Pirates of the Archipalego

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

Hello all,

I am, I guess, coming out of a bit of a "Lego Dark Age". Three years ago, I, and to a different extent my dad, convinced me that I should be moving onto other things from Lego (I was 13 at the time). So I basically repressed my interest in working with LEGO to the point of oblivion.

And yes, I have moved on. As of a few weeks ago, I won Bronze in the Youngbloods category of the Games Workshop Golden Demon Painting compeition, getting my model on GW's website and in their national magazine, as well as various other things, from studying how to draw professionally, attempting to learn computer animation, etc.

But I am still sorry that I felt like that, and made that descicion for now I am getting to be a bit too old in all honesty for LEGO. But, I feel that if I do not indulge myself now, I'll never have the chance to.

So without further ado, I present you with my greatest LEGO endeavor ever...

Pirates of the Archipalego!

This campaign is inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and is set in an advanced version of the basic Pirate storyline layed out by Lego. Even if I cannot find the money to buy more ships then my poor lonely Armada Flagship, I hope to inspire others to greater feats of Lego Piratedom with this project.

------- Pirates of the Archipalego Campaign Setting -----

The Archipalego

The Archipelego is a collection of several hundred islands spanning roughly a thousand square miles, somwhere near the Equator. The explorers that discovered it realised its sheer size and beuty, and said so upon their return to Britan. Settlers flocked there in their hundreds, creating everything from the great Trading City of Port Cochraine to the dank iron mines of Cortimer.

Under the vigilant command of the sucessive Lord Admirals, the Archipalego prospered for almost two hundred years, drawing ships and people from everywhere from the far Northlands (see: Leoten Leopold and his longship, "Leopard") to the privateers of Spain (see: Pirazzo Megilano and the Alcanti). Each and every pirate ship that came into existence was hunted down and destroyed or captured. The trade was prosperous, and many were the fortunes made upon these idealic islands.

Lord Admiral Dorques Mistakes

Until, that is, that the Lord Admiral Theodore Dorque was given his 3-year command over the Archipalego station. He had lived as captain long enough to become an Admiral by sheer luck, and had become the Lord Admiral of His Britannic Majestys Archipalego station by pulling his many beurocratic strings.

From the day he arrived, he bungled and mis-managed everything. Seeing his chance, the pirate that would come to be known as Greggef Roterbart seized upon it and quickly raided a number of prime vacationist locations. With his ships spread far and wide doing menial things, Dorque was in no shape to respond to the attack. Greggefs wife, Bangladesh Dupree, set about sowing upset and discord among the people of all the major population centers. Covertly taking over the dockyards, Roterbart had every ship he could lay his hands on converted into a pirate vessel, and sent them out to prey on the fat merchant ships.

Within a year, the Archipalego was in complete chaos. Ships were being lost to the Pirates by the dozen, and the situation was so far gone that Dorque had little choice but to pull his ships back to Port Cochraine for fear of losing them all.

But in the end, even that did not matter, since the dockyard personel refused to service the ships in any way, and set about destroying the warehouses and docking facilitys in their unrest at the rule of Dorque. Seeing the situation gone completely out of his hands, Dorque boarded the cutter Torins Lookout with his most trusted personel, and made a mad dash for England.

While he sailed, the pirate Greggef Roterbart established himself as Pirate King of the Archipalego, claiming lordship for him and his pirates. It is known that at this time several hundred Pirate vessels were operating in the Archipalego. Merchant trading had ground to a complete halt, with the few uncaptured vessels hiding in reclusive bays, but even they were being hunted down one by one.

Upon his arrival in England, Dorque was treated as almost nothing short of a traitor. With the few remaining British ships stranded and fighting for their lives, English control of the Archipalego was gone completely. If the Archipalego was to be stopped from sinking into complete and unreversable anarchy, drastic action had to be taken, and it had to be taken now.

The right man in the right place at the right time: Lord Admiral Helden Ravensburg

And that drastic action came in the form of Rear-Admiral Helden Ravensburg. An accomplished sailor, tactician and diplomat, he was the ideal man for the job. The Admiralty gave him emergency powers to do anything he saw fit to challenge the Pirate threat.

In addition, Lord Marshal of the Marines, Gabriel Vostroya, petitioned the government that he and his First Regiment of 1000 men should sail with the fleet. At the insistance of Ravensburg, his request was granted.

