Sheikh Yerbodhi

By 892, with the collapse of the Abbasid Khalifate as a real power after Khalif Mutamid's death, the Hamdanids took over Mosul. In 996, the Mosul Hamdanid dynasty was replaced by Ibn Muqallad of the Beni Uqail (Uqaillids)

In 945 one Saif Al Dowla ibn Hamdan became Amir of Aleppo, and was the only Arab leader fearless enough to face the resurgent Byzantines. He maintained a small but brilliant court. In 967 he died, and real resistance to the Byzantines ended in 969, the Hamdanids paying tribute to John Tzimisces and Basil Bulgar-Basher thereafter. The Hamdanid dynasty ended in 1008, when it was replaced by Ibn Mirdas and the Mirdassid Dynasty began

As Glubb Pasha describes it, "These Arab princes should not be thought of as ignorant tribal chiefs. (They were) prepared to offer battle to the Byzantine emperor…Most of these princes were cultured, built up extensive libraries and patronised poetry and literature in the traditional Arab style". A brave and cultured nation then, the epitome of my Arab imaginings.

I started off with the Hamdanids of Mosul, 400 ap. This is very colourful with its light and heavy Bedouin horse, Ghulams and Dailami. This variety also makes it the best morph base for any Arab buildout. For 400ap I could get 7 Ghulams, 12 Dailami Ax(S), 6 Dailami Ps(O), 10 Bedouin Ps(O), 4 Arab Lancers, 3 Khawarij lancers and spend the rest of the points on 20+ Bedouin light horse and light camelry. An irregular Horse army needs lots of pips to drive it, so I opted for 4 generals but built 5 elements - 3 Cv(O) and 2 LH(O) - to have a choice of general types.

I already had a small Arab force, the Aghlabid ally for my Normans. As well as getting some more Arab lead, I wanted to use up a lot of unpainted lead lying around from various army builds, mainly Moghuls & Feudal/Dark Age Europeans. To convert my Normans/Dark Agers into Arabs was relatively simple - I wrapped a turban around their helmets, which when painted with some gilded armour and arabic shield designs made them very believable at 15mm. I started making turbans with Milliput but found that plastic paste used by stained glass window hobbyists was faster and more convenient to use. Some Normans had quite sharp kite shields so I filed them into more almond shaped ones.

I also bought some Arab figures to put into the mix - for the Ghulams I used Museum's barded Persian range and some new Gladiator Arabs. The Bedouin archers were Museum with long djellabis and turbans, and I could not resist a few of the staff slingers. The Dailami were primarily Museum, Essex and Gladiator trousered figures, with various bits of Freikorps and 2 Dragons thrown in from the Moghul spares box. Minifigs, Essex and Museum Arabs were mixed in with the surplus Moghuls, Dark Agers & Normans with their new turbans, all based as Spearmen, used as Horde at a 2-for-1 ratio.

To me, baggage is a way of expressing the character of your army. A returning raiding caravan, stuffed full of booty and slaves was a must! Various fully laden camels were bought, along with some Museum naked slaves, and I am modelling a camel-howdah with drawn curtains for a mysterious important captive. A scheming Vizier was also a must.

This army proved to be a very fast one to paint to a reasonable standard. I based the whole army while unpainted, sprayed it all Humbrol desert brown, then put a little bit of flocking on the bases and used solid colours on the djellabis and turbans, and then overlayed washes. I spent a bit more effort on getting colourful shields. Overall it looks very good en masse at about 12 inches out, but no one figure will win an award.

For the 5 general figures I painted up massive banners in the usual Arab colours of red, black, white and green (2 of) - these also match the irregular dice I use. The big banners (and all the other smaller ones I added to each second horse element) really add colour to the army. I could not resist naming the generals, the opportunities for lousy puns are too good - so the good Amir Feruyyah Al-Beibi leads the Beduoin Sheikh Yerbodhi, and the mercenary Dailami Sultan of Zwingh, while Sheikh Rhatt Al -'Anrhoul of the Beni Anrhouli is an ever present and sometimes even reliable ally

My normal approach is to build an army with a "first guess" structure, and improve it by playing. My initial view when planning the Bedouin was simple - a big Ghulam command led by the Amir and bulked by Hordes, a big Dailami command, and two Bedouin light horse skirmish commands - using four generals to maximise movement. The tactical approach also appeared to be fairly simple (always an advantage) - to grab advantageous terrain, belt up table with the lights to gain ground, then trade space for time while I manoeuvred the Ghulams and Dailami into killing positions, taking advantage of any other benefits I could gain on the way with my light horse.

