What methods do you GMs use to keep track of Minis?

[Captain-Captain]

Stop using miniatures for bad guys. One game table I play at uses something I'll detail below. The other is where our host has oodles of miniatures for any and all occasion and refuses to not use them.

The first is easy to keep track of, the second has serious problems keeping the damage scores on each enemy correct.

The solution is to buy sets of 12 D12s. Different sizes and colors. You'll also need a box of washers and super glue or some similar permanent adhesive.

Glue a d12 on a washer, each one displaying a different number. Repeat with other sets so you'd have a set of 1-12 Big White D12s, a set of 1-12 small purple D12s. a set of medium green d12s 1-12 and a set of orange sparkled d12 to finish things of. 48 usable as figures non-figures.

If you are using less than a dozen of them don't repeat numbers. Should the PCs face 4 Zombies, three Skeletons and two living servants of the Necromancer residing deeper in the Castle ruins, Take the first four of one color for the Zombies, take numbers five, six and seven for the Skeletons from a different color set and eight and nine from a third set.

You thus have your monsters grouped by type by the dice color AND can easily identify it individually by it's unique number. Your group is more likely to remember that Marc called his archery attack on #5 than 'the one with the weird colored belt'.

As a bonus, you can glue the bottom of the washers with magnetic strip material and clue a thin piece of sheet steel cut to fit the box you store these dice in. (Okay, layers of sheet steel with 48 dice is more likely.) They thus will stick where you store them and won't roll around in transport, and most won't go flying loose in case of a spill.