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I read the two stories, and they exemplify the worst of Matt Ward: Not caring about previous fluff and just writing what he thinks it should be.
Bloodtide story: Only one SOB has ever succumbed to chaos...until Matt ward came along. Let's just say for the sake of argument that "some" equals twenty. Twenty times as many in the entire history of the Imperium in one stroke. Nice going, Matt.
Next, the GKs "first act is to turn their blades on the remaining SOB". This is their first choice? Way to go right to the dark side DarthWard.
Then he talks about "the innocent blood thus spilled is mixed with blessed oil". I don't care how you try & justify it, spilling innocent blood is EVIL.
AFAIK, the GKs were fine with their oils & ungeants, but then here come Ward, now we need innocent blood to really protect us? Please.
Moving on to Battle of Kornovin, after smashing through a bodyguard, which I could see happening and have no problem with, but then "knocks the Daemon Primarch to the ground and carves Geronitan's name on his heart"
What the ? What is Montarion doing while this is going on? Drinking tea? Apparently, in Ward's view, He doesn't do ANYTHING but just let it happen. That is a load of you-know-what.
Irony: I can take my Archon, a Klaivex w/demiklaives & 4 other Incubi & chop that same guy into mincemeat.

iproxtaco wrote:Whilst I have no real problems with the Bloodtide story, a change to the first couple of sentences would make it better for everyone. Instead of saying 'the Grey Knights first act is to turn their blades upon the surviving Sisters of Battle' it would be better if it had said 'Knowing the Bloodtide to be particularly potent Daemonic force, the Grey Knights look for a means to protect themselves further from the corruption of the Goreflood. Recognising the Grey Knights to be the Emperors chosen, the Sisters offer themselves as willing sacrifices. The innocent blood thus......'. I'm certainly not going to start baying for Matt Wards blood over this story, as I have no problems with it, but I think a little bit more forethought should have gone into thinking about how certain parts of the community would take it.

Thanks for posting this, as it sums up my feelings exactly. I don't have a problem with the GKs using blood, I have a problem with HOW they did it.
And people can call me a nerdrager, but when I see poorly written fluff, I call it bad fluff.
And it's not as if Ward is alone in this. I think the quality of fluff in general has declined. Goto, Lightner and others have consistently published, in my opinion, very bad fluff.
Abnett, "Sandy Mitchell" and others, OTOH, have published very good fluff. So it's not all bad.
It's not as if there has'nt been bad fluff before. Eye of Terror may have been the worst 40k novel ever published. Although the ending with the fallen dark angel is pretty good, it does'nt save the rest of the book.

grmpf wrote:why Ward's fluff is awful : the lack of forethought and polishing in many of his stories. Every one of the pieces discuted and hated by people COULD have been improved and made mostly good or acceptable. But it wasn't done. So, they are awful and lacks distinction and polishing

Echo this as well, and I will now step off my