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Well done timetogetaway :)
 
Now, it is 01:11 AM in the morning here in good ol' Pennsylvania and I stare at my screen for a while -my mind completely blank due to the three back-to-back exams I just ploughed through- and I say to myself: "... How is this writer not up on this list?" I checked four times just to make sure my dodgy eyes are not deceiving me and they were not! Lo' and behold, my fellow AAR-reading fiends, I present to you The_Guiscard's


It is a Norman-Italy AAR.

Those unfortunate beings who have been without this amazing AAR will have 19 pages to catch up on, but I assure you they will go by quickly. Guiscard manages to take the narrative style AAR to new heights, causing you to care about the protagonist to such personal levels that you will find yourself raving at the author to post more updates. Interspersed between these dandy bits of narrative are equally dandy bits of history book styled interludes which explain what is going on in the Norman realm in an astute and positively dry manner.

So go, go! Read now, and be sure to leave comments. Comments are always appreciated by any author.
 
Many congratulations The_Guiscard
 
Thank you very much for honouring „Furor Normannicus“ and my humble self with your nomination, timetogetaway, and once more congratulations for being nominated yourself; “The Mann on the Island’s” unique blend of history book with narrative overtones has well deserved it.

I would like to once more take the occasion to thank all those who have read “Furor Normannicus” and especially those who have taken the pains to comment. It cannot be stressed sufficiently how much that means to any writAAR, and for me this very immediacy, this access to the writAAR I have as a readAAR and the possibilty to ask and suggest is what makes this kind of “literature” so very special and worthwhile for me – both as a writAAR and readAAR. So come over to the “Furor” and comment to your heart’s content, I shall be glad about it and I’m sure to address all of your issues at length.

The topic of feedback does also bring me to the next and last point of my little speech – is there anything any of you would like to know about “Furor Normannicus” and how I go about writing it? Or do you want to know anything about any of the countries or people in it? If you’ve got any wishes of this kind, if you want me to cover something you never really wanted to know about “Furor Normannicus” at all, leave a note in this thread and I will talk about it in this thread here.

Until then once again a heartfelt “thank you” for timetogetaway for nominating me.
 
Congratulations, The_Guiscard! I've heard only good things about your work and keep meaning to set aside some time to read through it.

And note, this awAARd is for you yourself as the individual (the writAAR) rather than just for your work. Let us know a little about yourself. :)
 
Excellent choice. The_Guiscard is an extremely gifted writer. Furor Normannicus is a pleasure to read.
 
Many congratulations The_Guiscard ! You prove time and time again in your AAR your calibre of writing ! Heftily deserved !
 
Nice choice, this is well deserved. Congratulations The_Guiscard :)
 
The_Guiscard is an inspirational writer capable of breathing real life into history stories, and is hands down my favorite writer in these forums. An talented, gracious, and intelligent writer that we are lucky to have, no doubts about that. If all writers were The_Guiscard, I'd have no time to do anything but rant about how Serlo isn't king.
 
Thank ou all very much for the kind felicitations guys, especially Lord Durham and phargle for their kind and unmerited words of praise. You're making me :eek:o

Anyway, coz1 has pointed out that the award is for the individual, not for an AAR. Now I could argue that my contribution to AARland equals my single AAR Furor Normannicus and that it is the sole grounds for my nomination, but if he likes me to tell you a bit about myself, well, why not indeed?

My name’s Michael, and I’m a thirty-something native Ausrian living in Vienna. I’ve studied Roman history and am currently working as a research fellow for the Austrian Academy of Sciences and am also holding a periodical course at university. About a year of my live was spent on archeologial digs in Austria (Lauriacum and Carnuntum, Syria (Palmyra) and Turkey (Ephesos). Apart from history, especially ancient Roman history, my interests are literature, photography and roleplaying, mainly of the indie type, though I find that I have less and less time for that in recent years. I’m not much of a video gamer and stumbled on Paradox games by chance. The computer I use at home was too old and crappy to play EU:Rome, so I settled for my second-most favourite period, the middle ages, and got myself Crusager Kings. As my old computer has recently sunk I just got myself a new one, I also got myself EU: Rome, and while I have yet to actually play it this might mean that maybe I might start another AAR in the none-too-distant future.

In writing Furor Normannicus my premise was, I realize only now, to try and see just how good CK is actually in simulating historical processes, meaning that I am keeping very close to the actual gameplay and neither add events that did not really take place nor do I play the game so as to create certain situations. I simply play the game, roelplaying my ruler to the best of my knowledge, including the deliberate taking of bad decisions if they are in character, and see wether a passably interesting story emerges. So far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I quite content with the story and pleased about the actual gameplay events being visible behind it very clearly at all times, at least to those who know CK.

Another corner stone of Furor Normannicus, one that probably won’t surprise you now that I’ve told you a bit about my personal background, is an attempt at a passably accurate portrayal of the high middle ages. I try to throw a wealth of historical snippets into the story, but I have made it my principle to do so unobtrusively, with a few words and not with long disquisitions. I have learned ages ago to restrain myself when blarbing about historical details. :rolleyes:

So that’s it from me for now, I only wish to once again thank the lot of you for your wellwishing, and timetogetaway fo nominating me.
 
Congratulations! Your AAR is officially stupendorific. Yes, its good enough it gets the stupendorific title. :D