Tabletop Minions Budget Video Challenge

[Kaiphranos]

Hobgoblin, good points all - using HotT instead of DBA would make it easier on a couple of levels since you're not tied to army lists and you can deploy individual figures as significant portions of each force (as Heroes, Magicians, etc.) And in a wild coincidence, I just happened to receive an order today that included both Caesar Orcs and the Three Kingdoms set... 

[Hobgoblin]

And in a wild coincidence, I just happened to receive an order today that included both Caesar Orcs and the Three Kingdoms set... 

Ha - perfect! With their lack of flash and glueable, paintable Reaper Bones-type material, Caesar 1/72 figures are pretty much the best - give or take the bendy weapons! The orc set somehow gets round that, though.

[Mr. White]

As others are saying, 1/72 is the easy answer here.

A copy of Ospreys Rebels and Patriots as well as Italeri’s Farmhouse Battle set can get you into American Civil War battles on the cheap. That Farmhouse set has enough models for two sides, buildings, and fieldworks. One would be set.

http://plasticsoldierreview.com/ShowFeature.aspx?id=137

[RSDean]

Yes, that would be a solid starter set too.  My usual supplier, Michigan Toy Soldier, doesn’t have it in their list, though similar sets (La Haye Sainte, for example) are over $100 each, so would be hard to fit in the challenge budget.  Any idea what the retail price is/was?

[Hobgoblin]

An even cheaper approach with 1/72 would be to go for a small-scale skirmish game (Song of Blades or the equivalent). Then you could very easily get several forces out of a single 1/72 box - four different knightly retinues, for example, or several different tribes of orcs.

[v_lazy_dragon]

In the theme (although possibly not within the exact budget) I always thought a lot of the Warlord 'starter' sets were pretty good entry level products to give two decent sized starting forces... especially if you swoped the rules out for something like Rebels & Patriots or The Pikeman's Lament, which use smaller units than the Warlord stable

Taking the concept along the lines of cheap (possibly still outside of the original specified $100 budget but hopefully not by much as all should be under £50) options for 2 playable 28mm sides:

The original Perry ACW set (36 figures for £22 - https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/acw1-plastic-american-civil-war-infantry-box-of-36-figures/) should be enough for 2 ACW skirmish forces. Add a pack of metals or an extra command sprue for more variety.
Much the same would work with one of their medieval sets.
At the more lavish end, a box each of AWI British & continentals would give a good start

Given the asymmetry of a lot of colonial conflicts, grabbing a couple of individual British sprues from Perry + a box of 'natives' (Zulus or Afghans to taste) should also give some decent skirmish games.

You can probably go along way to getting two playable dark age forces with a box of the griping beast generic dark age warriors and a box of either armored Vikings or Saxons. With a bit of judicial use of axes, different helmets and thors hammer/cross shaving it should be possible to make two distinct looking forces with a mix of troop classifications.
Again, similar approach would probably work with any 2 stargrave boxes for sci-fi, or most frostgrave/oathmark boxes for fantasy.

All of the above should be fairly easy to build upon at 'pocket money' rates, with a pack or a couple of extra sprues adding a lot of playability.

[Mr. White]

Yes, that would be a solid starter set too.  My usual supplier, Michigan Toy Soldier, doesn’t have it in their list, though similar sets (La Haye Sainte, for example) are over $100 each, so would be hard to fit in the challenge budget.  Any idea what the retail price is/was?

Good question. I don't. I'm also seeing it for about $100, but that's with shipping involved. I think depending on your location, you might be able to pick it up for $60-80.

[ced1106]

An even cheaper approach with 1/72 would be to go for a small-scale skirmish game (Song of Blades or the equivalent). Then you could very easily get several forces out of a single 1/72 box - four different knightly retinues, for example, or several different tribes of orcs.

So here's the 28mm generic fantasy POV...

At 28mm generic fantasy, you can easily get a Song of Blades and Heroes game. Specifically, since SoBH lets you generate a warband based on the *abilities* of a figure, you have a *lot* of leeway of your figures, so don't have to buy a specific hobby brand or whatever of figures, so long as everything is in scale and you have some terrain.

At least for generic fantasy, forget painting. Go on eBay and buy a batch of prepainted figures someone's selling. You can go cheaper even on Amazon if you don't mind flat figures or unpainted plastic. Or children's party figures!
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=plastic+miniatures
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=party+figures
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bulk+kids+figures+fantasy

For terrain, you can print some 2D battle mats for free from the internet. I've found moss from the arts and crafts store to be the least work for the best results. You can find rocks in your backyard or your neighbors.

*****

Here's how I used cheap moss with the hobby stuff.

Map by Loke Battle Mats, Wilderness Map book.
Campsite terrain by Archon, Elven Woods.
Fiends are Mantic ghouls. Pain to assemble and scrape off mold lines.
Corpses are "Tiny Furniture's Harvest of War" miniatures. Sequel campaign coming!