Miniatures for TFT
 

There are 4 basic options;

1) Use the counters provided. This has the great advantage of zero cost and complete compatibility. With luck, such difficult to source critters as Octopi and Uncle Teeth will be available too. Disadvantages - flat, aesthetically not very pleasing.

2) Cardboard Heroes - low cost, aesthetically marginally better than the counters, and likely to have some support in future for the aforementioned hard to source critters.

3) 15mm - this was the scale of the long lost official TFT minis put out by Martian Metals ,before their factory burnt down. See https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tpope/sol/ma...tasy-trip.html . I have some, and while the human figures were good and had some charm, the monsters were mediocre, rather spindly, and have not rated well, so if you don't have any, you haven't lost much. There are now many manufacturers of 15mm fantasy figures, some of which are streets ahead in quality. My personal favourites are by Splintered Light miniatures, http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/1518mmfantasy.html but again, sourcing Octopi or the smaller Dragons is problematic. There is also the disadvantage of having to paint them. They fit well on the original Melee and Wizard maps, and by shopping around there are literally dozens of manufacturers so you can get nearly everything.

4) 25 or 28mm Heroic - Older figures are 25mm and look somewhat small compared to the De Facto 28mm standard in use today. For these, you really can't go past Reaper Bones, which are half the cost of metal minis, just as easy to paint, and have only slightly inferior detail compared to the very best metal minis, and better than average. But again, getting the smaller Dragons is difficult, and as for Octopi, I suggest 3D printing one of the freeware 3D models after suitable file conversion, resizing, and adding weapons. These look the best, and are compatible with the new 1.5" hex mats but again require painting. Many gamers will already have significant collections of these for other gaming systems.

Now if only we could get either a Kickstarter for metal minis or persuade SJG to co operate with Reaper to make Octopi, Uncle Teeth, various slimes, and what is sure to be a worst seller. Prootwaddles.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

I actually prefer counters, since they keep things more abstract, allowing imagination to fill in the details.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

I plan on using Okumarts Darkfast Classic Fantasy paper minis

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

There is a fifth option. Digital... for those who play via the computer. Any company make these "Chits" in digital form to be ported to internet/computer gaming?
Steve, how about making them available as a digital file?

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

I like the pre-painted, D&D and Pathfinder miniatures. They can be expensive to pick up as singles (although you can buy exactly what you like) but if you keep your eye out for a lot, you will often end up paying £1 a piece, which is good value.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

For myself, I mix them when I play solo. My hero's are 25mm figures and I use the provided counters for all the NPC's.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

I'm a huge miniature wargaming fan, so I naturally gravitate towards miniatures. However, as Shotak points out, counters have their advantages. I'd add portability as an advantage.

Personally, I can't say enough good things about the Pathfinder pawns. They are die cut cardboard heroes, printed on thick cardstock (maybe a little thicker than good quality board wargame counters), that easily slot into plastic bases and can easily be removed. This makes them as portable as counters. Oh, and they're absurdly cheap. In the Bestiary 1 box, for instance, you get ~300 minis and an assortment of bases in 4 different sizes for around $38.

The design of the original Cardboard Heroes was driven by early 1980s printing limitations. Diecutting was very expensive (still is, I suspect), so budget game companies (which SJG was in its early years) had no choice but to print counters (one-sided) on thin cardstock so that they could be cut with scissors.

That compromise made them less than optimum, but for a generation of impoverished roleplayers, they were a godsend.

The Pathfinder pawns show just how good cardboard minis can be. I haven't seen the Dungeon Fantasy Cardboard Heroes, but I suspect they're very similar.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

Flat Plastic Miniatures: http://arcknight.squarespace.com/shop/

Pricey compared to cardboard, but you can put them on a hex base and they're *pretty.*

Pathfinder Pawns: http://paizo.com/store/pathfinder/ac...niatures/pawns

Somewhat pretty, very cheap on a per-unit basis.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

Man, those are good-looking. But as you say pricey.

<sigh> Just when I broke my Pathfinder pawn addiction, you show me these.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

I fell in love with the 1/72 scale Fantasy collection from Caesar Miniatures about 10 years or so back. Really lovely dwarves / orcs / goblins / elves and skeletons - For humans I bought packs from Zvezda / Italeri and others who do good period figures - But very few offered fantasy races.

All are based on British pennies - (about the same size as 1c coin) - So fit very well on the 1' hexes I was used to.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

Arian Games has some nice stand up figures.

https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/667/Arion-Games

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

Well, think about fifty cents a flat thing.

Compare it to buying real miniatures.

Compare it to buying Games Workshop miniatures. :D

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

I created some 3D print files (hosted on Thingiverse - search for my username) to rebase either Pathfinder Pawns or D&D/Pathfinder pre-printed plastic minis for TFT 1.5" hexes.

I'm now regretting not getting the Pathfinder Monster Codex box when it was available....

I created these bases for me, but if anyone else finds them useful, that's just icing on the cake.

I didn't do a pre-painted mini adapter for 7-hex dragons - I'm just using Reaper Bones Fire Dragon mini on a flat base. And I'm working on a 14-hex flat base for a Safari Ltd Gold Dragon toy that I picked up. Some pictures are on the TFT Google Plus page.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

No, you don't understand. I almost had to check myself into a 12 step program to stop buying Pathfinder pawns. Now these figures - which are available for sci-fi and other genres - tempt me.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

12 5-foot steps.

Re: Miniatures for TFT
 

My current plan is to stick with 25/28/30/32mm, or whatever you want to call it. I've been thinking of trying to make an octopus with Blender, but I'm far enough behind in requests for WW1 airplanes that making one isn't really in the cards.