The new video on this topic is more up to date and accurate. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fM-Rnpphz9SUlGg.html

I had no idea that the D&D boxed games came with so many miniatures. That is really awesome.

I did the math earlier today, Buying all the Ashardalon miniatures separately would cost roughly $362.89 USD + shipping

Did the same. Buying all the D&D boardgames is much much cheaper.

E-bay sells the D&D board games cheaper than Amazon from time to time, but you will need to look hard and pray the item has very few bids.

These box games are worth there weight in gold. I've got all four of them. Not only do you get the minis (okay, when there are a lot of, say, hobgoblins I use the closet thing as proxies), the tiles can be used for floor plans (not perfect, I'll admit, but still usable. On top of that, you have four great games that are enjoyable to play in their own right, either as a group game or solo. They are well worth the buy.

Thanks so much! I had no idea the board game sets included minis.

thank you your videos really help me out a lot. and the different hats always give me a laugh.

Awesome detailed video as always! By far one of the best D&D channels I've come across.

I bought the legend of drizzt first, which got me into D&D in the first place. then i bought Castle ravenloft, wrath of ashardalon along with the core books, some suplementary books and a handful of campaign books. :)

I bought three of these games (Castle Ravenloft, Legend of Drizzt and Wrath of Ashardalon) with Temple of Elemental Evil on the way to me right now. Its a double pleasure because of all the minis these provide (quite enough to run any game, with monsters to inspire your campaign) and because you have the chance to paint your minis as you see fit. I would also point another source of awesome minis, which are the Descent Expansions games. While they come with much less minis, (usually 4 heroes and around 9 monsters), the quality of the miniatures provided is very good.

The hat kinda threw me, but the information is absolutely golden!

This video was great for teaching new people about DnD minis. I already have three of the board games and am planing on getting the fourth. It is hard to find good cheap minis these days.

I found a Copy of Warhammer quest with several of its expansion at a thrift store. i paid $1.95 for it. earlier this week i sold the whole set for $549.99. I'm guessing I've used up all the luck i will ever have. On another note i also own all the D&D Board games they are an excellent way to get great mini's. at this point I've painted all the minis from the Drizzt game and several random minis from the other games. I've also used the map tiles and tokens to run games with my children. the tokens and tiles are great and they really help my kids wrap their mind around where they are and what kinds of things they are finding. Finally the games themselves are a lot of fun. they provide a fun dungeon crawl without the need for a Dungeon master or prep-time.

Dungeons&Dragons plastic/rubber miniatures are a collection series, making them cost more as time goes by. Huzzah, I liked this informative video, you have some good ideas that I never thought about. the last time I bought D&D miniatures was in 2010 2012 and they were going up in price then. my kid's are well off either way, thank you thank you and be safe.

I'm not sure about D&D minis but I know there's companies now making minis that you can get in on.They have kickstarters for their new lines of figures and you can purchase them from next years line up.It means waiting for a year to get them but they work out to less than a buck each.Black Magic Crafts did a video on it,I think it was Reaper minis he bought into and he got 168 minis for about 100 dollars,I think he said.Unpainted of course as that is his business but its a great deal if you can wait that long.Good video bro, I will check this game out.I tried at my local bookstore getting some games that have minis in them but the price wasn't worth it.Its tough trying to get back into painting when you live in a small town as everything you get you have to order.

Great video! I’m purchasing all of these board games for my birthday, as I am new to being a DM, and I was interested in getting miniatures. The board game route seems to be the indefinite best way!

Thank you so much I will get myself one of these games(hopefully more) in the new year

Absolutely fantastic video with great info, thanks a ton. I love painting minis and can't wait to get to these

Dam man thank you for this vid. I have been looking for miniatures since i just started DMing. I recently played the table top x-wing and really saw how fun it is to actually move the prices around.

I got wrath of ashardalon on sale 3 weeks ago on Amazon for $36. My sister and I painted all of them it was super fun and they look great!

Inspired sir! I kno what I’m asking for Xmas,Thank you. My local thrift stores sometimes have something that will make do. If you aren’t worried about exact replicas of monsters, I thought chess pieces might suffice. Pawns for minion creatures like goblins or king or queen for stronger creatures. Not great if you have a variety of monsters to keep track of, but maybe good enough until one of these box sets get delivered.

Damn you, man! I had been holding The Wrath of Ashardalon in my hands yesterday and managed to talk myself out of spending the money. Then, later that night, you upload THIS! Of course I'm only human, so I found myself on Amazon ordering it today. It was as if I had no will of my own! You, sir, are a sorcerous fiend! Also, now I am going to have to invest in some model paints. Oh well, I guess if I didn't spend the money on my nerdy hobbies I'd just end up spending it on something far less worthwhile. Like food. Or bills.

