Aphrodite's Knights

[Aphrodite Mae]

Thank you, Our Most Gracious Queen, for the bountiful supply of recognition you have bestowed upon me, your humble servant.

You're welcome!
Gentlemen, Longshanks is referring to the rack that I have made for him, and the free AGEod game that I have awarded to him for his exceptional service as our Tournament Director. He chose Wars in America! ompom:

I could not have awarded the game, though, were it not for the generosity of AGEod. Thank you, Pocus and PhilThib!

To put it in the vernacular: Hit shore is purdy! (It sure is pretty! for those of you who don't speak Southern.)

I appreciate your thoughtfulness, Longshanks, both for complimenting my little works of art, and also for speaking in a dialect of my native language!

Now, I have to figure out what they all mean ....

I'm sure that others might be wondering, too.

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I'll begin in the top row, at the left.

The Cadre Medal is a prestigious medal. It is awarded to persons who serve as our forums' teachers and innovators. In Longshank's case, not only has he provided many helpful explanatory posts about AACW, but he has also developed and implemented an innovative tournament system that is working very well!

The Tournament Director Medal is the third medal in a new series of four that I've created, dealing with hosting games and directing tournaments. I'll present the series in a post, most likely tomorrow.

The Service Commendation Medal is awarded for bright ideas and distinguishing achievements. It is also considered to be a high prestige medal.

Longshanks was previously awarded the Service Medal with Bronze Oak Leaf, for organizing and directing the current tournament. This award of the Service Commendation Medal rescinds the first medal, so that it might be upgraded. The Bronze Oak Leaf is added to the award, because of the exemplary way in which Longshanks is directing the tournament, and posting "mini AARs" about the games that he hosts.

The second row:

The Southern Liaison Medal is a spoof, and isn't really an award of merit. It's a medal that people can choose to wear if they speak the language of "Southern" and have a passable understanding of Southern culture. Even so, this "award" to Longshanks is provisional, and he will have to d'reckly mosey over to the Queen's Southern Ambassador, Spharv2, to have his medal confirmed.

The Service Medal with bronze oak leaf is awarded to Longshanks for his excellent thread, An unfortunate series of General Swaps. This thread is a treasure trove of information about AACW, and is a very entertaining and interesting thread. The thread is something of an AAR, done in a unique style. I highly recommend it!

The Militia Trainer medal with crown is awarded to Longshanks for having introduced more than eight new players to the joys of PBEM. Congratulations, Longshanks, for such an exceptional effort!

The third row:

The Queen's Gallantry Medal with Bronze Oak Leaf is awarded to Longshanks for my admittedly subjective appreciation of his humor and writing style. Thanks for so many entertaining posts, Longshanks!

The Combat Command: 8 badge indicates that Longshanks has played eight PBEM games. Whether you win or lose doesn't matter. (Even so, Longshanks has won six of eight. That's a respectable record!)

The Veteran Field Grade Officer badge was retired on June 21st, 2009. It is brought back to active service as of this post; eligibility requirements have changed. Details will be outlined in a subsequent post.

Fourth row:

The Veteran NCO badge was also retired on June 21st, 2009, and is also brought back to active service, with this post. As with the Officer badge, details will be outlined later.

The Bronze Oak Leaf on the Veteran NCO badge reflects that Longshanks has participated in one AGEod tournament.

The Good Conduct:12 months Medal is awarded for twelve months of active participation in the forums without being moderated by a forum official. Although it is called a medal, it is actually a badge, and like all badges, you award it to yourself.

The last medal is actually a Campaign Ribbon: Shiloh. Longshanks has played the AACW Shiloh scenario via PBEM, and so he gets the ribbon!

You have distinguished yourself Longshanks, and your rack of medals, badges and ribbons tells the story. Thanks for your good works, and congratulations!

[Jim-NC]

Congratulations Longshanks on your rack and thanks for all that you do.

[Hobbes]

A fine service record indeed Sir Longshanks!

[GraniteStater]

He's the Sir Awesome of AACW Awesomeness (I know other Awesome People, such as lodilefty and others will not take offense, 'cuz they're secure in their Awesomenessdom).

[Aphrodite Mae]

[...]
The Tournament Director Medal is the third medal in a new series of four that I've created, dealing with hosting games and directing tournaments.

There are two ways to play a PBEM game. The easiest is to simply find an opponent, and begin your game. The second way is to find a third person, to host your game.

I'm a strong proponent of hosted games, because hosted games preclude any chance of cheating and also provide a neutral third party to resolve problems. Even though the host doesn't play, the role is rewarding. For every game that I've ever hosted, I have learned new tactics and strategies, and I have also been able to watch the game evolve in a way that the players cannot. There is no "fog of war", for the host.

When you serve as a neutral host, you provide a service to our community that enriches our gaming. I think that our hosts deserve recognition!

If you are willing to host games between other players, you may wear the [font="Arial Black"]Host[/font] medal.

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The stripes of the medal are intended to visually suggest a referee's uniform. The crossed swords symbolize a test of arms.

The dignity of this badge is 23.

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If you have hosted four or more PBEM games between other players, you may wear the [font="Arial Black"]Veteran Host[/font] medal.

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The dignity of this badge is 24.

