Khurasan releases 15mm West Sudanese

[Khurasan Miniatures]

We're pleased to release a complete range of 15mm West Sudanese, representing the great empires in the western part of immediately sub-Saharan Africa in the medieval and renaissance periods.  These included the Mali, Gao, Songhai, Bornu and Kanem Empires, and fought each other, tribes to the south, the Arab powers on the other side of the Sahara, and eventually the Europeans during the age of exploration.

This was a time when "Timbuktu" was a great city in the Mali Empire, and not a synonym for "the end of the world!"

The armies were made up of swarms of tribal infantry archers shooting poisoned arrows, but could field very large numbers of highly mobile light and medium cavalry as well.  Supporting troops included infantry swordsmen and javelinmen, and there were elite heavily protected foot and mounted spearmen as well.  Some West Sudanese empires, such as Bornu and Kanem, preferred large numbers of close order spearmen with big shields rather than archers as an infantry core.  These armies have long been popular with wargamers because of the very interesting mix of troop types, but gamers have always had to fudge on representation in 15mm, so we decided to make dedicated figurines.  (Even the oft-used stampeding cattle.)

Too large a range to fully preview, so head over to the store page to check it out.
http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/west-sudanese.html

[delbruck]

That looks like a really useful range, with many possibilities. Excellent release.

[Khurasan Miniatures]

They straddle the medieval and renaissance periods so they are pretty versatile in terms of game play. 

[WuZhuiQiu]

Nice! How far east might the tribal archers go? They almost look as though they could serve in Blemmye and other armies from the Horn of Africa...

[von Lucky]

Excellent - what a lovely release.

[Khurasan Miniatures]

Nice! How far east might the tribal archers go? They almost look as though they could serve in Blemmye and other armies from the Horn of Africa...

They could fudge as Blemmye archers.  They'd do even better if you gave them bushier hair, some wearing headbands around the middle of the head.  They could also have more colourful skirts that way.