Army Builder alternatives

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**captainpie**

Hi all,

Does anyone here know of any free army building software? I have tried Lone Wolf Army Builder software but object to paying for it as it isn't particularly well made :-/ !

If not my fallback is to make one myself its just the hours of making / typing out all the army lists etc that has put me off :p

**shamikebab**

Battlescribe, free and excellent.

**Anpu-adom**

I second Battlescribe.

**SoloFalcon1138**

1. Battlescribe

2. pen and paper

**cerbrus2**

Battlescribe for definite.

**Shandara**

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
1. Battlescribe

2. Notepad/Wordpad

Fixed that for those of us that can't write neatly

**SoloFalcon1138**

Shandara wrote:
SoloFalcon1138 wrote:
1. Battlescribe

2. Notepad/Wordpad

Fixed that for those of us that can't write neatly

That too. It's just less easy to add in Wordpad.

**12thRonin**

Excel or any other spreadsheet works well too.

**sparkywtf**

Battlescribe for sure. Just make sure to google for the data files.

Most of the files work pretty great, the occasional list needs some tweaking to get it to work properly

**kronk**

Excel.

**captainpie**

pen and paper / wordpad has been my goto so far, i'm just getting bored of always checking costs and equipment options

will def check out BattleScribe!

If I was going to make my own the excel would have been my database!

**Aerethan**

kronk wrote:
Excel.

This. I use Google Docs for a ton of stuff, one of which is easy spreadsheet lists.

I make lines with units in every configuration I would run and their points costs, then I can just copy and paste them around until the army is complete.

I also use Docs for model inventory because at some point if you don't write it down you'll forget that somewhere in a box is that crazy rare OOP model that you've been meaning to paint up.

EDIT: I do still use Army Builder, but that is mostly because it's easier to design characters with that format than it is with pen and paper and a ton of page flipping. I also prefer their print outs.

**rigeld2**

http://hq-builder.com/ is an interesting one

**privateer4hire**

BattleScribe for the win.
AB fell off my wish list for a number of reasons several years back.

**Magc8Ball**

Definitely Battlescribe, though a spreadsheet (of any sort) is perfectly functional. The army list files being essentially open source (they're worked on by the community at another website; I somehow ended up being the maintainer of the Eldar list) means that they'll get updated really quickly and with input from anyone that wants to provide it.

New version of BS just came out, too!

**shamikebab**

That reminds me magc8ball, found a mistake in the Eldar list, Scorpion Exarch has Iron Resolve as an option instead of Monster Hunter!

**scarletsquig**

Battlescribe, battlescribe, battlescribe.

**NickF509**

Lone Wolf Army Builder the community supported 2.2 version. (I think it's 2.2?)

**Magc8Ball**

shamikebab wrote:
That reminds me magc8ball, found a mistake in the Eldar list, Scorpion Exarch has Iron Resolve as an option instead of Monster Hunter!

You know, that makes a lot more sense... fixing now. It might now make it online until the weekend, though, I'm currently doing a final revision pass on it (adding page numbers, etc) that will take a bit to get through.

**ArbitorIan**

Battlescribe. It's free, the data files are provided by a community of users, so they're updated very quickly, and it runs on Macs as well as PCs. There's even an iPhone/iPad app and an Android version...

**Ovion**

Battlescribe is fairly versatile, though I haven't used it that much.

I personally use a mix of Pen&Paper, Notepad, Excel, and Drawplus (Nifty program for making images / books / PDFs and such - use that for 'fancier' final and tournament lists.)

**Some_Call_Me_Tim?**

As pretty much everyone else has said, go with Battlescribe. Very intuitive and streamlined. Plus, it does the math for you.

~Tim?

**Magc8Ball**

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:
Battlescribe... it does the math for you.

Assuming the math is correct... but if it's not, just tell someone and it'll be fixed quickly!

**Sasori**

I started using Battlescribe recently. Army Builder is just so slow on the updates. I also find that I like the output for printing lists better on BS.

Also, big thanks to Magic8Ball! Your Eldar update was amazingly timed, and perfect.

**Locclo**

I use this nifty army roster from Pit of the Oni:

http://pitoftheoni.blogspot.com/p/downloads.html

Obviously, it requires a bit of manual effort, but it's a nice medium between Battlescribe and just using Word/Excel. So long as you add up unit costs correctly, the math is all done for you.