"Battle Reports / AAR: Rules please" Topic

I remember discussions not so long ago about how to write interesting battle reports. What seems missing to me is the inclusion of information about the rules used. Sometimes they are not mentioned in the Subject, not in the Message itself, and often not even on the original website the AAR appears.

I enjoy reading good AARs and appreciate the effort that clearly went into many, but not knowing which rules are used makes understanding what happens on the battelfield a lot harder.

I'd love to do more of this myself – it's just that the rules we use are a pre-publication set. This means that I end up using generic terms instead of more specific ones.

But what if you have zero familiarity with the rules used? I think it better to have a good "story" behind the report. Too often there is too much, too many photographs or too many words. The essential essence that gives us the story always works better. At least for me.

Of course, I've settled in to one rule set that will cover just about everything I do – and maybe Everything.

Actually I read Battle Reports to understand the game and what happend on the table. I am not so much into the "story" behind the report but rather which descisions the players had to make, why they choose to do what they did. If I know the rules I can compare their descision to what I would have done (although I came across story-driven battle reports that were so good you could sell them as a novel, too).

And in case I don't know the rules, I will at least know which rules other players are using (of great interest to me) and wether that rule system might fit the bill for me.