Opening the Gates

[Gideon]

Many Avalonian towns have fallen to the Drow or forces loyal to them. Here, a town held by Drow loyalists is under siege by Kaliphlin troops. The Drow have secured vast supplies of food (including live animals and forage of them) to be able to withstand the siege until reinforcements arrive. The town is however about to be stormed in the middle of the night when a small force sneaks in through the sewers to overwhelm the guards at the gate.

(You have to imagine that this is seen in faint moonlight )

Meanwhile, a force of soldiers from Barqa have sneaked up to the wall under the cover of darkness and are nervously waiting if they will remain undiscovered by the guards on the wall until the gate opens...

University of Petraea credits claimed:

• Military Science: Siege
  
• Architecture: Half-timbered Tudor style
  
• Architecture: Roof rakes
  
• Agriculture and Zoology: Raising livestock
  

(I noticed too late that the minifig posing turned out slightly less good on the Kaliphlin version of this last picture, click the picture to see the original version where I think the officer looked better)

I made these builds for LoR (one max 8x8 vig and one unrestricted build), but now I've taken some additional pictures without the Loreesi colors and swapped the arms of the officer so that the builds should fit well as freebuilds in the GoH context. (I thought that an explanation was in order if someone is puzzled by not getting to the exact same pictures when clicking the Flickr links as I didn't want do dilute my photostream with too many duplicate pictures of essentially the same build ).

Edited May 14, 2014 by Gideon

[Kayne]

I tell you, Loreos is lucky to have you over there. I loved these builds in those challenges, and they definitely fit here as well. I will give you +1 to all UoP credits, except for the siege one. I am not denying credit....just thinking on it a bit more before granting it. I'm just not convinced of a siege, more of an infiltration here. But, like I said, I'll think on it for a bit.

[Leoric]

This is amazing ! Great job Sir !

[Lord Vladivus]

Great build as ever Gideon!

[Gunman]

Excellent work there man,,, I really like your Ldd-like photography.

[mechamike]

They are both nice build, I would have prefer if the tunnel had been in the center of the build and the figs feet had not been visible in the latrine. Perhaps put the torso a half stud in on jumper plates. The house and the wall with its 3 wide stair is really nice and I hope I one day can build as nice as that. The minifig posing is excellent and the little well is really a nice touch.

I dont know if im allowed to give points yet but if so I would +1 for

• Architecture: Half-timbered Tudor style
  
• Architecture: Roof rakes
  
• Agriculture and Zoology: Raising livestock
  

[HammerBro]

Amazing as always! Great story line and so much detail.

[Kai NRG]

Great build Gideon, the half timbered house looks really nice and the texture on the wall is excellent! I'll give you +1 on all four credits, as going through the sewer is a siege thing, even though there isn't an enemy openly camped outside.

[MassEditor]

Stellar scene and photography Gideon! I love your castle wall design, very detailed yet elegant. And what can I say about the house besides, can I have it? The smoke and the gables in particular are phenomenal.

Excellent!

[narbilu]

Excellent build Gideon... the wall is bute.

Also like the storyline and how you display the minifig walking through the sewers.

Just briljant

[Scaevola]

Superb work! The tudor-style house is fantastic- I love the gold stud details. I'm not a big fan of the tower in the first two pics however. Whereas the texturing and crack look great, the color contrast between the light grey, dark tan, dark orange, dark stone grey, and light orange sections greatly detracts from the build in my opinion. Still, the other section still merits UoP credits for all your claims .

[Wat Tambor]

Great idea to combine your LoR builds with the worlds of GoH. (I wish I could do so, but unfortunatelly Garheim and Mitgardia don't have the same faction colors )

I really like these two builds, especially the bigger one, the minifigs are well placed and the small details, like the small well and the smoke that comes out of the chimney are nice to look at.

The house itself and the castle walls are also nicely done!

[Gideon]

I tell you, Loreos is lucky to have you over there. I loved these builds in those challenges, and they definitely fit here as well. I will give you +1 to all UoP credits, except for the siege one. I am not denying credit....just thinking on it a bit more before granting it. I'm just not convinced of a siege, more of an infiltration here. But, like I said, I'll think on it for a bit.

Thanks!

As this is a bit pulled out of context, I agree that it is a bit of a stretch to call this a siege...it could as well be just a surprise storming of a city. When I built this I wanted to do something different than the "attacking troops and a siege engine" which several builders already had produced.

This is amazing ! Great job Sir !

Great build as ever Gideon!

Excellent work there man,,, I really like your Ldd-like photography.

Thanks all of you!

