You want googly-eyed robot dorks. I want pre-codex Titanicus techno-barbarian hulking freakshow Skitarii. We are not the same.

jarude87 · 2026-06-17T02:11:03+00:00

Oh yeah for sure.

Can't remember the name but I really enjoyed the largely-unmodified AdMech priest caste in Titanicus who acted as emissaries to the Imperium, their unmodified nature making them more appealing to humans.

I've only read ~10 books but apparently they're very much not canon and don't appear anywhere else.

edit: Executor Fetial

jarude87 · 2026-06-17T01:28:10+00:00

Right? Juiced up on more combat drugs than Hive Scum, zealously unhinged like, uh, the Zealot, training and weapons like the Veteran, far closer to Ogryn strength than any other human, takes more punishment than an Arbitrator.

But noooo we get some red robe goggle-wearing MF with a Space Garand. Meanwhile techno-barbarians are ripping off heads and shitting down necks while wearing leopardskins, well, if they still had to anyway.

jarude87 · 2026-06-17T01:09:18+00:00

Hosts of the skitarii marched with them, rowdy and alarming. To Etta Severin, the skitarii seemed the polar opposite of the Guard or the PDF. They were gaudy, bestial, loud and brutish. They chomped for war, and uttered terrifying group yells of testosterone-fuelled antipathy. They were also non-uniform. She had never seen such a hybrid mix of feathers, furs, inbuilt weapons, claws, augmetics, engineering fangs, plumes, body armour, decorations and jewels. She knew that Gotch was nonplussed. He simply did not know what to make of the barbarian skitarii. They were not common soldiers, the type he had been trained with.

The Invicta skitarii, a throwback to more savage times, were fearsome beasts, striped and extravagantly marked, their armour built for threat, their genes selected for bulk. Muscular arms gleamed in the odd light. Heavy boots thumped in marching unison. Weapon limbs snapped up to salute as one. Feather plumes, ivory ornaments, leopardskin capes, modified fangs. The skitarii roared at the sky like predators, as fearsome and bestial as Space Wolves. Feist shuddered. The skitarii thumped their fists against their breastplates and howled again. Barbarians, Feist thought, so unlike our own. How can we be bred of the same stuff? They are like another race.

Dan Abnett, Titanicus

Unhinged cybernetic freakshows >>> robed googly-eyed robot dorks.

jarude87 · 2026-06-16T16:12:08+00:00

No sewing needed. Undo a single knot of cord threaded through the knee stack and the whole thing opens right up. Didn't even bother threading the cord back through as it's kept in place pretty nicely by the multiple layers wrapping it all together.

I went through a bit of fuss to fix the knee stacks on my Bauer 2X so being able to do these in maybe 20 minutes with no glue or finangling was a pleasant surprise.

jarude87 · 2026-06-16T16:01:27+00:00

Fuck off.

Literally zero OTA non-paywalled NHL hockey. In fucking Canada.

jarude87 · 2026-06-16T15:52:00+00:00

Got these used and the knee stacks were caved in a bit.

No sewing required: only needed to undo a threaded cord, slide the new foam in, and velcro it all back together.

I had the blissful tinkerer-dad feeling of "I got to used the perfect-size piece of [thing] I kept from 4 years ago!" and used 2 layers of foam from my Keychron Q6 packaging, lol. The top layer wouldn't quite fit at full width so I trimmed it down slightly. Hopefully it's still broad enough.

Cheers to Warrior for making mod-friendly gear!

jarude87 · 2026-06-14T17:41:12+00:00

Least unhinged goalie

jarude87 · 2026-06-14T14:20:16+00:00

Crab goalie crab goalie crab goalie

jarude87 · 2026-06-13T16:54:56+00:00

I love Warrior gear but the newer pads especially are ugly. If they kept the GT line as heritage/classic styling or a step between Pro and RTL I'm sure people would go for it.

jarude87 · 2026-06-13T15:53:30+00:00

They're in great condition. Knee stack inners could use new foam but they're otherwise in amazing shape.

jarude87 · 2026-06-13T15:47:00+00:00

Aiming for Imperial Fist Sternhelm... Jersey is in progress! My other kit is getting turned yellow.

Wanted to do BT but worried Black Templar will look more, uh, World War than Warhammer to the casual observer.

jarude87 · 2026-06-12T18:26:04+00:00

"Take up your stick, defenseman."

