Araby Warband

Hey there, getting back into Mordheim I felt up for doing something different. I've decided to do an Araby warband with Marienburger rules. Although I enjoy what little material on Araby is done by GW its very Aladdin-ish, all carpets , nomads and djinni.

I'm planning on theming my force as from one of the large merchant cities of Araby, quite modern and affluent, hearing of the great comet and the wyrdstone, the Sultan/Sheik/Khedive sends an expedition to report on it and gather up some wyrdstone, as such quite litterally an Araby-theme Mercenary warband.

My ideas include Janissay champions (the elite of the 15th century Ottoman army but also police and firemen, basically the frontline for keeping the peace in all circumstance, I'd see an Araby expedition sending some such 'heavies' to look after the merchant/explorer sent to lead it), and for youngbloods, a few slave-soldiers from the Southlands- Islamic states had a habit of raising soldiers up from childhood to ensure they were totally loyal (didnt work that well though ), so I think they'd be a perfect parrallel to actual Youngbloods, new, impetuous warriors with more gall than brains, hoping for some experience.


A real Janissary with the tall floppy hat, I think converting this with greenstuff will be pretty easy, however beyond this I'm not sure were to go namely for my leader or henchmen. I want to keep the Janissary thing unique to the heroes, so I'm looking for models and possible mods for the grunts.

Any ideas? Beyond that Dogs of War fast cavalry set theren't any Araby models to speak I don't think. The Kislev winged lancer heads are interesting, looking quite Eastern, and turban-y but they solid metal figures and I dont have the guts or skill to decapitate them successfully.

I'll look into some historical figure websites, and I'll start posting stuff soon as I get going on the Janissaries and Slave-Youngbloods, but any ideas, links etc, would be a massive help, cheers

The Marmaluks from Egypt might be a good base for an Araby army. You could also get some ideas for making/converting minis by taking a gander at the Warmaster line of tiny warriors that GW makes.

An Arabian based Mordheim style game has a tremendous appeal to moi [seen Laurence of Arabia at least once too often]. I'll do a web hunt for minis as a contribution to the cause. Too bad Edward Suren's Willy minis aren't readily available; he had a Harlequin range of Barbary Coast Pirates that ROCKED!



One of Reaper's Out of Production [but still available minis]



Make that two.

Since you've been out of the loop for awhile I will mention the fan-made Relics of the Crusades supplement that was published on the Specialist Games site about a year ago. This alternate Mordheim setting is placed in Araby similar to the Khemri setting so it might be interesting to you as well. It is about the Crusades (as the title suggests) and there are some cool new concepts introduced. Definately worth a look. Since the website is down now you can no longer download it. You can still get all the Mordheim PDFs - including this supplement - from the Mordheim Yahoo group if you are interested.

I do remember hearing about the Crusades supplement but cant say I read it, I'll look into the Yahoo group though definately cheers.

I'm reading through the various warband stats, Marienburgers is obvious for wealthy Arabians but I'm tempted to theme it more as an expedition of interest (inspired by all the lan and sea voyages Arab explorers got upto and the focus of some WD fluff a while back), Sinbad meets science, a scholarly Sultan heres about the cataclysm at Mordheim, and sends some plucky adventuring scholars, wizards, alchemists etc. to look into the events in detail. So just looking to see which list would suit this theme best. But thats fluff, I'm too enamoured with fluff

Looking up some drawings of Ottoman and Egyptian troops and civilians from the middle ages I think beyond a few turbaned heads and some more exotic-looking weaponry it should be easy.

Now I've just got to re-buy paints, blades, glues, cutting mat, brushes, inks and remember how to paint, oh and the figures and I'm set to begin!

Jape wrote:

Now I've just got to re-buy paints, blades, glues, cutting mat, brushes, inks and remember how to paint, oh and the figures and I'm set to begin!

Lol I had to do that recently though amazingly I still have the very first GW paint set I ever bought which must be around 11 years old now and it's not dried up, it's from before they brought in those stupid screw-top paints that meant everything dried up within a few months!
The flesh wash from that set works amazingly on brassy and rusty metals so I'm worried that when it runs out I may never be able to get it again...

jackanory wrote:

Jape wrote:

Now I've just got to re-buy paints, blades, glues, cutting mat, brushes, inks and remember how to paint, oh and the figures and I'm set to begin!

Lol I had to do that recently though amazingly I still have the very first GW paint set I ever bought which must be around 11 years old now and it's not dried up, it's from before they brought in those stupid screw-top paints that meant everything dried up within a few months!
The flesh wash from that set works amazingly on brassy and rusty metals so I'm worried that when it runs out I may never be able to get it again...

Tis a bloody nuisance plus my lack of funds and slovenliness means all my previous armies/warbands were constantly cannibalised to make the next lot, and now even those strange jumbled monstrosities is snapped and crushed etc. so beyond a handful of things in my bits box (much of the is 40k guns too!) I'm going to be buying from scratch, I think I hear eBay calling.

Anyway, I stumbled across the blog of a chap who is constructing an Araby army for WHFB, and he has been focusing on High Elves and been doing a bloody good job. Being very humancentric I hand't even thought about those chaps. He's doing a good job too,
check out his blog:

http://jash-araby.blogspot.com/

I'm certainly going to be seeing quite a few Elfen legs in my band but I'm still not entirely sure whether to go for as he has, straight Arabic style or a more Turkic/Persian one, namely with the Janissaries and more armoured/militaristic look, also he is doing simple headscarves however Ottoman headgear (massive spherical turbans topped with small fezs) is what I'm looking for, at least for my leader.

I'm happy to compromise on this and have a bit of both but I'm a little worried about the henchmen and heroes looking quite different and not 'syncing' well. Also quite how to pull off the young slave-soldiers is bugging me a bit, I immideatly thought Catachan torsos and heads to seperate the Southlander tribesmen from the 'sophisticate' urban masters, but how Arabified could they be without just looking like henchmen?

Anyway, I think I'll settle for Marienburger rules and write up a warband list, put here and see what people think, and I also start doing my favourite non-playing part of gaming- FLUFF!!!

Lol this guy's clearly never seen a camel up close if he thinks the minis he's got are up to scale!!!

Don't know if you know these already but they look good to me..