Monday, August 11, 2014

Deus vult: a work in progress

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.

The Saracen (ooh, the medieval historian in me bristles at that term!) force.  Archers to the right, cavalry to the left. 

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. 

Can't have an army of crusaders without a bunch of angry armed pilgrims.  You can see Peter the Hermit off to the left. 

The massed proto-chivalry of Europe.

Frankish and Norman spearmen, the anvil of the Crusader army.

The hapless European crossbowmen.

Arabic heavy cavalry.  Colorful and hard-hitting.

Lots of Saracen archers.

The Turkoman light cavalry. Should be a bee in the Crusaders' bonnet.

The lone unit of Arab spearmen I've painted so far.  They will be joined by their compatriots soon.

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