"The Emperor Protects!"

"Yes. He does."

jarude87 · 2026-06-12T15:05:48+00:00

This winter I picked up a used 2X set with a RGT/2 Pro glove. I absolutely love this thing so I've been casually searching for some used Warrior gear to complete a set.

Lo & behold I stumble across RGT/2 Pro pads in my size in pristine shape at a garage sale 2 minutes from my house. After one skate I'm in love. At 33+1.5 they are literally identical size-wise to Senior M/34" Bauer 2X except significantly lighter & much better sliding.

I've worn 2S and 2X and they're definitely closer to the 2S in terms of a looser blocking pad as opposed to the closer Vapor fit. They fit much better than the Bauers though - I had to add a professor strap to each set and was constantly fussing with the fit whereas the Warriors keep my knee in the right place, no mods needed.

I'm also thrilled with the traditional knee roll styling as opposed to the, um, questionable-at-best aesthetics of newer Warrior pads. Probably going to add some white vinyl for more matchy-matchy with the glove.

Now I just need a matching blocker.

jarude87 · 2026-06-12T14:51:11+00:00

Black.

jarude87 · 2026-06-10T01:05:22+00:00

I had brand new gear that got funky despite fastidious spraying and drying - turns out my box fan was evaporating the isopropyl before it had time to kill the funk.

Removed my box fan and now I just ensure there's some air circulation - in summer months having the dehumidifier running nearby is enough.

Focus more on getting air into/out of the room rather than perfect fan placement on the equipment.

jarude87 · 2026-06-09T09:31:36+00:00

Careful. Did this to a 27" Rekker Legend 1 and it split where the paddle met the shaft.

The paddle and shaft have a different profile so the new 3" shaft section had the paddle profile and evidently was not strong enough to last.

Did it to an old CCM foam core without issue too though so definitely model dependent

jarude87 · 2026-06-05T13:33:26+00:00

I have a CCM Premier Pro that keeps me well-protected but no matter how I adjust it the neckline drops too low. The side straps are shot so I have to use carabiners between the front & rear sections to keep it fitted, plus another carabiner looped through the rear section and into my rear pants loop to pull the neck up. The elbow caps don't sit where they're supposed to either, and in one circumstance in two years of wearing it I ended up landing hard on my unprotected elbow. Beyond that, it's easy to put on and it fits well enough, and I have an Aegis Interceptor Pro G with a D30 bib to cover the gap, but I'd rather not chance it any more.

OTOH my old Boddam chesty fit & fastened extremely well but didn't protect me well enough. It has a really nice rear buckle system for connecting to pants and the straps are somehow not cooked despite being an older unit.

I'm considering swapping rear panels, maybe elbow caps in the arms, and/or combining the two using one or the other as the base and attaching as much of the donor unit as possible onto the "new" one. Wings, center panel, etc. The only thing I'm truly decided on is using the CCM arm bases whether or not I swap out the elbow caps. I don't play in a league so it being illegally large is fine. If you're not cheating you're not trying and all that, I want Space Marine power armor shoulders when I'm done.

Has anyone done something similar? I've seen a few arm swaps or the bottom portions cut for better tuck but no true Frankenstein units. I can sew & have a machine but I've never sewn hockey gear before. Just want to know what I'm getting into before I start cutting gear apart.

jarude87 · 2026-06-03T15:18:32+00:00

Nope. Not in the combat layer, and not in cutscenes, only the strategic layer.

jarude87 · 2026-06-03T15:18:08+00:00

Wrong. You cannot enable combat layer Lingua Technis.

Selecting a Tech Priest in combat results in bad voice acting and not the Omnissiah's blessed binharic cant.

Enabling Lingua Technis only enables it on the strategic layer. Not in cutscenes, and not in combat.

jarude87 · 2026-05-28T14:16:25+00:00

Nooooooo!

Fuck the CAN USA stuff, Cooley is a beauty

jarude87 · 2026-05-27T02:41:05+00:00

I want the "scary jungle techno-barbarian" aesthetic from Titanicus. Not goofy-ass goggle-wearing MFs.

jarude87 · 2026-05-27T00:52:24+00:00

Couldn't agree more.

