Captain Dee

Looks great Phred. The finished fort is really nice with that big bastion perched on the rocks like that. The classic red-white-yellow looks better in your design than just about any other way of doing it. And it's cool to see Swift in her natural environment too. Good BoBS promotion all the way around.

This made me laugh. That gun placement is ridiculous - in a good kind of way. The custom hull is lovely, and I'm definitely picking up cog design aspects, but that fearsome armament built into the high forecastle also has me thinking fantasy carrack (minus some rigging of course). I'm glad you offered an explanation, as it makes more sense that way. But none of that really matters: this is a nicely built, smooth design and very well presented. It's a great first ship for BoBS and here's to more in the future! Good work.

Oh, make no mistake, I'm not suggesting that no one should have refined chocolate in this historic setting. It makes no difference whatsoever to me. In fact I was thinking of doing with it something myself. I just told that little story to illustrate how far it's come from being an exotic food to something normal, found virtually everywhere.

Unfortunately I do not (I actually passed that part up...) If you want me to I'll ask one of the leaders who can move these posts - to either the faction thread or main starting thread. Your call.

Fantastic! I love it! Your cocao trees are a near-perfect portrayal of the illustration. I don't hardly think they could be built any better. But I'm also curious as to how you attached the pods... The entire landscape looks great, and matches the clearing methods of the story perfectly. It has a wonderful jungle feel to it, and the description of the processing and accompanying details are nice. I also really like your base approach, since red and white tend to be more visible than black anyway. It's a good way to use all three colors. I can't imagine consuming the early crude forms of what eventually evolved into chocolate. A few years ago my siblings and I visited Jungle Jim's International Market in Fairfield, Ohio, which is basically the Taj Mahal of grocery supermarkets. After having perused the mind-boggling collection of calories - including some of the largest and most diverse selections of cheeses and wines in the whole world and virtually every type of ethnic food you've never heard of - we found ourselves in the midst of the chocolates section. I've seen more chocolate in a candy store, but never so diverse a selection as what Jungle Jim's had - I think if it existed, they had it. I prefer dark chocolate and bought a great big bar of some 70% cocoa dark, then an equal size 85% cocoa, and finally, just goofing off with my brother, we decided to get a big bar of the 99% cocoa stuff despite the label suggesting that it was an acquired taste and that you should work your way up. (Why did we do it? Because we could!) That night we sampled the goods around a campfire. I was pretty sure I could just chow down on the 70%, and I was right - it was wonderful. The other chocolate lovers among us thought it was pretty good too. I was a little more cautious with the 85% - it was noticeably stronger, to the point I didn't truly enjoy it. Some of the others wouldn't try it after sampling the 70%. Then my brother and I decided to try the 99% - just a tiny little bitty piece to be safe. Yeeeeee-ow!! Oh...my...goodness. I have never tasted anything so bitter in all my life. On the scale of dreadful foods it was right up there with green persimmons (which I have accidentally tasted - when ripe they are fabulous). Besides my brother-in-law, no one else would try the 99% cocoa after our reactions. Afterward I had a whole bar to eat, and the only way I could do it was to break off a big piece and pile as many milk chocolate chips on it as I could to dilute it. It took a few months. So what does this have to do with your creation? Not much, really, but I'm pretty sure I would not have viewed cocoa as a delicacy if I had lived back then - until someone came up with a good way of processing it into something more palatable. But I'm going on too long here. Excellent work, and I look forward to seeing what you have in the works!

Content amended April 2017. King's Harbour now has its first Royal-size property: The Majestic Gardens of King's Harbour, Cocovia. The gardens are a Royal Art & Culture property. @Bregir This adds +5 to settlement size and +30 to settlement trade value.

I should think so, yes, especially since it was built specifically for the purpose of guarding the harbor.

Bregir - Kai beat me to the first question, but to answer this last question - any unlicensed MOC similar to the listed types of licensed properties is worth 5 for trade value, regardless of size. If you build a 48x48 comparable to a factory, artisan, commerce etc it's still only worth 5 unless you license it. About the hinterland - that could be tricky. Perhaps Ska can weigh in, but it should be a while before any settlements are large enough for this to be an issue.

Neat micros - and yes, they'd be great for some FP as Gideon suggested. The red under the base looks odd though - but I assume this is to show Corrington's claim to the territory, so it makes sense. Overall a basic entry but still pretty good.

