LEGO Bricklink Designer Program Series 4 – Siege Encampment: The biggest battle pack! [Review]

Here we are on the cusp of another round of pre-orders for the LEGO Bricklink Designer Program. And once again, TBB has got its hands on one of the sets ahead of time: Siege Encampment by builder Sleepless Night. This is the same fan designer that came up with Mountain Fortress from Series 1, which was well-received by the community as an excellent rendition of a new Black Falcons castle. But will lightning strike twice for this renowned LEGO Castle builder? Can this 2,598-piece set (with a whopping 18 minifigures!) stand out amid all the medieval love shown in the BDP program thus far? You’ll have to read on to find out! And if you want to get your hands on a copy of Siege Encampment, pre-orders for BDP Series 4 will begin on February 4th, 2025 at 8:00 AM PT, where the set will retail for $229.99.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

The build

This BDP set builds way more like 11 linked sets. As such, I’ll be breaking up the build portion into sections and discussing each individually.

Soldier’s tent

First up on the build list is a standard, two-sided white A-frame tent. This appears to be the barracks-on-the-go for this Black Falcons army. And to begin, we start by laying out a base. This includes four tan clips to attach the tent roof to, along with some tiles and slopes simulating some kind of makeshift bed for the troops.

Very quickly, that roof comes into place, all thanks to a quartet of 6×6 white tiles. The sides aren’t joined in the center, allowing access to the interior by parting the plates down the middle. A squirrel and target are added on the side to further develop the scene.

But that scene isn’t done developing! Before we leave this first section, we add a lovely tree, some red birds, and various grass and flowers around the patch of grass. No crazy building techniques at play yet, but definitely a strong start to this build.

Blacksmith

As with the soldier’s tent, the blacksmith begins as a patch of ground. Various flat stones in light gray, dark gray, and sand blue are positioned around an octagon of black. We’ll see what appears there in the next step.

That bit of scorched earth was set to become a huge fire, all ready to warm up steel while on the battlefront. A darling axe is positioned next to the conflagration, along with a bucket of water on the other side. Finally, a suit of armor and a box of iron ingots round out the scene thus far.

Before moving on, we’ve got to take a closer look at how this fire comes together. It’s a brilliant technique, utilizing bars, clips, and rounded bricks to get all the logs and sticks positioned just so. This is exactly the kind of ingenuity I love to see in the Bricklink Designer Program!

And as we finish out this section, we add a covered table of various blades, and a rack of armaments with a longer reach. I admire the selection here, and how everything is unique (not just in this section, but also in the overall model). It gives the set a feeling of completeness, showing that Sleepless Night was really trying to cover as much as possible with this build. The effort is much appreciated! While you’ll sometimes see the minifigures sneaking into their appropriate scenes, know that we’ll be coming back to look at all of them in their own dedicated section later on.

Horse-drawn catapult

Our third piece in this large set is a horse-drawn catapult, designed for hurling what appear to be cannonballs at the enemy. I don’t have step-by-step shots on this one, because it’s quite the simple design, very much a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it assembly. I like the method for harnessing the horse to the cart, and enjoy the use of the 2-long rubber Technic beam to add tension to the working catapult. We’ll come back to this piece in the end when we talk about the play features.

Apothecary

As we start this next section, a patch of land dedicated to a battlefield apothecary, I can’t help but smile. This feels like an often-overlooked part of medieval life, and I’m thrilled that it gets its own section in the Siege Encampment. The base is full of flora, both on the ground and in crates. There’s also a small workbench to start us off, and don’t forget the barrel with a printed tile lid.

But as we continue, that vegetation multiplies. We’ve now got leaves hanging to dry from the side of a booth, along with plenty of potted species of flowers. There’s also a second workbench filled with bottles and flasks and all kinds of chemical implements, fully equipping our daring apothecary as she produces the proper tinctures to help any wounded Falcons.

Ox and cart

Like the catapult from earlier, we have another cart being pulled by a draft animal. And I really like the technique on this one! Using a trio of clips on each side, a stack of 1×4 bar fences are held in place at an angle, making for an excellent V-shape to this cart.

Looking at it from underneath, note how the black braces don’t carry throughout the entire undercarriage. This allows the square ends of the fences to clip through underneath and swing out into that V shape.

