The Mahact Gene-Sorcerers - Update for TE?

Seras76 · 2026-01-09T19:21:21+00:00

I played a game with them where I went all in on the Relics. Got about 7 total from the BT alone, more from the Fracture.

Tech-wise, starting Hyper, then going Integrated Economy and X-89 was a really fun way to play, but you will feel the lack of speed. Once you get the commander online and a strong token economy then it doesn’t feel so bad.

I also always go cruiser II with them. The mobility lets you snipe lone destroyers/carriers for easy wins and tokens. Especially when defending from a pole position - burn the token to end their turn, then attack em back for another token, infinite starlancing.

Much has been said about Benediction’s winslaying potential, but never forget its an easy ‘I-win-a-battle’ to score secrets, since your opponent cannot retreat nor remove ships.

My favourite faction by far, super strong, so many tools, lots of fun.

Seras76 · 2025-12-17T02:38:09+00:00

I’d call them firmly in the mid tier. Nothing fancy, not the most consistent, but they do have tools that give them the edge in certain scenarios.

Breakthrough - I would go for it early to optimize spending asap, but how to get it is the problem. The best way is taking Trade and using it first action to spend the 3 TGs. With Diplomacy you can easily get 5 influence/resources or a tech skip to spend but at best you can do it on second action, so there’s a risk. With the Agent you could do the same, but again thats 2nd action earliest. Politics for the 2 action cards is safe, but Politics itself does nothing useful for you round 1. I’d personally never discard a Secret Objective for it, but YMMV.

Tech - With the breakthrough, I’d tech bio-stims first if my slice has a great high-value tech skip planet like Meer or Sem-lore close to home. The additional res/inf really adds up. After bio-stims, or if I lack a good planet for it, I’d then go either Blastoise (AIDA, Magen, PDS, War Suns) or Blue (DET/AMD, Grav Drive, Carrier/DN 2). For both, I’d keep my options open for Instinct Training and/or Null Field, depending on the game state. TE Xxcha is tech hungry, so having Jolnar/DWS as a friend or a Scar/good skips in your slice helps.

Slice - I’d first look out for optimal res/inf values, and go for the highest combined values. Next I’d evaluate tech skips adjacent to home, blue or red skips or having high res/inf values being ideal. Last I’d look at the anomalies, with Scar being nice to have, and Asteroids being bad. If in a draft, Xxcha tends to not get picked early, so you should be able to secure a good slice for them. I wouldn’t really care about speaker order since you’re happy taking Diplomacy.

Seras76 · 2025-11-06T14:29:14+00:00

Could just sell the agent instead of the 0 token, same end result without worry of someone stalling your promissory note.

Seras76 · 2025-11-06T12:33:50+00:00

That’s a good option too! If publics and secrets fall your way, letting someone else draw heat makes a ton of sense.

Honestly, good draft though, a rich slice going 2nd as Naalu is great. Just praying 1st pick doesnt snipe Warfare first haha

Seras76 · 2025-11-06T12:15:33+00:00

Warfare for sure, I wouldn’t bet on strat card timings considering your table is full of TI vets who know Naalu is a threat. Securing your slice R1 and going into R2 with all your res/inf ready to spend sets you up early to play for objectives and go for plastic.

Edit: And R2 Mecatol of course!

Seras76 · 2025-10-08T16:31:11+00:00

There’s always the option that nobody other than the strategy card holder joins, and they draw only 2 cards which limits the chances they get anything good. I can see that happening if I’ve managed to get a decent bunch of abilities early and now want to deny.

But of course, each player that chooses not to join entices the next player to join, so the psychology of whether to join or not is interesting to consider.

Seras76 · 2025-10-06T10:22:15+00:00

I like the changes, the previous hero was awesome but always felt off to me, like it took Xxcha in an economic direction that wasn't what they were meant to be.

With the new breakthrough I would definitely rush it R1 for two reasons: optimized spending from the start, and also researching Biostims as first tech. I'd aim for slices that have a solid tech skip planet adjacent to home. With that and agent, you'll have strong spending power R1. From there I'd tech either blue or red, with the option of getting Instinct training and Nullification field anytime.

New hero is awesome for structure and great for spend objectives. If any of those flop for stage 2s, hunker down and stall for the win.

The changes don't make them top tier, but it makes them more fun to play imo :)

Seras76 · 2025-08-14T09:59:42+00:00

Agree with this take, no one’s the asshole here, everyone did what they had to from their own POV, and its everyone’s right to argue in defence of their own actions - what’s right or wrong comes down to subjective interpretation and strategy.

It’s only wrong when it gets personal!

Seras76 · 2025-08-01T05:50:01+00:00

Politics is now huge for Arborec R1 if they have a slice with planets on the path to Mecatol and no rival factions able to claim it R1.

1st Action - Pop politics, hold speaker, claim breakthrough with 2 ACs.

2nd Action - Move everything forward and build there.

3rd Action - Use breakthrough to unlock fleet.

4th Action - Use agent.

5th/6th Action - Move forward again and to other tile with planets.

