Ish

Mod Podge is the best known brand of decoupage gunk*. It’s sort of like PVA glue, but also kinda like a clear coat and a primer paint. Back when I had more workshop space and was heavily into terrain building, I used a ton of this stuff. It’s got thousands of uses. My main use for it was to mix up a jar of mod podge with some black acrylic paint (don’t remember the ratio, just add some paint and stir, keep adding more paint until it’s all black). I would brush this on to all the foam, foam board, cardstock, MDF, and even balsa wood** terrain I made. Once dry, these things became basically as hard as any plastic terrain kit, were under-coated black, primered, and completely sealed against rattle can propellants! But there’s a ton of other uses for the stuff, including actually using it for decoupage! I would take the interior wall of a fantasy castle or a grimdark gothic cathedral and cut a balsa wood panel** to fit. Then find some appropriate artwork online, print it, and decoupage it to the balsa. Once the (clear!) mod podge was dry, I’d weather it up with sepia washes or whatever. Glue it in place inside the terrain. Presto. You’ve got a 32 mm scale Michelangelo-worthy fresco. * Not the technical term, I’m sure. ** This was before laser-cut MDF became so common.

I’m loving the Genestealer Cult. GW seems to have finally realized that “more different guns” isn’t the only way to make a distinction between factions.

That’s it. I’m sold. How hard was the kit to assemble?

The Hunter is a very reliable single lascannon on a decently durable frame. That’s it though. It’s a single reliable shot each shooting phase... Compared to every other Heavy Support slot unit available, it just doesn’t bring enough to the table to overcome that flaw: one shot. A Tactical Squad (which most Marine players will have 2-4 of anyway) with a multi-melta or a lascannon does this job. One Devastator with a lascannon picking a separate target from the rest of his squad does this job. A Predator, a Dreadnought, a Stormtalon, a Land Raider... So many other choices in the list do the same job plus something else.

A Warhound Titan is rockin’ a T 9, W 35, Sv 3+, with a 4++ that works against Mortal Wounds; A Knight Titan has a “mere” T 8, W 24, Sv 3+, with a 5++. The Warhound lacks the Knights’ option for mêlée weaponry, just having its titanic stompy feet, since it is a dedicated shooting platform. But considering that it’s “weakest” gun is a Heavy 20 6/-3/2 profile and it can shoot even at enemies with 1” of it (and walk out of combat whenever it wants) it’s not exactly defenseless.

10/10 Would fortify this position. Paintwise, I’d go with oily steel on the horizontal platforms and catwalks (gunmetal metallic liberally coated with black wash), a dirty concrete for the jersey barriers and “inner” parts of the walls (light grey base with darker grey patches all washed with sepia and black), and a rusting steel for the “outer” parts of the walls (gunmetal with streaks of sepia wash). The idea being that it won’t look too abandoned and post-apocalyptic-y, but also not too shiny and new. “Lived in,” sorta like something outta Firefly or Alien. You also want to try to stick to a neutral palate: dull metals, earth tones, muted colors. This helps keep the terrain in the background and let’s your miniatures “pop” more. Add some spot colors (industrial signage, lights, graffiti, etc.) here and there, to add some life but remember “less is more.”

