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So I decided that my Christmas gift for myself this year would be to try out Warmachine. I'd kind of been on the fence for a while, as the other guys in my local gaming group don't really have any interest in Warmahordes. But I discovered that one of my *other* friends plays Menoth, so that kind of tipped my decision over the edge, and I figured that getting a few models to play some small games with him would be a good start. I took advantage of the excellent Cyber Monday sales to pick up 25 point army bundles for Cygnar (the PP webstore's bundle) and Khador (from Discount Games, Inc.'s Holiday sale). I picked those primarily based on model aesthetic and theme, and figure I'll see which one I gel with more in play (though on aesthetics alone, I'm definitely leaning Khador) and expand on it if I like the game enough to make the 45 minute drive to the game store on a regular basis. If not, I'll hold onto both but not expand them, and use them as a boxed game every once in a while with a few of my non-wargaming boardgaming friends.

I've got army books for each, and a copy of the core rules. The DGI shipment came in earlier this week, so I broke it out and have started with cleaning and assembling the warjack, and I've read through the online quick start rules last week and started skimming the core rulebook for stuff I know they left out, like more of the special weapon qualities and command and the more complex unit rules.

So, on to my questions:

1a. Is magnetization common for the plastic warjack kits? If so, any recommendations on magnet sizes? More specifically, since this is the Spriggan/Devastator/Decimator (? Too many Khador warjacks that start with D and end with R, Privateer Press!) kit and it's got the shoulder strips that swap between the gun and the two different grenade launchers, are there any recommendations on how to deal with that piece if this is feasibly a magnetized model?
1b. I notice that each has slightly different heads. Does anybody really pay attention to which head goes on which variant of the chassis, or do most people just use them for variety, even among same-model 'jacks?

2. There are definitely a lot of layered pieces with small gaps. Should I approach this as a model to paint in multiple pieces and glue afterwards, or is that going to just cause a lot of hassle for not enough gain? Keep in mind, I'm a decidedly average painter at best, but consider myself thorough and aspire to improve.

3. I've poked through some general advice for folks new to Warmachine, and there's definitely a theme of people exhorting new folks to be mindful of a model's specific role in the process of list-building. That's great, I can get behind that -- I always liked well-rounded lists in 40k better than spam lists anyways. But I'm having a tough time, looking at units in army books, figuring out how to read what a model's role *is*. There are a few things that kind of stand out as anti-armor weapons, and such, but I'm having a hard time gauging what would be a good infantry-killer, say. I think it's just a raw lack of frame of reference. In 40k, you can kind of compare things against, say, a Space Marine's statline as a frame of reference. Looking at the ARM and DEF values in WMH, I'm having a much harder time picking out obvious reference points because the stats are more granular and there are pretty even distributions across some tight ranges. Are there any "break points" or crucial thresholds that become obvious with playing that make good reference points?

4a. Are there any good list-building guidelines I should start from? I mean, the 25 point bundles kind of pre-build a 25 point list for me, but hopefully I'll like the game and be looking to expand. How does one decide how many warjacks are too many for a given caster's battlegroup? Too few? Is there any way to speed up the trial and error process with advice, here?
4b. I realize, after reading around some, that Khador is often referred to as an infantry army.. which is a shame, because I really like the look of their 'jacks and would rather not play a horde army, for instance. At the same time, it's been suggested that some warcasters could run a 'jack heavy army. Since Karchov and pButcher frequently get mentioned in this context, I can look and see that Full Throttle gets more efficient the more 'jacks are included in his battlegroup, and that Karchov's Tow and feat both scale similarly with large battlegroups. Any recommendations or tips on how to pick these sorts of things out more easily without missing those details in which the devil finds himself?

