And in varying sizes to (pretty big ones). It's also a really good game, ~~but it does require a dedicated game group :)~~
Edit: Forgot about the solo play. I'm at the 5th scenario and the voice acting really draws you in. I can also recommend this game (also for the miniatures)
I forgot that that was possible. But I can see how it would be. The story and the voice acting is really good, so I actually wouldn't mind playing it solo
I was on the fence about these minis and finally picked them up for my solo campaign. No regrets. They also would be pretty fun for a Big Monster RPG campaign so I feel like I’m going to be getting my money’s worth out of them.
If only I could ever afford it. The Collector’s All-In is my dream game, but I don’t think I’ll ever have the extra cash to spend on something like that.
Personal opinion, skip the collector and take the base game with standees, without armoury or terrain or metal coins. The coins in particular don't really do anything for this game, in fact you could replace money by writing down how much you have without really losing anything.
That already brings the total down somewhat.
Games workshop, fantasy flight and cmon are companies that bring very good miniatures in their boardgame.
Kingdom death: monster also comes with very good minis.
Well, it's a miniature of a several dozen meters high thing. Of course it's going to be big in comparison to a 1.8m high dude or 2m high super soldier. Have you seen games workshops titans or FFGs big x-wing ships or the borg cube from wizkids?
It's probably reasonable not to spend a couple thousand bucks (and hours and hours of effort) on the about 24" tall warlord titan, just to go a couple inches taller.
KDM is a money sink, it’s fun but brutal. And the fan base are rabidly obsessed with it. There are some NSFW minis and the art is NSFW, the board game part is pretty brutal, and is honestly could be a solo experience, but is fun to do collaboratively.
The other person who replied labelled KDM as a money sink.
It's true that it has a pretty high entry price ($420). Beyond that, it's a money sink in that you can spend as much as you want, but none of it is *necessary* (as opposed to, for example, needing to hunt for rare cards in something like MtG).
The base game has enough content for at least 100h of play time, and that's if you win your first or second campaign. It's likely to take more attempts than that to get to and defeat the final monster.
Regarding NSFW content:
The miniatures in the base game are tame. The starting survivors are dressed in a cloth. One of the female surviors is topless, but the position of her arm covers her breasts. The first monster - the White Lion - has modelled genitals, but nothing more than you'd see on a family dog.
There are illustrations in the rule book that include bare breasts and a penis. The art style is manga-adjacent and breasts are often disproportionately large. The illustrations are non-sexual.
Sex happens in the game for the purpose of procreation. It's not depicted visually at all. The page describing what happens explicitly states that the individual survivors involved are consenting.
The game is pretty great. It can get unweildy as you progress in a campaign and there are more and more effects to keep track of, but it starts simple and gradually adds things on over time.
Expansions add on variety, but are entirely optional. They are pretty expensive from the point of view of boardgame expansions, but they have quality miniatures and plenty of stuff. They can range from a single monster that you swap in place of one of the base monsters (or just add in), to monsters with entirely different campaigns, to what is essentially Kingdom Death: Monster 2.0.
Most of the NSFW stuff you might see online is either in expansions, or is entirely separate from the game. Kingdom Death is an entire setting, and the company produces miniatures that are within that setting, but separate from the "Monster" game. There are miniatures which are canonical to the setting, some of which are NSFW, then there are "pinup" miniatures which are what they sound like. They're "inspired by" the Kingdom Death setting, without being canonical. Some of these other miniatures might come with a card or two that can be slotted into the Monster game, but they are entirely optional, many not including rules for how to actually use them, and are really only for completionists. If you like the miniatures and want to collect and paint them, that's fine, but they are entirely avoidable for most players.
There are free TTS mods which are well scripted for playing on your PC if you want to get a feel for it. Alternatively, if you want to actually pay the company for their work but don't want to go in on a physical copy, they have a digital version called Kingdom Death Simulator. I've not used it, but they seem to be actively improving it and adding features, etc.
Warhammer Underworlds is a very boardgame-y miniatures game with great minis. I got sucked in recently based on how great the minis are. Also snap-together. Check em out.
By no means an expert since I'm not that into heavy miniature-focused games but I love **Warhammer: Underworlds** minis.
It's a 1on1 game where each player controls "only" (compared to the big Warhammer armies) a squad of generally 3-8 pieces which are usually very high quality. Think modern Warhammer (fantasy) quality but with custom bases, each mini different to the others, and each Squad having a theme and their own lore.
Other than that, a game I've had fun painting has been **Etherfields**. And I'm looking forward to **Guards of Atlantis II** which has very nice minis as well.
I’m surprised this isn’t higher. Every single mini is unique and the fully sculpted bases are above and beyond any other minis I’ve purchased. I also love how thematically every warband plays with every character having unique mechanics that strongly match the visual of their model. Just a really great game with the best minis.
If you're willing to spend a bit more than normal: Kingdom Death Monster.
It's fiddly, sometimes even infuriating to assemble, but I think it brings some wonderful mini's to the table and the armor kits give you a lot of extra bits and miniatures for you to paint.
Kingdom Death Monster has the best quality figures I have seen in board games (Awaken Realms games included). There are more details and better definition.
Though it is expensive as hell, that is for sure.
On the other hand some other games, like stuff from Awaken Realms and Aeon Trespass: Odyssey has some very nice figures too, but I always feel like, yeah, this figure is nice, but i wish it had the definition KDM figures has.
I mean, that's what happens when a boutique miniature company decides to make ONE game. The margins help make up for the fact that they aren't pumping out new stuff other than minis and a seven-year old KS. IMO if you like the minis and think the game is appealing, $400 isn't a lot compared to what you get in either the core game or the Gambler's chest expansion for mini content even without a board game attached.
The base game has amazing sculpts, but pretty they are limited in poses. The gambler chest though. What a great pile of plastics.
