Horry

dear folks, During a series of theatrepedagogical workshops dealing with respect and conflicts that my theatre is doing during this summer, there's also an approach on how to tell children of right and wrong regardless of their language. As a testing-bed for my try, I will create scenes and vignettes depicting human right violations and let the teenagers discuss them after showing those MOCs. I will present the scenes here during the next few months as they are build. Originally, I wanted to pre-build them altogether but I find it very depressing to build things like that in Lego although the first workshop with two scenes has been a great success and the scenes were discussed intensively. MOC I - death penalty theme: Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Article 3 "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." Lethal injection 1 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Lethal injection 2 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Lethal injection 3 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr MOC II - illegal mining operations enforcing child slavery theme: Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Article 4 "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." Mine 3 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Mine 1 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Mine 5 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr

They are and there are bird's eye photos of them. But as it is with the ships: you cannot see very much of them so I wanted to show what will be there in the game Yes, I need time to resize them and fit them into the maps and for that they have to fit in there. As I already have mentioned, cutting, adding the lightning and adapting the map effects on those islands takes time. If you build one for a game and submit them like your ship, it'll take much more time until the game can start. So posting them here will include them in the game and guarantee a better quality of the map.

Dear friends of Rocks & Shoals (that can be seen here), As we decided that there is no pirates-game without some islands, I created some small and quick islands that can be conquered, destroyed or visited in the game. There are three different types of islands: hide-out: It has a 24 pounder cannon and a dinghy - placed on the 16x16 island baseplate trading place: it has two 24 pounders, wood to repair 20 HP and a dinghy - placed on the 16x16 island baseplate A small harbour: four 24 pounders and the possibility to dock there in order to make fast repairs. – placed on a blue/island baseplate with 36x36 studs I made my three example versions of such islands. But if you want to see an island made by yourself appear in the game, you can submit pictures of them here. The only restrictions are mentioned above. hideout 1 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr hideout 2 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr trading post 1 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr trading post 2 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr dock 1 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr dock 2 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr dock 3 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr

Here are my votes: Yatkuu - Encounter at the blacksmith workshop - 2 points (this one is a great reproduction of the scene with love to detail) Cecilie - The Fountain of youth - 2 points (I love the correction of the TLG set with grea dimensions and atmosphere) Matn - Tia Dalma's Shack - 1 point (I've never seen so many green in the pirates section - very good reproduction of a difficult scene)

Dear sailors, Here's the complete 1.1 version of rocks & shoals! Please give your kudos to Phred for doin' a marvellous job with the new sheets! Here are the sheets Here are the rules Here are the templates for ships We need your feedback on the first two files, it would be greatly appreciated

As of lately, there seems to be a decrease in gentleness around here While I basically agree on some parts of Toltomeja's critique, I do like the MOC, actually. First of all, I like the idea of using this scene as it is very original. Secondly, you have created a good representation of the action going on with a very simple style - I like this! Is the minifig-torso with the golden helmet on the left hand-side supposed to be a bell? I definetly would like to see better pictures of this, even though the contest is closed - maybe you would like to post more pictures on Flickr or alike?

Okay, this took me some days, but here is my revised rules set. Please take a look at it and tell me what you think! This time, it is hosted by my Star Trek rpg-group, less pop-ups http://strpga.npage.de/get_file.php?id=17595303&vnr=176698 EDIT: next post contains the newer file.

Hey Scorpiox, I've tried to remake the bluecoats symbol but I got no scanner, so this is the best I can offer: Bluecoats Flag 01 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Bluecoats flag bW von HMSCentaur auf Flickr (2nd version is black/white but a bit pixeled) I hope this helps!

Well, their uniforms are supposed to be darkish bluish with small red parts - since I did not want to use epaulettes on all of them (i feel they are quite overused these days) I had to come up with something else to resemble the colour mixture. Bjornu: I'd say not, it's too big. Here's a fairly good description of what can be considered a vignette: http://news.lugnet.com/build/vignette/FAQ

Well, I always thought that the rules would make it possible for two players to join the same faction. If we read it all like that, people could also build their custom harbours - but I did not say that! Captain Genaro: that actually would be a good idea, but there would be normally not enough time to launch a longboat if your were sinking. All small crafts had to be stored away tightly when there was the beat to quarters in order to guarantee safety if there would be a sharp turning manoeuvre. This would also ensure that the crew would fight to the last man. But if the powder magazine did not explode during battle, there could be survivors for a certain amount of time - an idea that I like very much!

Thanks! It's a part of "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky I am afraid not - so far, we've only had German members and there has been no need to make an international version - I will see to it but it could take some time. Anyway, I have started rewriting the tables and think I'll have them up and running again (AND public) by tomorrow.

I really like this. It has this warm feeling of the first scenes of the first movie and it catches that wonderful way of steppin' on the dock very well.

Well, I agree with the others - while I love the cross-section display and your incredible love to detail, it is all beaten by the Kraken.

Oh, btw, I tried to animate the battle by using MS moviemaker - guess, I'll have to get Premiere out again... Here's my akward result anyway: On topic: The tables just crashed in my face when I tried to convert them into a state that is compatible to other systems - I used a standard RPG ability-testing-program we use at our Star Trek game. Guess, I'll have to get back to our admin-nerd or even better: just rewrite it in excel.

Thanks everybody for your kind comments! Sebeus Iniwum: You are quite right, I will get another camera tomorrow and try to catch it a bit better - weather has been horrible in Berlin during the last weeks, it's difficult to catch a day with a bit sunshine. Captain Genaro: thank you for your suggestions! Unfortunately, I will be overwhelmed with work during the next days, so no decals for the lord, I am afraid. But the other points have been taken into consideration Admiral Croissant: I thought about adding plants, but I could see none in the movie scene - but some barrels should be no problem.

