Army Builder VS Card Vault

[Opus]

Hi,

I play Warhammer 40K, and am interested in your software. When I was looking at the Army Builder page, I read a note saying that it might be better to buy the Card Vault. I also noted that Card Vault is about $10 less expensive. I looked (maybe not hard enough if it is out there), but I could not find any kind of feature comparison. Is there one available? Either way, why would someone buy one product over the other?

Thank you for your time and help!

[liz]

Opus, can you direct me to the webpage you're indicating?

Army Builder is definitely what a Warhammer 40K player would be looking for. It is a roster builder for a variety of tabletop miniature gamers, and there's a community that puts together the Warhammer 40K files.

Card Vault, on the other hand, is geared towards individuals that want to manage collectible games and visualize their whole collection. So if you have a bunch of Warhammer 40K models and you want to keep them categorized, you could use Card Vault. However, Card Vault is mainly used by collectible card gamers. I hope that helps!

[Opus]

Hi Liz,

Thank you for the quick reply!

The page I am talking about is http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?context=army_builder. About half way down the page is a note with the headline "Important Note to Collectible Miniatures Game (CMG) Players!" I might have misinterpreted the intent, but I took it to mean that I might be better served by getting Card Vault. I thought it might mean a different kind of miniature, but there is at least one WH40k file on the supplemental downloads page for CV.

[liz]

Thank you for the feedback! I definitely can see where that would be confusing. We're currently redesigning our website, so thank you for flagging this.

If you're looking to build a roster for WH40K, Army Builder is the right path out of the two tools.

[DthShdw]

Collectible Miniatures Games are ones like HeroClix, which are miniatures based, but operate something like an odd mash-up of collectible card games (such as Magic: The Gathering) and Warhammer. In that you get a pack of mini's that are semi-randomly put into packs, and you don't (usually) know what you're getting until you've made the purchase and opened it, but the gameplay is a bit more like Warhammer.

[cryptoknight]

Originally Posted by liz

Thank you for the feedback! I definitely can see where that would be confusing. We're currently redesigning our website, so thank you for flagging this.

If you're looking to build a roster for WH40K, Army Builder is the right path out of the two tools.

And yet, Army Builder needs something added to it to make it useful.

I'd really like to be able to manage my inventory of units.

For 40K for instance, I've got 25 Tactical Marines with Bolters, 2 with Plasma Guns, 2 with Plasma Cannons, 2 with Missile Launcher, 1 Flamer, 1 Heavy Bolter, etc, I have 4 Sergeants, 1 with Plasma pistol and Power Sword, two with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, and one with Bolt Pistol and Power Sword.

Just with that part of an inventory, I could build a Devestator Squad, and 3 Tac Marine Squads with little effort.

But without AB tracking my inventory of available minis, I could build an army that I presently can't field. It would be nice if in that case, AB tells me what I'm missing, and better yet would be to show me what's left in my spares that I can use to build units.

[jlong05]

I like your thought process here. AB is very customize-able which is great for people that have customize-able units(say with magnets), but in truth most players have permanently assembled their models and having an inventory of what models with what gear would be nice.

[cryptoknight]

Originally Posted by jlong05

I like your thought process here. AB is very customize-able which is great for people that have customize-able units(say with magnets), but in truth most players have permanently assembled their models and having an inventory of what models with what gear would be nice.

totally.... I've magnetized many different units in my WH40K army... but not all of them... certainly not the ones that came from Dark Vengeance where the Plasma guns and cannons were part of the mold.

Just knowing I have 4 sergeants and my assorted collection of marines and depleting from my inventory as I create units would be invaluable.

If at a later time AB could look at what I have in my inventory and the number of points I'm building towards and make suggestions... that would be awesome...

[liz]

Thanks for the feedback! To implement this, are a good deal of issues that would need to be resolved. One of the main ones is that we would need to have a license in place with the game publishers to list their models, which provides additional complications beyond just implementation. If we find a way to implement something like this, we'll definitely announce it on our website and in our newsletter.

That being said, we love hearing your ideas and suggestions to improve Army Builder. Please feel free to give suggestions here on the forums or email them to our support team.

[cryptoknight]

Liz, the basics of this wouldn't require a license... Just the ability to create inventory from the figures listed within the rules maintained by the AB40K guys. The AB40K guys might have to alter the way files work so that all of the individual models don't have to be built up in units except when building an army, but to me it seems doable, if not immediate.