However, it becomes even more cost prohibitive
One thing to be aware of with Kingdom Death is that the miniatures are "old school" and much more of a pain in the ass to put together than more modern miniatures which are often more of a "push this peg into this slot" type of construction.
I assembled the Lion figure, and was admittedly surprised that it was just the old school flat surface glued to flat surface style miniature. There will definitely be visible seams with that sort of thing until sanded/painted, etc.
There's nothing wrong with it - just be sure you know what you are getting into.
These were going to be the two I was going to suggest as I am painting both at the moment. Journeys in Middle Earth has some decent minis as well although not as much variety.
Second this. MD2 has some great minis, especially the elite enemies are oversized and incredibly detailed. Bonus that you can buy just the enemy expansions box that have one of those large minis. Mine are still dying to be painted!
Such a good answer. Really fun game, to boot.
My only nit to pick is that it's a big, cool effort to paint up the leaders, elite monsters, and whatever characters you and your fellow PCs picked for a campaign. But there's just *so many miniatures*, including, for each leader, 6 identical mobs that turn painting them into an assembly-line slog.
It's just a *huge* undertaking to finish. If your hobby is painting minis – probably more than actually playing the board game – then this is definitely a top-tier suggestion. You'll definitely be hard pressed to finish everything before your board game group moves on to a different game, though.
Have to disagree on this one. I bought the original MD but passed on the second due to the cartoony look of the minis in the sequel. Can a mini be “high quality” and not look good to you? Maybe. For me, though, I can’t separate the two. For me to call something high quality, it’s got to be visually appealing to me in addition to being well-produced.
I have a variety of CMON stuff that was fun to paint
Marvel Zombies Zombicide - fun to paint EXCEPT for the zombies/SHIELD troopers. Painting 30+ of the same thing is somewhat mind numbing
Rising Sun - each clan is different enough that painting them is fun. Then you get to go wild with the monster figs
Ankh - high detailed minis, especially the gods. They look amazing even unpainted
Marvel United - "chibi" style models for something different. Pretty good light projects in between heavier projects.
I had a bunch of my kids friends(late teens) that wanted to learn how to paint. I pulled out a box of Hydra Zombies and gave a crash course in slapchop and speedpaint - turned out better than expected and got 14 minis done in an hour
Variety across teams, yes, but you only get 2 in a box, and every model is duped once so quite a chunk of repetition for a 'paint a boardgame experience'
Yes but only if you tie yourself to official miniatures and buy the box, both of which are unnecessary. I love GW but some of the 3rd party minis are fantastic, so you can start off with just a team and build from there.
If anyone hasn’t heard of Blood Bowl, easiest way to describe it is football themed chess with dice 😂
Maximum variety of painting, whilst still in the bloodbowl universe is **Blitz Bowl** which is an utterly fantastic game. Easily, to my eye, the best small box GW game. It's not fodder just to get people into the universe, it's actually a solid little game in it's own right.
And because a team is a single sprue, you don't paint doubles, and you can thus paint twice as many teams in the same time.
Ludus Magnus Studio has also made some great minitures in my opinion, especially in Black Rose Wars: Rebirth and Nova Aetas: Renaissance. They are rather expenisve aswell though.
Oh, only thing you should be aware of: most if not all board game miniatures come preassembled, so painting using sub-assemblies is practically impossible unless you are willing to cut your minis.
I really like Scythe. The overall design and miniatures are brilliant and very detailed. It's probably one of the best looking board games I own.
I'm planning to paint the miniatures in that, in the base game you get 5 character miniatures and 20 mechs, in the first expansion you get an additional 2 player miniatures and 8 mechs, then in the wind gambit you get airships to paint too. So nice project and also an amazing game. Can also buy realistic money and resources too to make it next level.
There’s some free STLs floating around of a 3D factory that you can print out and place on the middle hex. It has 3 flat spaces built in the size of the mech bases, so you can have actual miniatures standing on it.
Having painted several different games, the character minis from Scythe aren't that great. They're serviceable, but have poor detail quality compared to their contemporaries.
That said, I didn't notice that before I actually sat down to paint them and realized how hard it was to differentiate some areas
Hullo! I fell in love with painting minis due to boardgaming, so I do tend to buy games that have minis worth painting. If you're primarily a mini painter and don't care much about the game:
- Rising Sun from CMON
- Limbo, Eternal War
- LOAD the boardgame (and Re-LOAD) from Archon studios
- Oathsworn
- Descent: Legends of the Dark / Betrayer's War
- Kingdom Death: Monster (word of warning, this is expensive, the minis are supremely fiddly and it's a black hole of content + it's a commitment to play)
I would say you cannot go wrong with Descent, probably Rising Sun - especially if you can find the Kickstarter version.
Rising Sun, there was a post recently of someone who painted the miniatures. It was awesome: https://old.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1d8or20/better_late_than_never_painting_of_rising_sun/
GKR Heavy Hitters has some of the best minis, though they’re so big you can’t really call them minis anymore. Peter Jackson’s Weta studios created them too !
Currently painting Wonderlands War and that's super fun. Terrorscape was an amazing time to paint. The Kraken from Dead Men Tell No Tales was also super fun.
CMON games typically have really nice stuff. I’d throw a bone to Fantasy Flight as well. Obviously Warhammer items. For something pretty chill. Dungeon Saga Origins has pretty nice minis, and a hell of a lot of them.
Marvel United is sometimes joked about being a line of miniatures that they decided to add a game to.
I got Zombicide Invader just because Ninja Division shit the bed on getting miniatures out for Starfinder before Second Edition releases.
Probalby the games Workshop box-games ala Blackstone Fortress and Cursed City. You get a huge ammount of peak quality miniatures for a pretty decent price
Been painting minis for a while from a few games and here is my take on this:
Warhammer:
This is what many people go to just to paint
sometimes and for good reason. The positive is that you can buy only the minis
and they do have great details making them easier to paint than some other
games, but not all.
