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I recently found out about army builders on the computer and was wondering which ones you guys suggested.

Microsoft word, a calculator, and my codex.

I've yet to see a program that I enjoyed the end result of.

Army Builder Pros - cannot male illegal selections, roster lay out (personal pro, your opinion may vary).
Army Builder Cons - cost, only updates once in a while, no idea how to add allies and formations (it probably can be done I just don't know how).

Battlescribe Pros - Free (if you pay for it you unlock some special things but are not necessary, and even then it's like $10), easier to update (if you have the desktop version you can updatet he catalogues yourself, or even build your own for other systems without much difficulty).
Battlescribe Cons - Roster layout (this is of course subjective), you can build an illegal army (this can also be a pro if you are using a house FOC, or your opponent wants to go against something that would normally be illegal, such as a SM CM with every Relic)


All in all, I use Battlescribe, but instead of using the files anyone can get, I made my own.

Battlescribe on my iPad or phone. It's boss. Though some army files are massive or poorly written cause crashes or sluggish loading.

I downloaded quartermaster on my Ipad for a couple bucks it's a nice program and pretty easy to use.

pepe5454 wrote:
I downloaded quartermaster on my Ipad for a couple bucks it's a nice program and pretty easy to use.

Where did you download it? What phone?

Been using Battlescribe for ages. Great little program.

Davor wrote:

pepe5454 wrote:
I downloaded quartermaster on my Ipad for a couple bucks it's a nice program and pretty easy to use.

Where did you download it? What phone?

I downloaded it from itunes. I don't think they have a version for android though =(

Thanks pepe, I will check it out. Wife has an iPad which I use a lot.

How does it look? I mean I liked when I use to use armybuilder 2.0, it was easy on the eyes. Battlescribe, I find it hard on the eyes just didn't seem to be having as much fun as I did with Army Builder.

How easy is it to install files to? I mean, using an iPad, how simple is it to install the 40K files?

There is definitely Android Battlescribe, I have it on my Galaxy S3

Ads in Battlescribe? Don't like the sound of that. I see if you get the paid version, there is something about dice. What does this "dice" thingy do?

I've used army builder for about 2 years now, and I really like it. It's laid out well, has all the armies, and you can use it for tons of games.
@Happyjew You can easily add allies or extra FOC or a bunch of other add-ons. It's got a nice checklist when you choose a roster.

One thing I loved about Army builder was when you printed it out, it came out in a nice printed layout. Even gave all the rules at the end for ease of reference.

Do any of the other army builders do this? Now I am torn what to get. I guess I will try Battlescribe for free on iPad see how it works any better than on the PC.

For those of you who have the current Army Builder, how do you like having the pics in the top right corner? Does it make it more "fun" or it's just extra bells and whistles?

I always use battlescribe for 40k

Army builder is what I use as someone gave me a portable windows version and it works well? Updates aren't that regular but it's a solid program.

If not using this offline I use hq builder online. A free web tool that does the math for you squeaky clean.

Ive used both. And prefer Battlescribe. The paid version [only like 4 bucks btw not 10] removed the little add. Adds a dive tool and the ability to make "favorites" units. Got a certain squad makeup you like? Save it and you can add it with a click in future lists.

And while BS will allow illegal choices depending on how the file is made it usually lets you know. There is an indicator for things like that. X cannot take that many Specials for example.

The con to BS is finding the repository for the files. But its getting easier. Just searching for battlescribe data works.

I just now signed up for HQ builder online. It is very easy to use with drop down menus, tells you when you've made an error in your list, the finished list looks very good once printed, and best of all....It's free!

 HisDivineShadow wrote:
Ive used both. And prefer Battlescribe. The paid version [only like 4 bucks btw not 10] removed the little add.

It's probably 4 for the android version. Desktop (which I bought) is 10.

Davor wrote:
Thanks pepe, I will check it out. Wife has an iPad which I use a lot.

How does it look? I mean I liked when I use to use armybuilder 2.0, it was easy on the eyes. Battlescribe, I find it hard on the eyes just didn't seem to be having as much fun as I did with Army Builder.

How easy is it to install files to? I mean, using an iPad, how simple is it to install the 40K files?

It's pretty easy if you use your ipad to download a template from http://templates.quartermasterapp.com/ it asks if you want to open it in quarter master and then it's imported. You can make your own templates so you can get human error. I have army builder on my comp and view the lists on my ipad but I wanted something pretty simple so if I just ran into someone who wanted to play but not at the points level of one of my lists I could just throw something together on the spot. I have not tried battlescribe so don't know how it compares and it's not army builder but it did what I wanted it to do.

Battlescribe has always worked for me.

I use Battlescribe. It's very easy to use. The list layout is bad, however. And some small updates take a hell of a time to happen (have two SM 6th catalogues, and BOTH show Stormtalons with 5th special rules). Need to fix this kind of stuff everytime I want to print the list.

pepe5454 wrote:
I downloaded quartermaster on my Ipad for a couple bucks it's a nice program and pretty easy to use.

