Recently, I "lost" a well-painted miniature wargaming figure when the can of krylon matt varnish left a white powdery film. On the Miniatures Page, there is a discussion on ways to avoid and remedy the issue.
Sometime during last night's Pistons-Lakers game, Miniature Wargaming dot Com reached a milestone: 25,000 hits since its creation on March 22, 2004.
Right now, the site is averaging more than 400 page views a day. Its not much in comparison to The Miniatures Page, but I think its a good start. Even better: When you type Miniature Wargaming into Google, the site comes up second only to the mighty TMP. Google searches on other wargaming terms regularly turn up MiniatureWargaming dot Com in the first 10 sites.
Most interesting to me is that most of my traffic is from first timers. My "repeat" (people who have visited in the last 30 days) traffic has been holding steady at around 180 - 200 page views a day since the site's inception. As the weeks have gone by, however, the steady increase in visitors has been mostly a result of people coming in through Google and Yahoo searches.
I don't know what to make of this, though. I post new stuff several times a day. Is this not enough to get people to stop by on a regular basis? My -- purely ego driven -- goal is to get to 1,000 daily page views. My -- more altruistic -- goal is to have a site that neatly categorizes as much wargaming material as possible; to become a one-stop site for gamers looking for information.
Constructive criticism and advice is always welcome!
If you are playing miniature wargames set in the Sudan, you've got to have a redoubt. Steve Winter has a very detailed explaination of how to build one.
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.