Does GW REALLY Make the BEST Minis? Over 30 Games Compared!

[@Miniac]

This review is looking at board games that include miniatures. Explicitly not miniature war games (ASOIAF, Infinity, MCP, etc). There's much less difference in models from various miniature war games than in the board game world and it would've been far more subjective than even this video.

[@Xagroth]

Infinity made a KS some years ago for a "Blackstone Fortress style" game called Defiance. While it can't be bought anymore (it was for KS release only, and in fact it has been their most succesful KS by far for the moment, despite being their first), it's possible (and depressingly easy in Spain) to get secondhand (even unopened) complete sets... sans the miniatures (which are, unsurprisingly, the same they sell in their online store, in different poses, weapons or arms most of the time. Ony, the full KS was like 250€ plus mail fees, with nearly 60 metal miniatures, most of them "size 2", but some "size 1" and "size 5". Plus a PVC BIG model, the Megalodrone)

[@Grits420]

Where's super dungeon explorer? 😢

[@demiliomason1565]

While I don't disagree with this video. I just wanted to suggest a game by CMON I think you'll get a kick out of. It's called Ankh Gods of Egypt. It's a great fun game and I think the models in it are sublime.

[@Vashester]

@@Xagroth and let's not forget Aristeia, the arena game! But the minis are not as good as the Infinity/Defiance ones.

[@Xagroth]

@@Vashester I have those, and the matter of having three versions of some models (main box, collectors main box with metal versions, and the new main boxes with better quality, and then the "skins" that are metal minis) makes it an overcomplicated mess for this kind of videos.

[@moodpublishing]

We were pleasantly surprised to find our Deep Rock Galactic game included, and ranking as high, in this list. Thank you for taking our game into consideration 🔥🤘 Rock and Stone!

[@TacticalReaper56]

Rock and stone friend. Ghost ship care about quality, that's very apparent yea know.

[@Miniac]

Sorry that I didn't get a chance to actually try the game out for this video, but the models are definitely a cut above the rest!

[@hubertcumberdale6404]

Starts at 20:07 and is 5 seconds long for those who could not find it like me

[@evankiefer3467]

IF YOU ROCK AND STONE YOU'RE NEVER ALONE!!

[@dinoduelist2219]

Im sorry you said deep rock minis? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY NITRA!

[@CoryDeVore]

Man, really appreciate this video. I was the Sculpting Lead at FFG for that Descent box, and set the style with that Bandit sculpt. Our whole team worked their butts off for this one and the current team is continuing to do so! I'm incredibly proud of the sculpting and engineering for that plastic. We did all the engineering internally between me and Kevin Van Sloun. My other favorite model I sculpted in there was the Fae, which Kevin received from me and was like "how the hell do you want me to part this??" and I did a little paint over showing it as either 3 or 4 parts (counting the base) and I vividly remember him replying, "you absolute madman!" He was able to part it like I imagined so quickly, and I just love and adore how it turned out in the end. I also really love that Shade that Adam Martin did (current Sculpting Lead at FFG today). This game was a breath of fresh air as we did all of Legion internally at the time, which was a ton of fun but you get tired of Star Wars after awhile haha. It was also the first game in a long while we got to "set the style" of rather than use an existing style set by previous sculptors and art directors. We did that with Legion slowly across waves and into hard plastic, but this was a clear refresh. Anyways, appreciate the kind words and highlight of our work!

[@whittaker007]

Nice work, the style is a breath of fresh air in the mini game space, being neither too cartoony or grimdark. Also the poses have a lot of dynamism and just the right amount and scale of detail for painting.

[@CoryDeVore]

@@whittaker007 Thanks! :) it means a lot that folks see we were trying to do something special.

[@Miniac]

Super amazing to hear from the actual art team responsible for the models. Thank you for taking the time to respond and give us more details!

[@Don_Giovanni]

I love that creators a) see videos like this and b) get to add details. I loved your story. Really shows experience and expertise. As a professional that strives for excellence in my own field, I really appreciate that.

