AoM Tower Phase 2: Rebuilding

[mccoyed]

Shortly after rediscovering the ruins of the old watchtower, Alva and her men begin cutting down trees to rebuild the tower. Casks of food and equipment are placed outside until such time as a barracks or other fortifications and shelter can be established. The important thing for now is getting enough of a view of the surrounding countryside to make the tower worthwhile.

After a few days, Alva is surprised to see that they have visitors. A pair of elves of the Briar Clan from the nearby Woody Hills come upon the camp saying "No, no, no... this won't do at all!" Though they are unarmed, they don't seem anything less than hostile as they look on the tower's woodcutting operation with utter horror. They explain later that the trees are younglings, the children of a particularly sacred and ancient Giant Pine. Though Alva's men counsel her to ignore the elves and drive them away if necessary, Alva thinks about Jarl Asbjorn and decides on a more diplomatic solution.

Days pass in stalemate. The elves are happy to see Alva has ordered the men to not cut any more trees down, but they are also failing to help her find a suitable solution to the problems of shelter and industry required to fortify the location. She needs a solution that means not abandoning the tower nor insulting the Briar Clan in a time when Mitgardia cannot spare the blood for petty or avoidable grievances. Such a solution doesn't seem feasible for the time being...

BONUS SHOTS:

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Edited April 9, 2015 by mccoyed

[LittleJohn]

Excellent work! The way you incorporated the wooden section onto the ruins is great Nice detail with the tree stumps too

[Adair]

Looks good so far! I'm not a fan of the mixing of wellow and tan, but other the that, great!

[mccoyed]

Excellent work! The way you incorporated the wooden section onto the ruins is great Nice detail with the tree stumps too

Thanks LJ!

Looks good so far! I'm not a fan of the mixing of wellow and tan, but other the that, great!

I think it's appropriate here, but thanks.

[Hobbythom]

Great build. If this were a set I'd buy it in a heartbeat!

[Kai NRG]

Great job transitioning from the grey to brown, I like the bright vibrant colors as well!

[soccerkid6]

Great second phase build, the addition of the wooden section fits perfectly The supplies add some nice detail, and I'm interested to see how they'll figure a way to finish the tower without angering the clan

[Lord Vladivus]

Nice! I like the details, like the stumps and nice use of the bear banner as well!

Edited April 9, 2015 by Lord Vladivus

[Jacob Nion]

Wonderful platform! I'm really excited about your phhase III

[mccoyed]

Great build. If this were a set I'd buy it in a heartbeat!

That is a heck of a compliment. Thanks a lot!

Great job transitioning from the grey to brown, I like the bright vibrant colors as well!

Thanks Kai! I think my new Galaxy S4 is partially responsible for the brightness of the colors.

Great second phase build, the addition of the wooden section fits perfectly The supplies add some nice detail, and I'm interested to see how they'll figure a way to finish the tower without angering the clan

Thanks SK. I have a great idea about that, actually!

Nice! I like the details, like the stumps and nice use of the bear banner as well!

Thanks LV. The bear banner is Jarl Asbjorn's standard.

Wonderful platform! I'm really excited about your phhase III

Thanks Jacob! Me too!

[Umbra-Manis]

Love the banner and tower!

[MassEditor]

A pretty and well composed build, great job! I like the ruined look of the fort, the tree growing out of the tower is a nice touch. The use of wedge plates to give the tower some texture is interesting. The wood accents are particularly good touch, as is the various vegetation. Certainly a nice break from the desert builds lately!

Nice addition to Alva's storyline, I imagine unity is a top priority against those marauding ice foes!

I also like how you're not bothered by mixing yellow/flesh figs in the same scene. I think I will do the same when representing elves as you have since the ones in my collection are solely flesh colored.

[Captain Braunsfeld]

It's beautiful.... it's so nice - it must be Mitgardia!

[Jakorin Swiftsword]

Just awesome work here. Well done!

[kabel]

wow, such a nice build, and it's good to see something happening in Mitgardia again!

[mccoyed]

Love the banner and tower!

Thanks. Asbjorn means "divine bear" or something similar (bjorn is bear).

A pretty and well composed build, great job! I like the ruined look of the fort, the tree growing out of the tower is a nice touch. The use of wedge plates to give the tower some texture is interesting. The wood accents are particularly good touch, as is the various vegetation. Certainly a nice break from the desert builds lately!

Nice addition to Alva's storyline, I imagine unity is a top priority against those marauding ice foes!

I also like how you're not bothered by mixing yellow/flesh figs in the same scene. I think I will do the same when representing elves as you have since the ones in my collection are solely flesh colored.

Thanks ME. I don't mind mixing the colors and I think it is a bizarre preferential weirdness that Lego enthusiasts have developed for basically no reason that I can detect. For me, I will even use flesh to represent different ethnicities in the context of a Lego world. My Faelites (Nocturnus) are "fleshy" humans but my Mitgardians are always yellow, for example. I see no problem with this, especially if we're also using the other shaded skin colors Lego has introduced with Lone Ranger, Star Wars Rebels, etc.

The goal is to provide a cue for visual distinction. If I use all-flesh Lego, I have to use the elf ears/hair pieces (which are too samey) in order to tell viewers that my elves are elves without having to outright say it. Here, it makes sense to use flesh for elves since all the Mitgardian humans in the scene use yellow and I wanted to use other hairpieces alongside the ear/hair ones. Everyone looking at this could tell that the flesh folk are elves (helps that they are using LOTR bodies too) without being told. It can be understood purely visually, I think. Ecclesiastes's use of human-length legs in his dwarven builds is something I think is visually confusing for exactly this reason. One must read his accompanying text to understand the full intent and context of the build. I want to give as much information as possible without relying on text, but I don't actually disagree with people who feel differently except that I would argue it's ineffective on a purely visual level. Flesh or yellow, dwarves are dwarves by visual cue because of the short legs. Same with kids. Other things help, like facial hair or young faces, to distinguish these groups. Thankfully for our wildly diverging views on this stuff, GoH has no canonized system for this so we're all free to use whatever visual cues we want. I do wish, however, that I could mix yellow and flesh just once without someone complaining about it. :P

It's beautiful.... it's so nice - it must be Mitgardia!

Awww. Thanks!

Just awesome work here. Well done!

Thanks Jakorin! Phase 3 coming soon!

wow, such a nice build, and it's good to see something happening in Mitgardia again!

Thanks Kabel.

Edited April 13, 2015 by mccoyed

[Blufiji]

Very nice build and as I said in 3, I enjoyed the story.