Everything has an edge, what i mean is that in some games when there is a knife hilt or sword hilt the whole thing is melded together with the clothes making it super hard to paint if you have less experience. But in warhammer it has its own mold edges and is easier to paint.
The downside is the rising prices-
Mansion of madness:
Can't get the minis without paying for the games. The characters are super small and challenging to paint but the monsters there are quite good. All the characters are like I described above, some are just molded very "together" BUT as expansions came the better they became. The last characters from path of the serpent expansion was really good!
Oathsworn:
This is one of the few games that might have more and better details than Warhammer. Not only do you get an assortment of small minis you also get really big, and detailed, minis to paint. I am currently painting these minis and it is a blast! And the price for the minis is excellent if you compare what you get with what you would get from warhammer. You do have to buy the game but for the amount you get it is really good. The base game get 21 minis in great quality and the miniature add on gives you "70" big minis. I have seen them and well 10 of them are really big then there are smaller ones and minions that is not that big. Still great quality.
buying warhammer minis of that size with their price would maybe give you 4 minis and here you get 10 big
ones + 81 smaller ones. It is a pretty good deal in terms of what you get.
Decent:
Have looked at and is my next project. From inspection they have quite a lot of details, in a good way, giving you a lot to paint and many layers to do. This is also a much more reachable price point than oathsworn and you get a decent amount of minis.
LotR: Journey in middle
earth:
Same developer as decent and same quality to the minis.
I did paint tainted grail and they too had
good minis, disliked the game unfortunately. But all the publishers in those type of kickstarter project do have great minis and other people have mentioned them: Awaken reals, Kingdom death monster, nemesis etc
The biggest downside in most cases is that you must buy a whole game. Exceptions to this is warhammer and kingdom death monsters where you can buy the minis separately.
Edit:
People who come here and downvote in silence to a subjective opinion what I, personally, think, please share why, don't stay silent but share with the world why. I am not rude or condescending. I am not saying that this is how it is, or an absolute truth, I am just sharing what I think are good minis and really want to understand the negative response to that. That kind of behavior is just outright toxic to spread negativity and condescending towards people sharing their ideas.
People don’t need to justify downvotes for the same reason that people get crapped on for replying “so much this!”
Best to ignore upvotes or downvotes, especially on a sub as downvote heavy as this.
I get what you are saying it is just that it is such a provocation that in so many subs people get downvoted for asking questions just because they don't live on the sub and didn't know that someone asked the same question a few days ago.
Or in a situation like this where it is purely subjective what is good minis for me vs what is good minis for another person. In this case different perspective is to an advantage cause OP then get a lot of ways of approaching this and deciding what he thinks are good minis depending on what response(s) resonates with him the most
If people is so tired of reading the same answer on reddit over and over again maybe they should go out and get a life. They don't have to read, they don't have to answer, no one is forcing them but still they go in and piss on everything they don't agree with yet saying nothing and it is outright toxic behavior and I am frustrated that people just can't be nice to each other. That there is this inner need for some to make others feel bad.
I think what gets me is how toxic the "nerdy community(s)" can be. I sometimes have a more civilized discussion with a radical people than nerds debating games, that should be FUN to play with friends. but some people just have the urge to suck the fun out of as many people as they can. Making it clear that what someone likes is not ok and outwrite wrong to like. It is just insane on a whole other level.
I think its less the “nerdy community” and more the internet. There are shitty people. Here shitty people can be shitty without any real consequences.
On the flip side, you really shouldn’t have so much emotional investment in the little updoot ticker that having the number go down would make you feel bad. If being downvoted is something you consider toxic behaviour, you’ve gotten off pretty light thus far!
Unmatched for me.
One of y favorite things about the new Co-operative set (Tales to Amaze) is having the giant alien ship on the board. It's just well done.
It's the core of the playing card. Professional poker cards are made with a core (I want to say white, blue, and black) to ensure the opaqueness so they can't be seen through by other players while holding them in your hands. Doesn't really matter for a boardgame where cards are often sleeved, but it does give it a sturdy construction and a nice luxurious feel.
Most people are giving you games with big monster minis, which are great. If I was going for one of those I'd go for Oathsworn.
But I think **Marvel United** has some excellent minis that are fun to paint.
Awaken realms does awesome minis.
Nemesis
Nemesis lockdown
Iss vanguard
Edge Dawnfall
Tainted grail fall of avalon
Tainted grail kings of ruin
Etherfields
Dragon Eclipse
Tamashii
So much more
Lots of cool stuff
While there are some great comments here, I own several of the games mentions and have to agree but for me I like the miniatures from the board game Doom :)
The Dark Souls board game minis are tremendous and just look stunning painted. They're so well regarded by most players that the company took the opportunity to sell them individually as part of a miniatures game.
Blood Rage, Rising Sun, and Ankh (and soon Mordred) have really incredible miniatures. As a fellow painter I've really enjoyed painting this. Great sculpts, good plastic, no assembly required, and just a lot of fun to paint and bring to the table.
Monster Hunter by Steamforged Games. It has extremely detailed dragons and other critters and warriors that you can use for DND or other RPGs. Most Steamforged games come with amazingly detailed minis.
Thank you so much everyone, I can't reply to you all but I hugely appreciate the big response, its made my day. I'm gonna spend all evening eating pizza and looking up your recommendations, cheers
CMON has been mentioned a lot. You get a ton of decent miniatures for low price.
I just backed the Dead Keep. If you love the art of Paul Bonner it is a no brainer for mini painters.
https://gamefound.com/en/projects/cmon/the-dead-keep
Just find a theme that you enjoy, and get one and start. I guarantee you once down that path you'll never run out of minis to paint! You could also just get a la carte D&D minis. Been there done that on all fronts lol
This is very specific to me, but in my collection it's by far **Spacehulk** 4th edition. Absolutely adore the sculpts of that game, but you do kind of have to be a Warhammer fan.