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Experienced hosts who have an organizational flair are invited to organize tournaments in any AGEod game. Your tournament doesn't have to be big; four players are enough to have a small tournament. Of course, all tournament games must have a third party host.

When you organize a tournament, you are eligible to wear the Tournament Director medal.

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This is not a badge; it is a medal, and as such, it will be awarded to you in this thread. Its dignity is 31. As with all medals with a dignity of 30 or more, it is considered to be a Prestige medal.


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The highest honor in this series is the Distinguished Tournament Director medal.

For his distinguished service to our forums in conducting two tournaments that spanned years, [font="Arial Black"]Daxil [/font]is awarded the [font="Arial Black"]Distinguished Tournament Director Medal[/font].

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Thank you, Daxil, for all of your hard work, your dedication, and your commitment to seeing our first tournaments through, to the very end! You gave us something special.

The dignity of the medal is 37.

Through the generosity of PhilThib, I was able to award Daxil a free game, in 2009. Although Daxil has retired from directing Tournaments, he has promised us that when AACW2 is released, he'll be back to organize a new tournament! I can't wait!

[Aphrodite Mae]

This is the 500th post in this thread!

What better way to mark the occasion, than to recognize the strongest AACW player in our forum's history?

That player is Manstein. Manstein won our first tournament, in 2009; and he won the second one, too. Before the tournaments began, he was an active PBEM player who had never been defeated.

Manstein was awarded the "Iron Tiger" medal on March 21st, 2009.

The next (and highest) battlefield award is the "Iron Tiger"!

Have you ever played against someone who seemed both indestructible, and terrifyingly ferocious?
...Ergo: you've played an "Iron Tiger"!

[...] when you guys play your PBEM games, you reasonably expect to have a chance of actually winning, right? You've practiced the scenario, had cool insights, and devised some sort of cool plan. A foolproof plan!

But then you start playing against an "Iron Tiger", and you start wondering what kind of fool would ever have thought that your plan was actually foolproof. You start discovering weaknesses that you never suspected you had. Horrible things happen that you just didn't see coming. And that's when you suddenly understand that you have either tragically overestimated yourself, or possibly not quite realized the enormous playing strength of the person that you're playing against!

[...]Here is the medal!

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I have five nominees for your consideration.

My nominees are Banks, Soundoff, Jabberwock, Runyan99, and [font="Arial Black"]Manstein[/font].

I cite these gentlemen for this award because it is they whose names I have heard mentioned over and over again as being players of great strength. Their AARs consistently demonstrate superb tactical ability, and are instructive to us all!

Today, I upgrade Manstein's Iron Tiger award to reflect his mastery of AACW.

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Congratulations Manstein, on becoming our first "King Tiger"! We're honored to have a player of your strength among us!

[Aphrodite Mae]

For those gentlemen who are interested, this post explains the "heraldry" of the Iron Tiger medal. Many references are made to the heraldry of earlier medals, as explained in their original posts. Hopefully, what follows isn't too confusing for those of you who haven't followed this thread from its inception. I've slightly edited the content from the original post, for clarity.

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The symbolism of the colors, braiding, and stripes on this medal brings together everything that I've talked about, with earlier medals. There are the four elements of command (supply, command, mobility, and power), but this time, each pillar is a color that reflects one of the earlier awards. There is the blue of valor; the blue-green of command; the yellow of bold decisive action and inspiration; and the red of gallantry. In the middle, there is the red of sacrifice, risk, and courage. The field is flanked by two pure white lines which represent "truth" and "duty".

The small braided gold rope represents the honor that you have brought upon yourself in being chosen for this award. Also notice the way that everything is balanced, indicating the way that all elements of command and action must be properly balanced, for the most effective results. Finally, notice that the medal is asymmetrical. (The colors are different on each side.) This symbolizes the fact that you cannot achieve greatness by rote planning and operations. You can't always "go by the book". In fact, the winner of the "Iron Tiger" should probably write one!

[Pocus]

If Manstein was to do a little text of his AACW play experience, that would be cool.

[Aphrodite Mae]

Several weeks ago, Hobbes and I developed a new method of doubling the speed of our PBEM games. Or at least, we thought that it was a new idea! However, after I started a thread to share the idea with our community, Longshanks pointed out that the idea was already being used by members of our forums, and had been, for some time!

The idea seemed innovative enough to deserve recognition, and so we began the process of determining who had first originated the idea. With the help of Longshanks, GraniteStater, and Pat "Stonewall" Cleburne, we eventually determined that TheDoctorKing had originated the idea, and refined it with the help of Andatiep.

For their "bright idea" of Bilateral Hosting, TheDoctorKing and Andatiep are awarded the Service Commendation medal.
The dignity of this medal is 30, thus making it a "prestige" medal.


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Thank you, gentlemen, for your contribution to our community! ompom:
Due to the current difficulties that our forums are experiencing with attachments, I'll have to send you your medal via email. Please send me a PM with your email address, and I'll send your medal in my response.


Here is a link to the thread, A method to speed up your PBEM play.



Aphrodite Mae

[TheDoctorKing]

Thanks for the recognition. I have finally returned to the forum now that I have a little time for gaming and I have been working on a couple of projects. I'm glad to see that Andatiep's and my idea has been useful to other people.