5a. Finally, I think, given my aforementioned interest in Khador warjacks, I might be drawn to some Berserkers and Kodiaks in the future, as they seem able to require less focus to retain a broad level of function. However, I also notice these are not plastic kits, and my time with Sisters of Battle has made me... really hesitant... to jump on a bunch of fist-sized metal models. How aggressively is PP replacing metal kits, and are there any rumors about these two in particular?
5b. Likewise, it looks like some of the 'jacks are metal/plastic mixes. Again, as a recovering Sisters player, mixed kits give me nightmares. Should I fear these in Privateer Press land?

Welcome to the game!

In general (even with what you have) there are two ways to look at making army lists.

The first is to pick a caster you like (and the PP website has some good tactics/breakdowns).

The second (and maybe more difficult) is to decide if you want to run certain units more than others (or specific jacks, etc.). Going about it this way, you can pick casters and support that enables that unit(s) the best.

For your other questions, I've always built my models then painted (but I find it's easier for me to pick colors when I can see the whole model.

Magnetizing on jacks is pretty common. Pretty much if it is sold as a warjack kit (i.e. you can build one of three from a kit) then it's worthwhile to magnetize.

I've come to appriciate the metal models, mainly because PP is still ironing out some issues with its plastic ones.

Lastly for stats, in most things a "6" is average for MAT/RAT. From there you can play dice average to get an idea of how things stack.

So, average 2D6 = 7, 3D6 = 11 (rounding up).

So lets say you're looking at ARM. If you have an ARM of 18, then you can expect to take a point or so of damage (on average) from a non-boosted shot from P&S 12.

Speed wise, 5 is about average, 6 is fast, 7 is insane(ish).

Welcome to the Iron Kingdoms. I'm glad you were able to get your start with a couple of nice deals.

Kaffis wrote:
1a. Is magnetization common for the plastic warjack kits? If so, any recommendations on magnet sizes? More specifically, since this is the Spriggan/Devastator/Decimator (? Too many Khador warjacks that start with D and end with R, Privateer Press!) kit and it's got the shoulder strips that swap between the gun and the two different grenade launchers, are there any recommendations on how to deal with that piece if this is feasibly a magnetized model?

I use 1/8, 1/16, and even 1/32" magnets on my warjacks. It is rather common to magnetize noncharacter heavies but typically people glue the character add-ons to a kit permanently to avoid any mess with magnetizing metal parts.

1b. I notice that each has slightly different heads. Does anybody really pay attention to which head goes on which variant of the chassis, or do most people just use them for variety, even among same-model 'jacks?

I don't think anyone pays much attention to the head options.

2. There are definitely a lot of layered pieces with small gaps. Should I approach this as a model to paint in multiple pieces and glue afterwards, or is that going to just cause a lot of hassle for not enough gain? Keep in mind, I'm a decidedly average painter at best, but consider myself thorough and aspire to improve.

That is up to you and how your painting style lends itself to this type of model. Since you are painting magnetized parts separately anyway you might find it simpler to paint some of the extra plates first, then glue them on.

3. I've poked through some general advice for folks new to Warmachine, and there's definitely a theme of people exhorting new folks to be mindful of a model's specific role in the process of list-building. That's great, I can get behind that -- I always liked well-rounded lists in 40k better than spam lists anyways. But I'm having a tough time, looking at units in army books, figuring out how to read what a model's role *is*. There are a few things that kind of stand out as anti-armor weapons, and such, but I'm having a hard time gauging what would be a good infantry-killer, say. I think it's just a raw lack of frame of reference. In 40k, you can kind of compare things against, say, a Space Marine's statline as a frame of reference. Looking at the ARM and DEF values in WMH, I'm having a much harder time picking out obvious reference points because the stats are more granular and there are pretty even distributions across some tight ranges. Are there any "break points" or crucial thresholds that become obvious with playing that make good reference points?

yea, there are some thresholds for arm and def that rule out small arms affecting the model on a regular basis, but remember your opponent will always have tools to deal with the problems most models present. Generally def 15 is high enough that your opponent will need to boost or go against the odds on 2d6 to hit. Likewise, arm 18/19 won't take much damage from power 10 rifles (power 10 charges are a little more threatening though). You can usually apply simple math to find how effective a stat is. the average on 2d6 is 7 with a bell curve. If you need 7's to hit, you'll land those attacks about 50% of the time. If you are shooting pow 10 at arm 15 you are probably looking at 2-3 damage per shot. Boosting raises the average roll and make the average more reliable. You'll quickly notice that most armor crumbles to charges.

