Congratulations, Tanzhang!
You're a great "participator" even if you may not comment as much as others (and I suspect you comment more than you give yourself credit, because obviously others, including myself, appreciate your comments). I like the way you've come into a sort of leadership position within the Forum, with contests and other encouragements, and the AARLander, etc.
You've made yourself a critical component of the modern Paradox Forum. That makes you a great fan!
Rensslaer
Suffice it to say that I disagree with such high praise, but coming from an AARland Icon such as yourself it's certainly a massive compliment! Thanks!
(Incidentally, I'm about half-way through
Serenity, i'll comment once I've caught up I swear!)
Belated congratulations to Densley and an up to date round of applause for Tanzhang!
Nice to see your still around Milites! Shame about your Japan AAR though being taken from us in the prime of its life.
I will do eventually, it's just lots to catch up with... I'll probably start reading it backwards as I've done with other AARs; I'm still waiting for someone to do a Memento-style AAR to completely mess up my method
That's an odd way to go about things... Normally I find that AARs tend to get better as they go along anyway.
Congratulations, Tanzhang (I'm sorry, I'm too inept to conjure up those Chinese characters on my keyboard. And possibly too lazy to copy-paste)!
You weren't to lazy to copy-paste them the last time you gave your congratulations the last time I won an award...
Nah, it's of no consequence.
So, I hear you have a new AAR? Ahem, I better go check that out, then, when I find a spare moment...
Indeed. No hurry.
Belated congrats to DensleyBlair...much deserved recognition...again. And congrats to Tanzhang as well!
Thanks!
Well deserved congrats, Tanzhang.
Thank You!
Thanks once more to everyone who has stopped by to say congrats: I've noticed that in the past few weeks there have been a lot more of you than there were a year or so ago - and that's a good thing as far as AARland is concerned. One thing I thought I'd do before I hand it over to someone else on Sunday is bring back an old tradition of the award and talk a bit about some of the AARs which have stuck with me during my four-to-five year tenure over here at AARland. I probably should have mentioned more contemporary AARs, but I'm following a few at the moment and I wouldn't want to accidentally exclude any of them.
Kanem Bornu - Out of the Sahara by Duke of Wellington: This was actually the AAR which first introduced me to the concept of an AAR, having first caught wind of it from my regular haunt at the time, the WWM modding threads in the EUIII subforum. According to mnplastic's old AAR Index,
Out of the Sahara was/is one of the most successful EUIII AARs ever in terms of views/comments and along with the numerous works of Alfred Packer (a fantastic author I unfortunately didn't get to read until much later) is probably the closest thing AARland has to the OT's Octagon. That is, to the uninitiated, a sort of widely-understood meme or in-joke. All one has to do is hint at or mention clubs or filthy animists to conjure up memories of this fantastic AAR amongst those who read it. I still think it is the best comedy AAR ever written, five years on - and that's probably saying something.
Awakening the Dragon: The Guomindang at War by Gjerg Kastrioti
This is the only AAR I've yet read which has actually convinced me to purchase a game based on its quality alone, and it isn't even a gameplay AAR!
Awakening the Dragon was probably the first historybook AAR I read - at the very least, it's the first I can remember reading - and I soon fell in love with both the style and the AAR itself. In my mind, it remains something of an ideal which all historybook AARs should be judged by and aspire to be: a fast-paced narrative coupled with beautiful images. Suffice it to say it was and remains an inspiration for my own work and I reckon it still holds up well today, despite being almost a decade old.
Dios, Patria, Rey - A Carlist Spain AAR by Tommy4Ever
Now I'm sure that if you were to ask Tommy what he himself thought of
Dios, Patria, Rey he wouldn't list it as one of his greatest works, to put it nicely. That being said, this AAR was a good Vicky II AAR at a time when there weren't that many good Vicky II AARs around (from memory, the only really good Vicky II AARs available at the time were: DPR, Rens'
I Am Siam and badger_ken's Mexico AAR) and I have fond memories of reading it. It is also the AAR most responsible for bringing myself into the AARland fold - that is, going from occasional commentator to slightly less occasional writer and commentator.
There were a few more I could of mentioned: ALL of AP's works, Le Ran's Yak-filled masterpiece, (I'm pretty sure
For a Few Reincarnations More is the only AAR ever to have spawned a spin-off flash game) Porkman's Nationalist Chinese AAR, Communitarian's
Letters from an Unquiet August and Aldriq's Ethiopia AAR. (
No Iron, One Lion, Maybe Zion - or something like that) but those three above are the ones which stick out the most in my mind. There are a few more recent ones, but again I wouldn't want to play favourites. Their respective authors know who they are.