Show us your stories us when you firstsaw those mini's, played your first games or painted you first mini's

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men are weak, it was them that got us into this kaffufle

Ahh... yet another random thread

Well here's my story.

Once I went to a cinema, and right next to it was a GW. While waiting for the movie to start, I went to check it out. Everything looked so cool that my parents enrolled me in a GW course, and bought me a couple box sets. After the course was over, I kinda lost interest, and the minis I still had started to gain dust. I only remembered I had them when we moved and I had to unpack my stuff, and that's how I got back into the hobby... seriously this time

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Hmm... what would a chair look like if your knees bent the other way?

When I was younger, my friend (who's a bit older than me) use to have all his minis lade out on a shelf, all painted and stuff. I use to sit there staring at them in wonder for ages!

A few years later, I saw a GW when I was walking down the street. So, I went in and bought the Warriors of Minas Tirith starter set (from when the old ROTK rulebook war around). I got home and (very badly!) painted them.

It was the same friend who taught me how to play.

I was first introduced to the game, oddly enough, through Wikipedia. I've always been deeply interested in Middle-earth, and frequently read online about Tolkien's world. One of these readings led me to the Wikipedia page for LOTR SBG, and I became very interested in the game. I picked up Mines of Moria for my birthday, and have been hooked ever since.

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" I think I'm... quite ready for another adventure!"

Bilbo

You might want to get a comfy seat and a fresh beverage before reading this -

Many, many, many, many, many, many, many moons ago, in the run up to Christmas there was a television advert for MB Games Heroquest. Seeing the contents of the game, and how cool the advert was with Orcs and Barbarians, (and having just read the Hobbit) I plagued my parents constantly to get me it. Every time we were out shopping, I'd go straight to the toy department to look for it, and pore over the back of the box. Thankfully my parents bought me it that year. I already knew I was getting it, as trying to hide presents in the same house as me is an impossible task. I spent the entire day setting up the board in all sorts of configurations, and used about 2 rolls of film taking pictures of it.

It was around about this time, the very early '90s that I tried my hand at painting. Of course, being completely self taught, other than the brief guide included with Heroquest, I primed my minis with Tipex, and painted them with a collection of small acrylics garnered from a Simpsons painting by numbers kit...

From that point, all my funds were directed towards miniatures...

Space Crusade and Advanced Heroquest followed, as well as a Skeleton Army, procured by my younger brother for the princely sum of £10 from Virgin Megastore. Yes, way, way back Virgin (which went on to become Zavvi, which went on to cease trading) sold miniatures and role-playing books. The Skeleton army was a bundle of sprues, 30 Skeletons, 10 Skeletal Horsemen and a Chariot. Many hours were spent creating all sorts of randomly posed skellies, and suffering from poly cement exposure.

About the same time, I also got hooked on Space Marine (which was the infantry based Titan Legions game, and the precursor to Epic Armageddon. This was followed by Warhammer, 40k, Blood Bowl and Necromunda, which I played regularly whilst at school. My miniature obsession also turned to RPG's, with Dungeons and Dragons, AD&D 2nd edition and Palladium's TMNT RPG (based on the Eastman and Laird comics) added to my collection.

The most obvious thing I could say is my fanatical obsession to amass huge piles of miniatures and books, whilst rarely ever gaming or painting. This lasted many, many years.

Other than birthdays and Christmas, my obsession was kept in check, until I started working once I turned 16. Still, other than alcohol, concerts and cigarettes, all my cash went on minis. This got worse once I started working full time after I dropped out of uni, and was regularly spending over 100 pounds a week in GW... The dangers of a weekly wage.

Once I went back to uni, the vast majority of my student loan was always spent on minis, as I just used to drive home if I was in danger of starving or running out of clean clothes, then I started working again, doing nightshifts every Friday and Saturday, which kept me in textbooks, smokes and minis again.

Learning to drive had obviously been a bad choice, as once I started venturing further afield, I realised that there was more to gaming than GW, and found Static Games, a veritable treasure trove of miniatures, hidden in the bowels of the old Argyle Arcade in Glasgow. I think the internet also shares some of the blame.

Having fallen completely in love with the Wolfen line for Confrontation, I bought every available model over the course of 3 or 4 months, probably spending about 600 quid on them. To this day, I've still only played the game once. No wonder I have an overdraft...

After uni, and by this point, the entirety of my collection had taken over my room, my bro's room, the garage and the loft, I kept adding more and more. Due to having a very short attention span, or maybe just being enchanted by every month's new releases, I had still to actually finish building, never mind painting, an entire army. Hell, I couldn't even manage the dozen or so models required for Blood Bowl or Necromunda.

