Making a Granada Entrance

Mrs T & I went to Spain recently. It was hot.  We were down near & on the Costa del Sol, but we were there to visit the sights not get sun burned. The tour we did covered Seville, Cordoba, Ronda, Malaga and Granada. For all I've wargamed and written rules for games in Spain I've never been there before except to change planes at Madrid airport. I think I might be exceptional for a Brit never to have holidayed in "Sunny Spain" either as an adult or a child.

The area is beautiful and inspiring, so I bought a couple of DBA armies when I got back. Being tight fisted and lazy I ordered the army packs from Essex, like I've got into the habit of doing. I so miss being able to go to shows and actually see what the figures look like and ordering them that way.  

The Essex Granadine Army is probably a bit earlier than I'd like, and I probably could have got exactly what I'd wanted if I'd trawled the catalogue and massively over bought in terms of packs. It's a bit different to what I've painted recently in this line, so I went for it first out of the two armies I'd bought.

This is my base army selection of 12 elements. Essex give you (almost) all the combinations, which in this case is mainly 4 x Ps Crossbows to replace the "Fast Bow" equivalents in the picture. The back ground is my Great Wall of China, which sort of works everywhere as a backdrop. 

Now to look at the elements in detail.

This is the knight general. The horses for these are completely wrong. The Granadines never used horse barding like this. I thought when I first saw the figures that I could call them Christian Mercenaries, but that would mean the riders were wrong. I checked the Essex website, just in case there'd been an error with the horse, but it clearly shows them mounted on these horses. Why are they wrong?

I think it is to do with this page in Ian Heath's classic "Armies of the Middle Ages, volume 1"

As you can see it shows a barded horse, with the caption "Granadine Horse" below it. However, as was the way for many "Armies and Enemies" WRG books, the captions are often not on the same page. If you check the number you'll see that it refers to illustration 144 - the horse on the right. The description for this horse starts on the previous page, and is for a "Horse in Housing". I wonder if Essex ever noticed the sculptors error and are just selling the figure because they've made it. Should I email them and tell them?

Actually, whilst I'm moaning here I'd say the bases on the horses are completely inadequate.

Next are javelin armed jinetes (3 x LH). I painted these with a variety of skin tones, as I've done with the rest of the army. Generally they are swarthier than normal, with some Europeans and some North Africans. Disappointingly one of the javelins was bent and snapped off when I straightened it.

The bases on these horses weren't great either.

The army also includes some mounted crossbows, who are functionally the same as the jinetes under DBA. So, another LH element. Nice figures. No complaints here.

A couple of militia/mercenary spear bases provide some steel to the battle line. I thought I was getting figures like those on the left, but this is one of the codes where they mix the figures up, so there's a few with the spears pointing down. Not ideal, but they painted up nicely.

A bit more "heft" with some Solid (cross) Bows. Their superiority to "Fast bows" in combat is marginal and isn't really being addressed in DBA (F) alas, so "Fast Bows" are still probably a better choice due to their movement..

I said the Essex army includes all options, but actually it doesn't as the alternative for these is some Staff Slingers (Ps). I'd be unlikely to chose them on the table top, but considering the other Psiloi option below I might be tempted if I really wanted Psiloi but not too many. 

Finally from the array at the top of the page we have four Fast (cross) Bows. They'll do sterling duty when (if) I come up against any knightly armies I'm sure.

Finally we have these fellows:

These are the swap outs for the Fast Bows, being four Psiloi. I really doubt they'll see much use as there aren't a lot of elephants in Spain. 

I like the look of the army. It's bright and colourful, and has a different mix to most of what I field elsewhere. The issues noted above with the figures and the army pack are irritating. 

For my camp I've got a resin model of the Alhambra. It's a bit small next to the figures, so you'll have to imagine it further away and higher up.

Which it is in real life.