How Do You Handle Making An Army List?

[Grenadier]

I downloaded it but it isn't letting me open it for some reason. When I clicked on it the only thing that happened was Spybot wanted to scan it. So I right clicked it to select open and its asking me what program to use to open it? What do I use? I don't have Excel if that is what is required.

[khsrio621]

try downloading openoffice. it's a free Microsoft office equivalent that works well. It'll let you view/edit excel spreadsheets.

[Grenadier]

Jolly good. I'll download it tomorrow...getting a bit sleepy here. The bed...it calls to me.

For some reason my computer lacks all those kinds of programs. It doesn't even have Word. And it doesn't let me cut and paste either.

[hippsman]

I generally will write out my solid units that are key to every game (2-3 good troop choices, HQ, and maybe a HS or two) and then I try to fill in with the fun units depending on what kind of game I'm going to play.

[Inquiring M1nd]

I've whipped up excel sheets, used demos of Army Builder, and pen and paper. In the end, they are just tools, they just make the math and substitutions easier. The big thing is knowing how you want to play.

If I want to have a large outflank/deepstrike wing, or have a big mass march right up the center I plan my HQ, and troops around that, then I look to support those elements with Elites, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support. In the end, I hope to have each threat type covered.

Sometimes, the army style decisions are based on a model I just finished, like seeing on the table, or just haven't seen in awhile. For example, my games have featured my Trygon and Parasite of Mortrex lately.

With Tyranids, I am truly spoiled for choices in the troops section, which means I can truly tailor to the playstyle I feel like that day.

[Grenadier]

I pretty much know how I want to play using my Imperial Guard. Regardless if I'm the attacker or defender I play defensively. Establishing a solid wall of firepower. Defending is easiest of course. And with everything I can throw into a game the firepower alone is enough to break any attacker. It's little more complicate to do when I'm the attacker. Because I still maintain static positions providing a lot of fire support. I have one fully completed infantry platoon. Which is more than enough troop! They always stay where I deploy them minus some adjustments. I then have 4 veteran squads mounted in Chimeras. They'll stay close, but behind, my tanks which spearhead any assault I need to do. All the while my fire support hammers away at the enemy. If it's an Apocalypse battle I can drop 20 large blast markers per turn! Not to mention the smaller one and regular shooting.

My real problem now is figuring out how I want to play with my Black Templars. I do run them sometimes as vanillas. But most of the time my Templars support the Guard. And being an assault army it limits what I would normally do with an army. I've decided now the best use of my Templars when combined with my Guard is this: quickly throw them into the enemy and tie up as many of his units in assault. I use them to screen for my Guard. The Guard is the game winner. The Templars are the fodder.

[Tepogue]

I start with the required 1 hq, and 2 troops. Then ask myself:

Do I know my opponent?
Is a single use list or tournament consisting of multiple rounds?
Am I expecting lots of vehicles or not?

Based on those questions, It's a matter of building either something specific if I know my opponent or more general for a tournament all comers list.

[MrGiggles]

My first lists were probably like everyone else's, scribbled on a piece of paper based on the models I had.

From there, I went to a spreadsheet with options based on what I had WYSIWYG simply because I didn't want to deal with a horde of non-WYSIWYG stuff (Orks) and I figured it would help motivate me to paint. It did.

I tried Army Builder out, but I've never really gotten round to buying it. At this point, I'm using Battlescribe and I find it does what I need it to do.

As to building the actual list, I tend to follow similar trains of thought for both my Orks and my Sisters. I figure out something I want to play with that day, add that to the list and go from there. Next, I put my compulsory stuff in and then I fill out.

My Ork lists tend to be built with a "What do I want to do today?" attitude since I'm familiar with the units and the army and what I like to use, it's a pretty easy build out for the most part.

When I play my Sisters, the attitude is a little different. I played the army a bit under the old Witch Hunters Codex before the new one came out, but I was pretty limited in terms of the models I had painted at the time. To that end, I'm really still learning the army, so my lists tend to be more experimental than my Orks lists. I tend to figure out what I'd like to try to learn and then put a couple of those units in the list and bulk it out from there. It's far more hit and miss though since I'm just not as familiar with the basic units of the army as I am with my Orks or even with Chaos Space Marines.

The one thing I haven't done with either army is build to a list. That's something I am planning to do for my next army, whatever it is. I figure I've two factions that I'm basically collecting, so collecting the full range of another faction is probably excessive, especially if I continue to add to my first two.

[Kaiserdean]

I build all of my armies as sort of "all takers" lists.

I know what models I have and my game plan no matter which army I'm playing against and I really only have slight variations on what I bring.

A few people at my LGS have a stack of army lists tucked in their army book for every conceivable army they could face with lots of things fine tuned for facing a hoard or a mechanized list.

Personally, I hate it when people know I'm bringing my ork army so they load up on things to kill my hoard... but I suppose that thematically, most armies will know their enemy before they fight (except in an ambush scenario) so I shouldn't complain too loudly.

As for the actual making of the list, I love Army Builder.

[andozane]

So much depends on who you are playing against.

Seems now a days my opponents are about playing a game where neither of us care about winning, just about having a good time throwing some dice.

I tend to use a lot more units that never see light of day, and I have a lot of fun with it.

Army Builder is a god send. GW should just cut a deal with them and get it over with, giving them day of book release updates, or perhaps when you buy a codex you get a licensed version of AB that ONLY builds that army list...

That could be cool.