[@tophholland]

I just want you to know I really appreciate you and the rest of your crew with SW Legion. I'm really picky when it comes to miniatures as I'm more of a painter than gamer and I love the quality you guys put out with Legion.

[@gloomypop8503]

As a boardgamer and part time miniature painter, I thoroughly enjoyed this video!

[@forouza1]

Same here. This was so fun to watch.

[@BlackMagicCraftOfficial]

No *insert one of a million existing board games* ?!?!?

[@MCXL1140]

Where MONOPOLY????

[@zramirez5471]

Well sculpted minis would be a GREAT way to bring back Shogun...

[@darbizzlebacon]

That sounds like a series of videos by itself

[@TheKrakenfist]

I mean, he should've found found space for Infinity on the list if he's gonna talk about model quality.

[@BlackMagicCraftOfficial]

@@TheKrakenfist I mean he should have found space on the list for (insert any one of a million games)…..

[@halfcrafted]

You know what has a great scale? This video. What a great in depth look at an amazing variety of miniature based board games! Fair and informative but also great hearing your personal thoughts about gameplay and functionality as well as seeing you guys ACTUALLY playing a lot of the games. All the effort this took to make from everyone who helped was totally worth it, as this has made for an excellent video.

[@Pile_of_carbon]

Kingdom Death: Monster's minis are indeed amazing. I have little to no interest in painting minis, but even without paint, the minis are a joy to look at.

[@spencerarmstrong258]

Really enjoyed this. Was holding my breath at the end hoping the last would be Descent. I opened that box last week and my jaw just hit the floor at the quality of the miniatures. After struggling with Gloom/Frosthaven minis and others, I was over the moon happy at something I'd want to paint. Big ups to FF.

[@magnusmillerwilson]

Nemesis is the first game you highlighted that I’ve played, and 100% agree with your miniature assessment, Scott. The humans are meh for quality, but the aliens are decent and overall the poses and sculpts are so good that my troupe has reused them for the Alien RPG. This video is AMAZING, dude. I love your painting videos, too, but it’s super nice to see something different like this in the lineup. Thanks again, Scott and team, and have a wonderful TG! -Hydraxos

[@EntropicEcho]

Fun to see I'm not the only one thinking that. I painted all the aliens and had a fun time with those, never got around to painting the player models...

[@zhhrah]

Are you talking about the player minis that came with the original Nemesis game or the updated ones? The updated minis were purchasable in the Nemesis Lockdown campaign as an option. The details and edges on these are way sharper.

[@poggestfrog]

@@zhhrahCan confirm this, from all my Lockdown minis I've seen like 4 with mould lines, all usually down things like arms and not faces and the aliens are legitimately insane quality, perhaps a 9/10 for this ranking list. The queen is especially great. Sadly the new poses are sometimes not the very best but quality wise they are MUCH better

[@jesuscasas1586]

Here I must say I was surprised by the good rating given. The quality of the character minis in the first nemesis is terrible. Intruders have better quality, but are at a different scale, what makes literally no sense. I had to resculpt several parts of my characters, and still have the pilot unpainted because she is missing half the face. Luckily awaken realms realized this, and miniatures for lockdown are way better, and all at the same scale. One can even notice already for the medic, additional char for the first one, which already is bigger than all the other characters. But yeah, I would expect a 3 or a 4 for nemesis minis, maybe 6 or 7 for lockdown. Still searching for Warhammer replacements for my game 😂

[@kirk9516]

My partner researched and found Descent: Legends of the Dark on her own, I knew nothing of the game, so you can imagine how ecstatic I was - as a mini-painter - when we opened the box and unveiled those gorgeous minis. Literally 2 days ago I finished priming the minis and started Ninjon's Smash-chop method of painting them! So many crispy details! Can't wait to put brush to sculpt!

[@sovietbear1917]

GW has become the masters of hiding mold lines; some of the newer Underworlds warbands have so little cleanup I feel like I'm missing something obvious

[@ubermoose5694]

It really is impressive. After growing up with metal mold lines going across a minis face to feeling like I must have gotten a first run on a mold because the seams are so clean. The times they are a changing.

