Happy 4th Birthday to the Shedwars Blog

Happy 4th Birthday to the Shedwars Blog !

Believe it or not this blog has now been running for four years – hasn’t the time has flown by.

In my last birthday post  I set myself the 400 goal – that was to achieve 400 posts, attracting 400 followers and gaining 400,000 hits.

Last years post http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/shed-wars-happy-third-birthday.html

Well how have I fared. The blog post count is in my control and over the last 12 months I have been steadily adding to the tally and I can safely say that post #400 was past last month. So I can tick one of the goals.

The other two are to be frank outside my control. I can only hope that the content is sufficiently appealing and resonates with the audience to achieve the stated goals. As you can see from the table below I have built on both the number of followers and hits to the site.

Based on current run rates I’ll top the 400k hits in January but the number of followers has dried up in the last few months staying static around the 370 mark for the past three months. I shouldn’t complain too much as there has been growth during the year.

I continue to add between 6-8 posts per month and the hit rate now runs around the 12-13k /per month. I appreciate that the stats aren’t perfect but by my reckoning each new post gets about 600 fresh hits and the rest goes towards the historical posts in the blog. This means I am probably getting a large number of new visitors each month but they don’t want to follow.

 

	Number of followers	Number of page views
Dec 2012	80	25000
Dec 2013	180	95000
Dec 2014	285	230000
Dec 2015	373	383000

The objective for next year will be to hit the half million mark for hits and 500 posts – This should be achievable barring any disasters.

So onto the highlights of this year and the chance for me to indulge a bit…

Perhaps the biggest highlight in 2015 has been to play so many wonderful games and share this great hobby with so many people.

A couple of years back the Shed only really had a couple of regular visitors but thanks to this blog and some fortuitous meetings I can now boast a regular weekly gaming group of 6+. It is with sincerest thanks to all those who have frequented the Shed in 2015 and for giving me the opportunity to play with all my toys.

We have played a vast array of games from the deserts of Egypt to the Frosty City of Felstad, from the steamy jungles of Central America to the Docks of Liverpool. So many genres, so many rules and so much fun.



The Big Pirate Game - First Game of 2015



Our first game of Lion Rampant played in January 2015 - Robin Hood



Muskets in Tomahawks in March

First game of Pulp Alley in April



Celebrating waterloo in June

Kicking off my Pulp Campaign in July

Pulp Campaign - Germany 1938

Massive Lion Rampant Crusader game

 

The painting front saw me complete my Armies of the Third Crusade and although they have only been out a couple of times I can now proudly boast two big 28mm armies. Add to this the additional units for my VBCW campaign – Postie Unit and the Naval Units. Plus Daleks, Sikhs and more Arabs


Arabs in the 1930's



The painted Saracen Army

Sikh Forces for my Pulp games

 

A Dalek Army

 

Over 100 Pulp figures painted for my scales of Anubis campaign including the rifle armed Arabs, and more recently I have started painting some fantasy stuff for Frostgrave. Best guess around 800 figures painted this year.

 



Some pulp minis painted in 2015

 

I finished all 200+ Crusaders !

 



 

The terrain building keeps going. The year started with my tramp steamer, and onto the docks of Liverpool. Most recently I have been building the boards for my Frostgrave campaign. I am fairly sure I can now feature most standard terrain types in the shed.

Remember the Volcano for the LAF Build something contest? I came fourth !

One of my most popular posts - building a static grass applicator

Started the modular tomb

The 1930's Docks finished

Tramp Steamer finally finished

Latest project - Frostgrave tables

 

The Shed Wars message continues to be broadcast to the bigger world – a couple of mentions in the printed press and two published articles in Wargamers Blogger Quarterly.



Front cover of Wargames Bloggers Quarterly - my Egyptian Terrain

 

BLAM, the annual meet of the LAF went without a hitch (phew), and I was fortunate to travel to Tactica early in the year to meet some wonderful people. Add to this trips to Salute, Colours and Warfare my show needs were sated.



BLAM in my local Pub



Visit to Tactica in February

 

 

2015 has been a great year for the hobby – I hope 2016 is as good

Even the Shed got a lick of paint !

 

Thank you for following everybody....

Eric the Shed