100,000 is a big number!

Well, a bit of a self-congratulatory celebration post today, so bear with me =) the blog has had over 100,000 views!

I started this blog about four years ago. I had been quite ill for a number of years and one of the things that kept me going was painting miniatures and playing games with my very patient brother (thanks to my very patient wife).

The blog was to help motivate me and so that I could keep a record of my photos, particularly of my realm of battle battleboard gameboard. Then we played a game on it and took photos as we went. Since then I've written up a LOT of battle reports and have tried to make them interesting with lots of pictures.

Some interesting stats:

The site gets between 100 and 300 hits a day.

The battle reports get way more hits than the WIP blogs.

The goblins vs haradrim battle here (http://simbattleboard.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/lotr-sbg-battle-report-goblins-vs.html) has been viewed over 4,300 times.

Why? The Mumak!

"Battle Report", "Mumak" and "Balrog" are responsible for most of the hits from searches.

Most readers are in the US and UK with Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and Russia following in descending order.

Hello!

To all who take the time to look at the site from other countries (I'm in Australia) - hello and thanks for reading! Assuming you can read that. Well, if you can't hopefully you'll pick up the hello vibe anyway!

Thank you to all of the people who have read the blog! Hopefully you've enjoyed the reports and not laughed too hard at our occasional bumbles and poor paintjobs! Hopefully you can see the improvement in our painting skills over the years. Don't forget my brother's blog here: http://paulslotrminis.blogspot.com.au/

Just for fun today I put out most of my miniatures in two big battle lines. There are a horde of goblins, a balrog, cave trolls, spiders, bats, wargs etc. on one side. On the other side are an army of dwarves, one hobbit (see if you can spot him) and some great eagles or giant eagles, can't remember what they are technically called right this minute.



I know that some people play with almost no scenery. I think my brain would explode, but it sure makes for easier deployment =)

Here's looking from the other end...



And an aerial view...



I know I don't have as big an army as many of you, but it's plenty big enough for us!

Working down the evil side we have some captains and drummers near some lava. I still can't believe they used to be skull pits.






Durburz and the Balrog take most of the center of the army (as well as my original plastic troll who is painted more gobliny than the other three).






The eagle wings sort of get in the way of the spiders and wargs.






And here are the trolls.






And here's Druzhag hiding behind his bats with an entourage of giant spiders.






And the good side has lots of dwarves! Look at that gorgeous shield wall backed up with Khazad Guard, Iron Guard and a whole heap of rangers.






The shield wall continues to a Shieldbearer (Boggle) and Etako Ironfist, also known as Etako One-eye. You can read more about them in other posts if you haven't already.






Facing the mighty Balrog are my intrepid Vault Wardens, with a banner behind them they are pretty fun to play with!






Finally, there's Brynmor, more shields, a dwarven king and plenty of warriors.






Allied to the dwarves are the three giant eagles. Just as a teaser, you'll get to see them in action in the next battle report.






Some different angles to show off the Balrog and Durburz.






I don't use this troll anymore, but still quite like the painting I did as it was my first ever large model. Pre-washes I tried blending and other "advanced" techniques that I'd never ever used before (and rarely do now - slacker!)






I'm still enjoying the look of my three trolls with the two collared wargs.






And here's a better look at some of the shield designs and dwarven kings who don't get used often.






I'm not really sure what this picture was for. Maybe just because I like my dwarves.






Brynmor is one of my favorite and least favorite conversions. I love most of him except for the blue gem type thing on his helmet. I love the shovel. I love that he's standing on a beer barrel, I think I did a pretty good job on the armour and cloak. I green stuff built the hammer and shovel and I don't really do much of that sort of thing, so am quite proud of myself for giving it a go.






And another shot of the dwarves... plus one...






Anyway, thanks for putting up with the self-indulgence =)

I'm sure there are some (actually, I've had emails so I KNOW there are some) who can't stand the way we play our games so leniently and for entertainment and fun instead of other, deeper reasons.

Oh well =)

We did play a battle today too, but I left the notes at my brother's place so you'll have to wait a few days for it sorry!

Thanks all for reading and contributing to making this a happy hobby for me! I especially appreciate the positivity!