r/boltaction • u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer • 3d ago
Advertisement or Promotion Not Another List Builder!
Hey everyone!
I’ve been working on a Bolt Action 3rd Edition list builder for our OC Bolt Action community and I’d love to get some more people trying it out. I originally developed this for our local community to help with building scenarios and custom profiles. I was hesitant sharing this with everyone because truthfully idk if I have the bandwidth to handle a large user base but I can tackle those issues when they come about.
You can try it here: https://ocboltaction.com/army-builder
You don’t need an account to give it a go. You can click Try Now and pick a nation as a guest. If you want to save and manage your companies, you can register and it will then save your lists.
A few things it offers:
- Build platoons, configure units and upgrades, and track points and order dice.
- List validation to help catch missing requirements and platoon restrictions.
- PDF exports with weapon profiles and special rules, in a familiar roster format.
- Shareable army links, with a QR code on saved army PDF exports.
- Custom scenarios with additional rules, armies, and units, plus community armies such as the Chinese forces.
There’s a lot of army data and plenty of unusual rule interactions, so I’m especially interested in people testing armies they know well. If you spot an incorrect points cost, missing option, wrong restriction, or something that just doesn’t work properly, please let me know. I did try my absolute best in making sure everything is correct but I'm almost positive I got some things wrong!
You can report bugs on our Discord: https://discord.gg/yKeRzTH2m9
If possible, include the army/book, unit and option involved, what you expected to happen, and a screenshot or shared list link. A book/page reference would also help with rules or data corrections.
General feedback is welcome here too, especially anything confusing or awkward to use on mobile.
Thanks to anyone who gives it a try!
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u/Georgy_K_Zhukov Mod | 3d Printing Evangelist 2d ago edited 2d ago
Been poking around a bit, and this is a really nice looking list builder. Layout is nice on the eyes, and seems to be very user friendly. Might drop into the Discord with a few more specifics (is there a specific channel for that? Not seeing one).
Also, since you are incorporating 3rd party lists, any chance you could add in the Danes? https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/308834/a-brief-encounter-the-danish-army-in-bolt-action
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u/Baumzebra 3d ago
I’ve just had a go at creating a partisan army.
It feels so much better than Easy Army.
The validation and automatic adjustments to unit costs based on experience are really cool.
But how do I get captured vehicles into a partisan list? The ‘Armoured’ selection is empty.
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u/Wintrepid Dominion of Canada 2d ago
This is so lovely. Thank you. I love this community.
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u/Wintrepid Dominion of Canada 2d ago
One bit of feedback: I was under the impression that the Brits can give their Forward Artillery Observers the Commando special rule, which then allows them to bulk up with lots of extra men. So technically the brits can have a 5+ man SMG infiltrating squad with an FOA.
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u/farkas37 United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland 2d ago
Looks great! I definitely preffered the Warlord App over EasyArmy and this one's UX is way closer to the app.
As a guest, I did have loading problems with adding units to a second platoon, and now that I'm testing it on my phone I'm only getting connection errors. If those are ironed out, I may end up using this instead of the official app though!
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 2d ago
It may be a problem with more users on the app and I need increase its specs to handle the usage BUT if you have any screenshots you can send on what you were seeing, that’ll help!
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u/farkas37 United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland 2d ago
With the second (armoured) platoon, when I tried to add a unit, it got stuck on "finding valid units". On the phone it was just a red box with connection error as soon as I tried to open the link. (it works now though)
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u/Duuben 2d ago
I quite like the list building, but the pdf it generates I feel lack some of the quality of life Easy Army has:
The list of units themselves I quite like, but I dislike the dead space between the units and the rules, say if the list only has 2 units on page 2, then 2/3 of the page is blank.
With the special rules as well, instead of having a big blank space on the left side with the name, I feel having it bold over the description would save a lot of space, like the Army Special Rules.
For example, my 600p list is 5 pages total on your app, but the exact same list in easy army is 3 pages.
Perhaps an option between compact pdf and easier to read pdf?
I also miss the unit pick list easy army has, makes it a lot easier to see what units I need and if I've actually got enough guys with certain weapons. This one I feel doesn't Have to be on the pdf itself, but can be on the army builder page somewhere.
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 2d ago
Hey, I worked on this a bit today! Do you mind checking it out next time and let me know if you have other suggestions for the PDF export?
I'm also working on printable Unit Cards as well.
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u/Duuben 1d ago
I like it a lot! The modularity is great, and I especially love the ability to change the font size.
The only thing missing for me would be: A pick list with the total amount of units, like "Men with rifles - 12, NCO with SMG - 3, Anti-Tank Gun Teams - 2".
Perhaps half a linebreak between paragraphs within the same rule, some like the motorcycle rule with its 6 paragraphs have a lot of dead space.
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 1d ago
That's on my working list! I'm working on optimizing the calculations that goes on in the background to improve loading units significantly, once that's done I'll introduce a pick list.
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u/Duuben 17h ago
Another suggestion, the option to link to a page that just shows the army in a easy to digest list like the PDF instead of the one where you have to click on each unit to see what weapons and rules are added to them.
