Blood Angels and Battlescribe

[Silverson]

Wow thanks tsijben you really are a gentleman

[tsijben]

For the Librarian, it requires a selection from Ranged Weapon 2 which they shouldn't have access to. Also there is an option for retain melee weapon which is probably a hold over from one of the other units under Ranged Weapon 1. Lastly, Force Weapon isn't listed at all.

 

As an aside, is there info on creating your own files? When this was first released I had the 5th Edition Blood Angels Codex done, but I never shared it with anyone. I'd like to tweak these a bit myself and have my own file. My group doesn't play with Forge World for instance, so it's kinda annoying that I have to keep scrolling past Sicaran Battle Tank without clicking on Select Entry. I have to admit, I die a little inside everytime I do that so I'd rather avoid it.

 

Librarian: They can take weapons from the Ranged Weapons list, which means they can exchange their Bolt Pistol or melee weapon.

That means they could exchange their Force weapon if someone wanted to make a gunslinging Librarian.

Force Weapon is, at the moment, just the 'Retain Melee Weapon'.

So his stock-entry should be: Weapon 1 Retain Melee Weapon and Weapon 2 Bolt Pistol.

Tomorrow I have the time to give Librarians a unique weapon-entry! Hopefully I will also have Exterminatus and WD so I can enter those.

 

What do you mean with creating your own files?

You can always make your own data-files and put them in your folder; you can even edit my file! (Remember to change unique ID and name of the file, so my updates don't overwrite your changes)

I'm in kinda the same situation (hardly own any FW-models) so I put in a '(no category)'-entry called 'Forgeworld Models'.

It allows you to hide all the stuff from FW, and it was my choice to show them by default where others hide the FW-entries by default.

Edited December 21, 2014 by tsijben

[tsijben]

I would just put the staff in a master check list of all the relics. It's not like another character would get any benefit from taking it.

This is what I did.

I need to use with a shared list for Relics because I need the maximum of 1 in the roster.

Otherwise he wouldn't know that a Captain-Fury of Baal is the same as that from a Librarian.

 

Edit:

Also started adding the Formations and Detachments.

Sadly I do not have a source for the Relics/Traits, so will have to wait on that.

 

One important thing: Archangel's Strike Force (Detachment) is added as a Formation.

It has the following description: Archangel's Strike Force is actually a Detachment and thus cannot be taken in Unbound armies. Due to the way Battlescribe works, I included this between the Formations for now.

 

Another author has given me some advice on how to turn it into a real Detachment, like the Baal Strike Force, but that will take a lot of time before I understand how it works and I don't want to keep this from you.

It would also probably increase the filesize by quite a lot, because I'd need to make a couple of new entries and a lot of modifiers.

To be honest I find that really difficult and I'd rather keep it as I did now, but that is technically wrong.

Edited December 21, 2014 by tsijben

[t4play]

Has FT BLOOD RAIN STRIKE FORCE and other formations been added from WD 47 ?

 

Will upload update if it has

 

Again top effort and work put in well done and thanks

[tsijben]

Not sure about all of them, but a few of them have.

Still waiting for the ePub ;) with Christmas and everything I have to wait a few weeks before I can buy it myself.

[Quixus]

The Vanguard Veterans (and possibly other squads) cannot take as many Storm Shields as they should be able. Storm Shields do not replace anything, they are added to whatever wargear the marine has. So a VV could have a Lightning Claw a Storm Shield and a Grav Pistol. While not relevant to the program it also means that a VV equipped with TH/SS does not forgo any shooting.

 

Thanks for all the work you have already done, merry Christmas and have a nice holiday.

[tsijben]

Can't believe I missed that.

You are right, their Storm Shields are cheaper (which I did) but they are also an additional item instead of a replacement.

This is only for VV's as far as I know.

Changed this now.

 

Edit:

The WD47 is also added, now I have to wait for my copy of Exterminatus.

And after Christmas-shopping I will take a look at the Necrons.

Edited December 23, 2014 by tsijben

[t4play]

Top man :-)

[Kastor Krieg]

This is ace.

