Controversial Designer Matt Ward Leaves Games Workshop

[swiftdraw]

Sweet! Now if GW would lower the price of their models, I could start playing again!

 

[Neverhoodian]

Praise the Emperor for expunging the heretic.

Spoiler: Never forget

Now all GW has to do is to pull their heads out of their collective asses and stop overpricing all the tabletop models and codexes to a ridiculous degree. I don't even play the game, but I know it's the driving force behind the franchise. I'd hate to see the IP wither and die because nobody can afford it anymore.

 

[PunkRex]

Was his fluff really that bad? I stopped playing 40K years ago but what I saw of his work didn't seem to different from the old stuff. His codex's, on the other hand, seemed to focus less on armies the player actually invented and more on larger forces so maybe this is a good move.

His fluff was unbelievable. And not in the 'fanboy rage can't believe that' way, but in the literal 'this does not fit in 40k' way. He had Calgar single handily fighting an Eldar Avatar and an entire Eldar host. He wrote in that asshole Sicarius, and his magical ability to just be the best ever. He wrote that bit about Grey Knight bathing themselves in the blood of Battle Sisters, and how a single squad of Knights fought back an entire army of daemons threatening to overwhelm close to 100 Invader Space Marines.
And he did that Drago kills Mortarion in single combat bit. Keep in mind it took 100 terminator Knights to fight Angron, and then only 12 survived and even THEN they only banished him. And Mortarion was the stubborn, hard-as-nails Primarch. And Drago kills him, by his lonesome, AFTER killing the entire Deathshroud, in oh...5 minutes.

Was Ward the worst thing ever? A Dark lord to lore? No. He was just very bad at what he did. Matt Ward's lore is to 40k as the final fight in Man of Steel is to Superman. Destroys everything, kills everyone and none of it is in character.

So he kinda jumped the Squigark in terms of power creep, fair play, I grew up watching/reading Naruto so I know that feel... that Sisters of Battle blood thing sounds kind of Chaos'y if anything, I always liked 40K's space nun/goth/dominatrix girls.

 

[webkilla]

Truly, The Emperor has saved us all!!!

 

[AstaresPanda]

LOL WTF ? WHAT ?! Thats real ? Grey Knights bath in sisters blood !? why ? how ? the point ? The last time i played TT was 4th edition i think when the box set came with dark eldar and black temps. I still read alot of the books.I heard this ward guy was hated due to fluff but never knew why and nice to know this ass is the reason why Ultrasmurfs are so over played.
Whats some of the other stupid lore he did can anyone fill me in ?

 

[RandoUser]

Maybe now we'll finally get the Oldcrons back.

 

[Batou667]

The little rat flees the sinking ship. The damage has been done, though, but I wish Matt Ward nothing but ill for the future.

[/bitter]

 

[Xan Krieger]

*sacrifices planet full of civilians to Khorne* He has delivered us from the nightmare, let there be blood and skulls for days in celebration!

*buries chainaxe in the back of an Ultramarine* and now hopefully things will get better.

 

[The Great JT]

Praise the Emperor for expunging the heretic.

Spoiler: Never forget

Yeah, he should've been gone for that.

 

[Gennadios]

Good riddance. I don't play anymore, but I still buy the lore books, so its a net win.

When The Cruddace leaves maybe I'll start buying rules.

 

[TheBelgianGuy]

LOL WTF ? WHAT ?! Thats real ? Grey Knights bath in sisters blood !? why ? how ? the point ? The last time i played TT was 4th edition i think when the box set came with dark eldar and black temps. I still read alot of the books.I heard this ward guy was hated due to fluff but never knew why and nice to know this ass is the reason why Ultrasmurfs are so over played.
Whats some of the other stupid lore he did can anyone fill me in ?

IIRC, there was some planet that had a convent of Sisters of Battle, and also some daemon of Khorne controlling an old (meaning insanely powerful) weapon, basically using nanites to fly in people through their pores, and making them go nuts. The Sisters were, thanks to their faith and all, extremely resistant against this daemonic influence.
Grey Knights come at the planet. Notice Sisters can resist daemon.
Do they ask the Sisters for help?
No. They murdered every one of them, and used their blood as a ward against the daemon. For some reason.

Not only is it disgustingly stupid and makes no sense at all, it was very poorly thought out and written.


I don't think many people will miss Matt Ward.
Now, if he'd only take Cruddface... errr... Cruddace with him...

 

[Mathak]

And so the only guy wo still made fun codexes left, and now every codex'll be a Cruddex.

Bad fluff is one thing, codices that contain a single viable list (or none at all if crudd happens not to like your army)are another entirely.

 

[epicdwarf]

Funny, I was recently reading about this guy?

