Keymonus

Somewhere in the bayou, Ile Dyonisus, July 622 The outskirts of Nouveau Oleander, on Ile Dyonisus, don’t seem the best areas for mining activities… unless you want to start a mud mine, or unless you are convinced that crocodiles are actually mineral resources! However, now and then, weird shiny minerals surface out of the sludge, or are found on the banks of one of the countless ponds. Nobody really knows what those stones are, and they were considered simple curiosities… at least until the chaplain of a passing ship recalled to have seen something similar in the Mokolei Empire, near to some important mines. Unfortunately, he didn’t remember which type of mines, probably the most important point, so a proper geological survey was organised. Therefore, some of New Oleandia couriers du bois (the local hunters) left their beloved rifles and embraced some shovels. If they found something, governor would reward them well for the lost hunting days. Digging in the marshes is a boring job, especially if compared to crocodile hunting, but it has at least an advantage: a bag of mud doesn’t usually try to snap your arms off! One of the prospectors, in the meantime, was preparing the lunch: a thick soup of hardtack and canned horse stew (Explorer Special Recipe, WTC registered trade mark). That stuff is barely edible, but isn’t infested by maggots (the WTC “Can of Worms”, with extra maggots and crunchy weevils, surprisingly, never rose to international success) and is not crocodile, differently from most of the meat available on the island! Overall view: the MOC is quite simple, I played a little with the ground level but this is largely covered by the vegetation. I originally planned this prospect for Ile Sous le Vent, but then I decided that building a mine on a swamp island could be far more challenging… provided that I find something worth! @Ayrlego, I think this is up to you now… @Darnok, the WTC canned horse strikes back!

Category A Count Carlos Alonso de Montoya, supporter of King Fernando

Salida Este, Ferro Azure, July 622 Count Carlos Alonso de Montoya was hopeful, for the first time in six years. As everyone with a bit of good sense could expect, the Councils had finally proved to be useless chatting rooms: the trade companies continued to do as they pleased, but without the King putting a limit to their foolish enterprises. They promised everyone freedom and justice, and they continued to rule with selfishness and greed. But now the tide is turning, and the monarchists would have their chance: with the so-called democratic institutions stalled, the Eslandolans would have soon understood that they needed their king. Count de Montoya and his fellows would use all their political power to restore His Blessed Majesty King Fernando Augusto VII to His rightful throne… no longer as a puppet, but as a ruler of the Empire! To get the power for Him and put it back into His hands, for a brighter future for Eslandola! Vote for los realistas! For the King and for the order of the Nation! —————————— Los Realistas (the Royalists) of Salida Este aim to restore King Fernando as an absolute ruler, to burn the Magna Charta and reduce the power of the trade companies. This is probably more extremist than what King Fernando himself wants… they are therefore “more royalist than the King”!

Astrapi, Ile de Zeus, July 622 At the border between the Terraversa Sea and the Sea of Thieves, Ile the Zeus is one of the Jewels of Oleon Empire. Before the imperial adventure on Terraversa and the colonisation of Blueton, Astrapi was the first Oleander settlement beyond the Line, and the only one a ship could reach with a direct journey from Breshaun. Thanks to its geographic position and to the presence of strategic resources (wood, silver and gunpowder industry), the settlement of Astrapi has become a rich and important settlement. To defend Astrapi from the enemies of the Empire, and to protect the silver extracted in the inland, a new company of chasseurs was raised in the settlement. The Astrapi Wolves, formally the 2eme compagnie chasseurs coloniaux de Astrapi, are trained and equipped for the thick woods of Ile de Zeus. These soldiers wear a simple beret instead of the elegant but bulky shako hat, and are equipped with tomahawk and machetes: for sure they don’t look like the King’s Guards back in Granoleon, but they are what the Empire needs in this far corner of the map. Due to a weird combination of warm winds and cold currents, Ile the Zeus is often shrouded by a thick fog. Therefore, the chasseurs are often accompanied in their patrols by large hounds, particularly useful to track brigands or runaway criminals. This is more a little vignette with some story than a proper build. I will use it to raise a company of light infantry in Astrapi.

For me the mini challenge was great! In that period even building a vignette was too much for me, and posting figbarfs without aim or context wouldn’t have been the same! It would be nice including a similar category also in main challenges, almost always there is something original that could be depicted!

Thank you!!!

Welcome to BoBS!

As usual thank for your great work and writing, even if this time the news for my nation are rather bad… we will take our revenge soon! At least my ship survived its maiden voyage across the Ocean, previously I only used it for a short-range trip to King’s Port!

