Gripping Beast Paint Up the Upcoming Moorish Cavalry
January 27, 2015 by dracs
Gripping Beast recently showed off some of the paint work of Darren Linington on some of their minis, one set of which was two Moorish Mounted Warriors which will soon be released for use in games like SAGA: The Crescent & The Cross...
The Moorish Cavalry, aside from being very well painted, have a good sense of speed and motion to them. They are lightly armed and armoured, which should help them to deal with the heat and conditions of they must face, and easily outflank the armies of the Christian crusaders.
As well as these Moors, Darren Linington gave a unit of mounted knights a lick of paint.
These knights stand in direct contrast to the Moorish cavalry, being heavily armed and armoured. Therefore they lack the maneuverability of their lighter enemies, but their charge will devastate any infantry line.
Which side will you choose in Saga Crescent and the Cross?
"They are lightly armed and armoured, which should help them easily outflank the armies of the Christian crusaders."
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nice knights should fit in to any medieval army ?
Moors! Incredible how a couple of sidelined, recently converted Iranians at the head of a troop of Arab cavalry could coerce a mob of Berber tribesmen into crossing the sea and invading the Iberian peninsula! Be nice to see some real hordes of these, some Franks too for a bit of Song of Roland era loveliness 🙂
Yes, and visigoths! And perhaps some hastily recruited Spanish levies from the time of the Moorish invasion. Wouldn’t be any old Roman gear kicking around in a force like that, but some of the unearthed kit looks interesting. Would be fun to try and kitbash something. I’m guessing the Franks would look much like the mounted knights shown, but with a mail coif and an open bascinet. Am I wrong?
Song of Roland? Only the French could turn an utterly humiliating defeat into an epic of heroism 🙂
Personally, I am waiting for someone to come out with a faction for the Children’s Crusades, the least successful and most tragic crusade in history.
It would be a pretty quick game
it is pretty tragic, at least some of the more recent research suggests that most of them (by the time they’d crossed the Alps and lost quite a few of there friends in the process) seem to have settled in Italy, forget his name but there’s an account written by one of these kids from the Children’s Crusade, him n his girlfriend got as far as Milan and thought – meh. That’s far enough. Terrible shame about those brave few who managed to get all that way…
Peasants Crusade had a similar outcome in 1096…
One thing that would be nice to see, particularly for a later Moorish force would be the Christian Guard – a lot of Spanish emirs started hiring Christian mercenaries as palace guards with all the intrigue knocking about at the time, heavy armour of the typical European armies of the day but a strong Greco-Arab influence on them too… Bascinet is pretty tricky, really doesn’t appear until surprisingly much later on. The Italians in the wake of the first crusade really started to make some serious gains in the fields of arms and armour production, especially in Milan – got… Read more »
I was thinking of the open-faced version, without the visor, and with an aventail, but you’re right. Those came later as well. Now I’m inclined to go with more of a skullcap/nasal bar look, with a Viking influence.
Fantastic paint jobs on both sets.
Also, on the GB facebook page there’s a hint that plastic Arab cavalry will be coming in April!
That’s great news! Apparently the plastic Arab infantry are very nice, was hoping to pick some up soon.
Moorish cavalry.
Does that mean that once you open the box and start, you just can’t stop?
WHEYOOO!! hahaha
Very nice stuff from Gripping Beast!
Does anyone else think the helmets look a bit huge? Maybe they were that huge (not the most knowledgeable about this period by any means) I don’t know? My instinct is that these are heroic scale? If so that is fine but is accentuated by the helmets which I know were big already. Ah what a boring arse commenter I am ..making myself yawn …. :S
Probably due to being heroic scale so not overly large imho
So yeah you answered your own question! lol
would question the length of the spears and that they are being held too far forward on the shaft. You would have run into the other chap with your horse’s chest before being able to stick the blighter! lol
Frankly, I’m more taken with Fireforge’s version of the mounted Crusaders. The spears are a lot longer, if a bit too chunky. Beautiful kit, though. I like the Moors well enough 🙂 .
igotskills,
I noticed that too, but then again I think that these knights are probably meant to be mid to late 12th century when it was becoming common for smaller secondary helms called cervelliere and very thickly padded arming caps to be worn under the great helm [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervelliere]. I think we are used to seeing sculpts that downplay the size of the great helm. I know the fireforge sculpts often do that.
I’m not a medievalist, so someone feel free to jump in if I’m wrong.