Assembling a starting fleet of three frigates, the Pillar of Autumn, In Amber Clad, and Of Atlantis' Fate, as well as a fair number of smaller Sloops, Schooners and Cutters, Ravensburg set off within three weeks of getting his orders.

With ships stocked to the point of exploding, all Ravensburg had left to do was train his ships. And train they did, practicing gunnery and taking sail in and out and tacking and everything else neccessary to know in order to operate a ship perfectly. So great was the amount they trained that only 4 weeks into their 7-week voyage the entire squadron was skilled enough to sail in perfect formation.

By the time they reached the Archipalego, they were ready for anything.

The Pirates unpleasent suprise

And they did not reach the Archipalego a moment to soon. Port Cochraine was in complete anarchy, with the docking facilitys ramshackily rebuilt by the pirates. Word had it that Greggef Roterbart was on his way to claim his throne there, and his flag captain, Brass Storn, had already secured the seas around the port.

So when one of his lookout cutters sailed back and reported a squadron of British ships approaching, Storn almost thought nothing of it. To the best of his knowlage, only three British ships were left loose in the Archipalego anyway - all the others had been captured or destroyed. Bringing his entire fleet to bear, Storn took the fight to the british.

The ensuing battle was a complete loss for the Pirates. Their disorderly formation crashed into the British squadron like water on rock. Disciplined longrange cannon fire sunk many of the Pirates' smaller craft before they even got in range, and a swift move on the part of the second half of the british column brought the Pirates sailing into the middle of a U-Shape of british ships and cannon. No pirate ship but Brass Storns survived the engagement, and that was merely because, as luck would have it, Storn was on the back of the Pirate line and managed to evade the trap.

Sailing victorius into Port Cochraine, Gabriel Vostroya quickly landed his 1000 Imperial Guard and, within two days, had the entire island under complete control.

Repairing the damages to their ship, Ravensburg took stock of the situation. Messangers and vassels from all over the Archipalego flooded in upon the news of a new Lord Admirals arrival. For a full ten days he poured over information and charts and plans.

Finially, he was ready. Sailing his ships out of Port Cochraine, Ravensburg prepared to take the fight right into the Pirates teeth.

The Pirates Retaliation

This news was an unpleasant shock to Greggef Roterbart. Doing the best he could to organize his disorderly fleets, he set about preparing for Britans onslaught. Nomatter how well prepared the British fleet was, the Pirates were equally prepared, and would fine to the bitter end.

And so the scene is set for the greatest naval battles of all time in Ye Olde World of Lego.

--------------- Notable Ships of the Archipalego War ----------

Albion

The Albion is the most widely known ghost ship of the Archipalego. The sad story of this British sloop is that, while under the command of Lord Admiral Dorque, it was assigned to a convoy of East Indiamen. While escorting it around Pruttuck Point, they saw a feirce storm on the horizion. At the same time, their lookouts spotted over five Pirate ships fast approaching behind them.

Caught between a storm that was almost sure destruction and outnumbered 5 to 1, the British ship abandoned its convoy and attempted to beat back to sea. In their larger, ungainly ships, the East Indiamen were soon caught by the Pirates and ransacked before the storm reached them. The Albion, however, was thwarted by the wind and was in the direct way of the storm. Suffering critical damage to her rudder, the ship was taken aback. The wind quickly dismasted her, sending the hulk smashing into the jagged rocks of Pruttuck, smashing the ship to peices. All hands were lost.

The locals quickly reported this. By the time the schooner Eidolon arrived to investigate, however, the bodies, wreckage, and everything had mysteriously vanished. Not even a splinter remained.

Since then, the Albion has been reported numerous times, heralding a great storm and smashing Pirate ships threatening convoys. It is said that the Albion is cursed to protecting the convoys of the Archipalego for a thousand years and a day as penance for its cowardice.

Type: Large Sloop

Flag: A Bulls Head

Colors: Red and Grey

Captain: Jonathan Artemis

Notes: This ship is noted to have ragged sails, and an overall decrepyt appearance. Reports say the crew is either zombies or skeletons.

