As a note, the masses of troops in the Sahara are horribly vulnerable to an airstrike, but they're not completely starving because they've only been on the ground for at most a month. The Pakistanis have been on Sumatra for two years. Anyway...
***
2001-2006 Semi-Awards: Because It’s Great To Argue Endlessly About The Nuke Thing, But Other Parts of the Game Were Much More Fun
Federal Republic of Alaska/Lord Iggy
Iggy played possibly the most authentic of the US splinter states and arguably took Alaska to be the richest and most powerful among them. His nation’s slow transition from a military dictatorship to a prosperous democracy means that Alaska wins the
Best US Splinter State award. Also, for sending troops all over the world to shore up DFI-NADTA defenses, Iggy’s Alaska wins the
Most Good Nation award.
Cascadia/bestshot9
Clearly, bestshot9 gets the
Most Successful Rebel Group award for his OLF, beating out all other competition by a mile. His Cougar was one of the more interesting world leaders. Bestshot9 also gets the
Most Inventive Use of ASP award as well as the
Most Irritating Use of ASP award. One of the lesser reasons why his economy bumped up a notch in 2006 was that I just couldn’t let him spend half points one more time.
Quebec/Shadowbound
Quebec gets the
Most Evil DFI-NADTA State award, for sure. Lucien Bouchard and his wooden leg were interesting and megalomaniacal, and Shadowbound always took pains to state that his nation was not a democracy. Additionally, Shadowbound gets the
Most Strategic Player award by a mile. Without him, the democrats probably wouldn’t have been able to organize much of a collective response to the Eastern Coalition. Also, Warfighters were the
Best Design in the game. Simple but effective. And Shadowbound gets the
Most Sarcastic Player award. Heh.
Theocratic State of Deseret/germanicus12
His role in the African Incident might seem to make any award I give him suspect, but from the beginning germanicus12’s Deseret had great tactics if not great strategy. In the Great North American War, he led his nation to defeat invasions from the American Federation, Venezuela, and ASEAN, and by the end of the game, he had the
Most Efficient Navy on the face of the planet. Deseret also gets the
Nation that Turned the Most Away from Its Roots award. Salt Lake could have easily been the seat of an authoritarian missionary empire, but germanicus12 toned down the religious aspect of Deseret and ran it like the closest thing this game had to a United States. As part of that, Deseret also gets the
Most Influential North American Nation award, though it was a close run thing with Quebec.
The Confederate States/Anonymoose
First of all, the Confederate States gets the
Most Unchanged Nation award. The Confederacy has the same economic strength as it did at the start of the game, as well as the same general geopolitical situation. Also, Xavier Suarez deserves the
Best DFI-NADTA Leader award. He was interesting but not evil. One last award for Anonymoose is
Most Consistently Early Orders. By letting me have an idea of what was going on in his country early the week, he helped improve the quality of all my updates.
Venezuela/Abaddon
Both player and country get the
Most Manipulative award. They had their paws in stuff I still don’t want to mention for the sake of the game if it continues. More obvious, but equally important, is Venezuela’s
Most Wealthy Nation award. It deserves the title for its economy stat, but also for several things most of you don’t know. Also, Venezuela gets the
Most Mercantile Nation award, beating out even the Northern Collective, as well as the
Most Influential South American Nation award. Last but not least, Abaddon gets the
Most Fun to Read Orders award. He knows why.
Argentine Federation/Crezth
Argentina was no France. After so enjoying Crezth’s exploits in ABNW II, it was was amusing for me to see him relegated to the status of a bit player, outclassed even on his own continent. Still, for all its supposed irrelevance, Argentina was a dark horse. Maybe if Vert had sent more orders for Brazil, Crezth wouldn’t have had such an easy time of it, but by the end of 2006, Argentina had eaten most of its powerful northern neighbor and stood in a good global position, perhaps a position better than any other Eastern Coalition nation. Crezth also had some of the most fun sci-fi stuff that anyone came up with. So, Argentina gets the
Best Scientific Development award.
South African Union/Haseri
Huh. South Africa really didn’t do much except give up Patagonia and launch a straightforward attack against Morocco, but the nation had interesting and peaceful long-term plans. The South African Union and Haseri get the
Most Utopian award.