With the sides in place, all that’s left is adding an ox or cow, some wheels, and some supplies. The driver looks worried, but that ox appears cool as a cucumber!

Kitchen

We begin the kitchen by assembling the largest chuckola of land so far in this set. A few stray stones litter the space, along with a little vegetation as well.

But before long, we’ve assembled one side of the space. This includes some crates of food (vegetables and bread), a shelf full of cheese and berries, and a cask of what I can only guess is mead or ale. A dog and bunny stand guard and wait for their treats.

In the next step, the foreground is quickly filled in. We can see fish drying on a rack next to another (smaller) fire, while a pair of cauldrons also sit nearby, absorbing plenty of heat. There’s also a table and bench topped with leftover pizza, a period-appropriate dish for hungry knights.

There’s so much going on in this scene that it’s hard to catch it all. As we rotate the layout 90-degrees, we can also see a table set by the fire filled with various proteins: a turkey, some sausages, and a fried egg. A gray goat and bluebird have also joined the scene, hoping to get in on the grub.

Because the kitchen didn’t have enough animals in it already, don’t miss the mouse that’s climbing up the shelves looking to score some cheese from the top rack.

Camp defenses

Every good siege camp needs defenses, and Sleepless Night provides with a pair of chevaux de frise and a mantlet. For those not up on their ancient battle vocab, the cheval de frise was an anti-cavalry defense consisting of crossed, pointed sticks. They’ve been handled well here utilizing brown Technic parts and connected together using standard bars through the Technic pins. The mantlet, or moving wall, has slats cut out of it to allow our crack Black Falcon archers to peek through.

Tactician’s tent

Given the upcoming cavalcade of siege weaponry on the way in future steps, it’s important to bring along a proper tactician that understands how to engineer a proper battle. And of course, he needs a dedicated tent. We begin, as we have for so many sections in this set, by laying out a patch of ground for the structure to stand on. Note the red interior of this particular tent. That’s some fancy stuff!

Before we begin with the tent-proper, we need to fill the space with some items essential to siege-ery. A scale model of the siege tower sits on the floor, with a bit of parchment and quill in a stand nearby. I can imagine our tactician sitting on the floor of his tent, all “criss-cross-applesause,” making play war noises as he pretends rolls the siege tower around. Don’t act like you haven’t done that, too! You’re reading about this set on a LEGO fan website, for goodness sake!

Moving right along, let’s add some walls to this tent. Made of yellow and blue “cloth”, the poles are kept upright with bits of LEGO string. In actuality, the walls are held in place using plenty of hinge bricks on the interior. I like the 1×4 tile with the printed gold filigree decorating the entrance.

Our next step adds an entrance, a central pole with flag, and clips to connect the rest of the roof.

A bevy of wedge plates completes the top of the tent, as well as some surrounding vegetation. A small table also appears. We’ll come back later to give that 2×3 tile a proper sticker. I adore the use of angles in this piece of the set! It’s quite an eye-catching section of the camp.

Siege tower

We next begin on the largest single element of this camp: the siege tower. To begin, we lay out a base, complete with Technic axles for future wheels, and a tow ball receiver at the back. The horns at the front likely serve the purpose of keeping the siege tower from tipping by catching the wall it abuts during battle.

It’s at this point that we build high. As the purpose of the siege tower is to help soldiers scale castle walls, deploying a boarding party on top of and behind a bulwark with the drop of a bridge, it’s essential for the tower to be taller than the target ramparts. Some great texturing and color employed here in the build.

The front is covered in a bark-y texture, indicative of the machine’s assembly, as per the tactician’s engineering. This panel just clips in and sits against some internal bars on the tower.

Next, we cap the top of the tower with a protective roof, and add the bridge. The spikes on the underside of that bridge help it to clamp down on the defensive stone wall. And once the bridge goes down, plenty of Black Falcons on board are ready to storm the citadel. Those soldiers load in using freshly-installed ladders on the rear of the machine.

The top of the tower is completed with a proper wall for defense, BF shields, a flag, and the mechanism for dropping the bridge. We’ll have a look at the function in action near the end of the review. More ladders are also added to allow access to this top section.

Finally, we add on some wheels and a means of locomotion in a quartet of minifig handles. Odd to think that this contraption is moved by humans, while the smaller catapult and cart are drawn by animals. But I’m sure the tactician knows what he’s doing.

