Plenty of board games come with plastic figures. Far fewer come with miniatures you would actually want to spend a weekend painting.
The difference is duplication. A game that hands you forty identical soldiers gives you one sculpt and thirty-nine chores. A game that gives you a dozen distinct characters and a monster worth building a shelf around gives you a project. This list is the second kind — and every component count below was checked against a published component list rather than repeated from memory. Four of the seven publishers put that list online, and those four are linked to the source. The rest were cross-checked against retailer component lists, which is the best public record that exists for them.
These picks are based on component research, sculpt quality and published designer credits rather than a painted collection of our own.
How these numbers were checked. Blood Rage, Scythe, HeroQuest and Unmatched all have public component lists from the publisher, and each is linked in its entry below. Rising Sun, Cthulhu Death May Die and Horrified do not — CMON and Ravensburger both block automated access to their product pages — so those three counts come from retailer component listings, cross-checked against more than one seller. Where sources disagreed, the publisher won: Blood Rage is listed online as both 46 and 49, and 46 is the retail box.
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1. Blood Rage — The One to Start a Collection With
Blood Rage is the game most painters name first, and the component list explains why. The retail box holds 46 miniatures: 40 clan figures — four clans of 8 warriors, 1 leader and 1 ship each — plus 6 monsters drawn from Norse myth.
That structure is why it paints so well. The four clans are already colour-coded, so you have a built-in scheme before you open a pot of paint, and the six monsters are individual sculpts big enough to justify real effort. The sculpting is Mike McVey’s studio work over Adrian Smith’s art direction, which is the same pairing behind a lot of the miniatures people hold up as the high-water mark for the hobby.
It is also a genuinely good game underneath the plastic — a short, sharp card-drafting fight where dying on purpose scores points. Our full take is in our Blood Rage review, and the card drafting breakdown explains the engine that makes it more than a miniatures showcase.
2. Rising Sun — Bigger Sculpts, Same Studio
Rising Sun is Blood Rage’s successor from the same designer and publisher, and it scales the miniatures up: 58 figures in the base box, with Kami and monsters noticeably larger than anything in the Viking game.
Pick this one over Blood Rage if the monsters are the reason you’re buying. Pick Blood Rage if you want the tighter, meaner game — Rising Sun trades some of that edge for negotiation and a broader board. We put them head to head in Blood Rage vs Rising Sun.
3. Scythe — The Most Finishable Project Here
Scythe contains 25 miniatures — 20 mechs and 5 character figures, per Stonemaier’s own component list. Five factions, five pieces each.
Twenty-five is the number that makes this a recommendation rather than a warning. You can realistically finish Scythe, and finishing matters more than almost anything else when you are new to painting. The mechs are also chunky and stylised — large flat panels, bold shapes, very little fine detail to ruin — which is about as forgiving as plastic gets. Jakub Rozalski’s dieselpunk art gives you a colour reference for every faction if you would rather not invent one.
The game is the heaviest thing on this list. Our Scythe review has the full verdict, and Scythe for beginners is the gentler on-ramp.
4. Cthulhu Death May Die — Buy It for the Centerpieces
Season 1 ships 45 plastic miniatures, but the count is not the point. The Great Old Ones are the point — oversized, writhing showpiece models that dwarf the investigators standing next to them.
This is the pick if you want one model to pour thirty hours into rather than an army to grind through. The investigators are ordinary-sized figures you can knock out quickly; the Elder Gods are the reason the box is on the shelf.
5. HeroQuest — Chunky, Nostalgic and Forgiving
Avalon Hill’s 2021 reissue comes with 31 monster miniatures and 4 hero figures, plus moulded furniture that paints up as scenery.
The sculpts are deliberately old-fashioned: thick limbs, exaggerated features, deep recesses. That style hides mistakes. A wash and a drybrush make a HeroQuest orc look finished in a way that a crisp modern sculpt never will, which is exactly what you want while your brush control is still developing. You do paint several near-identical orcs and goblins, so it is more repetitive than Blood Rage — but repetition on cheap models is how you get good.
6. Horrified — The Best First Set, Full Stop
Horrified has 7 monster miniatures — Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s monster, the Bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Seven sculpts, seven different subjects, zero duplicates.
That is the ideal beginner set and it is not close. You are never painting the same model twice, every one teaches a different technique — fur, bandages, translucency, scales — and seven is a total you will actually complete. It is also the cheapest game here, which matters a great deal when the first two or three models are going to be practice you’d rather not have spent fifty dollars on.
The sequels follow the same shape at smaller counts: American Monsters has 6 cryptids, World of Monsters has 4.
7. Unmatched — One Figure, One Evening
Each Unmatched box carries 2 to 4 hero miniatures depending on the set — Battle of Legends Vol. 1 has four, Sun’s Origin has two.
This is the smallest possible commitment in the hobby. One box, one or two evenings, and you have a finished display piece instead of an unpainted backlog. If you have ever bounced off painting because the pile felt infinite, start here. The game underneath is an asymmetric two-player duel — each hero has their own deck and movement rules — so the box is not a painting accessory with a game bolted on.
Which of These Are Actually Worth Painting
Mini count is the wrong number to shop on. Three things decide whether a box becomes a project or a shelf of guilt.
