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I am in the middle of building a crusader army. As a confirmed soloist (no choice really – I live in the mountains/forest. My town has a pop of 300) my armies are more often than not based upon figures at hand, figures I want to paint and/or units I think are “cool/fun,” rather than trying to come up with the ultimate “power” list (I play “War & Conquest”). The list will be about 2300 points, give or take, when I am done.
Note: some of these figures I got from an older brother & date from the late 1970s or early 1980s. Was that really 40 years ago?
Commander & Army standard (probably one sub-commander too)
6 Knight Templars (Fireforge – still in the box)
6 Knight Templars (Ditto)
2 unit of 6 knights + 6 sergeants each (also ditto)
An as yet undermined sized unit of Turcopoles (not purchased yet, probably 8 or 12).
28 dismounted foot sergeants (40-year-old Ral Partha figs) – I like big units.
1 unit of 32 spearmen (many of which are just peasants – another 40-year-old unit)
1 unit of 18 archers (the only crossbows I have are Renaissance Swiss/Landsknechts)

As for the Army of Islam
Commander & Army standard (probably one sub-commander too)
12 Mamluk guards (unpurchased – probably Gripping Beast Arab heavy cav)
10 Ghulams in heavy armor (Old Glory)
12 Arab Light cavalry (Fireforge – still in the box)
2 units (8 & 10) Bedouin light cav (Ral Partha Moorish cav)
2 units of 12 tribal light cav (proxied from later centuries – more 40+ year-old units)
6 camel riders (more old Ral Parthas – I think)
3 units of tribal infantry 12bows/12 spears (a rather eclectic mix – even includes some old LotR Easterlings from the early 80s!)
6 Naptha throwers (Old Glory)

As you can see by the fact that many are “still in the box” this project will take awhile (especially as I will likely be moving in the middle of it) – good thing I am retired. But you know what they say, having unpainted figs prolongs your life!

Other than army composition, my biggest dilemma is how to model the Crusader Knights. I purchased three boxes from Fireforge: 2 of Templars (They were out of Western Knights) & one of sergeants. They are pretty much the same, so can be mixed & matched with ease. One difference is horses. The Templar boxes come with 6 horses with barding and six without. The sergeants have no horses with barding.
For variety sake, I decided to go with small units of 6 Templars/Hospitallers. I thought about doing one unit of 6 Templars/6 sergeants, but decided two small units would be more fun to paint (and likely more realistic given my army size – as far as that goes).
The other to units will be a mix of 6 knights & 6 sergeants. At this point am thinking of painting one unit up as English & one German – again for variety sake. How to divide up the barding is a thinking point. Right now, I am thinking of giving all 6 Templars barded horses and splitting up the other six among the Hospitallers & English & Germans – probably giving them to the commander and musician (or standard bearer if I decide to forgo the musician).
I am having a little trouble deciding how to paint up the English & Germans. Am thinking of giving the front row knights shield from this wonderful sight I found here at TMP searching old topics: http://www.earlyblazon.com/
The Sergeants I would probably give something very simple, probably something red & white for the English & black & yellow for the Germans
How does this sound?
How are others doing it?