[@DiscoKevin69420]

They are generally good, but I built a sisters of battle squad recently and the mold lines were horrendous, easily the worst I've ever seen in a gw kit. I'm talking right down the middle of the face and in the middle of shoulder decoration bad

[@AlexAlex-zt3hi]

​@@DiscoKevin69420try some of the privater press plastic kits...most awful kits i have ever seen,, purchased and assembled

[@Goober2289]

@@DiscoKevin69420 This was also a huge disappointment for me, also going straight down the front of their legs. Was an absolute pain in the ass to get rid of them.

[@kylecoffey3132]

They really haven't. The fact everyone is still cleaning mold lines, shows they haven't hidden anything

[@Boshea241]

I'm mixed on the prevalence of plastic minis in boardgame. I have a fair amount of games that are boxes of pretty plastic with mediocre rules from the kickstarter boom. It also heavily bumps up the price of the game, and realistically most are never getting painted. I like that their seems to be a shift towards acrylic standies that are more practical than minies, but cooler than tokens/meeples. Also really helps games with distinct art styles.

[@SomeGuyAsWell]

I find the games with neat minis being a good source for cheap minis when people sell their used copy a year or so after delivery and hype. Currently not seeing too many I want on eBay but I picked up a few things from CMON awhile back. Sometimes just random minis without the game. A downside is the sculpts are often repeated so 10 of the same pose is kinda lame. Less lame if you're learning to paint and the minis are super cheap and more interesting than army men.

[@bettsdn]

PLEASE more colored acrylic standees and less plastic minis for boardgames.

[@forouza1]

@@SomeGuyAsWell indeed. Picked up an extra copy of HATE by CMON and that comes with an incredible amount of minis for a wasteland or grim-dark fantasy RPG campaign.

[@stylesheetra9411]

Minis can also have an artsyle and look good unpainted 😊 Tu bad we are flooded with the standard CAD figures that arent that pretty (GW too)

[@poggestfrog]

@@stylesheetra9411 I'd disagree, unpainted miniatures can look great on their own but the problem is mainly glossiness and lack of definition, you'd either need really really cartoonish proportions and strong textures for good definition for the latter and a weird plastic formula/varnish that would make painting harder due to the unstable nature of matte varnishes.

[@Exidous96]

It's too bad about the Sythe minis, the art style is soo unique and captivating

[@pronumeral1446]

Sadly the artist behind Scythe (and also the videogame Iron Harvest) is a plagiarist. Jakub Rozalski.

[@JohnnyLeyenda]

@@pronumeral1446 Woah, really? I've always loved the art, if that's true it's a shame!

[@Luke-td2mm]

@@pronumeral1446 who did he plagiarize?

[@AustinLindstrom]

Looks like there was some debate a few years ago, and I can't find anything close to proof that the artist plagiarized anyone. *shrug*.

[@DCAMM720]

@@JohnnyLeyenda He was ACCUSED of tracing some of the art for the game. This has never been proven. However, there is some compelling evidence. Up to each person to decide that. Anyway, the game itself is amazing and worth trying out.

[@MrNoNameSoldier]

Over the last 25 years or so of collecting miniatures I think the best manufacturer I ever saw was Confrontation. French company I believe, went out of business, but man they made some incredible sculpts.

[@luketfer]

We're they the ones that had their sci-fi mini game that had various nations armies. I distinctly remember seeing boxes of stuff like cyber ninjas and British power armoured units at mini stores.

[@atuthaj]

Hey Scott! Thanks for having me over and glad I could help, the video turned out great! Hit me up if you wanna play more Street Fighter or Super fantasy brawl!

[@staticklingon2182]

From a technical aspect, just wanna give you props on some of those sweet shots that were dolly-ing around or slowly zooming in while playing. The production value didn't go unnoticed!

[@mayhemnc]

Totally agree on Descent. Awesome minis. Painted a lot of them and enjoyed it every time.

[@forouza1]

What a great video. As an avid tabletop player who paints and plays mostly tabletop miniature games this was great to see. I rarely play WH40K so the comparisons are really neat to see. On a side note, I own and painted Townsfolk Tussle. It was definitely a different paint scheme than my other minis but it was a lot of fun to paint in more solid and cartoon like colors.

[@Spardin]

Ive enjoyed painting the resident evil models, huge fan of the series

[@Nuds1223]

My wife and I just finished our first playthrough of Descent. The main campaign took about 60hrs! The companion app tracks your progress and you level up your heros as you go. Act 2 just came out so we will probably pick that up soon.

[@successfulgeek]

I started off being more into Warhammer but have completely moved to board games. I like the constraints of board games over war games I have found. Excited to see you cover this!

[@Almightyrastus]

The problem that I have with a lot of modern table top miniature games is that everything now is a huge mess of counters and cards. Everything has a data card, movements and actions have cards, all the multitude of different states have counters, and then there are the rulebooks as well. To further compound this, GW have rules in additional books, White Dwarf, online, and so on. For me, when looking at production plastics, GW are still at the top of the game, unfortunately so are there prices and often scant availability or limited release only in certain time-limited box set releases. This is probably a good reason why I have moved away from playing, instead just picking up the odd model here and there that I really fancy painting.

[@darbizzlebacon]

My favourite miniatures to paint are Malifaux. I haven’t built a ton of GW stuff, and I like the different options that GW allows for weapons and some gear to make each model unique, but I think I like Malifaux more, even if they are monopose and more true-scale.

[@scottwallbank4794]

Beautiful minis but often a nightmare to put together. Those who have had to glue a tiny tail on a miniature zombie chihuahua will understand the pain.

[@MaintDocs]

@@scottwallbank4794 perhaps the case, though I've had similar experiences with GW...

[@jayexonauts5587]

Feudal! That game meant to much to me as a kid. My dad worked at 3M and I remember pouring over the pieces and the board to try and play. 3M games were part of the board game revolution here in the Twin Cities, from way way back in the 1900s.

[@DragonsHoardOfPlastic]

I painted up all the Nemsis models for a friend, and the aliens are a ton of fun to work on. They take washes and dry brushing marvelously 👌

[@ntmetroid]

Im dipping my toes into miniature painting and if it goes well, im thinking about painting my nemesis set with light base coats and different color washes for each faction/characters just to give them a nice extra pop.

[@MisterTingles]

kudos for the massive effort to compile this video. whether people agree or disagree on any particular assessment, you really can't knock the concept, quality and execution of the vid. I only have my experience with Cthulhu: Death May Die to compare, but you helped me put a finger on a few of my grievances with their models. The detail of the human models is so lumpy that it sucked all the joy out of painting them, trying to preserve some semblance of detail without slaving over something nobody's ever gonna look at anyway. On the other hand, painting the organic shapes and details of the bigger monsters was some of the most fun I've had, and getting nice results without too much effort felt quite freeing.

[@servietsky67]

You should check games from Monolith : Conan, Batman, and especially Mythic Battles. Conan is one of my favorite "dungeon crawl" games, and MB Pantheon has amazing large scales miniatures, and a a really interesting gameplay : it's a turn based wargame of sorts, but with a card drafting mechanic Really good game

[@MaintDocs]

It's worth mentioning that the favored painting techniques will shade a person's view of what makes a good mini. I watch several mini-painting channels (including yours). I remember one of them reviewing platforms like myminifactory and _complaining_ about deep detail. They went on to describe what is gist is "i want big flat undetailed areas and the tiniest of ripples so I can use art skills to paint a mosaic of details on it." That's the exact opposite of what most wargammer or rpg players are looking for. The very models he was criticizing where from one of my favorite modelers on the platform. They print great and offer a nice balance of areas and deep details that offer several options for painting methods. Fast coat then ink? great. Paint some deep basecoats, then enjoy highlighting all the nicely defined brims? Perfect.