Because you have to have a ninja... ___________________________________________________________________________________ | FREEDOM SQUADRON | | Character Sheet | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Character Name: Classified | Character Rank: Recruit | | Code Name: Snake-Eater | Total Experience: 0 | | Concept: Badass Ninja Assassin | Unspent Experience: | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Agility D8 | Smarts D6 | Strength D6 | Spirit D6 | Vigor D8 | |----------------|------------------|--------------|-----------------|--------------| | Boating | Academics | Athletics D6 | Intimidation D4 | | | Driving D6 | Battle | | Persuasion | | | Fighting D12| Healing D6 | | | | | Thievery D6 | Demolitions D4 | | | | | Piloting | Notice D6 | | | | | Riding | Repair | | | | | Shooting D8 | Streetwise | | | | | Stealth D8 | Survival | | | | | | Taunt D6 | | | | | | Tracking | | | | | | Tradecraft | | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | DERIVED STATS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Charisma (-2) | Pace (6) | Parry (8) | Toughness (6) | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | FOCUS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | HINDRANCES | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Major: Turncoat | Former VENOM agent, penalty in social situations. | | Minor: Stubborn | Always wants her way and never admits she’s wrong. | | Minor: Loyal | Always sticks by her friends, leave no man behind. | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | EDGES | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Assassin | Trained to be a profesional killer. | | Carnage Corps | See Commando's Handbook. | | Fighting Style | Power: See Commando's Handbook. | | Imp. Martial Art| Can reduce penalty for Called Shots on a Fighting roll. | | Martial Artist | Disadvantages for fighting unarmed negated. | | Quick | May redraw low action cards. | | Thief | Bonus to Thievery and Stealth rolls. | | Tricky Fighter | No penalty when attempting Trick and Fighting Attack same round.| |___________________________________________________________________________________| | ARMOR | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Locations | Armor | Emb. Tough. | Notes | |---------------|-----------|-----------|---------------|---------------------------| | Kinemesh Vest | Torso | 5 | 1 | | | | | | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | WEAPONS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Range | Dam | RoF | AP | Wgt | Shots | Notes | |-------------------------|--------|-----|-----|----|-----|-------|-----------------| | Beretta BU12 Nano Pistol|10/20/40| 2d6 | 1 | 1 | 0.5 | 10 | SA; -2 detect | | KRISS Vector SMG |10/20/40| 2d6 | 2 | 2 | 2.0 | 30 | 3RB; -1 detect | | High Tech Katana | |+d8+2| - | 4 | 4.0 | -- | | | Combat Knife | 3/ 6/12| +d4 | - | 0 | 0.5 | -- | | | | | | | | | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | EQUIPMENT | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Wgt | Notes | |-------------------------------|-----|---------------------------------------------| | Covert Surveillance Pack |10.0 | +2 to some checks relevant to surveillance. | | Intrusion Tools | 1.0 | +1 on some Electronics and Thievery checks. | | Multi-Spectrum Binoculars | 2.0 | x500 mag; +2 to Notice checks. | | Com Button | N/A | -2 to detect; one mile range. | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | VOCATION & SPECIALIZATIONS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Vocation | Ninja | | Specialization | Close Quarters Combat: Hand-to-Hand | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | BACKGROUND | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Snake-Eater's real name and origins are known only to General Steel and few other | | senior officers. She is known to have worked for VENOM as an wet-works specialist | | and left that organization under mysterious circumstances. She offered herself up | | to Freedom Squadron, literally just walking up to the front gates of the Carnage | | Dome -- a highly classified location not on any map! -- and saying she wanted to | | join the team. Corporal Carnage still wants to know how she managed that! | |___________________________________________________________________________________|