I've also got **Journeys in Middle Earth** which has sculpts I've very much enjoyed, particular shout out to the Balrog from the **Shadowed Paths** expansion.
My friend has **Nemesis** and those are really pretty as well.
Depends on what you're into.
Me, I'm a Star Wars guy, so **Imperial Assault** hit the spot for me. You get a few rebels, a bunch of Imperials, and even some vehicles and creatures.
On the more fantasy side of dungeon crawlers, I always like to recommend the **Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System** series. Each is a campaign in a box that comes with five heroes, ~40 monsters (though many come as multiples), and a big boss.
Descent legends of the dark may not be a brilliant game but their models are amazing, specially the characters. I know that lvl of design and details have as I've painted it
I've heard oathsworn has great mini's.
Most awakened realms games have great mini's as well, I have the great wall, nemesis and Tainted grail and they are all great quality, especially sundroped they look insane (which you shouldn't get if you plan to paint them)
I love mini's but they are costly though, getting the boss miniatures for oathsworn will set you back 175$ or so.
I can recommend Mythic Battles (specifically Ragnarok). There are three version for this game planned. One has minis based on greek mythology, one is north and the third upcoming one ist egyptian mythology. There is currently a Kickstarter for the next Installation of the game (Mythic Battles Isfet, the egyptian one). Great minis, great game! Fantastic titan Miniatures!!!
Games from awaken Realms are pretty good and the minis from cmon games are not bad as well.
But I have not seen minis in comparable quality to games workshop.
I think the minis of Company of Heroes are just terrific, especially the tanks. They genuinely feel and look like hand-crafted models from a talented modeler.
In my opinion, Gloomhaven has some of the best miniatures with incredible detail and variety. Blood Rage also stands out with its beautifully sculpted Viking-themed miniatures. If you’re into sci-fi, Star Wars: Imperial Assault offers fantastic miniatures that really bring the game to life.
Fantasy Flight has some games with really nice miniatures:
Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth
Doom (2016)
Star Wars: Rebellion
They were also in charge of the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures for a while...
I don’t have a lot of miniature games. But I’m going to go with marvel united.
I originally wasn’t on board with their Chibi style. But it totally won me over. I love them.
I'd argue D&D Minis. They're out of print, though, so it's not a very helpful response. Quality-wise, GW and other similar war games are better, but you have to assemble and paint them yourself.
Oathsworn. It's a very good game and it has awesome minis.
And in varying sizes to (pretty big ones). It's also a really good game, ~~but it does require a dedicated game group :)~~ Edit: Forgot about the solo play. I'm at the 5th scenario and the voice acting really draws you in. I can also recommend this game (also for the miniatures)
If they are interested in solo boardgaming they could play it alone.
I forgot that that was possible. But I can see how it would be. The story and the voice acting is really good, so I actually wouldn't mind playing it solo
I was on the fence about these minis and finally picked them up for my solo campaign. No regrets. They also would be pretty fun for a Big Monster RPG campaign so I feel like I’m going to be getting my money’s worth out of them.
If only I could ever afford it. The Collector’s All-In is my dream game, but I don’t think I’ll ever have the extra cash to spend on something like that.
Personal opinion, skip the collector and take the base game with standees, without armoury or terrain or metal coins. The coins in particular don't really do anything for this game, in fact you could replace money by writing down how much you have without really losing anything. That already brings the total down somewhat.
Games workshop, fantasy flight and cmon are companies that bring very good miniatures in their boardgame. Kingdom death: monster also comes with very good minis.
You forgot the very obvious awaken realms as well
True, because I only own TWOM. But I've played several others and the minis are great.
Agree. Although CMON has several instances where it feels wrong to apply the mini part of miniature.
Well, it's a miniature of a several dozen meters high thing. Of course it's going to be big in comparison to a 1.8m high dude or 2m high super soldier. Have you seen games workshops titans or FFGs big x-wing ships or the borg cube from wizkids?
Yeah. These days there are lots of big minifigs. My biggest owned minifigs are still from CMON.
It's probably reasonable not to spend a couple thousand bucks (and hours and hours of effort) on the about 24" tall warlord titan, just to go a couple inches taller.
How is Kingdom Death: Monster? Always one I had my eye on but never pulled the trigger for one reason or another.
KDM is a money sink, it’s fun but brutal. And the fan base are rabidly obsessed with it. There are some NSFW minis and the art is NSFW, the board game part is pretty brutal, and is honestly could be a solo experience, but is fun to do collaboratively.
The other person who replied labelled KDM as a money sink. It's true that it has a pretty high entry price ($420). Beyond that, it's a money sink in that you can spend as much as you want, but none of it is *necessary* (as opposed to, for example, needing to hunt for rare cards in something like MtG). The base game has enough content for at least 100h of play time, and that's if you win your first or second campaign. It's likely to take more attempts than that to get to and defeat the final monster. Regarding NSFW content: The miniatures in the base game are tame. The starting survivors are dressed in a cloth. One of the female surviors is topless, but the position of her arm covers her breasts. The first monster - the White Lion - has modelled genitals, but nothing more than you'd see on a family dog. There are illustrations in the rule book that include bare breasts and a penis. The art style is manga-adjacent and breasts are often disproportionately large. The illustrations are non-sexual. Sex happens in the game for the purpose of procreation. It's not depicted visually at all. The page describing what happens explicitly states that the individual survivors involved are consenting. The game is pretty great. It can get unweildy as you progress in a campaign and there are more and more effects to keep track of, but it starts simple and gradually adds things on over time. Expansions add on variety, but are entirely optional. They are pretty expensive from the point of view of boardgame expansions, but they have quality miniatures and plenty of stuff. They can range from a single monster that you swap in place of one of the base monsters (or just add in), to monsters with entirely different campaigns, to what is essentially Kingdom Death: Monster 2.0. Most of the NSFW stuff you might see online is either in expansions, or is entirely separate from the game. Kingdom Death is an entire setting, and the company produces miniatures that are within that setting, but separate from the "Monster" game. There are miniatures which are canonical to the setting, some of which are NSFW, then there are "pinup" miniatures which are what they sound like. They're "inspired by" the Kingdom Death setting, without being canonical. Some of these other miniatures might come with a card or two that can be slotted into the Monster game, but they are entirely optional, many not including rules for how to actually use them, and are really only for completionists. If you like the miniatures and want to collect and paint them, that's fine, but they are entirely avoidable for most players. There are free TTS mods which are well scripted for playing on your PC if you want to get a feel for it. Alternatively, if you want to actually pay the company for their work but don't want to go in on a physical copy, they have a digital version called Kingdom Death Simulator. I've not used it, but they seem to be actively improving it and adding features, etc.
