# Best Army Builder Software



## fuzzawakka

Was just wondering what everyones favorite army builder software is and if it has the new codex updated for space marines. I just want to download it.


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## Vaz

Paper, Pen, and Codex in front of you.

Never fails, and there are no bugs.


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## fuzzawakka

haha true thanks vaz  so does that mean you have tried them and do not like them?


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## Underground Heretic

I have army builder and it can have faults. But it is usually lacking definitions for items and special rules, saying see C:X p.Y. You get a lot more out of a codex than you do out of Army Builder.


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## officer kerky

well there is an army builder BUt i hate it. i'm with vaz on this one. pen, and good old paper along with codex and some brains can go a long way instead of the computer and AI (artificial intelligence)


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## Degzi

there are some around there generally not hard to find plus there is usually updates for codex but actually sitting down and making your own army list can't be beaten plus you will understand your army better that way especially when it comes to special rules etc


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## keytag33

I've had good luck with spreadsheet programs like excel. You can then make your own army calculater and just tweek it with each new release.


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## chromedog

Much as Pen, paper and codex is my preferred method, and served me well for many years, it just can't be trusted around many of the younger players in my area. I still use it, but when I want it to be read by everyone, I'll plug the numbers and options into AB for printing.

Literacy, numeracy and handwriting skills are just not what they used to be, I'm afraid. Most schoolkids these days use a computer word pro to submit work to teachers, and run it through a spellchecker first, too. They don't need to learn this stuff, the computer does it for them.

At my club's tourneys, we insist on either an Army Builder roster file (.rst) or a word or excel file for submitted lists (as they need to be read by all of your opponents, as well as the orgs).

The older players use the excel or word files (.doc/.rtf or even .txt are acceptable) as they are ALL more legible than most of their handwriting, even if they have perfectly legible handwriting.

I use AB because I bought a copy when I was validating lists for the tourney, and most players had it. It's handy, but I also had a copy of all of the codices with me as well.
Before that, I used Excel, which with its autosum function, helps to keep track of points as well.


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## officer kerky

just gotta love exel i use it all the time when priting out armyy lists. use it for prinint the units stats and upgrades they have. keeps the game flowing nice and fast instaed of getting a codex out and finding the stats or rules


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## Degzi

i might try using a s/s see how it works for me i've used AB and the armies and enemies of the imperium sets there good but they dont get updated anywhere nearly as often as they need


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## xinua

I think everyone got this question in the beginning, I know I had.. (a year ago). I asked the same question as you are asking, and to my annoyance people answered pen and paper hehe.. 
I checked out a few different army builders: AB, some open source java program, and bunch of different excel templates and they all worked, sort of.. But of course since I'm a programmer by profession, of course I thought I could do a better job writing a builder myself. So of course I did  took a few late nights and a weekend or three (and it does work pretty good I must say). Just that when it was done I knew my chaos codex inside out, and I got every single point cost and rule burned into my brain.. So all of the sudden I find myself not needing a builder any more since making the builder I learned it all by heart!! 

So now I say them same as the people told me when I asked, "pen and paper" hehe though I do do it in a text editor on my computer/phone what ever I happen to have close by when i think of a new army. because if I wrote it by hand nobody(including myself) would not be able to read it anyway.. 

and beside copy paste is my friend, after you written down some 20-30 different army list more less any army can be built from those just copy paste units with some small tweaking 

of course when I buy my second codex, third, forth, or 5th maybe I till start getting a bit messy to keep it all separate but I tend to be pretty single minded doing one army at the time..


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## Ztrain

Many many Gmail drafts and google docs. Editable and accessable nearly anywhere!

Z


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## Jezlad

Army Builder's by far the best. Nothing compares.


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## The Wraithlord

Heh being a beta tester for Army Builder I tend to agree with Jez. Nothing compares to knowledge of your own codex for sure but for sheer ease of use, AB has it in spades. So easy to whip up lists and try out different units in a couple of minutes. Yes, it has its bugs but that is what knowing your own dex is for right?


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## squeek

Personally I haven't liked any of the various army builder programmers that are sold, including AB itself. I use pen and paper (and codex/armybook) for one offs and side projects and make my own army builder programmes on excel for armies that I regularly build lists for.


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## newsun

I am a fan of the spread sheet. I like army builder too and it prints out a nice sheet. I just have my spread sheets all dialed in where I can easily toggle the numbers in squads or add special abilities. I also know my codex pretty well, so I don't have to reference it for much.

I use http://openoffice.org ->calc because it's free and powerful.


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## Djinn24

Army Builder for me as well.


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## Chaosftw

An Excel Document and a Codex.....

HQ:
=C3+C4+C5 [ Enter ]
Troops
=C7+C8+C9+C10 [ Enter ]

ToTal = C6+C11 [ Enter ]

......Ta-Da!!!

Cheers,

Chaosftw


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## MaidenManiac

Pen and Paper!

I dont trust no dip shit pox marked overweight hacker enough to believe that he actually managed to enter everything correctly in his program, there are always flaws:headbutt:

Excel or a simple rtf format is ok if I need to send the list somewhere for a tourney, but otherwise i stick with pnp


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