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Ice, probably the weirdest good ever traded after the discovery of the New World: worthless for the ones who own it, but impossible to buy, no matter how rich they are, for the ones who don't have it. Nevertheless, frozen water is a quite useful commodity: ice and snow, stored in dedicated cellars during winter, have been used for centuries by the Halosians for the most different purposes, from preserving perishable foods to preparing slush and ice creams, from providing relief to the feverish people to cooling the drinks of the wealthiest nobles.

IMG_2756

Storing clean snow in a ice house. This is a common winter activity in the Old World, especially in Northern regions.

All the ones who moved in the New World, however, had to reconcile themselves with a simple fact: the temperate weather of their motherlands is one thousand miles away, and here in the archipelago you can't collect snow and  keep it for the summer, since there is no snow to collect. And, in the scorching summer of Breshaun, under the sun of Mesabi Landing or in the sultriness of Pontelli, you have no way to keep fish or meat eatable for more than a couple of days, unless you cover them  with salt, or to drink something cold, unless you have the stomach to add some saltpetre to your grog.

Starting from this problem, Charles Lautrec, an Oleander merchant, decided to start a new business, something never seen before: collect ice in Altonia, during winter, store it in insulated warehouses and then ship it to the archipelago.

IMG_2754

Charles Lautrec, the Ice King

The first voyage was a complete failure, the cargo melted and monsieur Lautrec almost bankrupted. His enterprise, considered by most a complete insanity, was noticed by the René Duchamp, the financial administrator of Rimbaud family, who decided to finance the ambitious project: delivering ice to tropical islands. Huge profits are ahead for Charles Lautrec (the Ice King as people nickname him), for his supporters, and for anyone crazy enough to follow their business. 

(placeholder => ice cutting in Altonia)
 

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Category A: Icehouses and warehouses

Before ice can be delivered to a settlement, a dedicated infrastructure must be built: otherwise, ice would melt in less than a day. If you want to see ice in your settlement and keep it for more than a few hours, a storing place, owned by Rimbaud Family, must be present.

Aim: build an icehouse, an insulated warehouse or something similar in your settlement. 
Requirements:
it must be licensable as a small or medium build. Rimbaud Family (me) will buy it for twice its licensing cost and license the property.
Gain for the participants: Twice the licensing cost of the build you submit. Opening a settlement for Cat B builds.
Deadline: TBD, according to the participation.
Prize for the winners: 1st 50Db+ 25% of the revenues for Cat A properties (for 4 MRCA turns); 2nd 25Db+ 15% of revenues (4 MRCA turns); 3rd 20Db+ 10% of revenues (4 MRCA turns). Winners decided with public voting; I will build something in Cat A but I will not enter the challenge (my builds will open settlements to Cat B, but will not enter the competition).

Category B: Fresh fish and cold wine

Now your settlement receives its monthly supply of ice. What to do with it, is completely up to you: build a super expensive ice statue to impress your guests, drink something cold, sell ice cream or slush (in Italy it was done since the Middle Age, using snow from Alps and Mount Etna), preserve fish or even try to send tropical fruit back to the motherland.

Aim: use your fantasy and build something (more or less historically accurate/possible). It can be a commercial activity, a private use of ice or something different.
Requirements: you don't have necessarily to build something in category A, but you can build only in settlements hosting a category A build or in Eltina (see later). The property can be licensed or not; if you don't want to license it, Rimbaud family will gladly buy  it at 1.5 the licensing cost.
EDIT: You can also build something not licensable in EGS terms.
EDIT: You can also participate building in Altonia, provided that you build appropriate steps of the trade (ice cutting, the loading in ships, the transport to the port… or something similar)  
Gain for the participants: in this case, nothing but the possibility to build something unusual. Your faction or individual players, however, may decide to offer incentives for builds in specific settlements.
Deadline: TBD, according to the participation.
Prize for the winners: 1st 100Db; 2nd 50Db; 3rd 40Db. Winners decided with public voting; I will build something in Cat A but I will not enter the challenge (my builds will open settlements to Cat B, but will not enter the competition).