I've had 9 battles now, lost 2 won 7 - which for me is an unheard of thing, so I put it all down to this army rather than my skill

Tactically the game plan remains very similar to that described above. Below is the army structure as it now exists, as you can see from the original build-out plan described above I have replaced a lot of Ps(O) and Cv(O) with LH(I) and mounted Bw(I) respectively. I have described a number of key battles in the next section, but what is emerging is that its sheer size and manouverability makes it very mobile, capable of covering its errors well, and able to take a lot of punishment. The core fighting troops are all Ax(S)/Cv(S) so can resist a lot of damage. The thing I did not expect is the impact of large numbers of LH(O), they can really dictate the pace of the battle and are capable of inflicting a lot of damage to an unwary (or pip starved) opponent. With an aggression of 1 I often defend and thus lay my terrain of dunes, so the LH(I) are useful. I have found that the 6 element mounted archers are a useful counter to any horse attempting to attack my flanks, and can keep up with the Dailami. I have so far felt no need to go for a regular command structure, I prefer the sheer bulk of the army as is.

Troop Types	Grade	No Of	Total Points

Command 1 - Amir Feruyyah Beibi	Irr Cv(O) CiC	1	17
Ghulams	Reg Cv(S)	7	70
Bedouin Heavy Horse	Irr Cv(O)	4	28
Bedouin Light Horse	Irr LH(O)	6	30
Bedouin Skirmishers	Irr Ps(O)	6	12
Ahdath Militia	Irr Hd(O)	10	10
Light Camelry	Irr LH(I)	2	6
		EE = 28	175

Command 2 - Sultan of Zwingh	Irr Cv(O) S-G	1	17
Dailami foot	Reg Ax(S)	12	60
Dailami skirmishers	Reg Ps(O)	6	12
Mounted Archers	Irr Mtd Bw(I)	6	24
Bedouin Light Horse	Irr LH(O)	4	20
Light Camelry	Irr LH(I)	2	6
		EE = 28	139

Command 3 - Sheikh Yerbodhi	Irr LH(O) S-G	1	15
Bedouin Light Horse	Irr LH(O)	6	30
		EE = 7	45

Command 4 - Sheikh Rhatt Al-An'Rhoulh (Ally)	Irr LH(O) A-G	1	10
Bedouin Light Horse	Irr LH(O)	6	30
Light Camelry	Irr LH(I)	1	3
		EE = 8	43

Total		EE = 71	400

It is late morning. The hot Anatolian sun is plunging into Sheikh Yerbodhi's head as he rides south-west, behind the long, bloated booty caravan as it slowly winds forward like some great multicoloured centipede. In the far ahead distance, somewhere in the heat haze on this flat, brown plain is a small hamlet and orchards, where the Bedouin raiding army will stop at mid day. Yerbodhi can already feel the cool water on his skin, the plump fruit in his mouth, instead of this dust-dry heat. He pulls his face-cloth tighter around his mouth.

(OK, so we throw mid-morning dice and the Bedouins defend. The only terrain is a BuA and Orchard on the left hand side edge, mid table position. The Bedouins don't have WW or H(S) in their list, and its high summer)

Yet again Sheikh Yerbodhi is on a raiding expedition with his irregular tribesmen supporting the Hamdanid army of the Amir Faruyyah Beibi, and the Amir's Dailami mercenary force led by the Sultan of Zwing. The Dailami are far in front in the vanguard of the Bedouin caravan, their heavy and light horse scouting far in front. Around the caravan are the Amir, his Ghulams and his black-clad Abbasiyyah light horse in the centre, and outriding in the rear are the irregulars under Sheikhs Yerbodhi and Al AnRhoul. Yet gain Yerbodhi is peeved to find Sheikh Rhatt Al An-Rhoul tagging along with his even more irregular tribesmen, who have had the lions share of the booty captured by the irregulars on this raid.

