Some buildings for the terrain board.
It is something of a challenge to create the kind of buildings I want for the built-up area of the terrain board.
It would be easy to think that they all looked alike because, after all, they are all made out of mud bricks and stone. But that would be wrong. It’s like saying all houses in medieval Europe look the same because they were all made of wood and stone. The fact is there were sometime subtle and sometimes great variations in style and construction methods. The same is true in North Africa.
Some features are distinctively Berber; some Turkish inspired. Small villages are poorer and will look differently than big cities. Cities on the coast, with their harbors and fortifications look different than oases. Photos are hard to come by as today, everywhere traditional buildings have been replaced by modern ones. So instead, I have gone to the next best thing: paintings. In particular, the paintings of the Orientalists. While the focus is on the people, very often there is a building in the background.
Frederick Arthur Bridgman did a number of good ones in the 1870s.
One thing all commercial centers need, even smaller ones–is a souk.
