Another of my "Enemies of New Kingdom Egypt," the Early Libyans are often thought of as a gimmick army in DBA. Most versions of the list are an unbalanced army composed mostly of psiloi. Luckily, the one in the time period I want is more balanced, and contains four troop types.
I
purchased this army from Time Portal Hobbies at Siege of Augusta 2005. Time
Portal does a great service to the DBA community by creating DBA army packs
out of Old Glory 15mm packets. I love Old Glory's figs, but when they come
in packets of 50 foot, it sometimes becomes a tad wasteful for the individual
gamer to assemble a DBA army out them. I will remain a faithful Time Portal
Hobbies customer in appreciation of this service.
Rudy from Time Portal was generous enough to include a number of standard bearers in my custom DBA army pack. So, I included one on the stand with this grizzled old Libyan raider.
When using this army, the general's chariot is the only mounted stand, so deciding when to engage with it can become a tricky thing. Normally, I play fairly conservatively with my generals. However, with the Libyans, sometimes you need to toss him into the battle. So, this guy's ability to live to a relatively old age is probably fairly impressive...!
Influenced by the Sea Peoples, and often combining with them to attack Egypt, the Early Libyans actually fielded "heavy foot" in this phase of their history. Here are three stands of spear carrying waband that can be used in melee against their enemies. Old Glory's numerous poses make these guys a colorful, impressive looking force.
This army also contains 3 stands of Bow troops, which can be useful against enemy mounted troops. In the painting sources I found, there seemed to be two types of cloaks worn. One was the cow hide type visible on the guy in the back, while the others seemed colorfully striped or bordered, allowing me to indulge a little in decking these guys out.
For most versions of the Early Libyan army, the army is composed almost exclusively of these troops. Winning with an army of nearly all foot skirmishers would have to take a lot of skill -- and to be honest -- luck. As proof that wargames do not mirror history, though, the Early Libyans eventually DID take over Egypt, or at least the Mediterranean regions. They adopted many of the Pharonic trappings, and their armies used native Egyptian soldiery also, but their nobility did come to rule on the Nile. So, considering that I've had little luck with army in games so far, maybe there's hope for me yet!
I purchased a "Tumbled Obelisk" from a company that I have been unable to locate since buying it. A vendor at Toledo's excellent Drums Along the Maumee convention carried their line, which if I remember correctly, was called "Green Man Miniatures" (or something similar). Their resin terrain pieces were incredibly cheap and very creative. I took one section of the tumbled obelisk and created a little vignette with it, a tent, a campfire and a couple sentries. One has climbed atop the obelisk for a better view, and is pointing out a dust cloud in the distance to his companion...
If anyone knows more about this company, I would appreciate hearing from them, as I'd like to buy more...