--------------- Notable Characters of the Archipalego War -------

Vespparios Vendetta

A group of skilled duelists under the leadership of Kaff Vesparrio, these mercenarys have no ship of their own. They instead hang around ports and hire themselves out to ships of any side as a knockout boarding party.

Each is armed with a long dueling sword and a dagger for parrying, as well as a brace of rifled pistols. They often wear great black cloaks. In single combat, they are the deadliest warriors in the Archipalego.

In battle, they specialize in boarding actions. They often either employ their talents at gaining a foothold on the enemy ship, or attacking behind a screen of ships company so that they may strike with maximum effect when the boarding action is well on.

Many are the command decks they have cleared, and many are the ships that have found their ships sabotodged beyond salvage due to a quick strike by the Vendetta.

------------- Updates ------------

6/13/2006: Story of the ship Albion added

------------------- Notes ----------

I am now setting about collecting the opposing fleets. As it is, I only have Pirazzo Maglianos ship, the Alcanti (Its the Armada Flagship). So I hope to bring you some prize MOC's soon!

I am a Napoleonic Era fanatic as well. I have a full set of books on the Napolenoic era, as well as all 11 books in the Hornblower series (great books, if you dont have them, get them)

I hope you've enjoyed reading my background story as much as I enjoyed writing it :)

I'll see if I can get the ships and characters section finished tommorow.

- The Lord Admiral

"Babelfish says Roterbart means Redbeard!"

[Mister Phes]

This is the most indepth and detailed background story I've ever seen on Eurobricks - you must be on fire Lord Admiral! This is great! What can we do to ensure you maintain this level of enthusiasm?

Also, when will be seeing Pirazzo Magliano's ship? Is it identical to the Armada Flagship or have you mad modiciations such as exchanging the sails and mini-figure for your own custom designed versions?

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

I plan on only making a few modifications that I have always had on it when its been assembled.

Namely, a ladderish-thing so that figs can actually get up to the quarterdeck (I dont think the peice is actually lego, but it works) An additional rotating cannon in the hull, a 3-pounder cannon in the crowsnest, mountings for carrying a boat on the rear. Oh, and a new crew. It always irked me that the set only came with 3 guys. You cant operate a ship with 3 guys!

So, i have already assembled its new crew. Pirazzo, two lieutenants, a quartermaster, and 8 crewmen. (if you didnt know, quartermasters are the guys who steer the ship)

I have also assembled Vespario, but I dont have enough hood, cloak or torso bits to assemble the rest of his Vendetta.

Hm, keep my enthusiasum up...? hm. Dont take my Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack CD away? :P

- The Lord Admiral

PS It occurs to me now that most of my spelling in the first post here wasnt that grand. I blame it on having to write it all at 1 AM.

[oo7]

X-O wow, that's some novel you got there

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

Here is, almost exactly, what I plan on doing with the Armada Flagship:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=167383

[Captain Ironhook]

X-O wow, that's some novel you got there

Did you even read this oo7 because by the way of your response it sounds like you just looked at the words and posted for the pleasure of posting. I think this is a good idea because it is like opening up a whole new theme of pirate legos where we get to see new options for sets. I am in wondernig when we will get to see other ships and some of the bases of which the story speaks.

[Mister Phes]

Oh, and a new crew. It always irked me that the set only came with 3 guys. You cant operate a ship with 3 guys!

How many "guys" in total would you have? And would they all be Imperial Armada mini-figures?

So, i have already assembled its new crew. Pirazzo, two lieutenants, a quartermaster, and 8 crewmen. (if you didnt know, quartermasters are the guys who steer the ship)

I have also assembled Vespario, but I dont have enough hood, cloak or torso bits to assemble the rest of his Vendetta.

Do we get to see preliminary pictures of these guys? I.e. Laying on their back against a neutral coloured background.

Hm, keep my enthusiasum up...? hm. Dont take my Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack CD away? :P

In about a months time you'll have a second listen to...

PS It occurs to me now that most of my spelling in the first post here wasnt that grand. I blame it on having to write it all at 1 AM.

No need to make excuses for your spelling! Everyone makes spelling mistakes here but so what? As long as every can understand what you're saying then correct spelling doesn't really matter, but you can always correct your spelling at any time by pressing the Edit button.

Speaking of spelling errors did you intentionally spell Archipelago the way you did (i.e. Archipalego), or is that an error? If so it can be very easily rectified!

