*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 29, 2024, 10:02:04 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Recent

Author Topic: Koyote's SAGA Moors & Mutatawwi'a  (Read 39734 times)

Offline Koyote

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1051
  • Disturber of the Peace
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #150 on: March 18, 2021, 05:22:12 AM »
Many years ago, on a business trip to Egypt, I took a day off to and tour the pyramids from the back of a camel.  It was an amazing experience, and ever since, I've wanted to play an army that includes camel cavalry.   

When Age of Crusades was released, I thought that SAGA might be my chance to incorporate camel cavalry into a tabletop army.  The Mutatawwi'a faction includes camel cavalry, but I'm not too fond of the Mutatawwi'a battle board, so I initially passed on it.  Similarly, I don't care for Legendary Warlords, so I also passed on playing Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, the Moorish Legendary Warlord that unlocks Tuarege Camel Riders for the Moors.   Mercenary Scouts mounted on camels is an option, but they aren't a great choice.  Plus, as levy, they suck in melee.

When Age of Magic was released, I noticed that the AoM rules do not distinguish between horse-sized mounts (e.g., horses, camels, giant wolves, giant spiders, etc.), so I bought Gripping Beast's Mutatawwi'a warlord on camel and two packs of Mutatawwi'a fanatics on camel to use as AoM mounted troops for my Desert Nomads AoM warband.  Sadly ,when the models arrived I noticed how ridiculously small  the camels' heads are, and how small the camel is overall in comparison to the size of the riders. To me it looks like they put a 28mm scale rider on 20mm scale camel with really long legs.  I'm a bit of stickler for scale, so the poorly proportioned camels killed any desire I had to paint the models.

Recently, I decided that it might be fun to give the Mutatawwi'a a try, but if I were to give the Muts a go, I'd have to find proper camels for my hearthguard and warlord. 

After a bit of research, I settled on the camels from Irregular Miniatures' Mamluk model line.  The camels come in only one pose.  I like the sculpt, but the casting isn't so great.  You can see from the photo below, the  blankets that hang down the  camel's left side look like they've melted together.  It's quite different from the blankets on the other side, which are defined and have an obvious fringe.  The Irregular Miniatures camels' riders are absolute crap, but that matters little to me because I want to use the Gripping Beast riders, which are quite good.

Doing a proper job of matching Irregular Miniatures camels to the GB riders will require me to remove the saddles from the bottom of the GB rider.  In the photo below, the GB rider mounted on the Irregular Miniatures is sitting on two saddles. I should be able to bring the rider down by about 1/8th of an inch or more.  Fixing the Irregular Miniatures camels' defects is going to take some greenstuff work, but nothing too difficult.

GB rider on GB plastic horse (left).  GB Mutatawwi'a rider on Irregular Miniatures Camel (middle)  GB Mutatawwi'a rider on GB camel (right)




Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #151 on: March 18, 2021, 05:26:20 AM »
Koyote, I am always so impressed with your attention to detail and willingness to share your experience in such meticulous fashion. I have the deepest of respect for you and your work.
Home of the Grumpy Gnome

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/

Offline Koyote

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1051
  • Disturber of the Peace
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #152 on: March 18, 2021, 07:44:00 PM »
Koyote, I am always so impressed with your attention to detail and willingness to share your experience in such meticulous fashion. I have the deepest of respect for you and your work.
Wow.  Thank you.  I greatly appreciate your feedback.  I worry that I blather on too long, so it's good to know that some of you enjoy it. ;)

I write about what inspires me and why I make the modeling choices that I make because I enjoy reading about the modeling and gaming journeys of others. Seeing purty pictures of finished models is great, but I also like to see WIP pics of conversions and greenstuff work.  It inspires and motivates me.  Plus it's a great way of learning new tricks and techniques.




Offline Koyote

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1051
  • Disturber of the Peace
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #153 on: March 18, 2021, 08:00:14 PM »
And more blathering....  ;)

I painted my Moors as Berber (Tuareg) tribesmen so that they can convincingly be played as any of the Muslim factions that recruited contingents of troops from western North Africa.  This includes the Umayyads (Age of Viking), Moors (Age of Crusades), and the Mutatawwi'a (Age of Crusades).  An interesting side note, both the Moors and Mutatawwi'a factions include a Legendary Warlord from the Almoravid Dynasty, which was founded in North Africa by uniting the Berber tribes.

My research into the Almoravids indicates that they made great use of war drums, which were used to terrify Christians and panic their horses.  This makes me think that I need to add some drummers to my collection of painted minis...

