(for context on what this series is, please see my Day 1 post here: Redundancy Review: Day 1, “A New Beginning” – Rosalia Rambles)
Good morning worrywarts and fussbudgets, welcome to Day 463 of Rosalia Rambles Redundancy Review.
Small tangent I had to do a fair chunk of research on whether or not “fussbudget” was a real word, because I was not trusting the AI overview on Google when it came to finding out synonyms for “anxious person” which took me down a rabbit hole of finding out the word is used frequently to describe Lucy in old Peanuts strips, and the word itself has apparent origins in someone being fussy over trifles according to Merriam Webster.
There is your word fact for the day, courtesy of me trying to find words to describe an anxious person because that very much describes me right now getting ready to go to Vexpo tomorrow. Each year I resolve that I am going to go to more events like this, which usually ends up in me watching from the sidelines because I do not fancy the travel and accommodation to somewhere like London whilst Vexpo carries the benefit of being a direct train away from me, although a hotel is still required considering the activities I partake in usually finish right as the last train is getting ready to leave, and I do not exactly feel like sprinting to the station after having just attended a concert.
Speaking of, I currently have an absurd number of concerts I aim to attend, five in total across four days. Live music is one thing I absolutely miss from my pre-COVID adventure era, though whether or not I actually commit to all five will be a different story. Considering I was able to pass on my premium concert tickets last year due to stomper-boot related discomfort, I am sure I would be able to do the same again… though considering both Matara Kan and Densetsu.exe are part of the premium concert this year, I really do not want to miss it.
I think the thing that is making me the most nervous is the notion of talking to people. Probably because it is people I follow online whilst being someone who does not really use social media to interact with people and primarily appreciates the content they put out, it is going to be hard for me to start any interactions – though I do have my partner to help out with that in some instances.
I want to try take more photos with people, and remember to get people’s handles this year because I took so many photos last year where they either went uncredited or I had to go do a Discord/Twitter deep dive to try connect names to handles to outfits.
My aim for this weekend is to forget about my problems, treat it like I would a normal weekend before my life got completely upended by the redundancy last year and the layoff this year. Cheers for my oshis at the top of my lungs, hang out with awesome people, and disconnect from everything to temporarily live in a magical wonderland.
No worrying about job applications, even though I know the financial toll of this weekend is probably going to be somewhat regrettable. No worrying about my writing work, even as I create memories that I will want to record here. No worrying about what the future might bring, because I aim to live solely in the wonderful moments I want to experience.
I want to live like I used to, and this is my perfect opportunity to do so.
But, I still have a schedule to keep for the time being, and it is time for another Warhammer Wednesday post – this time featuring my partner and my friend Aaron.
The three of us have taken to doing Space Marine 2 sessions on a somewhat regular basis, aiming for it to coincide with Warhammer Wednesday by playing on Wednesday, but due to another friend’s schedule shifting and me needing to reschedule my Thursday game night, we have been playing in somewhat adhoc sessions, hence why we had a Traitor Tuesday session last night.
We did a fairly difficult operation as a warm up which we promptly ate shit on before moving to the actual focus of the evening: Siege Mode.
Siege Mode is Space Marine 2’s standard horde mode, added as part of post-release content in June last year. The structure is simple, fight waves of either Tyranid or Chaos forces in sets of five, with each wave adding in more extreme threats as time goes on and each fifth wave bringing a massive boss fight in to cap off the set.
Each set of five waves starts off with you being able to receive a “Blessing”, which is a choice of three unique perks that aim to help you in your run. Outside of the ones pictured above there is also:
- Passive health regeneration
- Melee damage increasing with each consecutive attack
- Unique ability recharge times decrease
- Higher threat level enemies take increased damage
To name a few of the more entertaining ones. Additionally, in the “Hard” version of siege there is a mechanic called “Atonements”, modifiers that last for a period of five waves and are replaced with each new set of five waves. These can include dodging causing you to take damage unless it is a perfect dodge, bringing down fog of war to minimise visibility to within thirty metres, and either making it so staying close together or moving too far apart cause armour regeneration to be disabled. For now, considering we struggled to make it through twenty waves, we stick with the normal siege.
Throughout the siege, you are able to earn requisition points by completing combat challenges or side objectives or by having a Tech-Priest on the field which will act as a source of requisition points for five minutes – provided it stays protected. These requisition points can be spent on a multitude of helpful resources to assist you in this unrelenting battle.
Various pieces of consumable equipment such as grenades, stimms, or ammo reserves form the top row. The second row allows you to summon a Space Marine to reinforce your character for five minutes which adds additional firepower and a specific buff depending on what class you selected. Third row is Imperial Guard reinforcements, scaling up how many Guardsmen accompany you in battle alongside the option to bring in a commissar which will continually reinforce fallen Guardsmen and provide a buff to their attack strength. In the fourth row you can reinforce the area this requisition terminal is in, adding one or two Tarantula sentry turrets, mines, explosive barrels, or the aforementioned Tech-Priest.
The final row is one all players can contribute towards. 1250 requisition points allows you to summon Valtus, a Redemptor-pattern Dreadnought who will aid you for five minutes similarly to a Space Marine reinforcement… except way more powerful, packing way more heat, and able to demolish whatever even the hardest waves have to offer. Valtus absolutely saved our asses in both wave 15 and wave 20 and we would have likely needed him to make it through wave 25.
Siege mode is tough, even with three players who I would like to call somewhat experienced with the game and its mechanics. Special mention goes to any of the bosses that can spawn when Chaos forces are in play, with the beguiling Terminator Sorcerer an absolute nightmare to hit at either ranged or melee distance and the Mutalith Vortex Beast being a bullet sponge of unrivalled proportions that has absolutely unrelenting attacks and no clear weak spots for my partner as a sniper to take out.
On the flipside, it is actually the second-highest level of Tyranid threat that we struggle with. Lictors appearing from the shadows to launch devastating ambushes, Raveners bursting out from underground to conduct similarly annoying sneak attacks, and the mobile artillery platform that is the Biovore firing off spore mines and poisonous attacks before running away to a more advantageous position, making it harder for me as an assault unit to keep up with them.
The highest level threat enemies of the Hive Tyrant, Carnifex, and Neurothrope fall extremely quickly to my partner as a sniper, to the point that when these enemies spawn we rarely feel in danger compared to when other enemies overwhelm us.
That said, I would not trade the chaos for anything else, as getting the opportunity to spend time with my partner and a close friend of mine is absolutely irreplaceable in my opinion, especially when the mode is an absolutely perfect way to grind levels up, with Aaron going up eight levels in one session, and myself as a higher level character going up four levels.
Even as schedules change, and we need to find time wherever possible, spending time with those close to me is a vital way of me staying sane as I navigate the challenges of unemployment.
That will do it for the final Redundancy Review before I head to Vexpo, next time you hear from me will be my megapost recapping my adventure. Thank you for reading today’s edition. Wherever you are, I hope you can stay relaxed and stay positive in the face of adversity.
Life is worth living.
Rosalia Rambles 