I guess I'm the only one who uses minis for PCs and tokens, dice, chits and buttons for monsters.

Quote from: cranebump;828911I guess I'm the only one who uses minis for PCs and tokens, dice, chits and buttons for monsters.

Always used to do that, or least whenever there was a question of positioning. It never used to be exact (i.e. grid-based play). These days my players have grown fond of pretty miniatures, and they've been supplying the majority of them. My own preference is for theatre of the mind, but I've been making more use of a couple of Chessex wet-erase mats (one of which I've had for years) with the aforementioned miniatures (again, just for general positioning), and it's been working very well. If I were going to focus more on actual grid-based, exact-positioning style play, I'd probably go for Paizo's flip mats (or Dwarven Forge if you have lots of space and very deep pockets).

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;828884How do you guys handle minis for swarms of creatures like Goblins?

You can't just have one or two, you need like 10. But most packages only give you 3 or so of each. There's no way anybody would buy like 7 Pathfinder Pawn Bestiary boxes for that...

I have lots and lots of goblin, Orc, Zombie, Skeleton, Lizardmen minis.
I have a large variety of other minis. I just have lots of minis.
I like to collect them and paint them, so it's not a chore for me.
 
If I don't have a specific mini, I substitute something that looks sorta like it or just use small dice to represent them.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;828884How do you guys handle minis for swarms of creatures like Goblins?

You can't just have one or two, you need like 10. But most packages only give you 3 or so of each. There's no way anybody would buy like 7 Pathfinder Pawn Bestiary boxes for that...

If you are few or no on a monster thats in large groups. Use pennies or dice. I had a batch of green 6-sided dice that I used for hoards of low level monsters. Also doubled as HP trackers.

If I have time to prep then I can make a batch of counters or if I am feeling more creative, tri-folds.

I have a batch of skavenslaves from my Warhammer days and those can make appropriate standings as well.

But usually for mass combat now I just describe it. None of the current group are into minis and prefer "just describe it" anyhow. But I'll break out some dice or pennies if positioning is important for some reason.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;828884How do you guys handle minis for swarms of creatures like Goblins?

You can't just have one or two, you need like 10. But most packages only give you 3 or so of each. There's no way anybody would buy like 7 Pathfinder Pawn Bestiary boxes for that...

Say hello to em4miniatures

50 orcs for roughly $15 CAD

I also cast my own minis on the cheap using BlueStuff.

Quote from: TristramEvans;828944Say hello to em4miniatures

50 orcs for roughly $15 CAD

I also cast my own minis on the cheap using BlueStuff.

Those orcs have potential. How much space does the base take up? One inch?

I use the Chessex Megamat because the dimensions are better for my table than the mat you linked to.

When you roll the Chessex map up, make sure you roll it with the face you normally use facing out. The "curve" will then point towards the table and pose no problem whatsoever. (It also goes away fairly quickly. Like, within minutes.)

I recommend picking up some of those glass beads people use for gaming counters. Get a variety of colors and you can use them to stand in for generic monsters you don't have figures for yet.

For the miniatures themselves, hit up eBay and other secondary markets for cheap hordes. Things are more expensive than they were a couple years ago, but if you dig deep with a little patience you can usually build up some good collections for $1.50 per prepainted piece (or thereabouts). You can get 100 skeletons for $26.

If you don't care about having them painted, then I recommend grabbing Reaper Bones. Or the Kings of War miniatures from Mantic Games if you want particularly large hordes of something.

The real trick for me was laying in the supply of multi-colored counters and then just slowly laying in miniatures as the mood (and budget) struck me. Now I've got hundreds of figures neatly organized into drawer units that I can place next to the game table and I find that I only rarely need to pull out the generic tokens. (But it took about 15 years to get to that point.)

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;828955Those orcs have potential. How much space does the base take up? One inch?

They're 28mm scale, so base should be around 20mm...so .787th of an inch.

THIS page shows some conversions of these orcs.


