[OL - CH5B] Keeping the Keep

[Kolonialbeamter]

Greetings, fellow BoBS'ers,

I'd like to present my entry for Challenge V - Category B.

 

Keeping the Keep

El Peñón is a strategic Marderian stronghold overlooking the Bay of Good Hope. Although not a large fortress, El Peñón is nonetheless a vital part of Mardier's defenses around the town of Terra Fin Tin. Carved deep into the rocky cliffs, El Peñón is virtually impenetrable - a fact that's also known to the Eslandolian High Command - and giving them major headaches. The joint Eslandolian and Garvian assault plan provides for the surprise capture of Terra Fin Tin in order to open up a second front north of the fortress city of La Puebloto. And in order to achieve that, El Peñón had to be sacked quickly before any Marderian reinforcements would render capturing the fort impossible, ultimately putting the whole second front plan in jeopardy should Mardier's forces around Terra Fin Tin be alarmed before the actual assault was to begin.

To solve this problem, one of the Eslandian elite units, the Black Bats - a veteran battalion experienced in spearhead missions, and infamous for their recklessness - was tasked with the surprise attack on El Peñón.

Initially, the mission progressed as planned - the approach was not spotted by neither Marderian patrol vessels nor lookout posts along the coastline. And another pleasant surprise: when the boats landed, it became clear that the fort was undermanned. Now nothing stood in the way of a quick success. Or at least so it seemed...

What they hadn't expected was the courage and relentlessness of the fort's commander. Before the perimeter guard was overrun, coronel Lorenzo Alderete stepped outside the gate in a desperate attempt to buy time, telling his men to barricade the entrance behind him. He then proceeded to furiously charge the attackers. The coronel managed to repel man after man, giving the garrison valuable time to regroup and send for reinforcements. The artillery lookout then spotted the approaching Eslandian fleet and the fort's batteries started engaging - thus completely ruining the attackers' element of surprise.

Shortly before coronel Alderete was mortally wounded, he yelled out his final order to the garrison - to drop a load of explosives onto himself and the attackers. El Peñón was not to be captured!

For Mardier!

 

Some additional pics:

Spoiler

 

 

About:

Well, this started out with the simple need to come up with something for this category at all... and unfortunately, a massive builder's block. Eventually, the block loosened, and thanks to the support of @Bodi and @Captain Genaro, I even managed to put in some action. What else... well, as usual all parts except the uniforms exist... gravity is 'off'... can't think of anything else now 

 

Thanks for watching,

C&C welcome! 

 

Vive le Roi!

[Kai NRG]

Very nice build KB, especially that rock arch!  The curves of the fort look great too!  

[Garmadon]

Ah, excellent build, mate!  Rock arches are usually superb, and this one definitely doesn't let down, and the keep itself is fantastic as well!  The Eslandolan soldiers look great too (naturally ) and your minifigure posing is as life-like (and was probably as much a pain!) as it always is!  Oh, and not to be behind - great job on those little boats!    I'll have to try out that water technique sometime (if I ever have enough of the right pieces) as well!

Oh, and one last thing - as an Eslandolan I'm delighted to see that the Mardierians went ahead and made the shooting slits in their keep just so that they'd channel in all the Eslandolan bullets 

[Bodi]

Great fort, great story. Everything is awesome.

The Eslandolans have done the right thing to count on the element of surprise, but as is proved many times before, the will of a single man can change a lot of things.

[Franco Clarke]

It looks even better now that it is completed, I love how the boats sink into the waves!

[blackdeathgr]

As always an excellent (and gory) build and a nice idea behind it. Throwing the explosives down was a very inventive way to be done with those pesky greens. I will keep that in mind  

And what I would like to see, is for those "yellowcoats" (and "tancoats") to appear in TLG repertory or in any other 3rd party seller someday...

[Maxim I]

Again an epic KBB build!

When forgetting the story (how can one be so anti-Eslandola?), I really enjoyed every aspect of it!

[Ayrlego]

Stunning entry KB! The sheer height of the keep is impressive in itself, but the action scenes are next level. Great story as well, probably my favourite entry in this category (so far!). Fantastic entry!

[Kolonialbeamter]

Thanks to all for your kind comments, glad you like it 

On 26.3.2017 at 4:06 AM, Garmadon said:

minifigure posing is as life-like (and was probably as much a pain!) as it always is!

On 31.3.2017 at 0:27 AM, Ayrlego said:

the action scenes are next level.

Yeah... definitely a pain - placing these darn figs probably took almost as much time as building the whole keep  One of the cool aspects of digital building is the absence of gravity - boom, headshot! 

On 26.3.2017 at 0:57 PM, blackdeathgr said:

Throwing the explosives down was a very inventive way to be done with those pesky greens.

Well, it's well known the Marderians can be cruel and reckless beyond measure...

On 27.3.2017 at 4:55 PM, Maxim I said:

story (how can one be so anti-Eslandola?)

I wouldn't say it's anti-Eslandola... There are brave soldiers, a cunning plan, great initial success... but it is as Brodi said - sometimes the will of a single man can change a lot of things. However, it was the cruelty of the Marderians that made the difference here - not sure this is such a positive trait.

On 26.3.2017 at 4:06 AM, Garmadon said:

Oh, and not to be behind - great job on those little boats!  

Oh, you 

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Impressive, but brutal creation. Your LDD capabilities seem to be unlimited!

"Keeping the keep"? That could have been my title

[Bregir]

Great entry, KB! The rock bridge is nice, and in general the rock work is really nice. Your water technique works pretty well for rolling waves, and as always, I am a big fan of your boats. (If you should happen to send me a breakdown picture of them I wouldn't complain too much.. ;)

The charge posing is really nice, and I like the firing guns all around. Makes it all look very dramatic and dynamic. From the outside, the fortress is looking great, but from the inside it becomes a bit too obvious that the walls are quite thin. (still nice looking, though)

The story is really nice, something I know I have commented on before as an avenue of improvement. Either you took it to heart, or you did it on your own initiative - in both cases - good work!