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Crusader Kings III Available Now!
The realm rejoices as Paradox Interactive announces the launch of Crusader Kings III, the latest entry in the publisher’s grand strategy role-playing game franchise. Advisors may now jockey for positions of influence and adversaries should save their schemes for another day, because on this day Crusader Kings III can be purchased on Steam, the Paradox Store, and other major online retailers.
This selection is going to be a little influenced by the sad fact that I've not had as much time to shop around for character-centric AARs as I would have liked, because, well, summer and holidays and so on.
But anyway. Along with General_BT's excellent Byzantine intrigue from CK1, it was Saithis' North Star series (continued in CK2) that got me into AARs in the first place. So in a startling display of originality I'd like to pass the award on to Saithis for the excellent Valour of the North Star - Chronicles of the Hvide Clan, in particular for the characters Harald and Erik. Despite being Danes (their time will come), they're a set of very well-rounded and believable characters, expertly flanked by a wider cast that displays plenty of ambiguity and credible motivations. And of course the AAR is otherwise excellent, too.
... Hope I did this right.
But anyway. Along with General_BT's excellent Byzantine intrigue from CK1, it was Saithis' North Star series (continued in CK2) that got me into AARs in the first place. So in a startling display of originality I'd like to pass the award on to Saithis for the excellent Valour of the North Star - Chronicles of the Hvide Clan, in particular for the characters Harald and Erik. Despite being Danes (their time will come), they're a set of very well-rounded and believable characters, expertly flanked by a wider cast that displays plenty of ambiguity and credible motivations. And of course the AAR is otherwise excellent, too.
... Hope I did this right.
Thanks to Zealuu and everyone else for this honour! I do definitely owe everyone an update, I've been rather lax on updating Valour (mostly because I'm still dependent on mod work that is taking a long time to do alone). It's an honour for my characters to be so highly respected amongst this group, judging by the fact that this is the fifth time the award has been mine. I suppose I simply have no choice but to whip up an update or two before I move this on!
I'm half a day late off the arranged time to pass this on, simply because it's been difficult finding someone to pass this on to - too many good options!
There's at least half a dozen other writers who could and probably even should be named here, but in the end I think I'll make the decision to award a fairly well-known author who has never won it. He's one of the more venerable forumites but his AAR is a lovely tale of Normans, Muslims and great wars for Italy. I'm referring, of course, to hjarg and the characters in his excellent De Hautevilles- Can Anyone Stop the Norman Invasion? This is an AAR that does not necessarily match my initial thoughts for a character writing AAR, being chiefly history book and not prose narrative. However, with all of that said, his history book segments do an excellent job shaping and defining his characters. They are expressed as much through the recounting of their deeds and his own gameplay as they would be through conversation. To further enhance both the main characters and a large array of side characters, lovely interludes are laced between the chapters which give us a narrative insight into the world and the people who rule it. I can't praise this AAR enough, as it stands.
Congratulations, hjarg!
There's at least half a dozen other writers who could and probably even should be named here, but in the end I think I'll make the decision to award a fairly well-known author who has never won it. He's one of the more venerable forumites but his AAR is a lovely tale of Normans, Muslims and great wars for Italy. I'm referring, of course, to hjarg and the characters in his excellent De Hautevilles- Can Anyone Stop the Norman Invasion? This is an AAR that does not necessarily match my initial thoughts for a character writing AAR, being chiefly history book and not prose narrative. However, with all of that said, his history book segments do an excellent job shaping and defining his characters. They are expressed as much through the recounting of their deeds and his own gameplay as they would be through conversation. To further enhance both the main characters and a large array of side characters, lovely interludes are laced between the chapters which give us a narrative insight into the world and the people who rule it. I can't praise this AAR enough, as it stands.
Congratulations, hjarg!
STOP! COOKIE TIME