Keymonus

Thank you guys! Still I’ve to figure out how to continue the story, but I’m quite proud of my entry, in particular of the writing! Well, the house of my detective in the modular city now has new white walls

Yes, more or less it works in this way! In synthesis you can: -simply build your story, without collaboration with others. In this way you can’t change the world too much, but basically you can do whatever you want -build taverns, stores, houses, plantations... with or without a backstory (your character may own or visit them, but you don’t have to include him in all your builds). If you want, you can also license them and earn some doubloons each month (some actions, such as hiring soldiers, require DBs) -participate to small or large collaborations, such as GoC. Some are aimed to simple development of the faction, others to develop the story of a settlement, the foundation of a new colony, exploration of distant lands... -challenges: everyone starts with the same instructions, and the winning factions gain islands and other benefits When your build is ready, just post it, eventually adding a short tag in the title (GoC, ChIII for the challenge...)

Sorry to pop-up again in the redcoat thread @Sir Kingston, the role of your character (e.g. being a lower rank officer) is mainly a starting point for your story, but it doesn't force you to do or not to do something: you will act mainly in an independent way, coordinating your story with others only if you want. Being a soldier (as my character is) will drive your story mainly to military stuff, to explorations or to pirate hunts, but only because it may fit more with the character you created, and only if you decide to do so! Personally I created some secondary characters (a private, a doctor, a finance administrator of the noble house…) to depict different aspects, and you can also build without including your character at all

A sutler, providing little commodities to soldiers

Very nice build and hilarious scene, I love in particular the white facade. And your ship "mooring" to the pier is a very, very nice touch!

Nice Fort! The colors are in my opinion a little too brilliant, but the resulting effect is very nice, something like a postcard from a Caribbean fort. Nice job with the angled walls and with the roundish elements (the arch, the tower...). Well done!

Nice classic-looking scene! I like the details you added, in particular the little oven and the potter wheel. And even if ceramic grenades are a quite unusual idea for the period… who cares! Well done!

Thank you guys! Probably the whole construction is not so impressive, but I'm quite proud of the little scenes going on! I have that hope too!

A little late at the party, but very nice build! I like the barren terrain and the little scene going on. My only criticism is that the first build is probably a little too dark, while the second one (still dark, but some details visible) is perfect for a night scene!

Welcome on board @Sir Kingston, even if you decided to enlist in the Corries If you have any doubt or question feel free to ask your faction members or to anyone else here around! My suggestion is: start building, have fun, and try to learn all the rules/dynamics only in a second time!

Maybe adding some "cheese slopes" would do the job! However, it is a great job! I like the way you kept some of the features (the terrain, for example) and upgraded others with new bricks and more sophisticated buildings techniques. This is something that I would probably buy

El Oleonda, March 620, Fort Arltrees Fort Arltrees is a small military outpost, nothing more than a rudimentary palisade surrounding some tents and a couple of large huts… this is how all the settlements begin: it strange to think, but even Breshaun, during its first days, was nothing more than that. Any real possibility of development, however, is delayed until the end of the hostilities, when the arrival of civilians, regular shipping of supplies and, in general, the construction of more permanent builds will be possible. Living in Fort Arltrees in fact, is something very, very dangerous: an attacker wouldn't do any distinction between soldiers and civilians. However, a place where soldiers have no way to spend their wages offers a lot of opportunities to merchants who are brave enough. Sutlers are civilian sellers who follow soldiers almost to the battlefield. Sometimes they are hated and considered profiteers, but they also represent the only ones who can provide anything beyond rations, uniforms and weapons: tobacco, paper and writing implements, candles, a good knife or a whetstone, a linchpin or a mug, even some liquors… these little commodities are not cheap, up to five times their real value, but they can make far more comfortable the permanence in such a desolate place. In Fort Arltrees the sutler's shop, actually a large stall with a few improvised tables, represents the only place where soldiers can spend their free time: it soon has become a sort of little tavern, a meeting point that the soldiers simply call "the store"... there is no possibility of mistake about which store, since it is the only one! Soon a little kitchen was established too: soldiers have to pay, but food is by far better than ordinary rations. Even if this little commercial activity drains money from the soldiers' pockets, it represents a fundamental step for the growth of Fort Arltrees: taxation on little activities like this one provides to the commander of the fort some extra funds for the development of further projects, such as attracting settlers and starting some little farms. This, however, will be only possible after the end of the Carno-Lotii war… provided that the settlement will survive that long! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the first economically relevant build in Fort Arltrees. I wanted it to be a very simple, provisory build, and I think I achieved the result… now I think that the next step is starting building something a little more sophisticated, maybe a blacksmith or a real canteen! Any idea? What would you like to see next?