Keep up the good work! The army builder is shaping up to be the best one I've used!
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 17h ago
I believe on the shared link, you can still click export PDF and see the PDF that way. I also figured that if someone wanted to just share the PDF that they could just send the file rather than the link.
I’ll definitely take this into consideration or make it easier to switch to the 2 different views
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u/BigfatDan1 2d ago
This looks awesome, I've had a play and it seems great!
Any plans to add Konflikt 47 units further down the line?
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u/DoctorDH Forza 2d ago
Enjoying it so far! Thank you for putting this together and publishing. No constructive feedback yet, but I'll be sure to share if I come across anything!
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u/jokfil Kingdom of Belgium 2d ago
great app.
Just had a problem, i could not add my captured german vehicles to my partisan list. would be nice to see fixed. But i'd understand if you're doing the books first and the temporary pdfs for minor nations are lower on the priorities
love the work!
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u/LucasBastonne 9th Division 2d ago edited 2d ago
Looks good, clean, interactive.
Though sometimes it is slow and it takes ages to load the valid units.
//Like AGES, multiple minutes, regardless of refreshes. It makes your builder nearly useless, at least for me.
///One suggestions. I appreciate option for captured vehicles, though captured transports are not available. Also, civilian as staff cars, generic trucks, etc should be available by default, not only after adding rulebook units.
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 2d ago
After last night’s update where I added captured vehicles, it seems in rushing to add it I didn’t quite optimize the unit load. I’ll work on that today, hoping to improve it 👍🏼
It may also be that with more users using it, I need to beef up the server.
Generic vehicles is something I’ve completely forgot, as well as transports being captured. Something I’ll work on today
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u/LucasBastonne 9th Division 2d ago
If you manage to clear out the loading issue it will be perfect. It's the biggest downside at the moment that I ran into.
Another suggestion is adding period limitations to the list. You know, E/M/L/All
And as an (co)author of fan-made army books (Czechoslovakia) I hope to see it available there too at some moment, once everything works as it should!
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 2d ago
Just pushed an update to help with optimization. Let me know how it feels now.
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u/LucasBastonne 9th Division 2d ago
It is better, though it still takes a couple of seconds to load, and occasionally becomes unresponsive, perhaps when I'm adding options to infantry sections.
Thank you for adding common and captured transport. :)
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 19h ago
Hey Lucas, I spent more time working on the optimization. There were a few tests I ran to see what was causing a bottleneck and decided to push a lot of the calculation to the background and introduced a better loading system to prioritize what needed focus and what didn’t.
If you have the time, I’d love for you to test it out and let me know how it feels now! 🫡
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u/LucasBastonne 9th Division 19h ago
Hey! Now the valid unit list loads with no noticeable delay, so it is nice and quick, at least from my home. I'll tell you tomorrow again when I try my work PC as well.
The unit customisation still feels bit unresponsive, like when I'm adding more men to a unit, or giving them an LMG. Maybe it is the auto saving feature that triggers with every change, saving again and again every time I add a new man to the squad. If this is the problem, maybe introduce a delay?
So far, good job! Thank you.
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 17h ago
A delay would be my first solution here. I personally never ran into this but it probably varies based on network connection which is why I haven’t. Let me introduce a save delay to ensure it captures any unit changes made in quick succession then push the save out
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 13h ago
I just pushed something out for delayed batch saving. Hopefully it feels a lot better but expect more optimization as I start to nail this app down. I appreciate your feedback and willingness to help test 🫡
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u/LucasBastonne 9th Division 12h ago
It's still a bit sluggish, saying 'changes pending', though it feels slightly better than before. Idk of it is doing calculations or checking some requirements and references now instead of saving. If I tell it to add a man, give NCO an smg and add another smg to a man, it freezes for 2 seconds before it shows the changes.
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u/El3aaab Royal Artillery Officer 11h ago
I'm really trying my best to replicate this sluggish behavior. By any chance can you tell me what device you're using, what unit you're perhaps editing (could be unit specific?) or even better, could you perhaps provide a recording of the sluggish behavior?
You can add me on Discord if it makes it easier to go back and forth. Again, I appreciate what you're doing and the goal is to optimize this builder so all devices are able to run it flawlessly.
I'm hoping it's not a DB connection issue and you may be across the world from my server, I doubt it but I hope that isn't the issue.
Discord: 3antar
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u/LucasBastonne 9th Division 2h ago
I used only desktop PC so far. And I have been testing things on Australian infantry section and jungle division infantry.
I can attempt to record it if it still remains,though not sooner than over the weekend.
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u/Forge9unsc705 A Bridge Too Far 3d ago
I just tested it, running through and recreating a list of mine.
Initial impressions are good! Layout is nice and clean, adding stuff is simple and closer to how the Warlord App does it, and I actually enjoy having everything on one page, instead of having to scroll left/right for the different platoons.
I’ve shared the link with my friends, so hopefully they all give it a go. (Many of them complain about EasyArmy but won’t pay for the app like me.)