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Granted I have absolutely no historical reference for this unit.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.