Crusades Project. First of the Saracens.

Well, the first half of the Saracen cavalry are now completed. Just enough to photograph for you to take a peek at. All figures are Perry Miniatures painted with enamels. The flags are from a variety of sources and, as with all of my armies, have been scanned, mucked about with on MS Paint, sized on MS Word, printed, stuck glued and sealed with a layer of PVA and then painted with enamels

Some command stands first, from left to right, Turkoman tribal leader (horse tail banner out of shot), Seljuk 'General', another Seljuk 'General' and two shots of an Arab 'General'. All are sub-commanders.





Next some Turkomen tribal cavalry / horse archers. The last shot shows the basing layout. The stands are 60mm x 90mm and each unit, strangely, is 11 figures strong (the 2 tribal leader stands had to come from somewhere - after thoughts!).




Now we get to the good stuff. Three units of Ghulam cavalry. Each 18 strong based on four 60mm x 90mm stands (4,5,5,4). This, I think, looks great; they look like two ranks of cavalry on the move, but only a third of the figures of each unit are actually based (on the same stand as the 'front' rank) in that 'mixed up 2nd rank'. Cunning!






So what will the 'Saracen' army look like overall. Well I decided to collect a 'Syrian' and a 'Seljuk' army with mutually usable troops for fighting my Franks (see previous post), but with enough troops to fight amongst themselves with or without Frankish / Armenian allies. The combined force equates to:

The Cavalry. (All based on 4 60mm x 90mm stands per unit).

3 units of Ghulam (lance & bow armed) heavy cavalry, each 18 figures strong.
3 units of Arab / Kurd (lance armed) heavy cavalry, each 18 figures strong.
8 units of Turcoman tribal horse archers, each 11 figures strong.
4 units of Seljuk horse archers, each 12 figures strong.
2 units of Bedouin cavalry, each 12 figures strong.

The Infantry. (All based on 4 60mm x 60mm stands per unit).

3 units of Adhath militia, each 30 figures strong.
4 units of Arab foot bows, each 12 figures strong (Musketeer Miniatures).
2 units of Arab 'Muttawia' foot, each 20 figures strong.
2 units of Seljuk tribal foot, each 20 figures strong.
1 unit of Ghazi fanatical volunteers, 20 figures strong (you have to use those Azerbeijanis for something!)

The Armenians. (For use by any side.)

1 unit of heavy cavalry, 18 figures strong.
2 units of spearmen, each 22 figures strong (I used 4 figures as Arabs).
2 units of foot bows, each 12 figures strong.

I almost have enough painted to play with now. First game in a month or so I reckon. I'm still on target for it all being done by Sheffield Triples in March 2009. That will be two years to the day to paint the lot.

Western Desert, Operation Crusader 1941 next. Researching and beginning to buy stock for the project already. Life moves swiftly on.............