Rogue Angel

Allright Rebels, I'm out of here. I've been splitting my time between here and GoH, and I've gotta head back over there now. Good luck!

ATTACK OF THE DROW! With the ongoing strife in Nocturnus, many Avalonians have picked their allegiances and been sending troops and aid to their allies in the conflict. While Avalonian focus is elsewhere, the Drow of the Black Spire have seized this opportunity to strike out against Avalonia. Working from the labyrinth of caverns that stretch across Historica and beneath Avalonia, the Drow have been staging raids on small settlements and homesteads. While Drow raids have always been a constant threat, the Drow have changed their tactics. Very few dead Avalonians have been found, instead it would seem that the Drow are enslaving the men, women and children of Avalonian to serve them in their subterranean cities. While some have chosen death over enslavement, the majority of the captured Avalonians have opted for slavery to save their loved ones. The raids just started in the last few days, and it appears that the Drow are using some of the ancient Dwarven tunnels that have sat long forgotten beneath us. It also appears that the Drow have brought along a contingent of Hand of Corruption soldiers to screen their raids and wreak havoc in the wake of the Drow. The Drow raiding parties must be intercepted, or the Black Spire may see Avalonia as an apple ripe for the picking. Take up arms against the invaders and defend Avalonia!Challenge Rules:For this challenge, you must depict your Avalonian forces intercepting the Drow or the Hand of Corruption soldiers. This can be before the Drow can attack their targets, as they are trying to escape back to their caverns, or in the Dwarven tunnels. If you act quickly, you may still be able to rescue the enslaved Avalonians. Challenge Rules Only Avalonians may enter this challenge. There is no size limit to this challenge, but a minimal effort must be put forth in your entry. Multiple entries are allowed. Entries should be new. A picture of your entry should be posted in this thread. If you have multiple pictures, you should create a separate post and post a link in this thread with your one picture. No clone brands are allowed, but custom pieces and decals (such as Brickarms, Brickwarriors) are allowed. There is no limit to the number of pictures you may post in your entry thread, just make sure they do not exceed 800x600. The deadline for this challenge is December 22nd anywhere in the world. There will be NO deadline extensions. The rules for this contest may be changed at any time to ensure that people follow the intent of the contest. Build forth Avalonians! We must show Historica that we can fend off the menace of the Black Spire!

"try" to conquer Avalonia, that is.

Nope, I'm sorry, it's too late. He's already committed to Avalonia. Plus, we have good wholesome apple pie. Mmmm, Pie..

Excellent job! The torsos and shields look excellent, and I really like the trees as well. Will there be any Welshmen at Brickworld?

Battle packs are the best way to go. Otherwise Bricklinking by clone or by part. If you're OK with clone helmets on Stormie Torsos (or something similar), this may be a cheaper alternative. Very few of us have benevolent benefactors that would grant us clone armies.

Yooha - I've been trying to think of a use for Nova's helmet. It looks MUCH better in red, I wish they made it in that color.

DeGothia, It would have been a huge loss if you would have left. You are one of the top GoH contributors IMO, and your consistent posting of new builds has gotten us through a number of "dry" moccing spells for the Guilds. Great to have you back!

Niku & Hammerbro33 - Thanks for the lighning quick entries. Your entries perfectly exemplify what you should have. Niku - Excellent entries. I like the variety in your ranks, but a bearded elf!? I figured you had a Task 1 entry coming, I just thought I might have missed it. I also like the posing for you Task 3 entry. Great job! Hammerbro33 - Great entry! Feel free to keep expanding on the post as you proceed. FYI - a couple of the links don't work right now.

Excellent description! I love the links to the different characters, and you've done a great job with these characters - lots of LotR/Hobbit pieces. The pictures are well chosen as well. Great job!

Task 1 is to provide a picture(s) of the soldiers of your realm. Check page 5 for the full details.

Thanks CopMike for all the great prizes, and adding so many this year!

Thanks for yet another Amazing review Whitefang! I am very excited now that I see there is a trapper with this set! I didn't think I would be army building anything from this set until I saw that. I'm going to need a lot of coon skin caps.

Kern, For the second task, it should be your peace-time entourage, not your army. There should not be more than a dozen people in anyone's entourage unless they are extremely paranoid. Niku, great to hear you'll have entries for Tasks 2 and 3, any chance you'll get a Task 1 entry in, or did I miss it?

