I recently stumbled upon some battle report videos on YouTube at the weekend and found myself wanting to find out more about this game so started reading and more video watching and would have liked to have given this a try years ago. Basically is there anywhere in my area (ayrshire, Scotland) where I could maybe learn to play or whatever before I dive in ?

I recommend posting in the Opponent Finder forum viewforum.php?f=34

Being in the UK, you're already at an advantage for finding an opponent. I would reccomend joining the Great British Hobbit League facebook page. Apparently, that's where the action goes down these days.

Of course, you can have plenty of fun just painting, posing, photographing and making terrain.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Welcome. I am lucky I can play games at home with our son (when he is on leave from the army) and our grandsons (aged 10, 7 and 6) who are all keen on the Hobbit games and the oldest on LOTR. Look for our Callum and Grandad posts here.

I'd suggest joining a local club and attending some of the wargame shows in Scotland. Not many LOTR games on show but there are a lot of clubs present so you should be able to find one that has at least "someone" who plays. The next big show is Claymore in Edinburgh on Saturday 5 August https://seswc.co.uk/2017/02/09/claymore-2017/ I'll be there with the Bathgate Wargames Club.

BTW we are in Livingston, West Lothian.