4a. Are there any good list-building guidelines I should start from? I mean, the 25 point bundles kind of pre-build a 25 point list for me, but hopefully I'll like the game and be looking to expand. How does one decide how many warjacks are too many for a given caster's battlegroup? Too few? Is there any way to speed up the trial and error process with advice, here?

How many jacks a caster wants is based on his or her focus, spell list, and special rules. I can't really give a rule of thumb on this but you'll usually be happy at 2-3 jacks.

4b. I realize, after reading around some, that Khador is often referred to as an infantry army.. which is a shame, because I really like the look of their 'jacks and would rather not play a horde army, for instance. At the same time, it's been suggested that some warcasters could run a 'jack heavy army. Since Karchov and pButcher frequently get mentioned in this context, I can look and see that Full Throttle gets more efficient the more 'jacks are included in his battlegroup, and that Karchov's Tow and feat both scale similarly with large battlegroups. Any recommendations or tips on how to pick these sorts of things out more easily without missing those details in which the devil finds himself?

if a spell says battlegroup you are looking at an obvious flag for jacks. model/unit is usually more efficient on a unit (also, look at iron flesh carefully, many beginning khador players try to play that on a jack, but it specifies warriors only). pVlad is pretty good with jacks since his feat affects jacks specifically and signs and portents affects his whole army. Harkevitch is also pretty good with jacks as long as you don't try to overuse broadside too much.

5a. Finally, I think, given my aforementioned interest in Khador warjacks, I might be drawn to some Berserkers and Kodiaks in the future, as they seem able to require less focus to retain a broad level of function. However, I also notice these are not plastic kits, and my time with Sisters of Battle has made me... really hesitant... to jump on a bunch of fist-sized metal models. How aggressively is PP replacing metal kits, and are there any rumors about these two in particular?

As luck would have it PP announced just this week that a new plastic kodiak will be coming next year. Overall the roll-out of plastics is slow though. We probably wont see the plastic kodiak until summer at the earliest and the berserker is not even on the horizon. get a nice set of needle files, and pin vice to help you build metal models more solidly.

5b. Likewise, it looks like some of the 'jacks are metal/plastic mixes. Again, as a recovering Sisters player, mixed kits give me nightmares. Should I fear these in Privateer Press land?

The engineering on PP kits tends to be rather good. I hear far more complaints about the mold lines on the plastic models than the metal parts these days. Likewise, most of the newer kits made since about 2009 fit together very well regardless of their medium. The plastic PP uses is a PVC polymer rather than the normal polystyrene you are probably used to so you should use superglue on it anyway.

Here's what I can say:
1b) Technically head matters, but I think that the weapon load-out is more distinctive.
2) I paint then built and don't notice the gaps on the plastics (mechanical only so far).
4b) Tow is 3 jacks max due to the way it's written, but depending on what you want to do it can be used for a shenanigan called the Karchev power-slide.
5) Based on my Trolls (5+ lights, 3 trollkin, and 1 Mauler) and Karckev (no skirt) their large metals go together pretty easily provided you build in stages and keep an eye on alignment of joints of 3+ pieces (so far only the Mauler's split torso alined with the legs, spines, or head.
5b) Khador's hybrid Character jacks (Black Ivan and Torch) are no problem if they have their own bodies but I imagine magnetizing them would be H as their head and shoulders are vital to proper recognition.

3) Infantry killers tend to either be models with ranged weapons that are either AoEs or have high rates of fire, or multiple melee attacks. High being 3ish, or something like D3/D6. Infantry also tend to counter Infantry.

