It’s difficult to decide, but we’ve went around on army men and some games-workshop Lord of the Rings miniatures I picked up at Christmas.  I believe what may do it use the Games-Workshop Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game rules and instead of buying tons of figures, just use army men, Star Wars guys or whatever miniatures we can find just to get through the rules.  As a beginner it will be interesting to see just how we find playing.