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I was recently thinking about my minis and how much use they see. I realized that while many do see the table from time to time, many have only been on the table once and are now more of a collection than active gaming miniatures. Also, in a world where some games have rather expensive miniatures one might think even more critically about whether a given model is worth purchasing if it's likelihood of seeing the table is low.

Note that I'm not asking how often your minis actually see the table or about your un-assembled backlog. Based on a recent thread, it looks like most of us have significant lead mountains. Rather, I'm asking how often you would have to use a model for it to FEEL like a worthwhile and useful purchase.

For myself, I've got a rather wide collection of minis and if a mini or the majority of an army that mini belongs too sees the table once a year, I'm quite happy with that, I have a set of 28mm Mecha that only get out once or twice a year for a convention game and that's just fine by me.

If I bought it for display; none, I'm happy with it as is.

If I bought it for gaming, once should do. Obviously when I'm deciding where to spend money it'll go where I'll get most value (i.e. use it most). So for instance, I'll pay more for a Malifaux character (that I could get 3 games a month with) than I would for another guard Komissar, which I'll probably never field.

Easily 95% of my collection has never seen a table.

Once a year, I guess.

Whilst I would love to use my collection as often as possible, the fact I dislike painting and have little spare time at the moment kind of forces me to reconcile myself with the fact that I am first and foremost, a collector of miniatures rather than a gamer or painter. I'm fine with that, I think but I am sure circumstances will change in the future. I am in it for the long haul; it's not as if the minis expire or go past some sort of use by date. I am confident I will get use out of them in the long run.

It really depends on the price of the model. If it's more than about £10 for a single figure, I want to be able to use it at least semi-regularly (2-4 times every couple of months), which is why I only bought into Batman and X-wing once I knew I'd have the opportunity to game with them (well, that and some significant discount on the latter!)

However, if the mini is nice enough, I don't mind paying £5-8 just for something to paint and stick on a shelf, the fate that befalls most of my Infinity and Malifaux stuff. Doesn't bother me that much, as I still enjoyed painting them and they'll occasionally see play.

I don't buy a model unless I will be using it. However, that use may only be once a year as I seldom get to game.

If I don't like the mini I won't buy it (however good it might be in game)

Just owning and (dreaming about) building & painting is enough

If I actually get to use them in anger even better but it's probably the last thing on the list I worry about

If I like it enough, I'll buy it. Don't need to be played in a game or as part of an army. A nice miniature is a nice miniature. Some of them deserve buying.

I generally buy models to have them (I've built models since I was 8, only started using them in games when I was 14). If it actually gets used at least once in a game, I'm estatic.

However, in the past year or so I've been trying to move more towards picking up things I intend to use in actual games (the shelves are beyond overloaded nowadays).

 Paradigm wrote:
It really depends on the price of the model. If it's more than about £10 for a single figure, I want to be able to use it at least semi-regularly (2-4 times every couple of months), which is why I only bought into Batman and X-wing once I knew I'd have the opportunity to game with them (well, that and some significant discount on the latter!)

However, if the mini is nice enough, I don't mind paying £5-8 just for something to paint and stick on a shelf, the fate that befalls most of my Infinity and Malifaux stuff. Doesn't bother me that much, as I still enjoyed painting them and they'll occasionally see play.

Exactly - there are Bones figures where even using the figure once as a disposable bad guy in an RPG makes it worth the price (less than a buck a figure in the Bones I Vampire level).

There are boutique models that will never be a worthwhile purchase.

There are character models from GW that will never be a worthwhile purchase.

Then there are the figures that light up my good lady's face, and regardless of price, they were worth the money. (Though, in honesty... they were worthwhile even before I gave them to her - I just wouldn't have needed them, but Megan is building a campaign around them. )

The Auld Grump - those vehicles from Wargames Exclusive...

Been into 40k for about 10 years now. Collected Lizardmen and Guardsmen. Only have a select few lizardmen models but I have a sizeable Guardsmen force.

I've played three games of Battle for Maccragge and that is it. I get so much time and joy purely out of modelling and painting them, then seeing them all together that I don't even have to play with them at all to feel validated.

The last year or so though I've been trying to put some method to my madness and actually buy/build models so that they will be useful in game, or at least magnetise them so I can keep up with the meta and not have outdated setups. Slowly building up my guardsmen so be a competent force rather than a rag tag bunch of models.

If I've spent time building it and painting, then it was probably worthwhile. I enjoy doing those things.

