ZCerberus

It is quite clear Jason has mystical powers. This will work out well because now BeerBeard will have another wizzard to share his tricks with.

Come on guys- let's not discourage participation- being in a separate topic is fine. If it should go in another thread or be merged a MOD will do it. I appreciate not having to look for all of them. I think there is some room to discuss just the maps so I think putting it here is fine, especially if there is going to be an effort to make an official map to rule them all. I appreciate that everyone has done a pretty good job of keeping the general shape and what not consistent. Is there any thoughts on making an official guild sponsored map? I know Thrash's is closest and everyone did a pretty good job of sticking with that general lay out, but maybe a composite map after each guild has made an official map of its territory could be nice.

Like BrickDoc, I also wondered about the giant tree. I really do like the map. My watch tower belongs on the lush grass land plains it is too bad it doesn't seem to be defending much... Guess I will need to build a worthwhile village for it to protect! I can see you will need to be doing alot of editing when more cities and watch towers are placed... this will be quite a task!

I vote it was the stranger next to him!! edit: This gives me a thought- maybe we need a poll with some options so we can vote on who killed him! Or maybe instead we just need to speculate wildly. With that in mind- perhaps the killer WAS the parrot!

It certainly looks like it has GREAT firing action, but I must agree with de Gothia, two horses and those little wheels would never be able to pull that thing! -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ As for the volcanicpanik Andonii situation, I am NO authority here but I would just ask everyone to never call anyone's MOCs low quality. Suggest improvements without that side of it. We don't know how many bricks anyone has or how much experience they have developed and we shouldn't discourage participation. As for the titles, collecting the seven basic titles will be a feat I (and Derfel?) hope we ALL accomplish, so going above and beyond for other titles is more important.

Very nice. Lots of details to poor over here. Look for this to be blogged soon! [bloggedcp][/bloggedcp]

heh- must be 'cause I stayed up so late on Black Friday. I assumed we were killing traders who brought us the inferior wares of the Mitgardian dwarves. I have never received a decent loaf of bread from their dwarves without a couple of beard hairs in there. For my birthday I got a book titled "I judge you when you use poor grammar"... gives me an idea... *evil grin*

Yes, a very old school design. I can also appreciate that it has a shape unlike any other build here. I wonder when we recruited the ghosts to our guild though!

Very cool. Nice distraction from all the guild stuff. I really like the old church best.

Violence plus 16 indeed. I have no sympathy for traders though. I like the drain for the blood. Nice touch!

Not sure. Thought they cool on bricklink so I bought a few

They are dark brown. I have gotten them in multiple sets I think. The PotC cannibal escape comes to mind.

M'lord, our engineers are overjoyed to bring you news of the completion of two new siege weapon designs. These ballista will tear our enemies to shreds. And even though a Nocturian can't hit the broad side of the barn from two feet, our archers will enjoy the protection of these wheeled mantlets.

+ 5 for mushroom shields!!

Good looking army de Gothia! They sure do appear mighty! Good looking forest BeerBeard, very Avaolian! So I took some pictures of a ballista I made. The photos weren't great and I didn't have time to edit them. I will retake them with better lighting later. But until then, a little video of the bad boy in action! I also did manage to get a few snaps of the updates on the treb. I made it one stud wider so the counterweight could swing freely. I also made it two bricks or so taller so the counter weight would swing over the axel that pulls the rope to lower the firing arm. The counterweight is a little bigger and has dimes in the interior to make it hevier. I then modified it to have a firing pin like the ballista. Pull the pin and this thing would work if I devised a working sling!

Made a few changes to the treb. Thing definitely would fire if it had a sling now! Dimes as a counter weight... made it 1 stud wider so counterweight could swing more easily and 2 bricks taller and 4 studs longer. Also added a pin release and strengthened the arm for the counterweight. You can see the updates when I post the finished product soon. It is Thanksgiving here in the US this week, so I will be out of town for most of the rest of the week... hopefully she will be raining terror on our enemies next week!

I think de Gothia is telling you that you may need 5 posts to "attach" an item in a post but you do not need 5 posts to "link" images or websiets into a post. Just click on this button and entry the URL of a photo or this button to create a link to another site with photos. Flickr and Brickshelf are both free and host plenty of LEGO pictures.

I wish my PAB had tree stuff more often. There is only one LEGO store in Minnesota, so I can't get there all the time and when I do get there, they often seem to have three or four bins full of the same 2 x 4 brick of a boring color.

I am glad someone drudged this thing up or I would have missed it. Though it is small, I think you did a great job of packing in the right details. Like others, I really like the rocks.

Yeah... I really liked your design. It didn't look too "thick" and had some great details around the counterweight arm. As for firing though, you DO know as soon as you make one that fires, you are going to need to make one that fires further than the next guy... I think if I wanted this one to fire, I would scrap the "hampster wheels", make the firing arms out of technic bricks and make it much taller.

Nope. A lot of the techniques I used to make the outside look good make the inside look terrible. That's why I joined the guild after all! I just hope I didn't shoot all my bullets on the first challenge. I have a feeling we haven't even seen the best MOCs or even the best watchtowers that will be created yet!

Great minds must think alike. I don't think stacked plates for the arm would give me the effect I am looking for, though stacked plates or long technic bricks with pins through the middle would be stronger. I like the boat mast as the firing arm on my design though, so the easiest and best looking option for the counterweight arm is bricks with this set up. As for the counterweight... the one I have on there now is actually made of plates as opposed to bricks to make it heavier. I considered using a LEGO boat weight, but the ones I have are 2 x 6 x 2 and are classic red in color. That means the boat weight is simply too big and the wrong color to use here. I think I could make the frame taller and wider and make a hollow counterweight with weights inside if I reinforce the arm... I do wonder if my trebuchet is a little short... making it bigger would require everything to be bigger though and really, do I even need the thing to fire? The counter weight does what I need it to do for purpose of this MOC, it does lift the arm when the rope is slacked, as cool as that would be to actually fire, I would rather it look awesome more than anything else at this point... I have the exact same issue with the ballistas I have made. They would actually fire with a little work, but it would detract from the look I was going for. Photos of the ballistas will be up some time soon.

I think this is very good for a first MOC. The top of the tower kind of gives me a Lord of the Rings vibe (it reminds me of the Isengard or Mordor tower). It looks like you also did a nice job with the rocks and dirt path here. I think the path and railing that lead up to the tower could use some more attention as could the trees. The trees seem kinda dead since there is so little foilage on them and the trunk on the big tree doesn't look right with the perfectly round bricks. Our leader, Derfel Cadarn, made a guide on the history forums here that shows several tree techniques that you may be able to employ to enhance them. Overall I think you have caught the right spirit of our guild, with a little more seasoning you will have it down! The new bucket would certainly be easy, but I don't think it woudl be large enough to be an effective sling. The cape gives me a little bit of an idea though... I think I have several of these that might work. Not sure if it would work though.

I think it WOULD work if the counterweight were heavier. The counterweight is heavy enough to keep tension on the string and pull the firing arm up if the string has a lot of slack, but it it not heavy enough to unroll the string when the firing arm is moved into place (when the "hamster wheels" roll the string on the spindle). I suppose if I made the counterweight heavy enough to work in full with the way I built this, the counterweight would probably snap off. Any thoughts on a good way to make a sling?

M'lord, we have begun test firing a new trebuchet design. It is not a finalized version as we have yet to attach a proper sling. Thoughts from our royal court would be much appreciated. We also continue work on other siege weapons including ballistas, mantlets, an elevated command platform and a counter weighted tonnelon.