How Do You Handle Making An Army List?

[Grenadier]

I don't know about you folks but for me the one aspect of the game I dread is getting down to making up an army list. It's tedious and a pain in the butt. Especially since I am terrible at math.

I find that before every single battle I must make up a new list. My previous list being unsuitable based on changes in my army or requiring more or less points than in the previous battle. And when I make up a list I want it to contain every possible bit of information I need during the game to minimize looking stuff up. Sometimes this doesn't work out well. And invariably I find I've calculated points incorrectly or failed to pay for this or that's points. There are aspects in the DKOK and Imperial Guard codex which causes me to make such mistakes. And then I have to start all over again.

But now I'm going to consider a new approach to my army list making:

I will make one list which will include everything in my army. Completely detailed. Including all the appropriate options, wargear, weapons, and pertinent points. Each unit will have it's own page. With a final points total.

Then instead of making a new list for each battle I will simply "pull" unit pages and calculate combined points until I reach the battle's points limit. This way everything is reusable and I no longer have to make new lists. Ideally I'd want these pages to be about the size of an index card but they lack enough room for my needs. And, whenever I have a new addition to my army it's simply a matter of doing up a sheet for it and adding it to the collected sheets.

How do you do your lists? Any advice for me?

[Slug]

Firstly, I made an excel page that will calculate how many points I have left and a few things like that. Then I tend to follow a theme. If I don't already have the models I might do some maths and compare unit statistics otherwise I tend to build an army up in common point increments so I tend to make three or four list at 500, 1000, 1750 for example so I just use the same list.

[Grenadier]

Having good math skills help.

[Slug]

Excel helps as well though, it's not hard to make one box add up all the point totals of your units, then another to subtract that value from however many points you have available resulting in an amount telling you how many points you have left.

[Dalleron]

I make the army in units, generally how i think it should go. I've got unit A for X pts, unit B for Y and so on. Add the hq or two, then add blocks of units of whatever I'm going to add. Half my armies are 1500 pts and nothing else so I have lists down. I have the luxury that my alternate hq's are 5-10 pts different and can slot in without going over 1500pts.

Ive tried the all encompassing army list, but when you have over 2000 pts and generally don't use some units, I found it's a waste of time and effort.

I think building a solid core to your army and using it conistently will help you. Being very familiar with your army comes from continued use, or studying/reading it. Once you have the solid core of your army, then you can swap out units and whatnot.

It's basic math really, and shouldn't be alot of trouble.

[scadugenga]

Way back in 2nd Ed, I made "unit cards" for my Eldar.

For the same reason you mentioned--ease of army building, etc.

I think that would work for you with a slight modification: create a separate cheat sheet for all the specific army rules and you should be good to gomwith one index card per unit.

[Shadoq]

Army Builder for the win. Makes everything much easier.

Only trouble I have with army list creation is that I can't take all the units I want to

[scadugenga]

You forgot the "tm" for Army *cough* Builder.

They will now be forced to send BoLS a C&D...

Heh.

[DarkLink]

I start with a list of "good" units. Most units have one or two competitive ways of running them.

Then I select a focus. If I want a Terminator/Paladin deathstar, that will determine most of my list. I pick the core units, so 10 Paladins and Driago or a grand master for the HQ.

Then, I look at gaps in my list. If I need more scoring, more mobility, melta, long range firepower, etc, I take units that etc over those weaknesses.

Once I get the rough list, I start playing with wargear to try and get everything to fit.

If something doesn't fit or mesh, I switch that unit with something else that can perform a similar job.

Rinse and repeat until the list is done. Time for playtesting, which I never actually get to do since I don't get to play often.

[doom-kitten]

I pretty much theme my lists, picking on particular bit of fluff or a character and imagining what their army would be based off, as my army is not very versatile it's relatively easy to pick and choose units from other lists. For the most part keeping a 'core' unit list is handy basically a number of units your army will never be fielded without.