Dark Age Armies for Fantastic Battles

As with my 15mm Classical armies, I sold off pretty much all of my Dark Age and Medieval armies, retaining only my Byzantines, and a few bases of Arabs and Turks that would be useful to provide extra options for the armies I intended to build.

In the eastern Mediterranean theater that I favour, Dark Age cavalry, who are numerous, can basically be broken down into three groups : those that relied mainly on the bow, using swords, maces or axes as a defensive weapon or against demoralised foes; those that showered the enemy with arrows then charged, generally with spears or lances; and those who might have individuals within their ranks that used a bow, but tactically relied only on lance-armed charges.  There are also, of course, the Byzantine formations that mixed lance and bow-armed cavalry in different ranks and/or files.

With the exception of skirmishing light horse, all Dark Age cavalry warrants the Mounted trait.  I classify cavalry as Formed (or Elite) companies when I feel unit or cultural cohesion warrants it, as Irregular when it does not.  I prefer not to figure lance-armed cavalry with the Furious Charge trait, unless they have a truly ferocious reputation.  Warbeasts, which I have renamed Impact, seems more appropriate, and will encourage the commander-in-chief to commit cavalry where they are truly needed to rupture the enemy line, rather than executing endless charges.  Bow-armed cavalry will typically have the Shooting trait, although a few might have the Shooting (skilled) trait.  Mixed formations, such as those used by the Byzantines, will have Shooting (mixed).

My Arabs in North Africa and Sicily (696-1160) count four generals and 39 companies for a total of 1435 pts, not counting Strategies or Relics.

Their mounted lancers did not use bow-fire tactically; the Arabiya, on the other hand, did.  Their Berber light horse are typical javelin-armed skirmishers.

Arab and Berber spear seem to me to warrant Formed status, and were steady enough to warrant Long Spears.  They can be divided into the denser formations, whose front ranks were often armoured (and have Armour ie. Doughty) and those that were less so.  Formations were often backed up by a thin rank of archers, and I have thus given them Thrown Weapons which I have renamed Support.  This is not really for any offensive capability, which would be marginal, but to give the units the possibility of reacting to enemy charges by a close-range shot.

Arab archers are fairly numerous (six companies).  They could reasonably have been classified as either Formed or Irregular, I chose the latter, feeling that they were overly resistant to enemy attacks.

Berber warriors were not easy to portray.  They can both rain down javelins and close for hand to hand combat.  They cannot really be compared to peltasts, nor to close-quarter fighters such as Gauls, but they nonetheless had a reputation for ferociousness.  I settled for Forester to represent their mobility, and Poison to give them an edge, especially against looser formations, whether they use their javelins at a distance or up close.

The numerous javelin or bow-armed light infantry are classical skirmisher profiles. 

 

Their Fatimid (969-1171) cousins and rivals, with five generals and 36 companies (8 of which they borrow from one or another of my Arab armies) attain 1356 pts.

Their Arab lancers are identical to those of their Sicilian brethren, as are there Berber light cavalry.  Mamluks are an entirely different affair.   There are various ways of representing these, depending on the relative importance of bow and lance.  I chose to make them an Formed Company, with Shooting, but without Impact (ie. Warbeasts).  Poison however gives them an edge in both forms of combat that I feel their reputation merits. Other options might have been Impact and Shooting (mixed) or, at the other end of the spectrum, Shooting (skilled).  They might even have been an Elite Company, although that gives them incredible staying power.

The Sudanese 'abid can also be represented in various different ways.  Making them a Formed Company represents the protection that the front ranks of shielded spearmen offer.  Giving them Shooting rather than Shooting (mixed) places the onus on their archery role.  They are vulnerable in hand to hand combat, but Long Spears ensures enemies think twice before charging.

Sudanese tribal warriors are something else altogether.  They are such an unusual component in the army that giving them Stimulants seemed like a good way of representing the different possibilities.  To avoid book-keeping, it is best to deploy them as a single unit.  Doubling their numbers to an eight-company Horde would be particularly fun !

The contingent of Daylami mountaineers completes the colourful patchwork of the Fatimid army, which always sought to balance out ethnic groups to avoid any one grabbing power.  There are also multiple ways of representing this iconic troop type !  They are a great opportunity to use the Highlander trait.  They are Doughty, giving them sufficient resolve to operate in smaller-sized units.  Making them an Irregular Company offers them a shooting factor which above all represents the support that bow-armed rear ranks offered.  Their superior combat abilities seem best represented by Berserk, as both their charge and their zupin javelins were renowned. In passing, Berserk would be better distinguished from Poison, if a second '6' continued to 'explode'.

Last of all, the Ahdath militia, who are both Militia and Rabble, are only there to boost the army's break point.