Sea Kings and Horse Warriors

One of the main reasons, I focus on the Dark Ages, rather than earlier (Roman) or later (Gunpowder) eras is that I don't usually like painting units.  I started out in miniatures in my teen years as a fantasy RPG player, so even in wargaming, I like the individuality of the figure.

However...maybe I am of a different mind now.  While working on my Gripping Beast Arabs, I also decided to hit the lead mountain and paint this unit of Arab infantry from Essex.  Colors and heraldry may have entered Europe through exposure to Muslim armies in Spain or the Near East, so uniformity of colors may be appropriate in this instance.

Essex is one of the older players in the historical miniature market and the figures are a bit dated.  The posing is stiff, the hands are poorly formed and they are a bit "flat" which was a necessity in older casting tech.  On the positive side, fabric folds and belt details are finely done and hold up alongside recent lines.




I like the look of a 15 man unit (two are not pictured) lined up in identical colors.  A unit of identically painted Holy Order Crusaders might match against them nicely.  The movement tray is from Litko and the printed flag was found at the DBA Fanaticus site: Flags and Banners for DBA

Bonus pic below is another easy conversion of a GB Arab head on a Wargames Factory Numidian body for a light skirmisher.

The Byzantine army continues to grow.  My work this week was a pack of Crusader Miniatures Varangians, a command pack and several plastic conversions.

This past week I have been attacking the pile of unpainted figures.  The pilgrims were an impulse buy, and I cannot explain why I keep purchasing Vikings...maybe some secret desire to do the Great Pagan Army in 1:1.

First, here are some Perry Brothers pilgrims from their First Crusade line.  While not planning on any Crusade era battles, I always need more civilians. These pilgrims could easily fit in an eleventh century Spanish or Byzantine scenario.

The Perry Sculpts are excellent, as their reputation suggests. While slightly thinner and more truly proportionate, they are not out of place with my Gripping Beast and Crusader Miniatures.

After a number of posts on my Castilians and El Cid armies, it is time to move to the other end of the peninsula, the Moors of Spain, or Al-Andalus.


Warriors of Al-Andalus

The peoples who made up the fighting forces of Muslim Spain were drawn from many places.  As many historians have noted,the Arab invasion of Spain by the Umayaad Caliphate in 711 AD was not entirely Arab or Muslim.  The initial invasion force was led by the Arabs, but the bulk of the troops were Berbers, who had in recent years been conquered by the Umayaad Arabs, and not completely converted in the early eighth century.   Tensions between Arabs and Berbers characterized the Spanish emirate throughout its existance, with open warfare first breaking out in the 740s.

The Arabs were disproportionately a urban population in Spain, with the countryside dominated by Berbers and native Christians, who slowly converted to Islam over the next two hundred years.  These Spanish Christians served in Andalusian armies, for reasons of both compulsion and loot, along with slave troops purchased from Christian lands, Africa and the Middle East.


Here is a group of four Conquest Normans beginning their conversion into Andalusian troops.  Tunics were extended into robes, and adding turbans and headgear.  The set's round shields were also used, as the heart shaped Arab shields did not come into popular usage until the twelfth century.





Troops of Arab descent in Spain were most likely from the cities of Spain (which were some of the largest in Europe at the time), and functioned as an urban militia.  As such, these are depicted as wearing finer clothing in bright colors.

Overall, the conversion process was useful practice for my poor (but hopefully improving) sculpting skills.  For time reasons, I would not want to convert a whole box of Normans into Arabs, unless one needed a few extra Moors for a low cost.

Next time, Andalusian cavalry and commanders.

I have had a box of Conquest Games' new Norman Infantry for about a week.  A quick review: if you have their cavalry, buy this box. You will have more than enough troops for a SAGA warband, and you're more than halfway there for a decent sized non-skirmish game. I am currently leaning towards Clash of Empires - haven't tried Hail Caesar, though.  For about $30 USD, you get eight sprues with five bodies. Three bodies are unarmored, one is in a gambeson and one is in knee length chain mail.  Two command sprues contain a leader in chain and an unarmored musician/standard bearer, and a dead knight.  The models are crisp and well molded with a minimal amount of flash.  The line of flash going up the leg wrappings can be difficult to smoothly remove.

I have two small criticisms with the set.  Overall, the sculpting is excellent, though I do not really care for unarmored fellow who is in an awkward half-run pose.  He doesn't make a good spearman and with a sword in his hand he looks like he is about to trip.  And while the set contains plenty of weapon options (spears, swords, two handed axes, kite shields and round shields), it contains no bows or crossbows.  As levies are the weakest SAGA troops, it can painful to pay metal prices for 12 archers when there are plastic options available for warriors and hearthguard.  It's a disincentive to adding levy units to your warband.

My solution was to add in arms and bows from some bits left over from a box of Wargames Factory Saxons. Here are four Conquest Games infantry converted into archers, and given a black wash to highlight details.

My circle of Saga players is fairly small at this point, but I do know some people who have a number of Dark Ages Spanish and Irish figures, and might want to bring those into a game.  Converting other European armies from the tenth and eleventh centuries can be done if one accepts that there is some limited historical/cultural connection behind a faction's battle board abilities.  And if so, those abilities can be transferred to another similar faction. For example, one can easily see that militarily and socially, Normans and Franks are more similar than different.  

This is a conversion involved using a Gripping Beast Saxon head with a cape made from Green stuff:


Finally, a conversion that's a WIP for a Welsh warlord combines a Conquest Games Norman body with a WF Saxon head.  I love Conquest's Normans.  The extra bodies in each box have a great deal of conversion potential.



Although in hindsight, this one looks more like Charlton Heston in El Cid than a Welsh nobleman.  Hmm...next project:  Conquest Normans into El Cid Spaniards...