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Thank you, my adoring public. It's been an honour to be your elected (if technically by only one person) Fan of the Week. When I'm feeling down and struggling to continue reading AARs, I will put on my imaginary tiara, look at myself in the mirror, and tell myself, “You were Fan of the Week. You are so much better than this.” At least that's what I imagine all those former Miss America winners do after they grow old and get tremendous amounts of plastic surgery. Oh right, this is supposed to be a serious affair. On to business then.

I guess a week has passed and it's time to pass on the crown, but first I see that it is a tradition to mention notable AARs for others to follow. Thanks to blklizard's nomination, I became brutally aware that almost all the AARs I followed were updated irregularly, abandoned, or completed. Thus I went on a massive search for new AARs to follow. I’ve bookmarked a few dozen and will be trying to read them in the coming weeks, but it has given me the opportunity to find some incredibly interesting AARs I would have missed otherwise. I will mention that I tend to gear towards gameplay AARs or narrative ones that aren’t too text heavy. Screenshots are my friends. I'll make sure to mention a few ones that have recently started, since it's always nice to catch an AAR in its early stages and support the writer when readership is still light.

My first suggestion is none other than blklizard's The Great European War. I am not suggesting this because he nominated me, but simply because it is actually a good AAR. What I find most fascinating about it is the unique concept. He went and created a specific world in-game, but made up the history of each nation himself. The only thing from the actual game, EUIII, is the map. He recently finished all the histories and stats of each nation and will be moving onto the actual battles and war soon. Make sure to check it out.

My next suggestion is one I discovered in the CKII forum this week while searching for new AARs to read. It’s still in its early stages, so this is the perfect time to read it. I’m referring to smrice’s East Africa Adventure. Smrice is a newcomer to writing AARs, yet there’s something incredibly appealing about his AAR. I think it might be the endearing quality of watching someone struggle with a small Ethiopian count on the fringes of the known world and yet continue to persevere. It is an excellent read and I recommend giving it a chance.

Another new AAR, this time for EUIV, is JQuacker's Vrede in Rykdom. This caught my attention due to the writer playing Holland due to personal ties to a noble house in the region, the van Quackenboschs. I liked the idea of this personal connection and the fact that it was semi-interactive too. Being able to voice one’s opinions on the direction the writer should take allows one to feel a greater connection to the AAR they’re reading, without the full commitment of an iAAR. Give it a look if that sort of thing interests you.

It should only be natural to now mention a Victoria II AAR. Yet again I stumbled upon another AAR this week that’s little over a month old by Admiral Fisker called Dengang Jeg Drog Afsted. It follows the writer's experiences with Denmark, a nation you don't see played very often in Victoria II. This AAR has a much more history book feel than my previous suggestions and I felt as though I was immersed in the tale of a nation. I highly recommend it for all Victoria II fans.

Now I would feel guilty if I didn’t use this opportunity to mention at least one Avindian AAR, since I’ve read almost all of his and love them. Seeing as I've mentioned practically all of Paradox’s flagship games except for HOI3, this would be the time to include one. Avindian has just started an AAR about the UK in HOI3 called A history of World War II, by those who fought it. Now it doesn’t have many updates yet, so it’s too early to judge, but I’ve read enough Avindian AARs to know it will be good. Or if you prefer iAARs, since I haven’t mentioned one of those yet, you should join Sonderweg oder Anderweg? It is the first iAAR I’ve been a part of and probably one of the most interesting, entertaining, and craziest experiences for me on this forum. There has been everything from political scandals to putting a dinosaur on the flag (Long may the Archaeopteryx fly free over Germany!). We're always looking for new players, so join in if you're interested.

You've probably had enough of me blathering on about AARs I find interesting, now that I've practically written a novel about them. You're here to find out who I've chosen as the new Fan of the Week. While I was perusing the forums for new AARs, I made sure to keep an eye out for names that kept popping up again and again. I saw several posting in many different AARs, but one stood out above the others. I noticed that not only did he post in almost all the different game AAR forums, but he would also often provide thoughtful comment on AARs that had just started. As a first-time AAR writer, I can say that it means a lot to have someone comment on your AAR right at the beginning when you have almost no readers, since it gives you the inspiration to continue on. So without further adieu, I present DKM as the new Fan of the Week. Congratulations. :)
 
First of all, thanks for doing a proper speech! It's much appreciated and way too seldom these days. :)

Secondly, congratulations to DKM! Well deserved. :)
 
First of all, thanks for doing a proper speech! It's much appreciated and way too seldom these days. :)

Secondly, congratulations to DKM! Well deserved. :)

And here I thought I'd seem like a blowhard for writing such a lengthy post. :p
 
Congratulations DKM!

And yes, thanks for the speech Michaelangelo. AARland is one of very few places where verbosity is actually encouraged, I find. :)
 
Congrats, DKM!

