Why do Games Workshop keep letting Matt Ward write for them?

[Soviet Heavy]

Better question: When will they stop charging $50 for a fucking dragon. Mine broke, I need a new one, not dropping $50 for 6 oz. of pewter.

Lucky for you! They don't carry pewter anymore! So now you can spend $70 on a resin finecast model! That breaks easier than the plastic ones! And is full of carcinogens that will get trapped in your lungs while you shave off the mold lines!

 

[80Maxwell08]

Then we get into everything he has written about the Sisters of Battle. I mean I don't like them solely because they are fanatics but I realize how important they are. Considering how bland the Space Marines are the Sisters are infinitely more interesting than the Ultramarines or as I like to say, the generic brand space marines among the generic brand space marines that started the generic brand space marines.

I quite like the SoB, and while the 'mini-dex' they released in August/September last year wasn't too bad in terms of fluff (it was co-written by Ward). They got severely gimped in terms of crunch, loosing many special characters to the Grey Knights, as well as loosing the inducted allies rule, leaving a SoB army without much in the way of armour support (Immolators, Rhinos, and Exorcists), especially no AV14 units. The apparent release of finecast versions of many older models has also not been forthcoming (the quality of finecast has been dubious to say the least, thus far). Overall, a weak dex, which is disappointing, as the Witch Hunters army was one of my favorites in 3rd Ed.

Actually I meant things like the Khornate Knights when the Grey Knights who are supposed to be a physical representation of pure will have to slaughter a bunch of Sisters of Battle to coat themselves in their blood.

That was just fucking dumb. There is a weird vibe of misogyny that runs through a lot of his fluff.

Yeah I saw that when reading the Id4chan pages.

 

[Sixcess]

The Bloodtide/Khornate Knights story can only be explained as the lies of Chaos, given that it's not only a dreadful handling of the Sisters, but utterly discredits the Grey Knights as well.

I don't know if he was trying to go darker and edgier (like the 40K universe needs to get even darker...) but it just stumbles over the line into all out character derailment. Probably the single worst piece of fluff that's ever been written about 40K... and that's saying something.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

His new Necron Codex is.... not bad actually. The fluff gives them some more character, and the crunch is average for 5th Edition.

I am familiar with the Khornate Knights unfortunately, and although the new Necron codex isn't as bad as his other works (although he still manages to include Sister's of battle getting slaughtered and that ridiculous alliance with the Blood Angels which I will pretend doesn't exist) I don't appreciate the complete retcon of Necron lore. I REALLY like the old lore, they could have added to it, not changed it all.

Edit: Also, the new lore makes fuck all sense. Before it was the C'tan going, "AWWW SHIT WE ATE EVERYTHING! let's sleep for millions of years so that stuff grows back and we can nom again."
Now it's "Hmmn, we appear to be losing this war, let's go into stasis for millions of years so we are really vulnerable and our enemies have a couple of millions years of a technological headstart!"

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

Heretic! SUMMARY EXECUTION! *BLAM*

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Commissar

Seriously. I love Commissars (Hey, I read all of Gaunt's Ghosts) but, damn, really? They are fucking insane. I have to quote this:


Do not, in any way, shape, or form, give a zealous Commissar an Assault Cannon. You will have no army.


Really, why the fuck do Commissars non-stop attempt to murder their own army? I swear to god, I haven't seen a single Commissar do that much damage to the god damn enemy. They kinda need to tone it down a little.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

Oh no. I would not know. i have only played the games and read one 40k novel (and it was awful) so i really dont know that much about how this guys writing fares with the rest.

The novel was "legion" written by Dan Abnett.

You come into a Warhammer 40K thread, imply Matt Ward might be a positive influence and then say that a book by Dan Abnett is awful?

If we were to equate nerdy forums to an Old Western Saloon, this would be the point where the barman starts putting the glasses away and the guy on the piano plays a dramatic chord into the tense silence as chairs are pushed back from tables.

 

[Mathak]

Because the only other writers they have left are Phil Kelly and Robin Crudacce.

Kelly's as big an Eldar fanboy as Ward's an Ultramarines one and can't into rules, and Crudacce's...Crudacce. See Codex: Tyranids for reference. Ugh.

Ward's fluff is terrible, but his crunch is the best of the 3.

The C'Tan were a blight on the face on the 40kverse btw. Curbstomping them was Wards best fluffidea ever.

 

[GoaThief]

I stopped 40k around the time the third edition rulebook came out (loved the second). All these fancy new races who don't sit well in the universe and all that, it died well over a decade ago so who cares?!

I guess this is a new generation getting done over by Games Workshop (again).