Hilarious story, very suited to your character! Now I’m curious to find out what is bigger than a broadsword!

Thank you guys! I wanted to be sure to raise the troops in Jiangkai-we badly need them after the raid- but I’ll add some pictures as soon as I can! I’m glad you liked the stone lion, but it’s actually a little… ehm… recycled from my dyers’ district, where it was definitely too much in the background. I’ll show some more angles with the next photos!

As Jiangkai grew and became a real city, a company of tirailleurs was recruited among the inhabitants to defend the settlement. The tirailleurs are units of light infantry -typical of the Oleon Royal Army- that fight with flexible tactics and open formations, taking advantage of the rough terrains. Differently from l’Armée de L’Orient, formed by soldiers of Lotii origin but fully integrated in the regular army, the Jiangkai tirailleurs are organised as an auxiliary light infantry unit. Quite unusually, the officers are drawn from La Royale (the Royal Navy), and usually have a past in the merchant fleet: this may be unorthodox, but they are probably the only officers who can fluently speak both Oleander and Lotii, at least until the first Jiangkai volunteers will graduate in Breshaun Royal Academy. While the tirailleurs were undoubtedly loyal to their new king and country, most of them were not enthusiastic about fighting against their former motherland, and they were considered a law enforcing unit more than a real fighting force. Things changed, however after the raid of May 622. The Lotii soldiers sacked Jiangkai even more brutally than they would have done with an enemy settlement, killing those who had remained behind and trying to set every building on fire: only the stubborn resistance and the sacrifice of the fort garrison spared most of the population from the massacre. As the tirailleurs organised the evacuation of the civilians from the city, they instead lived to fight another day. Now the citizens on Jiangkai know that they can’t expect no mercy from their former countrymen. The tirailleurs will fight for their honour and for revenge, on El Oleonda and beyond. The tirailleurs concept and design are heavily based on @Khorne’s early sketches of “Asian” troops, even before the Lotus Empire appeared in our world. With this build, a new platoon of soldiers is raised in Jiangkai. EDIT: As Jiangkai is still a town, only 10 (and not 30) men can be recruited in each turn

This is exactly the type of little vignettes I love here in BoBS! The uniforms and the landscape are very nice, the shot is perfect, and the effects add a lot! About the mountains… I admit it’s my fault! There is a little brown colour in the middle of the map and I decided we needed mountain troops, regardless the real topography. Then we could still make good use of them on Maldria in case of need… I read that there are true mountains on that island!

Unit name: Breshaun Sapeurs-Pompiers Type: Military engineers / Firefighters Uniform description: dark blue coat with red facings and red epaulettes, dark blue trousers, brass helmet, leather haversack. Equipment description: usually water buckets, axes, ropes and ladders. In Breshaun, horse-drawn fire engines, equipped with a short leather hose, are available too. Recruitment centre: Breshaun and Eltina. Unit history and description: Almost a century after the first wave of colonisation of the islands “behind the line” (the ones West of Terraversa), Breshaun has become a large city, with thousands of inhabitants and several hundreds of buildings. Therefore, the tasks of preventing and fighting the city fires can no longer rely only on improvised watches of citizens. Breshaun was the first city in the New World to raise a professional fire brigade: these men are organised as small military units, with officers, uniforms and a specific training. In case of fire, the Sapeurs-Pompiers will try to fight it with water buckets and to circumscribe it, even demolishing nearby buildings: if a whole neighbourhood starts burning, there isn’t much more to do than watching it burn. In Breshaun, the Sapeurs-Pompiers can also rely on a new innovation, the horse-drawn fire-engines. Those wagons carry a large water keg, an hand pump and a leather hose. Although they are quite effective in the optimal conditions, the fire-engines are slow and are limited by short hoses… however, they are rightfully considered a technological wonder! Campaigns: Not properly a military unit. Firefighting duties in Breshaun and Eltina. Motto: Toujours prêt! (Always ready!) Little historical note (IRL): I always build later in our time frame, especially when I build in the Western and more “civilised” settlements. Here we are almost at the border of our time frame for some aspects, but surprisingly inside for others: -public firefighters, organised as we know them, date back to early 1700s). They became common only later (with huge differences in different countries), coexisting for 150 years with private companies and volunteer units. -the fire-fighting pumps, with my surprise, date back to late 1500s. They were, however, limited by the short hose, the local availability of water, and the slow speed. -the uniforms are a little too modern. The brass helmets were invented around 1820, so at the very end of our time frame.

4. kritch Nice job everyone!