Here's another one, where I deliberately tried to make a combat-focused character. He still turns out decently well-rounded, while he has a definite focus on battle he's nicely balanced for both open field fire-fights, covert fisticuffs, and has some fun leadership tricks that can support his whole team. ___________________________________________________________________________________ | FREEDOM SQUADRON | | Character Sheet | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Character Name: Terrence "Terry" McQueen | Character Rank: Recruit | | Code Name: Pointman | Total Experience: 0 | | Concept: Badass Army Ranger | Unspent Experience: | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Agility D8 | Smarts D6 | Strength D8 | Spirit D6 | Vigor D6 | |----------------|------------------|--------------|-----------------|--------------| | Boating | Academics | Athletics D8 | Intimidation D6 | | | Driving D4 | Battle D4 | | Persuasion | | | Fighting D12| Healing D4 | | | | | Lockpicking | Demolitions D6 | | | | | Piloting D4 | Notice D6 | | | | | Riding | Repair | | | | | Shooting D12| Streetwise | | | | | Stealth D6 | Survival D6 | | | | | | Taunt | | | | | | Tracking | | | | | | Tradecraft | | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | DERIVED STATS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Charisma (0) | Pace (6) | Parry (8) | Toughness (6) | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | FOCUS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Assault Rifles, Knives, Throwing | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | HINDRANCES | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Major: Code of Honor | Always exhibits proper behavior for a soldier. | | Minor: Cautious | Avoids rash decisions and makes excessive plans. | | Minor: Loyal | Always sticks by his friends, leave no man behind. | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | EDGES | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Combat Reflexes | Improves ability to recover from being Shaken. | | Command | Allies recover from being Shaken more easily. | | Danger Sense | Always has a chance to Notice ambushes and similar surprises. | | Marksman | Bonus to Shooting rolls when not moving. | | Martial Artist | Disadvantages for fighting unarmed negated. | | Nerves of Steel | Able to partially ignore the results of pain. | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | ARMOR | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Locations | Armor | Emb. Tough. | Notes | |---------------|-----------|-----------|---------------|---------------------------| | KevRam Vest |Head, Torso| 6 | 1 | | | | | | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | WEAPONS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Range | Dam | RoF | AP | Wgt | Shots | Notes | |-------------------------|--------|-----|-----|----|-----|-------|-----------------| | FN Five-seveN Mk5 Pistol|12/24/48|2d6+1| 1 | 2 | 2.0 | 25 | SA; 3RB | | ACR IV Assault Riffle |24/48/96|2d8+2| 3 | 3 | 8.0 | 30 | SA; 3RB | | Frag Grenades (x3) | 5/10/20| 3d6 | - | - | 0.5 | -- | HW; MBT | | Combat Knife | 3/ 6/12| +d4 | - | 0 | 0.5 | -- | | | | | | | | | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | EQUIPMENT | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Wgt | Notes | |-------------------------------|-----|---------------------------------------------| | Combat Helmet Cam | 0.25| | | FS Alpha Operations Pack |25.0 | See Commando's Manual | | Com Button | N/A | -2 to detect; one mile range. | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | VOCATION & SPECIALIZATIONS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Vocation | Soldier | | Specialization | Infantry: Sniper | | Specialization | Special Operations: Sine Pari | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | BACKGROUND | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Terry McQueen is a veteran of the largest, most devastating war the world has ever| | experienced. That he survived is itself testament to his toughness and skill; that| | he would be recruited to join Freedom Squadron is proof that McQueen was able to | | do more than just survive. McQueen served the United States as an Army Ranger and | | did so with distinction and honor. But now it's time to bring to justice those who| | caused that terrible war. | |___________________________________________________________________________________|

A Barracuda (or two) flying escort for a Tiger Shark seems like a good "Anti-Knight" unit that will also be able to serve you well in dealing with Ork hordes and Marine/Guard mechanized lists.

