Review of 2011

We have just returned from an extended Christmas and New Year visit to our grand children at Rothbury. It’s a small village about an hour north of Newcastle, and we had heavy snow for the last two years. This year no snow, but very cold. So it’s lovely to be back in Spain with clear blue skies and daytime temperatures of 20c plus.

It felt strange to be separated from our wargames table and 1813 campaign, but it did give me a chance to consider our wargame activities during 2011.

Its more than six years since I painted my last wargame figure, and considerably more since I bought my last figure or piece of wargames scenery. This, combined with retiring six years ago, has meant that we spend much more time actually fighting wargames.

Blogs have played an important, and increasing, part in our wargame activities.

This is the oldest, and most, important Blog. It covers all aspects of our wargaming. It also provides a central reference point for all of the other Blogs. During the year I have posted here at least twice a week, a total of 89 posts. There have been a total of 39029 visitors since it started in 2009.

The 1813 campaign has a total of 13 Blogs. They cover everything from photographs of each army to campaign and wargame rules to individual Blogs dealing with each phase of the campaign. This was done to make it easier to access any part of the campaign. Each phase has its own diary and detailed battle reports. The Hannover Campaign was the main Blog for last year. It has a total of 202 posts. There have been a total of 35046 visits to all 13 Blogs since they started in 2009.

Wellingtons Battles provide one off wargames based on Wellington’s battles in the Peninsula. It has been running since 2009, and last year had 66 posts. The Blog has had 6800 visitors.

Walking Napoleonic Battlefields was also started in 2009. I published the last Blog in May. There were 104 Blogs in all, one for each battlefield. Last year the last 19 were completed. This Blog has been visited 35847 times.

In addition to the wargaming Blogs, I also do a series about living in Spain. There are now six of them, one for each year we have lived here. In the past year I have posted 67 times and there have been 12291 visits since they started in 2009

So during the year I have been running five or six Blogs at any one time and I have posted 443 entries. It has been great fun and has kept my interest in the hobby alive and well. There have been an amazing 129,013 recorded visits to these six Blogs since 2009. I do not know how many were during 2011, but visits have increased during the year and it must be at least half, which would be 64,506.

I am very grateful to each and every visitor. Although I get very little feedback on any of the Blogs, it is great to think that there are so many people who are interested enough in what I am doing to want to read about it. The totals are individual visits, but obviously most will be repeat visits by the same people.

There are 60 members following this blog, and I am particularly grateful to them. Its like belonging to a large club who all share the same interest.

Now that I am back in Spain and back in my routine, I will be posting again at least once a week. Over the next few days I have to catch up on the PBEM campaign. I will then give some thought to my plans for 2012, which will be the subject of the next post.

Thanks again for following my ramblings. Best wishes for 2012 to you and your loved ones.