Ayrlego

Previously.... The Curious Case of the Bottled Message - Bregir The Lost City of Gold, Part 1 - Ayrlego ------ Part Two - Venturing up river After meeting at Camp Isaac, Colonel Dirk Allcock and the rest of the Corlander expedition proceeded on their journey to find the mysterious city and Dr Albert Brickingstone. As Camp Isaac was situated at the base of a large river delta, the expedition set out in small boats up the main river into the interior of Cascadia. The 'Mardierian' map indicates the source of this river will be a large lake in the centre of the island. It is here the expedition plans on setting out overland into the central highlands to find the city. The river is long and alternates between wide expanses and smaller narrower twists. It is in one of this narrower sections the expedition spies a grim discovery. Human remains are sited on the bank, the remains of armour and helmet are confirmed to be of Eslandolan origin. So far the Mardierian story checks out.... Determined to carry on, Dirk's boat takes the lead, and the expedition continues to forge up the river. End of Part Two... ----- Part Three - Returning the Golden Seal (this section is meant to come after Bregir's and SilentWolf's builds, but we have run out of time to coordinate properly...) After discovering the lost city and; with the help of Dr Brickingstone; convincing the Myzec that the expedition's intentions were peaceful, the leader of the Myzec, High Priestess Zia, takes the leading Corlanders to the temple complex outside of the city where the stolen seal came from. The return of the seal to Zia shortly after arriving helped convince the Myzec of Corlander good intentions. As the guide leds Colonel Allcock, Don Montoya and Lord Micah are astounded when the enter a relatively open space in the jungle and are greeted by the sight of massive step pyramids unlike anything they have ever seen before. Myzec soldiers can be seen at the base, and the High Priestess herself is at the top of the long narrow stair case leading to the top. The golden seal has been returned and as the sun sets, the three Corlanders can be found at the base of the temple. The quest to find the city may be over and, although the city is not made out of gold... it is a cultural goldmine which Corlander scientists will sure to be studying for years to come. Colonel Allcock now must find a way to incorporate the Myzec and their city into the Empire, his work here has just began. ----- As mentioned we kind of ran out of time with Part E, so the story is quite disjointed. We do plan on continuing to build the 'lost' city up over time, and the Myzec are sure to become loyal citizens of the Queen before too long. I'm sure Allcock and Montoya are already drafting the treaty as we speak! When we decide on a name I intend to licence the temple as a large cultural building. As for the builds themselves, After searching the internet for some Mayan/Aztec style inspiration for the temple, I settled on the Mayan Tikal Temple 1 as the model for this build. Originally I was planning on trying an approx. scale version, but when I calculated that it would need to be around 190 bricks tall I decided I needed to scale back a bit! . I think this version is actually much bigger than it appears - the base is 48x64, but as usual with my larger builds, my photography skills (or lack of) fail me. Any hope everyone enjoyed challenge five as much as I did. It was unfortunate that this year has been super busy for me and I haven't had the building time I had last year and wasn't able to enter all categories. Congrats to those who did!

Damn! I was hoping you were announcing an extension for Cat E!!! Any chance of an extra week? Thanks to the leadership team for the results and congrats to the winners!