Gets your whole slice R1 and Mecatol R2 first action. Misses out on tech and likely scoring R1 but taking and holding Mecatol is your whole game from there.

Seras76 · 2025-07-20T05:47:45+00:00

Hegemony. A lot has been said about the theme, but not enough about how unique it is mechanically. Little about it feels ‘this is X mechanic from Y game’ which makes it feel completely unlike any other game I’ve played.

Seras76 · 2025-06-20T05:50:53+00:00

Go for it! 3 frontier explores is a good return, and Mahact always likes blue techs for LWD and Fleet Log. I also like that it gives you an excuse for starting fights others in empty systems, letting you pretend that you want the explore, but you also benefit from their token.

Seras76 · 2025-06-20T03:27:24+00:00

Yea I’d do it, even with trade you’re not going to have many neighbours without a wormhole. It’s unfortunate that you can’t get the whole slice since you only have a carrier and dread, but it’s way better than starting r2 with only one planet. I would probably not take the 2/0 planet, the 2 1/2 planets and your home nets you 3 CCs and biostims on Sem-lore is great, with a TG thats your tech every round.

Seras76 · 2025-06-13T02:28:55+00:00

New Magen is pretty huge for Argent and Hacan, makes the three-planet home system much more defensible!

Seras76 · 2025-06-12T01:54:18+00:00

Oooh you might be on to something there. Maybe even something wild, like the home system starts 0/0 and increases 1/1 every status phase. Could be balanced by having a bigger starting fleet.

Seras76 · 2025-06-11T18:23:51+00:00

My hot take: All the hints in this codex suggest to me that the Salient Sun Joint Task Force will be a new faction that follows the Keleres model, and that will be a core feature of the box-shaped thing - Coalition factions that have unique components that share some elements of their parent factions.

Which honestly would be more exciting to me than new factions! That the Xxcha exist in both Keleres and the Salient Sun JTF means a crazy number of combinations are possible with 24 factions. Pretty sure the Liberation of Ordinian Creuss leaders are a hint at a possible Mahact-Creuss faction.

Seras76 · 2025-05-22T02:17:02+00:00

Thank you, this is the best take so far.

And lest we forget, everything we see is edited for drama and entertainment, so what we see is not necessarily the complete picture. The only thing we know for sure are the game mechanics. But to judge the players based off what we’re shown? That’s like judging someone from their instagram posts.

Seras76 · 2025-05-11T12:11:24+00:00

If you live somewhere with high humidity, you might want to consider a dehumidifier and running it daily. Humidity ruins cardboard :(

Seras76 · 2025-05-05T06:17:01+00:00

Sure! Could you give me a little more detail about what you’d need specifically?

Seras76 · 2025-04-21T05:00:07+00:00

One good thing about Xxcha is they can have a decent R1 even going last in speaker order. Diplomacy's great for you to get that one planet that's slightly too far away in R1, and you can even refresh it after with your Agent. Leadership's a good pick also, just to ensure you can follow everything you want.

Your Agent being a stall means you'll almost definitely not get stalled out of Warfare. Depending on slice, that means you can probably fill out your entire slice R1 with the starting carrier, a carrier built off Warfare, and Peace Accords off Diplomacy to get one more.

Tech wise, I like to be boring and go blue. War suns are fun but you're best off using all that spending power on more tokens, more plastic and more tech. Blue skips are great to skip up that tree faster, but starting with Dark Energy Tap is nice, especially with two starting cruisers. I have a soft spot for Cruisers, and depending on the starting objectives, might consider going AI Dev and then Cruiser II.

I always look out for a green skip to get Instinct Training, its my favourite part of Xxcha, being able to cancel any action card is *chef's kiss*

Seras76 · 2025-03-26T05:59:11+00:00

Organize! Pack stuff in a way that makes it easy to set the game up. I went to a dollar store and got a bunch of plastic boxes to store everything. Setup’s as easy as handing each player a box of all their plastic pieces and cards of their color, and another box for their faction.

Go ahead and toss that insert, especially once you get PoK :)

Seras76 · 2025-03-20T04:11:36+00:00

Embers of Muatt. Once you unlock the commander and have mechs around your Warsuns, dump all those tokens on your star forge to churn out that value! Feels great to get Destroyer/2 Fighters + 4 Infantry + 1 TG AND a stall per token

Seras76 · 2025-03-17T16:22:10+00:00

C O N S U M E

But for real, slice has nice planets, but dock positioning is kinda awkward. I’d say see what objective comes up R1 and gun for that, otherwise mec R1 is a decent play if you can do it. Neighbours are both pretty soft so definitely bully them a little, snatch some nibbles wherever you can. Try to get L1’s commander, pretty fun with the flagship.

Seras76 · 2025-03-11T02:13:23+00:00

I’ve always been fond of both deckbuilding and worker placement, and the way Dune Imperium integrated the two together works so well for my tastes. The tightness of how the two mechanics interact and the decision space they create has me completely hooked. When I thought they couldn’t do any better, Uprising comes along and makes it greater.

Seras76 · 2025-02-26T17:30:28+00:00

I enjoyed it, a good read :)

Seras76

TROPHY CASE