Matt Ward strikes again!

[Red Fury]

Oh man, I had just skimmed through the article last night when my WD arrived in the mail. If you haven't seen it, Matt Ward tries to tell you how to make selections out of the C: BA to make yourself a formidible force...you're in for a laugh.

 

In my quick peruse I noticed a couple of glaringly stupid comments:

1. He tells you to start off by selecting a nice big meaty DC. Oh and don't worry if they don't ever make it to the opponent, look at how much fire they absorbed. :cuss

2. according to the article, the Chapter banner grants a +1 attack to everybody within 6"... :cuss he doesn't even know the rules from his own book.

3. and then to finish it off, he tells you that you should have at least 40 infantry in a 1500 point list or else you fell into the 'new and shiny' trap. 40! wow, look at the army list section, do you see any 40 man lists at 1500points? we aren't black templars or horde marines, we are elites, we do more with less.

 

I think the best part was the picture of him at the beginning, that was worth a good laugh.

 

-Fury

[igotsmeakabob!!]

I think the best part of this is that Matt Ward made a codex that he might not understand.. but it still works great. And it's awesome. Of course.. this might just be my being so :cuss happy to have a real codex again.

[shan vener]

personally i also think the codex could've been better and given more attention, it felt like some corners were cut (apparently his only success was the generic codex :cuss )

but i like the fact that my friend didn't have unlimited acess to my codex without my knowing.

[Escaflowne_Z]

Hmm, let me think here. I crack 40 infantry fairly often at 1,500, and always do at games bigger than that.

[Wildfire]

Matt Ward made a codex that he might not understand

 

Is it just codex he doesn't understand? From WD batreps, it seems as if all of GW is clueless when it comes to playing thier own games.

[Anarchyman99]

Is it just codex he doesn't understand? From WD batreps, it seems as if all of GW is clueless when it comes to playing thier own games.

 

Too many damn time to they make lists that are not even legal....well said Wildfire.

[douchie]

The comment about DC Tycho really annoyed me! basically saying that independent character is removed because 'fellow Blood angels arent really comfortable in his presence any more' WD366 p54

 

hmmmm, sounds familiar... let me think.... ah yes, just like every other member of the Death Company.

 

So is he a member of the DC for gaming purposes?

 

This is how he clears that little grey area up. 'Tycho after he succumbed to the black rage and Joined the death company, lost his awesome leadership abilities but gained a blood thirsty edge. With his black armoured brethren Tycho now seeks to die in battle. WD366 p54

 

Ah... crystal clear, so he's either a member of the death company & fielded with them, or a member of the DC but the regular DC (who only want to seek their own destruction) are too unnerved by a mad man in their mist.

 

All in all Matt Ward covered the most obvious bits of our codex in his little article. I agree with the above, the 40 marine 1500pt list is pretty difficult to atain if you want to include anything special in the list.

 

That said, it was good to see our beloved chapter get some more air time on WD.

[Lorenzen]

40 man isnt that unrealistic.. im currently running a mechanized army with 38 infantry and a load of other stuff.

 

i honestly think that the death company are one of the worst things in the codex now though.. sure theyre hard, but that counts for nothing when they spend all their time playing chase the land speeder and being a ridiculous points cost.

 

tbh i think gw needs to give in and produce "living" rule books and playtest their stuff properly. its starting to get stupid.. i just hope templars and grey knights manage to get a slightly more experienced designer behind their respective wheels.

[Tigcarn]

I'll bet there is a translation failure with the chapter banner. April WD and now June WD both stating that the chapter banner adds +1 attack outside of the squad it's in seems to point in that direction.

[vahouth]

20 RAS + 20 Tacticals are around 850pts.

That leaves you with almost 650pts for other nasties.

Easy. B)

[Cyrox]

I'm all for giving someone a fair crack of the whip, but Matt Ward is contantly pressing the FAIL key if you ask me.

 

Poor cliches, incorrect backgrounds and stupid mistakes are making him look daft.

 

The Space Wolf codex wasn't written by him, and its far superior to the Vanilla codex, and to some extent wriiten better than ours too

[angel of justice]

i have 40 plus marines on the table with 10 jump pack death company at 1500 points. White dwarf are interesting to skim through but most of the time i think the articles are treated more like a catalogue to sell stuff instead of a reliable source of information. The painting stuff is pretty cool but the rest is pretty meh.

[Wildfire]

gw needs to give in and produce "living" rule books and playtest their stuff properly

 

Hear, hear! I've been saying this for years. It would help tremendously in solving balance problems, and get it done faster as well.

 

Although, in all fairness to Matt Ward, it's not really just his problem. It's been a GW-wide phenomenon for years. The BA 'dex is far better than some. Such as JJs last couple 'dexes.

[Priest33]

Seems this codex has been written by a chi...

 

 

MAAAAAT WAAAAAAARRRRRD!!! *shakes fist*

 

That said I never take anything GW publish in white dwarf as anything other then rubbish ment to encourage people into spending their hard earnt cash on things that arnt currently selling well or are the flavour of the month. The painting stuff is awesome tho.

[Morticon]

You know, I dont think the developers are "stupid" or forgetful.

