The 2021 Gameplay AAR of the Year is...

[coz1]

Here we are with the actual reason that most of us are here. The playing of the game and the retelling of it in memorable fashion. It is done in many ways and may use multiple styles and as such, there were quite a few AARs nominated here. 28 total in fact, and crossing over into nearly every game. That said, this year there was clearly a champion and none of us could possibly compete. First place through third place were won by the same writAAR and so from now on I'm simply going to refer to him as the BWB (old school EU players will understand that title.) Let's get to the reveal.

Your 2021 Gameplay AAR of the Year is...

Talking Turkey: Alternate History from 1936 by @Bullfilter​

And the silver goes to...

Quick and Dirty 2: A Soviet Resurgence and WW3 by @Bullfilter​

And then the bronze...

Blut und Schlacht (Blood and Battle): A Learner’s Saga by @Bullfilter​

Many, many congratulations to the Big White Blob! Seriously, very well deserved @Bullfilter and on all three. All three titles are beloved and have shown throughout these votes not just this year but in years past and across many genres. The other 25 could not come close, well...these next two nearly got there...

Odin and Stalin's Secret Committee by @roverS3

Ged's Existential Nightmare by @TheButterflyComposer​

Yet another vote was missing (and perhaps yet another AAR to work on.) The rest of the nominations by order of the vote were:

God Willing and the Creek Do Rise by @coz1

The DumpstAAR Fire Republic - A TNO Komi AAR by @Alex Kamal

Mini France AAR - a struggle against the odds by @Alex Kernel

One Heart, One Soul, One Mind, One Goal: A Republic of China HPP AAR by @RustyHunter

A Gentleman's War :The Middle-East Command (HoI3 TFH - UK AAR) by @Eurasia

Stardancers - A Federations AAR by @RossN

Road of Queens - CKII India AAR by @Eurasia

France: Operational Hail Mary (AAR) (HOI3: TFH) (No Mods) by @Mortal Phoenix

Memoirs of an Executor - A Necrophage Nemesis AAR by @Nikolai

The Fall of Empires - AH WW1 AAR by @Lautipus

Stellaris Wars: A Nemesis Ironman Saga by @Arithmetician

Imperial Cheese: The Improbably Incredible Rise of the Italian Empire by @TheButterflyComposer

Annuntio Vobis: A Papal History of Italy by @slothinator

Avon Las Observes by @Midnite Duke

Yabuntu Iriphubliki - A Zulu AAR by @CBR JGWRR

The Balkan Crucible: An Axis Yugoslavia AAR by @The Living Hive

The Legacy of Uhtred (A Bamburgh AAR) by @Dunaden

Belgium- Resist and Bite (TFH) (No Mods) by @Mortal Phoenix

Der Adler, der Wolf, und die Sonne: Die Geschichte des Stahlpakts by @Wraith11B

Wings of Faith, Wings of Fury - A Slavic Pagan Revival AAR by @Superstorm

Civis Romanus Sum (An EU-Rome Vae Victis AAR) by @Bullfilter

Italian Ambitions: A Florence AAR by @JerseyGiants88

The Story of House von Trier - A Rags to Riches AAR by @Sultan Augustus Khan​

Well done to each and every writAAR and work listed here as it is an honor to be given such a valued nomination (and thank you to those that remembered and voted on Creek!) At least one if not more chose your AAR to single out and that alone is a supreme compliment. We just have to try harder (and give up our lives to work on 57 different AARs at once. ) Congrats to you all and thank you to the voters from all of AARland.

Now you may give your own thanks, congrats and offer up discussions of the works should you wish. I've released two today so wait for tomorrow for the Historybook winner. Yet another close race (and at least spread out a bit more. )

 

[roverS3]

A well deserved triple victory for @Bullfilter . He continues to set the tone on several sub-forums at a time. I'm of course quite pleased that 'Odin' has clenched the fourth place, it's best position yet. I guess I'm doing something right... This only encourages me to keep going with this gargantuan undertaking 'Odin' has become.

Congratulations to all the nominees, and thanks to all those who put in their votes.

 

[Macavity116]

And it's @Bullfilter with the grand sweep, or imperial flush... or whatever it's called. I don't play card games. Either way, many congratulations to @Bullfilter and all of the writAARs who made this list! Pat yourselves on the back, you've earned it.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

I'm rather pleased Ged got nominated for gameplay, as that was, in the end, the point of the exercise. Then again, I think we all swiftly decided not to think too much about how CK3 actually works...