Around this time, I was heavily into 40k, and was making the transition from GW Stirling (uni) to GW Falkirk (closest to home). I signed up for Conflict Edinburgh in a bid to actually get an army completed, and settled on World Eater CSM's. To my shame, I actually fielded two pots of red paint on 60mm bases as Dreadnaughts until I'd played a few trial games. No matter the opposition, I was swiftly handed my own behind on a platter, prompting the local crew to very firmly remind me I was a Stirling boy...

Until the day of the Tournament. 3 massacres, full points for general knowledge, and mediocre painting points put me in 3rd place overall. I had well and truly earned my position as a Falkirk gamer, and, I still don't know how the hell I actually managed to win 3 games so convincingly.

The following year I entered with a Tyranid army, which was completed 10 minutes before the bus left the store, assembled on the bus, and still poseable once we got to the venue. I didn't do as well as the year before... Although, I did hit upon the following cunning plan. Take a major hit in the first round, and it guarantees you play someone else who 'sucks' in the second. Which makes it easier to get a win...

After that I was pretty psyched, and turned to a new army. Still CSM's, but Iron Warriors. My love for Chaos became quite obsessive, and my army clocked up about 21,000 points at last count.

I was still not a prolific painter at this point, mainly rushing to get things done in the two weeks before the tournament deadline.

Numerous other tournaments/events passed with mixed success, but I never reached those heady heights again.

Then one fateful day, browsing in Static, I asked the owner what the most popular game at the local club was, as I was fed up taking along a 40k army and having no opponent. I had no interest in historical gaming, or cards, and he told me to look into WARMACHINE. I'd seen the models before, and hadn't been inspired, but I figured I might as well give it a go, just to be able to play. And it turned out I was rather good at it. Not brilliant, but able to hold my own against the guys who had been playing for years. Maybe 6 months or so after getting into it, I journeyed down to the most excellent Fanboy 3 in Manchester, a bus journey I will never again undertake, for my first ever WM tournament. And I came first. Cue astonishment. This led to me becoming totally immersed into WM, completely ignoring GW for a year or so. I picked up numerous faction awards at local tourneys, even winning a couple, and also walked out of the first ever HORDES tournament in Scotland as overall champ, with gold cards and a signed copy of the rulebook! My crowning glory was yet to come, and that was topping the table at a Glasgow Tournament with my Merc Army, a victory which was all the sweeter, seeing as they 'aren't a proper Faction'.

Once our Nikki was born, I slowly returned to the GW fold, as it meant less travelling, and thought I'd get into LotR, because, although I'd played a few taster games when the FotR was originally released (and bought both TTT and TRotK boxed games) I'd never done anything with them. This started a trend of buying vast quantities of LotR minis, which I vowed I wouldn't game with until they were fully painted.

One day, whilst browsing for painting ideas, I happened upon a link to a certain 'One Ring' website, which I immediately joined, and am happy to say, have stayed a member of, despite my grouchy, argumentative, sarcastic and loveable nature.

So, it really has been a success, my vow, as I have probably painted more minis in the last year, than I have in the 20 preceding that.

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Studio gaarew; Gaming armies, by gamers, for gamers.

My story is definately not as long as John's but anyway

It was about 2001 or 2002 when I saw an advertisment on TV about the BGIME series, I thought it looked great so asked my Mum to get it for me (I was only about 6 )

Then I got it and painted them all in about five minutes with a brush about as big as the actual Goblins.

Then I collected the mags and some box sets for about 8 months, then unfortunately gave up I had even made a gaming board out of cardboard or something which I never used

Then 6 years later on a very boring school excursion.... I thought about Lotr again!

Luckily I had kept all of my models and some of my books, exept I lost about 20 BGIME mags, my beloved gaming board and maybe even some figures.

And this is a very wierd coinciedence, I rejoined the hobby on September 7th 2008, and today is the 7th of September!

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"The board is set, the pieces are moving."
Gandalf, The Return of the King

www.YouTube.com/LotrWarhammer24

well ever since the first film came out i loved lotr. I watched every film hundreds of times and even tried to read the book, i failed however.

A couple of years later, i joined the lokal judo club, and there i met my best friend. the first time i went to his house i immediatly was attrected to his lotr mini's. he had only just started himself back then and only owned a couple of BGiME figures and the last alliance box set, still i couldn't stop looking at them.

so after my birthday, with loaded pockets, i went to the local store (1.5 hours by bike) and bought my first boxes and some paint. my friend thought me how to paint and play and now we regularly play against each other, showing off our latest models.

in turn, i inspired some other friends of mine to pick up lotr, and atm hes painting his first box set (warriors of the dead), and he wants to start a isengard army.

now i've been in the hobby for almost a year, and my mini's are coming along nicely.

