Wow! Thanks, Quirinus, for this honor! Quite an act to follow -- the fastest-growing, most popular AAR in the Victoria forum!
I've been "out of the picture" for a bit, because of job searching, interviews (I actually had one, this week!), wife sick, volunteer activities, board meetings, etc. Good Heaven!
So I didn't have the opportunity to congratulate you on your own award! You already know how big a fan I am of yours, so let me lay it out for everybody else... I've never been interested in World War I -- never, really, at all! But Quirinus has really made the era interesting with his choices of pictures, his detail of updates, his brilliant historybook slash gameplay style, etc. I know Allenby deserves credit for many of the same things, but I haven't had weeks to invest in reading his. But I've been along from the first with Quirinus' tale, and have enjoyed it immensely!
As for Sforza, my Milan AAR... Well... I never really expected to be writing it!
I've always been a fan of playing German countries, or Japan, or... Anything, really, but a Mediterranean trading power (which, course, isn't much of a trading power, in this patch, but...
)...
Literally, the reason I'm writing about Milan is because when I was writing the Strategy Guide I figured someone would want to learn how to play one of these countries, so I'd better learn how so I could explain it!
In doing so, I generally betatested with either Savoy or Milan, and actually had a blast, so... Here I am!
And aside from being surprised at what country I'm playing, I'm also surprised by its popularity... I'm a dramatic fiction and characterization artist, not a history or gameplay writer. But in Fire Warms (for which I received this award a while back), I quickly learned that people really liked my historybook style. It's that which is mostly represented in Sforza -- morphed with just generally conversational gameplay sometimes -- and I must assume that's what people are enjoying. I'm sure it also doesn't hurt that I update sometimes 3 times a day!
Having fun with my EU 3 addiction, when I do have a chance to play. Thankfully, I write out of habit, so it's not too distracting. Much more to come, and hopefully some other EU 3 AARs too!
Thanks, everybody, for your comments! I'm working on finding my successor...
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