2 of my friends use that, but it has quite a number of bugs/wrong stuff (point costs and available upgrades, mostly)

BattleScribe works great on my android, thanks guys.

 Vector Strike wrote:
I use Battlescribe. It's very easy to use. The list layout is bad, however. And some small updates take a hell of a time to happen (have two SM 6th catalogues, and BOTH show Stormtalons with 5th special rules). Need to fix this kind of stuff everytime I want to print the list.

pepe5454 wrote:
I downloaded quartermaster on my Ipad for a couple bucks it's a nice program and pretty easy to use.

2 of my friends use that, but it has quite a number of bugs/wrong stuff (point costs and available upgrades, mostly)

Well all the templates are just user made so if some point cost is wrong you can just edit the template to correct it. I have not noticed any actual bugs yet but I have not gone through everything I am sure. There are a few things that take some getting used to like purchasing gear for a sergeant is not the same spot that you do for the squad etc but once you figure them out it's pretty simple. I did notice the Dark angels vets template allowed 2 special weapons on a 5 man squad I will take a look at the template for that one when I get a chance. I just kinda use it to do the math as I build I kinda know what I can and can't take already so I might have missed some others.

IF you have an iOS device, I suggest Quartermaster. It produces very clean army lists that are easy to read and a breeze to create. It also produces forum code, making exporting to a forum a simple task.

Davor wrote:
Thanks pepe, I will check it out. Wife has an iPad which I use a lot.

How does it look? I mean I liked when I use to use armybuilder 2.0, it was easy on the eyes. Battlescribe, I find it hard on the eyes just didn't seem to be having as much fun as I did with Army Builder.

How easy is it to install files to? I mean, using an iPad, how simple is it to install the 40K files?

If you haven't checked it out yet, I tried it yesterday and the first thing that I noticed was that there were already files for Tempestus and Astra Militarum while on the Battlescribe it sometimes takes time for repositories to be uploaded and even then they very often are done poorly(although that 40k Daemons battlescribe repository is great!). The visuals are pleasing although the very app is a bit less 'comfortable' and a bit more confusing than said BS. A big plus that makes it worth the price is that you can edit easily every entry in the repository if you find any errors or if you want to add something that was missed, that's fantastic! But it also has it's bugs - for some reason when I pick plasma gun for my Scions it automatically bumps it to 10 plasmas even though I went back to the template(that's how the repositories are called there) and edited it to be max 2. Eventually will figure out a way to fix it myself.

Army building on iPad is pretty easy - the roster building layout is pretty clear and not really confusing, probably on par with the well-made BS repositories as you don't have to click a lot of stuff nor shuffle between options menus to select and equip units, which is a plus if you like to make army lists on the go or for fun. I have yet to check out how a completed army list roster looks, only fiddled with units so far, but if it's similar to BS or AB, it should be fine. Also adding templates(repositories, army files) is probably easiest on earth - you click a link, it sends you to search, you click the second result and when you click the army names, it asks you if you want to open the files with Quartermaster and.. done! They're installed!

In my opinion it's well worth it's low price so far. Will have to try fixing that little special weapons bug, but I won't have a small thing like that overshadow my positive experience with the app yet. Hope this is helpful.

Edit: Found the fix, unfortunately editing the template doesn't affect already made lists, so I guess I'll have to re-do it again after changing the template file. It's a bummer that it doesn't automatically update.

 HisDivineShadow wrote:
Ive used both. And prefer Battlescribe. The paid version [only like 4 bucks btw not 10] removed the little add. Adds a dive tool and the ability to make "favorites" units. Got a certain squad makeup you like? Save it and you can add it with a click in future lists.

I'll admit that Battlescribe is definitely cheaper, but you can "favorite" units with Army Builder as well. After you've put a unit together how you like it, you can simply right-click it and select "save squad," and it will let you save the unit and its layout as a file that you can load when you build another army.

Edit: On the topic, I'm completely okay with paying the money for Army Builder, personally. It's a very sleek program that's easy to use, and aside from an odd bug here or there, it's great at keeping you from making illegal lists. The issue I had with Battlescribe on that note was that it wasn't very obvious when I made an illegal choice, compared to AB, which changes the offending unit's entry bright red so you know that something's wrong. I personally thought Battlescribe was really clunky to use, especially when trying to do dual-FOC lists or allies of any kind.

I just loaded Quartermaster... Wow it's not easy to use at all... Couldn't figure out how to build a list after loading the SM template.

I have lots found of errors in BS. Try to build a SW scout squad... Wow it is next to impossible.

AB costs more but is by far the best. I just wish it would run on mobile devices.

I would buy Army Builder in a flash if it was on iPad.

Trying out Battlescribe now, before I pay for it.

 Dozer Blades wrote:
I just loaded Quartermaster... Wow it's not easy to use at all... Couldn't figure out how to build a list after loading the SM template.

I have lots found of errors in BS. Try to build a SW scout squad... Wow it is next to impossible.

AB costs more but is by far the best. I just wish it would run on mobile devices.

Where are you getting your templates from?! Check my sig. QM is about as easy as it gets.