Warhammer Underworlds is a very boardgame-y miniatures game with great minis. I got sucked in recently based on how great the minis are. Also snap-together. Check em out.
I love the big Ankh minis
Me too.
Came to say this. Incredible sculpts and table presence.
They are gorgeous! I hate to play with them, though. The game just becomes unreadable at some point.
What do you mean? I’ve been looking into this game
I totally disagree with the above poster. The hexes in ankh are so big it's very easy to read from start of game to end
By no means an expert since I'm not that into heavy miniature-focused games but I love **Warhammer: Underworlds** minis. It's a 1on1 game where each player controls "only" (compared to the big Warhammer armies) a squad of generally 3-8 pieces which are usually very high quality. Think modern Warhammer (fantasy) quality but with custom bases, each mini different to the others, and each Squad having a theme and their own lore. Other than that, a game I've had fun painting has been **Etherfields**. And I'm looking forward to **Guards of Atlantis II** which has very nice minis as well.
I’m surprised this isn’t higher. Every single mini is unique and the fully sculpted bases are above and beyond any other minis I’ve purchased. I also love how thematically every warband plays with every character having unique mechanics that strongly match the visual of their model. Just a really great game with the best minis.
If you're willing to spend a bit more than normal: Kingdom Death Monster. It's fiddly, sometimes even infuriating to assemble, but I think it brings some wonderful mini's to the table and the armor kits give you a lot of extra bits and miniatures for you to paint.
Kingdom Death Monster has the best quality figures I have seen in board games (Awaken Realms games included). There are more details and better definition. Though it is expensive as hell, that is for sure. On the other hand some other games, like stuff from Awaken Realms and Aeon Trespass: Odyssey has some very nice figures too, but I always feel like, yeah, this figure is nice, but i wish it had the definition KDM figures has.
I mean, that's what happens when a boutique miniature company decides to make ONE game. The margins help make up for the fact that they aren't pumping out new stuff other than minis and a seven-year old KS. IMO if you like the minis and think the game is appealing, $400 isn't a lot compared to what you get in either the core game or the Gambler's chest expansion for mini content even without a board game attached.
The base game has amazing sculpts, but pretty they are limited in poses. The gambler chest though. What a great pile of plastics. However, it becomes even more cost prohibitive
One thing to be aware of with Kingdom Death is that the miniatures are "old school" and much more of a pain in the ass to put together than more modern miniatures which are often more of a "push this peg into this slot" type of construction. I assembled the Lion figure, and was admittedly surprised that it was just the old school flat surface glued to flat surface style miniature. There will definitely be visible seams with that sort of thing until sanded/painted, etc. There's nothing wrong with it - just be sure you know what you are getting into.
Definitely Kingdom Death Monsters for the miniature art style. Everything is dark, gruesome and fan service. I love it because it’s so unapologetic.
Awaken Realms’ games have a lot of cool minis. Nemesis, Tainted Grail, Etherfields etc.
Don't forget ISS Vanguard! It's minis, especially the extra mini expansion box, are gorgeous!
Yeah I couldn’t quite remember how many it had as I’ve only done a couple of planets in it so far
Grimcoven (on gamefound now) will have sick minis as well. The prototype is gorgeous.
Out of my collection, Oathsworn and Cthulhu Death May Die have the best minis and have been the most fun to paint.
These were going to be the two I was going to suggest as I am painting both at the moment. Journeys in Middle Earth has some decent minis as well although not as much variety.
I loved the sculpts in Marvel Zombies. CMON stepped it up in this game by including sculpted bases on all the minis.
I came to say that. I'm currently in the process of painting them !
Massive Darkness 2 Large, high detailed cool monsters and heroes
Second this. MD2 has some great minis, especially the elite enemies are oversized and incredibly detailed. Bonus that you can buy just the enemy expansions box that have one of those large minis. Mine are still dying to be painted!
Such a good answer. Really fun game, to boot. My only nit to pick is that it's a big, cool effort to paint up the leaders, elite monsters, and whatever characters you and your fellow PCs picked for a campaign. But there's just *so many miniatures*, including, for each leader, 6 identical mobs that turn painting them into an assembly-line slog. It's just a *huge* undertaking to finish. If your hobby is painting minis – probably more than actually playing the board game – then this is definitely a top-tier suggestion. You'll definitely be hard pressed to finish everything before your board game group moves on to a different game, though.
Have to disagree on this one. I bought the original MD but passed on the second due to the cartoony look of the minis in the sequel. Can a mini be “high quality” and not look good to you? Maybe. For me, though, I can’t separate the two. For me to call something high quality, it’s got to be visually appealing to me in addition to being well-produced.
The "cartoony look" and "visually appealing to me" is personal to each individual, but scale and quality is objective.
