I thought I'd write a post helping people lay out their army lists; some of these things help people to write more constructive comments, and you'll likely get more replies if your lists are clear and concise. Most of you are fine at laying out army lists any way, but for those who are new to posting in these kinds of forums, I hope this helps.


Introduction.
How many points is the army? State whether the army is Asrai, Forest Spirits or Mixed, or which army it is if it isn't wood elves (this should be in the title as well).

Army composition: What is your army predominantly? Shooty/Combat/Balanced? Also, mention the state of your magic phase; Light/Heavy/Balanced.

Is the army for a specific purpose? Tournament style (either for a real tournament, or an army that is meant to work against a variety of enemies), or for a specific army. You might want to say which armies dominate your area, or those that you've had particular trouble with in the past.

The army list itself.
Make the list clear and easy to read, leaving a line between units unless they are the same. Give an overall points value for the units, but not for seperate items. You can give sub-totals for each section (core, special etc) if you want to, though this isn't important. At the end, give the total points value (i.e 1497 rather than the 'objective' points value of 1500). State the number of power & dispel dice, along with any scrolls, power stones and bound spells. For example, the main army list might look like this:

Spellsinger - 175pts
Level 2, calaingor's staff, dispel scroll.

8 Dryads - 96pts
8 Dryads - 96pts

10 Glade Guard - 126pts
Musician.

Total - 493pts
Power dice - 4
Dispel dice - 3 +1 scroll

This is just an example, and things could be very different if you are say comparing two army lists. If you have your own way of setting things out then fine, so long as things are easy to understand. DO NOT simply copy and paste from army builder, re-arange it if you've used army builder to construct the list.

Tactics.
Have you any notes to say about the jobs each unit will perform? A generic battle plan (usually this will be very general, unless this is for a specific game/opponent) might be helpful, along with questions if you are unsure about things.

Restrictions.
Especially if this is for a specific tournament/game, you may be restricted as to what units you can use, based on which models you have. Tell people here, along with any unti preferances; any units you really want to include, or those you'd rather not.


Here are some useful links to various things; rules for alternate builds (Border Patrol, Warbands etc) and some of the army lists that are available from the GW website (e.g Chaos Dwarves:
Border Patrol
Warbands
Warhammer Skirmish
Chaos Dwarf army list
Storm of Chaos army lists

Nice idea, Servant of Isha

It does really help understand a list when it's concise and focused.

@mods

i think this would be very helpful to people who arent sure or dont know the basics of army listing...so i vote to sticky this

I think that this guide should be pinned - I'm sure it will give everyone a little something to add to there next army list they make (I know I've missed out some things in my army lists that was mentioned in this guide).

~ Lindsay ~

It might be best to cut out the point costs as well. GW sees that as giving away too much rules info and they want us to buy all of the books. Justa suggestion.

Nice work SoI.


**PINNED**