I own a ridiculous amount of miniatures but I used a surprisingly limited range for levels 1-2. If I were to start my collection from scratch I'd buy the following:
Skeletons
Zombies
Bandits
Giant Rats
Giant Centipedes
Giant Spiders
Ooze/Slime
Hirelings (torchbearer and porter)
I'd then slowly add stuff according to the needs of the game. In my case I'd choose:
Vhuurmi
Ape-Men
Pig-Faced Orcs
Cultists
Mutants/Degenerates/Cannibals
Undead (starting with ghouls and shadows)
Demons
Reaper Bones and Wizkids are good sources for cheap minis to build you collection.
A good rule of thumb is to prioritize miniatures that will get a lot of use and/or can be used for multiple applications. For example, I get a lot of mileage out of my bandit collection because the models can represent anything from outlaws to tomb robbers. Zombies and skeletons get a lot of mileage as well.
You will go broke trying to buy specific models for everything at once. I can't stress enough the utility of using the same minis to represent multiple things. I bought some cheap Reaper Bones skeleton archers in robes, hacked and carved off the bows, and now I have generic robed skeletons that can represent all sorts of things like huecuva and crypt things yet are distinct from my sword and bow skeletons. I own hundreds of fantasy minis and still do this.
Edit: I almost forgot Snake-men!
Last edited by Brock Savage (7/17/2018 2:35 pm)