My point is I feel I play stronger when Im off the beaten path a little bit and in a strategical type struggle where Im fighting for squares, hindering the mobility of a piece, making an opponents outpost get a little fragile, weakening color complexes, etc. Sure tactics are fun and neccessary and attacks are part of the game but I dont go out of my way to get those positions where those are the main theme.
I feel the same: I've always been an e4 player but I'm getting sick of going against people who know 15 moves of theory of sicilian, french, caro, etc. Studying openings is a thing I enjoy (because I focus on learning strategical concepts and not just memorizing moves) but I'm a great disadvantage because I've been playing chess for 1 year and a half. And I'm going agaisnt people who've been playing a certain line for 20+ years.
However, I would advice you against playing the London or Colle.
First you just need to encounter the Qb6 line and your trust in the London will be cut in a half. But regardeless of your result, the problem still stands: the London is a dry and boring opening.
You play the same sort of positions every single time. Black is never really challenged, but cannot shake things up either, so again the position is boring as hell. This is really bad for anybody's chess development.
You learn chess (and you have fun) by getting into interesting and unusual positions. And there's a whole truckload of them with the 1.d4 2.c4 openings. There are lines with monster theory but you can avoid all of them and still retain an advantage (unlike with 1. e4 I would say). The possible moves are so many (for both sides) that you'll soon be on your own and into an interesting strategical struggle. Chess intuition and creativity will be rewarded.
It's a paradox that you want to play the London. The London is specifically for people who don't want to get off the beaten track. It's for people who want to play the same thing every single time. Just doing their own little system.
At least the Trompowsky or Veresov usually lead to interesting positions, if you really want to get a system. But the London is the death of creativity.
My reasoning behind wanting to learn the caro-slav-london openings is about the pawn structures & the strategic objectives behind them. Its the structures that create plans & I felt I was saving time by learning systems that are connected structure-wise. The pawn structure is what makes them related in my opinion. Another example would be learning the kings indian, pirc, kings indian attack. Or the sicilian dragon, benoni, english, etc. I know the London isnt that great, but Im a more strategic/positional style player & I want something that will make the opponent out work me positionally & I want to save time on opening study. I just want to be in an even position going into the middlegame. I can plan & execute fairly well without knowing openings but I have to get a level playing field out of the opening if Im to ever get better. I believe my strategic understanding exceeds my rating & if I just learn some openings for a change I could get better, hopefully. As an example: in my nine tournament games vs. official masters Im 2 wins, 6 losses, 1 draw and against titled players (13 games, 4 titled opponents had dropped below 2200 so I didnt consider them "masters" anymore for statistical purposes) Im 3 wins, 7 losses, 3 draws, all of which were out of "book" early and mostly because my titled opponents deliberate dragged it into those areas believing (& theyre right about this for the most part) that most non masters are mostly opening gurus and kind of weak when it comes to middlegames & endings. But I never learned openings unlike most players my rating & up, its been mostly middlegames and some endings. My point is I feel I play stronger when Im off the beaten path a little bit and in a strategical type struggle where Im fighting for squares, hindering the mobility of a piece, making an opponents outpost get a little fragile, weakening color complexes, etc. Sure tactics are fun and neccessary and attacks are part of the game but I dont go out of my way to get those positions where those are the main theme.