I have done a test piece of removing the dovetail joints and replacing them with magnets.

They work great!

Except now I am concerned that if I do all my trays they wont be legal for tournament play.

What are peoples thoughts on that?

I wouldn't mind an official response too.

Cheers,

Rob

I doubt they'll be officially legal, but if I were TOing, I also wouldn't care. Might email OP to get their thoughts.

If I were TO'ing, I'd say they're fine, but that you would get ruled against any time there was a close call that looks like it might have hit your missing jigsaw piece.

It doesn't change the overall size, though, right? He's still got the puzzle pieces on the outside, and the ones on the inside would slot together anyway...

No, I would remove all the dovetail joints. I just did 1 side as a test.

20 minutes ago, Ailowynn said:

It doesn't change the overall size, though, right? He's still got the puzzle pieces on the outside, and the ones on the inside would slot together anyway...

Until you lose a tray.

Oh. Duh.

It doesnt take away from the tray but it does remove the jagged jigsaw sides, which "technically" means more distance required for a successful charge. However its not only both ways its also such a minor thing you'd have to be a real stickler to actually care.

The longstanding precedent set by FFG (as well as many other companies) is if it is recognizable and the footprint doesn't change, you're in the clear. Unfortunately, you are very much changing the footprint, and these would be illegal no matter where you go. Sure, you may find a store that doesn't care and players that may not care, which may be all you want. But if you plan on playing in tournaments or against people you may not know intimately, these won't work.

Which sorta sucks, because I was tempted to magnetize my trays too. But I intend to play in tournies, so I couldn't even if I really wanted to.

I had the same thought about the magnets. Well done for trying it out. It's just a little too frustrating to remove one of those dovetailed trays in the middle of the game. I tend to bump my other trays and send minis flying.

I made a test wooden tray that keeps the nuns, but puts magnets inside. I'm just waiting on the 3mm cube magnets from eBay to try it out.

Did you also magnetize the models to the bases? That seems like a no-brainer to me.

Dovetails are great for holding things together, not so much for taking this apart. It is curious they went with such a design.

2 minutes ago, Mep said:

Dovetails are great for holding things together, not so much for taking this apart. It is curious they went with such a design.

we've gotten to the point where we use a spare deployment marker to mark the corner of the unit, then pick the whole thing up and wrangle the tray free.

4 hours ago, BojambaMcMamba said:

I had the same thought about the magnets. Well done for trying it out. It's just a little too frustrating to remove one of those dovetailed trays in the middle of the game. I tend to bump my other trays and send minis flying.

I made a test wooden tray that keeps the nuns, but puts magnets inside. I'm just waiting on the 3mm cube magnets from eBay to try it out.

Did you also magnetize the models to the bases? That seems like a no-brainer to me.

Im very interested in magnetising the minis to the bases, seen any threads on the method on how to do it?

6 hours ago, VAYASAN said:

Im very interested in magnetising the minis to the bases, seen any threads on the method on how to do it?

I haven't, but I'll take photos and post here when I take a crack at mine.

I cut the sides of the puzzle piece that sticks out of the base off so out was just wide enough to slide into the corresponding hole then drilled holes into the base to flush sink magnets into the trays... not sure if I like it or not...

12 hours ago, VAYASAN said:

Im very interested in magnetising the minis to the bases, seen any threads on the method on how to do it?

I made a thread called magnets how do they work on showing how to do this... one change I suggest is using 1/10 inch magnets instead of the 1/16 i used apparently those for the hole without the need for putty just glue them in.

10 hours ago, BojambaMcMamba said:

I haven't, but I'll take photos and post here when I take a crack at mine.

Forward wind to about 27 mins or so.

1 hour ago, VAYASAN said:

Forward wind to about 27 mins or so.

Well, that pretty much covers that. Nice thought of using a nail head in the base.

The nail head is a great idea. I was using the knock-outs from electrical boxes (94 cents for a box with 10 knock-outs). They do cause the minis to sit up a bit higher and I feel wasteful tossing out all that metal.

I did like that I didn't have to mess around with drilling out my bases though.

You could try just cutting the angled part of the dovetail off, that way there is still a square sticking off to the appropriate point, but it won't be so sticky.

10 hours ago, Jukey said:

You could try just cutting the angled part of the dovetail off, that way there is still a square sticking off to the appropriate point, but it won't be so sticky.

This is exactly what i was going to suggest, and then you can magnetize the modified dovetail so you get the best of both worlds. The exterior dimensions would be almost identical unless someone wanted to argue about the millimeter of material removed from the dovetail...

What about the magnets' polarity? If you attach a tray in a different orientation, it won't go together...? Won't that be a pain for larger-tray units?

7 minutes ago, pancakeonions said:

What about the magnets' polarity? If you attach a tray in a different orientation, it won't go together...? Won't that be a pain for larger-tray units?

Nah. Pick a side to be front, then have North be positive, South be negative, East be positive, West be negative. Every tray will fit with each other, as long as they all face the same direction.

If you're going to be using illegal trays, wouldn't it just be easier to make some from scratch?

That has the upside of leaving you with legal trays if you ever decide to play in a tournament.

I've been making trays for my LotR figures. Total butcher job. But I can play Orcs and goblins versus undead haha