While many wargamers look for "killer" armies to build and fight on the gaming table, there should also be armies available that provide a challenge to manage successfully. Most of the Asiatic horse-warriors of the high Dark Ages period can provide this challenge because they are all constituted primarily by skirmish cavalry, but do not have the "longbow" power that has been given to the Mongols' recurve bow in the MW rule system.

I personally feel that any Turkish horseman could use the composite construction, recurve bow with effect equal to that of the Mongol bowman (the latter's success as an army being derived more from organization and discipline), but it is not my object here to argue that point.

My interest in the Alans comes from the WRG Army List Book 2 that includes Alans as allies on the Khazar army list. Thus, my objective here is to create an Alan Order-of-Battle for MW and annotate a portion of them to go on the Khazar list as allies. But to begin, we must first identify who the Alans were, and put them in their geo-political context.

The Alans seem to have been around throughout most of the Dark Ages. Tim Newark's The Barbarians: Warriors & Wars of the Dark Ages (1985) states: "When the Huns first burst into European history on the plains north of the Black Sea, they clashed with a group of steppe people called the Alans (p. 12)." A portion of these were swept up with the Hun horde and moved westwards. During the 5th century, these Alans separated themselves from the Huns. Some settled in central France around Orleans, and others joined the Vandals in their invasion of the Iberian peninsula.

Those left behind in the region north of the Caucasus Mountains, between the Caspian and Black Seas, eventually became pawns in the great game of empire among the Byzantines, Islamic Persians and Khazars. Mark Whittow's The Making of Byzantium, 600-1025 (1996), refers to the Alans as being of Iranian origin, and says: "For most of the seventh and eighth centuries they [i.e., the Alans who settled on the north slope of the Caucasus Mountains] seem to have been clients of the Khazar qaghans, but with the decline of Khazar power in the ninth century the king of the Alans became an important independent ruler able, according to one Arab geographer, to draw on the services of 30,000 horsemen.

At the beginning of the eighth century the Byzantines had hoped to use the Alans against their Abasgian neighbors to the south-west, but the collapse of Byzantine power in the Transcaucasus that followed shortly thereafter seems to have ended diplomatic contacts until the late ninth century. At about this time they appear in a Khazarian Hebrew document as part of an otherwise unattested coalition organized by the Byzantines against their former Khazar allies. Certainly in the years immediately following 914 the king of the Alans and his entourage were open to Byzantine influence, and [eventually] accepted conversion to Christianity (pp. 240-1)."

Given the scattering of the Alans from the Caucasus to beyond the Pyrenees, an Alan army would give the wargamer a wide range of "historical" enemies to battle, from the 4th to 11th centuries. Being a typical horse-warrior nomadic society, their army (in any given location throughout Europe) would have a core of noble heavy cavalry armed with lance and composite recurve bow, swarms of light horse armed primarily with bow, but some with javelins added, and a small contingent of foot suitable for the terrain in the region of their primary settlements. (Somebody has to guard the sheep!)

My approach to creating an Alan O.B., therefore, was to scale up the Alan ally list in WRG's Khazar army list, with a few twists and wrinkles derived from what limited literature is available on these relatively unknown people. Then, do a comparison with the army lists for roughly comparable hordes, such as the Pechenegs, Avars, Magyars, & Ghuzz, so as to develop a reasonable balance in maximum army size. Naturally, all of this is open to debate and modification based on the collective knowledge and wisdom of the wargaming fraternity.

I do not think it plausible for this army to have had any "trained" units. The Alans did not achieve a level of civilization comparable to the great empires that surrounded them, i.e., Byzantines, Islamic Persians and Khazars. Theirs was a tribal, tent-dwelling society similar to that of the Pechenegs, Ghuzz and Torkils.

Bases	Unit	Morale	Weaponry	Points
1-4	Cic/Generals	HC Veteran	Lance/B/Sh	3@53/38
6-16	Nobles	HC Veteran	Lance/B/Sh	3@13
-12	- Upgrade to Fanatic			@+2
16-48	Horse Archers	SC Warriors	B/Sh	2@4
-48	- Add Javelin			@+1
-20	- Upgrade to Fanatic			@+2
4-24	Axemen*	HI Warriors	Axe/Sh	4@7
-8	- Upgrade to Veteran			@+2
4-24	Foot	UI Warriors	Jav/B/Sh	3@3
4-16	Foot	SI Warriors	B/Sh	2@2
-4	Supply Train	Pack Horses	None	-
*Heath gives axes to Alan foot (see p. 100).

Of these, the following may serve as a Khazar allied contingent:

Bases	Unit	Morale	Weaponry	Points
1	General	HC Veteran	Lance/B/Sh	3@3
4-8	Nobles	HC Veteran	Lance/B/Sh	3@13
8-24	Horse Archers	SC Warriors	B/Sh	2@4
-24	- Add Javelin			@+1
-16	Axemen	HI Warriors	Axe/Sh	4@7
-8	Javelinmen	UI Warriors	Jav/B/Sh	3@3
-8	Foot Archers	SI Warriors	B/Sh	2@2
Note: No morale upgrades as allies.

The next step is gathering suitable figures. This is one of those armies where you have to get a bit creative at this stage. Fortunately, Essex makes two Alan figures, i.e., Alan Heavy Cavalry (Cat. No. HSA1) and Alan horse archers (HSA2). Other Essex figures can form the foundation for the main figures required. For example, Slav Foot archers (HSA7), Slav axemen (HSA8), Slav javelinmen (HSA9) and Mounted Command (HSA13).

For those who, like me, enjoy mixing figures to give units some variety, take a look at Essex's Khazar HC (HSA6), Bulgar horse archers (HSA4), and Dark Ages Light Cavalry (AA1). Also, check out the Sassanids by Battle Honors, Armenians by Old Glory, and the Steppe Peoples and Slavs by Donnington Miniatures. Dark Ages armies did not wear uniforms, nor were they all the same size. Since the Alans were closely related to the Sarmatians, it's also worth looking at figure ranges that include the latter. Also, at least one scholar suggests they are related to the Burtas, a tribal division of the Turkic Oghuz. Thus, you could pick up a range of Turkic figures, especially to give variety to the Alan skirmish cavalry. Mixing figures can make an army with real flavor and period "style."

A final note on painting. Heath indicates that Alans favored highly colored jackets and trousers, "usually embroidered and often with small gold and silver or bronze plaques sewn on (see p. 100)." And, I remember reading (I forget where) that blue and red cloth combinations were preferred as a general tribal color pattern.

The tough part, of course, is finding the time to finish a new army. But never fear, sooner or later I'll be fielding an Alan army at some future MW tournament. And, win, lose or draw, they'll give you a tough fight.