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Hi, it's been 1 year that I have been a W40k noob (didn't bought anything since CSM weren't at their best and I wanted to wait before buying anything). Finally, the long wait is almost over. Even thought I haven't bought or played anything, I've have read alot of codex, watched battle report vids, praticed with other wargames and learned a bit about W40k. So even thought I haven't any a posteriori knowledge of W40k, I have a good database of a priori knowledge.I just wanted to know (regardless of the rumours) who you hoped was writing the rumoured upcoming Chaos Legions Codex, and why. Personnally, having read some of the current edition codex (and even previous ones), I hope it's Phil Kelly (if he does something along the lines of Dark Eldar and Space Wolves). Even thought his codex we're critized as OP by some, I think they are still better than what Ward wrote (GK, SM, BA, and even WHFB DC). I do hope he bring something along the lines of SW, but with more than one effective build (SW players that have tons of rhino, Grey Hunters and Long Fangs will understand me). What's your opinion ?

I too hope it is written by Phil Kelly as he wrote my Vampire Counts book and I love what he did with it. I am hoping that Slaanesh armies get more love and that there is less focus on Khorne and Nurgle.

Considering Phil Kelly wrote a better Chaos codex with the Space Wolves book, I'm really interested to see what he can do with a genuine Chaos codex! I'm not saying that codex isn't without its faults, but he did a great job with Orks and Dark Eldar, and Eldar were also very good for their time. Orks and DE blend fluff, competitive rules, and cool ideas into very cool codices that I enjoy a lot. Kelly's books are my favorites in the game, and I hope he's the one writing Chaos Space Marines.

I feel Kelly is GW's best writer, so personally I'd rather he wrote it.

However, I remember hearing (and I've seen nothing to suggest otherwise) that none of GW's writers have a vested interest in Chaos/collect Chaos, which may not bode well for the Codex...

I hope Ward writes it, so that we can find out that Guilliman is their Spiritual Liege and the Heresy was just a temper tantrum caused by the realization that they weren't Ultramarines.

Unit1126PLL wrote:I hope Ward writes it, so that we can find out that Guilliman is their Spiritual Liege and the Heresy was just a temper tantrum caused by the realization that they weren't Ultramarines.

Wow.
Only the 4th post in and it's started already...

I just hope its not Matt Ward. If I have to hear the whining and knashing of teeth that happened after the Blood Angels codex, I'll start tracking people to their houses...

Just Dave wrote:I feel Kelly is GW's best writer, so personally I'd rather he wrote it.

However, I remember hearing (and I've seen nothing to suggest otherwise) that none of GW's writers have a vested interest in Chaos/collect Chaos, which may not bode well for the Codex...

I think Jervis is the biggest flag waver for Chaos in the Studio right now, but I don't think he's actually written a codex in a long, long time. The last rules I remember him writing were the Battle Missions book. I really would like if someone with a vested interest in Chaos got writing it though.

Unit1126PLL wrote:I hope Ward writes it, so that we can find out that Guilliman is their Spiritual Liege and the Heresy was just a temper tantrum caused by the realization that they weren't Ultramarines.

What a novel post! I've literally never heard this joke before and can't wait to hear it for the first time again! I also can't wait for someone to reply to your post with something along the lines of "epic win" and a laughing Ork emoticon; that will really contribute to the topic!

In all honesty, I have some trepidation about all the current authors.

Robin Cruddace has awful internal balance and has a lot of crap units in his books, though at least with IG there were some gems, I like the direction he took the army, but no internal review at all.

Phil Kelly did some great stuff with the Fantasy warriors of chaos, but also focused way too much on the Big4 without much regard for unaligned/chaos-in-all-its-glory forces, and a lot of the god specific stuff was useless/pointless. I liked the direction as a whole though. He is also responsible for the current Space Wolves garbage.

Mat Ward is the one I absolutely want nowhere near them above and beyond anything else. Awful, truly awful fanficy writing, random out-of-nowhere units and rules straight out of a 7 year old's imagination, and the worst sort of comic-book-y fanboy-ish view of each faction.

I am hopping that Phill Kelly is going to write it, since I love what he did with the Dark Eldar. But, if it is one of the other two I suppose I would not be terribly upset. I'd be happy with anything so long as it is just a new codex. The 4th Ed book is just so boring!

Matt ward! At the very least it'd end up mid-tier at worst!

Robin cruddance would either make it underpowered or overpowered, his record in fantasy is doing well oddly enough, but I don't really trust him for 40k yet..

Phil Kelly is alright, but his track record is usually overpowered so far..

(Eldar Tri-Skimmer Spam 4th edition, Space Wolves, WoC cheesiness)

Unit1126PLL wrote:I hope Ward writes it, so that we can find out that Guilliman is their Spiritual Liege and the Heresy was just a temper tantrum caused by the realization that they weren't Ultramarines.

Horus revolted out of fear that Guilleman would claim the title of warmaster because he is better in every way. Just kidding, Sanguinius is better in every way, with everyone except Lion saying that he was the best and should have been warmaster.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden. His chaos codex would feth up your Grey Knights.

Ward does the units, Kelly does the fluff, and Cruddace... well, he can sit in the corner with a ball of yarn.

kronk wrote:Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

This, at least for the fluff parts. ADB would write an epic Chaos book.

Vaktathi wrote:

kronk wrote:Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

This, at least for the fluff parts. ADB would write an epic Chaos book.

Yes. That is all I have to say. I want him for my Templars as well.

kronk wrote:Aaron Dembski-Bowden. His chaos codex would feth up your Grey Knights.

