The Company of the Damned – Year in Review 2012

The Company of the Damned – Year in Review 2012

Last year I published the first Year in Review for 2011 where I listed the accomplishments I had in the hobby and war gaming in general.  While I thought I had an exceptional year in 2011, it paled in comparison to what I unleashed in the year 2012.  Before I go into grand detail where I espouse what happened in my hobby, my interests, and my personal life – I thought I would sit down and go over what the goals for the blog and myself were from the last year (and if all goals were met!).

Ten Goals for 2012 and The Company of the Damned.

1. Complete and paint the Beastmen army up to 2800 points (before June).
- Success!  Not only was I able to complete and paint the Beastman army to 2800 points but I was also able to expand it to 3000 including customized base and movement trays.  I managed to get in over 40 games with the Beastmen and had a rather successful record at 33 wins, 2 ties and 7 losses.
2. Get the blog up to 100 followers.
- Success!  I was able to go from 54 followers to 103 in the year 2012.
3. Attempt to crest 20,000 views a month.
- Success!  The Company of the Damned blog averages now 32,000 views a month.
4. Network more with the podcasting community and hopefully get bloggers and podcasters more involved with not only the blog but the podcast. I would really like to get the guys from Garagehammer, Ohiohammer, Pointhammered and some of the other bloggers like Rhellion of Rhellion’s Tabletop to open a line of communication with the Portland group about the differences in the metagame in their region and ours. Based on several conversations so far, the difference is substantial!
- Success!  We were able to get one podcast to appear on our show and that was the guys from Ohiohammer; Andrew Sherman, Jake Hunter and Mark Dieter. 
5. Participate in at least 1 tournament a month.
- Fail  I was unable to attend more than 3 tournaments this year – The Black Sheep Brawl, The Borderlands Doubles Tournament for Fantasy and OFCC Fantasy 2012.
6. Assemble, Paint and Play the Circle Orboros army (and the Circle models in my Wood Elf army don’t count!)
- Fail  I was unable to assemble the Circle Orboros army; I was only able to collect enough models to field a 50 point force.
7. Publish tactica on how to deal with all the Warhammer Fantasy armies and also continue to firmly establish the Wood Elves as a viable army in 8th edition.
- Success!  I was able to successfully publish a series of tactical articles for Wood Elves and a rather popular series called Preferred Enemies where I focused on specific units and how to handle them with the Wood Elf army.
8. When 6th edition Warhammer 40k comes out, update my Black Templars and more importantly my Eldar for the new edition. This includes new models and perhaps army themes.
- Fail  I was only able to publish an army list for the Eldar at 2k this year.  I have yet to decide if I am going to put forth the time and effort to update two armies that are in dire need of a new codex.  I may hold off until they are properly updated in 6^th edition 40k. 
9. More product and book reviews on the blog.
- Success!  This year I was able to publish several product and book reviews ranging from Black Library novels to Forge World Supplements to Army Transports options.
10. In addition to providing more battle reports using Battle Chronicler, obtain a video camera and start providing Youtube videos of games in addition to the blog and podcast battle reports.

- Fail  I was unable to add any video content to the blog or podcast.  Maybe this year may change that.

The purpose of the Company of the Damned blog is to serve as an outlet for me to write articles concerning my interests, ideas and activities in regards to my hobby and life in general.  I wanted to really use the blog this year to create a library for tactical articles for the armies that I use as well as do reviews on gaming products and also further the exposure of our podcast The Deployment Zone.  This year was very successful in many ways – I’ll list them in groups.

The Hobby

This year I was able to purchase the following items and accomplish the following projects in the hobby for 2012.

1.       Purchased, assembled and painted a 2800 point Beastman army for OFCC Fantasy 2012 which was then expanded to 3000 points.

2.       Purchased and assembled 2800 points of a Bretonnian army and managed to paint 2140 points of it before January 1^st for OFCC Fantasy 2013.

3.       Purchased, painted and flocked a Realm of Battle Board and provided a tutorial of it on the blog.

4.       Purchased and began construction on a 2000 point army of Dark Eldar for Warhammer 40k.

5.       Purchased an additional 30 points of Retribution of Scyrah and painted 18 points of the battle force for Warmachine.

6.       Puchased and began construction of the 50 point Circle Orboros army for Hordes.

7.       Purchased a 35 point Malifaux crew for the Guild faction.  It felt so amazingly dirty doing so.

8.       Funded the Soda Pop Miniatures – Relic Knights kickstarter and placed my order for the Doctrine and Star Nebula Corsairs army lists.

9.       Obtained the Warhammer Forge – Monstrous Arcana book and the Forge World: Imperial Armour books 9-11 (The Badab War and Doom of Mymeara)

10.    Managed to obtain an additional 500 points of Eldar from Forgeworld.

11.    Purchased and collected a 1500 point Space Wolf army.

12.    Started assembly on the massive amount of Games Workshop plastic terrain in my garage.

In the end I managed to not only collect and paint almost two entire Warhammer Fantasy armies but I also obtained two Warhammer 40k armies as well.  This blog in the year 2013 will be filled with the final stages of the Bretonnian army and it’s completion then the construction of my 40k armies and other game systems as well.

The Blog

This year I was able to practically double the exposure of my blog online through proper networking and associations.  I was also able to improve the content of my blog in the following ways for 2012.

1.       I was able to publish volume 1 of my Wood Elf Tactica involving ways to use several units in the Wood Elf army.

2.       I was able to publish the first installments of the Preferred Enemies articles which provide tactics and strategies in dealing with certain units in different armies.

