New Saga army - the Moors of Andalusia

Start of a new army - Saga Moors from the Age of Crusades book (using Gripping Beast figures)

After purchasing the Age of Crusades Saga book, I decided it was time to build an army from it. But which one? I had played against only the Crusades and Saracen lists. Honestly, I feel the Crusades list is a little cheesy with its fanatic pilgrims (as opposed to a lot cheesy for the Wisconsin, Home of Cheese, Peter the Hermit list!). The Saracen list didn't impress me, so I started looking through all the battle boards and seeing what intrigued me. I like boards that give tactical flexibility and aren't just "amp up the attack dice" ones, like say, the Norse-Gaels. For example, my favorite board of all the armies I've played so far is the Welsh one. Lots of variety of abilities. I was struck by the Moors board. I liked the tactical variety and emphasis on mounted troops -- which I haven't used much in the armies I've played. So, Moors (or "Moops" if you're a Seinfeld fan) it was!

I am so happy with how the Moors' robes turned out that it has rejuvenated my faltering faith in my own painting ability

I purchased the figures from Rick Dunn, an area gamer who bought out a large stock of various manufacturer figures and bring them to various conventions as a flea market vendor. He sells the foot for $1 apiece, and mounted for $2. I asked him to bring as many Arab-type figures he had to Advance the Colors 2020. Surprisingly, he had "bagged armies," and I ended up putting two of those together to form the basis for my Moorish army. I like these Gripping Beast figures because they don't go overboard in gluing things together like a lot of companies today do. In fact, for these spearmen, even the shields were cast on. The only construction I had to do was place a wire spear (which reminds me, I need to buy more from North Star Miniatures) in the open hand. My kind of figures! You can keep your kits where you have to assemble heads, arms, torsos, shields, weapons, sheaths, whatever! I am super glue averse and challenged, so mine would end up looking like Quasimodo!

My favorite shield belongs to the guy in the yellow turban (writing in the red band says "Courage")

My army is going to represent an army of Moorish Spain of the later period, when Muslim civilization in Spain was wealthy, urbane, and sophisticated. So, their clothing will reflect the urbanity and wealth by being colorful and stylish. I Googled a number of images to get an idea what the robes of this period looked like -- lots of patterns and subtle shades! Even better, I found a page on the website of an old friend of mine who I hadn't heard from in ages -- Joe, of An Hour of Wolves and Shattered Shields. He has an "Al-Andalus" army gallery which is amazing. I used many of his patterns and colors for inspiration. Point of note: Joe's gallery is 15mm figures, but he is such a good painter that if I can make my 28mm miniatures look like his 15's, then mission accomplished. Thanks, Joe!

The Arabic writing on the black shield says "Allah" & "Forgiveness"; on red & brown it says "Luck"

I decided to start easy with this army and chose to paint 8 of the 16 spearmen that I purchased. Moorish society was more cosmopolitan due to the tolerance it showed, so I felt that the army's ranks would reflect that, as well. So, I decided to use four different flesh tones for these eight figures, two of each. The darkest shade would be sub-Saharan mercenaries and I used a dark brown as their base flesh, dry brushing a medium shade for highlights. For the other three, I chose a medium brown (a dark leathery color), a light leather color, and my normal Caucasian flesh tone. I reasoned that Spanish or other European mercenaries could be recruited into their ranks, too. I like how these turned out, but I think I will drop the Caucasian color and use just three flesh tones for the remainder of the army.

Love the variety of poses! The patterns and shields (it says"Hope" in the white band)were a pain, but turned out great

The robes would be the most challenging part of this batch of spearmen. I opened up my paint drawer and selected eight colors. I wanted a majority of lighter colors, as that's what my research had shown for the more colorful robes. So, I picked light greens, blues, reds, yellows, etc. I painted the head dresses the same color, but I think in future batches I will paint about half of them in a contrasting color. After finishing the robes, I went back and changed the colors of two of the eight head dresses to provide a little more contrast. I also painted stripes on two of them.

There are actually two colors in the blue splotches on the light yellow robe (his shield says "Wisdom" in the black band)

After examining Joe's gallery, I came up with 8 patterns I would use for the figures. Two of them would just be colorful, patterned borders, but the other six would have a variety of dots, crescents, and stripes. I hope I am not boasting here, but I honestly felt that these turned out wonderfully. In fact, doing this batch of eight figures has reaffirmed my faith in my painting skill. Several months ago, I was convinced I was beginning a noticeable decline in my ability. Two things are responsible for reversing this, I feel. Number one on the list was beginning to depend more on the lighted magnifier attached to my desk. I can actually SEE the detail I am trying to paint now! The second thing was to break down and buy smaller brushes. I was trying to use too blunt of brushes to do too fine of detail. What's more, for the tiniest point brush, I snapped off half of the handle's length so that it wouldn't "clink" against the underside of the magnifier as I focused on details. These spearmen turned out so good that I actually feel like I am a good painter again...ha, ha!

The urbane and sophisticated Moors of Andalusian Spain will be a colorful army on the tabletop

The next challenge on this batch was the shields. Once again, I imported ideas from Joel's Shattered Wolves website, adjusting them with my own ideas and what types of shields the figures had cast on. For the Arabic writing, my friends who accuse me of being anal will not be surprised by this next fact. I actually Googled how to write certain Arabic words like Courage, Hope, etc. And yes, assuming my source was correct, then those are real Arabic words on the shields! I tend to do my shields by first painting the base color of the shield. Then, I do the design in black. I go over the black with the chosen color, doing my best to leave a thin line of black to make the design pop, and give some depth. Once again, I was very happy with how these turned out.

So, all in all, a very inspiring (to me) start with my Moorish army. I hope you enjoyed them, as well. Stay tuned for the next batch of eight spearmen, which I've decided I will do next so that I can ensure good variety.