Ah, the new year, a time for navel-gazing and reflection. This is the last post I’ll make in this vein before normal service resumes, I promise.
While I’m not overly bothered about hit numbers on this blog (if I was it would be hosted on Blogger like everybody else) I think it can be interesting to look through the stats and see what seems to have appealed, and thereby get a little glimpse into the tastes of a wargaming hivemind.
Most-visited posts for 2017
#5: BBC Time Commanders Review
Posted: 14 Dec 16
For some reason this review went mad, and has ended up as one of the top hits on Google if you search for reviews. I guess that’s because it’s got broad appeal, and isn’t just of interest to our weird little tribe of wargamers. Hopefully some of the non-wargamers who surfed in had a little poke around the site and had their interest piqued? You never know…
#4: Updated Chain of Command Force Ratings
Posted: 09 Nov 2014
Three years old and still getting plenty of hits. I originally made this post because I felt that TFL weren’t doing a great job of publicising updates to Chain of Command. These updated (and fairer) force ratings were buried in a post on the forum, never to be seen again.
Recently, Rich published an updated FAQ for the game which now includes these ratings, so I imagine this post will be less relevant in the future.
#3: 28mm WWII German Miniatures Review
Posted: 30 Jul 14
Another old post and still going strong. Hardly surprising, since 28mm Germans aren’t exactly a niche interest.
Those panzerschrecks look a bit lurid though, don’t they? Might have to re-do them…
#2: 28mm Samurai Miniatures Review
Posted: 11 Jul 17
Definitely the most popular thing I’ve posted this year, I’m guessing there are a lot of folks looking for 28mm samurai due to Warlord’s popular new game Test of Honour. Especially because the plastics you get in the ToH starter sets are, well, they’re not good are they?
#1: Official CoCulator and Army Lists for Chain of Command
Posted: 26 Oct 14
It seems that some of the most popular posts I make are the ones with resources for players. Like the “Updated Force Ratings” post above this one was just made to help out Chain of Command players by putting some resources (in this case army lists and the “CoCulator”) into one handy place. It seems to have worked, judging by the number of people who land here when they use a search engine.
The question is: why do these people land on my site when they search for this stuff, instead of toofatlardies.co.uk? This sort of stuff should be easily available from an official source, not just some random player like me.
Aaaaand the least-visited posts
For this I’ve only included posts actually made in 2017, since it’s only natural that stuff from years ago would be less trafficked.
#5: Warlord Soviet 45mm AT Gun Review
Posted: 07 Nov 17
Well, it’s a review of an old kit, and one that most people collecting Soviets probably already have, so it’s of slightly questionable usefulness. Still, if you search Google for “Warlord 45mm AT gun review” it’s the #1 hit, so it might see some life in the future.
#4: Black Tree Designs Soviet Scouts
Posted: 07 Dec 17
Another recent post, and one of three about Soviets to make the wooden-spoon list. Just goes to show that the Eastern Front really is less popular with wargamers, even though it was the main event of the war. Strange that…
#3: Muskets and Tomahawks French Detachment
Posted: 21 Nov 17
Boo, they’re French! Not a lot of traffic on this one, but a couple of nice comments so I’m not that bothered.
#2: Muskets and Tomahawks Frontier Settlers
Posted: 28 Nov 17
Bit of a theme here? To be fair, M&T is starting to get a bit old now and I’m not sure a lot of people are playing it. Plus civilians never quite have the appeal of ranked up units of troops with pretty flags.
#1: Warlord Soviet Zis-3 Gun Review
Posted: 14 Nov 17
I thought this would get some traffic, but to be fair it’s quite a recent post, and the Zis-3 gun in 28mm is not one you’ll usually see in platoon-level games like Chain of Command that lots of my visitors play.
So what does it all mean?
Well, in short:
- People like reviews of miniature ranges and pages that collate resources for games
- Nazis and samurai are officially cooler than Russians and French
- They don’t especially like posts of individual things I’ve painted and built
- I don’t care and will keep posting them anyway!
3 Responses to The best and worst of Tiny Hordes in 2017
Richard Naco says:
If ever a quote has just screamed out, “Make me into a sig!”, it has to be, “Nazis and samurai are officially cooler than Russians and French”! The top 5 could also reflect the deservedly significant and ever increasing weight of authority attached to the ‘Seret’ brand within the surging growth of Chain of Command as a game and the basis of an international community, as you are no bit player in either.
John says:
Thanks for keeping up a steady stream of content!
This blog, Tactical Painter, and Vis Lardica are my favorites for wargaming! It makes me a bit envious of you folks across the pond: seems like the UK is much more dense in wargamers and their community.
Any chance you’ve got some 6mm projects kicking around? Lol
Andy says:
Cheers John. We do indeed do pretty well over here, all things considered.
As it happens I do have a 6mm project in mind. I’m going to do Rommel in 6mm, probably starting with Germans and Kiwis in Italy, but likely to also do Eastern Front. 6mm was my first scale when I started out in wargaming, so it’s always got a place in my heart.