And yet again, in this region traversed by armies of two millenia past, following an intercession by the Patriarch of Constantinople, a space-time wobble delivers an army of ancient Patrician Rumh onto the plain, determined to stop the Arabs carrying off all that booty ......but in the heat haze of that morning, the Bedouins cannot see the approaching army until it is nearly upon them

The Beni An-Rhouli see them first. Rumi light scouts, horse archers, appear out the haze to the rear of the Bedouin irregulars. The alarm goes up! Quickly! Head for the hamlet! Look, there it is, shimmering in the haze. We may yet outrun them, and in the hamlet the poor Bedouin foot can mount a defence and the booty will be safer!.

The caravan picks up its pace, the Bedouin irregulars drop back to attempt to gain time for the column. But then, more Rumi scouts appear out the haze far in front of the column, trying to cut the Bedouin off from the hamlet. The Daliami's Khawarij heavy horse gallop forward to attempt to drive off the Rumi lights.

(All this scene setting waffle is to put dubious historical context around a clash between my Dynastic Bedouins and Gareth Evans's Patrician Romans - our newly completed armies)

The Amir is undecided. Fight or Flee? Is this a far flung scout force that has luckily found them, or is there a main army near - and if so where? Both units of Rumi scouts came from the North-West. Is that where the Rumh army is? How close is it. That hesitation costs the Amir dear,

....as out of the heat haze appears a huge Rumh army, bearing down on them rapidly from the right hand side of the straggling column. The Rumi stretch from left to right across the plain, their centre of formed heavy infantry driving straight at the Bedouin caravan. On the left, attemptng to cut off the route to the hamlet, are Rumi javelin armed heavy horse and fast moving javelinmen and archers. On the right, moving to cut off the Bedouin retreat, are more of these fast moving foot - and a large force of big, blonde mailed horsemen carrying lances.

(Gareth's tactics become clear - having strung out his force in a long line with auxilia+Ps/cavalry/LH/Ps(S) on each flank and a Bd/Kn operation in the centre, he advances the legionaries forward rapidly to minimise the space for the Bedouin LH to operate in. This proves very effective. He also aims his 6 Kn(F) down one flank of his legios)

Although the Dailami's Bedouin light horse have now reached the hamlet outskirts, it is clear that the caravan will not make the hamlet. The Bedouin will have to make a stand. The Amir accepts that this is Kismet at work, and his drums beat the orders. The Dailami turn to face, forming the left wing, their companies of light and heavy horse hold the flank.

Protecting the caravan are Bedouin lancers and light missile troops, posted in front of the mangy foot who now form into a packed shield-wall around the caravan, spears lodged in the dirt. The Abbassiyah rides forward rapidly to attempt to slow down the rapidly moving Rumi heavies. The Amir and his Ghulams move to te Bedouin right to take on the blonde horsemen, while both the irregular units are ordered to go wide to attempt to turn the Rumi right flank.

(In a nutshell, I pack my 10 Bedouin horde and 10 Ps(O) around the baggage with 4 Cv(O), advance 6 LH(O) to skirmish the Roman Bd(O) in the centre, and move the 7 Ghulams to take on the threatening Roman Kn(F). On the right-hand outside of these are the 2 Bedouin 7 LH(O) commands, whose aim is to delay and get in the rear . On the other flank, anchored on the BuA, are the 12 Ax + 6 Ps Dailami and 4 attached LH and 4 CvO)

Yerbodhi and Al-AnRhoul gallop away, but as Yerbodhi turns to overlap, he sees more Rumi fast foot in echelon behind the main line. Then the Amir's trumpets call to him to support the Ghulam flank as it goes in against the big mailed Rumi lancers. Yerbodhi spits. Curses! - he will have to drive into the Rumi flank, and that mangy cur Al-Anrhoul is yet again on the far outside and will go for the Rumi baggage.

