D&D Miniatures: First impressions

[Tewligan]

A quick qestion for those of you who have done so -- how hard is it to repaint the WOTC minis?

That's what I was wondering. Or, even if you haven't tried repainting them, how's the detail on them? Is the paintjob really thick, or do they look like they could take another couple of layers without becoming a vaguely humanoid lump?

EDIT: I misspelled "is". I'm a moron.

 

[Tewligan]

I wish you people would give it a rest already - do you really think any store would carry 80 different packs of individual minis, and that they would always be in stock?

Sheesh.

Um, yeah. The store near me always has a helluva lot more than 80 different minis available, and they'll order what they don't have.

 

[Green Knight]

Um, yeah. The store near me always has a helluva lot more than 80 different minis available, and they'll order what they don't have.

Yeah, but would they have the space to add another 80 miniatures to the racks? Would they have enough space for 140 miniatures, once Dragonseye comes out? Would they have enough space for 200 miniatures, once Archfiends comes out? Would they have enough space for 260 miniatures, once the July Expansion Pack comes out? Unless those game store walls are like Bags of Holding, they're gonna run out of space, eventually. In which case it becomes a choice. What do you sell? Do you sell Reaper, or do you sell WoTC miniatures? You can't carry both, as they don't fit.

Nevermind that not all game stores are equal. Some have ample room, others have cramped quarters. Just because one game store is able to dedicate an entire wall to miniatures, doesn't mean that another game store is able to dedicate as much of their shelf space to miniatures.

 

[KenM]

I think these minis are good to help people that don't have alot of mini's get more cheaply. How big is the grid that comes in the entry pack?

 

[Tewligan]

Nevermind that not all game stores are equal. Some have ample room, others have cramped quarters. Just because one game store is able to dedicate an entire wall to miniatures, doesn't mean that another game store is able to dedicate as much of their shelf space to miniatures.

Oh, I know that. I just mentioned my FLGS's capacious walls because the post I was responding to made it sound like it was ridiculous to think that any store would have the space for a whopping 80 different miniatures.

 

[ced1106]

who doesn't need 6 more goblins??

Agreed!

Should have mentioned that the selection from a starter won't give you enough mini's for a "typical" rpg session. That is, instead of a skeleton dog, I would have preferred if they included a variant skeleton. Instead of an oriental monk, I would have liked to see... oh... goblins.

I think the idea of "crossover" miniatures is a smart one (GW's been doing it for years), but WotC could have put more thought into it. Indeed, Chainmail's failure to better integrate with the D&D "universe" was one reason for its demise. I still don't think D&D Miniatures being "true" 25mm (ie. smaller than your typical miniature) is a good idea either.

I don't paint mini's, but for **some** of them, the paint's thick and the mini's are so small the details are pretty much gone. However, some sculpts are based on the original Chainmail, which were **great** sculpts. **Which** sculpts were based on Chainmail I wasn't sure: "Well, these mini's won't get me beaten up if I show them in public, so they must have been Chainmail sculpts".

As for the grid, it's on a **big** sheet. If WotC sold the game without the miniatures for $5, I'd buy several copies.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Quidam]

Yeah, but would they have the space to add another 80 miniatures to the racks? Would they have enough space for 140 miniatures, once Dragonseye comes out?

This aspect of it makes me long for a store that deals with mini's sensibly, having all the minis be searchable from a terminal by keywords &c. Just have all the minis in the backroom, stored efficiently, and a clerk can go back and get the one you want.

That way, instead of scanning the lines upon lines of minis, you search for "gnoll" or "wizard" or "dwarf axe" or whatever. But no. Sadly, no. One day, maybe. "If I ran the zoo"...

 

[Mapmaker]

Just have all the minis in the backroom, stored efficiently, and a clerk can go back and get the one you want.

This sounds like a nice idea on the surface, but it would completely eliminate the "browser" market...people who like to browse through racks of miniatures and buy those that catch their eye.

There are a lot of minis in my collection that wouldn't be there if I hadn't casually noticed them on the racks.

 

[teitan]

I can personally afford to pick a pack of boosters a week. I don't like using counters because they can get lost and just plain look weird next to my players minis. We have been using old minis from Hero Quest until recently so I think these things will work out nice and I can sell my extras cheap on Ebay.

I plan to take a gold touch up marker and number my duplicates so they don't get confused on the table, which often happens in my games where all the minis have looked the same. I can also put a gold dot on the mini to represent an elite figure.

These things are great for groups like mine, without a lot of time and money to invest we can really get a lot of use out of these and since we all like to play Heroclix, we can also play the battle game as well...

Are they as nice looking as figures we could paint on our own? No, but we can always repaint them. Are they good sculpts? Mostly, a few stinkers, but then again, this game is just starting out and looks to mostly be for playing DnD with the battles game being a nice way to attract the Mage Knight and Heroclix crowd.

Jason

 

[haiiro]

I guess I fall into the turnaround category, opinion-wise.

I initially didn't pay much attention to the buildup for the minis game, and the collectability really turned me off. Then a friend bought a starter, and I quite liked the contents -- particularly the fact that you get all sorts of extras, like the terrain cards and so forth.

A couple of days later, another friend (who's heavily into minis gaming in general) asked me if I wanted to play it with him -- and I was hooked. He had only bought a couple of starters and a couple of boosters, but he had enough to field an army of each faction -- not a great army in each, mind you, but a fun one. (I don't think this is a guaranteed event -- he seems to have gotten a particularly even distribution.) I also found the rules to be enjoyable, and much less random than Games Workshop's usual fare.

Since then, I've picked up two starters and five boosters, and enjoyed everything I've gotten. I haven't opened a pack and gotten two of the same thing (I suspect this is very much intentional), and I have two quite solid factions and two OK factions. The more I think about the rules, the more I like their approach -- essentially paring down and averaging things like damage and spells. The end result is simple without being simplistic, and there are more than enough tactical options to keep me interested.

Thus far, my only real complaint is that commanders are a bit too scarce, even the ones that aren't classified as rare. Without a commander for your faction, you've got a lot less options on the battlefield.

Color me suprised, but I like it.