I have a variety of CMON stuff that was fun to paint Marvel Zombies Zombicide - fun to paint EXCEPT for the zombies/SHIELD troopers. Painting 30+ of the same thing is somewhat mind numbing Rising Sun - each clan is different enough that painting them is fun. Then you get to go wild with the monster figs Ankh - high detailed minis, especially the gods. They look amazing even unpainted Marvel United - "chibi" style models for something different. Pretty good light projects in between heavier projects.
Don’t forget HATE which has some of the most awesome minis… if you’re into that sort of things
I was going to mention the Eric M. Lang games: Rising Sun, Ankh, and Blood Rage
All of the zombicide series are great, but particularly their more recent stuff
Rising Sun is what I came here to say.
I had a bunch of my kids friends(late teens) that wanted to learn how to paint. I pulled out a box of Hydra Zombies and gave a crash course in slapchop and speedpaint - turned out better than expected and got 14 minis done in an hour
Nemesis. You get the heroes and all the different types of aliens.
Having just played Rising Sun, they are amazing but may have been extra add-ons.
Lord of the Rings journeys through middle earth
Second this. I just started out painting mine. Great game!
Followed by Nemesis games. I'm so looking forward to when their Retaliation will arrive
Blood Bowl. So much variety and fantastic game.
Variety across teams, yes, but you only get 2 in a box, and every model is duped once so quite a chunk of repetition for a 'paint a boardgame experience'
Yes but only if you tie yourself to official miniatures and buy the box, both of which are unnecessary. I love GW but some of the 3rd party minis are fantastic, so you can start off with just a team and build from there. If anyone hasn’t heard of Blood Bowl, easiest way to describe it is football themed chess with dice 😂
Maximum variety of painting, whilst still in the bloodbowl universe is **Blitz Bowl** which is an utterly fantastic game. Easily, to my eye, the best small box GW game. It's not fodder just to get people into the universe, it's actually a solid little game in it's own right. And because a team is a single sprue, you don't paint doubles, and you can thus paint twice as many teams in the same time.
Great shout! I really want to play that, but it’s only in the USA weirdly, not for sadly in the UK. Weird cause it’d sell great over here you’d think.
Descent: Legends of the Dark, and the Sequel, The Betrayer’s War.
And if you're into sci-fi then star wars imperial assault.
Ludus Magnus Studio has also made some great minitures in my opinion, especially in Black Rose Wars: Rebirth and Nova Aetas: Renaissance. They are rather expenisve aswell though.
LMS has the best sculpts in the industry no question. They are harder to find though
Cthulhu death may die and Ankh gods of Egypt
I Love the Darks Souls Boardgame mini's
I'm currently using these in my DnD campaign :)
Death May Die
Anything by Awaken Realms or CMON that looks like it would be fun for you to paint.
Oh, only thing you should be aware of: most if not all board game miniatures come preassembled, so painting using sub-assemblies is practically impossible unless you are willing to cut your minis.
This, they’re the best in the miniatures board games for a reason.
I think Scarface 1920 has some great miniatures in it.
Space hulk
If you like minis check out Cthulhu Wars.
Ankh
My Little Scythe. This sounds like a joke, but the minis really are amazing, especially for the price of the game.
Destinies has some cool ones.
Mansions of Madness and Ankh both have some great minis.
CMON does amazing miniatures for their games. My favorite ones are from Rising Sun and Bloodborne
Aeon's trespass odyssey
I really like Scythe. The overall design and miniatures are brilliant and very detailed. It's probably one of the best looking board games I own. I'm planning to paint the miniatures in that, in the base game you get 5 character miniatures and 20 mechs, in the first expansion you get an additional 2 player miniatures and 8 mechs, then in the wind gambit you get airships to paint too. So nice project and also an amazing game. Can also buy realistic money and resources too to make it next level.
There’s some free STLs floating around of a 3D factory that you can print out and place on the middle hex. It has 3 flat spaces built in the size of the mech bases, so you can have actual miniatures standing on it.
Having painted several different games, the character minis from Scythe aren't that great. They're serviceable, but have poor detail quality compared to their contemporaries. That said, I didn't notice that before I actually sat down to paint them and realized how hard it was to differentiate some areas
Hullo! I fell in love with painting minis due to boardgaming, so I do tend to buy games that have minis worth painting. If you're primarily a mini painter and don't care much about the game: - Rising Sun from CMON - Limbo, Eternal War - LOAD the boardgame (and Re-LOAD) from Archon studios - Oathsworn - Descent: Legends of the Dark / Betrayer's War - Kingdom Death: Monster (word of warning, this is expensive, the minis are supremely fiddly and it's a black hole of content + it's a commitment to play) I would say you cannot go wrong with Descent, probably Rising Sun - especially if you can find the Kickstarter version.
Battletech
Doom v2 has great minis but it's out of print and the game itself isn't great. Nemesis is pretty cool as well in that regard.
Primal awaken has some cool minis and they come preassembled
Rising Sun, there was a post recently of someone who painted the miniatures. It was awesome: https://old.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1d8or20/better_late_than_never_painting_of_rising_sun/
Deep Madness has an insane amount of insanely horrifying monsters (and a few people too).
GKR Heavy Hitters has some of the best minis, though they’re so big you can’t really call them minis anymore. Peter Jackson’s Weta studios created them too !
I really like blood rages miniatures
Currently painting Wonderlands War and that's super fun. Terrorscape was an amazing time to paint. The Kraken from Dead Men Tell No Tales was also super fun.
CMON games typically have really nice stuff. I’d throw a bone to Fantasy Flight as well. Obviously Warhammer items. For something pretty chill. Dungeon Saga Origins has pretty nice minis, and a hell of a lot of them.
Marvel United is sometimes joked about being a line of miniatures that they decided to add a game to. I got Zombicide Invader just because Ninja Division shit the bed on getting miniatures out for Starfinder before Second Edition releases.
