Casualties of War

[Full Plate]

Casualties of War

Chapter I: The Tranquil Meadow

Chapter II: Old Bagshaw's Residence

Chapter III: The Poacher

Chapter IV: Making Camp

Chapter V: Solitary Council

Chapter VI: Escaping Home

Chapter VII: Waylaid

Chapter VIII: Archery Practice

Chapter IX: Honour the Fallen

Chapter X: Casualties of War

Bonus Landscape: Avalonian Countryside

- 'I don't see why we can't just make camp like usual', Harlon argued. 'Never had anything good coming from meddling with the locals.'
- 'That's because you treat common people like dirt', objected Nyle. 'People don't generally want to help anyone that thinks of them as a nuisance. If you could just play nice for once we might even have a shot at some nice homecooked food and some indoor sleeping.'
Sir Darby didn't quite share Nyle's optimism. Like Harlon, he preferred to not involve more people than necessary when on the road. But he was also conscious that Nyle might be needing a break from everything, if only for one night.
- 'Well, it won't hurt to ask', he stated. 'Why don't I go over and check if anyone's home and if they happen to have some spare food and perhaps someplace to sleep?'
- 'I'm coming along', Nyle stated.
- 'Fine. I'll just stay here so my unpleasant personality doesn't ruin your prospects', Harlon said wryly.
- 'You do as you please', Nyle replied and urged his horse towards the small cottage.
Sir Darby sighed. Somehow, getting these two to get along seemed harder than keeping up the morale in a camp full of soldiers.
- 'We will be right back', he told Harlon and moved to catch up to Nyle.

As Sir Darby and Nyle approached the cottage an old man came out to meet them. Sir Darby could also spot a younger woman in the doorway, peeking out at them with a worried expression.
Sir Darby dismounted.

- 'Evening sir. We are travellers on our way to Newquay. We were wondering if you might...', Sir Darby started.
- 'No, we do not', the old man interrupted.
Sir Darby took a moment to recover from being cut off.
- 'All we're asking is...', he continued.
- 'But you're not asking, are you?', the old man interrupted again. 'You are obviously men of importance, and men of importance never ask men of no consequence like me for anything. You demand and you take.'

Sir Darby assessed the situation. There was obviously nothing for them to gain here and they should head back and look for a proper campsite. Still, he felt himself sympathise with this old man. Anger and hurt were no strangers to Sir Darby, though it was long since he had let them touch him - a man in his position could not afford to.
Yet these feelings were clearly recognisable on this man's face. This house had experienced loss, most likely on the battlefield in service of Avalonia. Probably the husband of the young woman peering out at them, which would make it the man's son or son-in-law.
- 'I'm sorry for your loss', Sir Darby offered.
The man's face betrayed a short moment of surprise, before pain and determination again took over.
- 'What does that do for us?', he asked sternly. 'Is that going to bring our family back to us? Men like you came and took my son away without warning! One moment we were plowing the fields and the next I watched him march off in a long row of dirty young men.'
The man continued.
- 'Would that all you did was take something away from us though, but your pack of filthy recruits brought something to us as well. The plague.'
The man began to tear up.
- 'My wife caught it, but she didn't tell me, and I was too busy making up for my son's absence at the farm to notice. Then one day she showed me her blackened foot and told me she had to leave. I told her she couldn't leave, that we should go see Mr. Oates, that he would help us. She agreed, but the next morning when I woke up, she was gone. Gone, never to come back. In a matter of weeks our family had destroyed, and for what? For you to have one more person to throw away in your little game of war?'
The old man sighed, the anger giving way to dejectedness.
- 'In the beginning we held out hope that Thom might return, but months turned to years, and we knew he was not coming back. Not that anyone had the decency to tell us, but we knew. When I saw you coming I thought that maybe... maybe we would get word of what had happened. To have confirmed what we already know. But you are just another person here to get something from us. I'm sorry, but all that we could possibly give has already been taken away from us. You took it from us. We have nothing left.'