Well it looks like it is a good time to get back into 40k! Now if only the models didn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

[AstaresPanda]

LOL WTF ? WHAT ?! Thats real ? Grey Knights bath in sisters blood !? why ? how ? the point ? The last time i played TT was 4th edition i think when the box set came with dark eldar and black temps. I still read alot of the books.I heard this ward guy was hated due to fluff but never knew why and nice to know this ass is the reason why Ultrasmurfs are so over played.
Whats some of the other stupid lore he did can anyone fill me in ?

IIRC, there was some planet that had a convent of Sisters of Battle, and also some daemon of Khorne controlling an old (meaning insanely powerful) weapon, basically using nanites to fly in people through their pores, and making them go nuts. The Sisters were, thanks to their faith and all, extremely resistant against this daemonic influence.
Grey Knights come at the planet. Notice Sisters can resist daemon.
Do they ask the Sisters for help?
No. They murdered every one of them, and used their blood as a ward against the daemon. For some reason.

Not only is it disgustingly stupid and makes no sense at all, it was very poorly thought out and written.


I don't think many people will miss Matt Ward.
Now, if he'd only take Cruddface... errr... Cruddace with him...

WHAT ?! i was thinking that must be the reason if not a flimsy stupid one but i thought to myself that would not make sense as Grey Knights are already full of wards soooooo point ? Anything else ? I mean it sounds stupid that Grey Knights get fucked taking out Angron but UltraSmurfs chapter master taking down an Avatar all on his own.....?

 

[vallorn]

He's gone? OH MY GOD HE'S GONE!

And now I shall raise a glass of amasec in praise of Slaanesh for ridding us of this malignant corpse upon Games Workshop's ivory throne... I mean... the codex department.

 

[spartandude]

Spoiler: After this I am not sad to see him leave

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I kind of wish Games Workshop would just hand their IP over to a completely fresh set of designers, writers etc. WH40k and WHFB each have a huge amount of potential as the settings for some interesting stories and games, but most of the models that come out nowadays look like cartoon characters, and the lore is slowly getting even more grimdark and nonsensical.

 

[NWJ94]

Was his fluff really that bad? I stopped playing 40K years ago but what I saw of his work didn't seem to different from the old stuff. His codex's, on the other hand, seemed to focus less on armies the player actually invented and more on larger forces so maybe this is a good move.

I remember when a 2000 point army was lucky to squeeze TWO tanks or large creatures in, and the units were considered big if they exceeded 15 men *waggles cane*.

Wait this is no longer true? Oh my God I feel old...

As for Ward, I guess I missed most of his controversy. But I don't really recall his fluff being so drastically different. That said I stopped playing before Ultra Marines were updated.

 

[Warachia]

Praise the Emperor for expunging the heretic.

Spoiler: Never forget

Now all GW has to do is to pull their heads out of their collective asses and stop overpricing all the tabletop models and codexes to a ridiculous degree. I don't even play the game, but I know it's the driving force behind the franchise. I'd hate to see the IP wither and die because nobody can afford it anymore.

Way too many people focus on two of these, The Necrons were on that planet in the first place to fortify it and kill the Tyranids (since the Silent King hates them), the Blood Angels were there to get rid of the Necrons, when the Tyranids showed up it made more sense to stop killing each other for a bit (since they were attacking them both), when the Tyranids were dead, the Necrons had no reason to stay, and when the Necrons left the Blood Angels had no reason to stay.

He had nothing to do with the dreadknight, since the authors do not decide which new models might be made (otherwise you can credit Phil Kelly for giving the Space Wolves their Wolf mounts and Dogsled).

He fucked up with the bloodtide though, there was no reason for them to do that.

 

[vallorn]

Was his fluff really that bad? I stopped playing 40K years ago but what I saw of his work didn't seem to different from the old stuff. His codex's, on the other hand, seemed to focus less on armies the player actually invented and more on larger forces so maybe this is a good move.

I remember when a 2000 point army was lucky to squeeze TWO tanks or large creatures in, and the units were considered big if they exceeded 15 men *waggles cane*.

Wait this is no longer true? Oh my God I feel old...

As for Ward, I guess I missed most of his controversy. But I don't really recall his fluff being so drastically different. That said I stopped playing before Ultra Marines were updated.

His fluff includes Grey Knights butchering Sisters Of Battle and using their blood to shield their already shielded minds and bodies against a Khorne daemon, also turning the Space Marines codex into a brag about how Ultramarines are the absolute best, Calgar killing an Avatar and an Eldar warhost, Sicarus and Robute Guilman being every space marine chapter's 'Spiritual Liege' then going through the list of 'other chapters' with descriptions all centered around how they aren't like the Ultramarines and are therefore worse.

Oh right and he created Kaldor Draigo, look him up and facepalm at the pure Marty Stu.

Those are just the tip of his awful fluff...