First Figures for Arab WAB Army

Testing a variety of color schemes for my new Arab army.  The goal is to have a variety of colors scattered through out the army.  All too often my figures are too similar - unity in an army is an important quality to have, but I seem to take it to extremes at times.  So far I have found little information/inspiration for painting an Arab WAB army.  Osprey has a number of tiles for the time period - I purchased Armies of the Caliphates and Saracen Faris.  Both book depicted the solders of the period in a variety of primary (if pastel) colors with soft brown leather foot ware and gear.  Darrel Hindley creates a very different view of the Arab world with a controlled pallet of white and blue - check the bottom of his Figure Painter blog page.

Of the 6 figures - I’m most satisfied with the three in the front rank.  The primary color pattern is much cleaner than the three brown figures in the back row.  I really like the red - but a whole army in red robes would look too much like some chaos death cult.  On the next set of figures, I need to revisit the brown & see if I can create a softer result.

Paint List

All figures primed white and washed with a brown ink.

Spears:  Vermin Brown (GW)

Bows:  Tan Yellow (V)

Green: Orkhide Shade (GW), Snot Green (GW), 50/50 Snot Green/Ivory (V)

Red:  Burnt Cad. Red (V), Flat Red (V), Beige Red (V)

White:  Astronomican Grey (GW), white

Blue:  Ultramarine Blue (GW), 50/50 Ultramarine Blue/Ivory

Flesh:  Medium Flesh (V), Gryphonne Sepia (GW)   (Borrowed this wash hint from Five Armies)

Brown:  assorted combinations of Calthan Brown (GW), Iyanden Darksun (GW), Bubonic Brown (GW), Ivory, Sepia and Devlan Mud (GW)

WAB: Arabs and Saracens army building

I’ve taken a recent interest in Warhammer Ancient Battles. Building a list is a bit more complicated than the 40K/WFB rosters I’m used to, not only do I need to figure out a new set of rules with hundreds of army lists available - but I also need to hunt down appropriate figures for the army.

Army Selection

When creating a new army I look to balance four elements:

1. Will the army look nice? I have to enjoy the models.
2. Does it have any fun units? The army has to have several ways of playing.
3. Will the army play well? I have no time to paint up a force only to find the list is a dodo.
4. Is it affordable? I know the hobby is expensive - but there is no need to spend $600 if $300 will do.

I think a Muslim force may meet all of these goals. The units are well priced for both calvary and infantry. In the absence of any true heavy cavalry in the game, skilled horse archers will need to take care of my need to play with horses. The list has access to Elephants and flame throwing archers - how cool is that! The Arab style units with robes and turbans will allow for natural color choices and keep metallics to a minimum. I’ve also been advised that the list covers about 800 years, making it an easy army to keep in period. Finally, the list can also be allied to a Crusader force - a good way to recycle units if the list does not work out.

Arabs and Saracens 1000 points

General - composite bow, light armor, shield, Warhorse 152 pts
Arab Light Cav #6 with Thrusting Spear, Light Armor and Shield. Leader, Standard, Musician 135 pts
Turkish Light Cav #6 with Composite Bow, Leader and Musician 118 pts
Turkish Light Cav #6 with Composite Bow, Leader and Musician 118 pts
Arab Spearmen #24 with Leader, standard, musician, Thrusting Spear and Shield 183 pts
Religious Volunteers #23 with Leader, Standard, Musician, Hand weapon and Shield 153 pts
Auxilliary Infanty #7 with Javelins, Shield and Naffatun 62 pts
Arab Archers #10 with short bow, Musician and Naffatun 79 pts

Miniatures Choices

Arab/Moor forces are produced by a variety of companies, most of whom are based in the UK but have retained US distributors for those of us who like to shop in dollars and want nothing to do with customs roulette.

Perry Bros on sale at War Store : Well done figures in the Crusades - Islam army, but I’ve been advised that the figures are a true 25mm and may not fit well with other figure lines.

Musketeer Minis on sale at Little Wars: More pleasant looking figures in the Armies of the Caliphates line, price is similar to the Perry Brothers with $6 horsemen and $2.50 infantry.

Gripping Beast on sale at Old Glory 15s: This group may well be the winner. Not only are the figures recommended, but the line prices well with $4 horsemen and $1.50 infantry. One slight problem, Old Glory has the Moors product line on their web site, but not the Armies of Islam line. I may need to do a bit of mix and match if I can’t get cavalry in the US.

Artizan Designs on sale at BrigadeGames: Forgot to mention this line of Moors. The infantry are attractive, the calvary not so much. But to their credit, Artizan is one of the few to post large, clear photos of their figures. Price point is $2.50 infantry and $6.50 calvary.

One minor rant - I had trouble finding lines on the US retailers at both War Store and Old Glory 15. For reasons know only to themselves, the product lines are re-titled in the US listings, causing all sorts of confusion for a WAB rookie like me. Fortunately, both stores promptly returned emails detailing were the product was listed.