Congrats to all winners!

 

[diskoerekto]

An excellent and well deserved hattrick!

 

[Eurasia]

Wow! So, should we change Paradox Forum to Bullfilter Forum?

 

[coz1]

Wow! So, should we change Paradox Forum to Bullfilter Forum?

Not certain on that, but I do have an idea that BWB aka Bullfilter would at least bring CK3 over to our full ranks. We should be so lucky to have such a caretaker.

 

[El Pip]

Congratulations to Bullfilter and his team of trained emus, a most impressive result. And to Rovers3 who is taking his fourth place with typical charm and grace when he could have argued 2nd place should be disqualified due to the title being blatantly untrue.

 

[DensleyBlair]

Astonishing work this year, @Bullfilter. You write far faster than I can possibly keep up, but TT is perhaps the AAR of the decade and I’m sure the other two are of comparably fine quality.

Many congratulations to all others nominated. Good work all round.

 

[eoncommander]

Congratulations @Bullfilter!

 

[Bullfilter]

Gulp! I really wasn’t expecting that, though I’d hoped TT might go ok … thank you so very much to all who voted for my works and everyone else’s. Congratulations too to all nominees in the category, what a wonderful range of excellent work. Thanks of course for the inestimable @coz1 for herding all us cats together and running these: you are an “ornament to the game”, as they say in sporting circles. <3

 

[Midnite Duke]

Congratulations @Bullfilter! While a trained emu may take third or even second in a bad year, it takes a squad of kangaroos to kick them into a sweep. Excellence and dedication reign.

 

[RustyHunter]

Congrats Bullfilter, your clean sweep is well deserved! Further congrats to all the other nominees, it's just stiff competition with the pack of emus on the case. (Is pack acceptable for a group of emus? I imagine there's a fun word for them)

 

[Bullfilter]

it's just stiff competition with the pack of emus on the case. (Is pack acceptable for a group of emus? I imagine there's a fun word for them)

Prof Google informs me: "A group of emus is called a mob. Emus spend most of their time alone since they are solitary animals." Sounds right.
https://study.com/academy/answer/what-is-a-group-of-emu-called.html

 

[Nikolai]

Thanks for the votes folks, and congratulations to all winnAARs, especially Bullfilter!

 

[iain_a_wilson]

Wow - congrats to everyone here, but especially @Bullfilter - where do you find the time??? Great job!

 

[Bullfilter]

Wow - congrats to everyone here, but especially @Bullfilter - where do you find the time??? Great job!

Having retired helps. From a job that involved a lot of analytical writing, so it’s a bit of post-work ‘therapy’ to keep me occupied. Doesn’t stop me from playing for four different cricket teams in the summer, though. A semi-final today (rain permitting)!

 

[filcat]

***
<the onslaught of congratulations continues. Part 2>
​

Spoiler: Bonus track: Congratulations, Bullfilter

In the order of appearance
{rows 1, 2, 6, 7} [1] Monkey Island 2: Le Chuck's Revenge, LucasArts, 1991
{row 3} [2] Another World, Delphine Software, 1991
{row 4}

{column 1} [3] Bubba'n'Stix, Core Design, 1994​

{column 2} [4] Colonization, officially by Sid Meier, but actually by Brian Reynolds, MicroProse, 1994​

{column 3} [5] Dune II: Battle For Arrakis, Westwood Studios, 1993​

{column 4} [6] Reunion, Amnesty Design, 1994​

{row 5}

{column 1} [7] The Settlers, officially Die Siedler, Blue Byte, 1993​

{column 2} [8] Myth: The Fallen Lords, Bungie, 1997​

{column 3} [9] Call of Duty 2, Infinity Ward, 2005​

Link: The Death Scene Music, Shadow of the Beast 2, Reflections, 1990

​

Additional edit-note: In case not noticed; there are *twenty (20) images used in the post, abiding the old-school forum rule of do not exceed twenty (20) images per post.
*Added the missing image. Lol.

 

[Midnite Duke]

Colonization was under-rated (in my limited opinion) and had several concepts that later Civilizations incorporated.

 

[Bullfilter]

@filcat you're one of a kind! Some good old games there, though I didn't play all of them. Before that, I was right into the old SPI and Strategy & Tactics boardgames. Plus D&D when it first came out in the old paperback booklets, played on graph paper with pencil. Ah, them's were the days!