this line should have read “NOT need washing”
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I appreciate all the help. My goal is to assemble both armies, then focus on painting them. They won’t look great, but I’m trying to get the boys hooked on the coolness aspect so they’ll buy into the system for years to come.
I have the first 20 slave orcs glued together. They’re heavy infantry, so they go on the big bases, correct? Is there a standard source for movement trays? At this point, not interested in diorama multibasing so much as just getting the guys on trays so we can start playing. Any recommendations of a place to get movement trays? Thanks in advance.
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The orcs go on the 25mm square bases, correct.
Best place for any type of tests, bases etc is warbases if you are in the uk
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Alright, I’ve managed to snip and glue all the Abyssal Dwarfs. I ordered some movement trays, so I think we’re in good shape there.
Next question: what’s the secret to securing the resin grotesques and hard plastic golem to the mdf bases? Glue and hold? My first few attempts didn’t work, and I suspect I’m doing something wrong.
Pin everything mate. 
1mm drill bit and copper rod / steel wire.
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Paperclips are easier to get hold of 
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could be. myself I bought a 5 meter coil of 0.9mm steel wire at the hardware store and it’s lasted me 6 years and will last me at least 6 more. 
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Thanks for all the guidance as I get up to speed! All the Abyssal Dwarfs are ready to go. I’m cutting out and gluing together the Undead now. Have the skeletons, werewolves, and something revenants going. Also the hobby drill on order and will get the big ones drilled and pinned to the bases soon!
Next q on this journey:
How would you recommend I approach basing units? My goal is to shoot for PMC. Overarching goal is to get as many units in action as quickly as possible, so elaborate multibasing is out for now.
What’s the best way to get decent groups of units based in short order?
(I assume it’s fine for me to keep putting qs in one post, rather than starting new threads for each, but let me know if I’m doing that wrong)
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So I’d get an idea (roughly) of the army you think you might want to run and get a bunch of bases to match that.
Basing regular infantry units in regiments and some of the more specialised/shooting stuff in troops gives you flexibility.
The make the bases - www.warbases.co.uk do a wide range of MDF ones, or get plasticard and cut to size. For a basic job, tile grout & fishtank sand, undercoated black and painted with tester paint pots. Add a bit of flock.
Stick on the models - superglue should do for plastic models and go from there
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Thanks, again, for all the help. I’m trying to craft their armies now, starting with what we have in the boxes (or can reasonably proxy), aiming for 1,500 points. Here are initial ideas for lists for Abyssal Dwarfs and Undead, working from the mega army box. We’ll play with blank bases for the remainder until they fill in over Christmas and birthdays. Any suggestions for things I should swap out? I’m not going for competitive, just fun, reasonably balanced, and something they can use to learn (and love) the game system.
Abyssal Dwarfs
- Immortal Guard (Regiment) 160
- Immortal Guard (Regiment) 160
Throwing Mastiff 15 - Slave Orcs* (Regiment) 95
Throwing Mastiff 15 - Lesser Obsidian Golems (Regiment) 130
Blade of Slashing 5 - Abyssal Grotesques (Regiment) 145
- Decimators (Regiment) 155
- Decimators (Regiment) 155
- Slavedriver 55
The Boomstick 30 - Iron-caster 110
- G’rog Mortar 95
- G’rog Mortar 95
- Mutated Mastiff Hunting Pack* (Regiment) 65
Throwing Mastiff 15
Total Unit Strength: 19
Total Units: 12
Target Points: 1500
Core (Target%): 1500 (100%)
Undead
Zombies (Horde) 115
Skeleton Warriors (Regiment) 85
Skeleton Warriors (Regiment) 85
Revenants (Regiment) 125 Undead Giant Rats 10
Mummies (Troop) 115
Werewolves (Horde) 255 Mace of Crushing 5
Soul Reaver Cavalry (Regiment) 250 Blade of Slashing 5
Lykanis 150
Mhorgoth the Faceless[1] 230
Necromancer 50 Heal (3) 20
Total Unit Strength: 18
Total Units: 10
Target Points: 1500
Core (Target%): 1500 (100%)
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I can’t really say about the undead, but your abyssal dwarf force is great at that points level.
There are no bad units and the items and upgrades you’ve taken are all good
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Just an update:
Slave Orc regiment painted
Werewolf horde painted
Painting the first regiment of Abyssal Dwarfs now . . .
Not the best looking group, but I’m trying to go as fast as I can to see if I can hook the boys before they lose interest.
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One more update: the abyssal dwarfs are almost complete. In the next week I should finish the grotesques, obsidian golems, and two characters, and then they’re done.
For the undead mega army, I need to finish up the revenants and skeletons. My 8yo wanted the zombies based as two (MMC) hordes. I followed the advice upthread and cut some plasticard, painted black, covered with grout to give some minimal basing. My expectation is we’ll be rebasing these as we go forward, so I’m focused on getting as many models painted and units ready as quickly as I can. They’re both getting into the lore and comparing the strengths and weaknesses of the various factions.
