Space Wolves Codex - "Woof Woof!

So I guess I can write a post about the Space Wolf Codex. If you don't know what any of those three words mean, stop reading now.

I'm a Tau player first and foremost, but I got my start in 40k (like most players) with the Marines. I've been done campaigns as Marines, I've drawn up some fluff for Marines and I've probably played hundreds of one-offs as Marines. Not just the Vanilla Marines either, I've gone through Blood Angels, Dark Angels and Black Templars and played more than a couple of games with Thorpe's bullshit Chaos codex.

So I know my Marine codexes pretty well and when rumours swirled of how strong and overpowered it was, my interest was piqued. The bullshit of Guard and their stupid 140 point cheeseplanes has gone uncontested for months after all and so having some imba Marine stuff to cut those stupid green fuckers down to size would have been good.

After having used the dex and making some lists though, I feel confident in being the first Marine to say: "Uh guys, this isn't that great."

Or at least it does if you compare it the normal Marine codex. I'm not going to cover the whole codex here, so let me divide this into two sections

Why the good things aren't really as good as you've heard:

Njal Stormcaller - aka Cloudman:

Everyone's probably heard about this guy and his stupid storm. For the record: The rules for this guy are stupid and I think he's just generally a stupid idea. But for the sake of novelty I put him in a Drop Pod next to some Wolf Guard and dropped him on the second turn next to a bunch of Guardsmen. For the three turns before he was killed he rolled the morale check power, which managed to run one crappy infantry squad off the board. And that's against Guard who are probably the most vulnerable race to that.

Don't get me wrong, the storm has a lot of bogus and game-breaking results, but the big hits only come in later turns at which point he should probably be dead what with his 2 wounds. And since the guy clocks in at 270 points with Terminator Armour I really don't think he's even worth it.

Jaws of the World Wolf - An initiative test or death for all models within 24" of a line going out from your Rune Priest. That's really not so great as it sounds. Your opponent doing something as simple as putting his troops in a zigzag really takes the teeth out of it. Sure you can snipe with it, but most high-value models in the game are initiative 5 which gives Jaws a whopping 1-in-6 chance of actually doing something worthwhile.

Granted the likes of Necrons and Carnifexs aren't going to like that one bit, but those guys have been fucked around by Lash and Weaken Resolve for a while now so they should be used to it.

Why the codex isn't as good as the vanilla codex:

Transports:

Apparently Space Wolves are really fat. Only ten of them can fit into a Drop Pod as opposed to the normal Marine twelve. This wouldn't be that big a deal for ordinary Marines, as squads are going to optimally come in groups of ten anyway, but for Space Wolves the optimal number (i.e two special weapons and one sarge a Power-something) is 11 (or 6 if you only want one special weapon, in which case I guess you can ride in the Razorback but then you have less models hitting the front line). The reason for this is that they don't have Sergeants per sey but rather have a Wolf Guard assigned to lead the squad at the beginning of the game.

So if you want to shove a squad into a Rhino or a Pod you need to either give up your power fist or one of your special weapons. I can't think of another race besides Orks whose maximum efficiency squad size doesn't fit in any of its transports. What is up with that?

Wolf Guard

I'm sure most Chaos players are looking at the options these guys have and then wondering what the fuck happened to their Chosen, but the costs for these guys are weird. Note that the following things are the same stat-wise.

Normal Tac Marine Sarge with Power Fist - 51
Wolf Guard with Power Fist - 38

Good deal. But...

Normal Assault Marine Sarge w/ Power Fist - 53
Wolf Guard with Power Fist + Jump Pack- 63

Normal Bike Sarge w/ Power Fist - 65
Wolf Guard with Power Fist + Bike - 73

You pay a premium for special stuff.

One could call that a trade-off I guess, but when you consider the transport problem it's more of a simple mark up on your sarges.

Long Fangs

These things are so stupid. The whole point of a devastator squad is to have heavy weapons that you have to chop through some flesh to get to. These guys have nothing like that. No flesh cover for the models, leaving 40 point models exposed to the depredations to any Loota/IG HWT/Crisis Suit on the board. Wow, great idea GWS.

No Ironclad Dreadnought

There's only one type of Dread worth taking in the entire game and let me tell you that Dread isn't a stupid 13/12/10 guy that costs 270 points.

No Sternguard

This honestly can't be minimized. Nothing beats the Sternguard.

No Combat Squads

If you're coming out of a Drop Pod, being able to split into two independent squads is absolutely critical. It let's you shove Combi-Meltas into multiple targets and split your fire. Wolves can't do that.

But there are still things that are actually cool:

Wolf Scouts

WS/BS 3 on Marine Scouts has always been stupid so I'm glad that Wolf Scouts have it back up to 4. The super outflank power is also an excellent thing to use in this new era of Guardsmen bullshit, although they can only pack one melta-gun (not counting the Combi-Melta from the Wolf Guard).

Thunderwolves

I'm pretty sure these guys are overpriced. 50 point a model for T5 W2 Sv3+ isn't a very good deal, especially since basically every army has a Demo cannon these days. They seem interesting though and I look forward to experimenting with them.

