Reply To: Too many games with miniatures in it?

[onlyonepinman 18111xp 3]

While you could argue miniatures aren’t necessary for a board game, they’re also not necessary for a wargame either – you can play either with miniatures or tokens or cardboard standees if you want.  The question, when dealing with luxury items (which is what all games are, be they Wargames or Boardgames) is not are they necessary but are they desirable.  People don’t buy games because they need them, they buy them because they want them.  And when you start talking about wants rather than needs, if people want miniatures in a Boardgame then people are going to make Boardgames with miniatures in them. I don’t really see how not recognising the miniatures from a particular Boardgame really indicates any particular problem with a proliferation of miniatures Boardgames, I certainly don’t think there’s a Plague of them.  There’s plenty of Boardgames whose meeples I wouldn’t recognise either, does that mean that there’s a plague of Boardgames out there?

For what it’s worth I had heard of Monumental, although I didn’t back it.  However it was Kickstarted successfully which means that enough people obviously did want it for it to a viable Kickstarter at least.

I am also a huge fan of miniatures Boardgames, within reason, and I have backed a mixture of miniature and non miniatures Boardgames.  In the right context I think miniatures DO add to the enjoyment and create an overall better experience.  In other contexts they become a distraction.  As someone who loves miniatures, there’s several reasons why I am a big fan of miniatures Boardgames.

First I am what is called time poor. Miniatures Boardgames require minimal effort to play. They rarely require assembly, play straight out of the box and games rarely last more than an hour including setup. For someone with very little free time (which let’s face it, is most parents with jobs) this is perfect.

Next the miniatures are, usually, superb quality. Looking at games like Conan (a personal favourite), Mythic Battles, Human Interface the quality of the miniatures is fantastic. So they also supply me with a collection of nice things to paint.

Lastly, the amount of miniatures in these games also allows me to double them up with RPGs so without having to spend any extra cash I have a great selection of miniatures as well as a fun game.

I don’t really see why it’s a problem. If people were making miniatures games at the expense of anything else I might be inclined to agree with you. But that’s really not the case so I don’t really see a problem.