I throw in my 2 cents here...I had a chance to use Ant in a Java project a couple years ago, and I'd say if nNant is anything like it (and I think it's pretty similar), I'd say its worth using a script-based build tool for even the smallish projects, regardless of whether you're going the CI route or not.
I found Ant very simply once I was familiar with the tool...once you have a working knowledge of the tool, you can whip up a new build project in no time. Then, you can do nightly builds minimally (and you're ready for CI when the time comes). Plus, if you have a tool/script to bake the SVN version number into the assemblies being built (very helpful come debugging-time), you can easily add that to your build process. And once you've got a build process in place, you'll definitely think of things to add to the build (testing, documentation, installer...)
I'd say it's work it, just for the nightly builds :)
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I found Ant very simply once I was familiar with the tool...once you have a working knowledge of the tool, you can whip up a new build project in no time. Then, you can do nightly builds minimally (and you're ready for CI when the time comes). Plus, if you have a tool/script to bake the SVN version number into the assemblies being built (very helpful come debugging-time), you can easily add that to your build process. And once you've got a build process in place, you'll definitely think of things to add to the build (testing, documentation, installer...)
I'd say it's work it, just for the nightly builds :)