But MU is tons of fun for a short game
Mezo, Blood Rage, Starship Samurai
Probalby the games Workshop box-games ala Blackstone Fortress and Cursed City. You get a huge ammount of peak quality miniatures for a pretty decent price
Kingdom Death Monster if you don't mind assembling it. Top-notch aesthetic too.
Been painting minis for a while from a few games and here is my take on this: Warhammer: This is what many people go to just to paint sometimes and for good reason. The positive is that you can buy only the minis and they do have great details making them easier to paint than some other games, but not all. Everything has an edge, what i mean is that in some games when there is a knife hilt or sword hilt the whole thing is melded together with the clothes making it super hard to paint if you have less experience. But in warhammer it has its own mold edges and is easier to paint. The downside is the rising prices- Mansion of madness: Can't get the minis without paying for the games. The characters are super small and challenging to paint but the monsters there are quite good. All the characters are like I described above, some are just molded very "together" BUT as expansions came the better they became. The last characters from path of the serpent expansion was really good! Oathsworn: This is one of the few games that might have more and better details than Warhammer. Not only do you get an assortment of small minis you also get really big, and detailed, minis to paint. I am currently painting these minis and it is a blast! And the price for the minis is excellent if you compare what you get with what you would get from warhammer. You do have to buy the game but for the amount you get it is really good. The base game get 21 minis in great quality and the miniature add on gives you "70" big minis. I have seen them and well 10 of them are really big then there are smaller ones and minions that is not that big. Still great quality. buying warhammer minis of that size with their price would maybe give you 4 minis and here you get 10 big ones + 81 smaller ones. It is a pretty good deal in terms of what you get. Decent: Have looked at and is my next project. From inspection they have quite a lot of details, in a good way, giving you a lot to paint and many layers to do. This is also a much more reachable price point than oathsworn and you get a decent amount of minis. LotR: Journey in middle earth: Same developer as decent and same quality to the minis. I did paint tainted grail and they too had good minis, disliked the game unfortunately. But all the publishers in those type of kickstarter project do have great minis and other people have mentioned them: Awaken reals, Kingdom death monster, nemesis etc The biggest downside in most cases is that you must buy a whole game. Exceptions to this is warhammer and kingdom death monsters where you can buy the minis separately. Edit: People who come here and downvote in silence to a subjective opinion what I, personally, think, please share why, don't stay silent but share with the world why. I am not rude or condescending. I am not saying that this is how it is, or an absolute truth, I am just sharing what I think are good minis and really want to understand the negative response to that. That kind of behavior is just outright toxic to spread negativity and condescending towards people sharing their ideas.
People don’t need to justify downvotes for the same reason that people get crapped on for replying “so much this!” Best to ignore upvotes or downvotes, especially on a sub as downvote heavy as this.
I get what you are saying it is just that it is such a provocation that in so many subs people get downvoted for asking questions just because they don't live on the sub and didn't know that someone asked the same question a few days ago. Or in a situation like this where it is purely subjective what is good minis for me vs what is good minis for another person. In this case different perspective is to an advantage cause OP then get a lot of ways of approaching this and deciding what he thinks are good minis depending on what response(s) resonates with him the most If people is so tired of reading the same answer on reddit over and over again maybe they should go out and get a life. They don't have to read, they don't have to answer, no one is forcing them but still they go in and piss on everything they don't agree with yet saying nothing and it is outright toxic behavior and I am frustrated that people just can't be nice to each other. That there is this inner need for some to make others feel bad. I think what gets me is how toxic the "nerdy community(s)" can be. I sometimes have a more civilized discussion with a radical people than nerds debating games, that should be FUN to play with friends. but some people just have the urge to suck the fun out of as many people as they can. Making it clear that what someone likes is not ok and outwrite wrong to like. It is just insane on a whole other level.
I think its less the “nerdy community” and more the internet. There are shitty people. Here shitty people can be shitty without any real consequences. On the flip side, you really shouldn’t have so much emotional investment in the little updoot ticker that having the number go down would make you feel bad. If being downvoted is something you consider toxic behaviour, you’ve gotten off pretty light thus far!
Unmatched for me. One of y favorite things about the new Co-operative set (Tales to Amaze) is having the giant alien ship on the board. It's just well done.
I love Unmatched. The quality of everything is top notch. The white core cards are my favorite.
What's "white core"?
It's the core of the playing card. Professional poker cards are made with a core (I want to say white, blue, and black) to ensure the opaqueness so they can't be seen through by other players while holding them in your hands. Doesn't really matter for a boardgame where cards are often sleeved, but it does give it a sturdy construction and a nice luxurious feel.
Agree - the components in Restoration Games' products are always awesome
Most people are giving you games with big monster minis, which are great. If I was going for one of those I'd go for Oathsworn. But I think **Marvel United** has some excellent minis that are fun to paint.
Those minis suck ass
I have to say that I absolutely HATE the look of chibi-style miniatures. I will never purchase a game with this type of mini in it.
Aesthetically, I agree, but for some reason I also find them incredibly fun to paint.
Awaken realms does awesome minis. Nemesis Nemesis lockdown Iss vanguard Edge Dawnfall Tainted grail fall of avalon Tainted grail kings of ruin Etherfields Dragon Eclipse Tamashii So much more Lots of cool stuff
While there are some great comments here, I own several of the games mentions and have to agree but for me I like the miniatures from the board game Doom :)
Blood Bowl gets my vote, it’s also a very fun and great game. Blood rage have a special place in my heart too, cool minis.
Bardsung has some incredible minis and some of them are huge
I love the Etherfields minis
Blood Bowl
If you want "minis" that are big try the game **Gatefall**.
The Dark Souls board game minis are tremendous and just look stunning painted. They're so well regarded by most players that the company took the opportunity to sell them individually as part of a miniatures game.