Sir Darby looked at the man for a moment. There was nothing he could do for him. His son might even have been under his own command. Perhaps he had sent him to his death. He had had a number of Thom's serving under him, but there was no way to tell if it had been this man's son. He could not offer him the closure that he needed.
One thing he knew though, that he was responsible for this man's suffering. Perhaps not directly in this case, but how many more like him were suffering for the choices he had made as a commander? In this moment, that burden weighed heavier on his shoulders than it had ever done.
Sir Darby mounted his horse and started back to Harlon. Nyle followed suit.
- 'Life has dealt you a poor hand', he thought to himself.
He was not sure whether he was referring to the man or himself.

***

Been quite a while since I last built for Avalonia, but the Swedish Lego Maffia gave me an offer I couldn't refuse, so here I am ;)

Seriously though, I have had this cottage (minus the roof) standing around for over a year, trying to figure a good way to make thatch for the next episode in this story line. It finally clicked about a month ago, and so here is the finished product.

Feeling a bit rusty with the story telling, but whether it's good or not, writing is fun :)

Ironically for such an old build, I actually ended up having a deadline for its completion as the LEGO Store in Copenhagen wanted to display it, so a few details that could have used some extra work had to be left as is.

Hope you enjoy the build either way :) Happy to be back in any case!

Edited October 30, 2018 by Full Plate

[Garmadon]

Well, somebody's got a lot of light tan poles!    Clever roof solution and neat little cottage, Full Plate, and the vegetation is nicely laid out as usual too   I also really appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into your stories here - keep it up! 

[mccoyed]

Awesome build. The landscape is the standout to me. So lush and full of interesting foliage.

[zoth33]

Wonderful job.  I love all the different plants you created.  Especially the various bushes.  The dark brown and the white look nice for the house.  The roof is great too, the tan poles give it that dried vegetation look.  The story is set up very well too.  

[halixon]

That has got to be the best thatch roof I've ever seen! Amazing build!

[Basiliscus]

Obviously the stand out piece is that amazing thatched roof, really great job on that. I'd love to see how you held them together so tightly, if you are willing to share it'd be well appreciated.

Fantastic landscape too, I like the way you've used 2x2 L plates as foliage, never seen that before but it works well.

Finally, the story you've concocted is great, enjoyed reading that and I can just imagine hundreds of grieving fathers, wives and children all across Historica dealing with similar feelings.

[Muakhah]

That is a wonderful overgrown garden.  Such a variety of plants and growth but all coming together so well.  The cottage itself is lovely, and the story emphasizes that this is indeed a time to rebuild the many things that were lost.

[Kai NRG]

The roof looks just amazing in the close-up shots, and your vegitation as always is stunning.  I really like the single white flower in front of the window.  Enjoyed reading the story too!

[adde51]

Great work man, and very glad that we could trick you back in, haha! When SLM comes asking there is no declining .

As I already told you the build is great, that roof is stunning. I'm still torn between whether I like the build or the story the most, which is saying a lot given how awesome the build is! Great job man

[Full Plate]

On 10/30/2018 at 10:55 PM, Garmadon said:

Well, somebody's got a lot of light tan poles!    Clever roof solution and neat little cottage, Full Plate, and the vegetation is nicely laid out as usual too   I also really appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into your stories here - keep it up! 

Thanks Garmadon! Was quite fun to build for Avalonia again, though I do feel a bit rusty with the storytelling, and I had to read through all my old posts to get a grip on what's going on :D And no, I don't have a lot of tan bars... anymore ;)

 

On 10/30/2018 at 10:59 PM, mccoyed said:

Awesome build. The landscape is the standout to me. So lush and full of interesting foliage.

Thank you! Glad you like the landscape :) I actually reused quite a bit of flora from some of my old builds, but since building landscape is an organic process, they usually get a unique feel :)

 

20 hours ago, zoth33 said:

Wonderful job.  I love all the different plants you created.  Especially the various bushes.  The dark brown and the white look nice for the house.  The roof is great too, the tan poles give it that dried vegetation look.  The story is set up very well too.  

Thank you :) I really like building nature, so been trying to come up with different types of plants.

 

18 hours ago, Windusky said:

That has got to be the best thatch roof I've ever seen! Amazing build!

Thanks! The roof was by far the most frustrating part haha.

 

13 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

Obviously the stand out piece is that amazing thatched roof, really great job on that. I'd love to see how you held them together so tightly, if you are willing to share it'd be well appreciated.

Fantastic landscape too, I like the way you've used 2x2 L plates as foliage, never seen that before but it works well.

Finally, the story you've concocted is great, enjoyed reading that and I can just imagine hundreds of grieving fathers, wives and children all across Historica dealing with similar feelings.

Thanks! I will probably make a short tutorial on the roof technique some time soon :)

I love doing landscaping, and yeah, the corner plates work surprisingly well for plants :)

Glad you feel the story works well. Wasn't sure if it would since I have written anything for it for over a year.

 

13 hours ago, Muakhah said:

That is a wonderful overgrown garden.  Such a variety of plants and growth but all coming together so well.  The cottage itself is lovely, and the story emphasizes that this is indeed a time to rebuild the many things that were lost.

Thank you! :) Glad you feel the balance of plants work well. That's always a concern for me while landscaping, whether you might be adding too much, and it's easy to stare yourself blind when you spend a lot of time building it.

7 hours ago, Kai NRG said:

The roof looks just amazing in the close-up shots, and your vegitation as always is stunning.  I really like the single white flower in front of the window.  Enjoyed reading the story too!

Thanks Kai! Yeah, I'm quite happy with the front of the roof (the sides are another matter...) :) The white flower was just something I put in on a whim actually. It's basically a microscale tree technique, but works ok for flowers as well :)

6 hours ago, adde51 said:

Great work man, and very glad that we could trick you back in, haha! When SLM comes asking there is no declining .

As I already told you the build is great, that roof is stunning. I'm still torn between whether I like the build or the story the most, which is saying a lot given how awesome the build is! Great job man

Thanks man! Haha, yeah, it's hard to turn down such a bunch of extraordinary builders :)

Glad you like the story as well, it's been quite a while since I last wrote anything, so wasn't sure if I could pull it off.

[Henjin_Quilones]

Really neat build here, FP! The roof is obviously the star of the show, justly so, but the landscape it all sits in is also quite lush and clever in its part usage. The one part I don't really like is the plant with the 1x2 plates and 1x1 square flowers, as it does not feel as organic as the rest. It is a clever way to diversify the foliage, but I don't like the result. The rest of the build is great, and I am thrilled to see you back building for Avalonia!

[LegoModularFan]

This is so brilliant, made my day when I first saw it on Flickr! I always adored your foliage and always hoped that one day you would make a minifig scaled architecture! No need to say, that thatched roof is way too amazing and your foliage is beyond Lego as always! Keep it up!  

Edited November 3, 2018 by LegoModularFan

[de Gothia]

Aaaand he is back! And what a moc to blow our minds! The roof is of course the highligt in this moc! But the lovely tudor and landscape makes this moc one of my favourite!!

 

I just think of "Bröderna Lejonhjärtas" house in Nangijala!

[Grover]

Really outstanding work.  Love the thatched roof.  I considered using that technique (or something similar with the droid arms) for my last building, but didn't have the pieces, so went with technic pins.  Looks great here, though.  I think my favorite parts of your builds, though, are the different species of foliage.  You do a great job making everything look natural, from the varied flowering bushes and evergreen trees to the small potted plant on the windowsill.  Great job!

[Niku]

Well the moc is great, but really liked more the writing, is emotional and well executed.
Thanks for sharing.

[Full Plate]

On 11/1/2018 at 7:16 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Really neat build here, FP! The roof is obviously the star of the show, justly so, but the landscape it all sits in is also quite lush and clever in its part usage. The one part I don't really like is the plant with the 1x2 plates and 1x1 square flowers, as it does not feel as organic as the rest. It is a clever way to diversify the foliage, but I don't like the result. The rest of the build is great, and I am thrilled to see you back building for Avalonia!

