Dorne question for GoT NOVELS fans

[sunspear]

I recently bought a few boxes of Perry medieval minis and I am wanting to build them as a fantasy army to play Dragon Rampant. I am thinking about modeling them as Dornish troops and their lesser houses. i don't want to spend a great deal of time on conversions although I can't help but do a few.
Anyway, from what I remember reading, troops from dorne didnt have a "middle eastern" feel in the novels as far as equipment and armor. If I have to do a lot of converting I am thinking about going for House Tyrell. But before I start on this project I wanted to get others opinions.

[Ogrob]

There are plenty of Dornish houses that will be a lot closer to other Westerosi in appearance. House Dayne for example, belong to the stony Dornishmen who have less Rhoynish blood and customs.

[Devoted of Slaanesh]

As far as I remember you have 3 types of Dornish people. Some are quite normal Westersos knights, while other are desert warriors and hence are light armoured and fit to survive in the sand waste. I think your imagination is the limit. Good luck and we wait for your progress.

[arget8]

Ogrob and Devoted have it right. The Stone Dornish, up in the mountains and Dornish Marches, would be almost indiscernible from the rest of Westeros. I feel that the rest of Dorne (Sand and Salt Dornish) would be more like the Spanish and Moors in their appearance. What I'll probably do is do some Stone Dornish and some Sand Dornish, with a combo of Perry plastics with and without GS conversions and maybe the Gripping Beast plastics. If the Perrys were to do a range of High Medieval Moors or Spanish, we would be set for the Dornish, but alas, I highly doubt that will ever happen.

[tomrommel1]

As arget8 said. That is the way I would go too

[arget8]

I was laying awake last night thinking about how I would convert the Perry Agincourt into Dornishmen, as you do, and I figured out how I am going to do things when I get around to the Dornish. I don't really trust other manufacturers to scale well with them, as the plastics are slight for 28mm, so what I will do is sculpt on head scarves and clothes.

I don't think that the Dornish line troops would wear as much heavy quilted gambesons as the rest of the Westerosi would as they would be unbearably hot in the Dornish sun, so I would either fill in or file down the lines of some of the quilting and lengthen the skirts to make them look more like desert clothes or sculpts cloth skirts beneath the armor. I'm not sure that Sand Dornish would really wear turbans, but they would wrap their helmets and armor in cloth to reduce the metal's exposure to the sun, much like the the Saracens would do.

As for the men at arms and knights, I think that the French would be better suited for them for all but the Stone Dornish in the north. This is not for the same reason that they would be better suited acting as Reachmen or Stormlords, who come across as kind of poncy stereotypical knights to whom heraldry and looking good is as just as important as fighting. They would be better suited because the French knights are wearing clothing to cover the metal, which would reduce the heat of the armor. I would also sculpt head scarves on many of the helmets. For the Stone Dornish of the Boneway, I see them are far more martial and serious about warfare than many of their southern brethren and would probably wear more white armor like the rest of Westeros as they do not have to worry about the heat as much.

However, I do not think that the Dornish will field nearly as many knights as the other parts of Westeros, and would have only one or two units of them in an army, with the rest of the army being made up of light infantry (spears), light cav (sergeants, bowmen, and javelins), and skirmishers (archers or javelinmen). If I were to do a Lion Rampant list for them, these would be it:

Stone Dornish: 24pts

Mounted MAA-6
Mounted Sergeants w/bow-5
Foot Sergeants-4
Foot Yeomen w/ javs-4
Archers-4

Sand Dornish: 24pts

Mounted Sergeants-4
Mounted Yeomen-4
Mounted Yeomen w/ javs-3
Foot Yeomen-3
Foot Yeomen-3
Foot Yeomen-3
Archers-4

I feel that, since Dorne is one of the poorer parts of Westeros, the English longbow bodies would be a little more common, as they have less armor. This would also allow for more static poses for the stalwart Dornish spearmen, which they are famous for.

[sukhe_bator]

I'd have to agree with the observations of my fellows. The Dornish would look much like Medieval Spanish. The adoption of lighter equipment and clothes, surcoats or robes and cloth wrappings around helmets all to cover metal from the heat by Spanish european knights was an environmental one, not an affectation of Moorish dress. The environment dictated the fighting style and equipment of the indigenous peoples. Much like the knights of Outremer had to adapt to Muslim fighting tactics, so too any Westerosi assuming control over the Dornish. However, they would wish to retain a distinctive look apart from their subjects, so would probably affect more 'Northern' Westerosi court costume. The comparison works well I think.