Gideon

Very good landscaping, enough to provide a good scenery without obscuring the action in focus. Would not mind seeing more "speed builds" like this from you Regarding the photography I think the lighting is quite good (bounced flash I assume?), but maybe a tad too strong on the top side of the bricks? An idea to get a more diffuse light could be to spread the light from the flash out more, perhaps using some "frosty" plastic or a thin sheet of white paper in front of the flash?

A lot of plants packed into that relatively small area I like those turnips/potatoes a lot, especially the uprooted version (I think it looks a bit weird however that they get inverted after being uprooted?) UoP +1 on all credits.

A very good vignette with a hint of that strange crater, and the fig posing is also very good! Regarding UoP credits, I agree with previous peer reviewers that extreme environments and the rocks merit +1.

Great work with this GoH calendar! Merry christmas!

Good story writing and a nice picture with the flowers

Sounds like we have similar thoughts for the town. I imagine some parts of the fortifications to be very old, and that the present walls are partially remaining parts of the old walls, partially built upon ruins of old walls as foundations and partially being new encircling new areas outside the original fortress. And as you describe, parts of the town should be outside the walls...I imagine that a lot of business goes on out there, not least for toll reasons The buildings of Sultan's Gate would be mostly semi-temporary structures, especially the ones outside the walls, with a lot of not so neat clay brick construction and canvas parts. Wooden parts would be built mostly with smaller parts of wood, like parts of old carts etc, since getting wood there is a lot of work. There might however be some more permanent structures, especially the gate fort and also maybe some official bazaar building and water supply structures? Another thing I have in progress now when being away from my bricks is to try to flesh out Barqa and it's surroundings a bit (maybe make a "zoomed-in" map and extend the wiki post). Currently, I'm sifting through what I can find regarding the city from the early days of GoH. It's mostly Masa's stuff I've found at the moment, so if I will be contradicting anything else that has been built/described before please notify me so I can update it. I'm also looking around for inspirational material, right now old maps of Constantinople is my main source of ideas for the layout of Barqa. I won't be making a detailed map on street level, but my thought is to make a map of the general outline of the city and it's districts, landmarks and fortifications. Landmarks can then be added as more MOCs are built there. Please point out if you have made any MOCs located in Barqa or it's surroundings, and I'd make sure to include them! @Masa: Would it be OK if I base a new map of Barqa on the one you have in the wiki, and consider your map a "historical" map showing the original old town of Barqa (and its fortifications) which the city since then has outgrown and built new walls and harbors? My idea of the city when interpreting the description in the wiki of Barqa being "the shipping capital of Historica" is somewhat bigger than what it is on the scale of your map Thanks! I can "cardify" more MOCs in a similar way now that I got the template, but I will only do it at the request of the builder as I don't want to be messing around with other builder's pictures without permission. Merry Christmas everyone (or whatever holiday you are celebrating, if any, at this time )!

Congratulations on yet another brilliant MOC! I like how your roof texturing has evolved, and of course the angles and texturing of the walls. I actually almost think I like this level of leaning walls better than when everything is "off-grid" Anyway, good luck in the CCC!

Naioths...prefect creatures for Mitgardia! As I've written elsewhere as well it's great to see the elven cultures of Historica get fleshed out more

Very suitable size of a phase 1 palissade wall. I think the guards would benefit from somewhat higher vantage points however Still looks like your pushing your camera too close to the bricks...

Great idea to have the character kidnapped when you have to fight for the other side I really like those goblins, they look cute and fierce at the same time!

Great work Gabe keeping the UoP voting going, I'll check into those threads and see if I've missed to vote on anything (got a lot of unread topics in the GoH subforum at the moment...) I started some wall and tower building for Sultan's Gate by testing out some dark tan wall techniques which I am quite happy with. Havn't finished that wall yet however, and I figure that we should probably think that through one more time, as I don't want to set the standard of the wall around Sultan's Gate to a standard which requires LUGBULK amounts of dark tan Maybe we should stick to the more readily available tan color as a standard for the walls? I don't think the walls should be very high, maybe 10-12 bricks is a good aim and maximum 6 studs wide (maybe only 4-5)? Anyway, when I'm back at my bricks I can make an example of what I imagine would be a suitable wall standard to have in the modules. Not that every Sultan's Gate build needs to include the wall, but similar to the Valholl builds I like the idea of different buildings in different MOCs sharing the same kind of wall at the back

UoP +1 for minifig posing, but I'm not certain about flowing water? Isn't this supposed to be a shoreline?

The bamboo leaf works surprisingly well as part of a Mitgardian standard

I really like that more of Albion is built in this modular style (reminds me a lot of de Gothia's builds). In my opinion, the second-last shot is the best. The bowman on the roof reminds me of Assassin's Creed. Seeing nice modular builds of manageable size like this makes me want to try something similar for Barqa

This tower series was exactly what I had hoped to see when the AoM project was announced Looking forward to Jester and Fool taking on new tasks

Check this thread out for instructions and subjects: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=88352

Your building and minifig posing skills are definitely improving! I don't think those walls necessarily need more details, it's a matter of style imho and you've got enough details to avoid the "big gray wall syndrome". However, I think you still need to work a bit on your photography... There are a lot of good guides out there, I suggest that you spend some time reading those and your MOC presentations will be improved

A lot of action and interesting details, good job! However, I think the floor is a bit too simple compared to all the other great detailing...but I suppose that's a matter of taste Anyway, UoP +1 for those categories.

Impressive load that horse can carry UoP +1 for the foliage.

Very nice tower design and technique! I really like how you've mixed the technic parts with system parts in the walls and how the tower feels like it grows out of the rocks I also like the minotaur heads in different states of decay decorating the entrance. Nocturnus must yield before the mighty fortifications of the Black Spire! UoP +1 for all the credits.

The general consensus at the start of book II was as far as I remember that while some alchemists might be experimenting with gunpowder (and maybe even with the dangerous business with putting it into barrels, more likely to harm someone aruond it than in front of it), gun technology is not developed in Historica as that would make castle building much more boring and ugly

Lots of nice details and well done minifig posing, i.e. great job! Not thinking about applying for some University of Petraea credits for this build? (Like for the SNOTed water or dense foliage?)

Great idea and nice build, I really like that we are seeing more of the diverse Elvish culture of Historica now!

Wonderful action, these figs and the posing of them really rocks

Not so much talk in the thread now, everyone busy with Christmas preparations and other real life issues or just busy building for the challenge? I did some of my probably last brick-related work for this year (expecting to be separated from them for most of the remaining time of 2013), which really did not need my physical bricks anyway... New "cardifications" of mine and Masa's cards: