As per the title would you consider using 15mm miniatures for gaming? If not would you consider changing if there was a high-quality affordable alternative in the future? I appreciate your input below.
An affordable alternative would suit me just fine. It's one of the reasons why I invested heavily into the original D&D Miniatures. They weren't the best quality, but they were cheap, durable, and good enough for monsters. Players can buy/make their own miniatures on their own time and dime. For DM's, though, the current stock of WizKids miniatures, while higher quality than the original ones, are just ridiculously expensive.
15mm would be pretty tiny though and very hard to get decent quality sculpts and paint jobs on. Having said that, if they were cheap enough that I could buy in bulk to represent the hundreds of monsters I need to put on a map, I'd definitely buy into that. The other thing that's always bugged me about 25mm minis is using them on a 1" grid. The proportions are just so off it looks like you're playing gigantic sized creatures squeezing through tiny halls and into tiny rooms. I've tried using larger squares but that just means you need a bigger table and it gets difficult to manage. So yeah, 15mm could be good.
An affordable alternative would suit me just fine. It's one of the reasons why I invested heavily into the original D&D Miniatures. They weren't the best quality, but they were cheap, durable, and good enough for monsters. Players can buy/make their own miniatures on their own time and dime. For DM's, though, the current stock of WizKids miniatures, while higher quality than the original ones, are just ridiculously expensive.
15mm would be pretty tiny though and very hard to get decent quality sculpts and paint jobs on. Having said that, if they were cheap enough that I could buy in bulk to represent the hundreds of monsters I need to put on a map, I'd definitely buy into that. The other thing that's always bugged me about 25mm minis is using them on a 1" grid. The proportions are just so off it looks like you're playing gigantic sized creatures squeezing through tiny halls and into tiny rooms. I've tried using larger squares but that just means you need a bigger table and it gets difficult to manage. So yeah, 15mm could be good.
I would have considered using 15mm miniatures if there were an option that was more affordable at the time that I decided to deeply invest in larger-scale miniatures and was of similar visual detail level and resilience.
In order to persuade me away from continuing to buy miniatures at the "standard" scale I use them at now, these hypothetical smaller-scale figures would have to do something that my current figures don't do, or do something that they do but not very well significantly better. For a concrete example, I would say that I'd be interested in smaller scale miniatures if they were designed in such a way as to supplement my existing figures, but take the roll of representing "mass combat" units and/or vehicles (such as sailing ships) using my existing 1" gridded battle mat in such a way that these "war" and/or "sea battle" scenes could have believable sizes of engagement area while still physically fitting on my table (i.e. make the area that normally represents about 150' x 300' feat at 5':1" scale representing something more like 900' x 1800' because it is at a 30':1" scale).
Im hooked on Pathfider deepcuts and D&D Nulzur's Marvelous Minuatires. I think $5 CDN for 2 great minis is fantastic. I also like how they typically represent a lower level and higher level variant of the same character. But no . I would not try to paint smaller :) The halflings and goblins are bad enough.
I wasn't clear in my earlier comments, so I'll add here that I also am without even remote interest in attempting to paint figures with details smaller than a 25mm or 28mm scale goblin or kobold - so to restate and summarize my thoughts on 15mm miniatures; they'd have to be focused on "mass combat" or "sea battle" scenarios, enable a larger field of battle while sticking to my 1" gridded battle mat by having their scale actually set so that 1" on the table equals at least 30' in-game which would likely mean not having things like individual people or goblins in the first place, and would have to come pre-painted.
I wasn't clear in my earlier comments, so I'll add here that I also am without even remote interest in attempting to paint figures with details smaller than a 25mm or 28mm scale goblin or kobold - so to restate and summarize my thoughts on 15mm miniatures; they'd have to be focused on "mass combat" or "sea battle" scenarios, enable a larger field of battle while sticking to my 1" gridded battle mat by having their scale actually set so that 1" on the table equals at least 30' in-game which would likely mean not having things like individual people or goblins in the first place, and would have to come pre-painted.
I was going to change my post after thinking the same thing. I still love the larger minis but the small ones are great for a large area or mass combat as you mentioned. So yes, while I wouldn't paint them I would use the for sure!
How is a average of $3.50- and as low as $2.50 or lower if you shop around for deals - per *painted* miniature ridiculously expensive??
$2.50 per miniature is $25 for 10 miniatures, $250 for 100, and far too much for an entire campaign unless you only use monsters you have miniatures for. And only using monsters you have miniatures for puts a bit of a restriction on your DMing and runs the risk of your players getting tired of fighting the same things over and over again.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
How is a average of $3.50- and as low as $2.50 or lower if you shop around for deals - per *painted* miniature ridiculously expensive??
$2.50 per miniature is $25 for 10 miniatures, $250 for 100, and far too much for an entire campaign unless you only use monsters you have miniatures for. And only using monsters you have miniatures for puts a bit of a restriction on your DMing and runs the risk of your players getting tired of fighting the same things over and over again.
