On July 21st, the Defender of the One True Faith, Yusuf Salah al-Din ibn Ayyub (Saladin) brought his 500 point army to Terry Gore's Medieval Warfare (MW) Tournament at Historicon 2000, at the Lancaster Host Convention Center. This was the first outing for the young Saladin and his unbloodied Saracens; he had much to learn about MW, and learn he did against a variety of dangerous foes and clever strategems. The young sultan acquitted himself well, but came too close to utter ruin in three very hot fights to get the least bit cocky from the experience.

"[Ayyubid Saracen] is a good army for any level of player" --T. Gore

I have a long history gaming the classical period in WRG 7th . My first army, and all time favorite to game, is Alexander's Macedonians. In recent years, however, I've been enamored with the Crusades and the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The two characters of that age to whom I'm most drawn are Baldwin IV, the leper king, and Saladin. I brought Baldwin's Late Crusader army to Cold Wars 2000 for my first MW tournament (which managed to hold its own), but I very much wanted to put Saladin's host on the table for Historicon.

There are 298 points of required buys in the Ayyubid list, most of which are good quality cavalry (268 points, including the CiC). The optional additional elite mamluks, which may be upgraded to full mail (FMC), are a very desirable buy for a tournament army (and expensive at 90 points for 5 stands), since they match up well against contemporary Western knights. This brings our total up to 392 (spending an additional 4 to upgrade the CiC and the single required stand of mamluks to FMC).

What should be done with the remaining 108 points? I opted for a second FMC general (43 points), 6 more stands of Sudanese archers (30), and a full complement of Ghazis fanatics (30). The final point total was 495, and the final OoB looks like this:

1 CiC, FMC L/B/Sh, Elite(T)
1 General, FMC L/B/Sh, Elite(T)
6 Mamluk FMC L/B/Sh, Elite(T)
6 Toassin HC L/B/Sh, Veteran(T)
6 Ghulam HC L/B/Sh, Warrior(T)
8 Turkomans SC J/B/Sh, Warrior
12 Sudanese Archers UI B/Sh Warrior(T)
6 Ghazis Ax/Sh, Fanatic

This list is a rarity in MW, a mostly regular army. At the time the list came together, it was thought that two generals would be sufficient to handle such a well trained group, but one of the lessons learned at Historicon (to jump ahead of the story) is the counter-intuitive result that regular armies need additional command capability in order to press an offensive; irregular armies may be difficult to coordinate, but they are naturally aggressive. Thus, my prior Cold Wars experience with the irregular Late Crusaders (their third general proved redundant and wasted points) was not an accurate predictor of the Ayyubid's needs.

More Saladin at Historicon

Introduction
Late Crusaders: Crossbows and Knights
Mongols: Long Spears(!) and Artillery
Feudal English: Knights and Longbows
Post Mortem