(The Romans have protected their flank with Auxilia en echelon. In order to cover the Ghulams going in, one of the LH commands -Yerbodhi - must cover their flank and halt the auxilia frontally. The other command -Al An-Rhoul- pins the Roman flank edge and slips 5 LH around to go for the baggage)

In the centre the Abbasiyah are struggling, as arrows like rain descend upon them, and they scatter like chickens . The Amir notices that the Daylami are holding back, "Curse that yellow Buwahid Dog" he growls, sending a messenger to prod the Sultan into attack. But it is clear he must attack or face his centre being broken and all the booty recaptured. The Ghulams dress themselves, ready for action as the Bedouin lights attempt to harry the Rumh formations prior to the charge.

(The Roman infantry in the centre rolls forwards, the Bedouin LH are shot away by Roman archers in the formation. Very effective. On the left, the Dailami and the Roman troops move slowly towards each other while their respective cavalries jockey for position on the BuA flank. The Romans are getting the better of it with more pips and 2 units of archers in support. It is clear that the Ghulams must burst through the Roman Kn(F) or the army cannot win)

The Bedouin drums sound the charge, the Ghulams move up, releasing showers of arrows at the Teutons, who take this in a disciplined way. The Ghulams then pick up lance and mace and the lines charge each other, and with a crash the heavies of the 2 armies meet. The Ghulams break through, but before they can exploit the gap the Roman CiC and his hearth troops plug the gap. A furious melee ensues as the powerful Gothic horsemen push the Ghulams back, and massive casualties are taken on both sides. Yerbodhi's and An-Rhoul's light horse dart hither and thither, supporting, skirmishing, pinning and taking opportunistic attacks - anything to prevent the Roman auxilia closing on the flanks of the Ghulams.

In the centre, things are getting desperate - the Rumi archers have shot away the Abbasiyyah, who have fled all over the field, and are now emptying the saddles of the Bedouin lancers. Only a few Bedouin skirmishers and the horde of Bedouin camp followers stand between the Roman legions and the 400 paces to the baggage. On the left, the Rumh dogs are attacked along the line by Dailami foot, but are getting the better of the cavalry battle, due to their archers.

(Dire straits for the Bedouins - the Roman line holds, the skirmishers are fleeing, Cv(O) is no match for Bd(O) or Bw(O)and the legions are pressing on the baggage with all the inevitability of an All Black scrum. What to do, what to do)

And then, Allah be praised! A great ululating and wailing comes from the Rumi rear - the Beni An-Rhouli Bedouins have got among the Roman baggage. The Romans' main command loses heart, and wavers, then is gone! The Amir tries to gather his Ghulams to relieve his hard pressed centre while the Sheikhs pursue the routed enemy. But it is too late, the casualties are too great and the Bedouin centre also gives. The Amir's Ghulams blanch, but by force of personality the Amir holds them and also the camp followers, pointing out that they can fight like dogs or be butchered like men....(the poets are a bit confused at this point.)

But now the overall result is an increasing unwillingness to fight by either army, night is drawing in, the Rumi want to get back to their baggage and clear off the raiding Bedu, and the Amir is anxious to withdraw as he can see the Dailami are wavering and very close to running themselves. Yerbodhi scowls. The Rumi are running, yet again his men have fought the brave fight, but yet again it is the Beni An-Rhouli who have the baggage spoils....

