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decker_cky wrote:

pm713 wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
To be honest, Ward was actually a pretty good rules writer. His codexes had excellent internal Balance (at least relative to the current ones) and weren't too far off from each other in terms of external balance. Keep him away from the fluff and let him write the rules and things will actually be pretty good.

Didn't he make ridiculously OP GK, and ruin 7th Fantasy with Daemons? Plus the High Elves book. He is not good at rules.

High Elves was Adam Troke.

Ward got better at writing rules and fluff writing as he got more experience. I seem to remember him getting a lot of positive feedback for his work on Lord of the Rings stuff.

But if he's being brought back as a consultant, I doubt he's doing the same work as he was doing when he was part of the development team.

I'm sure it was Matt Ward.

The High Elves book says Written By Mat Ward.

Bottle wrote:I think he's going to be the main plot writer for the AoSification of 40k

Oh Bottle you bad boy. You trying to start something?

oni wrote:Calm down everyone. He's not back at GW, he's just writing a novel for Black Library.

You have proof of this or just guessing?

Truly we are now living in the End of Times, woe be unto us all.

EDIT: Seriously though, what's Ward going to do, write something ridiculously OTT and tonally inconsistent with the setting? Welcome to 90% of modern GW's output.

 CURNOW wrote:
He's there delivering from dominos

Love this.

Dude is an idiot.

Davor wrote:

oni wrote:Calm down everyone. He's not back at GW, he's just writing a novel for Black Library.

You have proof of this or just guessing?

No proof, simple logic can figure it out. Matt said GW is a new "client". So he's not a GW employee, he's simply been contracted by them to do something. Typically GW contracts BL writers. GW is not going to contract someone to write a codex or a rulebook.

Although,he could be play testing. I'm not sure how GW goes about that.

despite the flack people gave matt ward, ward was a very consistent rules writer. A Ward Codex was always balenced agiest the other Ward Codexs.

Lord of the Rings was good because he had more control over all the armies involved when balancing them. The issue in 40k was that Ward was just never on the same page as everyone eals when writing rules.

 oni wrote:

Davor wrote:

oni wrote:Calm down everyone. He's not back at GW, he's just writing a novel for Black Library.

You have proof of this or just guessing?

No proof, simple logic can figure it out. Matt said GW is a new "client". So he's not a GW employee, he's simply been contracted by them to do something. Typically GW contracts BL writers. GW is not going to contract someone to write a codex or a rulebook.

Although,he could be play testing. I'm not sure how GW goes about that.

That was my guess as well but I didn't think Matt War ever wrote a Black Library novel so didn't think it would happen. GW also contracts out artwork now, but I don't think Matt Ward is an artist that way. Who knows, seeing how some of the art is horrible maybe he would make better art .

I wonder if he'll carve his own initials into the rib plate of the space marine statue they unceremoniously moved to under the staircase...

 CURNOW wrote:
He's there delivering from dominos

If it is a book, will it be that the emperor finally dies, his warp self explodes into existence, destroying the universe were only a few realms survive, so starts the age of the Emperor

Knowing him, Rowboat Girlyman awakens from Stasis, sees the condition of the Imperium and deems the Emperor a failure. Then he kills the emperor and uses his status as the last non-corrupted Primarch to become the new Emperor. Then everyone bows to him due to his unmatched intelligence and he earns the alliegence of every space marine chapter in existence because of this. Then he sends the Ultramarines into the warp to finally defeat Chaos.

 GoonBandito wrote:

gungo wrote:
At the end of the current warzone fenris campaign draigo has his illusionary mask ripped off by azreal and reveals he was Magnus all along. Magnus then shouts " and I would have gotten away with it to if it wasn't for you meddling dark Angels and that stupid dog" (in reference to leman Russ).

- Matt ward

I'd read that to be honest

No need to read this you can catch it on nick at night with scooby doo reruns.

Well my only concern is the fluff matter. It's not good.
But his rules are quite intresting and really fun.