Since the Mutatawwi'a  faction cannot include levies and many of the abilities on the Mutatawwi'a battle board requires the Mutatawwi'a player to lower their unit's armor or remove a model from their own warband, I feel that they would benefit from some large units of Warriors to absorb the self-inflicted casualties and aggressive play style.  One of the Mutatawwi'a builds I have in mind includes 3 points of melee warriors divided into two units of 10 warriors and a 4-pack of warriors hanging back in order to secure the extra Saga dice.  I figure if this 4-pack is going to be sitting in the rear of the army, it would be fun to properly theme the unit to match its "support" role.  My idea is to make it a unit of war drummers and a standard bearer. 

The 4-pack is comprised of models from Artizan Designs' Moors model line.  Two of the models arrived with deformed faces, so I did a bit of greenstuff plastic surgery to make them presentable.  The lower half of the standard bearer's robes is flat and mostly featureless, so I used GS to add a belt and some folds.  The drummer on the far right had the same issue with flat robes.   Also, I don't like that particular drummer's original head and the twin scarf ends hanging down on its chest, so replaced the head and scarf with a plastic GB head and greenstuff.  In hindsight, I don't know if I like the replacement head either.  I may have to replace the replacement.






In addition to the painting the new 4-pack, I need to add 2 more models to each of my existing units of 8 melee Warriors.  In keeping with the Almoravid drum theme, each unit will get another spear armed model and a model equipped with a drum.



Offline Ogrob

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1842
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #154 on: March 18, 2021, 08:14:50 PM »
Always enjoy your modelling musings. Lovely greenstuff as always.

Offline Hu Rhu

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 3408
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #155 on: March 18, 2021, 09:30:02 PM »
I always follow your threads with interest as you almost always explain why you have chose particular models or conversions to achieve the effect that you are after.  This is as always an excellent thread and, as I am building a Muslim Crusader army,  will continue to provide me with inspiration.  Keep up the good work.

Offline Atheling

  • Elder God
  • Posts: 11905
    • Just Add Water Wargaming Blog
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #156 on: March 19, 2021, 10:05:26 AM »
Great work Kayote  8)

Your skills with the putty have grown, dare I say it, exponentially- really impressive work  :)

Offline racm32

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1035
    • Wyndehurst Productions
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #157 on: March 19, 2021, 04:53:13 PM »
Love your work

Offline syrinx0

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 3146
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #158 on: March 20, 2021, 12:33:20 AM »
Nice work.  The thought and effort you put into your units is always impressive as well as entertaining.
2024: B: 0; P: 148; 2023: B:77; P:37;

Offline Koyote

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1051
  • Disturber of the Peace
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #159 on: March 20, 2021, 05:24:13 PM »
I finished the last four mounted Hearthguard.  Below are all 8 Hearthguard together.

The lights that I normally use to photograph minis interacts with the blue paint on my Moors to produce photos in which the blues possess a violet hue that you don't see when you look at the models in person, under normal lighting conditions.  I tried to correct this by using different lighting.  The result is better than the earlier photos, but it's still not quite right.



Offline Atheling

  • Elder God
  • Posts: 11905
    • Just Add Water Wargaming Blog
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #160 on: March 20, 2021, 05:32:16 PM »
They look fab  :-* :-* :-*

Offline Hu Rhu

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 3408
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #161 on: March 20, 2021, 06:40:26 PM »
Very nice indeed.  :-* :-*

Offline syrinx0

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 3146
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #162 on: March 20, 2021, 10:11:30 PM »
Absolutely fabulous.

Offline Tonhel

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 570
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #163 on: March 21, 2021, 05:51:31 AM »
Amazing work! :-*

Offline Codsticker

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 3276
    • Kodsticklerburg: A Mordheim project
Re: Koyote's SAGA Moors
« Reply #164 on: March 21, 2021, 06:00:30 AM »
Wonderful rich colours- lovely figures.

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
2 Replies
2803 Views
Last post July 18, 2015, 10:30:07 AM
by Saucy Jack
1 Replies
1577 Views
Last post January 04, 2016, 07:33:29 AM
by Little Odo
507 Replies
89190 Views
Last post Today at 09:55:06 AM
by RedRowan
120 Replies
29754 Views
Last post June 30, 2022, 06:54:22 AM
by .:Gunslinger:.
45 Replies
9326 Views
Last post November 15, 2021, 06:13:51 PM
by Hu Rhu