Belated congrats to Michaelangelo and thanks for the extensive speech and recommendations!
 
Congratulations, DKM (and thank you very much for the kind words, Michaelangelo!)
 
Thanks for the kind words and the award Michaelangelo! Also, embrace your ability to write speeches. I certainly wish I could. In fact, just because you've set a precedent, I'll start working on a speech. Once again, thank you for the award.
 
Congratulations, DKM (and thank you very much for the kind words, Michaelangelo!)

Well you deserve every kind word. :)

Thanks for the kind words and the award Michaelangelo! Also, embrace your ability to write speeches. I certainly wish I could. In fact, just because you've set a precedent, I'll start working on a speech. Once again, thank you for the award.

Don't feel the need to blather on like I did. That's what happens when I don't pay attention to the length of what I'm writing. :D And you're very welcome. Extensive research (aka post stalking) made you an obvious choice. :)
 
Before I state my nomination, I would first like to thank Michaelangelo for nominating me. I'm honored that you picked me. Though not my nominee, I would like to give a shoutout to Avindian for hosting the AARland awards. We really appreciate it. I wish you the best of luck in raising the voting rate.

Now to the tradition of naming favorite AAR's from each category. From the EU3 category, I recommend The Great European War by blklizard. He created the map playing as Great Britain and is using a random number generator along with a huge spreadsheet of numbers to create alliances, A Great War, and the battles.

In the EUIV category, I recommend Papal Supremacy - A Papal AAR by 34625197. I believe it may be his first AAR but it is off to a great start. It's a must-read if you like comedy and the Papal States in EUIV.

For Darkest Hour, I recommend From the Alamo to the Rhine - A History of the 141st US Infantry (First Texas)by c0d5579. It's just started but it should be an interesting read as it takes place from the P.O.V of the 141st Infantry (First Texas) which he apparently served in.

For HOI 3, this is a harder decision as I've never been able to get into mainstream HOI as well as I had DH but I recommend A Shadow over the Pacific: An Axis Australia by TehDarkMiner. It's the AAR that convinced me to give the HoI series a try. That alone is a testament to it's greatness considering I'm more of a CK guy than a Wargame guy. It also has the unique premise of an Australia in the Axis.

In Vicky 2, I would have to recommend The Georgian Way by xizlak. It's a unique Vicky game where he's playing as Georgia and trying to survive while being squished between two Empires. He's also made it a little rule that, for now, he won't hold double standards and crush his fellow Caucasian nations' independence.

In CK2, I would have to recommend two AAR's. The first is Les Fleurs de l'or et Le Champ d'azur - A Capets of Chartres AAR (Old Gods Start) by AlrightJack. He is starting as the Capet dynasty in 867 and his goal is to overthrow the Karlings to become King of France. He has just restarted due to save corruption. The second is an AAR by everyone's favorite Paradoxian troll, Groogy! He has been writing The Legacy of the Vogelius Dynasty - The Rising Raven and has been quite successful in fighting back the Christian scum as a mighty Viking dynasty. It also is mildly interactive (voting polls) so you can go over and vote for the latest direction of the Vikings. He has plans to export to EUIV as well with personal modifications based on the votes.

Finally, I nominate guillec87. I have seen him in quite a few AAR's and I don't want to nominate someone who's gotten it recently. Thus, he's the one who fits all of my personal criteria for nominees (Believe me, I have VERY high standards when picking). Also, how's this for a speech? ;)
 
Congratulations guillec87! :)

Excellent speech. I'll definitely have to check out a few of those AARs. Hopefully this trend of long speeches sticks now that I accidentally started it. :D
 
Congratulations!
 
Congratulations guillec87!

Great to see another acceptance/nomination speech, as noted by others. Thanks DKM. :)
 
Thank you all! I have just seen the nomination... I would like to thanks my girlfriend in this my fourth time as a FotW, for she accepts (reluctanly of course) that I spend time playing or lurcking/posting the forums... of course she will never read this hahaha... now for what really matters... As DKM has done, I would also like to recommend some of the AARs I've been following this last time:

in the HoI3 category, I believe Nicegil's Panzer, MAARsch is one of the very best I have ever read:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...Panzer-MaaAARsch-!-An-(almost)-historical-AAR

CKII_

G-Force's attempt to hold a Norse Byzantine Empire is struggling against all odds:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...Tale-of-House-Mj%F3vi-the-Wolves-of-Byzantium

in V2, the B's gigantic campaign for the Übergermanien is reaching it's end, but the journey is simply fascinating:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...Formation-of-the-Pan-Germanic-Union-1836-1936

as for a fan of the Week... I would like to nominate Andre Massena. He's been quite active in many of the AARs I'm following, specially Uriah's titanic effort to bring the Red bear down letting the AI control the Wehrmacht:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...lg%E4nger-the-Untold-Story-of-the-Third-Reich