Gideon

I have posted a freebuild showing what has happened to Groenby, the home of Gideon's friend Sir Derrik of Groenby who now has joined forces with Gideon to fight in the battle of Queenscross. See more pictures here

The peaceful town of Groenby in southern Avalonia has been invaded by the Hand of Corruption, and even Victor Revolword himself is there to perform some dark rituals with his acolytes, involving the sacrifice of innocent villagers. The sturdy pallisade was no match for a well-aimed fireball from Victor. This is the town ruled by Sir Derrik of Groenby, who himself managed to survive the destruction with some of his men and join forces with his old friend Sir Gideon to continue the fight against Revolword. Right now they are going towards Queenscross, hoping to aid in the coming battle there. A peaceful town, but something is definitely wrong... A sinister gathering in front of a burnt-out house Victor is leading some kind of ritual, his staff glowing golden Meanwhile, Hand of Corruption forces are seeking out survivors I adapted this MOC a bit to fit in the GoH world, and since it is showing what has happened to the home of one of my side characters I am posting it as a Kaliphlin freebuild, even though the setting is in Avalonia.

Beautiful Queenscross! Revolword will pay dearly if he intends to ruin this ancient jewel of Kaliphlin!

@ Ska No problem if the realities of the battlefield forces my forces to dismount even before the battle. Dragon knights suits just as fine for Sir Derrik's troops, as they simply have donned Avalonian tabards over their chainmail armor. Roger Farstrider might wear some armor instead of just his leather vest, but I would not expect him to fight a battle without his lucky hat. I would however not be surprised if he found a hidden sniper spot outside the central battlefield or inside some building where the artist painting the pictures of the battle would not see him. So maybe his only contribution to the battle will be the occassional well aimed crossbow bolt in some part of the battlefield? You are perfectly right that the Arkbri Falcons cannot be trusted to show up for the battle, even though Gideon called in quite a few favors with their leader to get them there. Their motivation for fighting is not primarily the humble pay Queenscross can offer, but the prospect of looting the foes who the AF believe are carrying great riches from their pillaging throughout Historica. But if the prospect of themselves getting looted instead of the foes, even Ediz cannot force them into combat since they would be likely to elect a new leader if they think Eduz would lead them into too much danger I'll continue with my Arkbri riverside MOC in the meantime as the soldiers will be the last addition anyway.

Great story! I can't wait to read the continuation. I just cant stop staring at all the details in the build, so much to be inspired by. But there is one thing that disturbed my eye a small bit, and that is the pattern underneath the window on the protruding part of the house which gave me a bit of a too "pixelized" feel, for lack of a better word.

Sir Gideon is ready to march towards Queenscross with a small force, hastily assembled in Barqa when hearing of the threat to the city upriver. Choose however many or few you want to represent in the battle. One of the forces suggested below perhaps, or some of each? If you tell me which and how many soldiers you have chosen, I will put them in a MOC showing them travelling to Queenscross! From left to right: Sir Derrik of Groenby (on horse) with some of his household men-at-arms. Derrik is an old Avalonian knight who in his youth spent a lot of time in Kaliphlin, and has been Gideon's friend ever since that time. He is a battle-hardened veteran who wields a longsword with deadly precision and wears an uncommonly thick and sturdy armor, which he bears with surprisingly ease. Its weight however might slow him down quite a bit if unhorsed. His men prefers to fight at close quarters, but are also skilled at ranged combat using yew shortbows. Roger Farstrider, a scoundrel and former sailor who claims to be Kaliphlin's best sharpshooter with his crossbow. Dangerous even at very long range, and completely deadly at closer distance. He is a complete coward who will do everything to save his own skin if threatened. However, wields a sharp three-pronged dagger in close combat if cornered (Heroica shortsword, didn't notice the bad camera angle until now) Sir Gideon the half-elf (my sigfig, longer presentation here). He is a versatile fighter who wields a razor-sharp longsword forged by an expert weaponsmith in Barqa, but also brings his elven longbow with him to the battle if needed in a ranged engagement. His Mitgardian blood on his mothers side has given him a strength of muscle that his elvish relatives would be envious of. He still favors the well made and ornate cuirass he wore when serving in the Petraean city guard, but has spent considerable amounts of gold on some clever additions to make his armor well suited for both agility and adequate protection. He has also switched the typical Kaliphlin helmet which left parts of the head relatively exposed to one tailorarmorsmith-made for his head. It even has some extra room inside for the pointy ears! Gideon's squire (in front of him), prefers to fight mounted but lost his horse on his way to Queenscross when the party was fighting a stray Hand pillaging band. Ediz Falconi, a mercenary captain who leads "the Arkbri Falcons", a fearsome force of former (?) criminals and other outcasts who are bound together by a strong bond of fellowship and their bottomless desire for quick and easy gold. Ediz wears a gilded armor which is rumored to have magical properties. For example it is said to be able to by his will emit a bright light that temporarely blinds nearby foes, especially those of orc or goblin blood or other dark creatures. His troops favors to fight with spears and shields in a close formation, but also each bring a crossbow which they are well known for using to produce precise and coordinated crossbow fire. Ediz has made sure that each man treats the crossbow with extreme care, especially in the field, to always be able to deliver fast and jam-free firing. When victorious, the are rumored to take every chance to ransack and even cut open their fallen foes in search for gold and other valuables. Since they have had a flawless track record in only accepting to fight for the winning side, their behavior in the face of possible defeat is unknown. But one can suspect that they might be less eager to fight then... These are figures I put together earlier for my attempt at Ch VI, so I apologize if the parts are a bit uncommon. Sir Derrik's men can easily be replaced by ordinary dragon knights. Derrik can be just an ordinary armored dragon knight, but if you have a Rohan shield, a green cape and a black horse to spare it would fit him well. Ediz Falconi's men can be any ragtag force of Kaliphlins, but preferrable with some blue legs or arms. They need not all have persian helmets, but I would prefer if at least Ediz has his golden persian helmet and cuirass, red cape, blue plume and some kind of falcon shield. All characters except Sir Gideon are expendable, even though I would appreciate to have a some details around their deaths for my story to tell later if some of my named characters are killed.

