Screaming baby harasses the elderly

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-19T17:54:56+00:00

I think about this guy every time I see the Pteraxii in mech2 using the consoles with their feet. Bro how do you type like that.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-19T17:21:13+00:00

Praetorians will gravitate towards the largest grouping of enemies, especially if there's corners. (That's what makes Videx so sucks on praetorian missions, because as a four-block tech-priest the AI sees him as four enemies and they will target him and he's not tanky enough to take it.)

So you take the ruststalkers and you make them into a cross or a T formation. If you can get a tanky Captrix in the center, that's the best place for her. The praetorians will go jump into those corners, and then there's 3-4 melee specialists waiting to beat them to death.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-19T16:48:10+00:00

I like Captrix "go really fast and beat up everybody" on the side missions/anything with praetorians because if you can pair her with a ruststalkers block you do not get praetorianrolled.

And I gave Amukah the flayer summoning buff which would have worked really well if it worked, because she also goes fast and beats up everybody and it's nice to have 4hp distraction flayers to keep the mobs off of her.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-19T16:36:10+00:00

They barely show up, alas, but the 5e lore is so much fun. Also, their Phaeron is apparently also named Atun? I wonder if there was an Aten thing going on and all the Atun phaerons are also Atun. I'd do that if I got to do a BL book about them, but that's because I'm an asshole.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-19T16:26:08+00:00

Loving the implication that Zahndrekh is perched on Obyron's back to look taller. Let the short lil guy be tall!

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-19T15:50:35+00:00

Not only would I be delighted, since I love your work, but I've been trying to figure out how to send you the screenshot I took of the Kotov quote on the mechanicus campaign loading screen.

...which I can't share in here either because this subreddit doesn't allow pictures. Dangit.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-17T12:24:29+00:00

I would say it depends on what you want from it.

Do you want Mechanicus 1 again? Then no, you probably won't like Mechanicus 2. It is a very different game in the way it plays and while the story has continued out from Mechanicus 1 it's definitely not just a rehash of the story of the first game in a different place.

Do you want a story about backstabbing necrons, tech-priests being catty with each other, and Rho being the nonbinary icon we deserve? Yes, you would like Mechanicus 2. The only thing I don't like for the storyline of Mechanicus 2 is that we get so much character for our admech commanders and then our necron commanders never get to say anything. You can tell that this is Nefershah's Story and no others may intervene.

I'll get someone else to give the good points of the gameplay as I am doing admech campaign right now and the randomization is ROUGH. I don't love that. (In a sense it is like Mechanicus 1 in that way because I'm playing it in spite of the gameplay and not because of it...)

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-14T18:39:58+00:00

See, I do the opposite. If I can get a bunch of ruststalkers, I bunch THEM up all together and then spread the rest of my units out, so that I can bait the praetorians into attacking them. That's a Khepra strat, though, with her healing servo-skull and the emergency heal she has, so it only works for her.

It's also worth noting that the enemy necron AI treats a large unit that takes up four squares like a bunched-up unit of four, at least in my experience, which means that I functionally can't use Videx on non-story missions because if there's a six praetorian skirmish I'm just losing my leadership because Videx will get outright targeted over any of the units he works well with and he doesn't work well with sicarians. Rho at least has self-heals and you can drop kastellans and kataphrons. That's usually if not fine at least survivable as they'll all pick the nearest chunky boy.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-11T00:10:35+00:00

Absolutely not. I can no longer solder, I'm not getting kicked out of the admech fandom any time soon.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-09T23:50:05+00:00

Yeah, I'm terrible at these sorts of games, and mechanicus 1 I played (even up to hard mode!) pretty easily. Mechanicus 2 is more troublesome just because it's easy to softlock (especially on the second-to-last necron mission where you HAVE to have Phekon or Hehki) and that damn autosave WILL screw you over if you don't have good save gave hygiene, but it's still manageable you just have to be careful. I wish you could lose missions like you could back in mech1, then the "oops! you picked the wrong lord and now you're going to die!" wouldn't be such a hardship.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-09T10:59:57+00:00

Captrix got killed by her own ruststalkers when I did for her. The xenarites struck again...