For slightly smaller figs on the cheap, check out Dark Alliance miniatures at 1:72 scale. They've got some pretty nice sculpts (mostly PJackson LOTR based), and sell in boxes of 40 for @$12 - 20. Orcs, goblins, Wargs, elves, dwarves, undead, and amazons all featured.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;828884How do you guys handle minis for swarms of creatures like Goblins?

You can't just have one or two, you need like 10. But most packages only give you 3 or so of each. There's no way anybody would buy like 7 Pathfinder Pawn Bestiary boxes for that...

I dig into my HeroQuest box sets and haul out 10 goblins.

I've always been fond of games with high toy value.  So games like Heroquest, Battlemasters, Descent, Heroscape, and Wrath of Ashardalon are perfect bait for me.  They also serve excellent double duty as pieces for RPGs.

A big part of it is accumulation over time.  I've been gathering my miniature hoard for 30 years now.  If you pick up a few miniatures every once in a while they just add up over time.

Way back in the day, if I needed minis for those 10 goblins, I subbed whatever I had: other minis, chess pieces, counters, pennies, whatever.

Even after all these years, I still can't field a decent miniature mech force.  If you want anime styled mecha, the options for gaming minis just flat out suck.  So, I use what few mecha minis I have as well as some of the cartstock stand ups from the old Battletech Reinforcements box.  If need be, I use some pencil sharpeners I got from the Gundam Z series set (which have mech minis on top), or some of my Gundam action figures.

I didn't see anyone else mention them but the D&D Dungeon Tiles are pretty good.  They are a bit pricey, but the ability to assemble them in different configurations is pretty handy.  There are several big sets with the 4e branding, which are probably better deals than the individual $10 packs.

They're especially nice if you want something a little bit more artistic than dry erase marker on a battlemat.

One more in favor of Chessex battlemat. I've had mine since the late 80's. It's a beast. Also check their site, you can sometimes buy factory seconds on the cheap. I picked up one of the mid-sized mats a few years back for not quite half-off, with only a pair of tiny imperfections in the gridlines.

I do not own a lot of minis as yet. The hardest part of minis collecting for me was deciding where to begin. In the end I bought a couple sets of pig-faced orcs from [company name I do not remember]. I try to get a small pack of monsters, or a few pc type figures per week. It adds up quickly. Far more quickly than I can paint them. Also, check ebay frequently.

I have about 15 unopened sets of Dungeon Tiles that never got used during 4e's run. They look great but I'd never fiddle with them during a game. You can assemble a good looking setpiece with them ahead of time though. They also love to slide around and spin, so get some blu-tac or that cheap kitchen cabinet liner if you play on a bare table.

Quote from: Raven;829012In the end I bought a couple sets of pig-faced orcs from [company name I do not remember].

Are these the Orcs? If so, they're from Otherworld Miniatures.

I looked at a picture of the Chessex battlemats.

Chessex looks like what I have. I've used it for 2-3 decades. I use a card board cylinder roll from used up Xmas wrapping paper and roll the mat around that with the 'board' side facing out. It never creases. It always lays perfectly flat.

I have two 36" x 24" dry-erase double-sided square/hex mats by Role 4 Initiative that I put together into a 3' x 4' surface — which is what those larger Chessex mats are, right? I've always found wet-erase a bit of a nightmare though, which is why I've avoided those.

The grid is mostly to help draw lines, not for movement or positioning; movement is by flexible curve ruler, marked with 10ft increments every 3 inches (AD&D-style). I keep these inside the same poster tube I use for the mats, the eraser and the pens.

Minis are Lego minifigs for the party, with weapon and armor swag from third-party vendors, and hex bases. Opponents are a variety of other marker types, differentiated by color.

More Chessex tips: Crayola washable markers work well and are cheaper and easier to find than Vis-a-Vis pens. Also baby wipes are great for cleanup and much less of a hassle than spray bottles and paper towels.

Quote from: Bobloblah;829016Are these the Orcs? If so, they're from Otherworld Miniatures.

That's the ones. I wish mine would look that nice when I finally paint them.