And with that, we’re ready for a siege. Everybody hop in. Lion Knights’ Castle, here we come!

Royal tent

We’ve got some medieval celebs on the battlefield today, and these nobles and knights deserve proper quarters. Be begin with a lovely patch of ground, lush with plenty of veg. I particularly like the bush sticking out to the side. Can’t say I’ve ever seen that style before. The interior of the tent includes a central pillar and chest filled with gold coins.

This next section is really interesting, and feels like the kind of thing I would pull in my own MOCs. The five walls of this tent are built on a hexagonal piece. This piece sits on top of that central pillar, and the walls drop down and lay flush with the tiles on the base. But that’s it. There’s only one connection point with the rest of the model. While it’s quite fragile to assemble, it was pretty easy to see what Sleepless Night was going for, and I avoided any major collapses.

Here’s a better shot showing how the wall panels are positioned around the hexagon. It’s essential that the central axle hole lines up with the hole in the central pillar, otherwise you’re in for a bad time. I like how there’s just enough of a gap between the panels for the securing ropes to slip through and affix to the ground.

We were still left with the five walls just sitting on top of the central pillar. To help join that all together, a central Technic axle is installed, along with more wedge plates forming the roof, a canopy out the front for our noble, and a central spire sitting atop that axle.

Oh, and don’t forget the sheep around the back of the tent. Sleepless Night fits in all kinds of animals in this set!

Trebuchet

We’ve come to our last siege machine of the set: a working trebuchet. First, we begin with a traditional base in two shades of brown.

This develops further, adding in the fulcrum of the machine, a bar for tensioning the mechanism, and a small cup at the front to hold the loaded ammo.

Next, six braces are put in place keeping the fulcrum steady. I love the use of black brackets to represent wrought iron braces and joints that would be on the real trebuchet from medieval times.

Finally, the arm is assembled, along with a counterweight at the opposing end. It’s layer after layer of plates to make sure there’s plenty of weight. The launcher comes with three chained balls for firing off the claw end. Our tactician is just making some final checks before loading. Don’t worry, we’ll give it a try later on.

Ladder, stickers, and faction choices

We finally come to the last bag in this huge BDP set. It includes some more minifigs (that we’ll look at in the next section), a simple ladder, and the parts to choose your sieging faction. First, let’s have a look at that sweet ladder!

But now the part I’m sure you have questions about. All the minifigs thus far have been Black Falcons. And while that’s true of the figs, there’s parts and stickers to support converting all the non-minifig elements into Lion Knights property. First, you have your choice of shields and flag atop the siege tower.

Next, the royal tent can be tiled and stickered for either faction, as well. I’ll say that making this choice in a final step is kind of a pain. This tent is the most fragile part of the whole build, and having to manipulate it to change out the tiles didn’t feel great. Also of note, there’s red flags included as well to change out. And we’ll look at that backpack a little better in the minifigs section.

While we’re applying stickers, the siege engineer would like to show you the schematics for his tower. That might be my favorite of the bunch.

The minifigures

As I said in the intro, Siege Encampment comes with 18 minifigures, an absolutely jaw-dropping number that is sure to fortify your Black Falcon ranks. While none of the minifigures are made of unique parts (as this is a BDP set), there are several clever combinations utilized throughout. I won’t go through the stats on each figure individually just given the quantity (back and front printing on this head, but not the other, etc.), but I do have pics of each from front and back angles.

Our first quintet includes the blacksmith second from the left and apothecary fourth in line. We have three archers in the set, including the winking one here. And the bearded soldier’s torso and dual-molded legs appear on two other figs in the bunch as well.

Our next five figs include two more archers, the keeper of the field kitchen, and one of two heavily armored guards with a shield. The eldest of our archers wields a distinct longbow, from the LotR line of sets. And our field cook includes a gray hair alternative for when she wants to take off the hood. With three more Black Falcon torsos in this bunch, you’re probably wondering how many come in the set. That number is seven! Pretty good for a giant battle pack!

Adding on four more figs, we have another armored guard, one of our knights, and the BF noble with regal staff and dress. My favorite fig of the bunch, the tactician is also in this group. He’s sporting that awesome Forestman-style pointed hat in blue and a pearl gold sextant. The knight in this group also comes with an alternate hair piece for when she’s taken off her regal helmet.