Great tip, thanks a bunch dude.

a few tips and tricks from a new DM that is building a collection: 1) Ask around at your FLGS (friendly local game store) chances are theres a DM there, or someone knows a DM. A seasoned DM will likely have a collection and/or will know where you can get stuff on a budget. 2) Check out other popular roleplaying games like pathfinder, iron kingdoms. These often will have sets of mini's that you can use for your games. 3) try making your own mini's using pieces from other games such as warhammer, the lord of the rings strategy battle game, or avatars of war. These games all have miniature sets that you can use to represent various creatures and races. 4) if you need a specific character, maybe for a specific players class/race combo that you need to find a mini for, try to build it, and if that doesn't work for you, try heroforge. Herforge has a hefty price tag, but its all custom and made to order, so you can make just about any humanoid race that you want.

Book Depository sells all those board games and has free shipping to NZ.Reaper Bones figs are cheapish to get hold of to.

for a non cheap version check out heroforge.com it's a customizable 3d printed hero meant for players not DM it's a bit expensive due to several reasons: 1. not enough compatitors 2. they use a 3rd party company for the prints (which is also the reason why they offer several types of plastics or metals)

there's also the board game "Descent". similarly has minis and tiles.

Very helpful, thanks

When you make videos like this, you should list the games you mentioned in the description so we can easily copy & paste to search for them. Or provide the amazon links for each :)

Thank you for your video!! I already have paints so these box games will work wonders for my collection!

smart, very helpful!

Why the hell doesn't Wizards just sell the unpainted molds for cheap? This hobby tries to nickle and dime you because people have set the prices by paying them. Pieces of cardboard when they first came out in 4E were like $20-$30. Why is it when I buy a module that I don't get tokens for every primary character in that story, along with some monsters? Why don't I get a fold out map? Why don't they at least have some tear out paper tokens or sheets that can be copied? Why do the miniature sets like Rage of Demons have so many unrelated minis that are sold in a blind box and have shoddy paint jobs? How about actually selling some decent quality Demon Lords that don't cost hundreds of dollars just because. The quality of things like the older Orcus gargantuan mini is not of a quality that merits its price. It just really frustrates me that they make this stuff so inaccessible. The market may be small but charging sometimes 900% more for stuff that costs nickles to make is just bullshit. I can go to a Target or even a more high end store and get 6-7", fully painted, fully articulated action figures that come with accessories for $5-$20. A lot of this stuff is made by Hasbro, the owners of D&D. Sure have your GF9 items for higher price items, but even now the quality of those items is normally not worth the money. Even things like the Demogorgon resign statue are not worth its original price of $60, even less so at the now now $80-$100 price tag. It is unreasonable to expect them to sell items closer to manufacturing costs at the expense of profit. I get that HeroClix and the like charge similar prices because they can get away with it, people are buying them. The prices are this way because of a smaller market, but maybe the market wouldn't be so small if Hasbro/WotC made an effort to actually advertise D&D, even change the public perception of it. It's a game anyone can play, you don't even need minis. But because they won't throw an ad on TV, publicize in magazines or make greater efforts to institutionalize the brand in modern media blogs and social media, the prices won't change. And D&D will continue to be niche, which would be fine but I wish more people would play it because it is fun. It would also bring eyes to other table top games. Who the hell even buys the D&D board games for the actual game? The games are marketed to people who play D&D. Why would they want a butchered gimmick game base on a game they actually play? These boxes aren't sold at Wal-Mart or Sears or Target, maybe Toys-R-Us. So it isn't some attempt to get more casual consumers to buy them. These games compete with Arkham Horror, which is again comprised of a specific crowd of people who probably don't want to play a lesser game. These boxes are bought for the minis.

Very good information thank you

I wasn't going to go in for that board game because thats still a lot but cultists, otyughs, grell, and kobolds really would fit with my campaign.

this is a brilliant tipp! I mean i can still paint those! So i am definitly getting one of the boardgames

i like this engaging video post:)

Now that everyone know about the board games, sellers are jacking up the prices on them.

Dungeon Command is my favorite game. Your really getting a great skirmish game with those miniatures as well. They also have large tiles with great outdoor tiles as well. They mesh well with the Adventure System games too. Elemental Evil has town tiles that fit the Dungeon Command out doors too I have heard.

One of the reasons I buy the Wrath of Ashardalon games (and the others in the same range) are for the figures to use in my D&D games. Like you said, the tiles are handy as well. Apart from that, I like the games as well. Funny you should say "don't buy the blind boxes". I guess you mean the Icons of the Realms boxes, which are expensive, you don't know what you are getting, and are a complete rip off imo. In the related sponsored ads on this page at the time of writing this is Icons of the Realms Tomb of Annihilation pack for £49.99. No thanks. Yes, better to get the board games. Averaging £1 per figure, that's not bad. Plus you get a decent game.

Love the hat!

alternative : there's a 3d printing library for free out there, that has alot of common miniatures that you can print on any 3d printer.

I know this video is old but the prices have been going up for those boxes. Most are over $40 USD from amazon.

I've found official miniatures at reasonable prices at gaming stores. Sometimes entire bins of them. The Hero-Clix figures are also nice but not official D&D figures. If you can get outside the 'official' category the sky is the limit. There are many games that use them as well as many children's toy sets that use them. I buy figures at yard sales, thrift shops, flea markets and estate sales. I often pay less than a quarter for them. I've been using unofficial miniatures since the 1970s.

