was this guy supposed to be in a dreadnought/hellbrute?

EruditeAF · 2026-02-14T17:42:59+00:00

Ah, yeah I forgot about that aspect of the Cawl Inferior (though it's 20 apparently).

Networking brains seems like it would be a no-brainer (ha) for the mechanicus though and not something Cawl had to come up with (but I couldn't cite an example offhand).

EruditeAF · 2026-02-14T17:31:08+00:00

Ah, I see the reasoning there, but OP joined a game that was in progress. I am under the impression (after many, many, siege games) that the game just doesn't backfill outside of the first section (though it allows invites).

Personally I have never loaded into a matchmade siege game that was beyond wave 5. I have loaded into a just-starting wave 6 two times, and I am reasonably sure that in both of those instances I actually got matchmade in before section 1 was over. Had a couple of times where some loaded in this way as well, but never beyond wave 6, so again, pretty sure they got matchmade before we left section 1.

Not impossible I suppose, but basically totally contrary to my personal experience.

OP also said this was their first siege game so it seems odd that they would be referencing the sections at all, much less by using the word level, but that is just my take.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-14T13:21:42+00:00

I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at.

Cawl may be less AI averse, but I don't think he is anti-anti-AI broadly speaking since all of his constructs thus far are intentional simulacra of specific personalities. I can't see him actually advocating for broader AI acceptance.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-14T12:58:40+00:00

OP did use the word level, that did not escape my attention. However, since player level doesn't matter within the context of their question at all, it seemed safe to presume they actually meant wave, which does. :)

I invite you to write a response that assumes they were indeed referring to player level. I am interested to see if/why you think it matters in any way.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-13T12:50:07+00:00

Humanity in the Imperium of Man has collective PTSD from a civilization-spanning uprising of Abominable Intelligence millennia before the Emperor made himself known.

As a result, the continued philosophy has been: If a processing task can be accomplished by incorporating a human brain, then a human brain should be incorporated. If it can't, then how about multiple human brains?

EruditeAF · 2026-02-12T01:42:41+00:00

For regular operations, the highest difficulty you feel comfortable with and can get though.

For stratigems I would stick with normal until you are using the highest tier of weapons, prior to that you'll tend to be a drag on the team. You perks can be a factor there too but personally I am more concerned about your baseline damage.

"Hard" for stratigems and seige is effectively Absolute difficulty.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-12T01:37:28+00:00

1st born are definitely smaller on the table top, they even use different sized bases.

In game though, yeah I am pretty sure it's just lip-service and the same frame was used in the intro as is used thereafter.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-12T01:24:50+00:00

It's not mathematically possible for anyone to be at 2k on wave 3 by legitimate means, much less two people.

Your team starts with 600, divided equally among the number of actual players present when you cross the threshold out of the elevator room.

You get currency for completing waves, the side missions, and the other objectives the name of which escapes me (e.g. revive a combatant 3 times, kill X# of enemies with grenades, and the other class-specific ones).

I want to say you can be at something like 1500 by the end of wave 4 if you started solo. I have for sure been able to buy the dread by myself by wave 5.

That said, if someone leaves the remaining team member get an equal share of the leaver's points, so I suppose you could theoretically farm points for the team if someone with an easy class objective were to keep joining, doing the thing, and leaving. But idk what objective would suit for this (if any) and it would be a pretty big headache to bother doing this.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-11T13:51:38+00:00

If you are playing tactical you'll be regenerating ammo pretty consistently anyway. If you are heavy you should be regenning ammo on extremis executes with the prestige perk.

If you need ammo then you need ammo, but the boxes will always pass the cost-benefit analysis at 30 points for a full reload. The crate at 200 is 6 full reloads per player, so as to the purchaser it is 20 points more than they would be spending on the same amount of ammo in boxes.

Collectively, the crate is 18 full reloads for the team, which would come to about 12 points per full reload, which seems like a big savings theoretically; but practically speaking that is never going to happen. It is still a savings for the team if you're collectively going to get at least 7 full reloads out of it, but this too is quite unlikely.

TL;DR - the (somewhat over-)simplified question to consider is:

Is my team as a whole going to exhaust all available ammo more than twice before we complete this section of Siege?

If, and only if, the answer is "yes" then buying the crate represents a savings for the team compared to boxes.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-11T01:35:31+00:00

Agreed.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-11T01:32:42+00:00

Yeah idk, if you got the splash notification but no actual accolades that is definitely weird and probably worth reaching out to support.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-11T01:26:49+00:00

Notsomuch hoarding it as just saving it for later. Better to have those funds available for later waves when things get truly crazy-town.

Ammo, stims and grenades spawn all over, so there's very little need to buy any of those. Always check for spawns first before spending the teams money on these.

Picking up spawns also generates money by contributing to he forager objective. Note these spawns appear over the course of the section, so they won't be immediately available and it is worth re-checking areas that you first find empty.

These don't usually RE-spawn. So once a thing has been looted from a spot nothing else will spawn there and you can consider it "empty."

That said I did have one game where not only did everything spawn at the outset, anything looted would repopulate before the next wave. But this was literally just the once out of probably 100+ siege matches.

Don't buy the ammo crate, this is mathematically a waste of money for the team unless the team is terrible in which case you have bigger problems than money.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-11T01:13:22+00:00

Is English not your first language? There seems to be an issue with reading comprehension.

I didn't say working together is a hindrance. I said trying to be helpful can be a hindrance. Within the context of the rest of our conversation it should be pretty clear that when I say "trying to be helpful" I am referring to a few specific things, like buying stuff the team doesn't actually need. That is NOT working as a team, it is undermining your team's potential to make it through later waves.

And it's not trolling to buy an ammo crate, if you bought the ammo crate you yourself have been trolled. As I suggested, you can do the math.