My entry for Cat B

Somewhere in the jungle, March 620, El Oleonda Heading towards these ruins was almost a shot in the dark. During one of the first explorations of the interior, following a little river with no name (by the way, River Rimbaud sounded quite well), Tristan and his men found something quite surprising: a complex system of little canals, clogged by vegetation but still functioning, that brought water towards the inland. That luxuriant jungle, somewhere in time, must have taken over fields and gardens, swallowing any trace of an advanced civilization: no known tribe of the archipelago, not even the Myzec of Cascadia, could have built something similar. The canals, now feeding only bushes and undergrowth, were by sure a sophisticated artefact: they were built with bricks and stones, and their slope had probably been carefully calculated… proof of that, they were still functioning despite the abandonment. Even though that discovery was completely unexpected, Tristan was more interested in something different: far inside the jungle, above the treetops, there was a wisp of smoke… the only trace of human presence they could find. With no other clue, Tristan and his men moved in that direction, following the remains of a paved road… another strange thing to find in the New World, but that made the men save a lot of time and fatigue. Now they were almost there. The scouts had told Tristan that the bivouac was only fifty meters onward, among some ancient ruins, but he couldn't see anything yet… damned jungle! Tristan's only hope was that the men in front of them were Carnite and not Lotii: the orders he had received included exploring the island and trying to discover what the two nations were fighting for, something by far easier if you can understand a word of what the others say. Tristan murmured a short prayer to Poseidon and moved forward… he was going to do something very, very stupid. "You are entering a military site of the Empire of Carno! Don't make a step forward or we'll open fire!" Bingo! They weren't Lotii and they didn't shoot on sight… it was already something. Tristan stopped, trying to appear as calm and relaxed as possible. Entering from the front door was by sure the best way to get quickly a lot of information, but it was also quite risky... now he had to play his cards well if he didn't want a bullet from a nervous Carnite sentinel. "I am Tristan Rimbaud, Regiment General of the Oleander army." -He replied in an acceptable Carnite- "You have at least two good reasons to lower your guns and let me pass. The first, and the best one, is that I come in peace: I don't have any hostility against you. The second one is that I ordered my men to take position in the bushes right behind me... touch the trigger, and you'll receive enough bullets to turn that ruins into a lead mine." Tristan knew very well the rule of thumb of diplomacy: raising a white flag can be a good start a negotiate, but it works by far better if the counterpart knows that you have twice his guns. A moment of tense silence followed, immediately covered by the deafening rumors of the jungle: the chatter of parrots, the rustling of leaves, the sounds of the little streams of water... and the buzzing of bugs, that disgusting horde of tiny vampires. Three more Carnite soldiers emerged from the bushes. They were in a good position, but Tristan was almost sure that his man would have taken them down before they could shoot, if things had gone in the wrong way. "Calm down, Gustav! They are clearly not Lotii cutthroats!" Tristan had barely noticed that man before… a civilian, unarmed, who now seemed to be the leader of the Carnite garrison. "And welcome, Herr Rimbaud, on behalf of myself and of the inhabitants of this place, dust since centuries. I am Hans Schneider, archaeologist, and this is Gustav Weber, head of my guards… forgive him, but we all are a little on edge, given the situation! By the way, aren't you Oleanders a little far from home?" Tristan, relieved, walked into what seemed an ancient city, similar to several ones scattered in the archipelago… also in this case, everything seemed abandoned for decades. "Nice to meet you, Monsieur Schneider" replied Tristan. "You are right, we are quite far from home! The war between your nation and the Lotii has raised some anxiety in our colonial authorities… and has also raised a lot of questions. This island is quite large and rich, but it's not the only one in the archipelago. Why the hell didn't the Lotii colonize another of the large islands? What do they think it's worth dying for?" Tristan didn't really expect an answer: if there actually was something precious enough to start a war, the Carnites wouldn't have revealed it so simply. The archaeologist, however, surprised him again. "Well, Herr Rimbaud, I can be completely frank about that: my nation is here for what always