He has a birthday coming up in November where we can round things out, but I’m hoping by sometime in November to have two fully painted, 1,500-pt armies ready to battle at home. If they enjoy it as much as I hope they will, we’ll continue to invest and build out for the future. With kids, there’s no telling how long their interest will last, but I really think this one will stick and be a lifelong hobby. We’ll see.
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As of today, their armies are painted, based, and ready to go. First time painting anything like this, so lots of lessons learned. I plan to rebase as we’re go forward, but at least we have something to play with now. First 2-player game at 1,500 points coming this weekend!
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First game was a success! We did invade, Undead vs Abyssal Dwarfs. My youngest, E (8), played the Undead. He basically charged forward, shrugged off the attacks from his brother, C(11) and closed to melee. Not much strategic subtlety other than getting in and mashing face. On turn 5, the Abyssal Dwarfs were just crushing the Undead left and right, and I proposed calling the game. E interrupted, angry, and pulled me to the other room–where he explained that everyone was on C’s half of the board, and he was just trying to run out the clock before his brother realized it was too late to run Dwarfs to the other side. I had frankly forgotten about the scenario, but he was laser-focused on what he needed to do to win. Needless to say, the Undead lost about 80% of their army but still won the scenario handily.
They immediately started theory crafting when the game ended, talking about what they wanted to swap out (C is ditching the grotesques and obsidian golems in favor of war machines and infantry, while E wants more zombies and less finesse, as he saw the value in flooding the board with unit strength). A Horde of zombies with lifeleech backed up by a healing necromancer can stick around for a long time…
A few rules questions:
(1) To charge, you have to have the enemy in your front arc to start the turn, correct? If two units are engaged, you can’t disengage, pivot 90’, and then charge a flank of a neighboring enemy unit unless it’s within your front arc to start the turn?
(2) E wanted to run his skeletons past the enemy, then pivot them, then use surge to surge into the rear during the range phase. Is that permitted? It seemed too clever by half but took a unit of decimators off the board.
(3) A unit with crushing (1) and vicious attacks zombies with Def 2. We played it that when you roll to wound, you re-roll the natural 1s (from vicious) but everything but natural 1s on the re-roll wound. Is that the right way to play it?
They can’t wait for the next round (probably tomorrow)!
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great to hear that they enjoyed the game.
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nope, you can withdraw 1" and then you can make the charge, so it’s possible a unit isn’t in the front arc until they make the withdrawal. If a unit begins its Turn Engaged with one or more Enemy units on a single facing only, it may make a free Withdraw move directly away from the unit(s) up to 1” before carrying out its normal Movement order. All applicable measurements, LoS checks and front arc checks are then taken from the new
position. -
Can’t pass within 1" of an enemy unless except when charging, disengaging or during a pivot. So as long as E didn’t walk within 1" they can certainly move past and then be surged in
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Vicious is a re-roll on 1s and you can’t re-roll a re-roll so that is exactly the correct way to play it
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For this weekend’s variation, we did control with 2,000 points of Northern Alliance vs 1250 Undead and 1250 Abyssal Dwarfs. It wasn’t much of a match up, with the ujdead/Abyssal Dwarfs winning quite handily. We fought it out on the new 4x6 felt tabletop I put together based on the forum’s advice. We had a great time of it!
One more rules question:
For magic, I understand the cc that shows where it can be cast into combat. Is it otherwise fair game to fire ranged into melee? I believe the answer is yes but wanted to confirm.
We also picked up a 3D printer this week to start filling out our three armies. The cost of all Mantic would be tough to do for three of us otherwise!
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looking good, nice to see you’ve still got the kids on board.
Page 22 of the softback book or page 26 of the hardback,
“Units that are Engaged with enemies cannot use, or be
targeted by, ranged attacks, unless specified otherwise.”
So I’m afraid you can’t fire into the melee. That may change with some spells or new rules in specific cases, but generally it’s a no-no
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Roger. Thank you.
We swung by the DragonFall GT in Lake Geneva today to check out the armies and see the game played live. The boys were pumped and really enjoyed the conversations with several of the players. They wanted to know how old they have to be before they can register for the next one… 
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My 2k point Northern Alliance army is now 3D printed. I’m working to paint and base it now. The boys are with their mom during the week, so they don’t know we have a printer yet (hidden in an unused part of the basement). For Christmas, they’ll be getting respirators, safety glasses, and resin, and I think they’ll be thrilled. We’ve already been subscribing to Patreons and picking out Abyssal Dwarf and Undead model lines.
My retired dad wants in on the fun as well and wants me to print an OOTGL army for him. I printed off two regiments of knights to get him started, then will shift to monsters for something cool. I suspect he’ll never play; he just loves having something to paint to fill his time in retirement.
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