The LDD look probably comes from that I'm using flash for my photographs and is actually something I'm trying to get away from But compared to shooting with not enough natural light as the alternative would be I still think this is a good way. And the best thing is that it allows me to shoot at night when the rest of the family is asleep and lets me focus on the photography work.

They are both nice build, I would have prefer if the tunnel had been in the center of the build and the figs feet had not been visible in the latrine. Perhaps put the torso a half stud in on jumper plates. The house and the wall with its 3 wide stair is really nice and I hope I one day can build as nice as that. The minifig posing is excellent and the little well is really a nice touch.

I dont know if im allowed to give points yet but if so I would +1 for

• Architecture: Half-timbered Tudor style
  
• Architecture: Roof rakes
  
• Agriculture and Zoology: Raising livestock
  

Great idea with the half-stud offset, I wish I had thought of that! My main aim was to not have the front shot show the legs...

I think stairs that are 2 plates high per step look the most realistic, and 3 studs wide seems to me a reasonable width for this kind of stair. 2 studs would be way to narrow and 4 studs wide looks a bit too wide for a stair that is supposed to be easily defended by one man.

Amazing as always! Great story line and so much detail.

Great build Gideon, the half timbered house looks really nice and the texture on the wall is excellent! I'll give you +1 on all four credits, as going through the sewer is a siege thing, even though there isn't an enemy openly camped outside.

Thanks!

Stellar scene and photography Gideon! I love your castle wall design, very detailed yet elegant. And what can I say about the house besides, can I have it? The smoke and the gables in particular are phenomenal.

Excellent!

Excellent build Gideon... the wall is bute.

Also like the storyline and how you display the minifig walking through the sewers.

Just briljant

Thanks! The wall was an excuse for putting this house in a build I would have liked to make a more detailed wall and especially a more detailed gatehouse, but with the few hours I had to work with this was what I ended up with.

Superb work! The tudor-style house is fantastic- I love the gold stud details. I'm not a big fan of the tower in the first two pics however. Whereas the texturing and crack look great, the color contrast between the light grey, dark tan, dark orange, dark stone grey, and light orange sections greatly detracts from the build in my opinion. Still, the other section still merits UoP credits for all your claims .

Thanks! I'm quite happy as well with how the house turned out...I will probably keep it for a while after the rest of the MOC has been sorted.

The first vignette is supposed to show a cross-section of the wall (same wall as the larger build), hence the color differences between the stone facing and the core of the wall which is composed of bricks, mortar and various unpolished stones.

Great idea to combine your LoR builds with the worlds of GoH. (I wish I could do so, but unfortunatelly Garheim and Mitgardia don't have the same faction colors )

I really like these two builds, especially the bigger one, the minifigs are well placed and the small details, like the small well and the smoke that comes out of the chimney are nice to look at.

The house itself and the castle walls are also nicely done!

Thanks!

[Torgar]

Excellent build Gideon, I really like the architecture of the house. And the soldiers sneaking under the wall was a great idea.

[TheUtilityBelt]

Ya, I'm just not feelling the seige part. :( But +1 on the other credits! I also like the soldiers. I should be gettin some kingdoms torsos soon. :)

[Gideon]

Excellent build Gideon, I really like the architecture of the house. And the soldiers sneaking under the wall was a great idea.

Thanks!

Ya, I'm just not feelling the seige part. :( But +1 on the other credits! I also like the soldiers. I should be gettin some kingdoms torsos soon. :)

Thanks! That made enough for approval of the other credits I think I will retract the siege claim and do something else for that, maybe a siege weapon in Ska's LDD challenge would be suitable?

[MKJoshA]

Amazing all around! One thing that really stands out to me (and I'm not exactly sure why) are the stairs, I love how they fit in the scene just right.

[Thomas of Tortuga]

+1 on the three credits. Very lovely architecture!

[qiadris]

Well done once more :)

[Gabe]

Another wonderfully clean and solid build, Gideon! Everything just looks so well placed and beautifully proportioned. I love the half-timbered building in particular. Great work!

[soccerkid6]

I the gatehouse and wall here, they're relatively simple, yet they look fantastic The house is of course also superb.

The well and sheep pen are fun details

[mrcp6d]

The Tudor house is just lovely Gideon. The grey slopes in the roof add a lot to it, breaking up what would be a big boring black mass.

[Maxim I]

Such a nice MOC Gideon!! I always love it when you make a scene with a fortification in it! (Also Sultan's Gate for example, which is absolutely breathtaking!).

My only remark is that I would have done the roof of the house completely black, so without the grey slopes

[Infernum]

Wow! Lovely builds! The gate is incredible!

Edited June 1, 2014 by Infernum