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BLOT: Pro’s - Fast army list building, intuitive interface, easy to use; Con’s - Licensing mechanism is horrible, reliance on third parties to develop the rules files.
Army Builder is a software program developed by Lone Wolf Development, a very small software company that’s been developing and supporting the product since around 1998. The programs purpose is to be used as an aid for creating and maintaining your army lists for various game systems. And when your game system is one such as Games Workshop products, the rules and lists can be daunting.
When launching Army Builder up for the first time, you are going to find that you will need to unlock the full functionality of the product by “Activating” it. As long as you have an Internet connection, this is not a big problem. However the way that Lone Wolf has designed the activation scheme, you can run into some pretty big problems denying you access to your purchased program. More on that later….
Once you have your activated product, when launching in the future you will be presented by the army selection box. Here you can choose any of the game products that you have downloaded rules for. At first, there will be only a default game product there, and example system. You see this program is really only an interface to display and work with army builder files. But due to licensing, some companies (GW ahem) make it very hard for others to utilize their work.
The program does have a connection to a storage area where certain groups can post semi-official army builder files for use with these game systems. However, they are not supported by Lone Wolf Development. They are instead developed by intrepid gamers doing us all a great service in creating and maintaining these files. One such group is the AB40K Maintainers. Simply click on the “Get Updates” at the top right of the program and download a third party AB file to use.
With the systems downloaded, then as mentioned the army system box will display and you can select that system.
After selecting your system, you can then select the army to use and any special rules set.
Once you are in there building the roster you want, the intuitive interface makes it very quick to build an army based on the rules provided. You can sort by troops, HQ choices, special characters, etc. Quickly adding them you can see the points costs add up. Selecting a unit you can see the options options available and the points it will cost to include. Hovering over items and abilities gives you a run down of that particular line description.
When you are ready, you even have a multitude of options for printing your list. Including rules summary if the AB Files has them.
For me, Army Builder has been the most useful tool I have for generating and analyzing my army lists. And you can also use it with out limiting points as an inventory manager for all your figures. Army Builder is neigh indispensable to me and has been a savior when I needed to create an army list for a last minute game. It’s borderline addictive.
The problems…. While the product itself lives up to every expectation as a streamlined interface, that is it’s only expectation. There have been occasions when downloading a particular army system such as Warhammer Fantasy or 40K, that point costs are off on some units, certain rules may be missing, or entire armies if the maintainer of the AB file has not gotten around to updating it. In my case not too far back when I bought this latest version of the game so I can manage my new Daemon army, I set about to create a Fantasy army list. I should have done my research because there was no Daemon army list to be had in the program. Another case in point is that only recently have the 5th edition 40K rules come out though the product has been out over a month. To be clear, this is not Wolf Lairs fault.
Thinking I would add it myself, I soon found how daunting a challenge it is to create your own armies or systems to be used in this program. This means unless you are advanced with the Army Builder Creator, you are relying on these maintainers to get it right and to get updates done as soon as possible. With nothing but the love of the hobby on their side, there’s no incentive to do this post haste just so you can use that brand new army or rule. Work around these bugs by double checking your lists especially prior to tournaments.
The worst problem with the program though in my opinion is the licensing. If you are a simple computer user and you don’t think that you will want your product on more than one machine and that machine is stable as a rock, you are probably not going to encounter the problems I did.
Here is the situation that occurred to me when I started using it. I installed the program on my notebook, my primary PC that I take everywhere I go. Ironically, my notebook experienced technical problems and needed to get replaced. As a temporary solution I busted out an old computer and was not able to activate and use Army Builder, obviously because the notebook had the controlling license. Wolf Lair did think ahead and there is a means that you can get a secondary license if needed, which I did and I used it on my temp PC.
Obviously now I couldn’t install it on my new laptop when it arrived. I was being very anxious at this point with an upcoming tournament that I would have liked to use it for. I sent in an email to support for help resetting the license and after a couple days, no response. I went to the forums and saw quite a number of other posts indicating they sent emails and have had no response. I posted my own and “bumped it” every couple days until after a week I finally got a response and my activation code reset.