I do buy miniatures with the intent of using them in gaming, but it's not the only thing that makes things worthwhile for me.

Interesting to see how many folks are content with collecting and painting with little opportunity for the minis to see the table. For the first 10 years of this hobby I probably played an average of 1 game a year and for the next 5 I played less than once a month.

However, for the past 6 years -since I formed a club with some friends- I've played about twice a month. Now actually getting my figs on the table has become one of my favorite parts of the hobby and I would seriously miss it if I wasn't miniature gaming at least monthly.

I find it similar it to performing music. In my first "band" we rarely played out. My second band played out often and ever since then to be in a music group that doesn't actively perform isn't even an option for me.

I mean I tell myself I'm ok never playing with them...but am I really, or is that a defence mechanism I've built up to help deal with how many things I have that I don't play with haha

Did I paint it? Gaming is a bonus.

If i like it, i will buy it (if price is reasonable), usage is a later concern.

Totally varies. Depends on a number of things. Coolness, rarity, price, etc. I consider most Reaper Bones minis to be worthwhile purchases even if I never play with them, especially at KS prices.

I consider my Raging Heroes minis worthwhile investments, but I've never played a single game with them.

I have a number of miniatures I purchased, used for one campaign or game session, and never touched again, and still consider them worthwhile. Honestly, I just love miniatures.

The only ones I've purchased that I thought were a waste were the ones I bought from Hero Forge. The quality was less than stellar, and totally not worth the purchase price.

I buy figures and models because I like the looks of them.

Whether they are "gaming figures" or otherwise.

Being able to use them in a game as well? Bonus.

I have both a tau hammerhead and a necron monolith - and while I did used to play 40k, I never played either army (nor wanted to). Those models were bought purely so I could stick electronics into them and light them up.

At least once, and it has to do something. I think the least used mini I have is Corbax utterblight it never does much on the table, but I love the model. I've got bile trolls, but I could figure out what to proxy them as, so I sold them.

I don't care if they never see game time. I'm just as satisfied with looking at miniatures as I am playing with them. I'm more of a painter/collector than a gamer anyway.

Voted option 1.

95% of my collection has never left the display case or even seen the tabletop, I do small skirmishes with friends a few times a year, we just have some squads and a couple of heroes bang heads, nothing too big.

My collection is actually ridiculously large, maybe one day I'll find a gaming group that will give me reason to field larger forces.

I buy a model because I want it. The problem is that I want lots of models! So, I've amassed quite a collection over the years.
Now, the big bonus to that is when I play, which is sporadically at best, I have quite an inventory to choose from for creating an army list!

 BigWaaagh wrote:
I buy a model because I want it. The problem is that I want lots of models! So, I've amassed quite a collection over the years.
Now, the big bonus to that is when I play, which is sporadically at best, I have quite an inventory to choose from for creating an army list!

This is me

I game because I enjoy gaming, and I build and paint models because I enjoy modelling. There is certainly an intersection of the two, and in many cases, the game may influence what I build and paint next, but I'm very satisfied with the time and money spent on models that I build and paint that never see a gaming table.

 toasteroven wrote:

I do buy miniatures with the intent of using them in gaming, but it's not the only thing that makes things worthwhile for me.

Much the same for me. Virtually everything I buy these days get painted. About 2/3rds of the stuff in cabinets at the moment haven't seen a table and some of it, like my Dropzone stuff and my Warzone Bauhaus are 2-3 years old. I have fully painted armies that are much older than that and never seen a table (my Imperial Navy strikeforce for BFG are probably about a decade old now and have never seen a table).

I like having completed armies/projects though so, provided that I have painted it, it is worthwhile.

I figure if I spend as much time enjoying something as it technically took me to earn the money to pay for it, then I'm doing well enough. For example, if I get 3 and a half-ish hours of enjoyment from building and painting a Tactical Squad, then I've had my money's worth. Playing is just icing on the cake.

None... I like collecting, painting and displaying them, playing is a social thing so it doesn't really matter much what I play.

I guess it depends on the model in question. Most models I mainly get for the sake of wanting one (or two, or three, or six! ), others I do get as gaming pieces and in the case of those models, I'll be very happy if they get to shine in a game at the very least once.

John Keats wrote:
A thing of beauty is a joy forever

I mean, assuming I get it painted...

I'm a collector that likes playing with them. I have tons of minis that have never seen the table top but are awesome looking (Colossal and gargantuan dragons!)