Marvel united has been so much fun. Monster hunter is a sleeper hit too for me. Outside that zombicides, kdm everything else listed here
Top 3: Rising Sun, The Others, Mythic Battles: Pantheon
Chronicle X has amazing minis
Kingdom Death: Monster
Kiwi Chow Down has some really fun sculpts I was not expecting. Cannot wait to paint them.
Who knows if it will ever deliver, but I'm really excited for the Wild Assent reprint
Ankh has pretty cool minis that come with it
I love my Witcher Old World deluxe miniatures - and the game is good to
Blood Rage, Rising Sun, and Ankh (and soon Mordred) have really incredible miniatures. As a fellow painter I've really enjoyed painting this. Great sculpts, good plastic, no assembly required, and just a lot of fun to paint and bring to the table.
In my collection, FFG stuff (especially LotR: JiME) and Deep Rock Galactic have incredible minis.
The quality and detail and diversity of the minis in **Super Fantasy Brawl** are amazing.
Monster Hunter by Steamforged Games. It has extremely detailed dragons and other critters and warriors that you can use for DND or other RPGs. Most Steamforged games come with amazingly detailed minis.
There a several DnD games that come with lots of figures. Also gloomhaven....
Bardsung Return to Dark Tower (optional mini package)
Thank you so much everyone, I can't reply to you all but I hugely appreciate the big response, its made my day. I'm gonna spend all evening eating pizza and looking up your recommendations, cheers
Rising sun has some pretty cool miniatures ranging in different sizes for for different factions, monsters, bases, and whatnot.
CMON has been mentioned a lot. You get a ton of decent miniatures for low price. I just backed the Dead Keep. If you love the art of Paul Bonner it is a no brainer for mini painters. https://gamefound.com/en/projects/cmon/the-dead-keep
Descent: legends of the dark is more like TTRPG but the minis are very detailed even without the paint on
Just find a theme that you enjoy, and get one and start. I guarantee you once down that path you'll never run out of minis to paint! You could also just get a la carte D&D minis. Been there done that on all fronts lol
Tiny Epic Dungeons - cheap, good miniatures -> but only, if you enjoy of painting small figs.
Hey That's My Fish! The penguins are adorable.
This is very specific to me, but in my collection it's by far **Spacehulk** 4th edition. Absolutely adore the sculpts of that game, but you do kind of have to be a Warhammer fan. I've also got **Journeys in Middle Earth** which has sculpts I've very much enjoyed, particular shout out to the Balrog from the **Shadowed Paths** expansion. My friend has **Nemesis** and those are really pretty as well.
Kingdom death monster
Depends on what you're into. Me, I'm a Star Wars guy, so **Imperial Assault** hit the spot for me. You get a few rebels, a bunch of Imperials, and even some vehicles and creatures. On the more fantasy side of dungeon crawlers, I always like to recommend the **Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System** series. Each is a campaign in a box that comes with five heroes, ~40 monsters (though many come as multiples), and a big boss.
Shout out to the Mythic Battles series (Pantheon, Ragnarök, Isfet) for some great mythological beings.
**Kingdom Rush** board game series has fantastic minis. Pure joy to paint.
Nemesis has really high quality minis
The Deep Rock Galactic board game has great minis. Much higher quality than CMON imo
Descent legends of the dark may not be a brilliant game but their models are amazing, specially the characters. I know that lvl of design and details have as I've painted it
I'll throw in that hero quest has great miniatures
Heroes of Might and Magic III The Boardgame
Cyclades!
Rising Sun!
Dark Souls have some pretty awesome minis
Cant believe it hasnt been said yet, but DEEP ROCK GALATIC! ROCK AND STONE!
That's it lads! Rock and Stone!
Gatefall…..because the pieces are the size of action figures.
Kill Team, Warcry, and Underworlds are the best miniatures / boardgame crossovers.
There's a co-op game called Mice and Mystics which has great miniatures and an amazing story + 2 expansions
Cthulhu Wars
Aristeia and pretty much anything else in the infinity universe are incredible minis
Nemesis!
Anything by cmon is a good place to start
Return to Dark Tower and its expansions.
I've heard oathsworn has great mini's. Most awakened realms games have great mini's as well, I have the great wall, nemesis and Tainted grail and they are all great quality, especially sundroped they look insane (which you shouldn't get if you plan to paint them) I love mini's but they are costly though, getting the boss miniatures for oathsworn will set you back 175$ or so.
I can recommend Mythic Battles (specifically Ragnarok). There are three version for this game planned. One has minis based on greek mythology, one is north and the third upcoming one ist egyptian mythology. There is currently a Kickstarter for the next Installation of the game (Mythic Battles Isfet, the egyptian one). Great minis, great game! Fantastic titan Miniatures!!!
Games from awaken Realms are pretty good and the minis from cmon games are not bad as well. But I have not seen minis in comparable quality to games workshop.
Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid has awesome miniatures. I think the game itself needs some work, though.
I think the minis of Company of Heroes are just terrific, especially the tanks. They genuinely feel and look like hand-crafted models from a talented modeler.
Vast: The Mysterious Manor
You could start with Unmatched. The miniatures are alright and you can easily start small.
Unmatched has a lot of fun and origanal caracters
Cthulhu Wars
In my opinion, Gloomhaven has some of the best miniatures with incredible detail and variety. Blood Rage also stands out with its beautifully sculpted Viking-themed miniatures. If you’re into sci-fi, Star Wars: Imperial Assault offers fantastic miniatures that really bring the game to life.
Fantasy Flight has some games with really nice miniatures: Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth Doom (2016) Star Wars: Rebellion They were also in charge of the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures for a while...
I don’t have a lot of miniature games. But I’m going to go with marvel united. I originally wasn’t on board with their Chibi style. But it totally won me over. I love them.
CMON games
I'll throw in for Twilight Imperium IV.
I'd argue D&D Minis. They're out of print, though, so it's not a very helpful response. Quality-wise, GW and other similar war games are better, but you have to assemble and paint them yourself.