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

@ Phes: Aye, I intentionally spelled it Archipalego for the "Lego" part of it :) Lame, yes, but... oh well. P'raps I will change it back to Archipelago :)

As for the crew, I have Pirazzo and his lieutenant the way I want them (mostly, I lost 2 of the 3 Conquistador helmets, so they have tricorns instead) as well as Vespario. The crew is currently a bunch of rank-and-file scallywags I assembled out of my minifig collection, with heads ranging from the Rock raiders to the Wild West (I have a little of everything ^_^) I plan on replacing the 8 of them with actual Spanish Armada figs eventually. So, in the end, I will have Captain, 2 Officers, 8 Sailors, and 1 Quartermaster (I assembled him differently. He is an Archiplagen guide, with expert knowlage of all the waters of the Archipalego. He was presumably hired somewhere in the Archipalego, and hence is not Spanish)

Or I could've just said I will take pics tommorow :P

Do I overthink things? Yes.

@ Captain Ironhook: My full intention was to invent a more in-depth and unique setting for the Lego Pirates lines, as well as whatever new stuff you wanted to create. I will scrounge up a date that this would logically take place in (I am thinking the Second Golden Age of Piracy that took place about 100 years after the real one...)

Basically, the Archipalego would be out in the very middle of the atlantic, near the equatorial line. I did not want to place it in the Caribbean, but I still wanted all real-world countrys to be able to take part (namely, America, Spain, France and Britan)

I do not have any plans for making the land-bases currently. I also do not have any other Pirate peices at all exept the Armada Flagship (Not entirely true, I have the shipwreck one, but I plan on putting it back to stock too), and am currently critically low on funds to buy ship neccessities (Hull, masts, anchor, wheel... the works) , so it will probably be a while before I get the Pillar of Autumn, In Amber Clad and Of Atlantis' Fate built.

(Yes, I know, not very British names... but I like dedicating my ship names to something I like in real life)

If anyone wants to build anything for the Archipalego, I would love to see it :)

- Z

PS: My ship ranking:

Frigate: 3 middle hull sections, wide, 3 masts, 4 Cannon

Large Sloop: 2 Middle Sections, wide, 3 masts, 3 Cannon

Small Sloop: 2 Middle Sections, Skinny, 3 masts, 3 Rotating Cannon

Large Brig: 1 Middle Section, wide, 2 masts, 2 Cannon or 2 Rotating cannon

Small Brig: 1 Middle Section, Skinny, 2 masts, 2 Rotating Cannon

Large Schooner: No middle section, Wide, 1 mast, 2 Cannon or 1 rotating cannon

Small Schooner: No middle section, Skinny, 1 Mast, 1 rotating cannon

Rotating cannon means the setup on the Armada Flagship.

Cannon rating is "guns per side" or Rotating.

Anything larger then a Frigate would be impossibly huge. Since the guns appear to be either 36 pounders or 48 pounders, I have cut their numbers back for both size restraints and realistic armarment.

PPS: I almost forgot! In dedication to our 18 year old cat that passed away a few months back, I have decided to build a Large Schooner named "Ralphie" in his honour.

[Captain Ironhook]

So we will never get to see places like Port Cochraine get built into mocs?

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

*shrug* Theres the possibility... In fact, I am more equipped with my current collection now to build a place like Port Cochraine then I am to build ships :P

P'raps I will give it a go while I wait to get good deals on Ship essentials :)

I'll see if I can work on the following sections of the first post tommorow:

Famous Ships of the Archipalego War --- In-depth descriptions of ships such as the spanish Alcanti and Pirate Queen Bangladesh Dupree's ship, the Bona Fide

Famous Characters of the Archipalego War --- The storys of characters such as opposing flag captains Leoten Semper and Brass Storn

Famous Locations of the Archipalego War --- Historys of locations such as Port Cochraine and Nazdreg Isle.

Yes, I am a little too enthused with this :P

- Ravensburg

[oo7]

X-O wow, that's some novel you got there

Did you even read this oo7 because by the way of your response it sounds like you just looked at the words and posted for the pleasure of posting. I think this is a good idea because it is like opening up a whole new theme of pirate legos where we get to see new options for sets. I am in wondernig when we will get to see other ships and some of the bases of which the story speaks.