 

And the consistency of GW mistakes leads me to believe the rules are designed by the designer in a certain way, to work a certain way and then undergo a lot of playtesting/changes by the design team.

 

Whether or not the original designer then goes back to read the dex with a fine tooth comb or still sticks to the intent of the rule as he designed it in his mind, is unknown.

Personally, I think this is the issue at hand.

 

It is however very unprofessional, not mainly of Matt Ward (though he does share a bit of blame here) but for the editors and games developers that should be checking for these mistakes.

 

Anyway, bit of a pity that the advice is not up to par.

[Tame]

2. according to the article, the Chapter banner grants a +1 attack to everybody within 6"... :P he doesn't even know the rules from his own book.

 

It would have been awesome, though :-)

[Hfran Morkai]

Unfortunately developer's seem to have some quite spectacular slips, like Phil Kelly claiming to have moved Blood Claws from Fast Attack to Troops in the Wolf codex, shame they've been like that for ages.

 

However, these people are human and have faults, just like we all do.

[Judaz]

Mikal, I don't think you wolfboys can be considered human. Faulty, yes. Human, no. :P

We, the angels, on the other hand are more human than humanity itself! Wait, does that make us more prone to faults too?

 

 

To get to the topic, I think it's sad that GW releases a codex with so many holes in it. Don't they do any playtesting and testreading? I'm not a very experienced WH40k player, but even I saw some flaws in our codex from the very beginning. But I don't wanna blame Matt Ward (except for the part where Dante gives the necron lord a hug and bids him farewell). When you work with something it's quite hard to see the problems, you know exactly how you mean, and the people around you have problably the same reference when it comes to WH40k. They should bring outsiders, even people that don't even play the game, to read the books and fix the problems before they release it.

 

Still, I love Blood Angels and I love Dreadnoughts.

 

PS. Can anyone actually look at the cover of the codex and smile? My face makes grimaces I didn't even knew I could do when I look at that sht. That has to be the worst cover ever... DS.

[SnorriSnorrison]

PS. Can anyone actually look at the cover of the codex and smile? My face makes grimaces I didn't even knew I could do when I look at that sht. That has to be the worst cover ever... DS.

 

^QFT.

 

Snorri

[Midnightmare]

Big meaty, £20 boxes of DC hey?

 

GW = £££££££!! lol

[JamesI]

40 infantry in 1500?

 

I have 41 models in 1850, that includes 5 tanks!

[Roachboy]

Yeah that is an absolutely shocking cover. Especially when you compare it to the all awesomeness of pretty much every other codex :blink:

 

How long does it take them to test their codex at the moment? Surely if they spent another month or so they could really iron out these minor problems and rules debates?

 

As for his list advice: "Please take as many of these models as possible. Available at £4 a pop from all good retailers" <-----sounds like GW in a nutshell ;)

[lorider2]

As for his list advice: "Please take as many of these models as possible. Available at £4 a pop from all good retailers" <-----sounds like GW in a nutshell ;)

 

 

First thing out of my mind. Obviously GW isn't going to recommend a few deathstar units people!

[Slim Pickens]

I'll bet there is a translation failure with the chapter banner. April WD and now June WD both stating that the chapter banner adds +1 attack outside of the squad it's in seems to point in that direction.

 

He screwed up on the chapter banner as well by not giving it the standard +1 to combat resolution as the C;SM chapter banner does, AND making it more expensive, so this doesnt surprise me.

 

I have a feeling alot got changed before final printing, its very clear to me that Red Thirst was originally going to be Fearless, FC, AND rage by the descriptions, until it was realized that the massive uncontrolled army resulting from rolling red thirst for several squads basically would ruin many lists. Read the wording for Red Thirst, and its very clearly mentioned that an ordered battle plan goes out the window and squads advance on the enemy... until they realized in game terms this would spoil the list.

[Vilicate]

You know, I dont think the developers are "stupid" or forgetful.

 

And the consistency of GW mistakes leads me to believe the rules are designed by the designer in a certain way, to work a certain way and then undergo a lot of playtesting/changes by the design team.

 

Whether or not the original designer then goes back to read the dex with a fine tooth comb or still sticks to the intent of the rule as he designed it in his mind, is unknown.

Personally, I think this is the issue at hand.

 

It is however very unprofessional, not mainly of Matt Ward (though he does share a bit of blame here) but for the editors and games developers that should be checking for these mistakes.

 

 

Nope, sorry. It HAS to be a Matt Ward thing. He single-handedly destroyed Fantasy by creating the monstrosity that is the daemon book.

 

He is, without a doubt, the worst armybook/codex author out there. They should've canned his butt SO long ago. Gav Thorpe had his bad moments, but he also had some good ones; several of his books were solid and well designed. Plus, the background was consistent; Gav knows how to write.

 

We'll see. I'm more of a fantasy player than a 40k player (I like to play 40k as more of a beer and pretzels type game), so I'm fairly apprehensive about a new edition of those rules forthcoming.

 

I like many of the rules for BA, but let's face it; the book has got some completely OP gear and units. I wish that Ward would stick writing LotR stuff and keep his butterfingers out of 40k and WFB.