The Daylami were from the mountainous areas in northern Iran and emerged as a dynasty in the 900's until they succumbed to the Seljuk Turks in the 11th Century. Initially resisting the Arab conquest of Iran, they came to progressively adopt Islam.
The core DBMM army list itself is quite simple with only three main types of infantry, being bow, auxiliary troops with spears and axes, and skirmishers. This is why I thought I'd present the army in one post rather than a series of posts of essentially the same thing as I worked my way through the project:
The Daylami infantry are described as having painted or leather-covered shields and wielding two pointed spears and battle axes. Unfortunately none of the two-pointed spears or axes are represented in the Forged in Battle Daylami foot, but they look sufficiently tribal enough to do the job:
One interesting variation is the option to field up to six elements of Indian 'fast blade' mercenaries which may be useful against some opponents (I did eight plus an element of skirmishers to use up all the figures in the pack):
This is the fourth army completed in 2025 and I'm quite pleased I managed to finish it this side of Christmas. All up it is comprised of 316 infantry and command figures and 6 horses:
They are off for their first outing this morning against some Carolingian Franks. I'm not overly hopeful as the Carolingians are a knight-based army and in DBMM all they have to do is score higher on a D6 (after adding and deducting factors) to 'quick kill' the Daylami infantry, whereas the Daylami need to double the knights' score to kill them. I do plan to annoy my opponents however with constant chants of 'Daylami Army, Daylami Army', styled after the 'Barmy Army' English cricket supporters who are following the English cricket team on their current Ashes tour of Australia.
Next up, an Arab Conquest army which will complete my Arab spring, or summer as it is now.
Gosh, these are beautiful! Great work on the shield designs.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan. If I'm totally honest I don't think they are as convincing as your recent lovely work, but they look OK en masse.
DeleteLovely work on your Daylami Army which look awesome! The Indian 'fast blade' are very handy to use, I would would field them if allowed every game. I put a hold on my own Arab Conquest "add on elements" to busy working my 15mm Ancient Iberian Spanish almost competed. As for the Ashes Tour, I guess its not for the English this time I'm sure they will bounce back hopefully winning at least one test match? plus so much for the Snicko technology!
ReplyDeleteCheers Phil. At least Snicko has dudded both sides, so I suppose it is being even handed. They need to bring back and underline it with hotspot.
DeleteI didn't field the fast blade yesterday as I was up against knights, and also didn't fancy the -1 factor for being fast, but I can see they will come in handy in most other games. I lost, but it wasn't a bad outing after I had an early two turns of setback where I couldn't win a melee I clawed my way back to a narrow loss, breaking the Carolingian infantry command with twenty blade. An interesting game.
Absolutely amazing 👏
ReplyDeleteGreat work Lawrence and a fourth army completed in a year no less bravo 👍
ReplyDeleteFor some reason the system asks me to sign in each time now and when I forget it is anonymous ? Matt
DeleteCheers Matt. Blogger can have a life of its own at times. Yes, I am happy with the output this year, although there was only a small part of the AWI British to complete in 2025.
DeleteImpressive looking army - hope they do well!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words. I do expect them to do well, but wasn't confident about yesterday's first outing although the did better than I expected.
DeleteThat's a really lovely looking army, Lawrence. Looking forward to seeing photos of you troops in action on a table.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard. Photos of our Saturday games can be difficult as my ancients group prefers to just play rather than have the action halted. I will make more of an effort next year though as we are starting to forget many of our encounters and it would be nice to have a reminder.
DeleteFantastic looking army. Best wishes on the tabletop with them.
ReplyDeleteCheers. Hopefully I'll be able to put together some AARs of some winning games.
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