Distinct sculpts beat total sculpts. Horrified’s 7 unique monsters are more painting value than 40 identical soldiers. Divide the count by the number of different models before you judge a box.
Size decides difficulty more than detail does. Large models are easier. A Cthulhu Great Old One or a Scythe mech has broad surfaces that reward simple technique; a 25mm figure crowded with straps and buckles punishes an unsteady hand. Start big.
A built-in colour scheme removes the hardest decision. Blood Rage’s four clans and Scythe’s five factions come with palettes attached. That sounds trivial until you are staring at a grey figure with no idea what colour anything should be.
By those three tests: Horrified is the best starting point, Scythe is the best first full project, and Blood Rage is the best box overall — distinct sculpts, built-in schemes, and six monsters worth the effort.
What Just Missed, and Why
Four games belong in this conversation and are not ranked above. Descent and Mansions of Madness both carry large, varied miniature sets and either could reasonably sit in the top five — they are out because Fantasy Flight’s current boxes vary by printing and we could not pin a component count we would stand behind. Nemesis is the same story: superb Intruder sculpts, no published base-game count we could verify. Kemet: Blood and Sand and Ankh round out Eric Lang’s CMON run alongside Blood Rage and Rising Sun, and both are worth your time if those two appeal.
None of these is excluded on quality. They are excluded because a number we could not source has no business in a list whose whole argument is that the numbers are checked.
The Quick Picks Table
| Game | Miniatures | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Rage | 46 | The best all-round box |
| Rising Sun | 58 | Bigger monsters |
| Scythe | 25 | A project you’ll finish |
| Cthulhu: Death May Die | 45 | One showpiece model |
| HeroQuest | 35 | Cheap, forgiving practice |
| Horrified | 7 | Your first set |
| Unmatched | 2–4 | A single evening |
Skip These If Painting Is the Point
Gloomhaven and Jaws of the Lion. This one catches people out. Jaws of the Lion includes 4 miniatures — the player characters — and all 97 monsters are cardboard standees. Monster minis for the Gloomhaven games are sold separately, and they cost more than most of the games on this list. Wonderful game; not a painting purchase.
Anything pre-painted. Star Wars: X-Wing and D&D Icons of the Realms arrive finished. Beautiful on the table, nothing to do.
Games built on identical units. Twilight Imperium, Risk and the plastic trains in Ticket to Ride give you one sculpt repeated until you resent it.
Zombicide, with an asterisk. The horde is dozens of near-identical zombies. That is genuinely useful batch practice if you want to drill technique — and miserable if you wanted a display piece.
Already Own the Games? Check the Expansions
Two expansions add figures to games whose base boxes have none. Spirit Island’s Nature Incarnate introduces Incarna pieces — physical spirit figures placed on the board, in a game whose base box is entirely tokens and cardboard. And Scythe’s expansions each add a faction’s worth of mechs in the same style as the base set, which is the cheapest way to extend a paint scheme you have already mixed.
If it is the art rather than the plastic that draws you in, the best board game artwork covers the games worth owning for their looks alone, and our best board games list is the wider starting point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which board game has the best miniatures?
Blood Rage and Rising Sun, both sculpted for CMON by Mike McVey’s studio, are the usual answer among painters. Blood Rage packs 46 figures into a tight box with six monsters as centerpieces; Rising Sun goes bigger with 58. If you want one showpiece model rather than an army, Cthulhu: Death May Die’s Great Old Ones are the most dramatic sculpts on this list.
What board game is best for beginner miniature painting?
Horrified, because seven distinct sculpts make you practise seven different surfaces in one box — fur, bandages, scales, cloth and translucency. Whichever set you start with, budget for primer separately: bare board game plastic is a soft PVC that acrylic paint beads on if you go straight onto the bare figure.
Do board game miniatures come painted?
Almost never. Nearly every board game miniature ships as bare single-colour plastic, usually grey or a faction colour. The main exceptions are pre-painted lines like Star Wars X-Wing and D&D Icons of the Realms, which arrive finished and leave nothing to paint.
How many miniatures does Blood Rage come with?
46 in the retail base game: 40 clan figures split across four clans (each clan gets 8 warriors, 1 leader and 1 ship) plus 6 monster figures. Counts of 49 that circulate online include Kickstarter exclusive monsters that never shipped to retail.
Is Gloomhaven good for miniature painting?
Not as sold. Jaws of the Lion gives you four character miniatures and uses cardboard standees for every monster, and Frosthaven follows the same pattern. Monster miniatures are separate add-on purchases, so the painting cost sits on top of the game. Painters who want a dungeon crawler to paint generally start with HeroQuest instead.
Do I need to glue board game miniatures together?
Usually not. Most board game miniatures, including every CMON game on this list, arrive pre-assembled in one piece and only need a base coat of primer before painting. Assembly is mainly a wargame and Kingdom Death expectation, not a board game one.
What is the cheapest board game with good miniatures?
Horrified is the usual answer, and the reason is sculpt variety rather than sticker price — seven different monsters in one box. Judged on figures per box instead, HeroQuest is the outlier at 35, though many are near-identical orcs and goblins. A single Unmatched set is the smallest outlay of all at two to four figures.