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Platuan4th wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:
Now I love the Marine Codex, but I love it for its absurdities. Once I saw that that was all Ward was capable of, I got really worried. With the BA and GK Codices under his hat I truly fear just what he's going feth up next (Black Templars most likely).

Y'know, come to think of it, I'm happy with my DA codex.

This made me laugh.


I have to admit, SO FAR, Matt Wards made some fairly good rules, I think the Red Thirst for Blood Angels is a good representation and play-wise, them and the Space Marine Codex aren't too bad.*

*although there is Mephiston, Deep-striking Land Raiders, Space Jesus, Vulkan and more on top of this...

However, as many have said, his fluff is ridiculous and barely makes him seem like an adult. None of the Codex writers are perfect (Kelly = Lukas, JotWW, TWC... Cruddance = IG, Trygons > Iron Warriors etc.) but I must say, I really feel Matt Ward is worst. By a long way.

Much of the leaked Grey Knights SEEMS real, but we can't discredit him for it just yet IMHO. I don't doubt what we've seen will largely remain the same, but still...

Here's what I don't get: GW has Dan Abnett on retainer. He's a brilliant author who seems to know their universe better than they do. For the amount of fluff that is in a codex...Abnett could crank out in a day material that is 1000 better than what Ward could come up with if he had an infinite amount of time to write.

Let Dan write the fluff. Maybe let him name stuff too. Or any 5 year old.

Hey - maybe "Doom Fists" can cast Doom? I mean, it is a psychic power, and GKs are all psykers. And Valeria does have Eldar wargear.... I bet that's in the final codex. *noddles*

Kanluwen wrote:There's really a simple solution for this.

Don't let Matt Ward write any fluff or name any equipment. Just write rules.

He wrote the Daemons of Chaos army book, didn't he?

^ Pure awesome.

Aduro wrote:Pic

Overblown.

Don't laugh too early: I have heard rumours that Mat is writing the Necron Codex as well

I just realized that I've already built a dead Hormagaunt but have never used it for anything, and have a ton of spare Necrons and Space Marines. I must now build that picture onto a 60mm base to use as an Objective Marker.

Just Dave wrote:I have to admit, SO FAR, Matt Wards made some fairly good rules, I think the Red Thirst for Blood Angels is a good representation and play-wise, them and the Space Marine Codex aren't too bad.*

Yeah, because a supposed disadvantage that mars a Chapter is something every player hopes to get at the start of the game for each of his units.

Good rule there I tell ya.

Hardly any worse than C:CSM.

BuFFo wrote:Yeah, because a supposed disadvantage that mars a Chapter is something every player hopes to get at the start of the game for each of his units.

Good rule there I tell ya.

Yeah, well, it really drives home the tortured-ness of the Blood Angels. How they're fighting against their curse, and they're really good people inside.....
<.< >.>

(those are shifty eyes)

BuFFo wrote:

Just Dave wrote:I have to admit, SO FAR, Matt Wards made some fairly good rules, I think the Red Thirst for Blood Angels is a good representation and play-wise, them and the Space Marine Codex aren't too bad.*

Yeah, because a supposed disadvantage that mars a Chapter is something every player hopes to get at the start of the game for each of his units.

Good rule there I tell ya.

Just because someone wants something doesn't make it a good thing. Fluff wise it is definitely bad. In the short term, it helps the goals on the battlefield, however.

Not really. With a 1/6 chance of actually coming into effect, it doesn't have any strategic value.

RE: Draigo's epic levels of badass

Having read the fluff in question, it reads as a tale of legend, likely told to Grey Knight initiates to blow some righteous smoke up their ass, rather than a "factual" account of what happened.

0h, and it wasn't his own name he is said to have carved into Mortarion, but rather of the preceding Grand Master who got wtfpwnt by Mortarion.

It actually is a good rule. In the previous edition you didn't dare take Devastators...there was too good a chance that your missile launcher guy was going to go running off to try to beat someone to death with it.

You need a way to represent the fluff, but also keep the force and all the units (you want people to buy) playable. The way to do that is to move the 'disadvantage' to the storyline, and off the table.

BuFFo wrote:

Just Dave wrote:I have to admit, SO FAR, Matt Wards made some fairly good rules, I think the Red Thirst for Blood Angels is a good representation and play-wise, them and the Space Marine Codex aren't too bad.*

Yeah, because a supposed disadvantage that mars a Chapter is something every player hopes to get at the start of the game for each of his units.

