The road from Breshaun to Eltina

[Keymonus]

The road from Breshaun to Eltina, June 620, Le Bellan

Le Bellan, the most prestigious colony of the Empire of Light, represents the beating heart of Oleander commercial routes. In spite of this, however, the infrastructures of the island are quite old, absolutely insufficient for the huge traffic of people and goods moving every day from Breshaun to Eltina and vice versa.

The ancient trail of compacted earth, with small wooden bridges and even a couple of river crossings, was built decades ago, in a completely different time: a road for a couple of reckless riders, some wondering merchants and a few hunters... definitely not enough for the continuous flow of heavy carriages transporting wood and sugar from the inland, silver and wine from Breshaun outskirts, but also all kinds of goods crafted or imported in those bustling cities. And, obviously, it's not enough for the movement of naval artillery from Breshaun foundries to Eltina shipyards, where the largest and most beautiful ships of all the Brick Seas are built.

As often happens in the colonies, the difficult task of building a road, a bridge or even one of the few tunnels cutting the mountains is done by the army, rather than by civilians.

While it may seem a dull manual job, building a road that will last more than the first hurricane requires knowledge and expertise. Mile after mile, the red flags will be replaced by the milestones, sand and crushed stones will give way to a regular, tidy pavement.

While most of the men are simple diggers and bricklayers, the officers are expert engineers, who attended Breshaun military school: the use of measuring tools and the difficult calculations needed, in fact, require several years of studies and remarkable skills.

The Ingènieurs du roi are often employed in similar civilian tasks, but also in the construction and repairing of military structures or fortifications.
This, however, shouldn't deceive you: if the situation requires, military engineers must operate under enemy fire, opening a safe passage across obstacles or even assaulting fortifications. If destroying a barricade or building a bridge requires the... well... dislodgement of enemy soldiers, the Oleander military engineers are ready for that!

A quick build to show my version of Oleander sappers. Soon you'll find more about them in the Grand Military Encyclopedia.

[Corweena]

Awesome concept, on something that would often be overlooked in favor of more exciting topics to build. Love the transitions from clearing the road to laying down the paving stones. 

[Bodi]

Good idea to flash out some scene of minifigs' everyday life, despite they are still wearing uniforms. I like that levelling instrument. I also like the advertisement for Eltina Shipyards.

[Khorne]

Lovely to see a "normal, behind the scenes" MOC without bloodshed or warfare. It shows the process of building a road very clearly and the sappers all look interesting with their different tasks.

I once tried my hand at building a similar scene aaaaaages ago, but your version is way better .

[merc]

I like the troops and the scene is very dynamic. I get the sense of a road being build with all the components being put into place. Great idea of creating a unit that is usual used for civil building but also can be redeployed for military operations. 

[Ross Fisher]

Neat idea, well executed. I feel for the guy on the right who has to clear all the rocks away at such a fast pace, though.

[Roadmonkeytj]

You've captured almost all stages of construction in one scene ... It's really well done!