2014: A Year In Review

How this blog started: undercoating a Christmas present

My blog has now been rolling on for a full year, in which I've recorded my nerdy undertakings for the entertainment of, ooh, at least three people.  While you all nurse your New Years hangovers, I thought I'd share some analysis of the year.

And how, despite the blog title of The BEARDED Quail, I've not painted a single Squat

We're going to look at how many figures I've painted; how many games I've played and won/lost/drawn; and which of my blog posts have been most popular. 

George Used SKETCH!

First, let's look at my painting statistics.  This year I've painted the following:

• Fulgrim, Primarch of the Emperor's Children, plus his display base
• Ten Emperor's Children Havocs (Plus their Rhino troop transport)
• Twenty Chaos Dwarf Blunderbuss Troops (In Two Segments)
• Thirty Hobgoblin Sneaky Gits (In Two Segments)
• James The Death Engine (Aka A Chaos Dwarf Iron Daemon)
• A scratch-built Aquila Strongpoint terrain piece with Vortex Missiles (though this could do with some more work to detail it up)
• Six large and two small Vortex blast markers.
• A Warhammer 40,000 objective marker
• And, of course, my Wellington statue terrain piece
• But no Squats at all, despite that sorta being the point of the blog.

 So overall that's sixty infantry, one infantry with fancy base, two vehicles, a large building, a smaller terrain piece and some miscellaneous odds and ends.  It's not a mega impressive turn of events - an average of a figure a week, really? - but that's the way the dice fall sometimes.  I'm hoping I can get a more substantive amount of work done in 2015.

Need to copy from this old inspiring Citadel Combat Card more often

 Next up is my game-playing statistics.  I've recorded 19 wargames of some stripe on blog this year, or a game every two or three weeks: how did I do in them?

Total Played
	Dreadball	40K	WFB	Blood Bowl	Sub-Total
Sister Superior	3			1	4
Charles	2	1	1		4
40K Dave	1	7		1	9
Stuart	1				1
Team Aporkalypse		1			1
Sub-Total	7	9	1	2
Wins
	Dreadball	40K	WFB	Blood Bowl	Sub-Total
Sister Superior	1			1	2
Charles	1	1			2
40K Dave		1		1	2
Stuart					1
Team Aporkalypse		1			1
Sub-Total	2	3		2
Draws
	Dreadball	40K	WFB	Blood Bowl	Sub-Total
Sister Superior
Charles			1		1
40K Dave		1			1
Stuart
Team Aporkalypse
Sub-Total		1	1
Losses
	Dreadball	40K	WFB	Blood Bowl	Sub-Total
Sister Superior	2				2
Charles	1				1
40K Dave	1	5			6
Stuart	1				1
Team Aporkalypse
Sub-Total	6	5

So, what can we learn from these stats?

I have a Scottish definition of  "victory"

• I'm not very good at the games I play: I lost 11 out of 19 games
• Two of my wins are in group play: Team Aporkalypse was beaten by Team Tapas, and my defeat of Charles in 40K was with Rory teaming up with me.
• I lose Dreadball when I'm teaching people how to play.
• I can't pretend this is a statistical abnormality of 2014 because this happens all the time. 

Maybe I'll have more luck in 2015 with new games?...

Finally, let's look at the blog stats.  What are my most popular posts of last year in terms of page views?

Some Very Glasgow Warhammer Terrain 10 Aug 2014	208
Fugue State 11 Oct 2014	141
Dreadball Battle Report: Alpha Sigma Squeakers vs ... 3 Feb 2014	96
Fulgrim, Primarch of the Emperor's Children 19 Jan 2014	92
That's F***ing TEEEEEAMWOOOOOOORK - Allies in Warh... 22 May 2014	89
Death on Acanthus II Part 1: A Warhammer 40,000 Ap... 24 Feb 2014	84
Dice Dice Baby 4 Aug 2014	84
On Scratchbuilding: Or, "An Ode To Krisken" 5 Mar 2014, 1 comment	68
Who Ya Gonna Call? My Favourite Role-Playing Game 9 Aug 2014	61
Aporkalypse Now 29 May 2014	55			f

What can we learn from these stats?

You're big architecture fans

• Without a doubt the Wellington statue was the most popular piece, with a huge amount of views and a lot more attention than other things I've shared on Facebook both with 40K and general friends.  (I think anyone slightly nerdy and slightly Glasweigan could appreciate the joke.)  

You like diagrams

• The Allies in Warhammer post was a big hit on my Facebook groups, I suspect because a new edition was just around the corner and this is an oft-argued topic.
  
  
  
  

  

  You like big templates

  
  
• A couple of my battle reports clock up quite highly.  These are always a popular format in magazines, blogs, forums etc.  In particular some of them were about the kind of Apoclaypse battle one rarely has the time to fight, so it's something to see 7,000 or 9,000 points of models on the table.
• The Ode to Krisken one is pretty much the only time I've posted a link to my blog on another link so no surprises that people came over from there 

You like me mugging for camera in stupid poses.

• The RPG posts aren't something I do a huge amount of but Ghostbusters and my dice collection got a fair bit of attention.  Maybe I should share more of my campaign shenanigans.

That I could arrange...