Good rule there I tell ya.

Yeah, god forbid your assault troops get Furious Charge. Providing you haven't all ready loaded up on the Sanguinary Priests who seem to be much better apothecaries than every other chapters that is of course.

To me, I don't think it's a particularly bad rule. They've usually had a form of the red thirst in one way or another and it's fluffy and barely game damaging. A small chance that your unit will be better in assault? Considering it's a Blood Angel army, I'd be willing to risk that personally.
If you had something that crippled your army, then I would consider that a bad rule. Here however, it keeps the Blood Angels true-to-fluff (largely) and gives a small chance of a couple of your units being largely better in assault.

I expect if it was as bad a rule as you seem to have implied then Blood Angels wouldn't be a top tier army, like they are now.

Kroothawk wrote:Don't laugh too early: I have heard rumours that Mat is writing the Necron Codex as well

As far as I've heard they took him off that project since he was having a really hard time not making them space marines, haven't heard who was put in his stead.

I don't understand how someone who writes that badly keeps getting work. Dos GW want their authors to write gak?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On a completely unrelated note I hope Ward writes the next Codex: Chaos Marines. We'll get Chaos Fists on our dreadnoughts and Chaos missiles on our Chaos Storm Raven with awesome deepstriking rules for our Chaos Homing Chaos Beacons of Chaos. And Abbadon will finally go from FAIL to AWESOME. He'll destroy entire chapters with his Chaos Talon of Chaos Horus and be forced to walk the real world (instead of the Warp) fighting marines and other races. All will FEAR him and tremble, except for whatever codex comes next.

Thats a bit too much exaggeration. It isn't half as bad as people are QQ'ing about.

Noez! I want my CSM to have over the top rules. I'll just ignore the bad fluffz!

Mr Hyena wrote:Thats a bit too much exaggeration. It isn't half as bad as people are QQ'ing about.

It never is. Sigh.

But if people didn't complain about this crap, there'd be nothing else to talk about on Dakka. Seriously, check the % of 'SM are stupid' or 'X Codex fluff/rules/etc is OP/lame/poorly written' or 'GW is the devilz' versus actualy content.

It is scary.

The only bad fluff is Goto. He makes Matt Ward's fluff look like a masterpiece.

The rest is fine for an OTT Universe like warhammer.

At least Goto has a good sense of humour about it.

I don't know whats hilarious about Multilazor Mahreens and Back-flipping Terminators or Slanneshi Eldar.

Kurgash wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:Don't laugh too early: I have heard rumours that Mat is writing the Necron Codex as well

As far as I've heard they took him off that project since he was having a really hard time not making them space marines, haven't heard who was put in his stead.

After he made a playable Grey Knight character kickass a Primarch twice, he ran out of ideas of what God-like C'tan should accomplish. Or he had ideas and GW management stopped him
Maybe saves us from having a Necromancer with Necrofists and a main character called Dr. Necro of Necropolis wielding his Necroblade and casting a Necrosphere of Death

It gets really funny when you read that interview with him. I'm too lazy to find it myself, but you should try and google it or something. It puts everything into absolutely hilarious context.

You mean the ‘spiritual liege’ one? Yeah, that was awful.

That was kinda silly. Still nothing compared to slannesh eldar.

Mr Hyena wrote:To be honest...its been quite a long time since I've read any good codex fluff. Characters are either stupidly overpowered....or underwhelming for their fluff's position.

Why can't authors get that nice middle spot? I blame the 40k background personally. Its pretty hard to make a character seem badass without them doing something utterly ridiculous. Lord Draigo is a good example. Its difficult to come up with written examples to explain just how badass he was.

"Oh yeah? he defeated a Greater Daemon single handedly?...that all? [INSERT NON-GK SPACE MARINE HERO] defeated one of those before single handedly. So what?"

I dislike Matt Ward; but I think the blame with this is the Fluff itself.

Problem is the word Author. Is he an author, or a rules writer. One requires the ability to craft a story, develop interesting characters, show some form of plot progression. Make someone care about the people or situation involved. The other requires the ability to do math, to envision potential loopholes and imbalances, to balance units, weapons, armor, and the variables of the terrain on a gaming table across multiple codexes or army books. One is art, the other engineering. It's not impossible for someone to be able to do both, but it's rare for someone to be able to do both well...

For me its the introduction of ++3 stormshields and adding ++3 for some marine characters. That and the handing out of FNP like candy is a bit much.