DBA Special: III/74a Seljuq Turkish army of Rum 1063AD - 1276AD

 

Seljuk (or Seljuq, as DBA has it) Turks ... this is a refurb of a number of oddments that accumulated during the genesis of numerous Crusades games ... put together with a brand new Camp (courtesy of a ruined temple which I won at Partizan last year and which now has a use) ..

The figures are by Museum Miniatures and Essex, with a little help fom Camelot, Outpost (the cataphracts), Irregular, Battle Honours, Tabletop and Donningon (the Snake Charmer set) ...

(Kilij Arslan was Seljuq Sultan of Rum at the time of the First Crusade)

The bulk of the army is a mix of armoured and skirmishing horse archers.

 

 

(DBA III/74a Seljuq Turkoman cavalry)

Indeed, all of the rest of the optional troops can, instead, be Turkoman LH.

 

Or Turkomans ... I've gone with the ever willing Georgians (as 3Kn) 

 

Or Turkomans ... I find a couple of Bw elements always good value in a DBA army.

 

Or Turkomans ... ordinarily I take the Agulani in order to boost up the strike power of the army.

The camp features a snake charmer and a man who has a performing monkey on his shoulder.  My idea was something like 'the fall of Rome in the East' with a touch of Aladin ... There's a little audience gathering ... maybe some of these are pilgrims ...

 

(DBA III/74a Seljuq Turkish: camp)

As usual, the Camp Follower detaches for those rare occasions where this makes sense in a game ...

 

(DBA Turkish Camp Follower element: part of a charming set of Arabian figures in the Donningon - New Era - baggage and equipment range) 

This army sits in my collection paired with Mongol Conquest.

 

(DBA Turks: camp scene) 

 

25th February, Alton

... and quickly it was DBA again - this time the Alton matched pairs tournament.

Each player takes a matched pair of armies (armies and enemies on the lists) and every other game is played with your own pair or your opponent's pair ... 

The day is six games - so you get to use your own pair 3 times ... when using your own pair, the opponent chooses which army to use (otherwise the standard options apply) ....

I opted to take Mongols and Seljuqs as I reasoned with time tight on the clock, all those potential 2/2 and 1/1 combats would give a good prospect of a completed game each round (as indeed they did)

My armies

IV/35 MONGOL CONQUEST (Cv gen; 4 x Cv; 6 x LH; 1 x Art):

1 x General (Cv), 2 x Mongol armoured cavalry (Cv), 5 x Mongol horse archers (LH), 1 x stone thrower (Art), 2 x Khwarizmian cavalry (Cv) and 1x Kipchak horse archers (LH) …  Steppe.  Agg: 4

III/74a SELJUQ TURK - Army of RUM (Cv gen; 3 x Cv; 5 x LH, 2 x 3Bw; 1 x 4Kn):

1 x General with mamluks (Cv), 2 x askaris (Cv), 5 x Turkoman horse archers (LH), 1 x Kurds (Cv), 2 x Armenian foot (3Bw), 1 x Agulani (4Kn) … Steppe.  Agg: 3

Each army had its quirks ... the Mongol stone-thrower is an interesting asset to take to a 'horse archer' fight.  The Seljuq Agulani add some punch but are at risk with all that light horse around.

The other players chose:

Teutonic Order v Early Polish; Ptolemy Keraunos v Galatians; Zenobia's Palmyrans v LPIA; L. carthaginian v Polybian Roman; Hellenistic Greeks, Sparta v Boiotia; Guti v Akkad; Italian Condotta v French Ordonnance; Early Welsh v Middle Anglo-Saxon; NKE v Ugaritic; WotR, Tudors v Rebels; French Ordonnance v Medieval German; Early Sumerian b list x 2; Middle Assyrian v Hittite Empire; Attila v Patrician Roman W.; Gallic v Celtiberian; Teutonic v Post Mongol Russian; Mitanni v Syro-Canaanite ...

My away games were ... Egyptian vs Ugaritic, Welsh vs Anglo-Saxon and Zenobia vs the Arabs

Unusually, I did quite well with my own pair ... my opponents gave me the Mongols each time - but I won 2 of the 3 games.  Sadly the other games didn't go so well.

So I wasn't threatening the podium this time.   Mark, Pete and Colin were ... so congrats to them - with Mark finishing in the top spot ...

It was a splendid day's wargaming and the battles were all entertaining in their own way - excellent!

Results of the 2017 Alton DBA Matched Pairs:-

1) Mark Skelton, 119 pts; 2) Pete Duckworth, 116 pts; 3) Colin O'Shea, 103 pts; 4) Scott Russell, followed by Peter Ellis, Bill MacGillivray, Kev Casey, David Constable, Richard Pulley, Lindon Paxton, Terry Ellis, Phil Steele, Neil Mason, John Saunders, Paul Clair, Denis Grey, Mike Thompson and Tim Moore.

Well done to everyone ... here they all are (with Martin, who took the picture, snipped in for completeness) ...

Well done also to Martin for organising this and sticking with an entertaining formula ...

More on the Society of Ancients here

More on the SoA UK DBA League here

(Early Welsh occupy a hamlet: figures by Martin Smith, resin huts - from The Square - by Phil Steele) ... 

Hammerhead next ... and the Society sponsored DBA Northern Cup.  See you there.

Next on Shows North will be a day out with the Society shows team at Cavalier in Tonbridge.

(snapping the winners: looking over the organiser's shoulder ... )