How Do You Handle Making An Army List?

[Forrix]

I actualy really enjoy making lists but i have found a couple short cuts. For starters i keep all my lists in one journal so when i write a new one if there was a unit i liked i can just look back and copy paste it into the new list skiping all the math and looking up all the points cost. Also most armys rely on a couple core units so usualyi take my troops and must have support units lay them all out and see what points i have left. Both of those things can really cut down on the time required to write up these lists

[Colonel Falkenberg]

Army Builder. It's quick, clean, and neat. Everyone can read it with out having to decipher my chicken scatch.

[Criger]

I use Army Builder and just put them into Excel since I'm too cheap to buy the full version of Army Builder (limits you to 3 units). I really enjoy building lists actually, and it's really quick if you use these programs and don't have to do all the math.

[FortheEmperor!]

Pay for a copy of Army Builder (TM) and you can make list after list after list!! It has rules for Apocalypse, Planetstrike, Spearhead, special characters, no special characters, you can upload photos or drawings to include on your army list...the options will make you dizzy!!

[Levitas]

A decades worth of design experince, creative suite CS5, google images, calculator Army builder is so ugly.

I don't mind building lists, but saw one gamer using a interesting way. He had all his units on small postcard size cards and would build his lists that way. Kind of odd, but worked for him.

[Loshkins]

I put all of my stuff into excel with the unit stats and everything, leaving a space at the bottom for special rules and what not. Same as army builder, just took an extra 30min to set up.

[Rissan4ever]

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.

I use the "all takers" mentality, too. I also name my lists and let my opponent choose the list they face based on the name. The name doesn't really reflect what's in the list, but it's fun anyway.

Examples:
His Will, Our Guts!
Face-Breakers
Band of Brothers
Shake n' Bake

[Chaoschrist]

Fire up army builder (demo), do a single squad the way I want to, take those points, put that in excel. Alternatively I might just sit down with the codex and write everything on paper. Depends a bit on where I am.

Once had a license for Army builder when I played a lot more, that worked out fine I thought, but since I'm not playing that much I don't really feel like shelling out that amount for it.

As for "flavor"... I'll see what I have modelswise, and go from there. Might buy a squad here or there to expand on what I had in mind (or what I feel like I'm missing in the current build). Sometimes there's just a single model/squad I feel like it should be in there, but I try not to mess up the general armylist that much. However, in the past it just was a good reason to start an entirely new army. "Oh hey, let's try a mechanized Chaos marines list" and see how that's done cheapest.

[Cavematt]

I use the "all takers" mentality, too. I also name my lists and let my opponent choose the list they face based on the name. The name doesn't really reflect what's in the list, but it's fun anyway.

Examples:
His Will, Our Guts!
Face-Breakers
Band of Brothers
Shake n' Bake

I agree, I usually have one or two builds in mind and they don't change up too much. But I admit, some times I just stick units in just cuz I think they're fun to throw in because they never really get played by other folks.

[Tarasque]

I personally love army-building. I love thinking of all the different strategies as you take different units, loadouts, etc.

I used to use the Forge, but my computer got wiped and I can't be arsed to redo all of the hours of work I put into it, as you basically have to insert the codex in there to use it. It may not be that way now.

Still, every list I make, unless I'm playing on Vassal, is designed around what models I have. Hence why I don't run Wracks or Reavers or Scourges or anything like that.