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Just so everyone knows I've seen the pics of the BA fist pumping the Nec with the dead bugs I found it funny. Though...why do people hate him so?

READ HIS CODICES THEY MAKE NO SENSE AND ARE UNDER OR OVERPOWERED THATS WHY AND HE'S REALLY ANNOYING!

Maybe have a look at the 20-30 threads with the same topic to find an answer. Crazy idea, I know

I'm a BA and I admit the writing is...different but I wanted to get some new POV on the subject.

As Kroot has suggested, there are a lot of threads on the subject here. Some of them more than 20 pages.

It's a good place to start, I think.

I like the Necron and Grey Knight books, but that's just my opinion.

I'm glad they updated from the Daemon Hunters that was a bit off IMO. Is he a new GW guy or has he been around the block with them?

Kroothawk wrote:Maybe have a look at the 20-30 threads with the same topic to find an answer. Crazy idea, I know

Most of them are full of comments like that. If the mods want to lock it, they will.
On topic, it's frustrating to play against a Matt Ward codex. Every unit has a half-dozen tricks up its sleeve. There's always something that seems over the top.
This is unrelated to power, though. Whether or not they're "over-powered" doesn't matter. I swear I've had some games against Blood Angels where every single dice was re-rolled.
Re-roll to depstrike (jump infantry). Re-roll the scatter. Re-roll to hit with twin-link. Re-roll to hit in CC. Re-roll to wound. 8 billion armour saves.

SMC wrote:I'm a BA and I admit the writing is...different but I wanted to get some new POV on the subject.

Primarily because he writes like an overexcited 12 year old fanboy.

Some people are huge fans of what he writes because he indulges that fantasy and that's what they're looking for. Many others however aren't.

Now that you mention it, that is very common in their book. Re-roll with Priest, re-roll with DC, re-roll with scatter and so on. Good point!

Because his fluff reads like it was written like a breathless 12-year-old going hyperactive over his latest fan fic?

Because the man writes like he is attempting to remove the word 'subtle' from the English language?

Because he seems to think that bigger/louder/MORE is a justifiable way to construct a narrative?

Because he introduces cringe-inducing lists of weapons that just sound silly (eg. all the 'Blood' items in the BA Codex, Nemesis fething DOOMFISTS)?

Because he introduces idiotic Mary Sue characters that seem to go against the nature of 40K (The Sanguinor, Kaldor Draigo)?

Pick one. Or all.

I definitely see what you mean Vaktathi.



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Exalt HBMC, It's like a Michael Bay movie on paper.

Though to be fair, the necron codex wasn't that bad. Granted, the writing style was still atrocious, but it was passable.

I dislike him because he isn't much of a fluff writer. His stories are usually just him going on about how good this particular army is.

Dabansheedude wrote:READ HIS CODICES THEY MAKE NO SENSE AND ARE UNDER OR OVERPOWERED THATS WHY AND HE'S REALLY ANNOYING!

Please don't use all caps.

It gives the impression of a 12 year old bashing on a keyboard.


Yours Sincerly,

Vendetta 476 (Esq.)

Vendetta 476 wrote:

Dabansheedude wrote:READ HIS CODICES THEY MAKE NO SENSE AND ARE UNDER OR OVERPOWERED THATS WHY AND HE'S REALLY ANNOYING!

Please don't use all caps.

It gives the impression of a 12 year old bashing on a keyboard.


Yours Sincerly,

Vendetta 476 (Esq.)

Ironically the same as what Matt Ward is accused of by some.

Vendetta 476 wrote:

Dabansheedude wrote:READ HIS CODICES THEY MAKE NO SENSE AND ARE UNDER OR OVERPOWERED THATS WHY AND HE'S REALLY ANNOYING!

Please don't use all caps.

It gives the impression of a 12 year old bashing on a keyboard.


Yours Sincerly,

Vendetta 476 (Esq.)

Maybe it's because...he is a 12 y o bashing on a keyboard?

He does take things OTT in a few areas, but you would be surprised at how little of his writing is him pulling new stuff out of his


He did NOT make up the Bloodtide thing and it actually makes sense when you know the entire back story. and nothing says the sisters weren't willing sacrifices or that the GKs didn't explain everything beforehand.

and he is the best rules writer GW has. Cruddance can't write a balanced book to save his life and Jervis isn't much better.

Personally I hate his codexes because of the fluff. I can see so many of his base ideas are awesome, but fail in execution. Draigo carving his masters name into a daemon primarch's heart requires more than 4 lines of text. Someone needs to give him access to someone who can write. He gives them an idea, they flesh it out.
I like his rules, they're interesting and I'll even go so far as to say (mostly) well written. But the fluff... well it prison rapes the old stuff, and feels like (as stated above) bad fanfic written by a 12 year old. One who can't write for gak. I'd love the guy if someone would just use my above suggestion (seriously, hire some creative writing major from the local uni as an intern, it's free and the writing would be better) or just ban him from actually doing anything fluffwise.

People should also consider that Codices aren't written by one person.