Def13 is average for most infantry. Some skirmish type units have Def15ish. Defense 15 is where a model with Mat6 will really have trouble hitting without a boost. Higher defense tends to mean low armor.

AoE weapons are effective against high defense low armor units because the blast damage can kill them easily. Even though its a half pow.


Jacks in general can kill multiple things in melee, so they're not horrible at killing infantry. But some are better than others. Jacks without Reach can have trouble getting more than a couple infantry in range to swing at. And each extra attack or boost costs one of your precious Focus.


4) Yeah, Khador is NOT a Jack faction. When people say Butcher and Karchev run jack heavy they mean jack heavy for Khador. Which is something like 3 Jacks vs 1. Most Khador lists only run 1 jack, maybe 2. Simply because their casters can't handle more than that.

Khador does tend to revolve around having 1-2 monstrous warjacks backing up a sea of infantry. You can always focus on running Man-o-wars for infantry instead of Winter Guard. That will cut down on the numbers.

PP metals and hybrid kits aren't bad. Largely because of the size. Its easier to deal with a combo kit when the pieces aren't super tiny. PP's metals are also of superior quality to their plastics(which have some problems such as mold lines and misalignment on occasion)

Artist's representation of a Khador player trying make their collection work as a 'Jack Centric force.

Seriously though, you've at best got a few middling options that "Kinda sorta" work trying to make 'Jacks your heavy lifters in Khador. It's just not the best faction for that playstyle, or second or third or fourth best.

You'll get more out of the game if you find a more broadly viable way to approach it. Either by finding a way to like Khador's infantry, or looking at a faction like Protectorate, Convergence (or heck even Cygnar) that can do more to make 'Jacks the centerpiece of a list before you're too heavily bought in with the motherland.

People try to sugar coat it but the plain fact is this issue is a massive source of player attrition in the faction and the game as a whole. It's just not what the faction does. You may as well get into Tau for a melee force.

Thanks everybody, for the replies. Each of you have enlightened my understanding of some of the things I felt I was missing, and the sum total of the responses have been quite thorough in addressing my questions.

novaspike wrote:The first is to pick a caster you like (and the PP website has some good tactics/breakdowns).

The second (and maybe more difficult) is to decide if you want to run certain units more than others (or specific jacks, etc.). Going about it this way, you can pick casters and support that enables that unit(s) the best.

Lastly for stats, in most things a "6" is average for MAT/RAT. From there you can play dice average to get an idea of how things stack.

Aha. This is one of the keys I was looking for. I can do the d6 math, but without a good overview of all the models, it's hard to pick out what the reference point is. This helps a ton.

Do you mean the PP website, or the forums? If the website, I haven't really found the section you're talking about, I guess. If the forums, it's probably just a matter of immersing myself a bit more.

Dais wrote:I use 1/8, 1/16, and even 1/32" magnets on my warjacks. It is rather common to magnetize noncharacter heavies but typically people glue the character add-ons to a kit permanently to avoid any mess with magnetizing metal parts.
I don't think anyone pays much attention to the head options.

yea, there are some thresholds for arm and def that rule out small arms affecting the model on a regular basis, but remember your opponent will always have tools to deal with the problems most models present. Generally def 15 is high enough that your opponent will need to boost or go against the odds on 2d6 to hit. Likewise, arm 18/19 won't take much damage from power 10 rifles (power 10 charges are a little more threatening though).

How many jacks a caster wants is based on his or her focus, spell list, and special rules. I can't really give a rule of thumb on this but you'll usually be happy at 2-3 jacks.

if a spell says battlegroup you are looking at an obvious flag for jacks. model/unit is usually more efficient on a unit (also, look at iron flesh carefully, many beginning khador players try to play that on a jack, but it specifies warriors only). pVlad is pretty good with jacks since his feat affects jacks specifically and signs and portents affects his whole army. Harkevitch is also pretty good with jacks as long as you don't try to overuse broadside too much.

