Kodan Black

Volunteer in the civilian world tends to be used like "I volunteered to..."; but in the military we often use it as "I was volunteered to..." and that can be confusing to non-military people when we talk to them. How can a word have 2 opposite meanings? It is just something you get used to. At the start of our day Dez and I were told to report to the Captain in charge of TIE operations aboard ship, he is the commanding officer of all us pilots. Getting called to his office isn't usually a good sign, though we hadn't had anything go wrong so we were perplexed. We certainly weren't going to even consider we were being called in for praise! Upon arriving he informed us that a rebel base had been located planetside and that we were to participate in the assault. We were instantly excited as we had never done air-to-ground attacks before, but he quickly dashed our hopes as he told us we would not be in our Interceptors. The rebel base was located in a mine that was outside a small town that had several processing plants. Important processing plants. The ground was uneven and rocky so it would be impossible to use walkers and because of the close proximity to the processing plants the Lieutenant in charge of the assault had requested forward observers to aid the pair of TIE bombers assigned to the assault in making sure their attacks were precise. The Captain told us to get to the quartermaster and draw our gear and get to the main hangar to hitch a ride on one of the shuttles ferrying down the stormtroopers that would be assaulting the base. We were going to be positioned at the edge of town in a high overwatch position with the Lieutenant leading the assault so he could designate targets for us to relay to the bomber pilots. We'd be glorified radio operators, but we had little choice since the Captain had volunteered us for the duty. We grabbed our gear and got to the shuttle, during the short flight to the planet Dez and I did "rock, paper, scissors" to determine who would spot and who would be on the radio. After I won I told him that he had a much better radio voice anyway, his raised middle fingers indicated he felt otherwise. Once in position we got a general view of the terrain and quickly saw the beginnings of the assault. It wasn't going to be very secret as the stormtroopers had no choice but to pick their way through the rough terrain to the mine entrance. Right away it was a slow progression and the Lieutenant quickly realized that the rebels were using the terrain to their advantage as they fought a delaying action while the remaining rebels inside the base made their way to some secret exit. He told us to have the bombers hit the rebels so his men could get inside the mine. I looked at the battle and told him if we hit the rebels that his own men would take similar losses due to the proximity, but he said they were "acceptable losses" if that meant we got inside. I suggested we use a thermal detonator run between the rebels and mine entrance to both take some rebels out while simultaneously destroying any traps they had set up. The Lieutenant agreed and Dez radioed the orders to the bomber pilots. Except they weren't carrying thermal detonators, they had been told to only carry heavy bombs which we couldn't use due to the processing plants being too close by. Apparently the Lieutenant had ordered that because in typical ground pounder thinking bigger is always better. When I informed the Lieutenant of this oversight he became incensed and said to tell the bombers to use their "guns or something" as his men had to get into that mine before the rebels all escaped. By now I'd figured out this Lieutenant was fully incompetent. I knew that having the bombers strafe the rebels would do nothing because they were too hidden by terrain, it would also prevent the stormtroopers from advancing as they couldn't advance into the area being strafed. But I had Dez call it in anyway, he made sure to relay it as "the ground assault commander has ordered you to strafe" so that they pilots didn't think we were the ones requesting such a pointless action. I was willing to let the rebels escape in exchange for not wasting the lives of our troopers. Ultimately the assault succeeded in securing the base; eventually. Intelligence estimates put the base at containing 50-60 rebels and associated supplies. We killed 5 rebels (the ones who sacrificed themselves in the delaying action), captured zero and found no supplies or intelligence worth having. I had to give grudging respect to the rebels who fought against superior numbers in a fight that they knew they couldn't win so that the majority of their people could get free. We lost 8 stormtroopers with 6 injured. Dez and I submitted after action reports that earned us praise from the Captain and likely were contributing factors in the Lieutenant losing his rank and becoming a line trooper in the same unit whose lives he had treated so casually. He had better hope that his new commanding officer is better than he was. Overall build of hotel: Please critique and judge.

Wow you have a wide variety of minifigs! I like the lab build, though the beds are a bit too close together. Would be hard to work on patients without bumping into someone on the bed behind. Even though the walls are just white you have done enough to break them up with the vents and panels. The minifig posing is fantastic and really helps build the tension of the story. The bacta tank area is really well done and the inclusion of the monkey cages was a nice touch of realism. The mobile unit is cool also. The lighting, photography and posing of minifigs is top notch as always. Plus your super shiny floors fit in the notion of a lab perfectly. Feels very sterile.

Nice modifications and a cool little stand pulled right from the show!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Why does it have that giant tail? Looks weird.

I see what you are saying. Yeah more of a "choose your own path" type thing. I suppose you could make it that at like 50 you get a "2nd NPC" or whatever so it could be a person or droid. Then at like 75 you get either more NPCs or a ship. As long as you keep it so you can "trade them in" it should be fine. You just don't want someone claiming 10 stormtroopers and like a corvette and starting their own army. But like LegoFjotten has had some good builds centered around a small spec ops squad and that would be cool. Maybe do something like your scenes can portray either/or which would allow you to swap. So you could have 2 stormtroopers as your subordinates in one episode and then next episode do a solo mission in a ship with a droid. As long as you never combined or went over your max you could switch between them episode to episode. And by limiting it to the episode you would then be able to post freebuilds filling out the story. BTW love the good ideas and discussion going on!