MstrofPuppets - It's easy to say that you're going to do w,x,y and z for Challenges 1, 2, 3 and 4, but it's much harder to execute it. As Challenges progress, you have to see how people approach them and change the rules as you go. Also, the builds for a Challenge post (What you see in the Challenge 1 post and Challenge 2 post done by the Regs/Mods) can also be quite time consuming, and you don't want to build all of the Challenges ahead of time because they may change, and you don't want to tie up all your bricks for 6 months. I think the Challenges will come as they are announced, and there has not been any great problem with this IMO. In regards to the judging, 2 weeks is pretty standard, and you have to give a little leeway during holidays (for us Americans at least). I disagree with the comments in regards to those running this forum, being active elsewhere. It is very quick and easy to respond to things in other forums for me (like this one) while I feel that I need to be caught up with EVERYTHING in GoH before I make any significant comments. This can take hours to do sometimes, and can be quite the commitment. I can make quick comments to things on other forums from work on my phone, but I need to sit down at home to post anything significant (I was actually going to respond to this thread in particular yesterday, but I never got time at my computer.) If you limit them to only commenting in here if anything is pending, you will quickly lose their participation in running this forum. It is a much more significant investment of time than you might think, and everyone has a full time job/school/kids that take up their time. I am actually pretty disappointed in the general member involvement though. Only a few people are commenting on builds, and it was a pretty pathetic turnout for entries in the second challenge. It was a very easy, straightforward build and I really expected more. I would like to see ALL the SoNE builds showing up in this forum (or some new subforum) instead of the Challenge entries being posted here and the free build entries being posted in the general Star Wars forums. It makes it very hard to keep track of free builds. Thanks to everyone that is running this, and keep up the good work!

Merry Christmas! Stuck at home without my LEGO, this is all I could muster with the few pieces left at home, and I used every single red piece I have right now.

I have to agree with Deathleech. I could not identify any of the weapons by sight other than Sting. While the other swords are prominent, they're not significant enough to warrant a new mold. I wouldn't mind seeing another sword mold or two, but not just for a new hilt. I can understand frustration over new molds in the game not showing up in sets though.

You should write about the person that represents your realm when abroad. Would your Lord travel themself or would they send a representative? If your sigfig is not a Lord, you can post a picture if those companions they normally travel with.

SECOND TASK Avalonians! Your Lords and Ladies (Sigfigs) have need to travel the realm. Who accompanies them on these journeys? What is their standard retinue. Lord Varis is attended by his Master of Blades, Commander Aderian, and his Master of Bows, Commander Elldellan. He is usually also accompanied by a pair of Elven blades and a pair of Elven archers. For the second task, you should provide a picture of your Lord/Lady and their entourage. They can be mounted or on foot, but it should be how you'd expect to see your sigfig about in the realm. Remember that you should be displaying flags in the guild colors (dark green and sand green) or incorporating these colors into your uniform or standards. Entries for this task should be posted in this thread. THIRD TASK Name and describe your realm/territory/region. What would one encounter as they travelled across your realm. Are their great forests or rolling plains? Is there a great lake or river of note? Who are the residents and what are they like? Do you have a tribe of hostile goblins living on your lands? Some Avalonians have already provided a very vivid picture of their realms through their builds. Any entry for this task should be posted as a separate topic and a link should be posted on this thread. This topic should include description in the form of words and pictures. The pictures may be in the form of builds, photos of real life locations or art.

Likewise. I check this forum about 4 times a day right now.

At my point in collecting, I value minifigs over set builds unless the set really stands out (Helm's Deep, Unexpected Gathering, MMV) so LotR/Hobbit has been a windfall with new shields, torsos, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, and finally proper Orcs and Goblins. In a standard castle line, I can expect two, maybe three factions, and that's every two years at most. (and CMF lines have been a huge boost to castle factions as well). LotR/Hobbit have boosted my castle factions by about 50% so any new Hobbit/LotR waves would be preferable to new castle waves IMO - if that were somehow the choice, which I doubt it is.

You have many adults, granparents, etc buying LEGO for kids, with no idea what they are looking at, what LotR is -they see the Balrog, and they see a demon/devil and they don't buy LEGO any more. It's the unfamiliar people that you have to be most careful about as a retailer. They don't know what it is, but that doesn't mean they're not going to THINK they know what it is, and that will be their impression forevermore. In regards to a third LotR wave, I think LEGO intended to release a 3rd wave with Gondor and RotK sets, but if the first two waves ardn't selling, they may have to cut their losses. At this point, all we know is that we haven't seen anything yet, unlike last year. I see this as a bad sign.

LUGBulk is a great way to get plant pieces, and newly released parts. I too have no problem hitting my limit.

I find this set completely unappealling. I will pick up more of the actual Castle sets or Hobbit sets over this one.

Well, now that we're looking at a $30 set instead of a $40 set, Mirkwood Army more than matches Uruk Hai Army, and I will be buying 6 to 8 of them.