10 years!

So here is a post that I never thought I would ever post when I started this blog, but here we are, 10 years and over 700 blog posts!

I started this hobby was back in 2014 as a little project to keep a track of my hobby journey and as an outlet for my thoughts and ideas. Over the last 10 years a lot has happened, from gaining two small people and moving house a couple of times, plus a growing collection of animals, currently 4 cats and 3 horses. 

The blog has also gone through some changes as armies have come and gone, others have changed names and the narrative have altered beyond all recognition. 

I know it says 699 posts but it's actually 702 with this post!

But what about the blog itself, what are the facts there? Well as I said, I have published just over 700 posts, with some years having far more than others. 2019 was the lowest year, with only 43 posts (not counting 2014 when I had 25 posts, but the blog was only 3 months old), in addition, May and September 2019 were the only months that I have published only 1 post. There have been a couple with only 2 posts published but September 2019 is the only month with just one post. 2017 was my busiest year, with 106 posts, more than two a week published! My busiest month was September 2017, with a massive 14 posts, mostly due to two event. The Northern Invasion tournament and the 8th edition guard codex, with several posts dedicated to list building for the tournament and the new regimental doctrines of the 8th edition codex. 

While I haven't quite achieved my goal of posting every week, I have most years achieved posting the equivalent of once a week by posting at least 52 times a year!

But what of the posts themselves? Well the most popular post is still my guard leaks from back in October 2022, which still seems to gather a number of views every month! Additional a number of my kill team posts have been very popular, with most of my top 20 posts consisting of either kill team content or 8th edition content.

The various pages on the site have also seen a few views, with Astra Militarum page being the most popular, with the About Me page also proving popular for some reason!

All told there have been over 325,000 views, which is small change for some blogs out there, but I have never advertised or posted about my site anywhere, so I'm really surprised and pleased that it's been seen by so many people. Ok I'll admit a good portion of these "people" might not actually be people, more likely bots (usually russian) but still, I take the fact that my blog is popular enough for the bots to take notice and post their junk\spam comments occasionally. Apart from the occasional spike (February 2024 - 30392 views) I have been sitting around 2000 to 2500 views a month since around the middle of 2018, with early 2022 averaging around 3000 views a month. 

But where have these views come from I hear nobody ask! Well, that's a good question and the answer is mostly the northern hemisphere. The good ol' US of A is top of the list making up nearly a third of all viewers, especially when you add in Canada and call it North America (USA 29%, Canada 2%). Singapore is next on the list with 21% and call me skeptical but I don't think a people in Singapore are some sort of blog superfans, although in real terms it's something like 0.012% of the population that have looked at the blog, so maybe? 

Anyway, the next most popular country is Honk Kong (8%), followed by the UK (5%) and then Germany, Russia, Sweden and the Netherlands (all on 4%). These 8 countries make up just under 80% of my viewers, with only Israel (3%), Canada (2%) and France (1%) having defined viewer percentages. There are a whole host of countries that fall in to the <1% category and form the remaining 15% of my readership, with Australia topping the list from Indonesia and Ukraine. Finland is the lowest on the list with a figure given, with just 937 views from there, so maybe there's two dedicated followers reading my blog in Finland!

Other interesting fact are that more people use Windows (46%)  than apple (32%l and chrome is by far the most popular browser of choice (59% to Firefox's 21% and Safari's 13%).

One last note to mention is that I decided to add adverts to the page a while back, just to see what would happen and there are a couple of things to note. Firstly they seem to pop up everywhere in my posts, regardless of what settings I actually have on! I have also made a grand total of 38p, and have made 6p in the last 3 months, down from the 10p I made in the three months before that! So are ads worth it? No, probably not, but it doesn't seem to be effecting the page in general, so I'll probably leave them up and see if I ever make the magic £60 mark to get paid!

So that's 10 year down, I wonder if I'll still be here in 2034? Hopefully and hopefully there will be someone out there still interested in reading about my hobby journey and random thoughts!

Scion drop troops

A little late to the party but never mind. The new Tempestus Aquilons are here and they look stunning. 

All ten of the models have lots of character and poses are really nice and dynamic.

They have all the classic kill team operatives, from special weapons gunners and sniper (marksman) above, to fighters, gun slingers and demolitions at the bottom.

 And in kill team these guys have some very cool.rules and abilities, not least being able to drop in around the board over various turns rather than having to.start in your deployment zone. This gives you options to get in to positions you wouldn't have been able to and to pressure your opponent in all sorts of new ways. However, as much as I love kill team, and I'm genuinely excited to see what the new edition brings (hopefully less complicated cover and obscurity rules!), I'm a 40k player at heart and that's were things start to go a bit wrong for me.

There were three things that jumped out at me about the data sheet when I first read it, those being; movement, assault and special weapons. There were a few other bits that I noticed or were pointed out while watching various YouTube videos but we'll start with those three. Firstly the good point, assault. This means that they can be faster moving and still shoot, with the advance roll being an average of three and a max of six, that can be quite a boost to their movement, plus these are, as far as I know the only assault weapons in the whole of the guard codex. And that's the end of the good news. 

Movement is an issue for me, I was hoping that these would be fast moving troops, with a proper fast profile, ie 12 inch movement. Yes, I know they are drop pack \ grab chutes, but I was still hoping for something, as we don't really have many fast infantry options outside of the rough riders. Combine this with the shorter range of the weapons, 18 inch for the lascarbines, and the actual threat range is 24 to 30 inches (average 27 inches), where as the standard scions have a threat range of 30 inches.

