YEAR END 2017 POST

TC SAYS...

Well, it's the end of the second calendar year of this blog's existence and time for a year-end assessment. As far as blogging, one of my aims was to keep the blog active.  Despite "real world" issues that interrupted hobby activity (and time for hobby activity),  I'm happy that I managed to keep things fairly "alive" with 56 blog posts over the year (including this one)--with a fair amount of variety, I think.  Another major blogging aim for me was to share hobby materials. I am gratified that I was able to add four new content pages in support of this goal: Chocolate Box Wars, Smalle Warre, Miniatures on a Grid, and Ramillies 1815.   
In 2018, I hope to flesh out the Miniatures on a Grid page with actual rules and also complete the Chocolate Box Wars project.

I am always impressed by bloggers who are able to report numbers of games, figures painted, and such. I fear that my summary will be much more general in that regard, dear readers. Although I don't log these things, by going through my blog painting posts, I am able, for the first time ever, to report on my (modest) annual painting output:
 
In 2017, I painted and based 127, 28mm figures. This tally does not count a consignment of painted figures I received and mounted for my mid century Austrians. Of the figures I painted, 26 were mounted and the remainder were infantry. Not a stunning total, I have to admit, but I've never claimed to be a volume painter--and all the mounted figures were either hussars or command figures, so I probably could count those as 1.5 figures each in terms of effort! Nevertheless, these have all been concentrated in one area: my Chocolate Box Wars armies. Therefore,  these modest totals still represent a significant step-up in gaming capacity in that area. Following this thought, one of the first posts of 2018 will be of the figures I completed from my December 8th WIP Post.  

In terms of overall hobby activity, hosting the Ramillies 1815 mega-game for my gaming club was the most significant hobby project of the calendar year, by far, as well as the most rewarding.  A close second in terms of significance, if not scope, was getting a workable Volley and Bayonet variant together that allowed me to put my new 19thC continental figures on the table for the first time in the Battle of Dybbol, the battle report for which turned out to be the most popular post--so I definitely want to run more of these games in 2018 (and report on them!).  Speaking of battle reports, I hope to have the time to produce more GIF-animated battle reports in 2018.

Finally, in 2017 the "Followers" count climbed to 41--wonderful encouragement for continuing what, to me, still feels like a fledgling effort. 

So, dear readers, I now close the book on 2017 and look forward to more happy meanderings in 2018--and wish the same to you.

 Excelsior!