GW nuked the BSData Warhammer rules repository with a DMCA notice naming 37 repos, and the free data behind most army builders went with it.
Well, this is a lot bigger than one Warhammer list builder getting a legal notice, as the BSData was the shared source that a bunch of free list builders relied on. Now the volunteer team says it removed its entire repository collection from GitHub to comply, which means the free 40k army builder apps many of us use can’t get new data from there anymore. And, if you read our story on New Recruit’s rewritten 40k rules, the workaround for that just got a whole lot harder.
GW Hits BSData With DMCA Takedown
- The takedown: GW’s DMCA notice named 37 BSData repositories on GitHub, and the volunteer team removed its whole collection in response.
- The fallout: Apps that loaded BSData can’t pull new points, units or rules from it, though data you already saved may keep working for now.
- What’s next: Nobody knows yet if BSData comes back somewhere else, and moving the same rules text wouldn’t settle GW’s complaint anyway.
So, yeah, GW didn’t just go after one app here. The notice GitHub passed to BSData on November 12 names 37 repositories, including wh40k-11e, wh40k-10e, wh40k-9e, age-of-sigmar-4th, warhammer-age-of-sigmar and necromunda. Instead of targeting each army builder separately, GW went after the data source they were all pulling from.
That’s pretty normal, though, as BSData is a volunteer-run collection of army data files that builders like New Recruit and BattleScribe-style apps use for units, wargear, points, and army restrictions.
GW gets pretty specific in its complaint, too. It points to the Imperial Fists file in the 11th Edition repository, saying lines 22 through 217 contain Darnath Lysander’s complete rules. It also calls out the Icon of Obstinacy ability as wording copied directly from its publication. GW then argues that its Codex and Battletome content was copied in full onto GitHub for unofficial apps it doesn’t endorse.
Now, keep in mind a DMCA notice is still an allegation, not a court ruling. There’s a difference between listing points, unit sizes, and army restrictions and posting the actual rules text word for word. We’re not copyright lawyers, though, so that’s just our read of the notice, and defintely not legal advice.
Remember what happened with New Recruit? After it removed GW’s official rules wording for legal reasons, players figured out they could use the app’s Add from GitHub option, load the BSData WH40K-11E repository, and get the original wording back. We even wondered in our earlier New Recruit coverage whether GW would go after BSData next.
And this goes way beyond 40k; Horus Heresy, Age of Sigmar, Necromunda, and older 40k editions are all on that list, so players across the systems BSData supports have the same problem.
What Happens to Warhammer Army Builder Apps Now?
Here’s the weird part: your army builder might still work just fine right now. Saved lists and downloaded data may keep opening as if nothing happened. People in the WarhammerCompetitive thread are already sharing ways to save New Recruit’s data for offline use, too. The real headache comes with the next points update or codex drop: where’s your app supposed to get the updated information?
That’s the problem facing New Recruit, BattleScribe-style tools, Yellowscribe and TTS setups that relied on BSData. New players might not even be able to download the catalogs they need, while everyone with existing data has to worry about outdated points, units, and restrictions.
And if you’ve been around for the Tabletop Simulator takedowns, this all probably sounds familiar already too.
As for the reaction? Players are definitely split. A lot of folks are angry that GW went after free tools they think work better than the official army builder app. Others in the Warhammer40k thread are pointing at New Recruit, arguing that charging for parts of its app may have drawn GW’s lawyers toward a volunteer project that had been quietly running for years.
But that’s still just speculation, of course. There’s no verified evidence that New Recruit’s monetization had anything to do with GW filing the DMCA notice.
Then you’ve got players who aren’t particularly surprised. Their argument is that GW has a legitimate reason to protect the wording in its published rules, especially when unofficial tools charge for features using that material. To them, having Codex text sitting on a public GitHub repository was probably going to get attention sooner or later.
Can BSData Come Back After GW’s DMCA?
Of course, one of the first things people asked in both threads was whether anyone had a fork saved somewhere. Taking down the main BSData organization doesn’t magically erase every copy people already downloaded. So there’s plenty of conversation about backups, forks, different hosting options, and replacement repositories.
But would that actually fix anything? Not necessarily. GW’s complaint is about the rules text itself, not just where it’s hosted. Putting the same files somewhere other than GitHub doesn’t really deal with that.
A replacement project would likely have to do things differently, whether that means cutting back the official wording, writing its own descriptions, or changing how the data is organized. And even then, whether those changes would hold up legally is another question.
New Recruit already went down the rewriting path, allegedly with AI, and players obviously had concerns about accuracy. In the meantime, if you’re looking at other options, our guide to free 40k army builder apps is a decent place to start.
Final Thoughts on the BSData Takedown
So yeah, this is a pretty big hit to free Warhammer army builders, and not just for 40k players. Now many hobbyists are wondering whether the apps they’ve used for years will even have the right points next month.
Reports about which integrations still work are pretty mixed right now, though, so until the developers themselves say otherwise, we’re not ready to call any of these apps dead.
What we’re watching now is whether a new repository or some other way of handling the data turns up before the next big points update. If nothing does, more players could end up using GW’s official tools instead. And those tools would need to cover everything people were getting from BSData-powered builders, which plenty of players aren’t convinced they can do yet.
🔗 Related Reads:
- New Recruit Accused of AI-Rewriting Warhammer 40k Rules
- Best Free Warhammer 40k Army Builder Apps
- BattleScribe Alternatives: 40k Army List Builder Apps
- GW Paywalls Their 40k Army Builder App
- GW Nukes 40k Tabletop Simulator
- Warhammer 40k 11th Edition Rules
- Games Workshop vs Warhammer Creators on YouTube
Is GW’s BSData takedown pushing you onto the official app, or are you sticking with your saved data and hoping for a fork?
