Moors of Iberia – Camel Cavalry
With the majority of the moors being ordered from the Outremer Kickstarter, it is time to look at what I am missing. As I mentioned in the article, I wanted a cavalry unit to stand out, and of my ideas was to use camels instead of horses.
Why camels? Well, obviously something different than regular horses. As the Moors in Iberia, especially the ones in the set time frame of this project (Almoravids and Almohads) were Berber Dynasties. And as an old time Age of Empires fan, Berber Camel riders. Yet, there are only a few miniatures out there, and to put it mildly, they are not the best looking. As camel riders weren't part of the Kickstarter I had to look elsewhere and so I did.
As the majority of my Crusader miniatures are Perry sculpts, I looked up their store. Unfortunately their Crusader Arabs didn't cover camels either ... but other ranges did. For example the Sudan range, had these interesting looking Beja warriors on camels.
The Sudan range even had interesting riders to replace the Beja, the Baggara in different variants, with long robes and fitting head gear. But I went for the MA15 Bedouin Command and MA16 Bedouin Cavalry. The miniatures come with separate mounts and riders, so good baseline for a conversion.
Spanish Crusaders vs Moors
In February a new Baron's War supplement or rather stand-alone was announced, named Outremer covering the Crusades. And with the range being sculpted by the talented Paul Hicks, I did take interest in that and went on with my decision covering some parts of my collection.
A while ago, I set up a Crusader force based around the Perry Miniatures former Norman range (now sold as crusaders), to build up an army around the Spanish and their fight to reconquer the Iberian peninsular. While I was thinking of which projects I would cease, these were of an unsure status. I didn't have the enemy force for them, and with them being initially thought to be used for Saga, I would like to open up the stock for Rampant and other mid-sized battle systems as well. In the end, as I want and need to reduce my stock, the Ancient warbands of Romans, Iberians and Germans would have to go.
The initial build was aimed at around 6 points of Saga, with a bit of side board. They are mostly build, and even partially base coloured. I added a bit more cavalry to cover a few templars of a Knight Order and build some characters.
Reinforcement straight from the foundry
I usually pick up Wargames Foundry at shows likes Crisis or Salute, but with the lack of shows "lately" I went for some direct ordering. As I have friends in the UK, I'm able to order without the hassle of customs and fees. These were ordered in April, Foundry did a great job having them delivered only a few days later within the UK, and I only recently came around to arrange the hand over. So that's only a solution for some non-time critical items, never the less - let's take a look at what I got myself.
Throwback – Lead Belt Nottingham 2010 – Day 3
Friday started quite early, at 9 a.m. we went for a quick shopping at Mantic, as some of us wanted to buy some Kings of War armies. In my case, it were a few zombies (I really like the versatile use of the ghouls and zombies by Mantic) and the Dwarfen kings council. On top we got these Mantic messenger bags with personal dedication by Ronnie and Alessio.
But that was just a brief stay at Mantics, as we had the second part of our meeting with Warlord Games. I had the chance to meet John Stallard, who was tied the day before (he participated in the Games Workshop shareholder meeting). It was really great to meet another former high ranking manager. John participated in the same battle report, we mentioned yesterday with Ronnie.
Easter-Weekender
Happy Easter! Virtual easter eggs today. Three reviews on here this week, the warbands of the Wurmspat and Hrothgorn, as well as St. Celestine with Battle Sanctum.
I had chance to take a first glance into the Claymore Castings package, that I ordered. And this week a small package by Troublemaker Games arrived, with some samples for 6-8mm plastic terrain, that I'll look into shortly. The prolonged weekend enabled me to go through a couple of Frostgrave sets, preparing some articles that will go along with Dino's ongoing series A sword and sorcery adventure.
Game of Thrones – A Song of Ice and Fire continues
As the Song of Ice and Fire continues tonight on HBO, beginning the final chapter of the Game of Thrones, it is a good time, to look into my own tale of Westeros.
There are two incredibly well done projects about A Song of Ice and Fire in 28mm. One is done by the famous Capt. Blood on Lead Adventure and the other one by the magnificent Don Voss on Sweetwater. There is even a list of other SoIaF/GoT themed projects on Lead Adventure.
Salute-Weekend, Matildas and Knights
This weekend is Salute in London. I would have loved to be there, last year (Salute 2018 and the Operation Sealion!) was incredible fun and it would be great to see the folks again, but with all that Brexit stuff going on, I wasn't keen on booking a flight and then having a uncertain situation (or fresh new one) at the airport. Besides that, being a dad, just staying away for the weekend for leisure is something that you want to plan and use wisely (there are a couple of weddings this year, along with stag nights and such, so I might need one or two rain checks). Oh and then there is of course Crisis this year, that I wouldn't want to miss.
Well, but what's going on in the 'bunker? You've probably seen the reviews on the 2019 model of Abaddon the Despoiler and the Chaos Gate that isn't called a Chaos Gate. Browsing through the old Chaos Codex is very dangerous. Alluring project ideas, especially for my oldhammer faible, but I'm currently involved enough with my Imperial Guard (and Eldar, wait, did I just spill the beans? Forget what you read...) and a new / additional Chaos project would just make it hard(er) to focus.
Never the less, I saw an old Abaddon in proper condition for 5 EUR and had to have it...
Some Perry Sprues and Bits
On the Sweetwater board (a German speaking online community with focus on historical wargaming), on irregular intervals a centralized order at the Perrys is organized.
Usually I'd suggest supporting your local dealer, but as the Perry blisters and individual sprues are more or less direct only (you can buy them at events like Crisis or Salute via Dave Thomas) this is a good way to save on shipping and even get a bit of a discount. Thanks to emigholz/Thorsten for organizing the whole bit. The last one was held before christmas, but as the Brexit (maybe) is right in front of us, we did a quick "last" one.
Perry Miniatures AEC ‘Dorchester’ Armoured Command Vehicle
Fresh from the molds, the AEC Command Vehicle by Perry Miniatures, directly covered as a review as part of the Africa themed week.
The AEC 4x4 Command Vehicle was the most common ACV (armoured command vehicle) of the British Army. It was based upon the AEC Matador chassis (although available by the Perrys as code WR W47), as the British used to develop and employ purpose-built armoured trucks and busses as command vehicles.
Crisis 2017 Haul
Of course, no event coverage is really completed without the haul, the loot, the goodies that you've brought home. So let's see what I got myself this time.
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