UPDATE: Now part of Dust-War.com! The new URL is http://builder.dust-war.com/ . The old URL will continue to work if you have saved/shared lists.

While the rules for making a Dust army are easy, the way Platoons are built - with a subset of choices for each section - makes it awkward to mess around with tweaking lists, especially when planning what models to buy!

Dust Warfare Force Builder is a JavaScript-driven webpage which makes it easier to create lists, and output them in useful format.

Try it now at http://builder.dust-war.com/

It should work on all platforms in standard browsers.

I plan to add a couple additional features - mainly a 'link' feature that encodes your entire army choice into the URL and can be shared/bookmarked/etc. It's as good (or better) than a 'save/load' feature!

Feedback is welcome!

Please note, however, I am a software engineer - my talents lie in programming, logic, and software architecture. I am not a graphical designer or artist, nor do I do much web development. If someone would like to assist in making the site look nicer, I would very much appreciate the help.

If you enjoy using the tool, consider making a donation to my favorite charity, the Snow Leopard Trust

Looks good. I'm going to post a link to your force builder on the dust-war.com forum if that's ok with you.

Very nice!!

Works well on my mobile device.

Adding a Markus led platoon only allows a Zombie to be added.

TakeshiKovacs - Yes, please share it around!

thejughead - Good catch, I accidentally re-assigned Totenmeister's platoon config over Markus'. I've made a temporary fix to the live file.

The only platoons it lets me build is the default allied combat platoon, selecting elite(allied) or even axis platoons doesn't seem to change anything in the other drop down boxes ?

Extremely well done. Shared on the official Facebook group. Thanks!

mariettabrit said:

OK must be an issue with my IE8 config, works fine in Mozilla or on my asus transformer

mariettabrit said:

I developed on my MacBook Air on my couch, didn't get a chance to test it on IE. Looks like it doesn't work right on IE - IE's javascript implementation doesn't like event.target. I'll look into a fix.

IE (at least IE8) should work now. IE handles events a little bit differently, and did not have an array.indexOf function.

Maine said:

Maine said:

Well done. Another small issue. It allows me to add a Markus hero with a Markus platoon. As you have it designed they are separate, but one should cancel the other.

I think the design is excellent, but I would suggest adding a detailed export. Having each unit/hero with their details. For example:

----- Markus - Gorillas (120)
Command Section: Markus (24, Hero)

Move: 6 Type: Soldier 3 DC: 6

------Blutkreuz Ape (Page 53)------

- of the Blutkreuz Korps. These ferocious beasts gain the following abilities:
• Ignore all effects of Suppression markers; never place Suppression markers on a unit with the Blutkreuz Ape ability. This means that they do not gain the benefits of the “Hit the Dirt!” reaction (see page 35).
• The unit can be given Orders in the Command phase as if it were in Command range regardless of its position.
• The unit moves as if it had the Climb special ability. A unit with the Blutkreuz Ape ability may only be joined by a Hero that has the Blutkreuz Ape ability. A Hero with the Blutkreuz Ape ability may only join units with the Blutkreuz Ape ability.

-------Charge (Page 54) -------

A unit with this ability is focused on getting into close quarters with the enemy before cutting loose. When the unit makes a March Move action, it can take a free Attack action at the end of the movement using only Range 6” or lower weaponry it possesses.

--------Fast (Shared) (Page 54) --------

A unit with this ability is particularly swift and often lightly equipped. Its rapid rate of advance on the battlefield is apt to catch the enemy unawares. Once per turn a Fast unit may move an additional 6” when it takes a Move action. The unit must execute at least one Move action to gain this benefit (it would not gain free movement during a Sustained Attack). Even during a March Move action, the unit may only move an additional 6”. The Fast ability cannot be used as part of a Move reaction.

Weapon Rng |------Units------| |-----------Vehicles---------------| |----Aircraft----|

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3

Schwerer Panzer Glove (2) C 4/1 2/1 1/1 1/1 2/1 2/1 2/1 2/1 2/1 2/1 2/1 - - -

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By no means am I saying this is easy. I appreciate you efforts. It is definitely a cool app.

This is awesome! Already using it and loving it.

One issue I found is that it lets you add a hero under "Heroes" and the same hero under a platoon. Any hero should only be allowed to be added once.

That said, those sort of things aren't a big deal as I can remember those rules myself, but this is a fantastic little army builder.

You sir, are awesome! Works on my iPad! Out-Freaking-Standing!

felkor said:

That is correct - I felt rebuilding the popup lists to remove heroes was more effort than it was worth, and could be confusing.

Instead, I do allow you to choose a hero multiple times, but it should flag the hero orange to let you know you have a duplicate hero chosen. It looks like I might have broken that with a recent update (though it works in IE, go figure). It DOES properly flag your points 'progress bar' as orange in this case.

Maine said:

Ah, so that's what the orange bar means… I just thought it meant I was getting closer to my max total. Good stuff! On a totally separate note - doubling up on a hero could be a fun platoon upgrade - I could see the Axis having some sort of cloning machine. :-)

Shadow4ce said:

Yep, that was the biggest plus for me. I build, hit export, copy and paste into iPad Notes, and can either print it to my wireless or just open it at gamenight. Pretty fantastic.

felkor said:

I'll look into adding a note about the colors, or maybe showing an icon instead (that might work better than the colors)…

thejughead said:

I actually chose not to do detailed info for a very specific reason at this point - I believe the inclusion of such information steps into the bounds of copyright violation, while what I have made is still within the realm of fair use.

This wouldn't be too hard to add for output, though, if someone was willing to do all the text entry for it… but I'd want FFG's written assurance that they are OK with it, first.

Actually, I think I can safely add page numbers and rule names to everything, at least.

Personally I like the export as it is - any more detail I'd want as an option that I do not need to select.

If there was one option I'd love to have, it would be the ability to save/bookmark my army. So if there was a "bookmark" link, I could get a URL that would prepopulate the fields with my army. Then I could open up an army I previously worked on in order to tweak it. Now *that* would be awesome. The page wouldn't need to save any data - just be able to take paramaters in the URL to prepopulate the fields.

Anyway, I'm sure that's no small feat… just saying that it would be very cool. :-)

Maine said:

If you can ask for permission, I'll supply the text. What are you using for a backend?

I would say this should be separate from the normal export.

thejughead said:

All data is stored in Javascript - in fact the entire thing is standalone, if you download the index.html, builder.js and css/bootstrap.css files, you can run it locally. You can view source code here: http://dust.mainecoon.net/builder.js

I will likely split data out to a second .js file though.

Thanks for a great tool. I'm already using it to build my forces.

How do you want me to store the data? In arrays? Can you give me a shell of the array and I will begin to fill them.

This is fantastic!

Can we get the option to add more than two platoons? Or am I missing something. I am using IE8.

AELFWINE said:

Change the maximum # of points and it should let you do more.