When players discover a new board game, they look forward to the miniatures and how good they look. From small heroes to gigantic monsters, miniatures are the main attraction that fills you with various emotions as you face terrible foes or get immersed in the game world. They also allow you to express some of your creativity by adding your personal touch during the painting process.
High-quality tabletop figures present a wide array of detail to mesmerize the eye. In some cases, the game might have a mechanic to affect the miniature physically. This list will explore the best representations of models in board games that might pique your interest and impress your friends.
Updated July 19, 2025, by Vaspaan Dastoor:Miniatures are the tools that most tabletop games use to keep track of what’s going on. They don’t have to be pretty, but it’s always great when they are. Whether it’s wargaming, or just a regular RPG, or even Monopoly, well-made miniatures will always be appreciated. We’ve updated this list with a few more games that have put great detail into their miniatures.
Warhammer 40,000 - Command Edition Starter Box
The never ending war.
When it comes to miniatures, Warhammer 40,000 reigns supreme. Games Workshop has put out countless sets with all sorts of units, characters and set pieces. There’s no one set that’s the best as it depends on your personal preference and what your collection needs, However, the Command Edition Starter Box is a great way to start a collection if you haven’t already.
Warhammer 40,000 miniatures have been around for a long time. With multiple factions and sub factions, each with their unique lineup of units, the number of miniatures available to collect is almost incalculable. This is the miniature tabletop game that acts as a flagship for the genre.
Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
DEATH!!
Based on the Peter Jackson trilogy, Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game offers you miniatures of almost every major and minor character from the movies. Sets are broken up into major events from the movies, with the one shown here being the battle of Osgiliath. Just imagine being able to recreate the battle of Pelennor fields with the Rohirrim mustered before the charge.
Of course, the creators of the Warhammer 40K miniature games would be the ones to bring LOTR miniatures to life. Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game gives you almost every unit you may think of from the movies, along with major and minor characters too. Imagine having one of cinema’s best ever scenes on your tabletop.
Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition
Amass armies and fleets in vast numbers across the galaxy.
Twilight Imperium is a board game that will see players attempting to control the galaxy through negotiation, sheer force, and planning.
Twilight Imperium allows you to amass huge armies as you fight for control of the galaxy, creating a force to be reckoned with. When filling the board with so many miniatures, you want them to look good and build a sense of hoarding the map as your fleet moves. The models can be customized with paint to the player’s preference, creating a color scheme identity for the entire float.
These armies are similar to the Warhammer series of board games in that they fill every corner of the table as they hover over planets in hexagon tiles. You will move your troops as you battle, trade, and enact laws with fellow players, shaking things up as turn pass by.
Marvel United
Assembled your team of heroes in this adorable and stylish iteration.,
Marvel United is a PvE board game where players will join forces to defeat a villain and his henchmen from wreaking havoc in different locations.
In Marvel United, players join forces to defeat villains as they seek to control the board and secure areas. As the game progresses, villains will power up and use their specific caveats to defeat the heroes. The villains all have specific traits that change how the game plays every match, giving this board game a lot of replayability and keeping it fresh after multiple sessions.
Marvel United miniatures might be smaller, but they don’t let that hold them back. These figures pack a punch when it comes to personality. Among Marvel games, few tabletops come close to the amount of precision and expression that Marvel United does. They also give the heroes a chibi-cartoon touch.
Blood Rage
Face the horrors of Blood Rage and guide your Viking clan.
Blood Rage is a tabletop where players will fight to guide their Viking clan to the ultimate glory.
Blood Rage is a player-versus-player game in which you guide your clan to victories using different strategies to adapt to your opponent’s moves. The game focuses on armies and monsters, so building the optimal army will lead to victory.
Blood Rage monsters and units appear menacing due to how gritty and terrifying their miniatures look. Add to that the huge size of some of the models, and you may see the terror the warriors will face on the board. The clans all have distinctive looks that set them apart visually, such as the Bear clan hoods from the animal or the Wolf clan shields.
Nemesis
Do your best to survive both allies and foes alike in this horror board game.
Nemesis is a semi-cooperative horror tabletop in which you will collaborate and fight with other players and the aliens breaching the spaceship.
Nemesis is a survival horror semi-cooperative game in which you will do your best to survive the terror of space and battle alien creatures. The unexpected can happen due to that not-so-fully cooperative nature, and situations can be played where you run away from an alien into a room only to see another player blow you up along with the creature.
Moving away from heroes and fantasy for a bit, Nemesis makes for some of the most original and creepy-looking alien figures. The miniatures look like they are preparing to charge at humans while others are grabbing something with their claws or even flexing postures. Pair that with the human’s small size holding their guns or preparing their tech, and it ends up in a visual that an ambush is imminent.
Rising Sun
Prepare for mind tricks and battles of wits in this suspenseful board game.
Rising Sun is a strategy game where players will reclaim the land from the Kami and their spiritual traditions. Be honorable or dishonorable in this battle of wits and deception.
