Within days of receiving my copy of Bolt Action, courtesy of Osprey Publishing and Warlord Games I was ready to start making my own army lists for the game. Actually, "ready" isn't really the right word - I could think of nothing else. It was occupying all of my mind's free time, which is something I'm sure most of you have experienced. Unfortunately, there was a big draw back to being one of the first members of the public to get their hands on a copy of it - no one else had it at that point! So I decided to take matters into my own hands and write up a quick (or so I imagined) list generating spreadsheet.
It was anything but quick, until I met Duncan Stradling, now WWPDDuncan. During the next month of development, he proved an immense help on the project, and now represents Bolt Action .Net in England; so expect much more to come from Duncan.
You don't want to read my words, though. You want your lister! That said, I'm very pleased to introduce to you the boltaction.net German Army List Generator!
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| Bolt Action .Net's very own lister, available free in the Downloads section! |
The lister's use is pretty straightforward if you've used spreadsheet software in the past. If you have no experience with this, you need to merely download the List Generator from our downloads section, then open the file with whatever Microsoft Excel-friendly software your computer is running.
Once you've got the file open to the first sheet, you can manipulate the green cells found there. Each list option is accessible through various drop down menus, which are accessed by left-clicking on a green cell. As discussed in the now available rulebook, each unit has both a rating (Inexperienced, Regular, or Veteran) and a model count. You select a unit's rating in the left-most green column, and the amount of models in the right.
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| Composition options menus are accessed by left-clicking any green cell. |
Bolt Action technically allows for any number of Reinforced Platoons to be chosen for your force, as long as the points limit of your game allows it. We decided options to have one or two Reinforced Platoons in your list was within the constraints of a standard, one-thousand point game; so the lister is designed to let you play with one, or two, Reinforced Platoons.
Continue making selections from the green cells until you've reached the points total you're looking for. The total is tracked at the bottom of the worksheet. Our intention is that the utility won't allow you to make an "illegal" list, as the selection rules are all built-in. (Hopefully - more on that later.)
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| You may currently build a list consisting of up to two reinforced platoons. |
Of final note, on the second and third sheets of this file, you will find printable lists that are designed to be both properly formatted to fit on paper, and easy on the eyes. If your list has one Reinforced Platoon, then you only need to print the sheet entitled "1st Platoon OOB". If your list uses two Reinforced Platoons, then you will need to print both "1st Platoon OOB" and "2nd Platoon OOB".
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| The first Reinforced Platoon's order of battle sheet prints perfectly on both European and US standard paper sizes. (If you're like me, you didn't even realize that was an issue in the first place. They tell me it is! Apparently it is - but not with our lister!) |
I hope everyone enjoys the lister utility. Neither Duncan nor myself have done anything quite like this before, and although we've gone over it dozens of times, we may have overlooked something. If you run into any functionality issues, or if you notice rules errors, like the list allowing you to make illegal selections, please drop Duncan a line: Duncan@WWPD.net
Let me know how it works for you on our forum, as well! The rest of the List Generators are coming soon, so be sure to check back, peek into the downloads section, and see if they're out yet.
