Vauban Fort from More Terrain

When it comes to pirate settings Vauban Forts are greatly iconic "buildings". I have been wanting to add such a mighty fortification to my collection of terrain pieces for years. In this post I take a closer look at my recent acquisition: the Vauban Fort from More Terrain.



A Vauban Fort has been on my to-do list - or let's say - to-have list - for almost as long as I am playing pirate games. However, most products are 3D printer files such as Laser Dream Works' Vauban Fort Series (see their video). And did you see Anton Ryzbak's mind-blowing fort?

I came across the fort on Facebook and was immediately convinced by the photos. I did hesitate to spend the 195 Euros but in anticipation of our pirate campaign I decided to go all in. As is so often the case in our hobby, this seems to have been the right decisions since the fort is now out of stock and who knows if it'll become available again.

The Vauban Fort is produced by Germany-based company More Terrain. The model comes painted in two versions: grey and beige. I like the beige one better and I thought it fits my existing buildings better.

The Vauban Fort in all its glory (source: More Terrain)

The fort is comprised of four corner pieces and four wall sections. It's easy to store and easy to set up. The pieces are mostly made of polystyrene-foam which makes them very lightweight. The towers and door decorations are made of resin (or something similar).

Components of the Vauban Fort: four corner pieces and
four wall sections (source: More Terrain)

My only criticism is that there is no way to get up to the walls from the ground floor. You need to add some ladders or build a custom ramp or stairs. I plan to build a staircase similar to what I did with my gallows. That'll be a nice little project and it'll be make me feel like I contributed at least a little to the piece besides just purchasing it.


We used the fort in a recent game during our 6-day pirate campaign. Two pirate crews were storming the fort while the Royal Navy tried to fend them off.

I was so happy with the entire setup that I decided to recreate it using Sketch (a design tool for digital products which I use every day). I created assets for the Caribbean houses, the church, walls, jungle sections and - of course - the fort itself. I had planned to do this for a long time. I've been creating more and more assets over the last couple of days and now I am able to properly document the exact setup of the scenarios we play.

Map for the Storming of the Fort scenario setup

In summary, I am very happy with the fort and the gameplay options it offers. Together with the Fort Matanzas model and the two batteries we now have plenty of possibilities for playing all types of scenarios - from small-scale escape missions to epic sieges.