Empire of Morocco/TheLizardKing
From my perspective, TheLizardKing was one of the most fun players in the game. He gets the
Best Newbie award easily, though the other new players in the game weren’t bad so much as less enthusiastic. Morocco also gets the
Sole Nuclear Power award, whatever that means. Additionally, the Empire of Morocco was perhaps the
Most Aggressive Nation in the game, starting off by launching an unprovoked attack against Nigeria and continuing with similar operations in Quebec and Iberia. Also, Morocco was the
Most Influential African Nation commanding devotion both from Khartoum and Dar es Salaam. One last prize goes to his Marines, which get the
Most Copied Design award, and gave the Warfighters a run for their money as being the best design overall. Also, TLK gets the
Most Efficient Air Force award. His destruction of Nigerian planes on the ground came to be a well emulated tactic, and it helped decisively win TLK’s early war.
Tunisian Arab Jamahiriya/Adrogans
The TAJ was a solid nation, another dark horse country like Argentina that amassed a lot of power without getting on too many radar screens. Morocco stole continental hegemony out from under Gaddafi, but the TAJ still defeated the wealthy Mesopotamian Union in war and snatched a vassal state from the Arabian Umma’s grasp. Adrogans gets his nation the
Most Good Eastern Coalition Nation award for his handling of the Islamic expulsion from the Constantinople Federation, as well as for a few other things too secret to mention. He also gets the
Most Reliable Player award for consistently early orders and stories. Adrogans was a very fun player for me to have in the game.
Iberia/Milarqui
Milarqui’s interest in the World Cup while most other players were aiming for war was almost enough to get his nation the Most Good award, but alas he didn’t quite make the cut. Still Iberia gets the
Most In Depth Alternate History award for the stuff Milarqui pulled together early in the game.
Socialist Republic of France/Kozmos
Alas, France had some troubles at the game that were not Kozmos’ fault; had he been Argentina he probably would have advanced against Brazil even faster than Crezth had. Still, for his part in dismantling the Central European Union and greatly damaging Iberia in invasion, Kozmos gets his SRF the
Most Influential European Nation award. Also, he gets the
Best Orders award. What he wrote was succinct, intelligent, inventive, and had visual aids. Given enough time, he might have methodically demolished you all.
People’s Republic of Europe/conehead234
Solid and consistent except for not sending orders the last turn, when he was invaded by Poland, conehead234 built his nation into an economic powerhouse that had a lot more potential than it let on. The PRE was richer than FEAR at one point; it could have swung its weight around. The People’s Republic of Europe gets the
Most Underrated Nation award.
Freedom Fighters of Italinia/Omega124
This group was essentially dead at the end of 2005, but Omega124 refused to give up, still referred to himself as Italy, and actually got himself a patron before all was said and done. He gets the
Most Rebellious Player award, which might not seem like much, but such a title was the only NES award I ever received, and it came from das to boot. I hope Omega124 takes great care with his honor. Or something.
Earth Liberation Special Projects Group/TerrisH
TerrisH easily surrendered the Central European Union to the Comintern so he could create his ‘communist company,’ which certainly wins it the
Most Unique Entity award. Also, TerrisH gets the
Best Backstaber award for leaking the Comintern massive amounts of Chicago Pact information. Crezth also betrayed the Chicago Pact, but he wasn’t quite so brazen.
People’s Republic of China/Oceanic Confederation/Poland/bestrfcplayer
Before World War III broke out, bestrfcplayer was the player that that kept the ball rolling. He didn’t cause World War III, that’s for sure, but he was responsible for the Great East Asian War, the dismantlement of the Oceanic Confederation, and the swift occupation of Poland while almost all of its troops were off campaigning. So, he gets the
Most Exciting Player award. He also gets the
Most Improved Player award, or the
N00b to Newb award, as Abaddon put it. I do not kid. His orders slowly got better from the first turn to the sixth, and Poland actually would have ended 2006 in quite decent shape if the Hellene Imperium hadn’t invaded.
Northern Collective/Commando_34
Things happened around the Northern Collective. Things did not happen
to the Northern Collective. Commando_34 did play up the mercantile aspect of his nation somewhat, but he mostly just led his country to be the
Most Isolationist Nation in the game, which really was quite a feat for a trade power to pull off. Commando_34 also had a design that would have caused havoc for anyone who tried to occupy his nation, so he wins the
Creator of the Most Intriguing Design award.