You can get a horde of about 40 ork and goblins with a mix of weapons for about 20 dollars ;)
yup - less "desirable" pre painted minis can be gotten for less - my $2.5 per comment was a comment on the retail the base price.
I still say that anyone complaining about $2.5 per PRE PAINTED mini should look at unpainted. There's countless ways of getting 28mm minis at around $0.50 cents a pop- the magic board games, d&d games, old second hand copies of descent, reapers kickstarters, etc.
Few people buying prepainted minis buy them in bulk - it's a easy hobby to accumulate over time. I've purchased basically 1 random box every 2-3 weeks for over a decade - and traded a bit - and have rediculous amount. I don't blow my money at Coffee stands or shops - or the bar- and the hobby has a lot more memories caused by it then either of those two hobbies ever will for anyone ;-)
As per the title would you consider using 15mm miniatures for gaming? If not would you consider changing if there was a high-quality affordable alternative in the future? I appreciate your input below.
An affordable alternative would suit me just fine. It's one of the reasons why I invested heavily into the original D&D Miniatures. They weren't the best quality, but they were cheap, durable, and good enough for monsters. Players can buy/make their own miniatures on their own time and dime. For DM's, though, the current stock of WizKids miniatures, while higher quality than the original ones, are just ridiculously expensive.
15mm would be pretty tiny though and very hard to get decent quality sculpts and paint jobs on. Having said that, if they were cheap enough that I could buy in bulk to represent the hundreds of monsters I need to put on a map, I'd definitely buy into that. The other thing that's always bugged me about 25mm minis is using them on a 1" grid. The proportions are just so off it looks like you're playing gigantic sized creatures squeezing through tiny halls and into tiny rooms. I've tried using larger squares but that just means you need a bigger table and it gets difficult to manage. So yeah, 15mm could be good.
I use what ever I get my hands on Stuffed animals , Heroclix, Leos, Transformers, Bionicle, fish tank accessories.
I would have considered using 15mm miniatures if there were an option that was more affordable at the time that I decided to deeply invest in larger-scale miniatures and was of similar visual detail level and resilience.
In order to persuade me away from continuing to buy miniatures at the "standard" scale I use them at now, these hypothetical smaller-scale figures would have to do something that my current figures don't do, or do something that they do but not very well significantly better. For a concrete example, I would say that I'd be interested in smaller scale miniatures if they were designed in such a way as to supplement my existing figures, but take the roll of representing "mass combat" units and/or vehicles (such as sailing ships) using my existing 1" gridded battle mat in such a way that these "war" and/or "sea battle" scenes could have believable sizes of engagement area while still physically fitting on my table (i.e. make the area that normally represents about 150' x 300' feat at 5':1" scale representing something more like 900' x 1800' because it is at a 30':1" scale).
How is a average of $3.50- and as low as $2.50 or lower if you shop around for deals - per *painted* miniature ridiculously expensive??
Unpainted 28mm is easy to find even lower- I think the way you phrased it comes across as ridiculously self entitled.
Changing the scale won't lower prices to any significant amount.
I'm already too heavily invested in 28mm minis to switch now.
I have a hard enough time painting 25mm ones I would be a total mess with smaller minis.
Im hooked on Pathfider deepcuts and D&D Nulzur's Marvelous Minuatires. I think $5 CDN for 2 great minis is fantastic. I also like how they typically represent a lower level and higher level variant of the same character. But no . I would not try to paint smaller :) The halflings and goblins are bad enough.
I wasn't clear in my earlier comments, so I'll add here that I also am without even remote interest in attempting to paint figures with details smaller than a 25mm or 28mm scale goblin or kobold - so to restate and summarize my thoughts on 15mm miniatures; they'd have to be focused on "mass combat" or "sea battle" scenarios, enable a larger field of battle while sticking to my 1" gridded battle mat by having their scale actually set so that 1" on the table equals at least 30' in-game which would likely mean not having things like individual people or goblins in the first place, and would have to come pre-painted.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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You can get a horde of about 40 ork and goblins with a mix of weapons for about 20 dollars ;)
yup - less "desirable" pre painted minis can be gotten for less - my $2.5 per comment was a comment on the retail the base price.
I still say that anyone complaining about $2.5 per PRE PAINTED mini should look at unpainted. There's countless ways of getting 28mm minis at around $0.50 cents a pop- the magic board games, d&d games, old second hand copies of descent, reapers kickstarters, etc.
Few people buying prepainted minis buy them in bulk - it's a easy hobby to accumulate over time. I've purchased basically 1 random box every 2-3 weeks for over a decade - and traded a bit - and have rediculous amount. I don't blow my money at Coffee stands or shops - or the bar- and the hobby has a lot more memories caused by it then either of those two hobbies ever will for anyone ;-)
You can get some excellent 15mm fantasy figures from Demonworld. They are perfect for DND.