+ SERVICE TO HIM ON THE GOLDEN THRONE IS REWARD OF ITS OWN +

[tsijben]

Good news: Exterminatus is in!

With a bit of luck it will be done and released before Christmas

 

Edit: Yup, it's uploaded!

Edited December 24, 2014 by tsijben

[Kastor Krieg]

Thank you! My New Year's Apocalypse will be complete! :v

Are you planning on adding the stiff from WD 46 / 47 and the rest of the Shield of Baal series? 

[tsijben]

I added them, though the Archangel-Detachment is entered as a Formation for now.

[Kastor Krieg]

Great, appreciated man!

 

EDIT: 
Caught a typo, it's Captain Karlean, not Karlaen ;)

Edited December 25, 2014 by Kastor Krieg

[TheHarrower]

Great, appreciated man!

 

EDIT: 

Caught a typo, it's Captain Karlean, not Karlaen

 

It's Karlaen on the GW website...

[Cronhour]

its a small thing that from time to time freaks me out to the point i double check the codex but sterguard vet seargants don't get a free lightning claw right?

Edited December 25, 2014 by Cronhour

[Kastor Krieg]

Brother Tsilbjen, the Terminator Squad "replace power fist with chainfist" option doesn't work properly. It does not take away the PF and lists the CF as "one too many".

[tsijben]

Brother Tsilbjen, the Terminator Squad "replace power fist with chainfist" option doesn't work properly. It does not take away the PF and lists the CF as "one too many".

Hmm, I cannot reproduce the "one too many" error you might be getting.

Or isn't it an error and do you mean it just shows too many weapons?

 

In the current way you'd have a Terminator Squad with (example):

4x Power Fist

4x Storm bolter

1x Chainfist (replaces Power fist)

1x Heavy flamer (replaces Storm bolter)

 

I could rewrite it so you would get:

3x Power Fist

3x Storm bolter

1x Chainfist

1x Heavy flamer

 

Important: I'd be pleased if everyone could read the following and give their opinion, it helps me in future-changes to make the file even better for you:

 

But like everything that has a downside!

If I changed this it would mean that a Terminator Squad has, by default, no weapons at all.

Every time you want a Terminator Squad without anything special, you would still have to click 8 times to give them the standard gear.

At the moment it automatically gives you 4 of both because I've set that number equal to the number of Terminators.

If I change this, I would have to set them at 0-X (where X is the amount of Terminators) and the program could not fill those in for you.

 

I have this issue with a lot of things, it's the balance between convenience, readable prints and RAW-correctness.

In my head I put this all on a scale from 0 to 10. The current way would have:

Convenience: 9 (except for the Sgt you don't have to go deep into any submenu's and everything can be done in a single screen)

Readable print: 7 (You have to notice that it are 4 PF's, but one is replaced)

RAW-Correctness: 5 (In a perfect file, it would say 3x PF and 1x CF)

 

Let me explain the three terms and ask you a question!

Convenience, to me, is the ease of creating a quick army for a battle you have to play in half an hour.

You open the list, you click on the upgrades and you are done.

I think nobody likes to click on every weapon he HAS to take? I know I hate it in the Death Company, the Sgt's and the VV's.

Try the difference between Terminators and Death Company, doesn't it feel better when you don't have to click a dozen times before they have the standard cheap weapons?

 

Another part of convenience are the sub-menu's in Battlescribe.

A sub-menu is when you have a unit with options that have options themselves.

A good example would be the Sanguinary Guard, just click on them for me: As you can see, every possible option is shown in one screen.

A bad example would be the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, just click on that one: He has a lot of options, but it does not stop there.

His Fists have individual options, which means you have to click and click and click. Some files even have sub-sub-menu's; luckily I manage to avoid those.

 

Readable print: This is also an important factor, because the print-out (your army list) has to be readable and everyone should understand it.

Death Company are a big offender in this one, so I will give an example:

"2x Bolt Pistol, 2x Bolter, 2x Chainsword, 6x Death Company Marine, Frag and Krak grenades, 2x Hand Flamer, 2x Power Fist, 2x Power Weapon"

Do you know which model has which combination? I know I don't know it!