The only GW-affiliated author I have a bigger man-crush on than Phil Kelly. I like this idea, I like it lots, but I don't know how his rules would pan out. His fluff would RULE though.

Brother SRM wrote:

kronk wrote:Aaron Dembski-Bowden. His chaos codex would feth up your Grey Knights.

The only GW-affiliated author I have a bigger man-crush on than Phil Kelly. I like this idea, I like it lots, but I don't know how his rules would pan out. His fluff would RULE though.

Have Ward write the rules and ADB the fluff IMO.

A curse upon the Chaos Codex!
Ward be thy fluff-bunny and Cruddace be thy rules-bane!
Muuhahahahahaaawwwww!!!



But seriously...I'd like to see Phil Kelly heading it up.

King Pariah wrote:Ward does the units, Kelly does the fluff, and Cruddace... well, he can sit in the corner with a ball of yarn.

Cruddance fluff for the Guard codex was fine at least, not good, but it didn't break with any existing fluff, Guard has regiments, regiments are specialized, they use the lasgun, the only real fluff change was the adoption of hot-shot lasguns, which I honestly like better in appearance, and are 3x more useful in game.

Buttons wrote:

King Pariah wrote:Ward does the units, Kelly does the fluff, and Cruddace... well, he can sit in the corner with a ball of yarn.

Cruddance fluff for the Guard codex was fine at least, not good, but it didn't break with any existing fluff, Guard has regiments, regiments are specialized, they use the lasgun, the only real fluff change was the adoption of hot-shot lasguns, which I honestly like better in appearance, and are 3x more useful in game.

I still prefer the hellguns over the Hot-Shot lasguns, the name alone just sounds pretentious.

Buttons wrote:

King Pariah wrote:Ward does the units, Kelly does the fluff, and Cruddace... well, he can sit in the corner with a ball of yarn.

Cruddance fluff for the Guard codex was fine at least, not good, but it didn't break with any existing fluff, Guard has regiments, regiments are specialized, they use the lasgun, the only real fluff change was the adoption of hot-shot lasguns, which I honestly like better in appearance, and are 3x more useful in game.

Cruddace wrote serviceable fluff for the IG, but very little of it was outstanding or interesting. Iron Hand Straken and Sergeant Harker had great entries, and most of the rest of the special characters also had pretty good ones. I suppose it's a good thing that none of it was outstandingly bad, but there weren't any stories that really grabbed my attention in it. I too wish hot-shot lasguns were still called Hellguns, and I still say Hellgun when I use my Stormtroopers.

Phill kelly, ward can just keep away from it, and any other codex or army book for that matter, as a pet guinea pig could write a better codex then him. I'm hoping Kelly does Chaos like he did wolves or Dark eldar.

Zarathustra Suicune wrote:Phill kelly, ward can just keep away from it, and any other codex or army book for that matter, as a pet guinea pig could write a better codex then him. I'm hoping Kelly does Chaos like he did wolves or Dark eldar.

Eh, Ward can write good rules, he just can't write decent fluff to save his life (Ex. Dolmen Gates ).

I'm in the Phil Kelly Fan Boat. Yes some of the things he has written in the past have but what codex doesn't have something like that? Kelly at least gives you multiple play styles and has great codexs despite many of them being outdated. Orks and my Eldar were both doing GREAT back in the states at our LFGS, usually nabbing top 3 each (Granted that can't be said on a heavily competitive store).

I'm not a fan of any of the codex writers, all of them have written horrible books, some filled with horrible balance, while some have written great stuff.

So I avoid trying to lump one person as being the "Worst" though as it is Cruddance has the lowest score for 40k books, though he has done well in fantasy.

Ward has written 3 Mid tier 40k armies, 1 OP army, 1 OP fantasy, and one good edition for fantasy

Phil Kelly has written one OP army (4th edition eldar) one OP 5th edition army (Space Wolves) One mid tier (Dark Elder) and one high tier but not rigged like the others Warriors of Chaos.

ZebioLizard2 wrote:I'm not a fan of any of the codex writers, all of them have written horrible books, some filled with horrible balance, while some have written great stuff.

So I avoid trying to lump one person as being the "Worst" though as it is Cruddance has the lowest score for 40k books, though he has done well in fantasy.

Ward has written 3 Mid tier 40k armies, 1 OP army, 1 OP fantasy, and one good edition for fantasy

Phil Kelly has written one OP army (4th edition eldar) one OP 5th edition army (Space Wolves) One mid tier (Dark Elder) and one high tier but not rigged like the others Warriors of Chaos.

Phil also wrote Orks, which is also a good book

ZebioLizard2 wrote:

Buttons wrote:

King Pariah wrote:Ward does the units, Kelly does the fluff, and Cruddace... well, he can sit in the corner with a ball of yarn.

Cruddance fluff for the Guard codex was fine at least, not good, but it didn't break with any existing fluff, Guard has regiments, regiments are specialized, they use the lasgun, the only real fluff change was the adoption of hot-shot lasguns, which I honestly like better in appearance, and are 3x more useful in game.

I still prefer the hellguns over the Hot-Shot lasguns, the name alone just sounds pretentious.

I imagine that Hot-shot Lasgun is a nickname rather than an official name, which would go well with storm troopers being seen as glory boys by the regular guard, with the Storm Troopers using the name to rub in their elite status, while the lesser Guard uses it ironically.

Luke_Prowler wrote:
Phil also wrote Orks, which is also a good great book

Fixed that for you.

I really, really want someone who actually *likes* Chaos to write the book. After the incredibly fisting we got last time I desperately want some good rules and fluff that doesn't suck.