First small residence for Jameston

Previously.... The Curious Case of the Bottled Message - Bregir ------ At the same time as Captain Jonathan Cooke (RN) was dispatching his urgent message to Montoya on Cascadia, Colonel Dirk Allcock was in his temporary office in Jameston with his cousin Commander Matthew Allcock (RN) when the soldier entered with a message. The pair had been reviewing plans for the Corlander colonies in the Paradise Isles. Matthew Allcock had recently been appointed military administrator of the settlement of Port Woodhouse and Dirk was still coming to terms with the vast responsibility of Governorship over the three fledgling colonies of Celestia, Cascadia and Garma’s Key. “Sir, there is a Mardierian officer here to see you” announced the soldier with a sharp salute. Dirk raised an eyebrow at his cousin, the appearance of a Mardierian officer was highly unusual in the new settlement. “Bring him in thank you Tom.” Replied Dirk to the soldier. The officer entered, making an impressive figure in the orange uniform of a Mardierian cavalry officer. "Sirs, May I introduce myself as Major Silvano Modignani" he said with an elaborate bow. "A pleasure Sir," replied Dirk, "I am Colonel Dirk Allcock, Governor of the Paradise Isles, and this is my esteemed cousin from the Royal Navy, Commander Matthew Allcock" "A pleasure" nodded Matthew, "May we enquire to what brings you here Major? We have heard your forces are hard pressed on the Isle de Medio" "Indeed, and it is for that reason I am here, I come with an offer which I believe will be of mutual benefit to both our nations." Dirk nodded for the Major to continue. Major Modignani then dramatically pulled an enormous piece of gold from a large sack he had been holding. The gold had been worked into a large plate with an intricately carved patterns on the outside and a human head carved in the centre. The style was unlike anything either Corlander had seen before, although it vaguely reminded Dirk of some of the local natives old stone carvings. "Well Major, I believe you certainly have our full attention now, do please continue" stated Dirk. "Of course Governor," he smiled. "This has recently come into our possession from an Eslandolan we captured. We ah, managed to persuade him to tell us where it came from and, to our surprise, it apparently originated from your very own Cascadia. It appears he was part of an Eslandolan party charged with sneaking onto your new possession in search of a fabled lost city of gold, and he claims that his expedition found it. They removed this gold seal from a temple in the jungle outside the city, as they were a small party and the natives were great in number. However on departing, they were ambushed and the entire party was killed, save our man, who escaped with the gold. He was on his way back to Eslandolan headquarters to organise a stronger party to raid the city. It is claimed it contains enough gold to fund an army." "An interesting story to be sure Major, but it still doesn't fully explain why you are here, of course we will happily take possession of an artefact plundered from Corlander territory..." smiled Matthew Allcock, allowing his cousin to remain silent in contemplation. "Well, we couldn't allow such a horde to fall into the hands of our enemies, if I am frank with you gentlemen, they are already far better financed here in the colonies than we ourselves are. We could go after the gold ourselves, but of course we respect the sovereignty of Corrington too much" "You mean you are already overstretched and can ill afford to make another enemy at this time" stated Matthew. Dirk noted a flicker of annoyance cross the Major's face. "Not at all. We were able to persuade the pirate greenback to reproduce a map to this lost city. I am here to offer it to you gentlemen." "Just like that, you would give us this map?" scoffed Matthew, still allowing Dirk to remain a dignified silence. The pair had used this routine often since assuming duties in the Paradise isles. "Not exactly, as I admitted, we are hard pressed on the Isle de Medio. The mercenary greenback scum and there piratical Garvian allies must be driven back into the sea. Mardier went to some expense to obtain this information and return this seal it you, naturally we would like some small compensation..." "ah and there it is," smirked Matthew, "my guess is that 'small' will prove to be expensive - how do we know you are selling us the real thing?" "I am to remain here until you have verified the information. If it proves incorrect, you need not pay me. If however it proves solid, I will rely on your honour as gentlemen to honour our bargain" With that the negotiation began in earnest. A suitable figure was agreed on (strictly confidential of course!), and Major Modignani left to find accommodation after handing over a rough map. "Well cousin, what do you think?" asked Matthew, "I have a feeling you'll be handing your Gubernatorial duties to me while you gallivant off around Cascadia?" "Indeed," replied Dirk calling for the officer of the day outside. On entering he gave the young Captain his orders. "Assemble the Light Company for immediate departure, call for Dr Percival McCallum, he is the Royal Society anthropologist who recently arrived. Also get my Davy Russell. We depart for Camp Isaac and Montoya before nightfall."

