2012 Analysis

Hello again.

My last post touched upon the cost of last year's wargaming purchases and hinted at the analysis of said purchases, which I have now undertaken.

Be warned!!! It is with good reason that the word "ANALYSIS" contains the word "ANAL"!!!

The basics:

1. As I said before, I spent £5 short of £1500 overall from 29th Feb 2012 onwards on books, kits, figures and other wargaming paraphernalia, only paint being discounted from the overall tally.
2. This expenditure was split between 23 different periods/ projects.
3. I made a total of 86 separate purchases within these periods/ projects.
4. I bought a total of 747 figures and kits.
5. I bought a total of 28 books.
6. The top 5 projects in expense terms, in order, were 1690 (10.71% of overall expenditure), WH40K (9.74%, and I have not even played it for years!?!?!?!?!?), Ancients (7.86%), Non-specific (7.80%) and FIW (7.63% - never played a game yet, but inspired by "Muskets & Tomahawks").
7. The top 5 figure quantities purchased, in order, were 1314 28mm (132 figs/ 17.67% of total figures bought/ £106), 1690 28mm (130 figs/ 17.40%/ £160, i.e metal vs plastic for 1314), Ancients 28mm (108 figs/ 14.46%/ £117.50, again mostly plastic), Afghanistan 20mm (73 figs/ 9.77%/ £86) and Late Medieval 28mm (64 figs/ 8.57%/ £79.50).
8. The top 3 book/ rule purchases by period were Renaissance (6 books/ 21.40% of overall book purchases/ £62.50 - all 16th Century subjects, which I do not even play...), Modern (5 books/ 17.86%/ £77.97 - those Force on Force rules and various supplements) and Ancients (3 books/ 10.71%/ £52.50).
9. Of the 86 separate purchases, 45 (52.33%) require painting.
10. Of the 45 that require painting, 10 (22.22% of the 45) have been.
11. 32.56% of my purchases were books.
12. 30 different publishers/ manufacturers took my cash, directly or indirectly.

There is more, but I will bore you no further.

What does all this mean???

1. Two words spring immediately to mind - "Impulse Buyer".
2. I have an interest in pretty much the whole gamut of military history, as the above purchases cover everything from Ancient India vs Macedonia all the way up to current conflicts, with fantasy and sci-fi thrown in. There were some areas/ centuries not represented however - 19th Century, the Far East, Biblical, etc.
3. I am far too fixated on what I want to do next rather than finishing what I am on now!!!
4. I need to rationalise and spend much less!!!
5. I really do not play enough to warrant all these different collections, but building and painting are where I get my kicks.

To cut a long story very short, I can see Peter Young's logic VERY clearly - it is madness to spread between periods.

But I like to, so will continue to do so!

G