Just for fun, here's the first character I through together... ___________________________________________________________________________________ | FREEDOM SQUADRON | | Character Sheet | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Character Name: Margaret Hilda Roberts | Character Rank: Recruit | | Code Name: Exchequer | Total Experience: 0 | | Concept: Badass Forensic Accountant | Unspent Experience: | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Agility D6 | Smarts D8 | Strength D6 | Spirit D8 | Vigor D6 | |----------------|------------------|--------------|-----------------|--------------| | Boating | Academics D8 | Athletics D6 | Intimidation D6 | | | Driving D4 | Gambling | | Persuasion D6 | | | Fighting D6 | Healing D4 | | | | | Lockpicking | Investigation D10| | | | | Piloting | Notice D6 | | | | | Riding | Repair | | | | | Shooting D6 | Streetwise D8 | | | | | Stealth | Survival | | | | | | Taunt | | | | | | Tracking | | | | | | Tradecraft D8 | | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | DERIVED STATS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Charisma (0) | Pace (6) | Parry (5) | Toughness (5) | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | FOCUS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Accounting, Economics, Intelligence Analysis (Mastery), Law | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | HINDRANCES | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Major: Curious | Must look into anything that grabs attention. | | Minor: Bad Eyes | Correctible with glasses. | | Minor: Enemy | Hated by VENOM's financiers. | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | EDGES | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Investigator | Bonus to Investigation and Streetwise rolls; some Notice rolls. | | Level Headed | Draw extra action card and keep best. | | Linguist | English native plus 12 additional languages total. | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | ARMOR | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Locations | Armor | Emb. Tough. | Notes | |---------------|-----------|-----------|---------------|---------------------------| | Kinemesh Vest | Torso | 5 | 1 | | | | | | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | WEAPONS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Range | Dam | RoF | AP | Wgt | Shots | Notes | |-------------------------|--------|-----|-----|----|-----|-------|-----------------| | Beretta BU12 Nano Pistol|10/20/40| 2d6 | 1 | 1 | 0.5 | 10 | SA; -2 detect | | KRISS Vector SMG |10/20/40| 2d6 | 2 | 2 | 2.0 | 30 | 3RB; -1 detect | | Combat Knife | 3/ 6/12| +d4 | - | 0 | 0.5 | -- | | | | | | | | | | | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | EQUIPMENT | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Name | Wgt | Notes | |-------------------------------|-----|---------------------------------------------| | Covert Surveillance Pack |10.0 | +2 to some checks relevant to surveillance. | | Intrusion Tools | 1.0 | +1 on some Electronics and Thievery checks. | | Multi-Spectrum Binoculars | 2.0 | x500 mag; +2 to Notice checks. | | Com Button | N/A | -2 to detect; one mile range. | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | VOCATION & SPECIALIZATIONS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Vocation | Special Agent | | Specialization | Intelligence: Analyst | | Specialization | Logistics: Personnel Management | |___________________________________________________________________________________| | BACKGROUND | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Margaret Roberts was a forensic accountant and financial analyst for the United | | Kingdom's Security Service, also known as MI5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5). | | Her knack for puzzles, genisu mathematics skill, and preternatural skill for new | | languages made her a vital part of the international war on crime. When VENOM was | | exposed to the world, Roberts was one of the many officers, special agents, and | | detectives who struggled tooth-and-claw-and-spreadsheet with them, trying to keep | | the world from falling into utter lawlessness and economic chaos. When Gen. Steel | | started looking for operatives outside of pure military service, Roberts' name | | was high on the list. | | | | Exchequer is an expert analyst, able to sift through mountains of data and work | | out what the enemy is up to. Exchequer's time in government bureaucracy has also | | given her a knack for getting a bit of professional courtesy when the chips are | | down and she can usually finagle help from local law enforcement. | |___________________________________________________________________________________|