I now want to invite you to the Codex: Space Marines file and make a squad of Vanguard Veterans with several weapons.

As you can see that is much and much clearer, but every single model has a sub-menu and you need to click each model and give him his weapons manually before your list is correct (convenience?)

Can you imagine doing that to a 15-model squad of Death Company, 10 Sanguinary Guard or Vanguard Veterans?

That might be okay for a Space Marine-army that hardly plays those units, but that is out of the question for us Blood Angels!

 

The last point is RAW-correctness, which means that a rules-lawyer could look at the file and find nothing wrong with it.

RAW-correctness is when the program gives you an error if you make a mistake, but I personally prefer it if people pay a little attention themselves.

An example would be the Detachment-source: In my file you could take a Baal Strike Force (during roster-creation) and then set the Detachment-source to Exterminatus: Archangels.

You could then use the Codex-FOC while using the Supplement-Relics and Warlord Traits.

We all know that this is incorrect, but changing this would be too difficult and confusing.

So I prefer to hold my users accountable and require them to have their own Codex and know the rules.

 

Another example is the Captain, because he can take the following:

-Jump Pack and Relic Jump pack.

-Valour's Edge (sub-menu: Replaces melee weapon), Boltgun and Plasma Pistol

Both are incorrect and I also expect people to understand this.

 

 

Okay, I lied! There is one last point: File-size.

I am proud to tell you that the Blood Angel-file is 1381 kb large, only 318 kb larger than the 5th edition-file from our Codex despite all the new stuff and Formations.

Let's compare this to the Space Wolves whose file is 2275 kb; we've had several users complain that their Battlescribe Mobile App would crash because of the file-size! That's why I try to work with as many shared lists as possible.

 

Example: I have one single(!) list of Relics in my Database and every Captain, Chaplain and Librarian has a link to that Relic-list.

Pro's: Less kb's, easier to fix mistakes, looks cleaner and I can actually put a maximum on Relics in the army.

Con: They are separated from Weapons, though they do contain weapons; a Captain could take the Librarian-staff without an error.

 

Possible solution: A list of Sgt-weapons, a list of Captain/Chaplain-weapons inc Relics and a list of Librarian-weapons inc Relics.

But that would prevent me from putting a maximum of one to those Relics ánd it would really increase the file-size.

 

 

So my question to you:

On a scale from 1 to 10, what is important to you?

So not "How do you see the file now?" but more "How would you like it to be?"

Convenience: 0-10

Readable print-out: 0-10

RAW-correctness: 0-10

Edited December 27, 2014 by tsijben

[Khorneeq]

As for me it would be:

 

Convenience- 8

Readable- 7

RAW-correctness-1

 

If RAW is important for some tourney, they specify the way in which list should be created so battlescribe is redundant then.

Convenience is the most important thing, as battlescribe is used for quick list building, but as You pointed out it is quite difficult to achieve with our army. Sometimes I add clarifications as sidenotes especially with DC (who has what combination, what types of power weapons). I think this is easier than to check every option for every model in second sub-menu so keep on, You're on good way

[Father Mapple]

Convenience 7, Readable 9, RAW correctness - 4. 

 

I have the codex, so I can double check if something is an option or not. I just want the point values to work if there are those options. 

But I want to have to edit the list as little as possible when I go to a game or an event, because I'm not adding or subtracting things in mid game. 

[LutherMax]

Is there a way to get Fortifications into a Blood Angels list?

[Quixus]

Make a fortification detachment.

[tsijben]

Yup, the fortifications are too big to put in each Codex separately.

So we made a Fortification-Detachment and added everything in there.

 

That's also easier: We have 42 files in there.

If they change a fortification or add something new, we'd have to redo 42 files. Now it's just one :)

[LutherMax]

Cool, cheers!

[marine7312000]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but I tried adding two relics to a Captain and got an error.

[LutherMax]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but I tried adding two relics to a Captain and got an error.

I get that adding two Relics to a Sanguinary Priest too, says maximum is 1. I know there is divided opinion on whether a model can have more than one Relic - is that why?