As luck would have it PP announced just this week that a new plastic kodiak will be coming next year. Overall the roll-out of plastics is slow though. We probably wont see the plastic kodiak until summer at the earliest and the berserker is not even on the horizon. get a nice set of needle files, and pin vice to help you build metal models more solidly.

The engineering on PP kits tends to be rather good. I hear far more complaints about the mold lines on the plastic models than the metal parts these days. Likewise, most of the newer kits made since about 2009 fit together very well regardless of their medium. The plastic PP uses is a PVC polymer rather than the normal polystyrene you are probably used to so you should use superglue on it anyway.

More solid information, thanks. As above, the math isn't hard, it's the perspective without having a lot of statlines firmly grasped in my head that was giving me trouble. So using power 10 as a baseline for (I assume?) anti-infantry stuff ought to be a good starting point for getting a feel for armor.

2-3 jacks is probably enough to make me happy, I was just worried that being "infantry-centric" would a) pump up my model count to the point where I lose the skirmish feel, and b) force me to make a hard (especially blind, as a new player) choice to choose just one 'jack. I'll keep your suggestions for casters to look into in mind, too. Harkevitch had kind of caught my eye as an attractive model, already, for instance.

And thanks for the magnet size recommendations. Sometimes it just saves a lot of trial and error when trying to get the right size/strength for the job.

ChaoticMind wrote:5) Based on my Trolls (5+ lights, 3 trollkin, and 1 Mauler) and Karckev (no skirt) their large metals go together pretty easily provided you build in stages and keep an eye on alignment of joints of 3+ pieces (so far only the Mauler's split torso alined with the legs, spines, or head.
5b) Khador's hybrid Character jacks (Black Ivan and Torch) are no problem if they have their own bodies but I imagine magnetizing them would be H as their head and shoulders are vital to proper recognition.

That's a relief. I've had a few nightmarish experiences with metal/plastic and resin/plastic mixes from GW. And yeah, I can't imagine trying to magnetize metal.

Grey Templar wrote:3) Infantry killers tend to either be models with ranged weapons that are either AoEs or have high rates of fire, or multiple melee attacks. High being 3ish, or something like D3/D6. Infantry also tend to counter Infantry.

Def13 is average for most infantry. Some skirmish type units have Def15ish. Defense 15 is where a model with Mat6 will really have trouble hitting without a boost. Higher defense tends to mean low armor.

AoE weapons are effective against high defense low armor units because the blast damage can kill them easily. Even though its a half pow.


Jacks in general can kill multiple things in melee, so they're not horrible at killing infantry. But some are better than others. Jacks without Reach can have trouble getting more than a couple infantry in range to swing at. And each extra attack or boost costs one of your precious Focus.


4) Yeah, Khador is NOT a Jack faction. When people say Butcher and Karchev run jack heavy they mean jack heavy for Khador. Which is something like 3 Jacks vs 1. Most Khador lists only run 1 jack, maybe 2. Simply because their casters can't handle more than that.

Khador does tend to revolve around having 1-2 monstrous warjacks backing up a sea of infantry. You can always focus on running Man-o-wars for infantry instead of Winter Guard. That will cut down on the numbers.

PP metals and hybrid kits aren't bad. Largely because of the size. Its easier to deal with a combo kit when the pieces aren't super tiny. PP's metals are also of superior quality to their plastics(which have some problems such as mold lines and misalignment on occasion)

Lots of good info here. I had been kind of assuming that AOE was an infantry-centric thing, but wasn't sure if unit formations were tight enough for a 3" diameter to reliably produce multiple hits, etc. Good to hear Men-o-war can be effective (aha.. backswing, yes?) despite being elite and few in number for the points.

Chongara wrote: Artist's representation of a Khador player trying make their collection work as a 'Jack Centric force.