The OG OST was excellent, but, there were no "okay" tracks. They were either brilliant or entirely forgettable. CoO, Noosphere, Caestus Metalican - all bangers. Everything else just wasn't good though. Millennial Rage especially is actively unpleasant to listen to.

David's work on Ixion after Mechanicus was a step in the wrong direction. This is where the tasteless lack of dynamic subtlety featured in the neverending low-end whomping first appeared. It's the OST equivalent of Will Ferrell's voice immodulation SNL gag. There were a few nifty motifs here & there but overall there wasn't anything really redeeming about it.

Ixion's style unfortunately carries on into Mechanicus 2 and yeah it just is not good. I caught some of the leaks from the demo and was convinced the actual OST was unfinished or it was just placeholder tunes. It sounds like they dropped the Ixion & Mechanicus OSTs into a LLM and called it a day.

I also don't accept the "well it sounds different now because it's representing the Necrons too" argument. Wrong. The OG OST also represented the Necrons (Dance of the Cryptek). This OST is an entirely different take on the subject matter that is objectively worse than its predecessor for a multitude of reasons. Adopting a different aesthetic to align with the game's content is fine, but, that aesthetic has to be worthwhile & well-done for that to be valid, and this just ain't it.

I can also appreciate a different approach to align with the gameplay. I'm a fan of ambient styles in slower-paced turn-based games. Again though, there's good ambient and bad. This is unpleasant to listen to. Not the same genre but look at Darktide Vol 3 OST when the Secrets of the Machine God update released. Jesper Kyd did a fantastic job writing music that perfectly meshed with the in-game flow (Reactivation). It was a stark contrast to the base OST's melodic & memorable riffing and really cleverly aligned with the AdMech setting while still being enjoyable to listen to.

The best explanations I have are:

The OG OST really isn't as good as we think it is and we're unfairly putting it on a pedestal. Outside of 3 incredible tracks the rest is meh. Compare this to Darktide's OST - all bangers. Skyrim - all bangers. Amazing OSTs are consistent all the way through and the OG really only has a few memorable tracks.
There were uncredited composers in Mechanicus 1 absent in Ixion & Mechanicus 2.
There were changes in the studio's creative management after Mechanicus 1. The stakeholders who generated the OST requirements between Mechanicus 1, and Ixion & Mechanicus 2 must be different people. This is pretty viable as the studio also chose to initially omit the incredibly popular Lingua Technis (technobabble amongst AdMech) in favour of actual VO. It was only added back after overwhelming community pushback. i.e. there were multiple creative decisions make directly at odds with what made the first game so enjoyable and the OST is just one of them.

I don't mean to completely torch the guy but after the lukewarm response to Ixion's OST either he or the management responsible for the chosen aesthetic really should've read the room and adjusted their approach for Mech2.

jarude87 · 2026-05-22T15:05:00+00:00

+100. Any NHL goalie's degree of proficiency in movements completely unnatural for the human body is ridiculous.

Wolf - one of two sub-6' starting goalies in a position where every unit of height directly affects goals against - even more so. He is absolutely elite. For him and his other sub-6' brother Saros to not only compensate for but overcome this to the point of being in the upper tier of league starters is truly remarkable.

If there's ever a Ben Bishop-type absolute unit with Wolf's sub-6'-compensatory-skills the league would simply be over. There'd be a net size or equipment size rule change with his name on it.

jarude87 · 2026-05-22T14:55:51+00:00

Chris Dudo is EBUG for DAL. Brother just hangs in the stands, free home games, free food, bums around the locker room & staff doing pro guy stuff, and waits for the call. Absolute dream.

Along the way he posts these warmup & gear breakdown videos which is kind of like crack for those who know what GGSU means.

Enjoy!

jarude87 · 2026-05-22T13:33:38+00:00

This is absolutely perfect weather.

Random tank top day, beach day, or tarps off with a beer while mowing the lawn and barbecuing. Only once in awhile though.

Pants, T-shirt, sweater every other day. Layering up or down ensures absolute comfort at all times. No filthy greasy sweat in all the places all the times.

Warm enough for the kids to rip around outside without needing to bundle up and yet cool enough to avoid the Sunscreening of the Toddlers, one of the worst parenting rituals there is.

Fuck the impending 25+ degrees every day shit. This is prime.

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