Three more figs in, and we find a second BF knight, this time with lift-able visor and black plume. There’s also a plain axe-wielding soldier who I believe is the keeper of the ladder. And we even get a figure of the enemy: a Lion Knights spy set to vandalize the camp with some red paint.

Our last minifigure of the bunch is the most complex: the squire. Sporting a screaming face, this knight’s assistant rushes in, hatchet in hand. The backpack he’s carrying is quite nice, built onto a four-studded piece that fits over the fig’s neck. As we saw before when talking about choosing a faction, the flag on this pack can be flipped from blue/yellow to blue/red for the Lion Knights. However, there’s no replacement for the minifigure included.

Finally, while they’re not minifigures, there’s a smorgasbord of single-mold animals included in Siege Encampment. I counted 13 in total: a horse, goat, dog, cow, sheep, lamb, squirrel, bunny, mouse, three birds, and a lime green frog that I forgot to add to the photo below.

The finished build

While each piece seems quite manageable, this is actually quite the large set! It is, literally, everything you need to go to war against a medieval fortress, including troops, siege machines, supplies, provisions, and housing. While the cover image may not give you a clear picture of square footage, this aerial shot helps to show just how big we’re talking.

This set will most likely be first used in a decorative sense, creating battle scenes surrounding LEGO Icons 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle or BDP Series 1 – Mountain Fortress, the two sister sets it was intentionally designed to work with by Sleepless Night. However, the fan designer has also included plenty of play features as well, making for some excellent battles to be had on the playroom floor. First up, we have the launcher on the small catapult. It’s a simple design, relying on a rubber 1×2 Technic beam to spring-load the arm. Despite my fiddling, I couldn’t get the release lever to work properly. I believe it needs to be a bit longer and heavier on the end to be effective when applied at this angle.

The next play feature to discuss is the gangway on the siege tower. It’s a really slick function, easy to operate, and perfectly-scaled to the walls on either Lion Knights’ Castle or Mountain Fortress. This portion of the set feels essential not only to LEGO Castle play, but also to any Minas Tirith scene you may be cooking up. And with a design that’s easy to replicate, it might be worth adding a second to the siege team using your own parts.

Finally, we’ve got to check out the functioning trebuchet. Once again, the release lever doesn’t work as intended, much for the same reason as that in the catapult. But I’m not going to let that stop me from enjoying the fluid motion of that counterweight sinking back to Earth. I could do this all day!

Conclusions and recommendations

It became pretty clear as I was building this set why Sleepless Night is in a rare group that’s had more than one of his creations made a reality through the Bricklink Designer Program. This set fulfills a clear need in the LEGO Castle community, one that hasn’t had support outside of large castle/fortress sets in a very long time. The build process feels like a hybrid between that of an actual LEGO set and a fan’s design, maybe like something Markus Rollbühler would make in his free time. It’s not without its faults, like the poor design of the release mechanisms on the siege machines or the ordeal required to change out factions on the royal tent. But this is overall a real win, and my favorite of the Bricklink Designer Program sets I’ve reviewed thus far. While there are many winning designs in this round, I would recommend that any Castle or old-school LEGO fans pick this one up. And that goes double if you already adore LEGO Icons 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle.

Before I wrap up this review, I do have one further note — a personal one on the Bricklink Designer Program in general, not Siege Encampment specifically. In recent series, after submission, fan builders head to the internet to hock their creation ad nauseum in the hopes of making it into one of these series, begging others for likes and clicks. And while this feels like the way the internet works, or at least certainly social media, it comes with a price on the community as a whole. I’ve watched LEGO fans silo themselves off all the more, turning anything and everything they create into a business transaction. And the community suffers when it’s always about “me and my work” or “what do I get out of it?” Self-promotion is fine, to a point. But we’re quickly turning this into a hobby entirely dedicated to that concept, and with that attitude encouraged by the nature of the Bricklink Designer Program and LEGO Ideas. I actively want fan designers to be recognized for their outstanding work (like Sleepless Night here), but can we just stop making it such a popularity contest?

Made of 2,598 pieces, and containing 18 minifigures, Bricklink Designer Program Series 4 – Siege Encampment will be available for pre-sale starting on February 4th, retailing for $229.99.