This is a very simple entry - and it's fantastic! Showing forced perspective from both directions is brilliant, and both the full-scale and micro versions of the ship and fort are really nice. Combine that with the lovely full-moon lighting, black sky and beautiful water effect and you have very good all-around presentation. I love it.

Excellent story and nice action photo sequence. Your minifig posing looks great and the whole affair seems entirely believable (which oft can't be said for amateur fiction...) I especially like the 5th pic of the Corries storming the pirates - it's one of the best such shots I've seen in a while. Good work and keep it up.

Excellent action scene Mike. The fallen tree looks great and the rest of the vegetation is really nice too. I like the ground cover - it's a good way of filling out the base in a realistic manner. Good work all around.

This is a fantastic remake of the original set. It looks simple enough to be an official set, and the colors do look a little better than the original. I like the old-style palm trees better, and prefer the original merchant vessel, but I would happily buy this if it was a set for sale. The updated minifigs look good too - I wonder if "Steve" approves? I understand raised baseplates are over, but even so, a large land-based set like this has been sorely lacking in the Pirates line ever since... ever since they stopped making the original! And you gotta love a set or MOC that includes one cannon per soldier (not counting the Governor/Admiral of course). Good work and keep it up.

I'm not convinced that strict faction bonuses/modifiers are a good idea, due largely to the simplicity of the concept. For example, according to the faction info, Corrington has the best guns - so giving that advantage to Oleon doesn't make much sense. It's been said that the skills tree will address some of these things, which leaves these chances for improvement up to the builder regardless of faction. The idea of having multiple strategies is good, but I think we need to be careful with complexity. Allowing the faster vessels to reach port first and capitalise may make good sense, but in reality, how much of an advantage would they really have? If they arrived a whole day sooner then sure, they'd have a trade advantage - but they wouldn't be part of the convoy either at that point. If they arrived a few hours ahead (not too far ahead to be beyond the convoy) would there really be any significant trade advantage? Maybe if they sprang to action upon reaching shore. My point is that this could be made really too complicated to manage, and until there's some level of automation I think it best not to overdo the fine details of a trade convoy ship-by-ship. Displaying some archetypes or examples of each class of vessels is a good idea - something like 3 examples per class showing the acceptable range would be really nice. The ultimate game mechanism would aim for the highest possible level of realism - but I think everyone knows that would be virtually impossible to apply without total automation of everything. To make it manageable requires some serious simplification.

The approval DBs were definitely tallied but I can't speak for actually awarding them. I only assume Ska took care of that.

I generally agree with your comments in this post (the full post) but I disagree slightly with the above quote. I can't see more value in the stories than the MOCs. Perhaps they have equal value to the builds, but this being a Lego site first and foremost, putting more emphasis on the story than the builds sounds too much like other forms of fanfic. I appreciate both while leaning more toward the builds, but I won't elevate one over the other for the benefit of those who feel differently. And my views aren't based on any game outcome since I haven't participated in that yet.

Bregir, you're not the only one happy to see that you did favorably... Seeing how I still haven't gotten "it" finished... I was hoping for a really good result again, to match the others and to avoid an awkward situation at the party.

Neat fort. It has a certain rough and crude appearance, like it was quickly erected, but it's very well-armed and I like all the vegetation. Good work with the beach area too.

Beautiful little outrigger! Solid white is perhaps a bit much but the design is really good and those webs as nets are a good idea. Keep it up.

Neat little scene. The hut and sloped dock look nice and I like that you included the little fishing boat. It's a typical setting for the time.

Fantastic creation KB! The vessel is lovely, the water is just extraordinary, and the fortifications turned out really nice as well. The vegetation on the beach and the multitude of palm trees add a lot of life to the scene. This definitely has the Caribbean look to it. Good work.

I like this cotton plant design; too bad the parts don't all come in the right colors to actually build it. It does make for a nice little plantation scene. Keep it up.

This is a great entry. The action shots are really nice and the little sloop looks good. But I would've thought the sloop could both outrun and outgun the natives - particularly those in the little canoe. Ah, but all the better to bash Oleon, eh? Good work.

Looks like a fine little vessel, and a good way to get started. The classic colorscheme is perfect for Oleon and the custom sail arrangement looks nice on that small hull. Keep it up.

This is another fine entry. I like the landscape and the little pool of water is neat (perhaps a natural spring they're using to replenish their stores?). The palisade looks good, although it probably won't withstand artillery fire in return. The structure in back is nice and your collection of minifigs looks great as usual. Good work.