What do villages in the Warhammer Fantasy world look like?

Question

While there's plenty information on cities and even some towns or single homesteads in official sources, I haven't been able to find much info about villages.

Medieval ones are rather spacious settlements surrounded by farming fields, orchards, pastures and whatever else. However, given the dangers of the Old World, I'd imagine villages here to be really dense and cramped, surrounded by a palisade to protect its inhabitants from beastmen, mutants and everything else that roams local wilderness.

So, is there some official answer in WFRP sources about how villages look?

Answer 1

While most obvious place to look for information on Imperial villages would be in Sigmar's Heirs, definitive guide to the Empire, there's none. However, there is an example Reikland village in Game Master's Pack.

Villages usually have some fortifications:

Since most of the Empire is covered by vast areas of untamed forest inhabited by all manner of wild and unfriendly creatures (huge bears, Goblins, and Beastmen), villages are usually protected by some sort of defensive wall and/or ditch. The village of Kleindorf is fortunate enough to have both. The protection is made from a combination of drystone walls, log palisades, and picket fences—hardly enough to deter an organised assault, but sufficient to delay bandit raids and keep out marauding wild animals.

There's approximately 35 acres of land protected by fortifications, which is a lot for 74 villagers in Kleindorf. Of course, cultivated land is outside the palisade. Most of 25 buildings are located around a village centre, but some are further apart from it.

Since this is a "typical Reikland village", one can safely assume that villages usually aren't dense and crowded at all.

Answer 2

The nature of societies differs across the old world. Your conception of the setting fits more or less with the Empire, which is modelled on rennaisance era Germany. Large towns and cities have some industry and skilled workers. They also each have a standing militia of well-drilled citizens and may have fortifications. (Empire army book, 6th edition)

Bretonnia has a much more rural, feudal structure. The vast majority of the population are serfs with no combat capability, lorded over by a powerful knightly class. (Bretonnia army book, 5th edition)

Tilea is a peninsula divided into many coastal city-states, where trade abounds and a general can find a profusion of mercenary companies to hire. http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Tilea