Best Warhammer 40k Army Builder in 2026 - Complete Guide

"Which army builder should I use?" gets asked every week, and the answers are usually a list of tool names with a verdict attached. That is not very useful, because the right tool depends on things about you that a list of names cannot know.

So this guide is structured the other way round: here are the criteria that actually differentiate army builders in 11th Edition, why each one matters, and what to look for. The tool roundup is at the end, and it is deliberately brief.

We make one of the tools discussed, which you should factor in when reading. We have tried to be specific about where each option is weak, including our own.

The seven criteria that actually matter

1. Does it model 11th Edition's structure, or just count points?

This is the single biggest differentiator now, and it is new to this edition.

11th Edition army building has real structure: a Detachment Points budget you spend across multiple detachments, with a specific exception at Incursion; Leader and Support character slots; alliance rules with per-battle-size caps that differ per rule; Battleline grants that change duplicate limits depending on which detachment you took.

A builder that only adds up points will happily let you write an illegal list. A builder that models the structure will stop you. Test it: try to give an Enhancement to an Epic Hero. If the tool lets you, it is not validating 11th Edition properly.

2. Where does its data come from, and how fast does it update?

Almost every community tool is downstream of BSData, the volunteer catalogue project. That is fine — it is a genuinely impressive effort — but it means two things:

The differentiator is what a tool does *on top* of BSData: whether it cross-references the current MFM for points, whether it validates its own output, and how quickly it ships a correction when a user reports one. Ask how you report a data error and what happens next.

3. Does it work with no signal?

Game stores have terrible wifi. Tournaments have four hundred phones on one access point. A builder that needs a connection to show you a datasheet is a builder that fails at exactly the moment you need it.

Test it properly: load the tool, turn on airplane mode, and try to open a list and read a datasheet. Some tools claim offline support and only cache the shell.

4. Is it usable on a phone?

Most people build lists on a phone, on a sofa. Then they use the tool on a phone, at a table, with dice in one hand. Desktop-first interfaces scaled down do not survive that.

5. What happens to your lists if the tool disappears?

Every community tool is one maintainer's spare time away from stopping. The question is whether you can get your data out. Look for text or PDF export at minimum. Cloud sync is convenient; local-first storage that keeps working without an account is safer.

6. Does it do anything after list building?

Once the list is written, you still need datasheets during the game, and you still need to track VP, CP and rounds. Some tools stop at the list. Others cover the game. Neither is wrong — but if you are going to end up using a second app anyway, that is worth knowing before you choose.

7. What does it cost, and how is it funded?

Free-with-ads, free-with-paid-tier, subscription, and genuinely free all exist. None of these is inherently bad; a tool with no revenue model is a tool that may not be maintained. Just know which one you are choosing.

The tools, briefly

BattleScribe. The long-standing default. Its decisive advantage is multi-system support — if you also play Age of Sigmar, Kill Team or Horus Heresy, one tool for all of them is worth a lot. Native desktop and mobile apps. Its interface is long-established rather than modern, and being system-agnostic means it models any single game's specific structures more loosely. We wrote a longer comparison here.

New Recruit. Web-based, clean, actively developed, multi-system. Worth trying if you want a browser tool with broad game coverage. Check its current offline behaviour and pricing yourself before committing — both have changed over time and we would rather you verified than took our word for it.

The official Warhammer app. The only source that is actually official, which matters if you want authoritative data. It is tied to a Games Workshop subscription and is a rules and roster companion rather than a full list-building tool.

GrimSlate. Ours. 40k only, deliberately. It models the 11th Edition structures listed under criterion 1 — DP budgets including the Incursion exception, Leader and Support slots, alliance caps per battle size, transport capacity with the double-space rule — because doing one game lets us. It includes a combat calculator and a live battle tracker, works fully offline as a progressive web app, and is free with no ads and no paid tier.

Where it loses: no multi-system support at all, no BattleScribe import, and a smaller community than the established tools. If you play more than one game system, it is the wrong choice and we would say so.

How to actually decide

Do not read reviews. Do this instead, in about fifteen minutes:

Whichever tool survives all four is your tool. That test is more reliable than any comparison article, including this one.

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