Gideon

Keep the town growing Some C&C is that I really like the tan part of the building with its different tiers etc, but I'm not as fond of the dbg arches on the mdf facade.

Fantastic introduction! One of your best builds, and great use once again of the glass dome One of the few times there is a credible story behind a fantastic looking cliff beneath a fantasy city I do however like the picture without the dome better, since the dome picks up so much glare. I guess that taking the pictures outside with only an overcast sky would have worked better than under the lighting (transparent roof?) which is now reflected in the dome?

@Gabe Great to have another of the long-time builders back! Lovely interior, especially the window and the wall decorations @Mike S Congrats to 3k posts

I don't recall if the length of the oil road was ever established, but I guess we can probably say that it is about 2 weeks by caravan between Petraea and Barqa? In that case Mophet is located very strategically half-way for goods to change hands

Pretty sure that with no other categories competing for the bricks and time of the builders here that all builders at least can bring together a 32x32 build?

That would fit well in the narrative that my sigfig is visiting (and touring?) Varlyrio to open up new trade opportunities with Barqa

Very nice microscale layout overall, with some excellent details like the stairs and the ship I like the almost cartoonish feeling of the high keep with it's smooth walls and towers of varying height, a proper fairytale castle

Lovely interior build, this is yet another example why I think interiors are best done as standalone builds in true minifig scale I think the lighting works really well when it comes through the windows and has a direction to it, instead of the diffuse outdoors light. I'm not as fond of the sharp shadows on the floor however. But it makes me want to try to photograph an interior with the light coming through the windows and the windows creating sharp shadows, hmm... I agree that making de Gothia old and grumpy character is a great progression of the character in book III No more loud partying beneath the battlements of Sionnach then?

Great start in Historica, welcome! I love the base design and the simple fact that it is a Mitgardian build without snow Nice that the Mitgardian tradition of interiors is spreading And congratulations to the TBB mention! https://www.brothers-brick.com/2018/08/22/a-breath-of-crisp-mountain-air/

Great layout, so much to see! I really like how the docks are angled in different directions, and nice detail with the sand green masonry bricks closest to the water too You've really captured the feeling of a busy trade port, with all the different types of goods and cultures represented I know that photographing large layouts is a pain in the megabl..neck, but I think the presentation could have been improved with less visible cutting in post-processing, particularly of the center section of the water. I would also recommend straightening pictures such that a vertical line through the center of the picture is vertical.

This was one of my favorite builds at Brickworld! Thanks for the cameo of my sigfig, glad he got to visit Brickworld too despite me not bringing any GoH builds this year There are so many nice details here that I don't know where to start the praise, definitely a few I will consider borrowing... (One that I have already started thinking of using is a slightly modified version of the triple window on the back side of one of the buildings) The dark background works surprisingly well here, and probably eliminates most of the visible gaps between pieces commonly plaguing photos with a light background.

Nice minifigs and great surroundings! Are round doors a common Varlyrian architecture detail..?

A curved background saves that post-processing entirely, I use a cheap roller blind from Ikea

Nice vignette and great figure As others already have pointed out, the window design is great!

Probably the best of your Varlyrian builds so far, I love the shape of the building and the color use

Nice fur NPU I like the general style of the building, and especially the growing layout in the hidden picture when all builds are coming together around the canals! It also helps decreasing the divergence outwards of the vertical lines on the side of the image, which I am not a fan of. But in this case I think the photos at least must have been taken at a slightly longer distance since I almost don't see any divergence

Nice golden details, and I also like the doors a lot This is the perfect sized build for a decent HSS religious build imho.

Interesting roof design, maybe a little too repetitive for my taste but nevertheless a great new base for thatched roofs My favorite detail in this build is however the firewood pile! Good background and lighting. What I could however mention is that I think your photo would look better if you took a step back and zoomed in, then vertical lines would appear more vertical and slope less to the sides. I would also recommend a slightly smaller aperture (larger f-number) and make sure that the focus is about 1/3 from the front of the build (instead of as now on the very front element of the build) to get the whole build in focus.

There are many different types of deserts and badlands in Kaliphlin. Name whatever real-world reference landscape with lack of water and Kaliphlin most likely has something very similar!

That's what I would define as "reasonable overhang" anyways

Nice sigfig and neat surroundings Some low-hanging fruit (pun totally intended ) on the photography front would be to take a step back and rather zoom in or crop, than placing the camera (phone?) this close to the build, as that magnifies the front. I would also recommend holding the camera straight or straighten the picture in post-processing, think that a vertical line through the center of the build should be vertical, and then let the vertical lines towards the sides slope equally away to each side. (which is also lessened by stepping back and zooming in). Try also to use less harsh light to avoid the reflections and the prononunced shadows. Simplest great lighting setup is to be outside when it is cloudy or be in the shade I do however like your nice clean background, that's a good start. To take it one step further would be to instead bend the background smoothly to avoid the edges/corners.

I assume that it is one build but can be several photos of it from different angles?

Nice build with a great amount of details in the small space, the setting and building fits very well in Varlyrio I particularly like the olive tree.

Nice shape of the buildings and great overall color use! The goats are also top notch You've pretty much nailed the presentation with the good photo and not overdone editing. A couple of minor comments however: To me the vignetting has a fairly substantial concentric banding to it, maybe it is caused by stepwise conversion or something else damaging the gradient? Smooth gradients are sensitive to banding sometimes in my experience... I also think that the visible gaps in the tower top should be avoided, if nothing else by some careful darkening of the visible light in post-processing.

There has been quite some confusion regarding the Historican Settlements (HSS) challenge for new players. Since that obviously points to room for improvement, I would like to suggest that some kind of clarification would be nice. Maybe it would even be an idea to decouple the challenge completely from Avalonia and have a dedicated thread for only the settlements (1 post per builder). In any case, it would be nice if a moderator eitcher could clean up the present thread (move all discussion posts to another thread?) or if all "active" settlements should get reposted in a new (sticky?) index thread with the rules + an index (like the one HQ just posted) + one and only one post with the details for each "active" settlement including links to all the builds. Any HSS discussion should then be somewhere else. (I am purposefully not posting this in the thread to avoid furter "bloating" of that thread ) In the same spirit, I would like to encourage the leaders of all other guilds than Mitgardia to introduce a challenge similar to the "Age of Mitgardia" challenge to also spawn ideas for different types of builds in those lands within suitable categories to flesh out the realms. I also really like how the AoM challenge is spawning simpler builds in the lower tiers. In the "AoM-style challenge" case however, I think it is a good idea for each guild to have it's own challenge since there might be guild specific categories (even though a copy-paste of the AoM challenge categories probably would be a great step also for e.g. Kaliphlin! ) I don't recall if AoM builds are eligible for HSS also, but I would in that case suggest that at least highest tiered Ao[insert guild abbreviation here] builds should be ok also for HSS.