Keymonus

Very experienced indeed! The arquebuse design is very original, and the boot-less soldier on the right is hilarious!

Nice entry! The slightly old-fashioned cannon is great, and the minifigs are very funny! The kilt for the officer looks surprisingly well. What is the red “scarf” around your soldiers’ neck?

My entry for cat1A

Thank you! My Banersbi warriors are loosely based on Borneo warriors, while the Bouton people are more based on ancient Siam/Burma warriors.

White banner soldiers on Jinzi (El Oleonda) From Jameis Farstrider’s Guide to Halos: White, the Wind Dragon Banner - When called upon, the White Wind Banner levies its troops from the Empire easternmost province, straddling the border with the Bouton and Peri protectorates. As such, it is not uncommon to find mercenaries from those nations amongst its ranks. From left to right: 1) Banersbi warrior: Native of the southern archipelago of Banersbi, these warriors often fight as mercenaries in Lotii (but also Gerlo and Monomonto) armies. Accustomed to fighting in the jungles of their motherland, they will probably be particularly useful in the skirmishes on El Oleonda. Banersbi warriors usually fight using firearms and exotic-looking blades, called kriss and mandau. 2) Nakay tribe head hunter: With a custom considered barbarian by foreigners, the warriors of some Banersbi tribes keep the preserved heads of killed enemies as amulets. Here a Nakay warrior shows with pride a shrunken head, the result of a complex and highly ritualised procedure. 3-4) Lotii musketeers: While cavalry dominates the armies of some banners, the soldiers of the easternmost Lotii provinces and of the vassal kingdoms fight almost exclusively on foot. Lotii musketeers fight in close formations, very similar to Madrician line infantry. White Banner soldiers can usually rely on efficient flintlock weapons, far superior to the matchlocks of other units. 5) Wei Lang, high officer of the White Banner: Lotii commanders usually wear elegant civilian clothes and traditional hats instead of a real uniform. Generals often carry decorated fans or other symbols of power, and sometimes a dao or a similar sword. 6) Lotii swordsman: A musket is a powerful weapon but, when the gunpowder finishes or gets wet, it becomes nothing more than a club. A sword, instead, remains deadly also under tropical rain. Charging the enemy with a sword and a shield can seem antiquated, but can still be surprisingly effective 7-8) Bouton warriors: Warriors from the vassal state of Bouton wear bright, colourful clothes and sometimes bell-shaped bronze elms. Known as fierce fighters, Bouton warriors fight with spears and short swords. Some of them are also equipped with firearms, usually antiquated but robust matchlock muskets.

Thank you all guys! Currently I don’t have much time to build, so I appreciated a lot this figbarf minichallenge, and I’m glad you like the result! I’m particularly proud of my native auxiliaries and of the ashigaru musketeer! Thanks! It comes from CMF series 10, the Tomahawk Warrior

Nice build and funny story! SW quotes and the final advertisement make everything better! I’m looking forward to seeing where is it going… and secretly hoping for a restoration of the glorious monarchy and the end of all this “power to citizens” nonsense!