I read it and it's a great idea, but i'm just giving a compliment, Lord Admiral Helden Ravensburg must be really into this so we can expect great MOCs, sorry it didn't come out clear.

[Captain Ironhook]

I think I might have sounded harsh at oo7 which was not of my intention, sometimes I write the wrong words and that makes me sound angry in writing when I'm not really.

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

Update: I have started work on a section of the family website that will be devoted to Pirates of the Archipalego.

I also still have no money.

:P

- Helden

[Mister Phes]

What do you mean "a section of the family website"? Your family in on this project too or something?

And feel free to respond in the other threads if you wish for external piratish motivation influences!

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

Oh I know ^_^ I was planning on becoming alot more active.

anyway... www.odysseyhouseonline.com is our family website. I did the design myself, and yes, I know it sucks, but I am also working on a complete re-design and re-write of it. But, we have far more webspace then we will ever use, so I can host whatever I want on it as well :)

- Helden

[Mister Phes]

That's a quite interesting website you have Lord Admiral Helden Ravensburg! A car restoration website called Odyssey House that will also have a section devoted to Pirates of the Archipalego - how interesting? But I am wondering what you would put a section for the devoted to Pirates of the Archipalego on your family website. Are you family fans of Pirate LEGO too?

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

No, but we have more webspace then we'll ever use, and I am the guy who does all the website stuff, so I can basically put whatever I want on there :)

As far as LEGO goes, no. I am the only LEGO fan here. Everyone else asks the question, "Why build lego when you can build a model?" And I tend to agree with them. Exept that I occasionally tire of the painstaking processes of model building, and want to go root around in some LEGO bins for a while :)

And b'sides, we're Odyssey House. Its all one big Odyssey, covering all our interests ^_^ Having Lego Ships and Warhammer Commisions and Dinky Toys next to Auto Restoration and Go Karting and Pro Racing fits fine :P

- Helden

[Mister Phes]

I suppose unlike a model LEGO is far more customisable and if you don't like the creation you can easily disassemble it and build something else. From what I understand of modelling this isn't as easy since the pieces are usually adhered together with glue that doesn't tend to want to come apart - unless the builder doesn't want it to.

What an interesting place Odyssey House is - a family hobbiest website! Do you know if it gets much traffic? I.e. the number of unique hits per day? I suppose all that would be in the statistics kept by the IP hosting the webspace.

[Mister Phes]

Lord Admiral Helden Ravensburg! I was wondering if you're still drifting about the forum these days and if you have any updates? It would be dreadful news if you've abandoned the project!

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

No, I have not abandoned the project :P

I am, however, not only critically short of money, but also of time. I probably wont be able to actively work on the building part of PotA until late summer/fall, particularly as my money is currently going toward finishing my Bionicle collection.

I will, however, continue working on the website and further enrichening and deepening the world and storyline throughout the summer :)

- Helden

[Mister Phes]

Your Bionicle collection is holding back your piratical endeavours??? Tell me this isn't so. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[Captain Roger]

Well Lord admiral i haven't seen your history because for a spanish guy like me is really hard to read a long text in english but i must admit your improved version of armada Flagship os one of the best MOCs i have seen...of course not! is the best MOC i have seen in my life...better than the great imperial guards port i have seen in this forum.

Congratulations admiral, you are an artist

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

@Phes: Yes, it is so :P I guess I didnt mention it in my first post... I havnt so much been in a "dark age" as a "bionicle age" :P

@ Cap'n Roger: That isnt actually my MOC, but it is how I will build mine once I get my bricklink order.

- Helden

[Captain Roger]

Well admiral...Then...Congratulations to the person who built that MOC firstly

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

I would like to have it known that work is coming along fine on the PotA website. It should be up within the week with expanded background featuring more on the various combatants as well as a new faction - the Islanders - and more in the "Notables" sections!

In addition, I would like to promote this as an in-depth and alternate world for Lego Pirateers to place their own homegrown adventures. Think of it as something like D&D's "Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting", exept for Lego Pirate.

And, in other, inconseqential news, I edited the bionic eye and the Imperial Aquila out of the guy in my display image. He is, now, the art version of Lord Admiral Helden Ravensburg. Now I just need to get a fig together- any suggestions for the face? ;)

- Helden