Seeing I play the tabletop miniature wargame Warhammer 40k I know you can get lucky sometimes and find someone that is selling all or parts of their Warhammer Fantasy armies. Lots of GW fantasy miniatures can be great for D&D. I know a few people that do that.

Absolutely Brilliant! How paintable would you say these minis are though?

These are still unbelievably expensive and very limmited. Best solution for miniatures: buy those tiny card stands on Amazon, then hop into Google search and download detailed pictures of whatever you need, monsters or characters, pop them into Google docs or Microsoft word, scale them to a proper size and print them full colour onto some card stock. Cut them out and stick them into the card holders and you're set! And for maps, you can download HD gaming maps and print them onto banners at Wal-Mart, and draw on them with dry erase markers.

i can probably paint these things better than wizkids does. this is definitely what im buying next.

Thank you, great info....playing my first game soon and I paid 8 bucks for 1 unpainted mini...ouch.

the board game Talisman has a good starting range too

Hey Frederick! Enjoy the vids. Are there any type of minis that you really need but have a hard time finding? A few DMs I know and myself all lack townspeople NPCs. I decided to make a set, and I am basically asking around the D&D community to gauge interest in the set. Or is there some other character type you really lack? Thanks!

Brilliant

Awesome advice! But how is the board game by itself? Are the D&D board games fun?

For such Miniatures such as Skeletons and other undead,orcs trolls, etc. where you need Large Numbers of them Try learning how to Recast them.

It's so sad that in Brazil we have to pay about R$900 for this board game, It's pratically unreachable... I play as a Dragonborn Sorcerer and this kind of miniature is so hard to find, that Dragonborn Wizard is a dream for sure, I just spent $41 wich is equal to R$120 for a Gold Half-Dragon Sorcerer from a booster that doesn't exist in Brazil.

howtod&d I'm new to this game and found this amazing video about it and I was wondering is everything else besides the characters enemy's and does this contain a campaign or do you know a place were I could get and already made campaign because I don't think I have enough imagination to create a whole campaign

If I am just getting into d&d should I buy this or the starter set?

so those d&d board games are the same price as in the US as they are in Sterling, so if you're in the UK it's bloody expensive...

Can you paint the unpainted ones? Cause I like the painted ones but I don't like the price

the bestiary box of paizo is a great option

Some kid offer me $0.25 for a mini i was painting, i had a good laugh

I just make my own :)

Are the figures the same plastic material as the dungeon command figures, or just the old fashioned D&d miniatures?

Where should I go for painted townsfolk

This is only a good deal if you plan to use all the minis. If you don't plan to use part of them then in reality the price per mini goes up on the ones you will use. For example if all I wanted from this box was the dragon and a few other minis then this box become more expensive then reaper bones series

Don’t forget Troll and Toad!

this can work id just have to paint them but this can work

Soo I am buying this to paint... cause yes.

What is the scale of the miniatures? 25mm? 28mm? 32mm?

what should I get if I wanted to play a spellsword

Is the plastic durable

cheak out eM4 minatures

I making of uploaded video of super lego Logan adventures making of rpg games

those board games were a good idea...until i realized they werent painted :/

Great Video, TY for shareing some of the options & advice to save some extra $$$ on minis as they are becoming more & more expensive , If you are handy craft wise check out PrinceAugust.com . they are a company from Ireland that has been around for decades, they make & sell molds so you can cast your own minis from metal. They have a good selection of fantasy minis including some of the official Lord of the Rings range ( mostly elves in LotR ) as well as historical ( napoleonic & roman & celts) that are in the appropriate scale. They allso have a great deal on the old Warzone game with NOS boxed sets w/80 plastic minis that work great for 40k or sci fi/steampunk. & costs 1/3rd the price of a 40k boxed set. Ive cast over 150 minis from the roman/celt range for warhammer fantasy & historical wargaming & done alot of converting ( this is inexpensive as you can use sculpey to bake the extra details/parts onto metal minis which you cant do w/plastic ). As ive had alot of good results & saved alot of $$$ through using their molds I try to get the word out. games workshop themselves used/uses them for decades to cast their metal minis & GW in the 90's bought the rights to the warzone game, then sat on them so there woudnt be competition w/40k. I live in the USA & everytime I ordered from them I got it shipped to my house in less than a week. They will also make a professional production mold for you if you sculpt figure(S) & want to sell them ( they've a selection of minis for sale in this catagory as well, Fantasy as well as SciFi). hope i just increased your options by typing all this. thanks for bothering to read it all & wishing you all alot of great gaming in the future.

Easiest way to get free D&D mini's: Buy a 3d printer, then get the models to download and print here: www.shapeways.com/designer/mz4250/creations

my gosh!! just show the miniatures already

We use cheap lego from china

paint your own. it's far cheaper

So miniatures are not an option....

I just can’t get past that hat.... good content though.

lol just throwing all the miniatures all over the place lol miniature abuse! lol

Is unfortunate that unpainted miniatures just look like blobs. "Normals" don't understand this. I wish the board games went with colored 2D card board minis instead.