Rising Sun is a player-versus-player game in which alliances are forged, and personal agendas can lead to betrayal. In this mind game, the most crafty will execute long-term strategies. The game uses honor as a mechanic, in which the more honorable you are, you get more advantages. Acts such as betrayal can drop your honor. On the other hand, having low honor allows you to immerse yourself in the darker elements of the game and exclusive perks.
Rising Sun’s human warrior figures are a bit simple. They are solid, but where the game truly shines is in the monsters. These monsters are contested with Shinto, a unit players can have up to three. These can be placed on the battlefield as reinforcements or go pray at shrines; whoever has the most Shinto in a shrine will win it for the round, and in case of a tie, the honor system will make the highest honorable player win.
Dark Souls: The Board Game
Fight memorable bosses such as Ornstein and Smaug in this board game.
The Dark Souls Board Game brings the brutality of Dark Souls to tabletops. Explore the world of Dark Soul while battling against classic bosses of the series.
Dark Souls has been an iconic series since its inception as a video game, and the board game similarly delivers a world devoid of hope. It satisfactorily adds the game’s mechanics into the board game, and it features high-risk gameplay where making choices will determine how brutal fights can get.
The figures are iconic and represent the characters with astounding details. However, the true enjoyment is in the expansions, such as Tomb of Giants, which adds Nito as a miniature to the game, a design that is easy to fall in love with. A god of the undeath shrouded in mystery is an imposing miniature that will make you proud to add to your collection. Other prominent figures, such as Artorias The Abysswalker, can also be added through other expansions.
Descent: Legends of The Dark
Create multiple areas for your miniatures to transverse.
Descent: Legends of the Dark is an adventure board game in which demonic foes and dark realms await players as they explore the areas they find themselves in.
Descent: Legends of the Dark is a board game with amazing figures and environments. It’s easy to get immersed in the action as the world unfolds at the table, creating zones such as crypts or castles and the figures of creatures that inhabit these places: Reptiles, dragons, constructs, feral beasts, and more so full of style.
The miniature’s aesthetics flawlessly mix with the world, resulting in a better experience when it comes to immersion. When everything comes together on the board, it creates a cryptid and spectacular 3D environment that your miniatures will need to move in to get across the game’s different zones.
Cthulhu: Death May Die
Explore the horrors of Cthulhu in the dark narrative of this tabletop.
Cthulhu: Death May Die reinvents lovecraft horror by adding some innovative and grotesque miniatures to gaze upon.
Noir style meets Lovecraft in Cthulhu: Death May Die. The miniatures are a love letter to any genre fan who will be fascinated by these models. The gallery of different Eldritch horrors is absurd and nails the aesthetic completely. Once painted, the figures will strike the presence of a powerhouse on every board they decide to present themselves upon.
Ankh: Gods of Egypt
Impress your friends and players with these highly detailed figures.
Ankh: Gods of Egypt pits players in a PvP that is complex and where one mistake in the early game can punish you for the whole match. Build your civilization and convert followers.
Ankh: Gods of Egypt is a complex player versus player board game that will require learning the game’s ins and outs to emerge as the victor. While it can be challenging for newcomers to get into it thanks to it’s punishing nature, once you get the hang of it, it is a lot of fun to play as you make the best strategies and moves to ensure your success as an ancient God.
It shows that a board game can have a lot of huge and imposing miniatures. What makes them so good is not only the details in the model and how well-made they are but the fact that the gods can merge, thanks to the gameplay. While the figures themselves don’t combine altogether, they add their bases into one another, making the god taller and more imposing on the board.
Marvel: Crisis Protocol Core Set
Marvel minis
If you’re not the kind of player who prefers grim soldiers and Lovecraftian horrors, perhaps you may be interested in superheroes. Marvel: Crisis Protocol brings your favourite heroes and villains to the miniature world, setting up great battle scenes on recognizable terrain.
Marvel: Crisis Protocol takes ther dark and dreary out of most miniature games and adds Marvel superheroes to it. This makes it way more approachable than something like Warhammer 40K, which seems intimidating with its deep lore and countless troops and figures.
Bloodborne: The Board Game
Remade for the tabletop
Bloodborne: The Board Game tasks you and other Hunters to work together and save Yharnam. With a unique card-based combat system, and detailed miniatures of Hunters and monsters, this tabletop game is a great way to wait for that Bloodborne remake we’ve never gotten.
Bloodborne, being one of the most popular video games of all time, has been long overdue for a remake. However, while fans still remain hopeful, you may always try out a different version of the game, a tabletop one. It’s unique card-based combat system perfectly mirrors the video game’s pathbreaking combat system, and the miniatures.
FAQ
Which game has the best miniatures?
Warhammer 40,000 is generally considered to be the flagship miniature wargame, with countless miniatures in all shapes and sizes.
What are miniature board games?
Miniature board games have miniatures as their main feature. These are small models of units that are set up on a battlefield.
