Introduction

 Who am I?

Well first things first, my name is Powers Wartman, I'm a 22 year old college graduate living in the deep south (for the time being) with my wonderful wife Julia, and very cute and spoiled dog, Tonks (I'm sure I will be posting pictures of her eventually.) I have a long history of gaming, starting around age 9 when I conned my mom into buying me the 4th Edition Battletech Box Set from Pastimes in Asheville, NC. (Thanks mom!) Later on I went through a card game and clicky game phase, which was only natural given my age (I honestly didn't understand Battletech at all until many years later). Sometime around age 13 or 14, while hanging out in Pastimes playing Heroclix, my eye was drawn to the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers starter box set produced by Games Workshop. Eventually I saved up the $40 bucks it would cost me (a joke when you look at GW's current prices). Thus began my life as a wargamer. I later was drawn into Warhammer 40k, and Fantasy and have continued gaming on and off ever since; collecting and selling many different armies.

So what is this blog anyhow?

This blog will serve as a project log concerning Games Workshop's wonderful game, The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's cycle of novels, and Peter Jackson's epic films. I plan to collect the now out of print Journeybooks produced by GW, which detail the events of the films and novels through a number of scenarios. What I plan to do is to start at the beginning, and collect and paint all the historical participants and terrain, and, if I ever find anyone interested (not my wife) play them! My main goal however will be do get everything used, secondhand, or on sale. I.e. I don't want to pay full price unless I have to.

I have decided to undertake this project for a number of reasons, which I will list now:

• Warhammer holds no lasting cultural significance. In 20 years, when I'm hopefully done with this project, people will see my collection and say, "Wow, thats all really cool Lord of the Rings stuff!" If I had an awesome Warhammer army out on display, no matter how awesome, very few people would appreciate it beyond the initial awe at the scale that we gamers paint in.
• Warhammer is too darn expensive, and the rules have totally turned me off from 40k.
• I have matured to the point where I am just fine making my toys look pretty, I no longer *have* to play with them. (i.e. the hobby aspect greatly interests me)
• One day, if I finish the collection, I can pass it down to my kids or grandkids, and that would be awesome.

Shout-outs!

I would like to give a shout-out to some people first of all: The top three would have to be Khavor, MightyChad, and sm51498 whose work can be found on Cool Mini or Not (not their real names) who are three Golden Demon Class painters (2 have actually garnered trophies) who I know IRL, and have had the honor of watching paint. I never really took the time to learn actual painting from them (silly me), as I have no interest in competition, however their skill and dedication is very inspiring. Also thank you to all the guys in Boone who kind of brought me out of a gaming hiatus I was in after my first year of college, which was pretty important in my gaming career. And my brother because he was always a lot nerdier than me growing up, which was good as I found out about a lot of stuff I never would have another way.Also my wife is awesome for putting up with my nerdy hobby which she had no idea about until far too late in our relationship!



Now don't wait long for the first real blog post, which will be a long one, as I will start typing it right, about, now.........