds blue and white to the flag. French army made violence, but it was against german nationalists I guess, not really against reds.

'There was never a revolution here', French authorities don't want to remember the year nor what about, Strasbourg people don't know..:
https://www.google.fr/maps/place/Rue+du ... d7.7431563
(you must almost full zoom to see the name of this red pointed 3-parts weird street)

[Nikel]

Ah, well, just checked and the first Freikorps unit was created in December 1918 by General Georg Maercker.







Picture from here.

http://gmic.co.uk/topic/67346-freiwilli ... -maercker/

[ERISS]

the first Freikorps unit was created in December 1918

So I am wrong, I don't remember why I was sure. Maybe the slaughter on reds didn't begin with those freikorps???
I know it was on several years across about 50 towns and villages.

[Nikel]

In those times, after 4 years of terrible war, the falling of the German Empire and the Revolution in march, who knows who killed who and when.

[Ripster8]

Comrade Nikel, thank you for your kind comments and for your strong support during the difficult (at least for me!) change-over to the new forum. It was an incentive to me to continue the AAR (despite my grumpiness) knowing that I had people who were still interested in reading it. Thanks again!

The perfidious Poles initiated the war on the peace-loving people of the RSFSR, first in 1919 by seizing Byelorussia, and then in the Spring of 1920 by allying with the Ukrainian separatists and White reactionaries and declaring war on us. Both events are scripted into the game, I believe.

And yes, it is a fantasy to imagine that Left political parties with such different political agendas could possibly co-exist for long in the same government. But it was necessary to imagine it, first so that I could stomach playing the Reds, and second so that I could create something good from their victory, even if it was only a pleasant fantasy!

Lastly, TEAW would be a great game for an AAR but unfortunately the AI and the scripting (if there is any) are not as good as in RUS. The Western Allied AI just maxes out all of its new unit builds as quickly as possible (causing internal political problems) and then it throws its giant stack of doom at prepared German defenses (I have seen battles with 500,000 casualties on the Alled side). The stack of doom always breaks through but the heavy losses destroy the Allied national morale causing them to lose the war. Things are better on the eastern front but the problem there is I have just had no luck getting the Austrians to fight very well at all! Remember, it took me six tries to finally be a halfway decent Red player in RUS! I am not the sharpest tack in the a box of armchair strategists, that is for sure!

Thanks again for reading, amigo!

[Ripster8]

Comrade clandini5, thank you for reading and commenting on this AAR. One of the main reasons I did this AAR was to show just what a fine game RUS is and to expose it to a wider audience, especially here in the United States where the Russian Civil War is not very well known at all. Thank you for your kind comments!

[Ripster8]

Comrade ERISS, thank you for your many interesting historical comments, as always. On a side note, your Avatar is no longer visible on the new forum - may need to reload it or something.

[Ripster8]

Master Random, my oldest AGEOD forum friend, thank you for reading and for your kind comments. I, too, am saddened to leave the field of battle. No more huddling over maps with Commissar Trotsky at 2 am on a snowy winter's evening in the Kremlin, no more autum walks with Chairman Lenin as he tries to figure out how to hold the Red alliance together, no more to brave artillery shells and machine gun bullets on the frontlines with The Mighty Tuk as he leads his tired, hungry soldiers to yet another stunning victory. It will all be terribly missed. But at least all of those things and more are recorded here for others to read and experience as I have (at least until the next time they change the AGEOD forums...). But on the bright side at least I won't have to listen to the constant whining of the Left/SR delegates anymore - what a bunch of war-mongers! And no more 'Waves of Desertion' events to really get me angry! My blood pressure will return to a more placid condition now that the battle is over I am sure. Now if I could just give up my increased consumption of Stolichnaya Vodka...Mrs. Ripster8 would appreciate it!

I hope to do another AGEOD AAR sometime in the future, but for now my camp chair and field kit are packed away. Whenever I do take to the field of battle again it will be an honor to know that you will be there with me, Master Random, my dear forum friend! My best, as always, to you and yours!

[Ripster8]

Pravda Final.jpg (201.74 KiB) Viewed 29780 times

[Nikel]

Lastly, TEAW would be a great game for an AAR but unfortunately the AI and the scripting (if there is any) are not as good as in RUS. The Western Allied AI just maxes out all of its new unit builds as quickly as possible (causing internal political problems) and then it throws its giant stack of doom at prepared German defenses (I have seen battles with 500,000 casualties on the Alled side). The stack of doom always breaks through but the heavy losses destroy the Allied national morale causing them to lose the war. Things are better on the eastern front but the problem there is I have just had no luck getting the Austrians to fight very well at all! Remember, it took me six tries to finally be a halfway decent Red player in RUS! I am not the sharpest tack in the a box of armchair strategists, that is for sure!

Oh, what a pity


And I doubt andatiep want to mess in the development of TEAW Gold with a better AI and many more events like RUS Gold.


I you allow me, shall link your answer to TEAW patch thread.

viewtopic.php?f=358&t=50668&p=387693#p387693


And tell the SR not to worry, the revolution is already present in Bolivia

[Nikel]

And what about the Spanish Civil War? Leibst just released a patch for it.

viewtopic.php?f=348&p=387696#p387696


Do you like this conflict?

[BuckTurgidson]

Yes! And thank you for the TYW and RUS AARs.