3.       I started to write articles concerning aspects of the Beastman army for tactics and unit composition.

4.       I doubled my follower count by providing useful content and by linking my blog to other types of social media like Google +, Twitter, and Facebook for starters. 

5.       I was able to provide several helpful product reviews ranging from Black Library novels to Forge World sourcebooks to Army Transports.

6.       Started to do reviews on games other than Wargaming such as The Privateer Press RPG – The Iron Kingdoms.

In the end I was able to begin building a library and a resource for other players to hopefully use my experiences and success to help develop their playstyle and further their enjoyment of the game.

Gaming and Tournaments

In 2012 the gaming scene was pretty strong but unfortunately the activity on the tournament scene was not what I had hoped it would be. 

1.       I was able to participate in the Black Sheep Brawl Grand Tournament where I won Best Overall with my Wood Elves at 2400 points.

2.       I was able to participate in the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge 2012 for Fantasy with my Beastmen army and went 4/1/0 at 2800 points.

3.       I paired up with Raindog of the Ordo and participated in a team tournament for Warhammer Fantasy at Borderlands games.

4.       I managed to play 42 games with my Beastmen in 2012 and had a 33/7/2  W/L/T record.

5.       I managed to play 42 games with my Wood Elves in 2012 also and had a 38/3/1 W/L/T record with them.

6.       I learned to play Malifaux with Josh this year – it still feels just dirty.

7.       We started a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign with my gaming group and had a blast.

8.       I learned to play a few board games such as Super Dungeon Explore and Chaos in the Old World.

9.       Finished two full seasons of Bloodbowl: Legendary edition with my Wood Elf team on my PC.

Starting out the year with winning Best Overall at the first annual Black Sheep Brawl got me excited for a full year of tournaments and events but due to the fact that I had made other plans in my personal life, the tournament scene was put on the back burner.

The Podcast – The Deployment Zone

In 2012 Bryan, Josh and I managed to put out 30 episodes of our podcast in 2012.  I believe we successfully managed to bombard the internet with our self-aggrandizing propaganda! 

1.       We successfully published 30 episodes of our podcast.

2.       I successfully ran an online podcast campaign for the Tamurkhan, Throne of Chaos campaign that amassed over 50 users and 250 games where players from all over the world participated.  This by itself is one of the major accomplishments for this blog in 2012 since it really not only connected the Podcast audience but also the members of this blog as well.  I had such a fun time running the Tamurkhan campaign that I agreed to run a 40k campaign in 2013.

3.       We managed to get numerous guests on our show ranging from other podcasters, tournament organizers, and friends to come and share their opinions, thoughts and ideas.

4.       We increased our podcasting audience slowly over the year and began to take steps to further improve our listenership.

5.       We managed to cover several events ranging from the Black Sheep Brawl , OFCC (Fantasy and 40k), Guardian Cups to Raindogs Rampage. 

6.       We finally managed to improve our equipment and content as well.

We really made some pretty big steps to get our podcast active and successful this year and the work hasn’t stopped yet.  We are working on expanding our audience and content to reach a wider array of listeners for 2013.

My Personal Life

I proposed to my wife on December 24, 2011 and devised my strategy for 2012 long before New Year’s Day had rolled around.  I set for myself several goals to accomplish in my life in order to be happy and content and I wasn’t going to accept failure in the pursuit of these goals. 

1.       I was going to get married to my girlfriend. – Success! 

We were married May 26, 2012 – Bryan my co-host performed the ceremony at Kell’s in downtown Portland.  It was a righteous wedding!

2.       I was going to secure my career and get job security.  – Success!

I was able to not only secure a position with the agency but also secure a promotion as well.

3.       My wife and I were going to have a child. – DOUBLE SUCCESS!

Yeah, I doubled down on this one and was rewarded with not one but two wonderful little girls on December 13^th, 2012.  I have to say, twins are absolutely awesome!

Side Bonus for 2012 and 2013 – The University of Alabama Crimson Tide won not one but two National Championships back to back! ROLL TIDE!

So in closing, 2012 has been perhaps one of the greatest years of my life and I look forward to seeing how 2013 is going to pan out.  It’s off to a pretty damn good start!

This leaves us with the final section of this Year in Review, the new to do list.

Ten Goals for 2013 and The Company of the Damned.

1.       Finish painting the 2800 point Bretonnian army for OFCC 2013 Fantasy.

2.       Purchase, assemble and paint a Wood Elf Blood Bowl team.

3.       Fully catalogue the current Wood Elf army book in the Wood Elf Tactica Library and provide an entry for every current army book under the Preferred Enemies articles.

4.       Assemble and paint the 2000 point Dark Eldar army using the Crimson Sigil army list posted on the blog.

5.       Assemble and paint the rest of the 50 point Retribution of Scyrah army.

6.       Assemble and paint the 50 point Circle Orboros army.

7.       Assemble and paint the 35 soulstone Malifaux Lady Justice crew.

8.       Participate in the OFCC 2013 Fantasy event.

9.       Participate in the OFCC 2013 40k event.

10.    Promote and double the current listener audience for the Deployment Zone podcast.

With these 10 goals I am hoping to increase the traffic and followers on this blog and further promote the aspects of the hobby that I enjoy.  I have several other goals in mind for this blog in so far as increasing its traffic, exposure and at some point hopefully linking it to a larger blognetwork that would further promote it.  I still wish to begin to do Youtube battle reports but those are more closely associated now with our podcast and so rather than trying to lump too many goals under one heading, we will stay with the ten listed above as this years "blog" goals.

To all the readers of this blog, thank you for reading my articles and content and let’s make 2013 even better than 2012!