COBI Roman Camp-Watchtower Set 20076

COBI's Roman Camp – Watchtower is built from 628 blocks: a timber tower, a corner section of palisade with stairs and ladders, greenery, a supply barrel, and the Aquila standard printed with the Roman eagle and SPQR. Three figures are included — a legionary in full kit and two Gallic warriors.

Built again every night

What made the Roman army hard to beat was not only how it fought but where it slept. On campaign, a legion stopped in the afternoon and built a fortified camp before dark: ditch, rampart, palisade, gates, towers. Every man carried stakes and a digging tool for exactly this. The next morning they tore it down and did it again at the next stop.

The layout never changed. Same rectangle, same two crossing roads, same position for the commander's tent, the same place for each unit. A soldier transferred to an unfamiliar legion could walk into its camp in the dark and find his way. An enemy, meanwhile, faced a fortress that had not existed at lunchtime.

Many of those camps stopped being temporary. Where a legion stayed, a town grew, and a good number of European cities — Cologne, Vienna, York, Bonn — began as the rectangle a work party laid out one afternoon.

Building the full camp

The tower is modular and designed to combine with the rest of the Roman Camp sets. Four towers at the corners, two gates (20077) opposite each other, and tent dioramas (20078) inside gives a complete castrum. The instructions let you build either the left or the right corner of the palisade, so the sections fit whichever way you lay the camp out.

Specifications

Pieces: 628 · Figures: 3, one legionary and two Gallic warriors
Model dimensions: 24 × 18.5 × 17 cm (9.4 × 7.3 × 6.7 in)