Another Year - Another Blog Birthday

Believe it or not another year has gone by and the Shed Wars blog is now celebrating its 7^th Birthday –

In the grand scheme of things I am please it is still going but this year has been difficult – only 40 posts in the year and over the last few months posting content has become very haphazard.

This has really been down to three things…

Firstly I took on board a new job earlier this year and with my free time seriously curtailed I just didn’t have all the time to do the things I wanted to do and sadly the blog is one of those things that has suffered.

Given this lack of free time I haven’t really got stuck in and completed the projects I have been working on and as such there has been very little to write about.  

Finally and indirectly linked to the two points above my motivation has been suffering, Without doubt the extra pressure that this new job has put on me (I should add the rewards make up for it) has caused my interest to wane. 

These days I hardly visit the forums let alone post and just picking up a paintbrush after a long commute can feel like a real effort (ie it doesn’t deliver the fun factor).

All these points don’t mean that the Shed has become an empty folly at the end of my garden. Far from it – right up until the weather closed in at the end of November we have been playing games every Monday night. It is just that I haven’t posted about many of them. Playing games whether they are big battles, skirmishes or even just board games is a tremendously good way to unwind from the pressures of everyday life.

So before I talk about what’s going to happen in 2019 here are a few stats which on the face of it show that the blog is still alive and kicking..

Year	Followers	Page Views
2012	80	25000
2013	180	95000
2014	285	230000
2015	373	383000
2016	387	578000
2017	424	789000
2018	441	1150547

Both followers and page views are up  - the follower count seems to have peaked around 440 mark and I suspect trying to push this to 500 is not going to happen in the near future. On the big plus side is the page view count that has now rocketed past the 1 million mark. I am no longer getting as excited as I used to on this number as earlier in the year the site was plagued by bots from Russia. In one month my page view hits climbed to 30k (average for a month is about 15k. My best guess suggest that my page count view is closer to the 1 million mark rather than 1.15 million. Even so it is gratifying to think that my pictures and words have been reviewed so many times.

So what ii on the plan for 2019 although this should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Without doubt my primary mission is to complete the Dark Ages project. As of today over 700 figures have been painted and there are about 300 more to complete. These all need to be based properly, command stands added and only then they can emerge onto the table. With a bit of luck the upcoming seasonal break will let me break the back of what remains. If I am lucky these forces will fight there first battle in early spring when the Shed officially reopens. Over the coming weeks I have to decide which rules set we are going to employ – the favorites so far are Hail Caesar and To the Strongest.

Next on the to do list is a complete reorganization of the shed and if time and budgets permit a new paint job on the walls, a rebuilt table and some refurbishment work. More on this if it develops in the coming weeks.

Once the Dark Ages project is complete I have two choices I can either finish off some of the stuff for the Sudan (remember Khartoum, the Dhows and the Gunboats) as these have all been languishing in a dark corner of the shed. The alternative is to start on my next 28mm project – Romans & Celts. Over the last six months I have been buying up a considerable amount of plastic on ebay and can now probably field forces of around 400+ per side. The idea of a Roman (imperial of course) has always appealed and although this will be my first foray into Ancients proper I am very excited about starting this.

In terms of games for next year I am going to make 2019 the year of the campaign – I have ideas about running three separate campaigns across the English Civil war, Napoleonic Peninsular and VBCW. These will probably consist of three separate engagements with each battle determining the set up for the second. Of particular interest is the ECW one as this is going to take place in the area where I live…again more on this if it happens…which it will.

Finally 2019 represents the 140^th anniversary of the start of the Anglo Zulu War – almost certainly we will be celebrating this in the shed – afterall you don’t paint 800 Zulus and never let them come out to play every so often.

On a final note I’d like to thank all those that have visited the shed this year for their participation, their friendship and their patience. Here is to next year

Eric the Shed