Books and Mats

So I was pleasantly surprised that Noble Knight games delivered my battlemat for the desert three days early. In addition, Amazon delivered my copy of Black Cross, Red Start three days early. The mat is 6'x4' with a very apparent hex pattern. The reverse side is plain. I may be able to use both sides depending on how my desert and cowboy terrain looks on it. The felt is fairly heavy and the hex pattern does not go all the way through. Very excited about these two purchases.

The book looks to be in great shape. I couldn't justify the cost of a new copy and instead reached for the used, very good copy. I am glad I did. Other than a former owner's name in the book, it looks perfect. There is lots to dig through. The first chapter is on the air doctrine of the Germans and Soviets. I am really looking forward to reading this. The book is much larger than I thought it would be.

New Book - Nothing but Blood and Slaughter Volume 4

With some Amazon cards received at Christmas, I was able to get the 4th book in the series by Patrick O'Kelley. This covers the battles in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia for the year 1782. It is a slimmer volume but is still very interesting. The partisan nature of the battle in the south is emphasized with the continuation after the fall of Cornwallis' army at Yorktown. i am not sure that I will end up making any more books in the series on the war in the South for the AWI. But this one has me thinking.

Between work and helping my son complete his paperwork for his Eagle Scout application, I have been swamped and have not done anything hobbywise. I did buy the PDF copy of The One Ring RPG rules and have been enjoying the "Waking of Angmar" podcast. It is very interesting. I have been pleased with the Free League Publishing rules. Betwen the new Twilight 2000 mechanisms and TOR 2e, it has been a fun read and something to think about. I am wondering how to use these elements to time them into other wargames. Who knows. Probably nothing will come of it.

Wargame Vault Review

You may not know, but Wargame Vault using a rating system for products based on their sales numbers. Each level is assigned a "metal" as it rating. Starting at Copper, it progresses to Silver, Electrum, Gold, Platinum, Mithral, and lastly Adamantine.

The sales levels are as follows:

Rating	Number of Sales
Copper	51+
Silver	101
Electrum	251
Gold	501
Platinum	1001
Mithral	2501
Adamantine	5001

As of this morning, I did some research and was pleasantly surprised. My books had done better than I had expected. Thank you very much.

BOOK	Type	Sales	Sales Rank
Action at Ustilug	WWII Skirmish Scenarios	81	Copper
In The Name of Roma	WWII Skirmish Scenarios	45	-
Battle of Kharkov 1941	WWII Skirmish Scenarios	149	Silver
Second Battle of Kharkov 1942	WWII Skirmish Scenarios	86	Copper
East Front Bundle	WWII Skirmish Scenarios	226	Silver
Falcon and The Gladiator	WWII Air Campaigns and Scenarios	42	-
The Coming Thunder	ACW Skirmish Scenarios	156	Silver
To Covet Glory	Age of Sail Small ship Battles	114	Silver
The War of Jenkin's Ear	Black Powder and Age of Sail Skirmish Scenarios	25	-

These are only sales from Wargame Vault and do not include the hard copy sales from Amazon, direct sales (before I did a PayHip store), or sales from my PayHip site. Now, I had messed up when i did the East Front Bundle. Within the bundle are both Kharkov Supplements, Action at Ustilug and In the Name of Roma. If you do bundles correctly, bundle sales increaase sales of the products under them. All in all, I am very happy with how they have done. Of the 9 books, only four are on Amazon in print form. Two are available as kindle. Kindle is a terrible format to release the books on.

In the Name of Roma is the oldest of the series and sold 63 kindle copies and anther 14 print copies. The First Kharkov supplement sold 14 kindle copies and 41 print copies. The Second Kharkov book was only available in print and sold 55 copies! Thank you! Lastly, To Covet Glory was only released as a print copy and sold 48 copies!

I forgot to look at PayHip.

Book	Sales
Action at Ustilug	36
In the Name of Roma	11
Battle of Kharkov 1941	26
Second Battle of Kharkov	26
East Front Bundle	31
Falcon and the Gladiator	14
To Covet Glory	16
The War of Jenkin's Ear	8

Now there are other items that are only on PayHip that are not on the other sites. I may have to change that as it seems peopel trust Wargame Vault more than they do PayHip.

The copies I sold directly and from PayPal are lost to history. No idea of how I would ever figure that out. Anyway, it was a fun exersize to look through how sales have gone. Compared to many, this is a drop in the bucket. But for me, I am pretty proud as to how they have done. I would love to see the War of Jenkin's Ear book get to copper status. That it is half way there made me really happy. I didn't think I would sell 5 copies of that, honestly. It is a very niche subject.

Anyway, that is some motivation to push ahead.

Reading Material & Santa Clause Update

I have been thinking of doing a Pint Sized Campaign for the later war period. The problem was, I did not have any good references for it. All of my books cover the early war period. After asking a few questions online, I ended up ordering Zhukov at the Oder. I have only just started to read it but it is an interesting book covering the Soviet push into Germany and its ultimate goal, Berlin.

Thus far it has not offered much on small unit actions that I am looking for but it is still very interesting. What is better, is I got it dirt cheap on Amazon. I also purchased Jentz's Panzer Truppen volume 1. I had picked up Volume 2 a long time ago but never got around to purchasing the first volume. I found it for a decent price on Amazon and one click and it was on its way. Should arrive in the next couple of days. Now to find time to read with all of the hustle and bustle of the season going on.

It seems like the Santa Clause is running successfully. I have heard from most of the participants that gifts are on their way or will be shortly.

Calling Sidney Holland

I just sold a book to Sidney Holland this morning but am unable to reach him as the address that came across from Paypal bounces. If you are Sidney or know him, please get in touch with me. I want to make sure you got your book.

Chris Stoesen - cstoesen@corecard.com