I know there is quite a few pen and paper D&D fans on the board, but I haven’t seen any mini-related threads. So are you out there? Tell me I’m not the only one on this board who’s excited about the latest expansion set…please.
I sometimes buy the minis, but I don’t play… 
Sorry, guv, but what’s a ‘mini’?
(Although my group has looked at 2nd + 3rd edition, we’re still running 1st edition!)
A miniature. A figure, representing a player or monster in the game. Wizards of the Coast makes a collectible miniature game - basically, a lite wargame - based on D&D. I buy the figures to use on a mat to facilitate combat in actual D&D.
I play DDM off and on, but my reaction to Unhallowed is lukewarm, really. I think the designers do a fine job and I love the minis they come up with, but the Ravenloft theme doesn’t quite do it for me.
Then again, the Strahd figure is cool.
And the circle is complete. D&D has roots in miniature war games.
So this new game is a miniature war game based on an RPG which has roots in mini war games.
Of couse augmenting RPGs with minis is a quite common (party order, to clarify where things are and the like.) I’m pretty sure it’s possible to use RPG rules for most things but then switch to minis for combat (not just as a helper, but use the actual mini combat rules)
Brian
Yeah, D20, not just D&D, is more of a wargame than other RPGs.
I would strongly advise against using DDM rules with D&D, however. DDM is a highly simplified version of D&D, to the point where the rules are almost incompatible. It’s far less effort to use the standard D&D rules with a Player Character than it is to translate that Player Character’s stats into DDM. DDM relies on fixed units that have specific stats as determined by the DDM designers, and it’s not intended for organic characters.
The minis are highly useful for normal D&D play, though, and I love using them.
As a guy who likes to paint (and sometimes sell) minis, I get a little annoyed at the pre-painted stuff. A lot of my friends have the WOTC minis and we use them in our games. But they prefer to have one of my creations for their PCs.
The plastic pre-painted minis are definitely of lower quality than pewter minis, but the pewter ones I’ve seen used all have horrible bases, causing them to constantly fall over, or aren’t sized for the 1 inch = 5 feet scale commonly used, whereas the DDM figures are just right. And I’d prefer to spend my time playing than painting, so buying a figure that already looks good suits me just fine.
The drawback, of course, is that you can’t always get a good match; I play a male quarterstaff fighter in one of my games, and there’s exactly one DDM figure with a quarterstaff…a female monk. Doesn’t exactly work. 
That’s what we do – use them in combat, and sometimes in situations where the DM needs to keep track of where everyone is in a particular scenario.
Of course, when he tells us to set-up the board so he knows where everyone is, we instantly know there’s potential trouble looming.
I used to play AD&D a lot in junior high and high school, 20-some years ago (ye gods, I feel old) and we used pewter miniatures extensively. I liked painting miniatures and had a coupla dozen really good ones, including my paladin character, Sir William Silvertharn, Duke of Fraestead, and his boon companion, Sir Sarl Pennen. Still have them in a dusty box somewhere in my basement, I guess. Ral Partha used to make great miniatures, esp. Elves - don’t know if they’re still in business.
We mostly played in relatively small party-based campaigns, exploring dungeons, navigating dangerous towns, etc., but also gamed some larger-scale sieges and army-against-army clashes. Never had as many figures as I wanted, but it was always fun.
MacSpon is right - when the GM asks you to set up the figures exactly where they should be, you know there will soon be mayhem aplenty. Good times. 
And the old “Everyone make a reflex save” or “spot hidden check” is a sure sign that penis will ensue.