2018 End of Year Awards

With Miniature Trading becoming less active and the future status of that site in doubt, I do not want to post this over there and have it disappear in the future.

For a few years now I’ve tried to get people to vote on various “of the year” awards, but this year has been remarkably inactive and even depressingly stagnant in some ways, partly due to the August announcement that MT was in trouble.

If you’d like to nominate certain items for the various categories, please do so.  We can vote in this thread as well.  I’m completely fine if people just post their favorite submission for the year in each category.  Right now I don’t have time to go through all the criteria and try to make a list of each, and low turnout in the past doesn’t help.  I think it could be fun to make it a little bit competitive and try to one-up the person who posted before you in this thread (even if it’s just one category).

Fleet of the Year: I counted 57 fleets submitted in 2018 at Miniature Trading.  As usual, kind of a crapshoot on what to pick.  My best fleet was probably either American guns shutting it down or Rare Frenchies – BIG and small.

Miniature Review of the Year: VIDEO review of Serpent’s Fang

Picture of the Year: I didn’t play many physical games this year, but it was another impressive year on the VASSAL module.

CG3 with two large battles in progress (6 player game on the VASSAL module)

The map for the Caribbean game.

Thread of the Year: Didn’t find many good candidates for this one, especially not compared to years past.  At this point there is still plenty of Pirates CSG content to talk about, but there is gradually a sense of “been there, done that” in regards to a lot of topics.  The Caribbean Game had a great introduction and start, though it hasn’t really continued since.

I think these categories are worth introducing:

Game of the Year: It started in 2017, but VASSAL Campaign Game 3 concluded in March and would get my vote.  For games that were played entirely in 2018, I think the SS anniversary game was the most memorable I was involved in.

Video of the Year: From my channel, the clear audience consensus would be my Start Here Rules Tutorial.  However, in terms of coolness/entertainment/effort/time commitment, I would nominate Naval Wars: The Last Campaign (A Pirate’s Story) [VASSAL Campaign Game 4 Hype Video].

Podcast of the Year: Pirates CSG Podcast #31: UNRELEASED AND UNEXPECTED

Deal of the Year: 36 packs of Spanish Main for $31.50 (before shipping) (This was not a purchase I made)

Event of the Year: Potential demise of Miniature Trading, announced in August.  Honorable mentions to the petition, development and growth of Pirates with Ben, and the 31st podcast. (and various others concerning the 4+ campaign games)

That would bring the total number of categories to 9!

Feel free to vote, add your own nominations, one-up the submissions of the person who posted above you, or even create new categories!