Thanks Henjin! Yeah, the roof was the main thing about this build I think, and the most troublesome to make :)

Interesting point about the 2x2 corner plate vegetation. I'm actually quite fond of using those L shaped plates, as it adds a more "lego-ish" element to the plants. However, I can see your point about it perhaps being a bit too angular. Perhaps using round 1x1 plates for the flowers would work better, which is what I've usually used for it in the past :)

 

On 11/2/2018 at 5:55 PM, LegoModularFan said:

This is so brilliant, made my day when I first saw it on Flickr! I always adored your foliage and always hoped that one day you would make a minifig scaled architecture! No need to say, that thatched roof is way too amazing and your foliage is beyond Lego as always! Keep it up!  

Thank you! Glad you're a fan of the build :) Yeah, I don't build that much architecture, and when I do it's usually microscale :) But for GoH it has got to be mostly minifig scale so we'll see what happens :)

 

On 11/2/2018 at 8:31 PM, de Gothia said:

Aaaand he is back! And what a moc to blow our minds! The roof is of course the highligt in this moc! But the lovely tudor and landscape makes this moc one of my favourite!!

 

I just think of "Bröderna Lejonhjärtas" house in Nangijala!

Thanks de Gothia! It's good to be back :) And to see so many familiar "faces" :D Glad GoH is thriving!

 

On 11/4/2018 at 8:54 PM, Grover said:

Really outstanding work.  Love the thatched roof.  I considered using that technique (or something similar with the droid arms) for my last building, but didn't have the pieces, so went with technic pins.  Looks great here, though.  I think my favorite parts of your builds, though, are the different species of foliage.  You do a great job making everything look natural, from the varied flowering bushes and evergreen trees to the small potted plant on the windowsill.  Great job!

Thank you! :) Yeah, quite a few tan bars needed for this one  Had quite a few already, since I've used them for fields of grain before. This technique is quite a headache though, since you get some odd shaped holes on the sides that you have to cover up somehow (I went with tan 2x2 round plates, which I don't think looks too great, but clock was ticking so...).

I like making varied foliage as well. There's not really anything new in this build, but that's the beauty of landscaping: using the same techniques you can still make things look very different depending on the composition of the scene and with colour variations.

 

On 11/5/2018 at 4:52 AM, Niku said:

Well the moc is great, but really liked more the writing, is emotional and well executed.
Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Really happy to hear you enjoyed the story as that's probably what I was least sure about :) Been a while since I last wrote something.

[TheLordOfBricks]

Awesome job FP! As always, excellent foliage, and this time with a great house to go with it! That roof is masterful, but the tudor section is really well done too! :)

[Full Plate]

On 11/7/2018 at 11:39 PM, TheLordOfBricks said:

Awesome job FP! As always, excellent foliage, and this time with a great house to go with it! That roof is masterful, but the tudor section is really well done too! :)

Thanks! 

[soccerkid6]

Avalonia wasn't the same without you, so I'm glad the Swedish LEGO Mafia got you back into the guilds
Terrific vegetation as always, plenty of variety yet everything works together well. The cottage itself is gorgeous and is exactly the sort of thing I would imagine seeing plenty of in Avalonia
Excellent story as well, it's good to read more about Sir Darby

[Full Plate]

On 11/10/2018 at 7:31 PM, soccerkid6 said:

Avalonia wasn't the same without you, so I'm glad the Swedish LEGO Mafia got you back into the guilds
Terrific vegetation as always, plenty of variety yet everything works together well. The cottage itself is gorgeous and is exactly the sort of thing I would imagine seeing plenty of in Avalonia
Excellent story as well, it's good to read more about Sir Darby

Thanks SK! It's good to be back :)

Glad you like the build! I felt I was rehashing the nature a bit from previous builds, but still think it looks pretty ok :)

And yeah, Sir Darby finally gets to do something again :D Now to find the written down plans for the unfolding of the storyline... :P

[Full Plate]

Wrote a tutorial showing the technique I used to create the thatched roof here.

The tutorial can be found here:

https://fullplatebuilds.com/2018/11/25/thatched-roof-tutorial/

Edited November 25, 2018 by Full Plate