The scappy underdog versus the shirt and tie new girl; the gloves are off. Come find out who wins this epic battle of list building apps!
Looks
Visuals are important to me, I want my plastic toy Orks to look good and I want everything else that goes with it to be just as aesthetically pleasing.
BattleScribe: Since the reboot this app’s looks have been much improved but it’s not, in my opinion, on Azyr’s level.
Azyr: Damn. This thing is beautiful. It’s very visual; you can even import your own photos of your models. It supports PNG files, which is important for transparencies, and really up the aesthetics game.
Ease of Use
It’s easy to be hard — it’s hard to be easy. Things should be simple. Things should be intuitive. I shouldn’t need a 100-page manifesto to figure things out.
BattleScribe: This app has always had its little quirks. It was a bit of a challenge for me in 40k to figure out how to load a game system or how to access a specific formation. It’s not hard, but it’s not easy.
Azyr: So Easy. The app holds your hand almost the entire way. The UI is clean and simple.
Value
BattleScribe: Free or 1.99/year. Wow. Such a good deal for what it does and how well it works.
Azyr: 0.99 cents/month, 12.00 a year. It’s not going to break the bank but it’s missing a few features that I thought would be no brainers. It’s just not as interconnected with the rest of the app as one would think.
Sure, it’s fun to refine your list composition on your phone but when you play against someone it’s nice to have something tactile to share.
BattleScribe: Got a format? BattleScribe has a list for that. BattleScribe, HTML, Plain Text, Image, basically, anything one could ask for…except a PDF. You know, that the ubiquitous format that everyone uses? Yeah. It not being included does makes sense — Adobe is free for users but not for publishers. Certainly that would impact the bottom line. Nonetheless, there are other options.Azyr: Oh, look; it has PDF’s. You can print it, email it, and message it; plus it looks pretty.
Verdict
These two apps are quite similar, as you’d expect, and ultimately it’s a bit of a toss up. If you like a text based format BattleScribe wins. If you’re visual Azyr takes the cake. I like stuff to be pretty, so clearly, I’m going to keep using Azyr. Since I play other games I’m probably going to keep using BattleScribe as well. Luckily, their both super cheap.
The big feature, in my opinion, is that I can use pictures of my own models for my army lists and the PDF is snappy. However, it doesn’t provide as much utility as BattleScribe, and Azyr’s printed list doesn’t include war scroll information, unlike BattleScribe, which is a big miss.
I’m hoping that GW’s next iteration will allow me to personalize my war scrolls and publish 4×6 PDF’s so I can print them out alongside my Army list.