makes the empires move: lands, gold, commercial routes, valuable crops… we were a little late in the run towards East, but now we have our piece of land under the sun. For the Lotii, however, the situation is different: they arrived on El Oleonda without any warning, and they attacked our forces on the Eastern tip of the island. The incredible thing, however, is that probably they don't care at all about conquering the island… they are looking for something." "And... do you know what are looking for?" "I'll tell you a story, Herr Rimbaud. I don't know if it's true or not, but it's all I know. A story that began thirty years ago, in the Lotus Kingdom. You know that after the discovery of the first islands in the Sea of Storms, half a century ago, voices of rich lands East of Terraversa started to spread… rumors about paradise-like islands, possibly even continents, where spices grew everywhere, and gold could be found below any single rock. So, after a lot of hesitation, the Emperor decided to roll the dices and send his ships to the North: also the Lotii had their Armond Basker and their three caravels, actually a fleet of twenty ships and almost two thousand mariners. They left the capital, cheered by the population, and nobody has ever seen them again: two thousand men swallowed by the sea, the whole fleet destroyed… and a considerable amount of gold, silver, and precious gifts for the sovereigns of the mysterious new continent lost with them. It was a real disaster, and somebody says that the old emperor was killed by the sorrow. Here ends what we know for sure, but a few years ago a new trace was discovered by some Lotii fishermen…" "How was it possible? What did they find after so much time?" "A man… even if I'm not sure he still could be defined so. They found him on a little atoll, where apparently he had lived alone for decades. He was completely mad, and could barely mutter a few words. However, before losing his mind, he had carved his memories on a piece of wood. I had a chance to read a copy of it, after our fleet captured a Lotii junk, and I can assure you that I didn't sleep for days. The only reason why that poor soul didn't commit suicide was that he knew something vital for the Kingdom, something he wrote down when he was still sane: the fleet was destroyed by a storm, as everybody supposed, but several ships survived and were stranded on a large island. The admiral decided to try the return voyage with the only ship that could still set sail, promising to the survivors that he would have returned with help. He left on the island hundreds of men, all the treasures and, even more importantly, most of the maps he had drawn up to that moment… maps of this archipelago, and of all the other lands which could exist between the Lowers and the Lotus Empire." "But he wasn't lucky enough." Concluded Tristan. "Indeed. The ship sank, and the only survivor was driven mad by the sun and the loneliness. But his sketches seem to show that the ships were stranded on El Oleonda, and so the Lotii are here. For the treasure of the lost fleet and those old maps, even if I don't know whether the streams of gold and pearls or the blessed lands described did ever exist outside the mind of that unfortunate sailor…" "And so the Lotii are here for some maps that could even not exist at all and for treasures lost decades ago, possibly on this island?" "Exactly. They are convinced that their predecessors may have hidden their gold before hunger, diseases, attacks of the natives or time took them all. Maybe in these very ruins, or in some abandoned temple in the forest, who knows. In that case, it will probably decorate forever the homes of scorpions, spiders, and bats." "And you? Are you hunting the Lotii gold too?" Asked Tristan. "I thought you considered the treasure lost forever, but still you are digging among these ruins..." "We are archaeologists, not treasure hunters!" Replied Herr Schneider, apparently a little offended. "We were studying these ancient ruins, abandoned at least a century ago by a mysterious civilization… but now we are trapped in a damned war theatre!" The archaeologist continued: "I don't know if the treasure exists, or if the survivors decided to throw it in the sea when they realized that nobody would have ever come. What I know for sure is that only their maps and documents, if they still exist, could reveal to us the complete story of the unfortunate expedition and the lands they visited. More probably, however, they will remain forever in some forgotten temple, no matter how much the Lotii will search." An overall view: Without colour adjustment This is my entry for cat B. It required a lot of text, pictures, and time, and I hope you like it. As usual, C&C are welcome. PS Everything I depicted is part of the build: the treasures and the skeleton are in little niches in the two buildings

