This year, I am teaching an elective in the Crusades this year, so I thought that would be the occasion to paint up a smallish force of Crusaders and Saracens. I always found the First Crusade more interesting than the later ones, so that is roughly the period I chose. My Muslim force has a lot of Turkish light cavalry, but if you pressed me, I would say that it is Syrian or Egyptian. I went with very small units (6-12 figures per unit), and I figure I will use Hail Caesar or a set of even simpler house rules as a guide to push them around the table. Right now, the two armies are each about 60% done, and I am racing to get the whole lot done by late September. The figures are a mix of Old Glory, Crusader, and Gripping Beast.
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| The Saracen (ooh, the medieval historian in me bristles at that term!) force. Archers to the right, cavalry to the left. |
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| I mis-glued one of the Muslim generals, so that he looks like he is stage-diving off of his horse. Rather than re-glue him, I decided I liked the look. Makes him look like a badass. |
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| Can't have an army of crusaders without a bunch of angry armed pilgrims. You can see Peter the Hermit off to the left. |
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| The massed proto-chivalry of Europe. |
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| Frankish and Norman spearmen, the anvil of the Crusader army. |
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| The hapless European crossbowmen. |
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| Arabic heavy cavalry. Colorful and hard-hitting. |
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| Lots of Saracen archers. |
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| The Turkoman light cavalry. Should be a bee in the Crusaders' bonnet. |
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| The lone unit of Arab spearmen I've painted so far. They will be joined by their compatriots soon. |
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