Miniatures games: Does anyone here play?

[Dr. Shades]

Two Christmases (Christmasii?) ago my stepdaughter and stepson-in-law gave me the 1st Edition of the base set of X-Wing Miniatures. I determined I'd get more into it someday soon. I taught my three nephews how to play and one of them really enjoyed it, so much so that my mother bought him the 2nd Edition of the base set. This was my cue, so I invested in a Rebel Alliance squadron of four B-Wings and a Galactic Empire squadron of six TIE Interceptors. In fact, he and I went to a local game store and battled each other just this evening. I played my Rebels against his Imperials (his squad consisted of three TIE Fighters and a TIE Inquisitor) and won.

So, that's the one and only miniatures game I'm into and I very much recommend it. Who can deny the appeal of piloting and engaging in space combat with your own ships from Star Wars? As a bonus, unlike many miniatures games, the pieces come pre-painted with highly professional paint jobs.

I played Mage Knight a tiny bit back in the day but it didn't hold my interest. By far the most popular miniatures game right now is Warhammer 40,000, but I've never played it. Maybe someone else can enlighten us, but from my perspective the idea of painting all the miniatures AND buying and reading huge rulebooks is a rather big disincentive.

Once more, if it requires a board to play, then it's NOT a miniatures game.

So, back to the topic: Does anyone here play any miniatures games? If so, tell us about them!

[honorentheos]

Mini games have a bad rep as "pay to win" products. Games Workshop who owns Warhammer is one of the worst for this, demanding minis used for games and tourneys in their stores be their official products. Given the proliferation of 3D printers there is quite the industry behind knock offs.

A high school friend was into 40k so I'd play with him at their house, using books and kitchen ware for terrain. But most of the time we preferred playing the renegade legion games I mentioned in th board games threads but with terrain and measuring sticks to break away from the hex grid.

[honorentheos]

from my perspective the idea of painting all the miniatures AND buying and reading huge rulebooks is a rather big disincentive.

I should also say that for people with an inclination towards the hobby side of the game the painting is at least as enjoyable as playing a game.

I have a mini addiction I picked up over COVID that started when I agreed to DM a D&D campaign for my daughter's friend group. As a gift I sent each of them a link to Hero Forge so they could create a mini of their new character and then bought the mini for them. The new minis arrived the day of the first session and were a hit. They also wanted to paint them so I bought some paints from one of the main paint suppliers and they spent an afternoon painting the minis. The set came with a couple of villain figures that I decided to paint up as well. Then I happened to stumble across a description in a book for a zombie T-Rex that was too cool and by fate also saw a mini for it online soon after. Yadda, yadda, yadda, I own tons of minis now. I scavenge from mini games a lot, with a favorite being the Game of Thrones mini game, A Song of Ice and Fire as well as Cthulhu Death May Die. The Dark Souls game has great minis for D&D, too.