Saturday, January 12, 2019

2018: The Year In Review


Picture from the Taiwan Toy Soldier Museum!

Expenses:

October 2018
JJ's Peninsular War Scenario Book Kickstarter $58.30

November 2018
Michael's (Mountain backdrops for Tyrol (etc)  games @ 40% off) $128.90
A&A Engineering (pdf copy of Grand Fleet Action in the Age of Sail) $7.60

December 2018
Michael Hopper Napoleonic Scenario Books $157
Litko Aerosystems (bases) $117.50

4th Quarter Totals: $469.30

2018 TOTAL:  $2,671.52


Goal was to keep expenditures under $1500, so... about 80% over budget! Ouch!

Still, at least $250 less than in 2017



Painting:  (all 25/28 mm, of course!)

October 2018
Black Watch Highlanders (18) 90 pts

November 2018
Tyrolese Rebels (40)  240 pts

December 2018
Tyrolese Rebels (104) 520 pts

4th Quarter Total:  850 pts

2018 Total = 2,857 pts
Down from 3,717 in 2017, and 3,320 in 2016.

Goals were:
Finish the Napoleonic Spanish by Historicon - done!
Maybe start the Tyrolese Rebels - not only started,  all but done!
Make a dent in the Macedonian and Great Italian Wars lead pile - no progress whatsoever

I also added to my Punic Wars forces, plus 2 units of  Highlanders and 1 of Nassauers - both also mentioned in the 2018 planning post. . 
Avoid starting any New Projects - done


Games:

1st Quarter - 3
Napoleonic game from our Lannes Campaign w/ Field of Battle, 2nd edition, 2nd Punic Wars game with To the Strongest at Jared's game club,  assisted with Jared's big Borodino game with Black Powder

2nd Quarter - 1
Talavera Campaign in a Day at The Portal, with Snappy Nappy

3rd Quarter  - 6
Talavera Playtest with Jared, Mike, and John (FoB2),
HISTORICON: Talavera Campaign in a Day with Snappy Nappy, Battle of Talavera with FoB2, Battle of Geronium with TtS!, Assisted with Two of Tim's Jacobite Games

4th Quarter 1 

Valois/Hapsburg battle with TtS!

2018 TOTAL = 11 games, a bit short of goal of 1 per month, and almost half at Historicon; 1 more than in 2017.

Failed to complete the Lannes campaign (still 2 battles to go), and my schedule didn't allow me to run a game at HAVOC in 2018


Blogging:
There were 87 posts in 2018, down from most of the past 5 years (all time high is 100), but still averaging a little less than one post every 4 days. For what little it is worth in the bot era, page views should exceed 1 Million in the 1st quarter of 2019. 

Rules:

No new projects undertaken, no new rules sets tried. Several new sets acquired, though.

10 comments:

  1. Oooh, very impressive year end totals, Peter. I don't want to look at my purchases - I like leave a little mystery there. :) Your posts totals made me review my own - I see I actually had an increase in posts over the last three years. Still far below your totals though,

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  2. Painting was down considerably, but I was still very happy with all that got done. Expenditures are still too high, and games are too few!
    Your own blog posts seemed to pick up in the later part of 2018 especially, Dean! My goal is to post every 3 days or so... but only if I have something to say!

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  3. Another productive year all around. The thing I am becoming increasingly aware of is that it is the little costs that can really add up; brushes, paints, varnishes and those Litko bases can easily run into many hundreds before you even look at figure purchases.

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    1. Absolutely; aside from the non gaming expense of attending Historicon, there were brushes, primer, bases, paint, varnish, and storage boxes in this year's expenditures, not to mention books, rules, and terrain items.

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  4. Peter, another fine hobby year for you and an enjoyable one to watch develop from the sidelines.

    Painting totals look more than respectable and the desire for more games understandable. I find it difficult as well to pull off as many games as I plan. Scheduling with others is a difficult task with so many having other duties and commitments. This is a hobby, after all, and disruption to hobby plans are expected.

    Hobby budget may be higher than planned in 2018 but a wise man (Rob from Eureka Miniatures) once told me, "You only have to buy the figures once!" Clearly, he has never bought figures, painted them, sold off the army, and then repurchased the same figures to start the process all again. I overspent in 2018 too but expectations are that 2019 may be a bit leaner. For me, the bigger hobby expenses in 2018 were books and boardgames. We will see if I manage better in 2019.

    Always fun to see what you have on your gaming table and painting desk!

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    Replies
    1. I was perfectly happy with the painting output, especially as it was focused on specific projects. I agree that scheduling games can be difficult due to the challenges of coordinating diverse schedules. It dosn't help that my work week is back up to about 64 hours a week!

      Some guys in the Hartford area seem to make buying and selling armies a big part of their hobby. Aside from giving away my venerable 25 mm Scruby figures 20 years ago or so, if I painted it, I still own it.

      This year I really do expect hobby expenditures to be down, but more on that anon...

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  5. Love these posts. You didn't have a lot of gaming, but the quality was there. Outstanding work on the lead pile and I love those Tryolian rebels. I was just in the Tryol this summer. What is your "point" system for painting miniatures?

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    1. I would definitely love to visit the Tyrol!

      The point system is from the analogue painting challenge:

      The Scoring
      6mm foot figure = 0.5 point
      6mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 1 pts
      6mm vehicle = 2 points
      10mm foot figure = 1 point
      10mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 2 points
      10mm vehicle = 3 points
      15mm foot figure = 2 pts
      15mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 4 pts
      15mm vehicle = 6 pts

      20mm foot figure = 4 pts
      20mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 8 pts
      20mm vehicle = 12 pts

      28mm foot figure = 5 pts
      28mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 10 pts
      28mm vehicle = 15 pts
      40mm foot figure = 7 pts
      40mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 15 pts
      40mm vehicle = 20 pts
      54mm foot figure = 10 pts
      54mm mounted figures, artillery piee or crew served weapon = 20 pts
      54mm vehicle, limber, etc. = 30 pts

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  6. Good year for painting and gaming I'd say, expenditure is high but then it does include hotels etc for conventions etc doesn't it? Mine has been down mainly as part of an across the board tightening after a big building project on the house we are now back on track but I'm actually going to try and paint the backlog and only add terrain and the occasional necessary figure to complete a unit or similar. I have enjoyed your blog, watching you finish both the Spanish and the Tyrolean has been great fun!
    Best Iain

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    Replies
    1. Convention costs are a significant part of the annual expense... but also of the motivation as well!

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