Personally, miniatures do nothing for me, other than tell me a game is probably a peeps-on-a-map that I should shy away from. I can appreciate the artistry, the effort that's gone into the design of them, and I can appreciate it when somebody has done a good job of painting them up, but they don't do anything for me in game.

Board games are abstractions. That's something I like that about them. I like the cardboard chits, I like the coloured wooden resource cubes and the even shaped wooden blocks as it makes it easier to identify the pieces: it reduces the mental load. But I much prefer a chunky Agricola wooden rock to a tiny, highly detailed, laser cut token, like the cement mixers in Barrage. There's something very tactile about a chunky wooden piece with thick varnish whilst simultaneously being very functional. It's good design. It's cosy.

Miniatures push the experience over from abstract game into some kind of simulation or role-playing. I don't need or want that. To me I feel like someone has replaced the easily identified, tactile blocks with some homogenous, grey figurines that are hard to identify, are more delicate, more expensive and make me feel more childish. I'd rather have the labelled wooden blocks in Commands and Colors than the detailed figurines of, say, Rising Sun.

But I appreciate there are a lot of people who feel more immersed by the more dressings they put on something. It seems that there are a lot of people who are happiest with lights and music seeing the mood, dressed up in appropriately thematic attire and moving their highly detailed painted figurines around their home made, 3D printed terrain tiles.