I'm somewhat new to the game. I don't understand though, why FFG doesn't hire a few app developers to put out an official squad builder on both iOS and Android. I'd pay... I dunno... $5.00 for it, probably. Maybe more. I'd also pay that much if they made official builders for their other games. Netrunner, LoTR LCG, etc.

I can never wrap my mind around why companies don't do things like this. They know about the demand (because they know about apps, and they send take-down letters), but they don't do anything about it. If I'm building squads and decks in the official apps, I'm thinking about the game, I'm wanting more of their product, I'm wanting to play more and buy more. How could this be any more of an obvious business decision?

FFG, are you listening?

/rant

While there are no official squad builders, there are a few unofficial ones out there that I would recommend.

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/build

Is one i would recommend for computer, but scales terribly if you try to use it on a phone.

https://geordanr.github.io/xwing/

I find is better for my phone since the button sizes is finger friendly.

Both sites stay fairly up to date with what is coming out.

There is a squad builder for Android already as well. The name of it is literally 'X-Wing Squad Builder". It is free, and also stays relatively up to date.

Not sure about iOS though.

The lack of Squad builder can PROBABLY be blamed on EA's deal for videogame exclusivity for Star Wars, but I do't know enough to go beyond that.

It's a shame, and I really would like an iOS one....frankly War Room (a Warmachine/Hordes list builder) has been a great time waster since its release...

iOS has Battlescribe. I use it for Armada and X-Wing.

First reason: They can't.

It is important to know, and this is not 100% accurate and more of a surmation on my part, that due to legacy contracting issues, any electronic media related to a game falls under purview of lucasarts, which no longer exists, but has been taken over by lucasfilm and disney. This contract was written long before any notion of .pdf documents or smart phone applications were even considered. This is why no holder of the star wars licence can make electronic documents.

Now, why in this day and age has the licence not been changed? Well, i supose cost mostly. Rewriting a contract involves lots of lawyers, who won't come cheap, and said cost is not worth the effort when it comes down to the very small demographic of gamers who play tabletop games. Especially when altering the licence will likely affect the video game side. Basically, while we may want these apps or pdf's rpg books, we aren't worth the time, cost or effort. This isn't some Disney conspiracy folks, just the facts. X-wing, armada, the RPG's don't make enough money to bother altering the deal. Our hobby is like cloud city, too small to be noticed by the mining guild.

Now, you may note that there is a dice app and pdfs of the rule books, And think if they can do them, why not a ....? Simple, the dice app includes regular polyhedral dice as well, and by itself has no rules for interpretation of the dice rolls or what the faces mean. The manuals and faq do not provide a play experience by themselves. In both cases, these are likely grey areas that are alliwed to exist despite "breaking the rules". I honestly dont know the wording of the contract and what the stipulations of such a document are. Now, a squad builder could fall into the same grey area, but the powers that be at FFG may not want to take the chance or have asked and been told 'No."

I hope this helps.

This contract was written long before any notion of .pdf documents or smart phone applications were even considered. This is why no holder of the star wars licence can make electronic documents.

But I can get .pdfs of all the rules for FFGs Star Wars games. All the novels are available as ebooks. Aren't those electronic documents?

I did address this later in my post, that the rules pdfs, are not games by themselves and require additional materials, and are thus allowed within a grey area. You do not have the pdfs for the star wars role playing games, unless you acquired them illegally.

The licence is a tricky one as it applies to games. This is why novels are availiable. To sum up: if it is a game, and has electronic components it is part of the old licence agreement that is out of date by todays standards, but likely won't change because, frankly, the cost of altering the deal isn't worth the finacial reward.

This contract was written long before any notion of .pdf documents or smart phone applications were even considered. This is why no holder of the star wars licence can make electronic documents.

But I can get .pdfs of all the rules for FFGs Star Wars games. All the novels are available as ebooks. Aren't those electronic documents?

could be as simple as interactive media. Straight up read-only docs would be fine.

Simple, they haven't seen one that they want to buy.

They clearly are able to support an online builder for their Star Wars games, as evidenced by Cardgamedb.com's continued support of SWLCG. Which was a fan made deckbuilder that FFG bought a couple of years ago.

I just don't think it is high on their priority list, as the mission makers are still technically in beta, as well.

I actually hope that FFG stays out of the squad builder business as long as we have well supported options built by the community.

To sum up: if it is a game, and has electronic components it is part of the old licence agreement that is out of date by todays standards, but likely won't change because, frankly, the cost of altering the deal isn't worth the finacial reward.

To sum up: if it is a game, and has electronic components it is part of the old licence agreement that is out of date by todays standards, but likely won't change because, frankly, the cost of altering the deal isn't worth the finacial reward.

That picture sums up the C&D orders from Disney.

iOS has Battlescribe. I use it for Armada and X-Wing.

The web ones don't work well on a phone. The x wing builder doesn't scale well to phone screens, and the GitHub one doesn't have user accounts, so you have to bookmark your squads, which is a pain.

I know I'm shouting into the void here, and this will probably never be fixed - but this is a shame. :-/

Thanks for reading my rant.

For android devices I have been really enjoying using Startactics

Scales well from tablet to phone, saves collections & squads.

iOS has Battlescribe. I use it for Armada and X-Wing.

I found Battlescribe, and it's... meh. I use it, but only because there isn't anything else. The UI is terrible - God kills a kitten every time I have to add a card to my squad, back out twice, then view my squad as a whole to read what a single card does.

The web ones don't work well on a phone. The x wing builder doesn't scale well to phone screens, and the GitHub one doesn't have user accounts, so you have to bookmark your squads, which is a pain.

I know I'm shouting into the void here, and this will probably never be fixed - but this is a shame. :-/

Thanks for reading my rant.

Log into the github builder using Google/Facebook/Twitter and you can save squads.