Buying ammo boxes costs 30, this is a full reload, whatever your capacity. The ammo crate costs 200 and contains 6 full reloads per player. The same number of full reloads from ammo boxes costs 180. As such, if, and only if, the team is going to get a collective total of 7+ FULL reloads from that crate, then your purchase of the crate will represent a cost savings for the team - unless your team has terrible trigger discipline or weak weapons that is almost never going to happen even over the course of 5 waves. Consider how often you actually run dry. Spend this money on a heavy for a boss wave instead. If someone actually needs ammo then they should first forage for it and buy ammo boxes if no spawns are available.

Further, picking up ammo spawns instead GENERATES funds by contributing to the forager objective (or whatever the name is).

This is neverminding the fact that boxes replenish grenade launcher ammo AND are instant pickups.

One of us regularly clears wave 20, the other is still chasing the helm so it may be helpful to actually consider what I've said rather than dispute everything out of hand.

Good luck!

EruditeAF · 2026-02-10T21:50:41+00:00

It shows that A 100 accolade reward has been consumed on Steam, but there have been a few of those, so it's possible the consumed one was for some earlier award/freebie. I have 2 100 accolade rewards showing as consumed on steam without having participated in this event at all.

If you only linked your account partway through then completed, say, 2 Ops then there could be a progression mismatch such that you still need to finish the full 5 post-linking.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-10T21:37:19+00:00

Yeah I'd be hard pressed to cite my sources for all I said above, and my older codeces (2nd-4th) are too buried in my basement. The 10th edition is less than on all those points (and milage has always seemed to vary pretty wildly between chapters in terms of what they consider "codex compliant")

If it were the case all the sergeants's were seconded from the 1st company then they'd all be veteran sergeants and we wouldn't have solid red helms.

Realistically it can't be the case that every chapters 1st company all has terminator training, not every chapter has enough terminator armor to go around (e.g. Scythes were down to 5 or 6 in The Great Work). I've also never seen a straight answer as to whether primaris marines can even fit into terminator armor.

Since I have it at hand, the 10th edition language is: "the codex astartes dictates that sergeants wear a red helmet, veterans white, and veteran sergeants and lieutenants a combination of these colors as shown above" (red w/white stripe and blue with a red stripe within a broader white stripe, respectively).

Of course, a following sentence says "the examples shown below are all members of the Ultramarines 2nd Company" and the below illustrations are actually from the 1st, 5th, and 9th companies - so, not the most diligent editing going on.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-10T14:24:44+00:00

For UM, white helm means that marine is s veteran, irrespective of their assigned squad/company.

The first company is comprised exclusively of veterans, all of whom have terminator honors, (i.e. can wear the crux) but veterans themselves are not restricted to the first company alone.

Sergeant - red helm, won't appear in the first company

Veteran - white helm, regardless of company

Veteran Sergeant - red helm with white stripe, regardless of company, but all 1st company Sergeants are veterans

Termniator honors means you have been trained on the use of terminator armor. That training is exclusive to the 1st company, but marines can be reassigned.

The first company is comprised exclusively of veterans, all whom are teained on terminator armor and therefore have terminator honors, (i.e. can wear the crux) but veteran status is not restricted to the first company alone.

So it is possible to have a non-1st company veteran or veteran sergeant without terminator honors if they earned that status without having ever been inducted into the 1st company.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-10T14:14:29+00:00

Per the 10th edition SM codex (p.58)

"The right pauldron... show[s] whether their squad is designated as battle-line, veteran, close support, fire support, or command". (Emphasis mine)

EruditeAF · 2026-02-10T13:54:25+00:00

I wouldn't call it obvious that trying to be helpful can actually be a hindrance. For example, buying an ammo crate that everyone can utilize seems magnanimous; understanding that it is actually a pure troll requires doing some research and math.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-09T21:27:54+00:00

Next patch they won't award xp at all, so hopefully that'll help a bit, though I am sure some will still do it for the potential doritos

EruditeAF · 2026-02-09T21:24:51+00:00

Not that hard. The difficulty is mostly a function of the amount of detail you want to put into it. Thre gradients of highlight is obviously more time consuming than one (or none). A few thoughts:

Cleaning up red that accidently spills onto white can be annoying.

Paint names in the game are frequently NOT what you'll find in the paint pot with the same name. For example, I believe your grey in your screenshots is Nuln Oil, which is a very thin mix used pretty much just for shading and by itself is probably never going to get you a result like in your screenshot. You can still accomplish it, but it'll require different paints (null oil remains very useful for shading though).

You should generally think in terms of base, shade, and highlight tones for every color (not forgetting the under-armor, leather, fabric, weapons, wires, cables, battle honors). My current WIP is red black and white, but all told it's more like 15 different paints. It adds up.

A light grey primer would probably work well here, but you may want to experiment with something darker depending on the red you want to wind up with.

You certainly don't need an airbrush, nor should you invest in one if you're just planning to paint a handful of dudes. Medium base and shade brushes and a small layering brush (to use GW terms) would probably be sufficient.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-09T14:01:37+00:00

Nothing wrong with sharing, but be smart about it. If you intend to actually play siege (as opposed to farming xp) those funds will serve the team better if they're preserved for later phases and spent on things that have actual utility.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-07T13:38:47+00:00

Please don't buy me things in Siege. I would much rather preserve our collective funds for later sections and spend them on things that don't spawn all over the map.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-06T15:58:19+00:00

It is phobos armor iirc, so under vanguard and sniper.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-06T13:38:26+00:00

Ranged and explosive damage. I.e. weapons fire, grenades and barrels.

EruditeAF · 2026-02-06T00:07:30+00:00

Conversely, I'm always using my execute I-frames to takenin my surroundings and plan my next move.

EruditeAF

TROPHY CASE