That's what I'm saying, not that it should be "state" religions but that it would be nice to discover which different religions are widespread and maybe which hidden cults there are in Historica.

Both those are brilliant! I especially love the Norse wooden temple, but the semi-fortified sept is very nice as well. I think there is much to discover onwards in Historica regarding both present and forgotten places of worship.

These MOCs are really nice. I especially like the interiors and the minifig posing! I don't agree with you however on the oversaturated photos, I think the ones with normal saturation look better.

The whole idea of religion(s) in Historica seems a bit underdeveloped to me, and guild challenges and/or global challenges might improve that situation. I would be perfectly fine with if the religion challenges were guild challenges only. I could easily envision that for example Mitgarida had some kind of Norse religion, Avalonia some kind of druid animistic religion and maybe some kind of monotheistic religion (or something like the faith of the seven in Game of Thrones) in the more human settled areas. Kaliphlin would maybe be a lot of different beliefs coexisting or clashing, like the ancient middle east? Or something completely different. And who knows what Nocturnians believe in?? And of course there would be followers of the various religions in the other guild areas as well, maybe both because of migration and because of missionary activity? Anyway, challenges sounds like a good way to sort this out.

Really nice build, and as usual in a league of its own! The uneven angles and color palette you are using gives a realistic feeling that almost makes me forget that is Lego. Even though I'm usually more fan of yellow minifigs, the usage of flesh figures fits very well in a MOC with this level of realism. A bit offtopic I would love to know how your backdrop and lighting arrangements look when taking these pictures, have you shown that somewhere already or is it a secret of the trade?

I agree! Simple, but effective technique. I actually don't know if I've seen that before...?

Nice build! I really like all the details you have put in it, and the photography is great :)

Smaller builds with more story doesn't sound bad, size must be just one aspect they judge? ;) I am slowly getting my hopes up that I might be able to do something similar. I'll will in that case adapt my story to the outcome of the battle at Queenscross and try to get a couple of MOCs together, at least if our kid doesn't decide to arrive earlier than expected (around the deadline of C VI)

Nice build! The street (?) on top, the windows and the boat are my favourites in this one.

Sounds great! Don't rush it, I'd rather see a well fought battle on a well prepared battlefield extending over a few real life weeks so we can follow the tension of the fight in detail if it's possible