(And so midnight beckons and we stop, a 6:4 to the Bedouins as they have 4 commands to the Roman 3, but their army is 1 Dailami from destruction. The Romans are in a better position on field, but cannot afford to lose much more baggage or they too will collapse. This was a very instructive battle, as it outlined the disadvantage the Bedouins suffer if they cannot get manouvre space. It also showed the importance of a heavy infantry army of pushing the heavies up hard. What was also impressive was the impact a few archers have on turning the tide against cavalry armies, especially the Bw(O) with the legions clearing the LH and Ps away)

It came to pass that the Dynastic Bedouins were attacked by the Abominable Turk. (Milton Keynes club league game, this was the first time the Bedouins had been up against a top UK player - Darryl Pearce - with his favourite tourney army (Ottomans). 450 ap, fairly open table with village and orchards on Bedouin left. The Bedouin with the Sultan of Zwing's Dailami/LH/CV command on the left, the CiC Amir Beibi and his Ghulams plus more LH/Cv/Ps on the right, and the 2 x 7-man Bedouin LH commands in the centre (Sheikhs Rhatt-Al'AnRhoul and Yerbodhi) - they were given the task of marking the Serbs and Janissaries respectively.

The Turk formed up with Sipahi and Akinjis on both wings, Janissaries in the centre and Serbs "in the pocket" behind the lines so they could pick the best spot. The Turk rumbled forward, the Bedouins raced for the flanks and a frontal pin, hoping to trap the Serbs behind the lines. They did not manage this, but a gap appeared twixt Janissaries and Sipahi on the right, and into
this poured Yerbodhi's Bedouin, knocking out 2 Akinjis. The Turks threw men at the gap, unhorsing Yerbodhi, but his Bedouin rallied and managed to poach an attack on another Akinji, pushing him into the Ottoman Pasha and unhorsing him in turn. But Yerbodhi's men were close to breaking so broke off to continue to skirmish in front of the Janissaries and irritate them.

The Serbs were fairly well contained by Rhatt Al-Anrhoul until he threw a 1, allowing them to contact their tormentors and kill 2 elements - so the Bedouin LH withdrew to continue their sport of Serb-baiting at a safer distance. But with the Ottomans no longer able to assign regular dice, and the Pasha's men paying 2 pips, the greater mass of the Bedouin started to count, the Turks not helped by Darryl's awful luck on the combat dice which meant theOttomans collapsed in fairly short order. This was not a "great" Bedouin win - Darryl's dice luck was abysmal - but did allow me to take a few more learning points about this Bedouin army

I went to California in January, played 2 games out there - here are the reports

It had all semed such a good idea to go and raid the rich lands of the East, where according to Sindbad the sailor all was golden and the women could do amazing things with ping-pong balls. They had hired some Dhows and set sail. But now, in the dawn, the Amir Farriyah Beibi was struggling to organise the unruly Bedouin army into some semblance of battle order to face the Malay army they had stumbled on in the rush for the riches of the jungle temples......

In their greedy haste, the Bedouins had been remiss on scouting, with the result that they were now faced with a fairly narrow open valley bordered by a huge, low hill covered with jungle on their right and a massive jungle outgrowth on their left. Through the valley, in the distance could be seen the gold-covered idols in a Buddhist temple. In front of this, however, was the Malay host - strung out along the valley, archers on the flanks and then mixed warbands of fierce, kris-waving lunatics and trumpeting elephants. Good terrain for the Malays, lousy for a light, mobile army like the Bedouin.

The Amir made his dispositions - to the left, the Dailami mercenaries under the Sultan of Zwing, together with a few Bedouin light and heavy horse. In the centre, the Amir's Ghulams backed up by Bedouin heavy and light horse, and on the right the light horse of the (dubiously reliable) Sheikh Rhatt Al'-Anrhoul. In the camp was the light horse of Sheikh Yerbodhi, prime freebooter and legend in his own lunchtime

"Yerbodhi", said the Amir to the trembling Sheikh "I want you to march your men and skirt the jungle to the left, and come around in the flank of the Malay army, as there is not enough room for us all to manouvre frontally. We will take them to front, you will fall upon their rear. And don't waste time with trying to do any private looting, or I'll personally cut your miserable gonads off". Yerbodhi and his men scuttled off to do as bid.

With that, the Bedouin drums started the beat and the army rapidly moved forward, aiming to catch the Malays on the narrow point of the defile where they could not bring all their forces to bear. The Malays also raced forward, and the armies soon met with a resounding crash along the line. The Dailami, faced by Malays running amok, lost heart and ran (four 1s in a row), leaving a massive hole and the Bedouin light horse to pick up the pieces. They did this well, killing the Malay left-flank general and generally delaying the Malays as they attempted to pursue the broken Dailami.

