Ayrlego

Challenge III Cat A Results Rumours abound across the Brick Seas regarding life in the Empire of the Lotus and many a colourful tale can be heard. From many tiered pagodas to peaceful parks, powerful trading houses, quaint tea houses and bustling ports, tales of the far away Southern Empire are common throughout the Madrice peninsular and Madrician settlements in the New World. Only time will tell which are accurate and which have been exaggerated! Individual winners: First Place (Leadership): @Ayrlego Lotii Pagoda First Place: @Kolonialbeamter Pagoda by the Lake Second Place: (Leadership) @Bregir, @Capt Wolf and @Professor Thaum Great Trading Houses of the Lotus, Public Garden and A Study Trip to the South Second Place: @Keymonus The Pearl of the South Third Place: @Faladrin The Tea Ceremony Leadership are in-eligible for prizes and compete only for the glory of their faction. Thus first, second and third place prizes go to Kolonialbeamtr, Keymonus and Faladrin. Congratulations everyone and it was great to see the level of participation in Cat A. A special thanks to the eight members who scored each of the entries in almost record time. Faction Scores at the end of Cat A Corrington: 13 Eslandola: 12 Oleon: 12 Sea Rats: 13 As you can see it is insanely close at the end of Category A. So keep those other Category entries coming!

COR | ChIIICatB | The Non-spectacular Secrets of Oleonda | Ayrlego

As battles rage in the New Haven Sea, many Corlanders speculate on why the Lotii and Carnites are fighting it out over the Island of Oleonda. The logical and reasonable mind of your typical Corlander can not grasp why two nations would fight at the end of such long supply chains over an island (albeit a large one) at the ends of the known map. Surely there must be untold riches. Gold, treasure, rare and exotic plants that have huge value as cash crops... the speculation is endless. In Jameston, Governer Sir Dirk Allcock ponders the same question and has sent out agents far and wide to investigate. The reports they send back are not conclusive. Most centre around gold. Some report huge gold deposits, while others agree there is gold, but it is found hidden amongst the ruins of an ancient civilisation. These last rumours have taken root; especially in Celestia with it's own extensive ancient ruins and treasures. Jameston newsheets have even printed artists impressions of these speculated ruins. One such artist impression is shown here, although the similarities to ruins found on Celestia show a clear picture of where the artist has gained inspiration. Sir Dirk has come to the conclusion that while Oleonda certainly is an attractive island for colonisation, there is no significant reason for the Empire of the Lotus and Carno to be fighting over it. They both simply picked the same island to colonise and now neither will back down. With two very different cultures, neither is willing to comprise or seek an agreement. So for now the battles will continue to rage. Such is war.... _______________ I struggled a bit for inspiration on what could be worth fighting over on El Oleonda (or as Sir Dirk insists just simply Oleonda). In the end I decided that the Lotii and Carnites were fighting a war for the oldest of reasons... because they could. 'Because we can' doesn't make for an interesting MOC however! So I'd been toying with the idea of another Meso-American style scene and my almost 4 year old's obsession with my Lego big cats (she likes to look at all the pictures of them in my Flickr stream before going to bed) made up my mind. She'd been asking where my Jaguar tower MOC was and if she could play with it. As it was swiftly demolished three years ago I tried my hand at re-creating it and updating it at the same time. I updated the tower design slightly with more damage/decay and some additional SNOT work on the roof. My vegetation pieces collection has grown in the last three years so I also updated the jungle but tried to remain as close to the original as possible. I also updated the water technique. I'm pretty happy with the result, which may not be terribly original, but was a different kind of challenge nevertheless. PS the vegetation lasted less than five minutes of three year old play (as expected)!!! She was happy anyway and the mummy 'tiger' had all kinds of adventures with her friends for almost 40mins before I had to call bedtime!

Updated Cat B deadline to midnight anywhere in the world on 14th Apr 2020 - to account for Easter long weekend.

Love it! The building is so clean yet detailed and that roof looks great! The AltBricks stems add some nice greenery, the colours all work really well together. I also love the nod to the original castle blacksmith (and one of my first Castle sets) with the backwards black cape and yellow torso. Great work! PS Those bellows are great... well worth the time!

So my Pirates of Barracuda Bay set arrived yesterday.... I must admit the first sight of the box with the yellow border made me feel very nostalgic for the original pirates line! I mean I'd seen the pictures before but I was quite surprised by the feelings it invoked seeing it in real life. Those marketing people sure know what they are doing!!!!

Cat A results have been calculated and finalised.... it's so very very close at the moment! Expect results before the end of the Easter weekend!!!!

Welcome Sir Kingston/Lieutenant Karlton! Good to have you onboard.

Classic (space)!! Made me laugh, love it!

Fantastic pagoda style house Bregir and I especially like you making it a trading house and not another temple! Like I said via PM, the roofing is very well executed and makes my attempts look very flat indeed. I like the little touch of vegetation around the base in contrast to the red of the build. So much red! The red/gold/black colour scheme of the building work well and the ornaments are very nicely done. I especially like the pumpkin pieces as lanterns, I haven't seen that before. Like I said, I like the original story and the attempt it makes to explain the current situation in El Oleonda. Presentation wise I probably would have led with the last photo, I think it is the best overview shot both in framing and lighting. Not sure how dark it is still in Northern Europe, but a touch more light might have helped - but this is a minor thing. A very strong entry here for Corrington, which is a good thing when I look at all the Oleon builds I have yet to score!