My entry for Cat 1 B

Clan Amagai samurai and ashigaru on Jinzi Island (El Oleonda) From left to right: 1) Ashigaru musketeer: in traditional Monomonto armies, the ashigaru (literally “light feet”) are basically all the soldiers not belonging to the samurai class, ranging from peasants with clubs and spears to heavily armoured warriors. The introduction of gunpowder turned ashigaru into a formidable fighting force: anybody can learn how to shoot in a few days, and bullets have little respect for courage or nobility. Although not as disciplined as Madrician line infantry, or as the “new-doctrine” soldiers deployed by other clans, the Amagai clan musketeers can be deadly, especially when fighting in tight formations. 2) Naginata samurai: somehow similar the the knights dominating the Madrician kingdoms after the Empire, the samurai are skilled warriors following a code of rules, the way of the sword. They live with honour and die with honour, following their lord to victory or death: surrendering or retreating is not an option, and they consider killing their enemies more merciful than taking them as captives. Even if samurai are mainly known for their swords, their main weapon is usually a spear (yari) or a sort of halberd (naginata). 3) Samurai wearing the Amagai sashimono: Monomonto warriors are extremely heterogeneous in clothing and equipment, even if when they belong to the same clan. Weapons are often taken from defeated enemies, and an armour can change owner several times. To recognise foes and friends, warriors and commanders have therefore to rely on the sashimono, a little flag worn on warriors’ back. 4) Amagai Ieyasu: daimyo (feudal lord) of the Amagai clan. Warrior from tip to toe, hard and inflexible as the steel of his sword, he is seen by many as a living incarnation of the way. He led his men into countless battles, often against stronger warlords, and he always won, becoming a sort of legend. Times are changing fast, however, and famous warriors have already fallen on the island, killed without honour by Carnite grunts. The old warrior is now in front of a difficult choice: embracing some of the foreign innovations, or leading once again the charge of his samurai towards the guns of the enemies, possibly to a glorious death. 5) Amagai Nanako: while almost all the samurai are men, nothing forbids women to follow the way of the sword. Second daughter of Amagai Ieyasu, Nanako is a skilled warrior and a respected leader. 6) Samurai swordsman: a samurai showing his famous swords, katana (the “true” sword) and wakizashi (the long knife); as sharp as razor blades, thes weapons can literally cut an enemy in half. Samurai spend their all life training with swords, and only a very few Madricians could defeat one of them in a duel. 7-8) Tamaco tribe ashigaru: with war raging on Jinzi Island, several of the tribes of New Haven Seas got involved in the conflict, either siding with one of the nations or attacking anyone entering their lands. Several warriors of the Tamaco tribe joined the Monomonto armies as auxiliaries: for them, this is just a different way to continue their ancestral war against the Tyree’De and other rival tribes. The Tamaco warriors can be easily recognised from their red war paint and their helms carved from shark skulls… some of them, however, gladly replaced their traditional equipments with the far more effective Monomonto steel!

Thank you guys! We’ll see the developments in the close future, when something more about the siege will be discovered. There is nothing much to tell about the building itself, it’s quite simple but I like the result!

Seawatch, El Oleonda, February 622 After days of heavy tropical rain, the sun was finally high in the sky. With the warm weather, the luxuriant vegetation, and the parrots singing, the day seemed perfect for a picnic outside the town, apart from a little detail... the Lotii army besieging Seawatch! The enemies were less than a mile far, but everything was weirdly calm. The attack, however, could begin at any moment... in an hour or in a week, the enemy troops could have been right there, trying to storm the outer defenses of Seawatch. The defenders of Seawatch were ready to face them, musket in hand. They would have held that advanced position as long as they could, then they would have retreated to the second defensive line: those positions outside the city were precarious, but still allowed to keep the enemy cannons far enough from the city. Carnite soldiers and civilian volunteers were fortifying a small abandoned farm outside Seawatch: placing a few wooden spikes in a choke point required minutes, but could stop the charge of a whole cavalry company. Reinforcing the small garrison with conscripted civilians, however, had some downsides: some were undisciplined but brave, while others had clearly never held a musket before. A small group of Oleonese "merchants", coming from Fort Arltrees, had reached Seawatch right before the siege and was coordinating the defenders in the outer positions. Curiously, their leader seemed strangely expert about urban fights and irregular warfare. When asked, he always mumbled something about having fought in Charlatan Bay and quickly changed the topic. This was likely false, but the Carnite officers didn't actually care, since his suggestions were helping to keep the Lotii out of Seawatch. At that very moment, the "leader of the merchants" was discussing with a Carnite officer where to bury some gunpowder barrels to create a fougasse, using those very barrels as an improvised tactical table. His real name was Emmanuel Perrault, and he was an officer of the Oleonese military intelligence... but, there in Seawatch, he was Luc Delacroix, an Oleonese merchant trapped with his partners by the Lotii siege. He had had worse aliases, but it was still strange thinking that he would have received a medal -or he would have been buried- with a false name. He rolled the map and walked to another position, yelling orders to the militiamen... there was no time for sentimentalisms, as Emmanuel Perrault or as Luc Delacroix, he still had a siege to win! Overall view I hope you like my build! As a side note, I'm using it to introduce a secondary character, Emmanuel Perrault... I don't know when I'll use him again, but I wanted to have someone (more sacrificable than my main characters) in the besieged Carnite city. PS: After taking the photos and dismantling the build I realized that one of the muskets was chewed by one of my cats... nice!

Nice little build! I think it can’t be properly licensed, it should be a free build not similar to properties (as evancet’s bear above)

Lovely units! This is exactly what I had in mind when we opened this thread! BTW, the musket attached to soldier 3’s back is a great idea! It was inactive since a lot of time, but it’s a thread made up of progressive additions, so it’s perfectly fine bumping it up (while doing it with regular builds may be a little “unpolite”). I’m glad that someone still finds the Encyclopedia now and then… if you like it, know that also the Corries have a similar page, I think it was called “Military Index”. If in the future you want to create other posts for single units (ie. your 12e Batterie) I just ask you to follow the instructions, while for more general things your style is perfectly fine!

