Saracen, Cataphract camel Guards

Granted I have absolutely no historical reference for this unit. But I just got to get one...

Cataphract Camel cavalry. That means that you take a creature bigger then an horse, wrap it armour and put a heavy armoured and armed cavalryman on top of that...

In reality this unit would not be as effective as you might first think. Camels are not warhorses and are very afraid to damage their feet as in nature a damaged leg in a dessert is not a good idea.
The Romans used caltrops to deal with the Sassanids camels and that danger was nullified.

But my idea is that a very rich Sultan wanted to have a unit honour Guards, dressed in finest clothes with most expensive armour and most exotic animals to ride. Used in parade, showing of to foreign dignitary to impress and so on.

So just because I cant prove they didn´t exist doesn't prove that they didn´t could have excised. ;P

The camels are from A&A miniatures http://www.aandaminiatures.co.uk/categories/?c=15
They make the best looking camel I could find so I just had to have them in this pimped unit.

The riders are a mixture of A&A miniatures and Gripping Beast miniatures.

The standard size cavalry base of 25x50mm felt to puny to these beast so I went with 30x60mm.



For the statline of this unit in Hail Caesar I thought about using the Palmyran Caravan Guards on page 8 in the Hai Caesar armylist II book.
But to make this unit a little more exotic I thought about giving camels a special rule to add another level to gameplay. This is more for fun rather then historical fact.

The plan was to add a special rule for Camels that have the same rule as Long Spears and Elephants have on cavalry, forcing them to make a test not to become disorder whey they charge this unit. This is to represent the chance of Camels making the Horses nervous.
By making it only effect horses that charge them and forcing them to make a test I think it will not be game winning but could with luck or lack their of make an impact and ad another fun moment in the game.

Saracens

I just love to have some civilians on my tabletop. They can add that extra level to the terrain. Maybe they can be used as objectives.

And if nothing else, why not group them all together on a movemen tray and use them as a civilian mob or incorporate them in the regular formations as unit fillers.


The first four of the miniatures are from http://www.midlamminiatures.co.uk/arabian-nights/page/1/ from their Arabian Nights. They may be a little to "modern" for the middle ages but still somewhat plausible.
The man with the book wealding a sword is from Gripping Beast and the last last one clad i blue is from http://www.magistermilitum.com/era/medieval/sc12-saracen-assassin.html

Bedouin light cavalry

You can never have enough light cavalry in an Saracen force and I thought I was short on some Bedouins. The miniatures are from Old Glory.

Some of the miniatures were given extra throwing spears or javelins, I thought it would only be proper to have some spare if you are going to throw them away.

Im tempted to get some more Bedouins later on, there is something special with all those robes and the turbans.
I tried to give them rather bright colours but not to many details or patterns on the fabrics. Some of them were given stripes on the robes that seems to have been a growing trend even for Bedouins at this time. 

Here are some great information for those interested.
http://www.warfare.altervista.org/WRG/Crusades-53-54-Bedouin_Tribesmen.htm
http://www.warfare.altervista.org/WRG/Middle_Ages_2-21-Bedouin_Tribesman.htm

Zone Mortalis AAR, Death Korps vs Eldar

This Friday I had a game of Zone Mortalis for 40k with my friend Johan.

We both had 500points and played on a small 2´x 2´table.
The mission generated was to hunt killpoints, in other words destroy enemy units.

Lets jump into it.

I had a small unit of Engineers with a Demolition Charge and Carcass ammunitions. Yes yes I know, its totally not worth it to pay for Carcass ammunition on a 5 man unit but its always to fun to roll a 1 on that gets hot dice... My engineers sally fort and totally misses with the Demolition charge and instead it scatters outside the gaming table... bummer... I really thought I could inflict lots of hurt on those Eldars...

Another Eldar Guardian unit advance and my brave Engineers was caught in a crossfire and was wiped of the table.

My Commander and his unit was able to return the favour. Unfortunately an Eldar aspect warriors enters from the reserve...

My command squad is surrounded, not a good thing when you have Toughness of  3...

With just one enemy unit left to shot with I still had my wounded commander and a plasma gunner. This meant a really slim chance to survive the round. And maybe not to surprising when the Eldar squad had fired none where left alive.
 

I got reinforcements in the form of Grenadier.

I have just wiped a unit of Guardians with all my flamers and hotshot lasguns and are here trying to take cover behind a corner.

But the Eldars where fast and they run far more then I first had anticipated.
Actually it was ages ago since I last played 40k and I had forgotten they could run and still shoot with their guns...

Some of them managed to survive and with a unit of Engineers still behind a large door things were still not over.

I managed to wipe the Aspect warriors from the table but then it was my opponents turn.

His guardians rushed forward and shot my Engineers but their "thick" Carapace armour managed to save some of my soldiers. His Autarch stormed what was left of my Grenadiers and the Guardians stormed my Engineers.

 

Somehow the Engineers managed not only to hold the enemy back they even managed to win the combat against those Eldars forcing them to take a moral check that they failed.

With his Guardians on the run I rushed forward trying to take them out.

By now his Commander was finished with my Grenadiers and his Guardians had managed to recover.
My Engineers was now cough in the tight corridors of the Zone Mortalis...

Game two of the eventing. 500points again but this time I got rid of my over-expensive command squad and slimmed them down to just lasguns and laspistols... And use this points more effective.
The mission was for me to take out 3 objectives while my opponent was to keep them up and running.

Eldar forces have noticed my attack and starts to advance in the corridors.

Doors are opened.

The Death Korps infantry have barely noticed that their attack have been spotted.

The Eldar forces storms forwards with guns blazing...

With a retaliation fire many Eldars are cleaned out of the room.

Next wave of Eldars storms forth.

My lines are dangerously thin...

But reinforcements arrives in the nick of time.

My Commander is trusting the men to take care of the Eldar scums so he will dedicate his attention on the objective, taking one out with some grenades.

The Eldar aspect warriors are next to attack my lines. Charging two badly depleted units and taking what was left of them out.

The Grenadiers let their flamers work and the Aspect warriors was not to be seen after they had done what they should.
The Autarch storms into close combat with the Grenadiers wrecking havoc in my line.

The Commader deemed the situation somewhat under control and instead of helping the Grenadiers attacks and takes out another objective with more grenades.




The underground attacks on the City of Reichengrad had with heavy casualties atleast managed to take out some old computer consoles, hindering the Eldar to take advantage of the information there in.
This is a small continue of a campaign we started named "Conquista of the planet of Reichengrad" The Death Korp forces have since the last battle started to make small raids underground but a big battle have not taken place since the last mega-battle seen here http://kampgruppe-engel.blogspot.se/2014/10/battle-one-of-conquista-of-reichengrad.html


Two very intense games of Zone Mortalis and it was fun to see that such good games could be thought with only 500points. I think that both the Eldar and my Death Korps played well against each other and with nether force not really able to take a punch it was a bloody affair.

It would be interesting at least initially to see how a Terminator squad with its heavy armour would just dominate the game.