Seriously though, you've at best got a few middling options that "Kinda sorta" work trying to make 'Jacks your heavy lifters in Khador. It's just not the best faction for that playstyle, or second or third or fourth best.

You'll get more out of the game if you find a more broadly viable way to approach it. Either by finding a way to like Khador's infantry, or looking at a faction like Protectorate, Convergence (or heck even Cygnar) that can do more to make 'Jacks the centerpiece of a list before you're too heavily bought in with the motherland.

Really, it's more a matter of liking the smaller scale (model-count-wise) of Warmachine (and my other relatively recent acquisition, Malifaux) vs. 40k or WFB. Playing Malifaux made me realize how much happier I am picking up something where I can paint a dozen models and have a painted army than painting half a dozen units of ten each and never finishing that painted army before something else catches my eye.

If Men-o-war and the like are reasonable units to fill out the "infantry focus" of Khador, I should probably be able to live with that. Though the Futurama clip was an amusing representation, thanks for that. It comes down to "can I have a force my ADD painting time can tackle" and "will I NOT be forced to choose just one of all these adorable and scrumptious warjacks?" I don't need to go all-out with six warjacks on the table to feel happy, I guess is what I'm saying.

Thank you for NOT sugar-coating it, though. If that wasn't a point I had a little give on, and couldn't have been reasonably appeased, having somebody actually point it out in unambiguous terms is definitely helpful.

With a 3" aoe you can expect to maybe get 2 guys, 3-4 if you get a good scatter. More if shooting at a unit that bunches up normally(shield wall, defensive line, etc...)

This isn't 40k, getting only 2 guys with a blast weapon is decent.

Kaffis wrote:

If Men-o-war and the like are reasonable units to fill out the "infantry focus" of Khador, I should probably be able to live with that. Though the Futurama clip was an amusing representation, thanks for that. It comes down to "can I have a force my ADD painting time can tackle" and "will I NOT be forced to choose just one of all these adorable and scrumptious warjacks?" I don't need to go all-out with six warjacks on the table to feel happy, I guess is what I'm saying.

Thank you for NOT sugar-coating it, though. If that wasn't a point I had a little give on, and couldn't have been reasonably appeased, having somebody actually point it out in unambiguous terms is definitely helpful.

EDIT: On re-reading you have Cygnar. Go with Cygnar. They've got some good absurdly low model count builds, and a lower model count in general.

Men-o-War are seeing some resurgence due to a general meta-shift that's making medium based infantry as a whole more viable, but they're still not exactly rock-stars. Even then you're really not going to be able to take enough of them in a decent list to really suppress Khador's model count - if model count is your primary concern. Granted nothing in Warmachine/Hordes reaches the level of 40k-Ork Spam or even most normal marine armies, but Khador is just one of the highest model count armies in the game. It's the nature of of the beast, for all the barren land the Khador has one resource in spades - her people, and the faction reflects that.

If you're interested in Warmachine/Hordes and want low model I'd seriously consider giving some other factions a look. If you've got a viable source for trade-ins on what you've already got.


Legion of Everblight (Hordes): Has a variety of lists that are happy to clock in under 10-15 models, even up to high points counts. With variety casters, model usage at "Competitive" levels too.
Circle of Orobos (Hordes): Has a variety of lists happy to clock under in under 20 models or so. Though with less variety of the Legion of Everblight and a smaller portion of their casters.
Protectorate of Menoth: Has a moderate number of lists happy to clock under 25 models. The faction is usually running a minimum of about 16 models Unit + Choir + Vassals as basic overhead, but from their you can clock in with high-points values models as you see fit. Some casters will be off limits.
Skorne (Hordes): See Protectorate of Menoth. They've got great beasts, but a certain amount of overhead tied up in support.

I can't speak to convergence. Cygnar is a touch more than the Skrone/Protectorate level but does have a few very effective builds with absurdly low model counts. Anyone else is either Mercs/Minoins (tough for a newbie) or can easily expect 25+ models baseline even at low points levels.