Hellenic Imperium/Circuit
Well let’s get
Best Stories out of the way. That award was obvious. Circuit came in late to the game, and didn’t get caught up in the Chicago Pact-Comintern divide, but he led his country to success, so he also gets the Hellene Imperium the
Most Influential ‘Neutral’ Nation award. Also, he led the
Most Fascist Nation in the game, representing for a brand of evil that wasn’t overly popular in INES II, and he had the
Most Unique Style of Orders.
Arabian Umma/Charles Li
The Arabian Umma was a nation along for the ride, with Charles Li constantly framing everything in terms of what was best for Dar al-Islam and the Eastern Coalition. Thus, he gets the
Best Team Player award. He also created an intriguing if confusing alternate history of conflict between his nation and the Mesopotamian Union, so he gets the
Most Bloody Alternate History award.
Pakistan/Commander Gorma
I wished that Commander Gorma would send orders for interesting, but he basically just let Pakistan sit while he created his Raiders and helped out his allies. Still, he was a solid new player testing out the waters of NESing, he didn’t rock the boat like bestrfcplayer did, and he did his part towards making the game a better game. He gets the
Best Background Player award, but since that sounds horrible all by itself, I’ll also give his Pakistan the
Most Benevolent Nation Towards Rebel Groups award because Gorma’s influence helped the Central Asian Republic gain its full and complete independence from foreign domination.
Indian Republic/D’Artagnan59
India never was the focus of much attention, but D’Artagnan59 spent most of the game expanding. Though he was continually amassing power, he was never in serious danger, so his Indian Republic gets the
Slow But Steady Nation award. Also, his tactics were notable for being short in word count but efficient in deed, though the creation of the odd Corkscrew Tanks is somewhat of a blot on this record.
Far Eastern Republic/Karalysia
Okay. Karalysia gets the
Most Valuable Player award without much competition. Putin gave a lot of spark to the early game, and FEAR was probably the
Most Influential Asian Nation and
Most Influential Nation overall, driving both the Great East Asian War and World War III to bloody heights. Let’s not forget that Putin was the
Best Leader in the game for a number of bloodthirsty and humorous reasons. On that note, Karalysia gets the
Best Dark Humor Stories award, largely on the strength of his Santa vinagette. Also, it should be stated for the record that FEAR was clearly the
Most Evil Nation in the game, slaughtering something like 300 million Chinese, beginning to repopulate the Middle Kingdom under the title ‘Virgin Lands,’ poisoning rivers, employing every chemical weapon under the sun, and trying to replace its own people with mindless clones.
People’s Republic of China/~Darkening~
First of all, he gets the
Best Defeated Player award by a mile, as well as the
Only Player Not Currently in the Game Who Gets an Award award. I kept hoping that he would make some concessions and do some diplomacy and find and ally who would help him resist FEAR, but he kept trying to solitarily drive back his enemies on all fronts, which was a tactic doomed to fail against three large powers from both major alliance blocs. Perhaps he did do diplomacy and was rebuffed, I honestly don’t know. However, he was a good enough player that I for one was hoping he would find a way to make the PRC survive, even if it was only as an exile state in Tibet.
ASEAN/Agent 89
Agent 89 certainly has the
Most In Depth Orders award. He also gets the
Most In Character award for his diplomacy, planning, and general style. Out of all the countries in INES II, ASEAN probably would have made the most sense plopped down in the real world. Incidentally, Agent 89 also gets the
Best Propaganda award for masterfully synthesizing events in my updates and turning them into material proving that ASEAN’s victories are both just and inevitable. ASEAN also gets the
Most Influential Oceanic Nation award for its Pacific territories and its protectorates over pliant Australia and New Zealand. Indeed, ASEAN’s influence was hegemonic over the continent by the end of the game, except for a few Indonesian raids against Darwin. Agent 89 also led his country to the
Most Implacable Nation award, driving back the invading FEAR soldiers through the sheer number of plans and tactics he aimed at bringing them down. Incidentally, he gets the
Most Efficient Army award.