Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-5846164-20130316112717/@comment-7232811-20130317220800

I have seen many, many cases of people blaring out Matt Ward does this & Matt Ward does that, but there is a reason as to why he does it for almost all of them. From what I have seen,  these are the (possible, I must admit, so feel free to object or to have your own opinion on this) justifications as to why Ward has comited his 'crimes' (yes, I will admit most of them are fluff based).

Necrons: People are REALLY annoyed about this because of how he threw in so much new stuff, took out a lot of old stuff, (or extensively modified them) & COMPLETELY changed their background. Why did he do it? To give them a sense of personality. Before him, all Necron armies were basically the same, as there were so few units in the Codex, & there was no difference between one tomb world & another, or one Necron lord to another. The only real difference was the colour scheme, but you can't really make a personal army with just that can you? & he probably changed the fluff because there already was a race that was was hell-bent on devouring all life in the galaxy, the Tyranids (okay, it was for different reasons, but still).

Grey Knights: Okay, I have to admit, these guys could be the physical embodiment of overpoweredness, but I have to say this, THEY ARE NOT INVINCIBLE!!! Well, you probably were aware of that already, but people have often been hating him for that (amongst other things) but all you have to do is change your tactics against them. If you can field lots of troops, swarm them (tyranids, orks, IG, etc). If you can field long range guns, shoot them (SM, CSM, Tau, Eldar, IG). & if you can take tanks, blow them up. Oh, & they have got a little weaker in the new edition in terms of their close combat potential. Simple as that.

Space Marines: I fully well understand why people loathe him for this, but they hate him because of very specific parts of the text, like this: 'Chapters in the second catergory are disciples who owe the genetic inheritance to another Primarch, but follow the Codex Astartes as keenly as their divergent heritage allows. ... These Chapters can never be Ultramarines, for their gene-seed is not that of Roboute Guilliman.' or 'The third & final group are aberrants; Chapters who, through quirk of gene-seed, mutation, or stubbornness, eschew the Codex Astartes in favour of other structural & combat doctrines. Some, such as the Blood Angels & their successors, strive to be worthy of Guillimans legacy, but their recalcitrant gene-seed drives them ever further from it. Others, such as the Space Wolves & the Black Templars, remain stubbornly independant, looking to their own founder's ways of war & caring little of how they fare in the eyes of others.' That, along with other bits & pieces of fluff in the Codex which constantly glorify the Ultramarines, are why people hate them so much, as it's suggesting that Chapters that cannot or choose not to follow the Codex are weak or rebellious, & that it is almost a sin to have been sired from a different Primarch. If you ask me, when a person says 'I hate the Ultramarines' what they mean is 'I hate the way that the Ultramarines are portrayed'. If they were written in a slightly different manner, then perhaps people would not be so disliking of them. & he has made some major improvements to the rules from the previous Codex, so it's not all bad.

As for the rest of what he's done, like Blood Angels & whatever else he's worked on, I do not know enough to explain why he did it. & no, I am not an Ultramarines fanboy, I do not do Necrons, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, or whatever else he's done, I do Salamanders, & not because of him, but because of Nick Kyme's books. & I do admit that there are some things in his Codexes that are the work of an unreasonable fanboy who wants to overly glorify his pet project. But as a GENERAL rule, what he has done has been more good that bad.