[Bruit Bleu]

Thanks for the AAR Ripster, it was a pleasure to follow your daily narrative ! Congratulations for your efforts in roleplay material, the Lenine correpondance, Pravda issues, annual reports... and the brighter uchronia ! All of this demands work, and you are good at it. Your text isn't just an action report (even though you're using real experience) but some short story with illustrations from a game.




And, sorry for not commenting your action live, there are already many experts and fans here... and my english is so laborious !

[Ripster8]

M. Bruit Bleu, thank you so much for reading this AAR, and for sticking with it even during the challenging move to the new forums - well, it was challenging for me at least! It was a pleasure to highlight such a fine game and to use my limited skills to provide an enjoyable AAR to this noble group of forum comrades! Who knows, with a little time off I may even find another AGEOD game to write an AAR for? I was really hoping that 'Wars of Napoleon' would turn out better than it seems to have - it is one of my favorite periods of military history. But hope springs eternal. Thanks again and I hope to meet you again soon on the champs de bataille!

Friedland.jpg (159.58 KiB) Viewed 29705 times

[Ripster8]

Thanks, Buck Turgidson! You are very welcome for the AARs - it was a pleasure to write them and I am very pleased that so many folks have enjoyed my feeble efforts. AGEOD games, with just a little extra imagination and creativity, really seem to make history come alive, at least they do for me. Thanks again for reading and I will hope to see you again some where down the AGEOD road...

[andatiep]

Salut Ripster8 de Tucson, États Unis d'Amérique du nord !

I thank you very very much for all your work and for the very fun i had to read your AAR .

As main RUS Gold designer, i take the power (but just very briefly - as written on an Anarchist 1918 armored train in Ukraine : "Power breeds parasites!") to give a special evaluation of the Victory Conditions for this epic game :

1) About Objective cities Victory : if you had focus only on the few objective regions to reach and to hold instead of cleaning useless areas in Ukraine, Baltic states and Poland because you had nothing else to do, i believe you could have take the 3 left cities you need close elsewhere : Baku, Erevan and Bucuresti or Helsinki.
You didn't succeed this victory condition just because of your "gentle ethic game play" which told you to not invade countries that didn't attacked you first.

2) About Victory Points Victory : if you had activated at least 2 World Revolution Options in Caucasus and in Romania or Finland, you would have gain hundreds of VPs and you would also have lose much less because of radical SR and Bolsheviks demands to do so. Probably enough to win with VPs.
Here again, you didn't succeed this victory condition just because of your "gentle ethic game play" which told you to not invade countries that didn't attacked you first.

Doing so, you finally played a Bolshevik Dictatorship governement strategy of "better rule only Russia alone than sharing power and revolution with various factions and foreign peoples". But you played it with all the "United Reds and Black gentle revolution" options and malus...

In the game, it is supposed to be more "cool" to be invaded/free by the Internationalist "United Reds and Blacks gentle revolution" than to be invaded by a new imperialist Russia with a "Bolshevik Dictatorship" . IMO, you could have used World revolution options without beeing in total opposition to your gameplay, but of course, it is subjective . It was already a good performance to not use "Repression" and "Requisition" RGDs at all.

Whatever, with the "United Reds" Option you chose, the game was designed to spread world revolution around.
Considering your original and unexpected gameplay, i declare that your absolute peace policy in the West make the 3 objective cities of the Eastern Whites isolated and without any hope of foreign support and self-developpement. It is like you had it already. Just a matter of short time before the diner .

All that means you can proudly be recognized as a true victorious commander of the Red Army side in that Great Campaign game.

Merci beaucoup et tous mes respects,

Sam aka Andatiep.

[Ripster8]

Thank you, M. andatiep! I am honored by your gracious declaration of at least a tentative victory for the kinder, gentler red movment. My game play was only mediocre at best: I should have attacked eastwards earlier, minimized the useless flopping around in the Baltics and Ukraine, and taken a chance on declaring war to please the Left/SR folks. But I enjoyed my game thoroughly!

And thank you for your kind words regarding the AAR. But really, I think the star of the show was your fine game, Revolution Under Siege, that really uses the AGEOD system to its greatest advantage, minimizing its weaknesses and providing a challenging and very interesting game experience. I highly recommend RUS to all wargamers, especially those (like me) who haven't been exposed to the Russian Civil War before.

And since your English is better than my French I will stick to my native tongue and wish you good luck and much success in all your future endeavors, especially those involving very interesting computer wargames! Thanks again!

Victory.jpg (135.24 KiB) Viewed 29626 times

[ERISS]

your absolute peace policy in the West make the 3 objective cities of the Eastern Whites isolated and without any hope of foreign support and self-developpement. It is like you had it already. Just a matter of short time before the diner .
All that means you can proudly be recognized as a true victorious commander of the Red Army side in that Great Campaign game.

Congratulation Ripster!
The truth is found in the heart. I was a sad "sorry these are the rules" fellow.
So, Andatiep will do a patch to include your peace politic to the game as an added rule.

[Hero989]

Grreat AAR. Very helpful. Any additional hints or tips ?

[ERISS]

( Doble post about Pavel Dybenko, that the forum prevent me from deleting
I had mistakenly quoted myself instead of editing this viewtopic.php?p=386446#p386446
see the edit in end of the post )