People latch onto different characters it seems, I mean Porkins (nice name George) is on screen for less time than your average sneeze but even casual SW fans know his name.

Really cool, I like it. A lot of cool parts and he has his nice little sunshade. You packed a lot into a small footprint.

Yeah, I think expiration is a big burden on a group that already has a lot of work to do. One point that should be made clear is that you don't have to advance a rank. Just because you reach a new level, you can remain a lower rank. My main issue with "spending" gets back to the maintenance aspect. Do we have a store thread where we purchase and then someone has to keep looking at that and keep track of player points, etc... seems like a lot of work. That is why I suggested you "earn" it at various levels. I wouldn't want to burn out the people running SoNE for having to keep track of who spent what when. We could add higher levels also so that you get your first "subordinate" at like 75xp, your 2nd at 100, 3rd at 125, and then do other perks. Alternatively we could cap XP for a character at a certain point and then their score helps their faction, but they personally are capped out. They can build using a new character maybe and effectively start over if they want.

I haven't read the whole thread but for ease of finding things it would seem like either a sub-forum of the SoNE sub-forum for freebuilds or a separate sub-forum at the same level would make sense. I'm still new so I'm not totally familiar with all the XP challenges there are, but I would hope that people aren't participating just for XP. For continuity it would be weird to have people lose XP because if they were a super General in charge of a planet assault in one episode and then suddenly due to lower XP were a Commander it would be sort of odd. It would also force people into storytelling how that happened which could override the story they want to tell. Maybe at certain XP levels you get people under your command. At 25 xp you get 1 person. At 50 you get 2, etc. That way you could have more options for story telling. At the highest rank maybe you even get a spy for the other side so you could build a "Rebel story" but it is really an Empire build. Overall I like SoNE and am having fun. I've gone through all the past builds and really enjoyed them. Lots of inspiration to be found. Always a challenge on things like this that are ongoing as you want to avoid having too high a barrier of entry for new folks, while keeping it interesting for the long time veterans.

I believe that because all 5 of the Rebel builds made it into round 2 by default, they all fell under the 25 pt amount and thus were generally higher than the Empire builds. Also, from Lord Tyrus getting 19xp and having made it to round 2 you can see the number of comments and quality of build aren't necessarily intertwined.

Apparently you pretty much "won" as it seems you got 24/25... from the rules: "In the second stage, the top five builds of each faction (so ten in total) from the first stage will be scored based on basic predetermined criteria: up to 10 points for the concept and appropriateness to the objective, up to 25 points for your execution of the build, and up to 5 points for your presentation of the entry."

I'll happily claim my first tag! Congrats to everyone! Hopefully the next round is more balanced. Good work Alliance, you had some real high scorers despite your low total attendance. Side note: Whenever the player index is updated, could someone correct my listing from Stormtrooper to TIE Pilot? Thanks.

Nothing on the coupons says US only, but dunno where they were distributed.

It was a calendar they gave away with a $75 or more purchase at some point late last year. Had 3 coupons on the bottom: 1 for Jan (free store employee minifig), 1 for Feb (Hoth Han), and 1 for March (free minibuild).

The interior of the cockpit is superb. Not too familiar with the defender as I'm pretty much a movie guy, but it looks cool!

Great representation of the original vehicle. I must say those middle legs are bizarre and hideous though. Very clever pull out for the pilot you made there!

From what the coupon says it would seem you need to present it in person in a Lego store. "Free LEGO Han Solo (Hoth) Minifigure (item 5001621) with any LEGO Star Wars purchase: Offer valid February 1-28, 2015 in LEGO Stores or while supplies last only." Later it also says: "Limit one free minifigure with original Calendar coupon. Coupon must be surrendered upon redemption." Also: "Offer not valid online at shop.LEGO.com or at LEGOLAND Parks or LEGOLAND Discovery Centers."

Looks good and all the rest of the TIEs do also. I'm probably on the other end of the scale when I build, I've dropped my stuff from a couple feet up before and had nothing even flinch. I over engineer my builds so they are solid.

Bummer, thanks! Guess I'll just get the sets in Feb anyway since I'll want to be thinking about Ep 7 sets later in the year.

Do you have the coupon from the calendar? That is what you need to present at a Lego store during the month of Feb and purchase a SW Lego set to get him. Anyone know if there is usually a double points VIP thing in February or know if there is going to be one this year. I want to grab a few sets in Feb to get my Han Hoth figure (put the coupon in my wallet so I don't forget it), but I don't want to buy them and then a week later have a double points event happen.

Well that is HUGE! I love the use of forced perspective from the walker side. Lots of cool details and the bacta tank is really neat too. I can't even fathom starting such a massive project, let alone completing it!

This really is art. The posing, the angles, the curves, it all comes together so perfectly. The color choices really drive the eye also moving from the light blue to the green and then into the darker colors with the yellow disc naturally pulling the eye in for its stark contrast. Incredible for 2.5 hrs. I spent 30 min last night just putting some tiles on a MOC!

Quite the cool MOC. I love all the play features you included! Though I'm not sure the open bathroom situation would be so popular. The engine fits in really well with the cars. That innovative middle part is my favorite of the whole thing, a great solution!