By default, WordPress 1.5 puts the same number of posts on archive pages as it does on the front page. Given that I only want four posts on the front page, and an entire year's worth on the yearly archive pages, some hackery is required.
Note that it's uploaded exactly as I use it; the exact post counts and the order=ASC stuff for some views should be changed to personal preference. It was a five minute thing, and I'm only posting about it now because the issue addresses keeps coming up over and over. Maybe some people will find this via Google.