Hey all! Nice to meet you.
I'm a brand new LotR:SBG player, though I've been a wargamer for about nine years. For the longest time, I shied away from LotR:SBG. I'm not a huge snob about the movies - I actually liked the whole LotR trilogy, though I couldn't bring myself to enjoy the Hobbit franchise - but I think it bothered me that it was a wargame. I thought it kind of missed the point Tolkien was trying to make.
Ok, so maybe I am a little bit of a snob
.Anyway, last year, my father passed away. Our love of Tolkien's work was one of the throughlines of our relationship and had been since I was a little kid. I found myself obsessing about LotR:SBG, and I finally figured out why. My father always had to suppress his nerdy side because of my mother's antipathy for it. However, I think that in another world, where I hadn't moved across an entire continent to get away from my family and my father had really been able to be himself, LotR:SBG is something we would have enjoyed together.
Anyway, when I mentioned all this to my wife, she - to my surprise - encouraged me to start a collection. That was something I wasn't about to pass up. She's pretty tolerant, but she's never encouraged me to start a new game.
Anyway, here I am. I've got a couple of boxes of Galadhrim and some Mirkwood elves (who I'll be using as wood elves, but I like the Mirkwood sculpts better) on the way to my local GW. I'm looking forward to getting some models painted and playing some games.
plus, it can give pointers when your birthday comes. My wife has always been supportive of my miniature wargame addiction (be it about LOTR or other, more realistic, settings) and it's always great to have her come over and be genuinely interested in what I'm doing and being happy I'm having fun. 
Welcome to you, too!