Then it was the Malays turn to crack - amok but unarmoured men are no match for Ghulams, and the Malay warbands of the main command broke, and the Malay C-in-C's command turned and fled. The route to the Temple (and the Malay baggage) was open, and the Ghulams spurred horses to get to it, as they rightly reckoned the Malays would run if they could just start to put the baggage train to the sword.

During all this excitement, Sheikh Yerbodhi's flank march had also appeared, forcing the Malay army to fight to its rear on the left. Yerbodhi swept down, hoping to take out a few of the Malay light horse desperately falling back on the left wing. The Bedouins hit, one Malay company went down, the Malay army was now 2 elements from breaking and in all sorts of trouble....Allah is Great! cried the Amir, sensing a Bedouin slaughter spree in the offing.....

But Yerbodhi's impetuosity now cost the Bedouins dear - Malay archers manouvered a shot from behind one of the Bedouin LH companies, (forcing it to turn 180 degrees, and reverse into a Malay company and thus destroying itself - I've never seen this before, its in the rules but seems a bit silly to me chiz chiz). But the worse mistake was that, in their haste to attack the Malay horse, another Bedouin company came too close to the jungle edge and was bushwhacked by Malay psiloi, which broke them and they carried away another Bedouin unit in flight, breaking the will of Yerbodhi and the Bedouin army. The Amir and his Ghulams, hurtling through the broken Malays towards the baggage, was disgusted as his troops, at one moment whooping in impetuous glee, suddenly turned tail and ran.

(Postscript - 7-3 to Kevin, but a very Near Run Thing as both armies had major ups and down, and both approached their 50% breakpoints simultaneously. Kevin got a good crack at Yerbodhi and deservedly took the game, as getting ambushed from the jungle-side is a careless error and it cost me dearly )

And it came to pass that the Amir, always on the lookout for a bit of extra revenue for the coffers (a big harem is an expensive item), was persuaded to raid the land of the Nobades. The Bedouin army was now galloping across the flat, dry plains heading for a hamlet on a small hill upon their far left for a bit of light pillaging, when to their front a dustcloud appeared and behind that the Nobades main army appeared. It was formed of heavy armoured horse, backed up by less heavy horse, and supported by ragged looking foot spearmen.

The Bedouins deployed, Dailami on the left, the Amir's Ghulams in the centre, the Bedouin light horse of Sheikhs Yerbodhi and Rhatt Al-Anrhoul on the right. The Bedouins trotted forward carefully, none more so thah Yerbodhi, mindful of the strong words about "impetuous sons of flea-bitten dogs" from the Amir.

Al-Anrhouls' Bedouin lights feinted far up the right table to see if a gap was available, forcing the Nobades heavies on that flank to turn to counter the threat. The Ghulams saw the chance to hit these flank on and spurred their horses. This forced the Nobades to rush their centre forward, and the Bedouins did likewise. On the Bedouin left, a messy skirmish saw 2 Bedouin LH units destroyed for the loss of a Nobades light camel unit and 2 spear units.

The Nobades masterfully lured the Ghulams into an apparent gap, then sprang the trap and many Ghulams tumbled from their saddles, 4 units going down in short order. There was a lot of panic on the Bedouin side as the light horse was rushed up to fill gaps. Yerbodhi & Anrhuol's horse darted around attempting to shore up positions, threaten flanks et al. The din from the various command drums and pipes must have confused the Nobades, as their centre ground to a halt. (Poor Dannie couldn't throw a decent pip dice for about 5 bounds). Also, Allah atoned for the 4x1's in teh maly game with a string of three 6's that cracked the Nobades centre open

On the left/left centre theBedouin strategy had been to rush the Nobades, to trap the Nobades Cv(O) behind the (S) and ensure they were thus useless in the fight against Dailaimi Ax(S). This rush opened another gap in the Nobades line between the left flank (Dailami furiously engaging CV(S)) and the left centre (Ditto) , and Bedouin Cv(O) plus the Sultan of Zhwing managed to "jump" the Nobades Cv(O) as it pulled out from the rear and attempted to fill the gap.