I stand corrected

oooh, a meier game about pirates and I've missed it? shame on me! On topic: The angles are a neat idea but I fear for practicability - let me experiment a little on this one. On another note: We're finished! The first beta test is over - please give your feedbacks here, everyone! I will hold mine back until I've collected yours - feedback on the actual battle would be nice as well.

Round 14 Round 14 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr "As the stricken Thunderer tries to get around the wreck of Revere, Hell Hound again fires her broadside, finally putting and end to this fierce fight!" The battle is over. TazManiac has won, congratulations! final stats: TazManiac: Hell Hound: 283hp Losses: 5 crewmen, 1 midshipman Capt.JohnPaul: Thunderer: lost with all hands Revere: lost with all hands

Dear friends, I'd like to present my contest entry for you. Originally I did not plan to enter the contest, as I thought I had not enough matching bricks for free at the moment. But I just decided to go with some artistic freedom. The scene I want to depict is the first one from the third movie: at world's end - at Port Royal, now under command of the East India Trading Company, the strict regime of Lord Beckett brings the locals to singing the pirate's song. It was quite difficult to bring all the details that I wanted into that scene, especially the death-row, the working Beckett and the two guys sorting boots from bodies - I am not sure whether I have managed to integrate the scene well inbetween 32x32 studs, but you can tell me! Anyway, this was a fun to build! There are no very special methods, but I enjoyed the work. There are no custom parts except the hangman's knots and the flag. No decals, just old-fashioned classic-pirates folks to resemble the scene If I would win, I would prefer the mill as a prize. contest entry von HMSCentaur auf Flickr The whole scene contest entry 1 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr "right to habeus corpus - suspended!" contest entry 2 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr The death row contest entry 4 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr "Lord Beckett! - they have started to sing, Sir" "Finally" contest entry 3 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr Sorting the boots

Another double post. I've made a collection of things to change that have caught my attention during the beta test, so far. I'd be happy if you gave me feedback (1) easiest thing to answer: are you happy with the graphics, especially of the broadsides, the zoom and the water channels? (2) What do you think of the fights? I noticed that I haven't shown my tables for calculating the casualties. It is done in a similar fashion as the damage: 25% of the crew will be killed off if the hull damage increased up to 25% and so on. Additionally, there will be 2 possible victims among the special crewmembers, determined with a D20. (3)I've come to the conclusion that we have to work on the rules for bringing the ship into firing position. If you can fire the broadside anytime and then go off to any square, the game becomes too lenient in my opinion. Would you agree if we say that a broadside determines the course? e.g. You fire a broadside with the course being west, you have to go west afterwards for the remainder of this turn? Or shall we say that changing course by more than 90° will use up the turn anyway? The rule is now: You can pivot up to 90° if you want to be able to fire a broadside OR you can make a >90° turn but NO broadside You think that this is enough? (4)Do you think that the hitpoints/damage points are balanced or shall we make the cannons stronger/less stronger? (5)Concerning the islands: There'll be no cannibals with me in this game, sorry mates - I've outlined my stubborn opinion on this matter in this thread and I would be not happy if I had to support prejudices against other peoples. But if you agree, we could discuss point 6 to replace the islanders. (6)we could position little pirate forts that could attack anyone that comes close - if the forts are destroyed or taken by marines, they could be salvaged for bonuses. What do you think? (7) I'd like to add a crow's nest to the special equipment, enabling the ship to see the damage of the enemy if the ship using the crow's nest is slow enough. That way, gathering information would add up to the tactical possibilities of a fight.

ROUND 13 Round 13 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr "Seing their fellow ship going down enrages the crew of the Thunderer and they fire their broadside but to no avail as they are out of range. Hell Hound answers this with her own cannons and the fight continues." Damage reports have been sent.

That's actually not entirely true - UCS is almost always Star Wars related but generally not restricted to it, as you can see here - The Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman would certainly make excellent UCS sets and I would get happily poor buying one of those.

imho this can not be generalized. While the basic principles described by you are indeed aplicable to many historical naval battles, there is no natural law that the commanders of the flotilla will actually be able to use that principle. Additionally, the chosen tactic would greatly rely on the weaponry and the equipment on board as well on the the course of action the enemy takes. For example, Hell Hound has not tacked while engaging the enemy but positioned himself in order to be able to attack while at least being in broad reach. If you compare the maximum speed of a brig of war to that of a sixth rate in broad reach, the ship will most certainly not be able to match the top speed. If you read through the thread you will see that Phred has provided us with an accurate formula that enables us to calculate the maximum speeds of the respective ships taking part in every game. As one square represents a fixed area we have translated the maximum speed into squares/turn. While the ratio may have to be adjusted and will never be perfectly accurate, it does reflect a certain level of realism. Anyway - I'll never say that this game is anywhere near the realistic circumstances of naval battles. It is intended to provide joy and thrill and enable the gamers to show off with their wonderful MOCs

Yes, that is the direction. And for those small ships there is no weather gage as their sails area is too small to outrun the Hell Hound anyway, even if they make speed running. Additionally, I casted dice in order to determine the starting points, so there was no possibility of balancing the odds for me

Round 12 Round 12 von HMSCentaur auf Flickr "being hit by another devastating broadside from Hell Hound, Revere's battered hull is torn apart. The ship is lost with all hands." You will receive damage reports shortly.