Ok, then I'll try to make a force this weekend at the latest. Save one Eomer helmet, a lion knight breastplate and a dark red spartan cloak for my sigfig please! For the torso you can use any torso with grey/dark grey or dark red arms, preferrable with grey handsgloves in combat. For the full armor rendition I did earlier (here or here) I used an armored lion knight, so if you at least have a couple of armored legs to spare you will be closer to the original. I think the smirking face I've used is quite common in the Kingdoms line. At least I have a few, but you can use any face witout a beard (preferrably one with a fighting face in the battle ). His weapon of choice is a longsword and he usually uses a round shield (from the CMF gladiator), but he is proficient in many weapons. He usually rides an ordinary brown (LotR) horse. For the other figs, I will be happy to try to make something you can recreate relatively close. Do you have any PoP persian helmets? And what about neo-falcon shields from Kingdoms Joust? I was thinking of making a force of falcon-ish Kaliplin soldiers (pearl dark gray persian helmets) belonging to the Kaliphlin mercenary captain Ediz Falconi (pearl gold persian helmet), who is one of the side chararcters I've already created for my sigfig but not had time to introduce with any MOC yet. It would also be fine to use old falcon shields and/or other helmets if that suits your collection better. But if you prefer, I can send another of my unintroduced side characters (Sir Derrik of Groenby, an Avalonian knight) with a few dragon knight/CMF elf based soldiers instead. If our Avalonian friends are not already sending all the reinforcements your collection can support ) Otherwise I could also make a few lion based soldiers, which would give me a reason to create another side character. Strangely enough, I’ve found it hardest to create interesting lion knight based characters except for my sigfig (or because of it?).

My sigfig and a few more soldiers (I will try to get some togheter and photographed in a few days) will be sent to the battle. I'd prefer if my sigfig didn't die, but he can of course be wounded if he loses in the battle (which already gives me a MOC idea for MOCs) I can repeat my question from the Kaliphlin thread here (more appropriate thread), when is the deadline for posting our figs? Probably just my English falling a bit short, but does "next Monday" refer to April 1 or April 8?

So you mean that I would at least have the coming weekend (march 30-31) to put together a group of figs to send to the front? It would be great since it's Easter and public holidays on both friday and monday here in Sweden, so that would probably mean some building time for me finally (I have an idea of a MOC along the Arkbri River between Barqa and Queenscross where my sigfig and a few other men are travelling to Queenscross)

I really like these figs as well! I agree with SK, maybe the lowest rank soldier would be poorer equipped, but maybe it's more the fig design than the weapons we should look at anyway? His equals would probably be spearmen, bowmen etc. The highest ranking knights are nice, even though I think the last one's helmet decorations looks a bit overdone. A big red plume on top would have sufficed in my opinion.

I love this build! Especially the pylons and the size of the build are really good. One of the relatively few true minifig scale builds I've seen on GoH :)

Lovely stonework, and the trees in the background are also really nice! The great impression on me is however slightly hurt by the out-of-focus parts in the lower right corner. But I know how hard it is to get a whole MOC in focus...

That is a really good document Ska! Even though of course there might be some details to discuss I think it is good if we have a base for the future of GoH. Then of course it can be deviated from and corrected if those deviations improve GoH Some assorted thoughts from a newbie: - Small challenges (max 32 x 32, but also smaller) to encourage people with limited time and/or bricks to participate - Guild changing should be possible - Building in other guild's settings should be possible (for example I would like to build some "green" MOCs even if I'm still in Kaliphlin), and give points to your "home guild" - Maybe non-geographical guilds as mentioned would be an idea? - Not too many guilds, 4-5 is enough with the number of active people

Welcome to GoH! Nice to see more lurkers breaking their silence here I love the minifig designs, especially the angels. But where did you get those white hoods? On the topic of guild choice: Of course the white building with gold dome has a distinct Kaliphlin look to it ;)

I think you are right at the point there Masa! 1. There is so much to explore within the world of Historica, the first chapter has barely scratched the surface. The idea of ancient ruins is also appealing, I think the entries in challence 5 were the most interesting and at least Kaliphlin for sure is full of hidden mysteries in the sparsely populated wastelands! 2. I totally agree that there should be no member vs member combat, as I think it would ruin a part of the idea with GoH. Having a well balanced cunning and sinister enemy which we have in the Hand of Corruption is great, and if people want to invent a system to fight them in some kind of wargaming way it could be really nice but I don't think a forced point system or anything like that is a good idea since it would dampen the build freedom. 3. Both destructive technology and really destructive magic should be limited. The elemental menace is a part of the GoH canon now, but I think it should be phased out in favor of more "normal" fantasy aspects to warfare, promoting us to build beautiful medieval-ish castles and armies. I don't think a development towards mage armies or gunpowder based forces is a good idea, even though some limited magic with clear drawbacks and limitations would be well within a good fantasy setting. 4. I like the idea of the technology level beeing moderated by the guild leaders. While I am a fan of the open nature of Historica where it seems ok to come up with a lot of lore as long as you make MOCs of it, what has disturbed me most is when people post MOCs with deviating levels of technology which conflict with how "things are usually done in Historica". Probably an occupational hazard from being an engineer