Category C: Eltina Royal Project

While ice trade is moving its first steps in the archipelago, the aristocrats and merchants of Eltina decided to finance something bigger, both for prestige and for economical reason. Eltina Ice House will provide all the ice needed by the elites, but will also allow the storage and preservation of valuable goods, in particular tropical fruit, imported cheese and fresh meat. Ice will also allow a more efficient brewing process for beverages usually requiring cold winter months for their production.

Aim: building a Royal Commercial Property in Eltina, starting from the unloading and the transport of the ice, continuing with its storage, and ending with its uses, in particular to preserve goods.
Requirements: The quality needed for Royal Builds, and some coordination with the others to reduce overlapping (for example, two ice houses would be useful, but showing storage of fruit in all the builds would be a little boring)
Gain for the participants: Honor and glory: you are contributing to the glory of Oleon, our homeland won't forget your dedication. Each participant, moreover, will receive a flat of 50Db for each entry exceeding 1000 square studs (consider about 32x32 as reference, but also 950 studs will be fine; the cut-off is only to have an easier calculation of the overall size).
Deadline: The completion of the project
Prize for the winners: No winners for this category. If the build is completed and approved, each participant will receive an extra prize of 25Db.

 

EDIT: Post your entries directly in this thread. Please specify the settlement and the EGS class.

This mini-challenge is funded and organized by the Rimbaud family (that means with my personal funds), so I can't  offer super high prizes, but I hope you will enjoy it anyways. If you have any question, feel free to PM me. Multiple entries are allowed (and encouraged), but you can win only 1 prize in Cat A and 1 in Cat B (your builds take the first and third places => you get the first prize, the third prize goes to the fourth classified).

If you need inspiration you can look at wikipedia pages about ice trade and Frederic Tudor, the real Ice King.

Voting will be opened at the end of the challenge.

Edited by Keymonus
Addition of immages, small rule clarifications

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25 minutes ago, Darnok said:

I have yet to even read the full OP, but my immediate thought was "hey, my AMRCA had my crew sail through the frozen North, ice is something they know".

Now on to actually read what this is all about! :pir-grin:

If they miss ice, they are more than welcome! :grin:

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Could you please provide some samples of builds related to the Rimbaud family? Mostly for their colours, but also for the general feel you want to see achieved.

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I’ll provide some links, but don’t bother too much about that, even my own buildings don’t have a strict common style! I suggest you to build in the style you prefer, or in the style of your settlement. Their coat of arms is the shield from the townhall of modular city, but also in this case you don’t have to use it.

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Not wanting to spam, just something I don't want to forget again...

A quick search on the history of ice production led me to the insight that saltpeter played a big role in it. There is a salpeter deposit near Quinnsville (and I don't know of any other in BotBS so far), which could be harvested once a mine has been set up. @LM71Blackbird might want to profit from this connection - anything related to Saltpeter has now even more reason to be built for Quinnsville!

 

All good reasons to breath some life back into the game! :thumbup:

Edited by Darnok

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Interesting minichallenge - I like the subject matter, and will be very interested in seeing what comes out of this - and hope to be able to participate too!

For the record, and this goes for anyone wishing to host a minichallenge of sorts, for the future, please coordinate with your faction leader, so the court can coordinate things. :pir-classic:

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Ok, sorry for the inconvenient! I had to organize a Royal property (faction rule for the noble titles) and I tought that having something on the other islands would have been nice too, but actually I only touched on it in my faction chat. I hope it doesn’t cause any problem, I thought mini challenges didn’t require additional work from the leadership, if you prefer I can delay the whole thing of some months

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34 minutes ago, Keymonus said:

I hope it doesn’t cause any problem, I thought mini challenges didn’t require additional work from the leadership, if you prefer I can delay the whole thing of some months

No no, it is fine for now. It is mainly a question about a) balancing out between factions/players, and b) balancing it with official challenges.

If it had "just" been a cooperative building effort, you would have been in the clear, but since it takes on the nature of a minichallenge, the court should be involved.

But don't worry this time around.

