Normally I'd obsess about accuracy as far as I can determine it for the ground and any building featured. My approach to this period; however, has become one of style over substance if you will. I aim to capture the essence of the battlefield as relayed to me by the artists of the period (or near to the period). I confess the above image was copied directly from a related bog I admire and follow - Anno Domini 1672. This image was itself taken from a map uploaded by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France - Gallica online archive.
Like the cartographers and artists of the times, I am only interested in 'representing' the towns and villages and so for me the above representation and layout will do nicely ... so that's what I'm modelling. With reference to a collection of 17th century Dutch images I have collected, I will add minimal detail to what are very basic block representations of houses, barns and churches. As a matter of interest, depending upon the scale of a map, hamlets, villages and towns are often only represented on maps of the period by a singe church. How times have changed.
I am also creating towns/villages as a single 28mm model. I am not interested in house-to-house fighting. Similar to the old Napoleonic wargaming concept introduced through In the Grand Manner, single representative battalions may fight for and 'occupy' whole village/towns. Therefor my buildings will be clustered together on a single large base.
Because I am not constructing buildings for occupancy I am also aiming to minimize as far as possible the size of the models. They will be closer to true 25mm and if I'm going to err on one side or another it will be toward the 20mm scale. I don't want my villages/towns to dominate my terrain but rather provide a cohesive feature which might anchor a flank or provide a break in the field of battle best fought around or if necessary through rather than 'in'.
I will also be minimizing the detail in keeping with the sketch artists. No detailed brickwork, fancy doors or even tile or thatch-work. At least this is the intent - let's see how I go. All features such as trees, walls and hedges will also be painted in the same two basic colours identical with the figures.