With the Bedouin now having cracked the hinges between the 3 Dailami command it was now merely a matter of time before the Nobades would be destroyed, and when the left flank command went the Nobade asked for quarter. This was gratefully given, as the Bedouins had taken heavy losses too.

(Postscript - 10-0 to the Bedouins, but a very tight game with the Nobades on top until a string of Bedouin sixes and lousy Nobades pips removed their momentum. After that, the greater size - ie attrition capability- and mobility of the Bedouins gave them a slight upper hand that increased as the game went on)

A. First paint up Mosul Hamdanid Bedouins as the best general purpose morph, and a pretty good army to boot.

Generals - 1 Cv(O) Generals, 1 Cv(S), 2 LH(O) - paint a Green banner, 1 Black banners, a Red banner and a White banner and get dice to match

-16 Bedouin/Arab LH(O), keep 6 looking quite regular as Bedouin Guards for Abbassids and Tulunids, ( I painted them black as remnant Abassid Maghariba)

Trick No 1 - paint up 20ee of Arab Sp(I) types, and use in this army as Hd....but they have other uses elsewhere as Sp or even Wb.

Trick No 2 - paint up a very diverse range of figs mixed on a base so they can be Fatimid, Bedouin, Aghlabid, Abbasid etc.

Trick No 3 - Paint 10 of them with long spears and some with body armour. You now have a very nice Bedouin army & Arab Morph.

- 8 more Cv(S), make them recognisably different to t'others as Khorasanians (mine are barded horses)

Congratulations - with 1-2 more Black-bannered generals you have just built an earlier Abbassid army as well, though you may want some more Spearmen if you field the Spearmen, Abna as Spearmen and dismount all your Ahl Khorasan horse

- 8 more Ax(S), 4 more Ps(O). Paint them with quite long spears to be Ax(X) or Abbassid Abna Ax(S).

- 2 'Abid guard Bd(F) - (make sure they can also be Dailami and Abna Ax(S) if necessary)

( you can go with your 10 armoured Sp(I) as front rankers, unarmoured as rear, but you may like to paint up 8 more armoured Sp - in which case make sure they can be round-shielded Georgian or Ghaznavid too. If you do not do the above, you should paint 4 more Hd/ 8 Sp for the extra Hashariyan levies you will want, I love Hd for bulk and baggage protection).

I can recommend the 8 Indian troops, paint 6 Bw(I) and 2 Ps(S), useful cheap force

- 3 Generals with Draco type banners (I cheated, one is an ex-Komnenan Byzantine with a huge Ikon - had to be done, looks gorgeous and really Christian, buggered if I know if they used 'em). Also banners with "Kiss my Arse" and "Sword of the Messiah" etc written in Arabic are a must

- 9 Cuman Cv(O) - note - these should look like standard Bw armed Turks, so they recycle back into lot of the armies above as Cv(O) Ghulams.

- You may feel the temptation for more LH(F), may I suggest 4 painted up so they can also be used as LH(S)

If you look at Abbasid, Aghlabid, Almohade or Andalucian you will see you have any of these armies with very little extra stuff

....Late Muslim Indian....no heffalumps needed if you are the Unfortunate Shah Muhammad, 2 if not.

Since you have heffalumps, Ghulams, and a few Indian Bw & Ps it is almost rude not to do Late Muslim Indian. The joy of this is that with the Museum, Grumpy & Roundway figures in dhoti plus turban/topknot and a can of " indian flesh" spray paint you can knock the whole Indian contingent up in an afternoon. - Don't forget the rockets and the elephant baggage, I mean why else would you do this army?

....Ghaznavids... For Ghaznavids you will need: - 5 more Heffalumps (3 if you did some more for the Muslim Indians)

You may not have noticed this, but those Khazars used a lot of Khorasanians & Arabs (and their kit) so, with the Arsiyah as Ghulams sorted and loads of LH(F), its just a matter of some Steppe heavies and a few lights.....