Please keep in mind that the battle was not in the Teutoburger Forest, but rather in Kalkriese. As I was born in this area and will be visiting my parents in June, I hope to learn some more. These folks are just celebrating the 2000th anniversary and I am very much looking forward to it.
http://www.kalkriese-varusschlacht.de/index/getlang/en
It should not impact the forest as such and Ken's advise is dead-on, but if you read the preparations of the battlefield done in advance by Arminius, you might get some additional ideas. It was certainly more than a couple of Cherusker ambushing several legions.
By-the-way: I gave up the idea of doing the Varus Battle as I could not identify figures I likes to go with it. The only ones I found were by Time Machine and Aeroart:
http://www.treefrogtreasures.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11730&highlight=teutoburger
What will you be using? Please keep in mind that the Cherusker did not wear shirts - it rains too much and they feel restricted by the wet cloth on their body!
Well, Andana, I had this idea of celebrating the 2000th anniversary of the greatest barbarian success ever, and of course I wanted a diorama. It's a difficult task, believe me. First there's the problem with what toy soldiers to place on my diorama. To the best of my knowledge there's only one company that made a handful of Cherusci: Time Machine Miniatures.
Now, these are great, but they are really only a vignette, and I wanted at least a dozen Barbarians and 4 or 5 romans, a couple of trees, etc. It looks like I will have to compromise somewhere along the way.
You mentioned Aeroart as well, and I think you are referring to this Arminius here:
I have to admit it is a very beautiful toy soldier, but I wonder if he looks accurate. Arminius (Hermann) had been fighting along the Romans for years before the battle, so he and his veterans would look more like Romans than with the rest of the Cherusci, right? Campaigning they acquired not only the taste for looting, but clothing, weapons and armor they could not have back in 'Germania'. I may be wrong, but I believe Arminius would dress much like a Roman General, except for his long hair and beard, and maybe a woolen cape or fur over his shoulder. After all Arminius had become a Roman citizen (every Barbarian's ultimate dream), and must have been heavily influenced by Roman military fashion. This Aero Art toy soldier looks like a Celtic Chieftain, so I'm not sure if he isn't just a fanciful recriation, not an accurate one. I'll have to compromise here as well, for the Cherusci I will mix some Conte and K&C Barbarians that look like they have acquired a large amount of Roman military surplus weapons and armor, as one would expect from Arminius' Cheruscan warriors.
Choosing the Romans was easier, I'll pick up a few of EOI Romans (I realise they are late republican, not early emperial, but they will work). They have the clear advantage of being shorter than Conte's or K&C's Romans, and that will reflect real life height differences between the Germanic warriors and the Romans.
I wish some company would release some real Cherusci! It seems Conte may do that sometime in the future. Time will tell.
Cheers...
Uthred