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This is a really cool idea!  (accidental pun here :pir-grin:)

A real good example of technological advance in the world of bobs while staying in the boundaries of the game. 

Bart

Edited by Bart
typo

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So for those as curious as me, there is quite a bit of backstory on the Rimbaud family to be found here. The family colours are shown as well:

30696972628_0329fa78ea_m.jpg

 

As for a minor pet peeve of mine:

Spoiler

@Keymonus Could you please edit the threads title to "[Minichallenge] The Ice King" or "[Mini-Challenge] The Ice King"? It is clearly about a title, so the upper case makes sense for the Ice King. And all upper case for the first part makes baby Darnok cry. :pir-look:

 

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Two things I've compiled for the Corrington PM, but could be helpful for anybody interested:

5 hours ago, Darnok said:

 

Edited by Darnok

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I added pictures to the topic and edited some unclear passages of the rules. As @Darnok asked, here you can find some builds belonging to Rimbaud family, but don't feel compelled to use the same style, colours or symbols: follow the style of your settlement or, basically, build in the style you prefer! :classic:

 

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A minor technicality for the contribution to the royal property:

On 8/18/2019 at 3:24 PM, Keymonus said:

50Db for each entry exceeding 1000 square studs (that is more than 32x32).

32x32 is 1024 studs, so you do not need "more than 32x32", but 32x32 is fine already. This also means an easy reference frame, since 32x32 baseplates are so common.

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5 hours ago, Darnok said:

A minor technicality for the contribution to the royal property:

32x32 is 1024 studs, so you do not need "more than 32x32", but 32x32 is fine already. This also means an easy reference frame, since 32x32 baseplates are so common.

Perfectly correct, this was just a general size reference. To be honest, I will not be counting stud after stud if it is exactly 1000 or larger, and I don't expect exactly square entries (and, even if the entry is 980 studs, I'll pay the price anyways :grin:). I think that after the editing I will be definitely bullet-proof! 

Spoiler

:pir-skel: Other minor technicalities, my friend? :pir-skel:

 

On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 4:56 PM, Django Fett said:

Nice photos to accompany the challenge details, Key!

Thanks! :pir-classic:

22 hours ago, Ross Fisher said:

Yeah... I'm going to be building this scene:

 

Wonderful idea! Please, build it in Altonia (as I am building something similar, but we absolutely need raw materials for an ice trade!)

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4 hours ago, Keymonus said:

Please, build it in Altonia

Sounds good. I will be sending a representative of Lloyd's of Londa.

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I'm definitely getting in on this! I'll get a mine for the saltpeter set up in Quinnsville, so anyone can reference it and/or build something in Quinnsville. Feel free to PM me if you want to coordinate something particular in the settlement.

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Extract from Lloyd's of Londa Adjustor Zane's report from Altonia. 

...Everyone has been super helpful and interesting! I've been dog-sledding and ice-fishing, and all sorts of other fun stuff! You guys would love it here. 

Adjustor Zane goes ice fishingAdjustor Zane's dog sled

The ice-harvest is great fun. Oogstmeester Van Hoorne really knows his stuff, and he's got a good team of guys here. The things they do with ice!

Ice Harvesting in Altonia

I'm going to watch them loading the harvest up and then I'll head home. Ice shipping is really exciting and I definitely recommend that we support this industry.

Loading the ice blocks up

See you soon!
Zane

 

Edited by Ross Fisher

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Neat set of MOCs, @Ross Fisher! I like the gradient of blue colors you used for the water in the last MOC. Like I said on Flickr, the design of the ice drill is simple yet so effective. I really love it. The dog sled is also well-built. Do the dogs connect to the sleigh?

The design of the minifigures is great, as well. I believe I've already stated somewhere that I like the Oogstmeister with the fur collar.

Regarding the name of his function. Just nitpicking here and I don't know if you did it on purpose, because of Altonia's Dutch and Swiss influence, but the term 'Oogstmeister' you used is actually a mixture of Dutch and German. Proper Dutch would be oogstmeester, while in German it would be Erntemeister

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