Nice building Bregir, one of my favourites of yours so far and very fitting for the seat of the Governor. The sand-green/LBG combination looks really good, the use of the masonry bricks as corners especially so. Like SilentWolf I too really like the idea of the building straddling the canal. The story of course was great as well and has finally motivated me to finish my first build - I'll write the story and photograph the build when I get home. Expect Dirk to be joining Montoya on Cascadia very soon!

Thanks! No worries, the yields don't bother me, I was just thinking that if the accounts were created before I added anything it would be less work overall for you guys.

Fantastic mill Silentwolf - That you've managed to get that shape in LDD is nothing sort of amazing! I like the way you've place it on a large and fairly bare base. It really gives the impression of the open plains that I imagine typical of Lacryma. I am really liking digital builds more and more - as you point out, you can build things that real life restraints such as budget, time and little humans make difficult - if not impossible. Keep up the good work!

Looks interesting... consider my interest piqued

Stunning work Captain Dee, apologies it has taken me this long to comment! A fantastic addition to our colonies that truly glorifies the values of our great Corlander Empire! Some very nice (and very colourful) parts usage, I especially like what I assume is a green car washing brush piece being used as a bush - that I have not seen before! The twisting column using 2x2 tiles with studs in the middle is also brilliant and something I have a feeling I will be definitely borrowing. Also that may just be the most pearl gold parts I've ever seen in one project. Great work - all the effort you put in has definitely paid off!

Thank you all for the comments! I've gone with the consensus here and licensed as commercial, which I was leaning towards in the first place... but then was second guessing myself

Form submitted, Thanks!

@Phred @Captain Genaro, sorry to bug you guys, but was there an update on this request? Or should I just go ahead and submit the licence form with the new settlement name and we'll sort it out later? Thanks,

@Phred Can you please add the Corlander settlements of Port Woodhouse and Jameston to the accounts. I have a property ready to lisence for Port Woodhouse and hopefully another soon for Jameston (already has one non-lisenceable build). Many thanks!

Crabber's Rock, licenced as a medium commerce

High Tide One of the first permanent buildings on the Corrington colony of Garma's Key was a small military outpost. Built on an outcrop of rock in the tidal flats north west of the site of the future settlement of Port Woodhouse, it was originally designed as an early warning post to alert the settlement of vessels in the Garma strait. The soldiers stationed there however, soon discovered that once the tide went out at night, huge numbers of crabs came out from their burrows in the sand. These large crustaceans are so abundant, it is impossible to cross the tidal flats at night without encountering them. As agriculture has yet to be established in the Corlander colonies in the Paradise Isles, the canny soldiers soon developed a thriving trade in crab meat! Low Tide Probably my last digital build in a while as I will soon be re-united with my bricks. Also the first build for the settlement of Port Woodhouse and the first property to be licensed in the Paradise Isles (Cascadia, Garma's Key and Celestia). Built with an aim of uncovering some crabby bonuses - any idea whether I should license as a commercial property or a plantation? Both I think work so I'd be interested to hear what you guys think.

I never heard that one Kai, very interesting. I tried to get the horse standing on it's back legs, but for whatever reason LDD won't play the game. (Also two feet would fit the criteria you give above for the character the statue represents!). Thanks! Thanks Garm, I did debate about making the statue in bronze, as I have largely tried to only build in 'real' bricks. It was originally black, but then I figured, what's the point of building digitally if you can't bend the colour rules every now and then?! It was so very tempting at one point to give up on the interior, so I'm really glad I kept going! Interiors are definitely my least favourite part of builds! Thanks Brandon, high praise indeed, although I'm definitely not in the same league as KB! Thanks Elos! Thanks for the detailed advice KB, there was a lot I found helpful here and I'm sure to be referencing this post many times in the future! Thanks Capt Wolf! The forum certainly did get hectic there for a few days, it almost reminded me of the first challenge last year!

You missed me!

