Moors of Iberia – Camel Cavalry

With the majority of the moors being ordered from the Outremer Kickstarter, it is time to look at what I am missing. As I mentioned in the article, I wanted a cavalry unit to stand out, and of my ideas was to use camels instead of horses.

Why camels? Well, obviously something different than regular horses. As the Moors in Iberia, especially the ones in the set time frame of this project (Almoravids and Almohads) were Berber Dynasties. And as an old time Age of Empires fan, Berber Camel riders. Yet, there are only a few miniatures out there, and to put it mildly, they are not the best looking. As camel riders weren't part of the Kickstarter I had to look elsewhere and so I did.

As the majority of my Crusader miniatures are Perry sculpts, I looked up their store. Unfortunately their Crusader Arabs didn't cover camels either ... but other ranges did. For example the Sudan range, had these interesting looking Beja warriors on camels.

The Sudan range even had interesting riders to replace the Beja, the Baggara in different variants, with long robes and fitting head gear. But I went for the MA15 Bedouin Command and MA16 Bedouin Cavalry. The miniatures come with separate mounts and riders, so good baseline for a conversion.

Due to Brexit and other circumstances (for example Perry Miniatures shipping delivery duty unpaid), it made more sense for me to order locally. The 9,50 GBP blister, would be +17% shipping and a flat 6 EUR DHL handling fee. At ~6 Blisters that would convert to about 13 EUR per blister pack. Usually with Perry Miniatures I participate in a group order via Sweetwater, but as I only wanted these few codes and didn't want to wait until the next one, I placed my order at Miniaturicum, who carries a lot of the british products and was my go-to adress for a lot of Nickstarter items. He charged 13,65 EUR per blister pack, still reasonable and as I still had some paypal credits I went for that.

For those of you, who maybe only know the plastic kits by Perry Miniatures. They come in two variants. When you buy them at a show like Crisis, and Dave Thomas (who does a lot of the shows for the Perry range), you get them regular in a blister with an often green back plate. If you buy them directly from Perry Miniatures, you get small, sturdy card board boxes with a bit of cotton and the miniatures in there. Usually the cotton is tangled up with the models and the insides are pretty grizzled from the pewter miniatures rubbing on the inside.

A quick mock up shows, that the bedouins fit not that badly ontop of the camels. I will have to take care of their robes / saddles, but that's nothing a bit of green stuff won't fix. Actually it looks better than expected. And the Mahdi on a camel (SA1) makes for such an amazing commander or HQ unit, and fits with no conversion at all. From the British side of the Sudan Range, I got a set with kneeling camels (SB44), as they would make for a great base camp asset, and at the price I couldn't say no. Especially as these are a great value at 9,50 GBP for four camels, compared for example with the two foundry packages (Pack Camels - 2 for 12 GBP, Perry sculpts as well, and Baggage Camels - 2 for 10 GBP).

So, that's cavalry sorted out, as the six mounted miniatures are enough for Saga and Lion Rampant. Yet, with the infantry, I might be in need for a bit of support here and there.

• MA17 Arab Musicians - a support for three units, the light to mid cavalry, the camel cavalry and one of the infantry units or as a support for a command base.
• I fancy the MA28 Dismounted Cavalry, as some kind of veteran infantry unit, but for the Moors / Berber dynasty the Black Guard would make more sense, both are available via Footsore (Black Guard Command and Black Guard Infantry).
• And last but not least, the MA19 Arab foot Cmd Standing, as the Baron Wars don't cover command miniatures for their units, no musicians, no officers etc. But I guess, I could use the warriors with sword as sergeants, use the regular spear poses to cover a banner here and there, and I would have a musician from the MA17 set.

I do have these as a surplus from this conversion, so if anybody has a purpose / need for these, get in touch with me. We can arrange something.

That unit, along with command a bit of extra pieces set me back around 70 EURs. Not the cheapest conversion, but hey ... it's okay and I'm happy with it. The codes mentioned above will probably round up another 30 to 40 EUR and that's it, the Moors would be as a stock complete and I have my antagonists for the Spanish Crusaders.