Well, the cat's out of the bag guys. Grey Knights is definitely coming in April but we have no idea who the author of the book is. Now.. let's look at a very narrow timeline of who wrote what recently for GW:
5th Ed. books:
Space Marines - Mat Ward
IG - Robin Cruddace
Space Wolves - Phil Kelly
Tyranids - Robin Cruddace
Blood Angels - Mat Ward
Dark Eldar - Phil Kelly
Somewhere in there, Jervis Johnson wrote Battle Missions. I think that was between IG and Space Wolves, but honestly I can't remember.
Anyways, let's look at these authors' track records. Let's start with Phil Kelly. This guy is amazing and has written some of the best books ever produced in terms of fluff, design, cost effectiveness and overall power. Mat Ward, on the other hand, has forever tainted himself with 7th Ed. Chaos Daemons.. which is the book that broke 7th Ed. Fantasy all together. On the other hand, aside from butchering fluff left and right, he also wrote some of the most balanced books for 40K. Both Space Marines and Blood Angels are balanced books.. despite some minor oddities. This leaves us with Robin Cruddace. He wrote the best book in 5th Ed. 40K right now, his personal and favorite army, the Imperial Guard. He also wrote arguably the worst book to hit the shelves since Chaos Space Marines by Gav Thorpe: Codex Tyranids. Needless to say, he can either go hardcore powerful favoritism or rush-job terrible spider monkeys.
Going by the trend of books above, let's make some educated guesses to who is writing the Grey Knights codex. Ward looks like he's got a thing for Space Marines so let's not count him out just yet. One could say that writing a book so soon will produce something of a rush job.. but if you look at Cruddace's Tyranids that came right after Kelly's Space Wolves then you won't argue. The most likely candidate looks to be Cruddace. He hasn't done anything since Tyranids and this might be his chance to redeem himself. God knows that book was a major disappointment to the Tyranids community and GW would have to be blind to not see that. On the other hand, we might just see a rush job by Mat Ward.. but that's unlikely because Daemonhunters needed a rewrite for a long time, and with an entire line of minis coming out to go with the book, I doubt GW would make it a rush job.
So what do you guys think? Are we going to see the high-low bi-polar writing style by Cruddace or are we going to see something from Ward? I'm still pretty bitter about 7th Ed. Daemons, but I do enjoy Ward's balanced work in 5th Ed. 40K. I can't say I like how he butchers fluff, but game balance is more important to me because I'm a gamer first. If anything, I just hope I don't get something overpowered like IG or god-awful like the Nids.
7 comments:
I'd like to point out that Mr. Cruddace is the only one of the three to not have a Space Marine codex under his belt (to the best of my knowledge). Also, the reference to Grey Knights using sorcery in the announcement sent out fits in well with what we know of Mr. Ward's casual attitudes toward matters of fluff. Therefore, I'm leaning towards him being the author.
I think it bears mentioning, that the chronological order these books were released in does not have much of a bearing on the order they were written. Who knows how long this book has been in the can.
I heard somewhere on the intertubes that Matt Ward was writing the upcoming Necron codex. Now this is pure conjecture as is this entire article, but if that rumor is true, then it probably is Cruddace.
I hope the rumors about DE 2nd wave being April still are true, as I'd like some Wracks, Venoms, Razorwings and Beastmasters. Oh, and Asdrubael Vect, Duke Sliscus and Baron Sathonyx wouldn't be too bad either.
oh god no , not another stupidly over powered imperial book .....
I'm only just starting to feel underwhelmed by DE
Every time I read that guard book I'm left with a bruised sensation.
The entire development team writes the books, but only one person gets the credit. There is no way in hell 1 person can design entire armies on their own, it's just not likely, in fact, in a recent Bad Dice interview Gav Thorpe said exactly that, it's guided by own writer, but the entire book is a collection of work by most of the design staff.
That said, Cruddace does seem the likely candidate to take lead on them, but Matty Ward does love him some space mehrinze
Then they fail together: 7th Ed. Daemons, 4th Ed. CSM, 5th Ed. Guard and 5th Ed. Tyranids.
Ward is an ultramarines fan boy. To him they are the pinnacle of what marines should be. If you read his codex there is even a line about Dorn's troops wishing they could be ultramarines. Really? I don't think Dorn or his legion were wishing they were anything. They are ass kickers. That being said I think it would be highly unlikely that Ward would want to write a marine dex in which he has to make them superior to his boys in blue. We know Grey Knights are going to be the most elite army created. I don't think Ward could swallow his pride. My guess is Robin, but who knows. Maybe Phil Kelly will write it being the most fluffy writer, and Dark Eldar has been in the can for a long time before they finally released it.
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