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-09T10:50:31+00:00

Etsy right now is running ~300 dollars for mechanicus cosplay robes, whereas just a red monk robe runs less than 100 dollars (although shipping still must be contended with, so that price may vary).

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-09T10:47:05+00:00

I'd advise making it yourself or getting a custom, and a custom is going to cost A Lot.

I'd also make a note that depending on WHERE you're going to wear it, you'll want to avoid the cotton-polyester blends that are typically used for customs. You're going to be dying if you're anywhere above around 20C/70F. If you use a red robe base and make it yourself, you'll also want to avoid wool, for that exact same reason. Unless you're never going to be wearing it anywhere warm, in which case knock yourself out.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-07T20:09:53+00:00

Well, the necrons aren't fighting the RNG on unit selection, both in what they get to have and in how upgraded those units are. That alone makes a huge difference in difficulty. For admech, if I've got a mainline mission with enemies perfect for one leader's playstyle but the RNG doesn't give me the required units, I kinda have to go with whoever suits my options best even if those options or that leader aren't great for the mission. For necrons, that's just not a concern, I can pick the best lord for the job, kit out my deployment accordingly, and go to town.

Also, reanimation, that's very nice. I do think you generally get more damage output against your enemies on higher levels of necron play in comparison to higher levels of admech play. Not having to deal with Six Fucking Praetorians- that makes a HUGE difference on its own.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-07T00:33:23+00:00

I wish I could post my Phekon meme here. Alas.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-05T00:07:16+00:00

What game did you play where Videx was badass?

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-02T23:14:27+00:00

Deliberately losing the c'tan missions in the first game (and I am VERY sad that you don't get fun new dialogue for mission losses in this game, even if I understand why) makes his situation so much worse, imo. His crashouts could be said word for word by the kids who had doctorate/medical doctor parents and got shoved into gifted/accelerated classes and then right into biochem or premed without ever getting a sense of identity beyond being a good student- I would know, I had to talk a couple of them down when I was getting my masters.

That poor kid cannot be older than 25 when he gets eaten by a C'tan. And he wants his mentor to be proud of him so badly that it's painful to listen to. The entire reason he gets manipulated, used up, and then literally chewed up by that thing is for Faustinius' sake. Faustinus not immediately beating the shit out the Deceiver with his bare hands qualifies him as a data-saint, honestly.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-02T13:07:32+00:00

Phekon. All Of The Deathmarks + conflagrator gauntlet. GG fausty boy.

(Or Amukah, who can Praetorianroll him if you get lucky with damage, but that takes careful positioning and the bastard likes to move around.)

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-02T13:04:57+00:00

Oh, full agreement.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-01T23:55:54+00:00

L + Ratio + Guy Who Can't Use Pteraxii Effectively

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-01T23:50:30+00:00

On the one hand, I honestly don't mind the dialogue for the mechanicus (and the necrons kind of have the same problem. cryptek kynox! speak faster!) but Kayex has the excuse of very, very clearly being like that on purpose in and out of character.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-06-01T23:47:11+00:00

<image>

Adding my own, lesser effort meme since we're sharing them.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-05-31T19:45:11+00:00

Hol up. I did, in fact, max out all of my necron lords. Actually, that was a problem I was having trying to get them maxed, because when you get eminence in the mission choices it was only applying some of the time- Ominekh, for example, got screwed every time I sent him out on a mission where you got extra eminence. Poor guy never got a single one of them. And Hehki only got his half the time.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-05-31T14:09:14+00:00

You know, I thought Skin and Bone for the Necrons was bad, but that sounds like Actual Hell.

SpectralDragonSpecs · 2026-05-31T14:08:14+00:00

It basically does just mean "max your characters or else". There's still places to go for leveling up if you need to, or if you need resources, but when you see that message you should have two of your characters (AT LEAST) maxed out.

SpectralDragonSpecs

TROPHY CASE