Hi guys! I think the original LEGO idea was very nice, but not so much in line with building techniques used in released sets. The redesign is great too, but having a full ship makes it probably the best set since a long time, with a lot of the newest parts and nice minifigs... I also think that my birthday is tooooooo far away! About my IRL situation... my region was quarantined more than a month ago, and probably that confined a lot this damned virus: one of the three main outbreaks has been eliminated and the others are going better. Even more importantly, the disease is mainly confined in a region, with single cases more or less under control in other areas. For my job it was half a disaster: I’m a biologist and in my lab we had to freeze some of my cell cultures and to throw in the bin the others, meaning weeks of work (and quite a lot of money in expensive reagents) lost. The only positive aspect is a lot of free time to build!

Thank you guys! The idea behind the helmet was exactly that, something like the Iroquis or the Zulus wearing captured British Uniform, and about the idea of impending doom… we'll soon see how much it is justified!

Thank you guys! In my mind the Lotii are a mix between Chinese and Japan kingdoms, while I imagine other states in the area as something like South Eastern Asia, Tibet and so on… I strongly hope that someone will sooner or later flesh them out!

Thank you guys! I already published the next part, and soon you'll see where the story will go, stay tuned!

Nice battle scene! The plants are nice, but minifig posing really steals the scene… wonderful job!

Nice looking fort and interesting storyline! We are not Eslandolans, but probably only a few problems can't be solved by a couple of shining coins!

Nice collection of soldiers! I hope your "Rangers" will become a thing, black-coats in jungle fights would be something very interesting!

The first small fort of the settlement, Fort Arltrees itself

Fort Arltrees, February 620, El Oleonda The fort giving the name to the new Oleander settlement was finally completed. Fort Artrees was not much more than a palisade surrounding a few buildings, but now nobody could dislodge the small contingent without a hard fight. Lieutenant Marcel Dubois, the officer in charge of the garrison, was quite satisfied by the result: now, at least, nobody could take them by surprise, and more soldiers would soon have flowed towards the settlement… or at least that was the plan. Meanwhile, he had decided to reinforce all the weak points with additional defences: the soldiers built some cheval de Frise to protect the cannon loopholes... ...and deployed a real forest of pointy poles to prevent an attacker from approaching the wall with ropes and ladders. The garrison spent the rest of the time doing little jobs, such as unpacking tools, sharpening a blade with a whetstone or "testing the quality" of some Oleander aquavit. Others spend some time gambling, something strictly forbidden in most garrisons, but allowed in Fort Arltrees, considering the absence of any leisure or distraction. Everybody, however, was ready to run to his position in case of need… and more than grateful for the 24-pounders just unloaded from the warship Scamander. Overall view: Not so much to say about this build… I wanted to show the complete fort before licensing it. Despite the plot size (32x32) I will license it as a small fort, due to both the simplicity of the building and, storywise, the rushed and not exactly irresistible defences. Thank you for watching!

What a turn of evets! Lovely builds guys, let's catch and hang shoot behead question that spy! KB's fort is particularly unique looking, but also Bodi's round tower and Genaro's interior scene are very nice… great prosecution of this storyline!

The two storyline are finally in contact! Nice work with the previous builds, some are very impressive! I also like a lot the way your warehouse is similar to Capt Genaro's one! Sorry I can't hope all the best for Bregir's character...