Die Wacht am Rhine - Terrain Part II

After the suggestion that I received on roads, I began to search for some Roman Roads in 15mm. The closest was an offering from Iron Clad miniatures in 28mm. So I will have to make something which does not thrill me. But this led my mind off on another tangent. What is always present on Roman roads? Milestones. I am planning on making up a milestone marker. The nice thing is that they should be rather simple. A thin piece of dowel, a small square base and its done. Then paint to taste and add some writing on it.

In my search for milestones, I came across the picture of the one at the museum at Saalburg. Then I found a paper someone had written on milestones and roman roads in Asia Minor. While it could have been interesting, I have to admit, I only looked at it for the pictures. They had a rather well preserved example that had a triangular top piece on it. I am wondering how common that would have been. They also had one that some enterprising farmer had converted to a roller for his fields too. I think I will make more than one milestone marker, one with the triangular top piece and one without.

Next up is a village. I found an excellent site dealing with a civilian vicus (village) in Britain. The vicus was the smallest civilian administrative unit in the empire. It was a small settlement that had formed next to a 'Y' in the Roman road. It had a small temple and a minor shrine but was not large enough to support a forum or a basilica. But being the genius that I am, I saved that on my work computer instead of my laptop so you will just have to take my word for it. But a small village this size would be ideal for a skirmish game and similar to some of the outlying villages that would be closer to the border.

And then if one is looking at a larger and established settlement such as a civitas. The civitas is a planned town that supports a regional market adn at the very least has a basilica and a forum. Typically they have baths, amphitheaters and temples as well. Such would be the case with the town of Nida below Saalburg. These would tend to have town walls and their own city watch. This is likely too much to try to model for a skirmish game.

In my searches, I have turned up some more good websites. The first is http://rgzm.de. This is a mostly German language site that has lots of interesting stuff. Next is http://www.livius.org. I really like this site as it has maps that link and show lots of Roman sites across Europe.

Hopefully the next update will have me actually having made something.