[@anakon]

Conquest started at a 4 in 2019 and are now at 7-9 on plastics and easy 10s on resin.

[@jessicaw2137]

I wonder how you would rate the minis of Ankh from CMON and The Great Wall from Awaken Realms. Also, I would LOVE more boardgame oriented painting videos 🙂

[@gamingMattR]

Great video - impressed by the amount of games you hit and the way you tied it into include/review miniatures from games you did not review. If you get a chance - Return to Dark Tower and Death May Die are two games that are a ton of fun and have some good? miniatures.

[@BarokaiRein]

I'll be real with you, we've gone from 'can 3d printed models look good?' to 'can GW compete with resin printed models' over the course of just 4 years. It's actually insane how fast that tech developed. Like I see absolutely no reason to buy citadel models because they look low res and goofy compared to stuff I can get out of Saturn 3, which is a home printer that costs less than a 2000 point army.

[@ahtikatiska]

Would love a video of you doing your best to paint the Feudal 1960's minis

[@curtiswaibel3521]

I painted up a full set of Bloodrage for a friend for christmas a few years ago and it was a ton of fun

[@synapps.filip.gorczynski]

Etherfields has quite awesome and abstract figures, but it's also Awaken Realms (known for Nemesis or Tainted Grail)

[@jarekdrobiecki6147]

I find them best AR minis so far. Especially mini expansion set with these massive, detailed figures.

[@davidburkhardt5265]

So happy to see more board game content in the mini painting space. This speaks to me more than strictly GW or war gaming videos.

[@Unreal_BE]

Would be fun to see a big Tier list with images from all those boardgames to see the comparisons :)

[@richardebourne6332]

Great video Scott. I like the painting as much as the playing and having got back into painting minis (prev was on scale models) during 2023 with gloomhaven and now back to 40k, and seeing scythe nemesis and some of the other games here in the flesh, it goes to show how the GW combo of compelling world building and quality sculpts is hard to beat in the hobby world. GH minis aren't great quality with mold lines galore, but I'm almost done (day job gets in the way!). I've even painted minis for some of my group too as it's just practice to get back where I was when I was a teenager and more experience of dealing with the challenges of difference scales and level of detail. Anyway, super glad you kept at this one, a year of your effort and good friendships paying off for us all.

[@adiebland9220]

Mate, another quality video, variety is the spice of life, GW don’t want us to stray from their range, but with the constant price increase war, videos like this help to keep the hobby world alive, games I’ve never seen before, but have complete trust in your review, provide opportunities to embark into other genres within the hobby………….I choose to subscribe, not die…….keep up the good work, your crowd appreciates your efforts…..

[@LordCrate-du8zm]

24:05 that dwarf on the left would work great as a proxy character for the Kharadron Overlords or Ironhead Squats.

[@romankuzyk5421]

I definitely need more such boardgame "reviews".

[@Speakhardly]

Great video Scott! Loved the info but also loved the way you made enough distinctions when explaining the info for it to be applicable in other contexts.

[@marshaldowns8957]

Hey Miniac! I'd really like to see what you can do with some Battletech minis! Big, stomping machines with lasers, missiles, and battle damage? YES PLEASE

[@03dashk64]

That would be such an awesome video.

[@skankinupastorm]

Scott looking like Kuzco with that ridiculous beanie 😂 24:50

[@Ouwesnuifduif1]

I do miss gloomhaven in here. Not especially for the minis (id rate them a 5 maybe 6 out of 10) but for the game itself. This must be the single best table top rpg out there. Its so good. Cant wait to play the expansion too, frosthaven

[@03dashk64]

Gotta disagree, at least at our table. Gloomhaven was just entirely too much and took longer to set up/tear down than to play. We also really didn’t like the built in time mechanic where you constantly lost cards, and the fact you didn’t just loot everything when you won an encounter. It was so silly and gamey. We picked up the video game version later. It was at least faster to play but it really highlighted everything we disliked about the actual gameplay

[@PTD-Gaming]

I started painting mins about 6 months ago, and did it based totally on board game minis. I've painted all the Gloomhaven and most of the Frosthaven minis, and I wonder where they would have placed here. I imagine on the lower end. I recently got Oathsworn and painted my first two minis there and WOW what a difference. Thanks for the rundown of so many board game minis, and I'll have to pick some more of these up!