And whe you remember that GK broke the whole meta - think about current eldar.
I can't even put a nice word of how broken 7th eldar is.
So it was the Angels of death that toned it down a little bit... but at what price? being the most broken ever - 2++ rerollable with 2+ FNP eternal warrior charging anywhere on first turn riding ruin centurions - wtf?

So power creep does not depend on Ward.
And if you dare to compare with current BA/GK/DE/Necrons codicies to what was in 5th edition - it's just two completly different levels.

A lot of no in here. I think we need a Daniel Bryan YES YES YES. It's not the same when he left..

Please please please do the Tyranid codex.i guess Geanstealers would be too Lars eh?

His books were way more interesting than the current crop of copy/paste codexes with cartoon artwork.

Are the GKs in line for a new codex update? Guess GW needs to butcher more Sisters to protect the GKs from some taint or another.

New client? How about an old client?

Poor guy can't even write a good tweet.

Probably just some novels.

Man now I want a book by him called 'Dragio, Interrupted'.

He will write upp new fluff revealing that Draigo is one of the two lost primarchs and has returned to take the place of the God Emperor and whipe chaos out forever. Duh..

Friggin Mat Ward..

Truly the End Times are upon us

gak. Why the feth have they brought him back? He's terrible.

 angelofvengeance wrote:
gak. Why the feth have they brought him back? He's terrible.

Yup. Couldn't say it better myself.

I think his Necron Codex was about the only decent thing he put out there.

 oni wrote:
Calm down everyone. He's not back at GW, he's just writing a novel for Black Library.

Seems the most likely.

Which I'm happy about.

Read one of his novels, some of his shorts and his other novel is in the post.

I think he'd be a good fit for BL.

 Kirasu wrote:
His books were way more interesting than the current crop of copy/paste codexes with cartoon artwork.

I certainly liked the way there were viable different builds with his books.

TBF the introduction of the formations has altered things a lot here but seems to me you used to see/get a lot more variety on the tabletop than you get now.

And as others have said it wasn't all done by him and was all approved by others along the way.

He's a nice guy too

In the interests of balance, I'll say the following points in Ward's defence:

1) Alan Merrit The chapterhouse court case revealed a lot of what really happened behind the scenes at GW, so if you're working for somebody like that, it's not always your fault.

2) The models drove the rules, and not vice versa. We know from numerous Rick Priestly interviews that the studio ended up as a marketing wing for the company, and in many cases new army books emerged because a particular designer felt the need to develop a new monster or tank or whatever, often ignoring the fact that Army X was long overdue for a new codex...

So, if you're Mat Ward, sitting at your desk, and somebody comes up and dumps a whole load of stuff in front of you and says we need rules for X Y Z, you may not have the time to develop that great idea you had for a new Brettonian army book.

3) The LOTR stuff was good, and I though his Daemon army book was great fun to play with and against...

All in all, I don't think he merits a lot of the flak that came his way, and was too often used as a punchbag for those who had gripes with GW.

Yeah but Draigo. And Nemesis DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM Fists.

 Quarterdime wrote:
New client? How about an old client?

Poor guy can't even write a good tweet.

It's almost as if referring to them as a new client is the entire joke! Who'd have thunk it?

I never understood the hate for Mat Ward. His Necrons codex was my first Warhammer 40K Codex since the 4th edition Imperial Guard one, and, regarding balance and fluff, I always found the Cruddace ones to be much worse.
Plus, remember his first job was to write rules for LOTR, which was quite biased towards heroes. After that he was put to work on Space Marines, which are the "Heroes of Heroes" in 40K. Then Grey Knights, which are the "Heroes of Heroes of Heroes".

Can't blame the guy if he had to go overboard with the fluff. Plus, I loved the Iyanden supplement, and the fluff of the Necron Codex.

Good if he joins them again, he might actually help fix the crappy mess 40k has become.

 n0t_u wrote:
Good if he joins them again, he might actually help fix the crappy mess 40k has become.

I find this amusing as he helped make it that way lol.