I hope this is enough to retro-engineer it! I added layers of plates to a central core until it seemed ok!

Thank you all guys! It was funny to build something a little different from my usual style. The most difficult thing was balancing crowding and non realistic (and impossible to photograph) overcrowding! Thanks! The idea was building a stall with weird amulets, mandrake roots, tarots and, why not, a wooden head. It has no real meaning, is just a decoration! I’m glad you noticed it! This was actually the first thing I built, the rest of the city then “grew around”! As you did previously, I tried to build something halfway between colonial Indochina and Meiji Japan, and I like the result!

Jiangkai dyers’ district: licensed as a Medium Artisan

Jiangkai, El Oleonda, May 622 Jiangkai is a unique settlement: a little city that thrives on the very corner of the maps, a Lotii settlement in the Empire of Oleon. Sacked by Corrington and destroyed by the Lotii after just a few years, Jiangkai should no longer exist… but still there it is, stubbornly clinging to the strip of plains between the southern coast and the unexplored hills of El Oleonda. Instead of dying, the city is growing larger and more prosperous, in spite of the brigands still infesting El Oleonda and of the renewed menace from the Lotii Empire. The most flourishing activity of Jiangkai is probably its the textile industry, that produces fine silk and cotton fabrics. Cloth is dyed in small brick tubs, combining the traditional techniques of Lotii artisans with the dyes typical of the New World, such as indigo or carmine. The hard work of stirring those -often awfully smelling- tubs is usually done outside the tiny stores, conveniently near to one of the many canals crossing the city. The dyers' district is, therefore, one of the most busy area of the city: almost everyone in the city, for a reason or the other, visits this lively area, may it be to work in the dyers' shops, or to pick up a roll of cloth for a tailor... ...but also to eat something in one of the tiny, cheap "taverns", usually small wooden platforms built directly on the sidewalks... ...or maybe to buy something from one of the many merchants and peddlers: dyes and clothes are obviously the main wares, but almost anything can be bought at the tiny stalls, from medicinal plants to curiosities and trinkets, from old maps to cooking utensils. A unit of the newly formed Jiangkai tirailleurs patrols the streets of the city. Differently from l'Armèe de L'Orient, formed by soldiers of Lotii origin, but fully integrated in the regular army, the tirailleurs are organised as an auxiliary light infantry unit, similarly to the colonial militia of the most peripheral settlements. The officers are not part of the Army, but are instead drawn from La Royale (the Royal Navy of Oleon), and usually have a past in the merchant fleet: this may be unhortodox, but they are probably the only officers who can fluently speak both Oleander and Lotii, at least until the first volunteers from Jiangkai will graduate at Breshaun Royal Academy. Some of the heterogeneous inhabitants of Jiangkai. From left to right: an old Lotii merchant, an Oleonese trader, soldiers of Jiangkai tirailleurs, a Monomonto ronin, and a member of the Blue Dragon Society (young nobles supporting "modernization" of the Lotii society). Several aspects of Jiangkai were heavily inspired by @Khorne‘s builds (including the design of the uniforms of the tirailleurs and the Blue Dragon Society, somehow similar to samurai during the Meiji modernization of real-world Japan). I will license it as Medium Artisan in Jiangkai.

Unit name: 1st Colonial Mountain Artillery Company Type: Light artillery and light infantry (chasseurs) Uniform description: Gunners wear the standard bluecoat with dark green epaulets (gold for officers), blue-grey trousers, and black beret (black cap for officers and chief gunners). Chasseurs wear a simple bluecoat without epaulets, green trousers, green cape (sailcloth waterproofed with tar), and black tricorn (shako for officers). Equipment description: 6-pounder mountain cannons. A shortened version of the standard infantry musket. Recruitment center: Fort Arltrees. All the soldiers (recruited among the colonists or drawn from other units) are native to the mountain regions of Oleon and Altonia. Unit history and description: The unit was formed in early 622 in Fort Arltrees to secure the road from Fort Arltrees to Jiangkai. Since the shortest trail between the settlements crosses the highest mountain range of the known New World, soldiers with special equipment and training were required for the task. The first company of mountain artillery was specifically formed to move and fight on the difficult high grounds of El Oleonda. The unit is equipped with light cannons that can be easily disassembled and transported on mules, together with ammunitions and supplies. Both the artillerymen and the chasseurs (the light infantry accompanying the cannons) were recruited among the colonists coming from mountain regions of Oleon, and also include a few Altonian immigrants. These men spent their whole life walking along the mountain trails, leading their cows on the high meadows or carrying goods from a tiny village to another one: thus, they are renowned for their endurance and for their autonomy. As in their daily life in the motherland, the bluecoats can rely on a robust breed of Oleander mules to carry weights up and down the mountains. Stronger and less delicate than horses, they can deal with mountain trails without problems. Some mules are also equipped with a saddle, and can be riddden by the soldiers in case of need: they may not be as elegant as thoroughbred Guelphian horses, but still mules represent invaluable companions for Oleander mountain infantry. Campaigns: Seawatch campaign Motto: Inveniam viam aut faciam! (I’ll find a way or I’ll create one!) Additional pictures: A 6-pounder cannon in battery Soldiers and mules carrying a cannon up a mountain slope.