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

Oh no. I would not know. i have only played the games and read one 40k novel (and it was awful) so i really dont know that much about how this guys writing fares with the rest.

The novel was "legion" written by Dan Abnett.

You come into a Warhammer 40K thread, imply Matt Ward might be a positive influence and then say that a book by Dan Abnett is awful?

If we were to equate nerdy forums to an Old Western Saloon, this would be the point where the barman starts putting the glasses away and the guy on the piano plays a dramatic chord into the tense silence as chairs are pushed back from tables.

Sorry.

The 40k universe always seemed really bland to me and if some personality is really being added then i would see that as positive. If he really is such a bad writer then i will not say that any more.

The novel really was bad though. :/

This is the point where I draw my Master-Crafted Power sword and then stand aside and hand it to Ibram Gaunt because he is the biggest bad ass ever.

 

[Roganzar]

That was just fucking dumb. There is a weird vibe of misogyny that runs through a lot of his fluff.

40K has always been pretty misogynistic. Especially the humans, The Bolter Bitches, errr, I mean Adepta Sororitas is a newer addition to the game I'm pretty sure. I don't think they even came into being until the 3rd edition of the rules.
Cuz I don't remember them when I played 2nd, dear gods I'm getting old.

 

[CAPTCHA]

I ain't big on his fluff, but his rules are fairly consistant, unlike Cruddace who's all over the place in terms of quality.

 

[Darkmantle]

I find it somewhat ironic that you people seem to hate the writer who actually added some personality to the extremely bland universe of 40k.

Thats just how this thread made it seem. I dunno.

Are you saying Matt Ward is good?

Oh no. I would not know. i have only played the games and read one 40k novel (and it was awful) so i really dont know that much about how this guys writing fares with the rest.

The novel was "legion" written by Dan Abnett.

You come into a Warhammer 40K thread, imply Matt Ward might be a positive influence and then say that a book by Dan Abnett is awful?

If we were to equate nerdy forums to an Old Western Saloon, this would be the point where the barman starts putting the glasses away and the guy on the piano plays a dramatic chord into the tense silence as chairs are pushed back from tables.

Sorry.

The 40k universe always seemed really bland to me and if some personality is really being added then i would see that as positive. If he really is such a bad writer then i will not say that any more.

The novel really was bad though. :/

no matter how bland 40k is, all the races were roughly sketched out archetypes. if this was a medieval game, the grey knights would be the equivalent of paladins, the necrons undead, the eldar are elves etc. in what matt ward wrote, the paladins are running around and killing nuns for no reason all of a sudden, the undead and some faction of humans decided to go hippy with their peace and love BS and become friends, the undead guys killed their own creators, (who are supposedly unstoppable being who devour suns and souls, and who are responsible for wiping out 95 percent of all life in the galaxy about 40 thousand years ago, humans and eldar only surviving by luck of being missed. but the undead killed them easily)

and funniest of all to me, theres a paladin wandering around hell killing everything he meets and there's nothing to 4 demon lords can do about it, cause he's SOOOOOOOOO powerful

 

[Megalodon]

That was just fucking dumb. There is a weird vibe of misogyny that runs through a lot of his fluff.

40K has always been pretty misogynistic. Especially the humans, The Bolter Bitches, errr, I mean Adepta Sororitas is a newer addition to the game I'm pretty sure. I don't think they even came into being until the 3rd edition of the rules.
Cuz I don't remember them when I played 2nd, dear gods I'm getting old.

Afraid not, Sisters were definetely in second edition, came out at least a year before 3rd ed, sorry I can't give any more detail than that but my collection of stuff doesn't go back that far.

NO Necrons have personalities. None whatsoever. That turns them from being a ultra scary tide of death to just being another faction. Whats next? Sarah Kerrigan gonna show up and take over the Tyranids?
Hell he even wrote that some Necron Lords trade with other races... And that they wiped out the C'Tan which is just 72 different flavours of bullshit.
But ultimately, his greatest crime (apart from turning the entire Ultra Marine chapter into mary sues and screwing up the awesome Salamanders) is giving us Kaldor Draigo [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Kaldor_Draigo] who is so horrifically bad that he alone overwhelms any good Matt Ward could ever do in his entire life.

Problem is that the necrons were quite frankly boring before, there already was a life harvesting tide without personality, the tyranids. Of course then they fucked that up with the bloody Swarmlord/Doom of Malantai etc. GW is generally cyclicl, no special characters in the 4th ed nid dex, because they didn't make sense, this is emphatically reversed with the 5th ed book. I'd give it even odds that next time round the necrons will go back to being the personality-free drones of the C'tan.

But yes, fuck Draigo.