Essex and Tabletop

15mm and 25mm
Islamic Armies of Middle Ages

reviewed by Todd Fisher

By Allah and Islam! What is going on here? After years of seeming neglect the Islamic armies of the Middle Ages have received some outstanding attention in both 15mm and 25mm scale figures. In this review I will take a look at the 15mm Arab Conquest armies of both Essex and Tabletop/ Alliance. Also I will review the new Essex 25mm Islamic Persians and Ottoman Turks.

Since we are talking of Biblical lands, "the least shall be first", 15mm as opposed to 25mm, that is. What a choice the gamer has! I will start with the Essex Arab Conquest boxed army. These figures may verywell bethe finest 15mm figures ever produced. The sculpting is marvelous and the animation of the figures is by far the finest I have ever seen out of Essex. The work done on this line looks as though the sculptor took the line fresh from the start. Many of the tired old poses have been swept away and replaced with better animation. The only pose which I think they could have done a better job with is a rather standard posed Arab spearman. But beyond this minor complaint l have only the highest praise for this quality effort.

After saying all the marvelous things about Essex, you may think that Alliance's Arab Conquest army would get short shrift. if you do you would be wrong! I will open by saying that I went out and bought both the Essex and Alliance army boxes. These are some of the finest offerings to come out of Alliance. The figures are in action poses and are well proportioned. The one complaint is again the spearman, which is of a lesser quality than the others in the range. But again the line is highly recommended. Alliance has made a supreme effort to turn out the WRG lists in the last few years, and it is amazing that they have been able to maintain their quality. They not only have done this, but continually improve.

I now turn my attention to the new Essex Islamic Persians and Ottoman Turk 25mm lines. In the past few years I am sure that you have all heard people say words to the effect of, "This or that 15mm line has as much or more detail as 25mm figures." And they would have been right! It seemed that most of the finest sculptors were working in 15mm. It also seemed that 25mm sculptors had hit a plateau. Well those days are over! These two lines represent the new generation. The care in detail that always seemed possible is here.

It's hard to find any fault with these lines. They are both extensive range, covering not only all the requirements of the WRG lists, but includL -several variants in many categories. The effort to reproduce historically accurate figures by Essex goes beyond their usually good work. The figures here are reproductions of the highest quality. Whoever layed out this line did it with loving care. These figures will test the painting skills of the best of us, for there is so much here you want to paint it all.

The reason that the two lines are being reviewed together is that many of the figures could be used in either line. The one mistake that I found is that the Janissary handgunner anachronistically is carrying a musket of a much later period. Even this however is a compliment to the sculptor's skill in that much can be distinguished on the figure.These lines alone may cause a renewed interest in the Later Islamic armies for those playing with 25mm and may be enough to bring many of us playing 15mm back to the 25mm fold.

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