The thing that instantly stands out to me with this build is the variation in the hight of the landscape, it makes the build much more visually appealing than it would be if it were flatter. The vegetation and colour palette give a more rural feel than alot of the entries we've seen and I like the uniqueness of the scene. You've used slightly more colours in the landscape than I'd feel comfortable with, which leaves me conflicted, I like the rustic feel but it's almost too much for the eye... I'll have to stare at it some more!! The house itself is simple but well presented with the stand out feature being the windows. I like the framing of the overview picture. Altogether a nice entry, well done.

Nice little dock scene Maxim with the two distinctly different styles of house complementing each other and creating the muddled atmosphere of busy docks. The technic roof on the left house is brilliant and I like the way you broke the building in two using the differing verandas and facades. Tying into your aMRCA story was a nice touch. Like with Faladrin's build, my only small criticism is with the presentation. It would have been nice to see an overview picture with the whole build centred and no parts of the MOC cut out or touching the sides. A very minor thing only though which doesn't detract from a very nice entry.

Great vibrant colours here Faladrin, which is something I was hoping for in this challenge! The magenta leaves of the cherry blossom compliment the red building surprisingly well and great a very pleasant aesthetic. The build itself is crowded with great details and the scene around the table and tea serving are especially well done. I really like the curve of the border with the SNOT pathway. My one small nitpick would be the first overview shot, I think it would have been better zoomed out a little, parts of the build are cut off (or at least touching the edge) in a couple of places. Like I said, a very small presentation thing. Another strong entry for Eslandola!

A very pleasing scene Capt Wolf. The way the stream meanders along and cuts into the border is particularly nice. The contours work well for the garden scene and the architecture of the bridge, torii and gazebo are all well executed. The story was also very tranquil which complemented the scene nicely. All together a strong entry, well done!

Somewhat against my better judgement (It's been a long time since I spent that much money on an official LEGO set vice Bricklink....) I just ordered Barracuda Bay... Just couldn't help myself :)

As everyone has already agreed, the bridge is amazing. That technique is great but I imagine took a lot of patience to build! For me; however, the highlight is the vegetation - just beautiful. I love the gnarled looking tree trunks using the whip pieces! I absolute need some more whips now to try this myself!

Actually I have a question regarding this, the rules say: Does that mean we are restricted to 28 studs high? or am I reading into 'orientation' that too much and the intent is that you can have any shape base as long as it does not exceed a maximum foot print of 784 studs (28x28)?

I really like the concept of the botanical knowledge being the riches of El Oleonda rather than traditional riches such as gold and silver and agricultural knowledge as a resource is really orginal. Nice work on the vegetation. I'd recommend varying the base height a little to make the scene look a little less flat. An interesting variety of flowers as always, the blue ones are especially eye catching.

I have a few ideas for Cat A... Was playing around with some minifigure combos and came up with these mercenary pavise crossbowmen in the service of Varlyrio.

How have I not commented on this! That black and white house is simply phenomenal. The bay sections really make the whole façade pop. The water technique looks fantastic as well. Great work, one of the best dock scenes I've seen in a while.

Nice to have you back BrickWolf! Welcome to the New Haven Sea, interesting choice of boat transport!

Really nice street scene with a good mixture of colours and textures for the walls. I really like the render you have used as well. Pity the horses don't come with the printed heads in LDD. Nice work and good to have you back!

I really like this concept and it is nicely executed with those smooth SNOT walls. As mentioned a stack of these together would look amazing, but the 32x32 restriction was... well quite restrictive!!! The coloured clips making (prayer?) flags is a lovely little detail I will mostly likely borrow one of these days. Nice entry!

Stunning entry! The detail on the ruins at the top of the MOC is absolutely brilliant and quite different from what we've seen in this genre of builds so far. The colour scheme works very well although I would have been tempted to include a little more vegetation on the top - but I do love to overdo the plants so that's probably a personal thing! The Eslandolan conquistadors are also excellent and refreshingly original. Everytime I see a MOC like this with fleshies in BoBS I am sorely tempted to switch over to fleshies!!! Overall great entry!

Category A Entry Index (in Alphabetical Order by Faction) Corrington @Ayrlego Lotii Pagoda @Bregir Great Trading Houses of the Lotus @LM71Blackbird The Shogun's Tribute Eslandola @Capt Wolf Public Garden @Faladrin The Tea Ceremony @Maxim I Fuji Quays Oleon @blackdeathgr Wooden Houses of the Lotii @Bodi Into the Fog / The Universal Language @Keymonus The Pearl of the South @Kolonialbeamter Pagoda by the Lake @KotZ Seeing the Sights @Ross Fisher Seeing Red Sea Rats @Professor Thaum Study Trip to the South A total of 13 entries (although technically there is about an hour left as it is only 2300ish in Hawaii. Great effort by all - especially Oleon with a total of six entries. Edit: Kwatchi's entry was for Cat D - my bad. Corrected above.