mccoyed

Awesome landscaping. You make it look easy. Especially with the bold choice to include dark green, which I think most of us wouldn't try because of the balancing act of how much is too much etc. Great work.

I actually really hope that the sides we have to choose in this next challenge set are Avalonian Elves or Mitgardian Dwarves.

I'd actually like to see a Castle theme that went a little steampunk or explored another subgenre of fantasy that gets a bit away from the Tolkien mould. Whether that's a not strictly medieval "Castle" theme or not doesn't so much matter, provided it's got something unique going for it. The Vikings series had a cultural/mythological basis for example and I wouldn't mind seeing TLG do that again with a different group. My preference would be Greco-Roman mythology/culture but that may not (like steampunk) seem Castle enough for most people. I can't blame anyone for that either. Castle could/should be medieval but only if TLG is still interested. The most recent iteration of the theme was a bit obligatory and lazy feeling.

Yeah, you can easily do builds where your faction are encountering other groups in the area and making treaties or whatever. You can write a story around that. Here's an idea for you: The Grustrag Three are the leaders of the Zar-Ifrikt and they're meeting with a band of nomadic sand folk about a dispute over an oasis. The nomads have heard of how dangerous the orcs are, and come with strength in numbers to make sure the Zar-Ifrikt don't simply kill them all. Your build could show this meeting, with the nomads having some extra people around armed with weapons. This basically gives an image to go with the flavor text, right? The point you're making with something like this is that while the Zar-Ifrikt aren't exactly going around raiding folks and slaughtering whoever (that's a good way to incite the wrath of Kaliphlinite lords after all), they are still considered unpredictable and dangerous. If you want to portray them as arrogant, you can do that easily through writing dialogue to go with a meeting like this. The nomads are humble and polite, but the Zar-Ifrikt are rude and dismissive even though the nomads strength in numbers means that the orcs must negotiate and can't simply take the oasis for themselves. Note: I am not saying build the stuff I'm describing. I'm giving a scenario example to show how I would do what you're describing. :D

You're right. The thing is, using appropriate terminology is just as important as using appropriate technology or whatever. I mean, dispensation is good for people whose first language is not english but generally we should know the difference between "empire" and "kingdom" as well as "guild" and "province" just for our own ease of communication with each other. The focus for Behemoth, though, is definitely that if he wants his GoH contribution to be the creation of a new faction within the quilt of factions already in Historica, he ought to build it up from humble origins before declaring them the new Hand of Corruption or something with no builds to back it up. :P

Thanks guys, those are great tips on color! Is there anything else about the build that you guys want to comment on or criticize though? Hahaha.

Try to remember that Historica is already a "kingdom" ruled by a mostly figurehead king in the city-state of Cedrica (people don't build there really to keep the lore clean). So essentially, all the Guilds (which in my opinion aren't really guilds by any definition of that word haha) are essentially Provinces or Petty Kingdoms that owe at least tacit allegiance to the King of Cedrica. I may be wrong here because I can't remember in which ways the Hand of Corruption stuff changed the organization of Historica. Is there even still a king? I don't know. But the idea is that there's a throne that rules over all these petty kingdoms, so there's an Irish-style High King in Historica. No empires as yet and an empire would have to be powerful enough to overthrow everybody else. Most builders who have lands and castles for their main characters are feudal lords of one kind or another (dukes, barons, landed knights, etc) ruling over small fiefdoms and controlling small territories. The cool thing about this is that everybody has room to develop a personal realm of their own without stepping on anyone else's toes. In some cases, this has led to cool alliances or rivalries but rarely much fighting (which is too bad as that would be kind of cool). So yeah, it's all about claiming your tiny piece of Historica for your faction and then building from there. Personally, my characters run a gamut of the different factions and different types of people. I have a pirate crew, a Mitgardian jarldom, an exiled Nocturnian (human) army with designs on a fief, and an exiled Nocturnian (orc) tribe that will settle near Queenscross. But many others stick to one character or at least one faction they've created within the broader Guild context.

Cool little scene. I'll echo the compliments about the figs and the suggestion about better lighting!

Adorable. I hope all these Nocties find safety in Mitgardia!

A Kaliphlinite would say that.

Awww man, I remember seeing that MOC when I was researching GoH. So good.

I will be doing a Yukar build soon as well. I think it's a great idea to capitalize on all the work Ska and his brother did as well as celebrate it and pay them back with sweet, sweet MOCs.

Nocturnians love slime. Slime on their faces, slime on all their stuff. Mitgardians don't judge.

I'd still love to know what Chrono is and what project this build belongs to. :P

I never keep a MOC or official set built for more than a month or two. The downside of displays are space requirements and dust collection, but some people don't mind. For me it's more about always wanting at those bricks to make my own stuff. I've said I would rebuild all our Monster Fighters sets for Halloween this year but I probably won't. Will probably do MOCs instead!

Adventure Time in Lego... oh man.

Yeah, Brick Warriors is the best 3rd party shop in my opinion.

Or the sons and daughters of bearded women. In Nocturnus the beards are made of tentacles. We prefer our coarse, hairy face-manes. Man or woman, in Mitgardia we have a saying: "ALL HAIR IS FAIR."

See, those look good. Do you have enough bricks to do a more developed base for them to stand on? :P

Originally I wanted to do striping and plating on parts where I thought it would make sense. Then I wound up simply slapping accents wherever I could. Can you give more specific color advice in terms of position on the build?

You're really being given advice on ideas and not builds in this thread, so it's not relevant to what parts you have. It's more about the underlying logic of what you're talking about and how you're talking about it, if that makes sense. And I do think you care. I just don't know how seriously you take the standards and precedents of GoH when you have a hard time giving up obviously unfit ideas like advanced technology and stuff. :P

The point is that WoW is a game where power levels and stuff matter. GoH is world-building project where it does not. Also, I get the feeling that when you say you'll take fairly strong objections to your ideas as "advice you'll consider", you're actually giving us all the brush off. I have this feeling that, whenever you do get around to actually building something, it's gonna be whatever the heck you feel like regardless of what GoH is all about. I hope that's just my imagination cuz I think we'd all like to see some MOC to back up all the TALK (see what I did there? bahaha) at this point, buddy.

Nicely done and good use of color. I don't think those rippled 1x2 bricks work as well as they would in a larger build, though. My favorite part is the storage and your good use of space in the interiors.

Backpack is lego. Weirdly large lego. It even opens up.

Venkefedo is the only one who gets me.