Getting Started

“Napoleonic Wargaming” was my first blog.   I started it in March 2009 as a record of my wargaming activities.   I had no knowledge of blogging, other than having read a few blogs online.  

When we moved to Spain in 2006 I had a whole new wargame project planned.   I had decided not to buy or paint any more figures.   Instead I would now wargame with them.   The new project would require that I reorganised all of my 28mm, 18mm and 6mm armies into armies representing all of the major powers of the Napoleonic Wars.   There would be an Austrian, British/Portuguese, Prussian, Russian and Spanish army.   Plus five French and allied armies.

By 2009 the reorganisation was completed and I was planning a comprehensive wargame campaign which would provide battles to wargame.   I was also writing new wargame and campaign rules.

I wanted to record the progress of this project, and a blog seemed like a good way to do it.   I would have a permanent record and could make it available to other interested parties as it would be online.

I wanted the blog to cover all aspects of my wargame activities, but I also wanted to be able to recover each entry in the future.   So I needed some sort of index.  I found that other bloggers were very helpful and full of useful suggestions.    

I did not have any clear plan of how often to publish, but I see that in the first nine months I posted 140 entries.   This would remain by far the highest number of annual posts.

Over the next three years the numbers decreased until 2013 when they settled on 52.   A weekly post would become the norm.  

Most of the posts would concern the campaign, its organisation and progress.   But there would also be a section devoted to scenery plus reference to my other blogs as they appeared.

My posts have never resulted in much comment.   I am not sure why this should be so.   I would have thought that most of what I posted was of general interest.  Particularly scenery, campaign and wargame rules, and visits to battlefields.  However I was aware from reading other Blogs that this was not unusual, and I was not particularly discouraged by it.

I soon discovered Amazing Counters, which allowed me to record all visits to my blog, and to exclude my own.   This was a great encouragement as I could see on a daily basis how many people had read my comments.   Unfortunately they seem to have disappeared lately, and I do miss being able to check my visit numbers.   Perhaps I will have a search on the web for a replacement.

Meanwhile I discovered that the blog itself generates a record of visits.   I am not sure whether this includes my own or not.  However I am quite impressed that the current number is 228562.

Even more supportive is the number of Followers.   It is quite a responsibility to know that 115 people bother to read my comments.   It also makes me quite determined to post regularly.   It suits me to post each week, but I am also encouraged as I do not want to disappoint those who take the trouble to check what I am doing.

“Napoleonic Wargaming” would be the start of many blogs, and I will look at another one next week.