Salarvyáni Proxy Figures: The Legion of the Mace of Steel

From the collection of Mike Lung.

One of the challenges of wargaming on Tekumel is finding suitable figures. Inevitably one has to use proxy figures but these can be hard to source as well. It's often hard to get the right look. Black Tree Design's fantasy Saracens are pretty good as Salarvyáni proxy figures though, as can be seen in the pictures above, representing the Legion of the Mace of Steel. The Salarvyáni group their forces into composite units much like the Yan Koryani, so they might have heavy infantry, archers, light infantry in the same legion. Note that they don't actually call the force a legion, but that is a good english equivalent. 

The Salarvyáni national colour is black - Salarvyá is known as the Ebon Kingdom.  Salarvyáni males favour beards as well so the tendency is to make bearded proxy figures Salarvyáni; that doesn't mean bearded figures cannot be from other nations, just that many of the other empires tend to be more clean shaven. It should be noted that Baron Ald, a native of Saá Alláqi, wears a beard and some of the Tekumel Project Yán Koryáni have beards and/or mustaches. Our Tsolyáni are generally clean shaven, however.

Íto Clan House Guards

FA0608 - Vardulak Knights III

The Íto Clan have been called the "Liche Lords of the Chákas" because of their long service to Sárku, Lord of Worms. I have slowly been building up forces for various factions throughout the land, and the recent sale at Black Tree Design encouraged me to try these figures. In the past I have looked at these figures but turned up my nose at the outrageous armour. But lately l've had a change of heart:

1) Whereas Tekumel has a hot climate, some units are stated to wear heavy armour, even articulated plate armour in rare instances. (Keep in mind also that most armour is typically chlen-hide rather than metal).

2) The armour on these figures is grotesque and outlandish - "baroque", might be a good word also. But this is fine; as House Guards, they should be set apart from other troops. My thinking is that these are archaic armour styles, kept in service for centuries, if not millenia. Traditions die hard in the Chákas! 

3) Given that these are Íto Clan the chances are pretty good that the wearers are as old as their armour! Do the undead notice the heat? (I think not). :-)

My plan is to use a paint scheme of copper, warm grays, browns and black.

Best Kept Secrets: Black Tree Designs' Fantasy Saracens

HM1230 - Saracen Elite Guards

Black Tree Design is having a sale, which has prompted me to post this in a bit of a rush.

Extended until Sept 11th, 2016. 

Historical and Fantasy Infantry 50% off. 

Giant Monsters 30% off. 

Doctor Who 30% off.

Why the rush?

Because I believe that Black Tree Designs' Fantasy Saracens make excellent proxy Salarvyáni, that's why! And if you agree, you might want to take advantage of the sale...

The figures are scaled slightly larger than our own, but not overly so IMO. I'm not sure how well they fit weapon and armour-wise with the army book descriptions. My book has gone on walkabout and is currently "lost" - possibly forever. A replacement is being sourced. Until then all I can say is "They look good to me"! 

They are bearded. Check. The poses are nicely varied. Check. The weapons are suitable. Check. The armour is suitably exotic, as are the shields. Check. (and we have variant shields available if required...)

The Palace Guards, shown below, appear to have an interesting "push-knife and shield" combination. See the detail pictures. One could use them that way or snip the blade off and use a regular shield.

HM1233 - Saracen Palace Guards

Shield Detail

Detail: Push-knife or plug?

HM1228 - Saracen Slave Guards

...with buckler.

The so-called "Slave Guards" need not actually be slaves for our purposes, merely lower class troops. Light infantry spearmen as were at the Battle of Ry, if memory serves.

The command packs have flags, which are coincidentally not bad for Salarvyáni. I'm afraid I botched the pics and put the standard bearers in the wrong packs. Keeping that in mind, the banner from pack HM1229 (shown broken in the bottom pic) has Arabic writing on it and so will need either substitution or conversion.

I found some Games Workshop Dark Elf bits on ebay that I thought worked well, and are shown below.

HM1229 - Saracen Command II

HM1233 - Saracen Command III

...with Dark Elf banner.

...other Dark Elf weapons.

Lastly, as I am going on about Salarvyáni I ought to remind you of these Scotia Grendel axemen. I may have blogged about these guys before. They get checks for beards, and nice variety of poses. The weapons would be ridiculously over-sized in metal, but made from chlén hide would not be as heavy as they look!

Scotia Grendel's "Men of the East"

Credit where credit is due: I did not paint the Serqu trooper in the pics above. He was done by one of Eureka's in-house painters IIRC. Name unknown.