I really love the 17th century look of your soldiers with the mixed formations of pikemen and musketeers. Almost enough to make me want to abandon my later style troops and go back a century! I've had that SW torso on my BL wanted list for a while now, but have yet to acquire any! The Mardierian line is excellent, everything from the standard, to the weapons and alignment is perfect. The Eslandolan charge to is extremely well done! All over the minifigs make this build something really special! Anyway, fantastic entry (as always) Capt Wolf, although there are many great entries, this would easily be one of my favourites for the win!

Indeed it is a nice little house, registered as a residence or cultural property? (just out of interest) A seminary is a great idea for Oleon. If you wanted to give the façade some more texture using the same bricks, you could try making it two studs wide and placing some masonry bricks so the curved one stud wide side faces out, similar to how I placed them in my hattery LDD build. Just a suggestion. Also, after my first LDD build, KB recommended I use this add on to render with, it adds a bit more texture to the bricks, and I like the results better than the original bluerender, although it did take me some playing around with to get it to work at a higher resolution - but anyway it's a personal preference thing I think! Anyway keep up the good work!

Definitely one of my favourites in this category! The rock work looks great and the fort although small seems to blend seamlessly into the cliffs and colourful vegetation. The Mardierian troops can out rather well and are an elegant purest solution, I especially like the figure with the ruffle and bearskin shako. Although it would seem they must have some kind of powerful secret weapon to instantly skelatise poor Colonel Brickwall Jones like that.... I wouldn't want to be an Eslandolan with the name Brickwall right now, they seem to be suffering a disproportionately high casualty rate! Oh and the turtle is brilliant as well! Fantastic entry!

Great entry! As per your style it's very colourful, which is always impressive, and the photography is spot on. I really like the action here, and I think I know what you mean about comfort zone... I really would have liked to enter this category for that very reason - I even started researching sea monsters to build before I ran out of time. Anyway excellent entry, great job!

Really nice job Bregir, the finished product turned out really well. I especially like your signature water, you've managed to capture the look and feel of the surf really well. I think the vegetation adds just the right amount of green to the build as well. Great entry!

Nice little build, a distillery is a great idea! Can I ask how you removed the hook from that torso and replaced it with a hand in LDD? I can't seem to work out how to do that.

Corrington's first 'Royal' property has been licensed in Mooreton Bay. Moore House is a testament to the glory of the Empire and symbolises the arrival of superior Corlander culture in the new world. Long Live the Queen!