Granted you'll have less shots at that range, a max of 20 for the Aquilons compared to just 10 for the scions, however, you could have better firepower as well, in the form of plasma, grenade launchers and volley guns. This is as big an issue as the movement, the lack of special weapons. Being able to take four special weapons in a 10 man squad of scions against just one in the Aquilons is a huge advantage. If you could take more in the Aquilons it would make a huge difference, dropping in three inches away (more on that later) and dropping two melta guns and two krak grenades in to a vehicle would be very useful. 

There are some other positive and negatives to.mention as well, firstly the positives.

The servo-sentry is a very useful model and goes some way to making up the lost firepower, with some good weapon profiles and the ability to shoot on the drop. It could make a huge difference on that initial drop, even at BS 4+. Secondly, the three inch drop. This could be huge for snatching objectives or victory points, getting around screening units and such. This could very easily become a major game play tactic. The long-las is another good point, even if it's only one shot at S4. If it does punch through, it's going to do damage. Lastly points, at only 90 points, less than the equivalent Scion unit, they are cheap for what they can do. 

However, there are some minor issues still to mention. The biggest here being that they are locked to a 10 man squad. 10 bases is a lot to squeeze in to the enemy deployment zone or to try and crowd out an objective. The second minor issue is the weapon options. Now I've mentioned the lack of special weapons but there is the other options, like taking twin pistols or swapping two lascarbines for pistols and a knife. I get that these are really set with kill team in mind and they have only done 40k rules to (try and) keep people happy but still, why would you drop carbines for pistols? The last negative is no unsurprising, the last of leader options. This is understandable as there are no drop troop characters or command squads but it does dent there utility and versatility so what.

 The last bit to mention is that these are still T3, 1W, 4+Sv, 7+LD, as they should be amd so you are going to have to be very careful where you drop them, as even a 10 man unit can disappear very quickly.

Over all I was really excited by these guys, now however I'm not in a hurry to pick up any and will see what happens with the next codex. 

Cabinet

So, a couple of weeks ago, (maybe more, I can't find the post!) I wrote about my new purchase of a display cabinet. Well, it has found a home in the corner of the front room (living room\family room, whatever you want to call it), despite not matching the rest of the wooden front room furniture. It has also gained some models.

The cabinet 

Lights!

The cabinet had some built in lights but the wiring was missing from behind, so I had to find a new power unit and wire it all in. It was relatively easy to do and with some new LED bulbs, as the standard ones didn't work, despite the power pack saying they would, we have some illumination. However, it's top down and so the top level is very well lit but the lower ones less so. It's more obvious on the pictures lower in the post.

Top shelf

Top shelf is a bit of a mish mash of Sisters, Deathwatch, Grey Knights, Imperial knights, AdMech, Imperial agents and some Chaos at the back. 

Upper Middle shelf

This shelf is mostly guard, with a couple of vehicles, some rough riders and various troops, with a small contingent of Eagle Knights on the right.

Middle middle shelf

This is my son's shelf, which contains some of his Tau models, although I keep suggesting he puts some of his orks on here too. 

I've skipped the lower middle shelf as it currently contains my paint tray, and that's not very exciting.

Bottom shelf

The bottom shelf, if you can call it a shelf, contains all my rule books and codicies, plus my copy of Conquest Card game. I plan on adding to this collection at some point with some of the older codicies for ages I have, but for now that's everything.

Night time lights

As you can see, the light dies off pretty quickly, meaning the lower shelves are in complete darkness. I think in time.i will replace the over-head lights with LED strip lights that run down the sides, maybe a couple of strips each side to ensure all the models are well lit. 

 I am really liking my little display cabinet and while it only shows a small portion of my total models it's still nice to have some out on display. I will try and rotate through the models over time but I doubt it will happen very often, probably only when I paint up new stuff I want to display.

Codex: Blood Angels

So another codex that I want is on the horizon, this time it's one of the original Angels of Death, the Blood Angels. 

This is a codex that I want as well, although I will probably only buy the codex rather than all the cards as well. The main reason for this is that I run a successor chapter and not the founding chapter, and so I don't have any of the characters or special units, although that may well change with plans to build some Sanguinary Guard.

The new release box is an amazing set, with the new characters, dread and a whole host of assault marines. My only gripe is that I wish they had all be jump assault marines and not split between the two. 

The new Sanguinary Guard models are also very nice, apart from the missing wings. I have plans to convert up some AoS models for a squad, the same way I have converted up a lot of my other squads. The new Stormcast Prosecutors look very nice, have spears and wings, they just need a proper power pack.

The new Lemartes modes is also very nice and the fact that we get jump chaplain's is great, more jump options the better! I don't know if I will get this model or not yet, I may well end up.converting up some AoS models again, just to keep the same theme going within the army.

Astorath the Grim however is the only model that isn't on my list. I have never really liked this model, it is a stunning model but I just don't like it. That applies to the old model as well. In addition, this isn't a unit I have ever felt like putting in the army, I haven't seen the rules for him properly yet but they would have to be very good for me to think about including him.

The brutalis dread in all its glory. I love this model and plan on getting at least 2 for my BA army. I will have to see what the difference is between the Death Company dread and the normal one, but I suspect that I will run them as the standard one most of the time. 

 Lastly we have the new combat patrol box, which is a really nice box. Several people (aka YouTubers) have said that two or even three of these boxes would form a solid core to a.BA force and I have to agree. If I wasn't going the route of converting up AoS models for a.lot of my force I would definitely grab a box of these. 

I am really excited for the new codex, even though I don't play with the blood angels much I will be grabbing the new codex when it comes out. I will also have to look at getting the space marines codex, or the data cards at least, so I can play the army properly. I will only ever play one of the three detachments in this book, so the full.SM codex is not required but if I can find a cheap one somewhere I'll grab it.