[@vexienroe]

What do you mean you didn't test and review all miniature games ever made... seems lazy only doing a measly five thousand dollars worth of content. /s

[@Garrth415]

Lowkey I wish companies had an option to just buy the minis separately from the board games. I'd love the Deeprock Galactic or Dark Souls minis but I know I'd never have a group of people to play the game

[@mylor1066]

Excellent video! Great job.

[@WatchItPlayed]

Really enjoyed this video and hearing your thoughts on all the games played!

[@Miniac]

Thanks, Rodney!!

[@WatchItPlayed]

@@Miniac I'm counting on getting a chance to get one of these games in together in the future - keep up the great work Scott!

[@zenster1097]

@@WatchItPlayed What game are you interested in? I know you just do tutorials. I'm intrigued.

[@WatchItPlayed]

@@zenster1097 My taste in games is quite broad. There really isn't a genre of gaming that doesn't interest me.

[@staticklingon2182]

I've always loved the Scythe miniatures but never realized a bit of my bad paint job was actually a lack of detail. I was slightly offended when you first mentioned it but as I saw the photos I realized I had rose colored glasses on, since I love this game!

[@barnie321]

Not sure id agree that KDM is primarily a minis manufacturer, its certainly a larger part of their releases but if you think about the scale of the game and expansions they have released they are definitely squarely in “50% game 50% mini” and pioneered some very interesting game mechanics

[@HellstormWargaming]

Dark souls recently (2022) got a 2.0 version release in 2 new starter sets, and and a free Digital upgrade for the orginial box you have. Adds a lot more depth to the gameplay such as mini missions rather than "clear room one after another". Really fun and defintiely recommend taking a look. :)

[@jg8630]

THIS is the video i have been waiting for. It can be so hard to find alternatives to GW when you are more into the painting than the playing. Thanks for this!

[@MikeGeney]

I love that you took your time to make this video great. 10/10 no notes.

[@robhubbard1]

I've painted up a few minis for my friend's copy of LoTR Journeys in Middle Earth. I hadn't noticed how "heroic" a scale they were in until you noted it. Also, that was my first time painting non GW and the fact that there were fewer details made the painting SO MUCH QUICKER. Saying that, the painting was also more fiddly in places. 5/10 feels fair.

[@pascastro9928]

I´ve been painting miniatures since... 4 months ago and started with Dark Souls by Steam Forged Games. I understand your point regarding some details and quality but still, I loved painting every single one of them. I´ve painted the core game, 3 expansions and 1 mega boss. Other 3 mega bosses are waiting to be primed and other 3 pending to buy. I´m no professional, of course, but what I mean is that although they aren´t the best quality, they hold up to the video game and I REALLY loved painting every single one of them.

[@half_painted_hero]

I recently backed the new CMON game 'Mordred'. I couldnt resist the Arthurian setting. The sculpts look incredible, im hoping that the casts hold up as im looking forward to painting them.

[@xyourboyx]

Great vid! Good work 💥💥💥

[@ogrestamp]

I am a table top gamer and those cheap 1 and 2 level minis have a place at my table. I always need statuary and the lack of quality just adds to the level of detail for what i want.

[@SeppukoGaming]

Those painted minis are GORGEOUS!!!! I love those paintjobs

[@s7r49]

something I consider as important as the minis now is the in box storage. I want to keep the original boxes, I want to add any additional minis to the core/expansion they belong with. and i dont want them to get scratched up. The mess of imperial assault and the vacuum formed plastic of hero quest taking paint off the minis pissed me off. and spending 150 bucks on foam inserts for each game was really disappointing.

[@chriscarmona7725]

Damn, over a year to make this video? Exceptional review, thank you for the honest and in-depth commentary on games I now need to find & try!

