Good Bye 2014 - Year In Review

Liebgarde of Hesse Seewald (click to enlarge view)

As the last few hours of 2014 draw to a close, I thought that I would take a quick look back at the year and review what happened. If you click on any picture, it will enlarge the size for better viewing.

First some statistics:

The blog had 67,616 visitors which averages out to 5,635 visits per month or 185 visits per day. The peak month for visits was in January 2014 when the site logged 7,384 visits.

In June the Der Alte Fritz Journal received its 500,000th visitor. Wow!

Approximately 29% of the visitors are from the United States, followed by the UK with 20%, Germany with 8% and Australia with 4%. The category "Unknown" logged 27% of the visits. I suspect that most of these came from the United States and the UK.

As I scrolled through the posts for 2014, I realized that I only played in 4 four wargames and one of those was actually the game(s) that I hosted at the Seven Years War Association convention in March 2014. That seems like a severe drop in gaming as I think that I usually do six to eight games a year. I'm not sure what happened there, but I resolve to play in more games in 2015.

Business Highlights:

In October, Fife & Drum Miniatures successfully launched its second Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, raising enough funds to add four Austrian cannon, two Austrian supply wagons, four Russian cannon, eight Russian artillery crew, and two Russian supply wagons.

Austrian 12-pounder funded through Kickstarter

Fife & Drum Miniatures also placed 32 AWI dragoons and 3 AWI personality figures into production during 2014. These were also funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign that was launched in 2013.

British Legion Dragoons

British 17th Light Dragoons

Minden Miniatures also added new figures to the SYW and War of Austrian Succession ranges, including the Volontaires de Saxe lancers, Maurice de Saxe riding in his wicker carriage at Fontenoy, the French Cuirassiers de Roi, two new civilian limber team drivers, one Austrian team driver and one Prussian team driver. We also added three new limber horses.

Maurice de Saxe Personality Figure (this was a joint project between Westphalia Miniatures, who made the wicker carriage, and Minden Miniatures, with Richard Ansell sculpting a seated Maurice).

Volontaires de Saxe Lancer

French Cuirassiers du Roi

Artillery Train Drivers (Prussian - Left; Austrian - Right)

In September, we announced our partnership with Crann Tara Miniatures in the UK. Crann Tara is now the distributor of all Fife & Drum AWI figures and artillery equipment in Europe. Crann Tara also distributes a limited portion of the Minden figure range (SYW Highlanders and Hanoverians; civilians, Volontaires de Saxe and SYW artillery equipment).

War Game Hobby Highlights:

2014 saw the beginning of the fictional Hesse Seewald army using Minden Miniatures Prussian figures. By the end of the year, I had completed four infantry battalions (30 figures each), one squadron of mounted Guides (12 cavalry),  a two gun section of foot artillery using 6-pounders, and two 3-pound battalion guns.

Hesse Seewald Field Artillery 6-pounder Battery

Hesse Seewald Corps of Guides

Charlottenburg Grenadiers in Hesse Seewald Service

Von Glasenap Regiment of Hesse Seewald

Wargames played included:

The Battle of Pirna (February) - Austrian-Saxon victory over Prussia

Battle of Pirna - February

Lobositz (March) - Prussian victory at the SYWA convention

Battle of Lobositz - March

The Battle of Sonnenfeld in East Prussia - Prussian victory over the Russians

Battle of Sonnenfeld in East Prussia - August

Gildershaven - The Annual Light Infantry Game (December) - everyone's a winner in this game!

Battle of Gildershaven - December