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Everything that has a beginning has an end
There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time

Wow John that is quite a tale, very interesting and detailed though!

I like Billy got into LOTR through BGIME. I really loved the movies and when I saw BGIME, I couldn't be without it.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

I've never heard of that before!

Similar to two people above I discovered LOTR through BGIME although I had had a brief acquaintance with 40k when I was about 8 or 9. The first pack I bought was no.4 (the Uruk sprue).

Wanting to read LOTR I started reading one of those giant books of the entire Trilogy. Other than a sore pair of hands by the time I had finished a few chapters, it was hard going and I didn't have the will power to continue. I kept up with the painting side of the hobby and had a go at building terrain which turned out to be abismal! I guess to have enthusiam for this hobby you have to be the kind of person who is easily addicted to things but I don't find myself craving anything else really except more models (and maybe chocolate)

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The Southern Fiefdoms: http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21928

At least you primed your minis John. That earns bonus points!

My LOTR gaming history goes back to the mid 1970s. I'd just read the Lord of the Rings borrowed from the school library and my sister told me about a game that her friends play called "Something and Dragons."

From that point onwards I was hooked. I wrote my own campaign for playing in Middle-earth, converting the D&D rules to suit the feel of Tolkien's world. And of course, I purchased some old Grenadier minis for use in the game, painting them in Humbrol enamels (no undercoat).

After putting that game aside for many, many years, I chanced to walk by a GW store in the city and saw some metal Orcs from the original FotR release and was astounded by their level of detail. I bought two blisters then and there. This was back in 2003, and yes, they are mostly still unpainted.

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Dagster

I'm fairly new to the whole SBG, Roleplaying games... and it started by accident, really.

I was in uni, it was my mates birthday (he was a major Lord of the Rings nutcase), and so we had to give him something as present.

Obviously, when you look for presents for a 30 + year old guy you can only look in one place: Toys r' Us! So, we were looking for something (we had no idea what!) and we found this nice box with a game about Lord of the Rings... strategy battle game, miniatures, bla bla, bla, it sounded interesting so we bought it. To be honest we thought it would be something a bit like Monopoly.

When he opened the present it was sort of a surprise to everyone. Both of us got immediatelly hoocked. The others just never cared.

Coincidence or not, it that same day, we discovered a store that sold GW stuff near uni. I remember that my first models were the Cave Troll and the old cheesy Haldir.

Anyway, I'm never left LOTR but my mate moved towards Warhammer Orcs and Goblins... and I don't think he paints anymore.

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Tell me... Do you bleed?
You will!
Chewy, we're home!

My story is very similar to Dagorlad's.
I started playing AD&D in college, painting minis, reading the LOTR trilogy and companion books. Went to see the movies... I was wandering around the Border's bookstore and came upon a game LOTR Return of the King set.
Bought it on impulse and started painting the minis. (I love painting minis). I paint more than play and I have a nice collection to date.
I'm going through a bit of a hiatus with the game/painting right now.

I started on October 27th 2003, a lovely sunny saturday-afternoon, painting in my bedroom, on the window enjoying the last warmth of the autumnal sun...
My first experience painting miniatures, Last Alliance High Elves from the Fellowship starter set...

Long before that time, I was already licking my lips when passing by a little store in Leuven (city I "studied") where the sold figures like that... but I also noticed the price and quickly moved on thinking they were all mad...

When a few yars later a friend of mine told me they had LOTR figures aswell... I was completely sold and ordered my first boxes (Fellowship starter-set, last-alliance box, the fellowship figs and Sauron-box).
I got obsessed, and never let it go again.

But none of my friends were interested in playing LOTR, some of them had already WH figures and I decided to start WH aswell (Beastmen).
We played a few battles, but never actually played a lot (too bad).
This should haev been a fair reason not to buy more and more different WH armies... but I never seem to listen to myself... (nor anyone else giving advise to stop buying figs...)

I also discovered the BGiME zines and started playing battles against my own (Aragorn vs. Gobbo's)... You can imagine how fun that was... always seeing through the opponents plans.. heh...

Anyway, I found this site and went more for the painting and constructiong part of the hobby.. and collecting...
And most fun of all... meeting others who are into this hobby aswell

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CMON-gallery

My tale is somewhat reminiscent of Dagorlad's, if from a more deranged perspective - I read The Hobbit, the The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, that led me into other fantasy type books (far too many to name... thousands of them! Conan the Barbarian and Discworld were recurring themes...), then I discovered D&D, Warhammer (but I am feeling much better), WH40K, Space Hulk, Space Marine, Adepticus Titanicus, and when the films were released, the LotR SBG. And now WotR. And a ferociously HUGE Backlog...