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Great comparisson video!!

[@harald2101]

i can't say enough how much I love your content! looking forward to watch this. currently 3 minutes in.. cheers to the algorithm!

[@W.edgewargames]

I'm so glad to see Feudal and Rising Sun on the video, I owned Feudal many years ago and loved playing it. I recently received several games from my LGS that sadly closed in early September, among them was Rising Sun, glad to see both rated well in quality of minis and gameplay.

[@noskes1]

Im not that much into board games, but I love Borderlands frenchise and I go all in into Mr Torgue Arena of Badassery Kickstarter. While waiting on the game I decided that I want to start my adventure with painting. I only use white primer, nuln oil and Speedpaints, but i'm so hooked! With ~200 minis (i try to paint on average 1 mini per day) I will end my project probability late spring ;) Glad that those minis are in upper tier.

[@GheyForGames]

despite the quality of the minis reaching GW level, i just cant put my finger on why the aesthetics of gw models are just SOO SOO much better than anything else. you can always tell a mile away what is or isnt a gw mini and i literally couldnt tell you how

[@billiondollarclownfarm]

as a former cmon/fantasy flight sculptor this was super fun to see (i have yet to paint a single model i've sculpted for a commercial board game rip)

[@Miniac]

You're a sculptor too? I'm a subscriber btw!

[@billiondollarclownfarm]

@@Miniac thanks! yeah i used to be, i still do for fun sometimes but actually work as a game designer for a small video game company right now. Transitioned from miniature sculpting to vfx in like 2016, ended up doing motion graphics and designing concert visuals for a while, worked for adult swim for a bit, and eventually ended up here. I miss sculpting sometimes but it was hard for me to live off of financially (LA is fucking expensive)

[@brunneng38]

Great video. As a mini player though, I found the Townsfolk Tussle figures a lot of fun to paint based on their simplicity in design. It was a nice break after painting the heavily detailed stuff I usually do. And you should’ve subtracted a point from Kingdom Death based on how terrible the models are to assemble.

[@dmipgoz]

Really good video, thanks for that. I especially enjoyed it when you casually mentioned your opinion about the board game itself.

[@BailiwickVideos]

Thank you so much for this video! What a great and enjoyable one. As primarily a Kingdom Death Monster painter it was awesome to finally see someone put them where they should be. Hard to watch all of the online opinions about Cmon making the best minis. Haha

[@AlexAlex-zt3hi]

Holy shit, people really defend Cmon quality? They arent bad for board games, but holy crap!!! For real? And i dont mean ill intentions, just facts. I love the medieval zombicides, and some of the designs, but quality wise... We could talk about how you get ONE full board game for the price of 2 units of GW, and how with expansions you add more variety as the cost of another unit, but beyond that...

[@AlexAlex-zt3hi]

And i forgot, i dont own Kingdom Death, but the minis i have seem, no matter if they are monsters or survivors are SO AWESOME!!!

[@dinahfromkabalor]

Truly fantastic work on this video! You and your fine cohort of game testers and lenders put in a huge amount of work and for that alone it would have been worth my time. But then you structured the information beautifully and with tons of detail shots that really help inform how my opinion might coincide or differ from yours. Top notch content! Thank you.

[@mauropaneART]

Hey, this was very informative on what's currently out there, so thanks! In my previous game (Darklight: Memento Mori) we opted for large miniatures specifically for the reason mentioned here, you solve a lot of very simple problems. However, you do open yourself up to new problems as well. I think there is really a huge list of pro and consant a lot of them affect design and production rather than just visual style. Ultimately for my next game I am opting for a more traditional 32mm heroic scale because the cons of larger miniatures are too many, primarily you end up with either huge, heavy boxes which are too expensive and require custom delivery and do not fit in your library, or have to severely reduce the scope of the game, with far less miniatures, and I believe if you are the kind of person who loves miniatures Dungeon Crawlers, you'd rather have an impressive variety of encounters rather than a few handful of well made ones. Side note: FFG Gears of War still have one of the most impressively small but detailed miniatures for a boardgame, so it is not surprising the quality for Descent is on par.