Codices are actually written by a commitiee within GW, of which the listed author is simply the head guy.

whose to say the stuff people object to was actually one of the nameless guys who didn't get his name printed and Ward was just "meh, whatever"



We really can't know what is Ward and what is Random GW writer.

Its possable Mat didn't write any of the fluff and is simply the rules guy.

There are a lot of well proven reasons to the dislike of Matt Ward. Here are the most popular reasons:

• Bad, “comic book style” style, “Mary Sue” fluff.
• Codices contain poor external balance (and are usually internally balanced against the codex itself).
• Tendency to under cost units or not following previous codex point costing (e.g. GK)
• Tendency to put weird counterbalances on very powerful units (e.g. Mephiston lacking the IC rule and an Inv save).
• Heavy Reliance on SC FOC swapping mechanics.

I don't like him because he turned my heroes of humanity into big scumbags just because "no one is good in the 40th millenium" according to him....oooooh my beloved deamonhunters how I miss the old fluff

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/348592.page#2483481
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/358515.page#2637642
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/412961.page
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/424988.page
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/427597.page#3872167

I searched for 'Ward,' limiting my search to thread titles only, only in the 40k Gen Discussion section, listing thread titles only, and still wound up with 34 pages of results. (I never saw anything other than Mat Ward threads.)

Personally, I like most of what he's done.

Is it time for this thread AGAIN? Didn't we just kill the thread not too long ago? Where's the 'purge with fire' picture...somebody needs to post that, pronto.

The units and rules, the actual army, I tend to be okay with

But the fluff... oh god, the fluff seems to have this tendency of starting out okay, and keeping a few good ideas, and then it spirals into a monstrous atrocity.

For starters, I don't like him because he puts Monstrous Creatures on 25mm bases (Mephiston). I don't think any model should be as powerful as Mephiston (stat line) unless it's a Monstrous Creature on a big fat ol' base, and is as big as a house, like a Tervigon or something. I don't care how bad he thinks his precious space marines are, they aint as tough as a friggin Hive Tyrant. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Aside from that, his Codices are filled with units that overpowered for their point cost IMO. His fluff is terrible. It's like every single guy he writes about is the baddest dude in the universe.....until he write about the next guy and he becomes the baddest dude in the universe. He writes crap about how every Space Marine chapter aspires to be Ultramaries, which makes no sense because if they wanted to be Ultramarines, they would have started how that way. The list goes on and on.

I haven't read much of the Necron dex so I can't judge him based on that. It may be very good, I don't know. I'm only judging him on his Marine dexes (GK included).

bmoleski wrote:For starters, I don't like him because he puts Monstrous Creatures on 25mm bases (Mephiston). I don't think any model should be as powerful as Mephiston (stat line) unless it's a Monstrous Creature on a big fat ol' base, and is as big as a house, like a Tervigon or something. I don't care how bad he thinks his precious space marines are, they aint as tough as a friggin Hive Tyrant. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Aside from that, his Codices are filled with units that overpowered for their point cost IMO. His fluff is terrible. It's like every single guy he writes about is the baddest dude in the universe.....until he write about the next guy and he becomes the baddest dude in the universe. He writes crap about how every Space Marine chapter aspires to be Ultramaries, which makes no sense because if they wanted to be Ultramarines, they would have started how that way. The list goes on and on.

I haven't read much of the Necron dex so I can't judge him based on that. It may be very good, I don't know. I'm only judging him on his Marine dexes (GK included).

The Units are one thing in the Necron codex, the fluff... it's not his WORST but it still has the usual bleh this is crap tendency that his other codexes have.

bmoleski wrote:For starters, I don't like him because he puts Monstrous Creatures on 25mm bases (Mephiston). I don't think any model should be as powerful as Mephiston (stat line) unless it's a Monstrous Creature on a big fat ol' base, and is as big as a house, like a Tervigon or something. I don't care how bad he thinks his precious space marines are, they aint as tough as a friggin Hive Tyrant. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

At least he can't join a squad! See Matt Ward isn't a total cheese meister.

Thing about Mephiston they love him so much BUT they use the model that I've seen around since '99!

Kevlar wrote:

bmoleski wrote:For starters, I don't like him because he puts Monstrous Creatures on 25mm bases (Mephiston). I don't think any model should be as powerful as Mephiston (stat line) unless it's a Monstrous Creature on a big fat ol' base, and is as big as a house, like a Tervigon or something. I don't care how bad he thinks his precious space marines are, they aint as tough as a friggin Hive Tyrant. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

At least he can't join a squad! See Matt Ward isn't a total cheese meister.

This is true, but most BA players find ways to circumvent that, i.e. hiding behind Rhinos/Land Raiders. Not that I'm complaining about that tactic. Gotta do what ya gotta do....even if it is the opposite of what the fluff might suggest

bmoleski wrote:
This is true, but most BA players find ways to circumvent that, i.e. hiding behind Rhinos/Land Raiders. Not that I'm complaining about that tactic. Gotta do what ya gotta do....even if it is the opposite of what the fluff might suggest

Yeah the worst I saw was loading him up in a storm raven. Is that even legal?