Thank you all guys! It was fun to build, so I’m glad that you like it! As in previous builds, I tried keeping Fort Arltrees a little “wilder” than other settlements, with inhabitants somewhere between Canadian trappers and Caribbean buccaneers, and I’m happy you noticed that! —————— Just to keep trace of the procedures, this was the prospection that found gold:

December 621, El Oleonda, Somewhere near Fort Arltrees After weeks of digging, the new gold mine of Fort Arltrees was now operating at full regime. As he walked by dozens of miners busy with their hard job, Marcel Dubois couldn't help but notice how close the place resembled an anthill... an appropriate comparison, since at least as many miners were working right below his feet, digging narrow tunnels in the rocky ground of El Oleonda. At the last corner of the known world, at the very border of the map, citizens of Oleon were doing what they had always done: they were working hard and they were defending what they had earned, weapons in hand if necessary! The director of the mine was already waiting for him, a case of gold ingots at his side, an armed man behind him. Marcel could have easily guessed the point even without that staging: the mine was important for the wealth of the Empire, but the military instability of El Oleonda still dampened investments from the motherland, and productive activities had to hire armed guards for safety. He had heard the same complaint at least a dozen of time, since civilian merchants had appeared on the island. Marcel took a deep breath and greeted the director... in these moments he almost missed the first days of the settlement, when he only had to deal with undisciplined soldiers or drunk trappers! As the director complained about the situation, Marcel tried with all his forces not to punch his face... how the hell could he "grant peace and stability, so that Fort Arltrees could finally flourish", if the surrounding joungle literally crawled with military units, bandits, stragglers and deserters? ------------------------- A several metres below, a team of miners were struggling against the hard quartz of El Oleonda, advancing inch after inch into the rich gold vein. Meanwhile, other miners carried to the surface the rock fragments, a monotonous, exhausting job. Until carts and rails are built, this difficult task will be done by dint of arms! At ground level, the mineral is transported along wooden rails by heavy oxen carts... ...to a small furnace, where gold is smelted out the rock fragments. -------------- Overall view: ------------------- A gold mine for fort Arltrees, to complete the prospecting build I made months ago. I hope you like it!

Nice and funny build, as usual! You are always keeping a high standard with your builds (I followed all your tulip stories, even if I didn't comment)... those windows, in particular, are gorgeous! What is the glass piece?

What a lovely ship! It is full of wonderful details, including the small decorations, the longboat, and the minifigs (I know how difficult minifig posing can be in LDD)! The real masterpiece here is the hull! It definitely looks made up of wood, and all the angles are perfect, at least when seen from the side! Would it be possible (although difficult and very expensive) to build it also in real bricks?

Nice build and, again, welcome to our Empire! The gun carriage looks very nice, and your characters are very funny! My only tip is about pictures, some of them look a little faded... you could try with natural light and without flash, this could improve the result!

Thank you, this is definitely a great compliment! It required a lot of work, so I'm glad that you like my fort! Thank you! In this period I had more time to read and to think than to build, so this was the result! Thank you!

The Shield of Aurelia | Large Fort | License Active

Thank you guys! Actually I hate dust in my builds, with my close-up photos single dust grains become visible and often I remove them with photo editing… but a lot of time passed between builds and photos! Thank you anyways! Thanks! This was a very complex project, with one fort that was basically version 2.0 of the other, since I wasn’t completely satisfied by the result… so I’m very happy for your comment!

Nice way to build a micro! Every part is exactly in the right place! How many pieces did you use for the ship?

Nice build and interesting development of the Lotii crisis storyline! The tree is obviously the true masterpiece, I love it! Just as a side note, for the future, remember that for plantations plot sizes are different: small is 32x32, while medium theoretically requires 64x64

Thank you! It is not my first attempt with the spiky thing, but I think this is the best design (as well as the most stable).

Name: Fort Arltrees Ownership: Squatter Settlement founded by Tristan Rimbaud (de iure); Oleon (de facto) Location: El Oleonda, New Haven Sea Mayor: Lieutenant Marcel Dubois Who can own property in Fort Arltrees: Currently only citizens of Oleon (under revision) Who can freebuild in Fort Arltrees: Currently citizens of Oleon, citizens of Eslandola and Sea Rats (diplomatic negotiators ongoing) Note: A ban on citizens of Corrington was instituted during the last war. Currently (November 621) it is still in place