Challenge Day 17 - 2013 Round Up

Well, what a busy year this has been and it's amazing how my blog has blasted onwards. This year has seen me:

* take part in 3 FoG:AM tournaments
* place highly in the Third Analogue Painting Challenge and enter the Fourth
* have an article published in Miniature Wargames and Battlegames

* attend 2 shows (Salute and Broadside). OK, 4 if you include Campaign and Derby Worlds although I didn't get much time to look at the trade stands and demo games at either

Statistics

Blogging (2013 stats in parenthesis)

Posts                  169 (300)
Comments          2903 (2441)
Page Views        125k (53k)
New Followers   168 (301)

It would appear that despite my reduced posting, my blog is regularly viewed and commented on. I'm hoping that my blogging will be more regular in the coming year. I'm anticipating reaching 2 major milestones by summer - 500 followers and 250k page views.


Gaming

FoG:AM                25 (20)
FoG:R                    5 or 6 (8)
Tomorrow's War    0 (5)
Ironclads                2 or 3 (5 or 6)
Saga                       a few (several)
X-Wing                 5 or 6 (0)
Gladiators              1 (0)

I did manage to get a few more games in this year, but not as many as I'd hoped to. My plan for 2014 is to get at least one gaming session a week in. I'm also going to game for fun and not take part in tournaments this year (apart from our club's FoG:R tourney - I expect to just play 3 games in that as my group contains 2 very good players who will almost certainly trounce me). I would like to get more SciFi gaming in this year, particularly of Full Thrust now that I have some fleets painted up. I also intend to get more games of FoG:R in once my Pirates Buccaneers are painted up.


Painting

15mm Mounted       220 (414)
15mm Foot             851 (407)
15mm Artillery        8 (6)
15mm Elephants      2 (0)
15mm Horses          0 (76)
28mm Mounted       18 (0)
28mm Foot              122* (46)

Challenge Painting Points:  3452 (2862)

* I've scored a couple of large figures as being equivalent to 3 ordinary 28mm foot each.

In addition to these I have painted 2 intro fleets from GZG each of 2 frigates, 2 destroyers, 2 light cruisers, 1 heavy cruiser and 1 battle cruiser.

My plan for 2014 is to concentrate on finishing existing armies and getting through my pile of unpainted lead. I particularly want to get a bunch of my 15mm SF figures painted as well as my two large space fleets - the NSL are primed for painting, but I've still got my Japanese to prep and prime. I'll almost certainly add a couple of extra fleets at some point (after all, I do have a 20% discount voucher to use by the end of February).

Of course, this means that I will need to resist the temptation to buy minis and start new projects this year. Yeah, right - we all know that won't last beyond 15 minutes of me arriving at Salute!


Challenge Painting Update

The Koreans will be finished before midnight, even if I have to use my superpowers to halt time. With a bit of luck they will be completed and submitted tonight which will give me a welcome boost to my points.

After these I think I will need to make a start on my Coureurs de Bois for the BfC project. The berserkers will go on hold for a while and will be painted up alongside my Viking warlord for the Hero/Heroic Group bonus theme. I'm still debating my entry for the vehicle bonus theme. Painting the whole of my NSL fleet is out of the question, but a small task group should be manageable - perhaps a capital ship and its escorts?

Happy New Year everyone and may 2014 be a good one for you all!