"Are Miniatures Just "Fancy Counters"?" Topic

I play boardgames very happily, but there is something different about a game with figures.

For example, I've played Blucher both with cards and figures, and the feel of the games was entirely different. I can't explain it, but that's how I feel. And I far preferred the figure game.

Miniatures add an artistic quality to a game I find both attractive, and an aid to my suspension of disbelief. I play very few boardgames because counters simply don't impact me in the same way.

Not quite as black and white as the questioner would seem to assume IMHO.

Yes, they are just counters in a game BUT there is the display aspect ("look what I painted …") and the evocation of history that the figures help (not much use if you play non-historical I suppose).

Could I enjoy a wargame in the same way without figures ? Probably not BUT I do go part of the way there by using 2mm figures sometimes.

Some rules use boardgame ideas (hexes, squares, bases with all the factors marked on them) so yet another 'gray' area.

This may be one of those polls where a 1-5 range of answers would have been more appropriate.

They could be, depending on the game. The sculpt and paint job of a miniature can contain much more information than you could encode on a counter. My rules use height of the mini in determining cover. We also require you to balance your mini on a ledge or thin causeway to be able to use it for transit – Is there enough room to go around him on the cliff side? Well, stick your dude there and find out!

Yes, they are just fancy counters. They may be more aesthetically pleasing than cardboard squares, and they can potentially portray more game information, but they are still just counters. The only real difference is how we relate to them emotionally.

Counters are game pieces. Miniatures are game pieces…at least in this context. But they are "fancy" game pieces. That likely encompasses artistic quality, attractiveness, suspension of disbelief, (visual) impact, display aspect, evocation of history, the looks for information (WYSWYG), aesthetics and so forth…all as mentioned above!

"Fancy" is a much, much shorter way of putting it!

To Joker's list I might add personal investment in time and talent (or, in my case, "talent"). I feel differently about my hand painted minis than I do about mass produced game pieces or digital bits of information, no matter how finely made

Some games go so far as to ignore whatever figurines are on the bases… So yes, they are just fancy counters.
ymmv,

Ideally, they're more than that, and if done properly, can give a nice sense of the space and certainly more period "flavor." At least with Napoleonic games featuring Brigade-sized stands you know what you're getting as opposed to trying to put 28mm Borodino on two banquet tables with incorrect terrain, unit sizes, etc. The former is chess with chrome, and the latter, while it can be pretty, is I don't know what.

No they're not. I hear lead people.

For me miniatures are not just fancy counters. I don't spend time collecting, painting, and converting counters.

For multi-brigade 15mm battles, it's mostly just fancy counters, and the game would move along just as well with colored blocks as it would with miniatures. On the other hand, with 28mm skirmish games, each figure represents a character. Miniatures become personalities, and well-painted figures are appreciated.

Miniatures 6mm or smaller are just counters. Would be less trouble to play a boardgame.

Just because you do not "get" 6mm (and smaller ) is no reason to disparage those that do

Miniatures add tone to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl

As astutely noted above, you don't collect and scratch-build boardgame counters; I have a number of minis that I painted just to paint

For me they're fancy counters. Much as I enjoy seeing well painted and based figures I still see as just that.
The crunch came when 300 light horse started looking like a scouting party. That's when I moved to 2mm at 1:1 or 1:2 ratio.
Yes I could easily use counters but the visual aspect is still important to me,also I don't have that dreadful situation of rivers looking like streams as troops loom large above them.