Establishing the new settlement at Jameston was proving much more difficult than Mooreton Bay had been. Although they had landed in January, the settlement had yet to have one completed building. With so many new settlements, colonists were not as available as there were in the early days, especially skilled workers. The longer distances also hampered logistics. So it was a mixture of annoyance and secret relief when Major Dirk Allcock was summoned on a fast ship back to Mooreton Bay with Colonel Andrew Howe, who himself was struggling under similar conditions at Port Woodhouse at nearby Garma's Key. Mooreton Bay was much the same as when he left it, although the streets were teaming with new faces and new buildings were encroaching on the skyline. It was hard to believe that this town, which had recently been recognised as a Large Town under the Colonial Ministries designation scheme, was little more than a few small huts a year ago. It was then Dirk noticed the large building that dominated the entire settlement, built on a rise overlooking the wide expanse of the bay. It was the site he himself had reserved for the seat of the government when he was mayor. Frank Greenway, his convict architect, had been drawing up plans when Dirk left for Jameston earlier in the year. Clearly construction had just been completed, and for a moment Dirk was quite speechless. A couple of days later saw Dirk in the square in front of the building, which had been named Moore House, after Corrington hero the late General Sir Charles Moore, who the settlement itself had indeed been named for. Today the wide expanse of the square was full of soldiers, more soldiers than Dirk had ever seen on Alicentia - two full battalions in fact. The left battalion was made up of redcoats, two companies of Grenadiers and a company of light troops. The battalion on the right was different. The men wore the same style of uniform as the redcoats opposite them, but their coats were a burnt orange colour. The troops were Mardierians, and this was the reason Dirk had been summoned. You may recall that recently Terraversia had come out and declared against the Mardierian Crown. This did not sit well with all the population on the island, including some of the army. Lieutenant Colonel Anthony deLucca was one such man and deLucca commanded a battalion of Mardierian troops. When the declaration of independence had come, he was forced to renounce his oath to the crown, along with his men to avoid massacre. However on the first available occasion he had fled, attempting to join Mardierian forces on the Isle de Medio. Blocked from this endevour by blockading Eslandola and Garvian ships, he had managed to smuggle an officer into one of the Mardierian forts with a letter for the Mardierian commander. Much to his horror, the officer had returned ashen faced and with a stinging letter from the commander. As deLucca and his man had renounced their oath, the commander viewed them as irreversibly tainted by the horror of republicanism. Fearing a trap, he had refused to entertain the idea of deLucca joining the garrison and had furthermore declared him and his men traitors to the crown, and persona non grata in all Mardierian territory, on pain of death. Harassed by the Eslandolan Navy, deLucca further fled eastward until he reached Mooreton Bay, where he had a distant connection to the Mayor, James Hume. Hume, not sure how Her Majesties Government would react to so many foreign troops, had immediately contacted The Cocovia Governor for advice and Captain Jonathan Cooke had referred the matter to Colonial Ministry. Moving with a speed that is only possible from the well oiled machine that is Corrington bureaucracy, orders had been dispatched recalling Colonel Howe from Port Woodhouse to invest the Battalion into the Corlander Army as the Queen's Mardierian Legion. The Legion would serve in the colonies, indeed it was decried that no QML soldier would be allowed to ever enter Corrington as a member of the army. deLucca had readily agreed, keen to serve his adapted nation. Before the ceremony Dirk too had a surprise. Orders from the Army Board had been received and he had received a brevet commission to Lieutenant Colonel. Separate orders from the Colonial office had also appointed Lieutenant Colonel Allcock as Governor of the Paradise Isles - as the Celestia/Cascadia region had become known. He was to return to Jameston immediately and continue to oversee the development of that settlement, but also the settlement of Port Woodhouse. Colonel Howe had been recalled to Bellson. But before returning home, Dirk was to attend the official opening of Moore House. The opening was a great success. Here Dirk and James Hume discuss matters while overlooking the ballroom. Colonel Howe can be seen talking to several gentlemen who look suspiciously like visiting Oleon VIPs. Several other recognisable figures can also be seen. Designed to impress upon all who saw it with the full might and glory of Corrington, Moore house was a monument to the Empire and a sign that Corrington was here to stay. The ground floor contained a huge reception area/ball room, with grand staircases leading to the second floor. Here the house divided into two wings, the Red Wing and Green Wing. In the Green wing the settlement council sat to deliberate on matters of the settlement, while in the Red Wing government lawyers meet to review settlement laws and debate disputes in the interpretation of said laws. Lastly the top level of the grand house was the residential wing. Although containing no permanent residences, a number of large rooms were kept for VIP visitors to the settlement, together with a central dining and lounge room. --------------------------- Licensed as a Royal Cultural property in Mooreton Bay: footprint = 10 368 I ended up having to do two separate builds as LDD froze every time I attempted to add the interior to the full model. Seriously, I don't know how you guys who build big in LDD do it. The program must have crashed at least 30 times towards the end of this build! The overview model totals just over 15 000 bricks. The house itself was inspired by this photo of a building in Sydney Australia, built in the 1800s and since demolished. After much frustration with the piano I cheated, and used the excellent design found here. The QML are to represent the battalion of troops I won as a result of Ch5A - many of you will see the loose historical parallel I have made with the KGL. As usual, C&C welcome! Enjoy!