[@elementz301]

Kingdom death minis are gorgeous, but I'm always afraid to paint them since it's not like a 40k army where if I mess up 1 it's fine cause I have 40 more of the same model

[@Miniac]

Paint is not permanent. You can always restart!

[@nicolasfernandez5572]

I only paint board games... this video is pure gold. Thank you so much!

[@tylerwelch1754]

I appreciate the featuring of Dots pretzels in some of the shots. Gotta chase that snack sponsorship!

[@TerrierHalo]

Journeys in Middle-Earth, to me, is about the line of quality/price I’m willing to pay for a board game. Used many of those models, especially the giant spiders, in games like Rangers of Shadow Deep too. :)

[@BoardinNBrewin]

I really love this topic. You articulated and quantified what a lot of us just grumble about. An interesting side note, I loved the HeroQuest gameplay, but couldn’t get over the model quality, so I found great STLs to print and paint as proxy’s for the whole set. This inspires me to perhaps make a video about that process.

[@MrMagicchrisi]

Now that is one of the greates videos you ever produced! I enjoyed every second of it and could keep on watching for another 32 games or minutes ❤

[@AntoniAmericaLatina]

Awesome video, thanks for this!

[@JimmyJamba]

Great vid! thanks for sharing

[@aequanimus63247]

The only thing that I disagree with is the yellow touque worn at 24:46

[@rosatyrs]

shoutout to the dot's pretzels that keep showing up in the background, a true S tier snack choice

[@enclave9497]

Great vid. Tbh my only complaint is im sad that battletech wasnt included.

[@SimonClark]

Really enjoyed this video Scott! Once I get through my pile of shame / pile of future glory, I might have to check some of these out

[@Miniac]

Let me know when you get through your pile of shame 😂😂

[@chillausmc]

Amazing effort and well done on this video. Something different and valuable. You guys rock and might I request painting vids of some meh board game minis? Bland faces are hard for me and would like to see how you tackle featureless features.

[@duerf5826]

As a first and foremost modeller and painter who occasionally looks for boardgames with unique and high quality minis, I greatly appreciate your insight and recommendations! Please do more review of boardgames (that come with minis) in this manner!

[@benxnewman]

That anvil guy is awesome! The fact that it's a different style doesn't mean it's a bad model. The cartoony style needs simplification, but that shouldn't be seen as a negative in my opinion.

[@benxnewman]

Oh, and Tenfold Dungeon... LOVE. Pure love. I need that XD

[@reuterss306]

I love Descent and the artstyle. I was blown away when I opened the box. Game is also great.

[@BRaNMcFebail]

Wow! Impressive comparison. Bravo!

[@RisingApe]

Great video, I hadn't heard of loads of these but will definitely be checking some of them out. Thanks

[@mikeglasswell-gameplay]

19:26 love the shout out the Streetfighter the Miniatures game. I love that game

[@manschristenssons6116]

Great idea for a video and well executed! Good stuff

[@VariousIdeas-f2q]

Loved seeing your opinions of boardgame minis, and the critiques of games you ACTUALLY played was a sweet sweet bonus!

[@Michaelangelo1776]

I’ve been filling you from the beginning- I enjoy painting minis but most of my friend group really enjoys board games overall more so than games like 40k. Dune imperium being one of our favorites!

[@philcoursodon9299]

Dude, great video. This is great for newbie painters to set themselves up for success!

[@Yurikan]

I used to be intimidated by details, but realized in the end that it doesn't matter how many fiddly bits someone has on them: They aren't going to dress in a clown suit. So I just paint them in one color and add shading using contrast. It's basically the easiest way to deal with them. I did try adding unique flair colors but it can make it a choir.

[@Khoriakei]

for your 0-4 levels, i advise black undercoat then metal dry brushing. Fake metal looks goods, is nice and fast.

[@MarkYale]

awesome vid!