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Spotlight on Design 7 - Irrigation

Is the earth on your villagers' farms cracked and dry for want of water? Are your peasants breaking their backs lugging those heavy pails of water back and forth to the fields?

To the delight of peasants everywhere, the designers of these maps have solved that problem... with irrigation!



Life in the desert is hard enough that the peasants shouldn't have to worry about toting water around. Sulis* decided to help them out in the Crusader map Caesarea.


Here is a close-up of the same scene.



In Pirate Roberts's Castles of Wood-Lord Beaver, the townspeople have harnessed the power of the sea, controlling the flow with a series of wooden walls. Palistone walls also work well for this type of irrigation ditch.



Docweasel had a creative idea, using water from the sea to flood the fields in SGG 04 Iron Fist Stone Heart. Land bridges are used to allow access to the farmers.



I first took an interest in this part of Arn de Gothia's Carisbrooke castle as a fine example of a village's enclosed and protected farming area. Then I took a closer look, and noticed the way he set up the irrigation leading to the fields.



The fields are clearer in this screenshot - you can see the water in between the rows of plants. Note also, Arn de Gothia used fords for the water to ensure that the farm workers would still have total access to the plants. A farmer can be seen crossing at the right. Very clever!
P.S. Irrigation in a map doesn't actually effect crop growth... it's just for aesthetics!


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~Kester*