Sagas

These things really shouldn't belong to a Marine Chapter. I mean, Saga of Warrior Born is something that would fit a Khorne Lord a lot better than a damn wolf dude. But they add colour and I approve of colour.

Overall:

The transport thing can't be minimized. That's incredibly crippling and has army-wide implications. Space Wolves will excel against the likes of Orks, which is an army that's mostly moving towards you anyway. But against Guard, Tau, Eldar and normals Marines I think they're pretty subpar. There's more ...

Planetarian - "Please do not divide heaven in two."

Planetarian is a magnificent piece of work that does what, in my opinion, more science fiction should be doing.

I've only read a handful of visual novels... three, in fact. First there was Fate/Stay Night, which was a decent fantasy yarn with a really out-of-place and too-long sex scene. Then there was Clannad, which were a web of reasonably well-told romances. Then there was Chaos;head, which was a wacky and good fun, though not really fantastic. Planetarian though is the first one that I actually want to actively recommend to people.

It's a short read. Took me around two hours to get through in its entirety, and this was while pausing to make a snack. The premise is simple though I think unique... it takes place after World War III/the apocalypse and stars a nameless 'Junker' (basically a heavily armed and grizzled veteran looking to loot things in order to survive) who is looting a 'Sarcophagus City' for when he stumbles across a still-functioning humanoid robot whose function is to guide tourists at a planetarium before the war.

(The spelling 'planetarian' in the title isn't wrong, by the way. The robot's name is 'Reverie Planetarian')

The story that unfolds is deeply moving and emotionally engaging, while the ending is something that I will always remember. There are only the two characters in the story (the Junker and Reverie) but they both get their hooks into you in a very short time. The setting is nicely conveyed and I think overall the work is a refreshing bit of science fiction.

My opinion is that all of you should try giving it a read.

It is a Visual Novel though and I would like to talk about that medium for a bit, if you don't mind.

Visual Novels vary in structure, but generally speaking it's a normal novel that you read on your computer usually with artwork, voices for the dialogue, music and the occasional sound effect. So the questions then are: Is that really necessary and would this work just as well as just a plain old novel?

In all the other Visual Novels I've read, I would say that the art isn't anything to get excited about. When a character is talking, one of several stock images of them will appear on the screen in one of maybe a dozen or so poses depending on what their mood is. Their lips don't move in sync with spoken dialogue and they aren't really animated at all. Planetarian sticks to the system in that respect, with Reverie on screen for the majority of the story.



I think it is cool to have an image of a character presented and by alternating the poses you can often get around doing a lot of the description work and keep the dialogue concise. The problem is though that often it seems like the images were drawn after the story was written. So when Reverie first enters the story, you have the protagonist in first person narration describe her, right down to her hair and ear-piece. But really, she's right there. I know what she looks like. What's the point of the visual part if you're just going to describe her to me anyway?

Though on the flip side, I think it is effective when the narrator later points things out about her as the picture changes. Like when she smiles and he points out as much, it tells me where the man's eyes are pointed, which is always a nice thing.

The other part where I think the artwork contributes is in the backgrounds. In the other Visual Novels that I've read a background is going to be a really boring picture that never ever changes. It's also kind of annoying, as there will be a big chair in the middle of a room and no one will ever sit in it. What Planetarian actually makes the backgrounds part of the story... I don't want to say too much about the fantastic astronomy scene, but if you're the kind of person that can (like me) be instantly distracted from anything by pretty space photos you are in for a treat. And certain images will hit the reader hard, no matter what his or her aesthetic preferences are.

I would post a picture to demonstrate that, but the scene I'm thinking of had such impact that I don't want to spoil it.

After artwork, comes sound...

Soundtrack-wise this isn't that exciting. A couple of good piano pieces (one of which I really like) and a few sorrowful tunes that set the mood well. An expanded musical budget to include some violins here and there would still have been opportune. During the battle scenes, you can hear gunfire and such as the fight is being described as if it were a novel, which I guess sets the mood (or at least isn't jarring at all).

The striking audio thing is really the dialogue...

All of Reverie's lines are spoken (in Japanese of course), but the protagonist's are not. I've read that in a later version of the novel the protagonist is voiced by Daisuke Ono (Koizumi from Haruhi). With all respect to Mr. Ono, I actually think that I liked the half/half structure stylistically. The protagonist is supposed to have a mysterious sort of air to him.



One of the objectives that the writer of this story has very early on is getting the reader to thoroughly love Reverie. That's in large part accomplished in record time by her voice. No matter what level of understanding one has of Japanese, her actress (who I looked up and found to be a completely unknown person who has done almost nothing besides this role) has this robotic sort of earnestness to her that is difficult for a reader to deny. That primal music of language that Patrick Stewart is always talking about is employed here to devastating effect.

All in all, I still consider Visual Novels to be a generally unproven medium. Most of Planetarian's success comes from the same place that any novel's success comes from - i.e. the writing. But I think that as production values increase and more things like Planetarian are made they'll become much more relevant to the discerning scifi fan. There's more ...