Shed Wars - 5th Birthday

Well today is the Shed Wars blog’s 5^th Birthday and I think it is still going strong. As is usual for me on these events I like to look back and summarise the previous year in a short review.

I’ll firstly talk about the stats and then come onto the review proper.

As you can see from the numbers below the page view count continues to rise – this year it looks like I’ll be just shy of 200k hits in a year but the good news is that my page view count still seems to be on the upward curve each month

	Number of followers	Number of page views
Dec 2012	80	25000
Dec 2013	180	95000
Dec 2014	285	230000
Dec 2015	373	383000
Dec 2016	387	578000

Earlier this year the Russian bots seemed to have plagued everybody’s sites and delivered an unwanted spike July and prior to this aberration my photo session from Salute always drive the highest monthly volume in a year.

On the subject of Salute .....

This year was no different with over 6000 hits to the site just for my Salute photos. I also learned this year that a couple of my fellow bloggers got press passes to Salute so if there are any of the Salute organisers out there who want to give me a pass I’d be very happy.

As far as I can tell my Salute photo post has always the first up on the web in the past three years.one. You can reach me by PM on either the LAF or TMP (thanks!)

On the follower front this has clearly slowed down with only 387 listed. Perhaps this has hit the threshold?

Stats over....................................

So what of 2016 – was it a good year?

Well of course the hardest part of this year was losing my Father. He had been an inspiration for me when it came to this hobby, always interested in my next project and offering words of wisdom.

He was a journalist and although I write badly, this blog does to a certain extent maintain that family tradition.

We do miss him and Christmas will be hard for the family but in his words we need to push on and get things done.

The Old Man at Waterloo

If I was to summarise the 2016 year in one word it would be BIG.

The highlight for me was extending the Shed – this was a very big challenge but with the help of my gaming buddies on a warm summer’s afternoon the pre-built sections of new shed extension arose and took shape.  Over the autumn months this has been insulated, electrics installed and shelving added. It’s a much better environment than before and once the weather improves you’ll be seeing a lot more games on display.

Shedson doing the groundwork in April

Assembling the panels

Assembling

The new extension

Inside the extension

Clearly the Shed extension was a BIG project but this did not slow down the introduction of new projects to my gaming world. Indeed for the first time ever I built two complete 28mm painted armies.

Back in December of last year my gaming chum Mark set down the challenge for us to create the English Civil War in 28mm. Over a period of four months we assemble and painted between us the best part of 1600 figures. Indeed my Parliamentarian army is one of my proudest achievements. I not only think it looks great it also wins games.

The Parliamentarian Army taking shape

An ECW engagement

Mark & I (along with other Shed Regulars) have probably played around a dozen games of Pike & Shotte this year and everyone has been a real joy. By my reckoning the Parliamentarian forces have had a slight edge in victories and from next year I get to upgrade the forces to New Model Army status (we agreed this earlier in the year)

The first ECW battle

The second BIG army project was the Zulu Wars in 28mm  - over 400 Zulus painted and the best part of 200 Allied troops. This was a labour of love and is dedicated to the old man. Thesis little lot has only seen the table a few times but we have plans to refight Isandlwhana and Rorkes Drift on the anniversary of these engagements in January (still think I need more Zulus).

The finished Zulu Army

Rorkes Drift (still not been fought over in anger)

A Zulu Black Powder game in Full flight

Usuthu !!!

Although not strictly wargaming I did receive three BIG Kickstarter projects – Blood Rage, The Others and Conan. These are all big boxes of games and now the weather prevents the shed from being used these types of modern boardgames have become the staple fare of our Monday night sessions.

A Big Delivery

Aside from the Zulu and ECW games the Shed has actually been quite quiet this year (clearly this was in part down to the rebuild) but this will hopefully change in 2017.  

On the terrain front its been really quiet - this used to be a big pull for the blog. A few bits and pierces were created but not as much as I would have liked - hopefully things will change in the new year.

  

One of the very few new terrain pieces in the Shed - breached walls

Pulp Submarine

Other news includes the successful hosting of BLAM once more in the local pub – for my sins I hosted a very enjoyable Dads Army game using the Pulp Alley rules.

Dads Army Game at BLAM

So what of 2017. Well if you have been following the blog you’ll know I have embarked on a new project centred around the Greek legends and myths. I am currently writing the ruleset for these and once the figures and terrain are completed we’ll be playtesting these and then seeing how these can be developed further.   

The Start of the Jason project

Other projects that hold an interest are getting into Darkest Africa (I bought the Congo ruleset at warfare and enjoyed a great game of this in the Shed hosted by Alastair earlier this year). I also have a yearning to revisit the post-apocalyptic period but this time with a Fallout theme. Twelve months ago Mrs Shed bought for me and Shedson an XBOX One with Fallout 4 – I have been enjoying this tremendously and feel that it could be easily transferred onto the table top.

As the year progresses we’ll see what develops but it should be exciting

Thanks for reading and following

Eric the Shed

PS

As I was putting this together I realised that in January 2016 I finished off my Frostgrave boards and figures. Total number of games played - about 3 - just goes to show we can invest all the time (and a lot of money )into a hobby and then forget all about it.