The activation is based on your hardware and OS configuration. You actually are able to re-license on a new PC every 120 days according to the support response to me. Being a techy person, I was already reformatting and updating my PC with a new OS in a few months and I’m currently using the secondary license already.
SuTech @ November 8, 2008
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Since I’m doing some traveling lately for work to some pretty major cities, I’m going to hit up the local GW stores and if things work out Battle Bunkers. I was out in the Irvine, CA area this week and had the opportunity to visit the LA Battle Bunker. But don’t kid yourself, it’s not in LA. Just like the Chicago Battle Bunker is not in Chicago. It was only 20 minutes from Irvine and the John Wayne Airport and very easy to get too off of highway 405.
The store really seemed like it was in it’s infancy as battle bunkers go. I used to live in Illinois and the Chicago Battle bunker was only 20 minutes from my house before. Of course it was a Thursday night and only an hour before they closed that I went. The employee there was very knowledgeable…. VERY knowledgeable. I was looking at the Forge World Titan Tech Priest and he was giving me stats and differences from the Space Marine tech and how to use him in Imperial guard.
More on page 161
SuTech @ November 7, 2008
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We have waited and waited and the fine folks at AB40k Maintainers have at last delivered on the new 5th edition rules. Also included are the new Space Marines too! This is doubly exciting to hear that they managed to get the Space Marines in there as well.
Army Builder if you haven’t used it before is a very useful tool for creating your various lists for Warhammer and other game systems. One of the biggest downfalls with Army builder though is that it’s licensing does not allow them to distribute GW specific rules and relies on individuals to create the army files. For a large and complex game like any of the Warhammer games, you soon see that it’s a daunting task to make the files on your own.
I have other gripes…. But I’m saving that for an upcoming review. 
AB40k Maintainers - AB40k 5th Edition files are now here!!
SuTech @ November 5, 2008
Tournaments, Warhammer 40K
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Title: PBKW/Assaultphase.com Year End 40k Tournament
Location: Parker Banner Kent Wayne, 8301 Magnolia Estates Dr, Cornelius, NC 28031
Link out: Click here
Description: Prizes: (PBKW Store credit towards GW Merchandise) 1st place: $25+50% of pot. 2nd: $20+35% of pot. 3rd: $15+15% of pot. Prizes will be rounded to nearest $5.00 increments for sake of organizers’ sanity. Painting Contest: $40.00
Now for the details! Scoring will be our normal format with each game worth 20 points and 3 possible points for army appearance (painting and basing) for a total of 63 possible points. Now for the new stuff! The battles you will be fighting are not just isolated engagements, they are on the same planet and timeframe, as such some of your units may be veterans from battles gone by and may have picked up some new skills along the way. Before each game, players may (you don\’t have to) nominate one unit from their army for veteran status. This unit will be allowed to roll for one veteran skill from the their choice of the tables on page 263 of the main 40k Rulebook. That ability stays with that squad for the duration of the tournament. If they roll a skill they already have either from a prior selection, wargear/upgrade, or the unit comes with it, re-roll. This upgrade does not come without a cost however…the unit that takes a new ability must enter the next game from reserves without the benefit of any special rules such as deep strike or outflank to represent the time it takes them moving from one battlefront to the next.
These veteran units, while valuable, are also high-priority targets for your foe. The third battle of the campaign will be an Annihilation mission, and “veteran” units are worth one kill point as normal plus one additional kill point per veteran skill that unit has. (If you take a skill before each game, this will add 3 total kill points to your army weather it is one unit with 3 skills or 3 with one each etc).
Painting Contest: To enter the painting contest, purchase a new Squad, Vehicle, or Large Monster for your army at PBKW and inform Matt that it is for the painting contest and he will put you on the contestant list. While I\’d like to see it be a part of your tournament army as well, it\’s not required. Entries will be judged by myself, Matt, and one more person to be decided (someone who isnt going to be participating in the painting contest) with each model being scored on a scorecard for technical prowess as well as creativity and just being cool to look at. Judges will not be allowed to discuss their scoring amongst themselves. The scores for each model will be added up and a winner will be declared. In the unlikely event of a tie, those who tie can either opt to split the prize or put it to a vote amongst all the other players.