G.I. Joe Freedom Squadron is the code-name for America's the United Nations' daring, highly trained, special mission force! It's purpose, to defend human freedom against COBRA VENOM, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world! Freedom Squadron is a game run using the Savage Worlds RPG engine that is an unashamed love-letter to 1980's Action-Adventure cartoons, comic books, and action figures. By far the most obvious influence is G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, but other kids who were fans of properties like Silver Hawks, M.A.S.K., and C.O.P.S. will feel it too. Young'uns born after, say, 1990 and old farts born before the late 1970's probably won't have quite the same instant level of nostalgic fondness... But, well, it's not like its a concept that's hard to explain: freedom-loving badass commando strike-teams of colorful heroes have a series of action-movie adventures against quasi-communist terrorists with a snake fetish. This ain't exactly esoteric. The basic Savage Worlds RPG system is a nice blanace between "rules light" and "crunchy," with the basic game-play mechanics being only about as complicated as, say, Unisystem, Cortex, or BESM. If you can remember a process as complicated as "take this die from an Attribute and this die from a Skill, add a couple of pluses or minuses, roll to beat a target number" then you can handle 3/5 of the game with just that. Basically, anyone who has ever played any kind of RPG or more complex boardgame should be able to master it in minutes. Total newbies to the hobby should be able to understand it in under an hour. Freedom Squadron adds two new elements to the game's core rules, one totally new and one cribbed from the author's work on the RIFTS adaptation to Savage Worlds: Vocation Frameworks was adapted from the character creation rules of Savage Rifts, allowing the player to choose a starting package of skills and abilities that reflect their primary role in the commando team, while also gaining cool extra abilities rolled randomly from various interesting charts. This is all on top of the usual Savage Worlds character building process. Basically, every Freedom Squadron hero is going to be head-and-shoulders more experinenced than the typical Savage Worlds starting character, but without just handing the player's a bunch of unearned XP to spend willy-nilly. So youre commando will be "the best of the best" and have some connections to the world, and not just a completely min/maxed pile of stats. These vocations are all pretty generalized and with plenty of scope for customization and themeing. They also aren't all strictly military either, yes you've got Soldiers, Sailors, and Government Agents... But you've also got Archaeologists, Journalists, and Athletes... and Ninja. Gotta have ninja. Plans & Operations is the second new element. A combination of standard RPG game play with some slight board game-y elements, that allows players to engage in multiple missions and actions in an "action cinema montage" style. Gathering intel, covert investigations, computer hacking, epic heists — anything and everything a team of freedom-loving badass commandos might do between or before firefights. They're pretty face paced, nicely open-ended, and allow you to do all the sorts of things you see in action-adventure cartoons and action movies that don't always quite "play well" in a standard table-top RPG. I mean, everyone loves the idea of being the badass chopper pilot or the suave art-thief... But that often runs into thing's like Shadowrun's "decker detour" where 3/4ths of the players are bored to tears whilst the GM runs a solo adventure for the hacker. Don't know if I'm ever going to have a chance to run or play this anytime soon, but wanted to share with everyone.

Micro Set does kind of the same job as a clear coat, but does it better. I'm sure someone on YouTube or the rest of the internet can explain the chemistry behind it. I can't. I just know it works.

Micro Set is applied to the surface that you'll be putting the transfer on, prior to applying it. I don't pretend to understand all the chemistry behind it, but it sort of moistens the area, breaks up residual oils (like from your fingertips), and has some kind of chemical reaction with the Micro Sol that makes the bond even better. Micro Sol will let you do curved surfaces, Micro Sol and Set will let you do jagged ones. It's amazing.

I used to have all kinds of problems using decals, then I got turned on to the miracle in a bottle (well, two bottles) that is Micro Sol and Micro Set.

And armies that don't have Terminator-class Deep Strikers, often have some sort of fast-moving flanker that can mount an anti-tank gun: Eldar Vypers, Tau Crisis Suits, Dark Eldar Venoms (not anti-tank themselves, but they can carry anti-tank infantry), and the like.

“Smellin’ a lot of ‘If’ comin’ off this plan...” –Jayne Cobb

Probably easier to use waterslide transfer paper and a trusty inkjet printer. Then you can just grab one of the seventeen gajillion free fonts on the Internet, play around with the pica size, kerning, and typeface in WordPerfect until you’re happy with it and print.

Women!? The Genestealers are going to give us all cooties! God-Emperor protect us from these foul alien creatures!

Yes, but you don’t want “basic” letters. You want fancy gothic minuscule font for that proper grimdark feel...

Well, yes... I kinda thought that saying these units could “be tricky to deal with, but they can be dealt with[,]” rather implied that the player opposing them would have to take active steps to deal with it. You can’t kill a lone Gretchin if you can’t shoot it or charge it. There isn’t a faction in the game that doesn’t have options for dealing with units of indirect firing artillery hiding behind line of sight blocking terrain. Not one.

Yep, they’re $7.00 USD each. Wave one is Ultramarines and wave two will be Blood Angels (currently Japan exclusive).

Most of the Guards’ artillery falls under the “heavy-but-not-super-heavy units” that I mentioned. They trade away the Russ’ durability for a bigger gun, of course, which makes them scarier on the offense but weaker on the defense.