Finding the Right Minis for your Budget
The use of minis is often useful when working out the tactical and logistical parts of combat. There are many ways to go about representing yourself/your party and monsters on the battlefield and I'll go through them in increasing cost for you.
Counters
A circle with the character's name on it. If you are just looking to represent where a thing is on a 1 inch square map then this is the most simple and cheapest way to do it! You could use the following:
A circle of cardboard
Sweets
Buy a bag of sweets to represent the bad guys that your party is fighting. The added bonus is that you get to eat what you kill! Just make sure to ask the group if there are any allergies or dietary requirements; you can deal with character death but not player death....
Paper Minis
You can resize any image and print it out and attach it to a base/fold the paper to keep it upright. That's it, if you are adept at drawing you can even draw everything out . Here are some images that are ready for printing:
There's also some origami tutorials here.
Reaper
I love Reaper minis! For just a couple of pounds you can get a detailed unpainted mini in either metal or rubberised plastic. They have a website that you can search by gender, race, class and weapons. My top tip is to find the model on their website and then find it on eBay for around £3.
Wizkids
Their pre-painted models leave a lot to be desired as they are done quickly/by a machine. My Drunken Master mini is the one I am least happy with. That being said they are getting better, but the random nature of the boxes and my love of painting means it's a pass from me.
The New Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line looks brilliant and has really hit the right tone in terms of quality, design and price. I bought the Monk set for a character I am finalising and I like the leveling up aspect of the blister pack. There are two minis of the same character but the second one has better gear so you have an early and later level example of your PC. They are available unpainted too so you can tailor the colours to your vision.
I go here for quality bulk bad guys. There are a few options for character models that can work, however, the new Age of Sigmar style is not really sympatico with D&D as most of the humans and Dwarves are carrying guns.
By far the most customizable and detailed minis on the market but that does come with a price tag. The minis range from $14.99 in Nylon to $99.99 in Bronze; I went for the Premium Plastic option at $29.99 and I am very happy with it. I made a Firbolg Druid for one of my players and the level of detail and the ease of painting justified the price tag. If you are able to get a group of players together to make an order then the shipping is significantly reduced.
3D Printer
I keep telling everyone what a hero Miguel is but it needs repeating. He's made 3D models for everything in the Monster Manual and loads of different character miniatures FOR FREE. All you need to do is set up an account and then download the files.
There's also Thingverse which is free and searchable but honestly only go there if you can't find it from Miguel!
You can get a digital file to home print Heroforge minis and they are very reasonable at $9.99 as you can print as many as you want and you can have the mini within a couple of hours. The quality will depend entirely on your printer so do a test one before going wild and ordering an entire party.
So there you have it, I try to get lucky on eBay or sometimes wait a long time for minis if I see a Kickstarter that I like. These are all viable options but remember that this is the theatre of the mind game and everything else is a bonus. Pick what's right for you.
May you roll well...