Start Time: 12:00
Date: 2008-12-06
SuTech @ October 30, 2008
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We are starting to see more FAQ’s being updated. Next comes the FAQ to the actual rule book. There’s some extra bullets added to rules and some clarifications that change some contentious rules. My favorite? Psychic shooting attacks do not grant cover saves to the unit attacked unless it is actually causing wounds with the attach. Also, you can use psychic attacks and powers from within vehicles.
Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 Frequently Asked Questions
SuTech @ October 14, 2008
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October is in full swing with stores selling the hefty Space Marines codex, drop pods, new squads and vehicles etc. Making sure some love is still provided to the major armies not covered in the Space Maine Codex, Games Workshop has an updated Errata for the Dark Angels.
This has actually been out for a while now. It was helpful during a rules discussion on our own forum. But there are some slight updates regarding differences between the Dark Angel book and the Space Maine Codex.
Games Workshop - Warhammer 40,000 Frequently Asked Questions
SuTech @ October 11, 2008
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GW has fleshed out some more Warriors of Chaos figures. As well is the acutally usable Battalion. It’s good to see that these battalions are coming out rather then the spearheads. The spearheads, while there were plenty of models, it was not an actual usable army list in most cases. So you spent a lot and still had to buy more to finish the army. With the Battalion we are getting those actual trops that are what you really need.
Games Workshop - Khorne Chaos Lord on Juggernaut
SuTech @ October 8, 2008
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The 4th and latest edition of The Watchmen has been released over at Warseer. This issue talks about one players choice in building a Chaos army. Also are some tatics for using greenstuff to create models, battle scenarios, and more. It’s a good read with lots of good pictures of miniatures for the Fantasy universe.
The Watchman Issue #4 out now - WarSeer
SuTech @ September 22, 2008
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Some tidbits and rumors from the UK GD. There’s already been some discussion on the net of the Legion of the Damned for Space Marines, but more mention and confirmation here. Some confirmation that the Dark Eldar are under the knife at the moment, but no release date for them.
If you never knew… There is an official (and free) codex for the Blood Angels online. This was recently updated for 5th edition rules. But, same goes for the Blood Angels codex. It’s either this OR the Space Marine codex. Can’t use them both.
Also mentioned are that Traitor Legions, you know, choas, will be getting stand alone codex’s for each Legion. Will this mean that we could end up with a Space Marine codex, a Choas Space Maine Codex, and then several army specific codex’s for both legion types? I like fluff, but that’s a lot of rules and stats to memorize.
UKGD08 - 40K Seminar - WarSeer
SuTech @ September 17, 2008
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Got word of several new items coming to your local game store. These items are available for preorder. Head on down to your local store to get in on the action.
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Space Marine Sternguard Veteran Squad:
Sternguard Veterans are fearsomely effective at range. Employing specialist ammunition, including AP3 Vengeance Rounds and 30″ range Kraken Bolts, they can slay any foe with precise bursts of bolter fire
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Space Marine Vanguard Veteran Squad:
Vanguard Veterans are the most feared of all Space Marine assault units and carry the most lethal weaponry from a Chapter’s armoury. Renowned for their Heroic Interventions, Vanguard Veterans can assault the turn they Deep Strike.
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Ultramarines Captain Sicarius:
Sicarius is an exceptional warrior and commander and wages battle accompanied by the best warriors that the Ultramarines can muster.
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Crimson Fists Chapter Master Pedro Kantor:
An all-new character, the inspiring presence of Pedro Kantor confers +1 Attack on all nearby friendly units.
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Ultramarines Chaplain Cassius:
Ortan Cassius is the oldest active member of the Ultramarines. This gnarled veteran boasts a Toughness of six making him ideal for leading an assault squad into the midst of the enemy.
And lo and behold! Looks like the malfunctionin Spray Gun with pistol grip is making it’s debut again. Hopefully with a lot less explosions.
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Citadel Spray Gun:
Specifically designed for use with the Citadel Wash and Foundation ranges, the Citadel Spray Gun will help you achieve a smooth finish on large, flat areas and is perfect for basecoating regiments and vehicles. The Spray Gun is the ideal addition to any painter’s arsenal.
SuTech @ September 10, 2008
