Since combat isn't tactical, minis or tokens aren't necessary. About the only time I use them is if I want to get fancy with an epic battle or something, which I'll draw out on my mat, or use the trees I got at the model railroad store, barrels and crates from my D&D game, blank dungeon tiles on top of my 1" square blank cubes, etc. Other than that, it's theater of the mind for my group. If you draw out all of your combats and use minis or tokens and the like, it tends to take way too much time. Plus, the game can lose its narrative flavor as the players revert to d20 tactical mode and start counting squares and the like.
When I do use them, I don't use minis, but tokens that I print out myself. I just make sheets full of 1" square portraits of whatever I need (or 2" for large monsters or ships), print them up on 65 lb cardboard stock, and punch them out with a 1" or 2" round hole punch. For adversaries, I'll use a non-permanent glue stick to fasten them onto the back of numbered Alea Tools magnetic round markers so I can keep track of the numbers on my encounter sheets. For the characters, I made each one their own custom token, sticking the cardboard permanently onto a round rubber metal-infused disc (Alea has these as well). That way, if need be, I can stack them on the magnetic markers for conditions or whatever.
I prefer this to minis as it's much cheaper
, plus I can print out exactly what I'm looking for, rather than having to say "The skeleton archers are actually stormtroopers"