With interludes featuring real swords, armour, helmets, shields, axes, banners....

I forgot to mention that this epic journey started in 1974 (of the current Age).

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Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!

I thought this would go all the way back to 2001, but uh oh, I really needed to get the bewerage...

As a side note, I just finished painting my Heroquest orcs last weekend! In 2050 I might be able to play a game with a fully painted set!

Okay, to my story... I come from MERP (Middle-earth role-playing) background. I didn't use miniatures in my games because at the time they had ugly, big heads and ridiculously huge swords. Just like in Heroquest. Instead we used dice, pennies and shiny objects, which, in retrospect, were no more realistic than Heroquest minis, but we thought they looked better than ugly big-headed minis. Then I slipped briefly towards live action RPG, using real people as gaming pieces...

This attitude continued until FotR came out in December 2001. I saw the Fellowship set in a computer game store I was visiting with my girlfriend and apparently I spent quite a lot of time looking at the box, since when christmas eve came, I found a big rattling box under the tree. The minatures were pretty and didn't have ugly heads and big swords. "I'll use them in my MERP campaign, but I'm not the least bit interested in the game", I said.

The first High Elf I painted looked like a Swedish ice hockey player and the Men of Gondor or Moria Goblins were not much better. However, I had a lot of fun playing Last Alliance vs. Moria games with my friends.

Next two years, two more boxes were found under the tree. I found that painting Rohan miniatures and playing with cavalry against Isengard was actually a lot more fun than running MERP games. "Soon I will have enough minis painted for my RPG campaigns", I thought.

Last year we finished a long MERP campaign set in the Kin-strife of Gondor. I had almost managed to paint enough Gondorian cavalry and orcs to use them in the role-playing game. For my current campaign, I definately will use miniatures, if only I can paint them in time.

So, actually, I'm not a LotR SBG gamer. I'm just a MERP game master, trying to get painted some miniatures for his games. But meanwhile, I've had really good time with this game that does not have ugly minis with ridiculously big swords.

-- Pasi

My wargaming journey is a bit different to many of the previous posters, although I did read the Hobbit and LOTR as a kid (several times). I found a book on World War 2 wargaming in the local library which contained really basic rules. I think I renewed that book for nearly a year straight! We played with airfix type kits (20mm) on a piece of green hard board with terraqin drawn on in chalk. We had no concept of points values, and the winner was usually the one who owned the most models.

I then found that my uncle was really into wargaming. (I've still never seen so many miniatures in a collection!) He got me into Napoleonic games (15mm), although I really struggled with the back log as he kindly got me a couple of armies each consisting of hundreds of miniatures.

To his disappointment my friend then introduced we to 40k and over the years I built up an entire company of Dark Angels. I found that I much preferred the freedom of painting sci-fi miniatures - even ones with a fairly rigid uniform. I dabbled with Space Marine, Blood Bowl and numerous historical games - but I've still never played WFB! At this point I pretty much gave up for the "cooler" options of drink, girls and sport!

A few years back a friend showed me some LOTR minis - I thought they were amazing, so he gave me a set of orcs, and here I am now. SBG is one of the most tactical games out there and the miniatures look great and are lovely to paint.

Daniel, or Henrik Sedin?

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" I think I'm... quite ready for another adventure!"

Bilbo

More like Mats Sundin, the most hated Swede in Finland (he has single-handedly defeated our team a couple of times).

@Fishlegs: I forgot the Airfix models entirely. As a small kid, I tried to come up with some kind of war game rules for the battles in the sandbox. In the end we always just took turns throwing small stones at each others troops until one side was 'killed', or we got bored. One of those proto-rules was that when you 'activated' a machine-gunner, you were allowed to throw a handful of sand instead of one small stone (rifle bullet), possibly knocking over several soldiers with one 'action'.

-- Pasi

As a Minnesota Wild fan, I'm in debt to your country for giving my team, Niklas Backstrom.

Back on topic now, so you've never played a game, Pasi? I thought you had writen an article about simple tactics here on OR.

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" I think I'm... quite ready for another adventure!"

Bilbo

Oh, I must have mislead you, that comes from posting too late in the evening. I have played the game regularly since it came out in 2001..

I just still consider myself primarily an RPG gamer, who just happens to spend most of his free time painting and playing with miniatures.

-- Pasi