Since somebody asked a little nerd question, I emerge from my shadowy nerd corner! During the age of sails there was almost an arms race about the best wood to use for a ship, with every nation experimenting and spying the others. With the discovery of the Americas and the exploration of East Asia, shipbuilders discovered a wide array of new woods (and of new barnacles and wood worms), and basically went by trial and error: some pines rotted super quickly in sea water, while other woods (cedar, other pines) were super resistant to decay… somebody even built ships completely made up of super expensive mahogany! A “secret weapon” of the British Royal Navy was the North American oak: the tree is too short for long beams and has weird internal textures, but if correctly cut can make the structural elements of a ship basically cannonball-proof. Moreover, oak planks will shatter far less than the usual pine planks, avoiding a lot of horrible wounds caused by wooden shrapnels. In game, the best trees for shipbuilding can be probably found Ile De Zeus (Oleander settlement of Astrapi has for this reason a small economic bonus for wood industry/shipbuilding), but there is no real lore about it.

Thank you all guys! This unit was inspired by mountain infantry units, that often used mules to carry their weapons and supplies. In Italy, they were extensively employed on the Alpine front during WWI (later than our timeframe), where Italian Alpini and Austrian Kaiserjaeger fought each other on high mountains. The unforgettable Scaramanga!

Thanks! The build is done, but I’m still working a little on the story! Thanks! I saw a drawing of mountain artillery on mules and I wanted to try something similar!

Outskirts of Fort Arltrees, El Oleonda, April 622 Hills and mountains have always represented a difficult obstacle for armies: roads are bad and too narrow for baggage trains, or they do not exist at all. Moreover, the difficult terrain tires the man quickly, and can easily injure the horses. For these reasons, generals avoid mountain ranges whenever possible. Sometimes, however, it is simply not possible: a mountain range crosses El Oleonda from East to West, and any alternative path from Fort Arltrees to Jiangkai would require weeks of difficult march across the jungle. In Fort Arltrees, a new company was specifically formed to move and fight on the difficult high grounds of El Oleonda interior. The unit is equipped with light cannons that can be disassembled and transported on mules, together with all the equipment required to set up a battery. Both the artillerymen and the chasseurs (the light infantry accompanying the cannons) were recruited among the colonists coming from mountain regions of Oleon, and also include a few Altonian immigrants. These men spent their whole life walking along the mountain trails, leading their cows on the high meadows or carrying goods from a tiny village to another one: thus, they are renowned for their endurance and for their autonomy. As in their daily life in the motherland, the bluecoats can rely on a robust breed of Oleander mules to carry weights up and down the mountains... in this case cannons and supplies, instead of wood or salt! Stronger and less delicate than horses, they can deal with mountain trails without problems. Some mules are also equipped with a saddle, and can be riddden by the soldiers in case of need: they may not be as elegant as thoroughbred Guelphian horses, but still mules represent invaluable companions for Oleander mountain infantry. The cannons can be quickly unloaded and assembled by the gun crew itself: even the barrel can be lifted by a few men with arm strength. Gunpowder and ammunition are kept in small hemp bags instead of the usual kegs and cases: when you have to carry everything for hours up a steep slope, reducing the weight and the size of the loads is paramount. In a quarter of an hour, a battery of 6-pounder cannons can be placed almost anywhere... in any skirmish with the Lotii, no matter where, Oleon can now rely on its cannons! Artillerymen with a disassembled cannon (loaded on mules), and chasseurs (right), one of the specialties of Oleander light infantry. The cannon after assembly, and the artillery crew. OOC, the cannon design is very simple. However, all the parts can effectively be loaded on the mules. Overall view: Troop raising build for Fort Arltrees (1 company of mountain artillery).

Thank you guys! I found online some nice drawings of Southeast Asian warriors and I realised how little I knew about the real-life reigns of the area in our timeframe… and that nobody really depicted them with LEGOs