Yeah, for my suggestion, look at the PP forums. Under each faction they usually have a tactics sticky to look at.

Chongara wrote:

Kaffis wrote:

If Men-o-war and the like are reasonable units to fill out the "infantry focus" of Khador, I should probably be able to live with that. Though the Futurama clip was an amusing representation, thanks for that. It comes down to "can I have a force my ADD painting time can tackle" and "will I NOT be forced to choose just one of all these adorable and scrumptious warjacks?" I don't need to go all-out with six warjacks on the table to feel happy, I guess is what I'm saying.

Thank you for NOT sugar-coating it, though. If that wasn't a point I had a little give on, and couldn't have been reasonably appeased, having somebody actually point it out in unambiguous terms is definitely helpful.

EDIT: On re-reading you have Cygnar. Go with Cygnar. They've got some good absurdly low model count builds, and a lower model count in general.

I have Cygnar, yes. I started assembling Khador because they came in first, and I like the Russian costumes and the less.. "bubbly" appearance of their 'jacks in comparison to Cygnar. Of course, Cygnar's got its share of cool models (gun mages, mmm), and I like the electricity theme and so on for them, too.

As I said, I plan on assembling a few models to start, playing a few games with my friend to get to know the game and the way they play, and then picking a primary army. I'll keep the other to paint (and have a built-in opponent at my house in case I have the opportunity to try to introduce a friend to the game at some point, etc.) at the very least.

As far as model count goes, looking around a bit more, I'm not ready to panic on Khador, yet. Now that I've paged through the army books and have some idea what I'm looking at when I see acronyms, the army lists I've seen other folks use and suggest for Khador elsewhere on the forums, ~20 models for 35 points is nowhere near outrageous for satisfying my "not a horde, I can't paint that fast" requirement. I mean, I'm coming from 40k playing 1800-2k Sisters, with armies in the 60 model range. Cutting that by two thirds? That's great! And that's for one of the more numerous armies here in WarmaHordes land. I can dig it, because that means my side projects are slightly smaller than even that, rather than another 50 model Space Marines army.

But, bottom line: I was already planning on picking between Cygnar and Khador after getting them each on the field and playing with them. Then, one gets expanded, the other gets painted up when I've got the time and want to have a painted opponent to teach folks with.

My brother magnetized the Spriggan/etc khador kit. He had to use a couple different magnets, but it was not impossible by any means. I magnetized the battlebox for him.

A couple hints with magnets. Watch polarity. Don't reverse it so the magnets push apart instead of together. Use non-magnetic tools. I find toothpicks and chopsticks work wonders! When you glue a magnet let it dry thoroughly before bring other magnets or metal near it.

Get a Tamiya electric Handy Drill!
http://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-74041-Electric-Handy-Drill/dp/B000J46WZ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386902925&sr=8-1&keywords=tamiya+drill
Actually good for many things including pinning, etc.

Realistically, Khador infantry are not cheaper or more numerous, we just usually have an extra squad over some other lists since we usually have less warjacks. But yes, an infantry horde in this game is around 30 models at 35 points. It hardly compares to warhammer. I remember running lizardmen and having around 160 skinks in my list. Even at the large tournament size (50 pts), you wont have more than 50 models in your army.

I used 1/8x1/8, 1/4x1/8 neodymium magnets for magnetizing warjacks. They can be purchased for very cheap and the 1/8th size has a pull strength of around 1lb depending on where you buy them. It is more than enough to hold a warjack together.

1/4" magnets? wow, what kits can even support that size? I thought 1/8 was pushing the size limit. I don't think that even my skorne or legion warbeast shoulders could fit 1/4" magnets.

1/4" is kind of big for a lot of things, but for khador warjack arms they are also quite large.

I think I used 3/16" ones for warjack arms. They seem like a good size for a lot of things.

1/8" is good for smaller things.

I had some I bought from my LGS. Not sure the size but they were about that. I think they may have been metric, though.