15mm Arab Conquest Army Completed

 Just a quick post with a few photos of my recently completed Arab Conquest army. All the figures are from the Forged in Battle Dark Ages Arab range:

The real killer with this project was all the swordsmen I had to paint, with two hundred and sixty figures in total. Initially I thought that there was just blade or Bd(O) required, which would have represented a more modest one hundred and seventy-six, but then I flipped over the page and found I needed an additional eight-four based differently as warband. These are mutually exclusive in that if you want to field the cavalry as heavy cavalry (ie 'Knights') you lose the blade and replace them with warband:

 

Far more enjoyable to paint, probably because there weren't so many of them, was the cavalry, and especially the heavy cavalry as these are very nice little sculpts:

In total the army is comprised of one hundred and twenty-five horses and camels, four hundred and thirty-seven foot and riders, totaling five hundred and sixty two figures.

Next up is the last of my quartet of Arab armies; the Ghurids which was a Sunni Muslim empire centered in Afghanistan and lasting around a hundred years from 1148. It emerged just as the two-hundred year Ghaznavid empire was declining, to be eventually overthrown by the Ghurids. This one will require two-hundred and sixty pikemen, so at least I now know what to expect.

Arab Medium and Light Cavalry

After having completed the Arab heavy cavalry recently all that remained to complete the army was eight elements of medium and six of light cavalry:

I recognised a few of the figures from other Forged in Battle packs, but there were some new ones in there and all are suitably unarmoured:

The medium (or 'Ordinary' in DBMM parlance) cavalry have all been based with three to a base:

While two figures to a base signifies they are Light Cavalry:

The DBMM Arab army list also allows up to four elements of camels, classified either as Inferior Light Horse or the rather more useful Camel(X), so I thought I'd also include them. I'm not actually sure how I will work them into an army list as it means omitting other potentially more useful troops, but it is good to have the option:

These are one-piece castings and quite thin when viewed head-on, but perfectly OK from other angles:

That is the Arab Conquest army now completed, my third Arab army in a row and the largest of the three thus far. I'm about to move on to a Ghurid army which will be the last of the quartet, but will try to get all the Arab Conquest together for a few group photos in the meantime.

Arab Heavy Cavalry Completed

When I originally sketched out my requirements for an Arab Conquest army I thought that twelve elements of cavalry would be enough. A is often the case however I soon came to realise I would need double that so ordered another three bags of twelve cavalry each from Forged in Battle to bring the number up to twenty-four elements. 

Here then are the second batch of twelve elements:

Just in time too, as the week after I ordered them the cavalry pack sizes were reduced to eight mounted figures to enable them to be sold at the same price. I think the FiB Arab heavy cavalry are among the nicest figures of theirs I have painted:

There are nine different poses in each pack of twelve, so again more than enough variety:

They are also sufficiently armoured and can therefore easily represent the Fast Knight option in the DBMM Arab Conquest army list:

The only minor quibble is that they are difficult to seat on the generic Arab horse and I can foresee a few becoming unseated in the heat of battle:

Here are the latest batch with the previously completed twelve elements:

The completion of this army is now in sight with just another eight elements of medium cavalry and six of light to go, along with four elements of camelry. With a bit of a push I hope to have these done by the middle of the month.

More 15mm Arab Conquest Swordsmen and a Few Slingers

I feel as though I'm stuck on a rat-wheel of Arabs at the moment but nevertheless have managed to complete another forty-four elements of Arab swordsmen, this time with four to a base to represent 'blade' as opposed to the earlier twenty-eight three-to-a-base elements of warband:

That's one hundred and seventy-six swordsmen completed in this batch, and two hundred and sixty in total including the warband:

Since they are the same figures as the earlier warband I won't linger on them too long, but here are a few pictures of the new recruits:

Needless to say, I was glad that there was so much variety in the figure poses with eight different poses:

I also managed to complete ten elements of slingers, which make an appearance in the Arab Conquest army list but will also be useful for the forthcoming Ghurids, which I swore I would never do until Phil from Toy Soldiers Studio https://15mm25mm.blogspot.com/ put the idea in my head and which I then found I couldn't get out:

Just a small group of twenty figures but again with a satisfying amount of variety:

That makes three hundred and eight-two figures completed for January and February so far with another thirty-seven nearing completion, which is my best start to a year ever and the momentum would have continued if I hadn't dropped an army containing two hundred early Carthaginians and their allies on its end while trying to get the A3 storage box out of the back of my car. 

They had just suffered their worst defeat ever after my gaming partner lost five 50/50 melees in a row by managing to roll nothing but ones against our opponent's fives and sixes and resulting in five holes in our line, only to be followed by two more in the next round. So when I first heard the clatter of lead upon lead, my first thought was 'serves you right, you bastards', until I realised how much work would be required put them back together. Eighty shields and around sixty spears and javelins detached, numerous paint chips plus half of the wire traces I had originally painstakingly attached to the chariots broken off:

If you can imagine putting three hundred figures into an A3 box, shaking it a little, and then thumping it on its end, that is roughly the effect. 

I took me around eight hours but things now do appear to be back as they were. To be honest, it wasn't the worst experience as I again got up close and personal with the figures again.

Now on to the last of the Arab cavalry, which I hope to have completed by the end of March.

15mm Arab Conquest Swordsmen and Skirmishers

After completing a 15mm Daylami army the week before Christmas I very much wanted to continue the theme and focus on an Arab Conquest army. To provide additional motivation, my first Saturday game of 2026 was today, fielding the Arab Conquest against some Norse Irish. 

With that in mind I decided to focus first on the Khawarij option within the army list with a view to fielding 28 elements of 'fast' (ie less densely packed) warband, which therefore also allowed me to field a large contingent of heavy cavalry (Fast knights):

The Khawarij were essentially a breakaway radical Islamic sect who rebelled against the ruling Caliphs and mainstream Islam. There is an interesting 'The Rest is History Podcast' on all the toing a froing that went on during this period and which has made for good listening while I have been painting them up:

The Forged in Battle packs contains a generous amount of different poses which adds a fair bit of variety and keeps the interest levels up. I still have another 120 of these to paint and base as more densely packed swordsmen or 'blade' for the mainstream Arab Conquest army, so no doubt they will be starting to wear a bit thin by then:

I also completed ten elements of skirmishers and four of auxiliaries which can be used across all variants within the Arab Conquest lists:

I also completed the last six elements of middle eastern horse archers. These don't actually make an appearance in the Arab Conquest army but will be useful if I want field a Seljuk Turkish army and a few other variants:

We ended up fighting a long hard-fought draw over four and a half hours in the Irish terrain, which was all wooded hills and difficult ground, but it was an entertaining game.

That's it for now. I hope to have the rest of the blade/swordsmen and some slingers finished within the next few weeks, and then onto the last twenty-four elements of cavalry and a few elements of camel-mounted scouts to complete the army.