Why Nubians? Well, they WERE an enemy of the only other Biblical period army I owned -- the New Kingdom Egyptians. Also, I already had quite a few painted up as mercenaries for my Egyptians. So, all I had to do was add some warband infantry and close order bowmen and I was done. This army is a difficult army to win with in DBA. The lack of cavalry means it is slow moving, and the large numbers of Bows means it is vulnerable to enemy armies of heavy foot troops. The warbands are a possible counter to enemy foot, but are few in number and of uncertain staying power.
The bulk of the army can be composed of these troops. Their mass firepower would be daunting to an enemy's mounted troops, but less so to quality infantry. They are at home in rough terrain like the steep hills of their homeland -- something that slows down and disorders enemy foot and mounted, but does not block their shooting. These figs are from Chariot miniatures and have a reasonable variety of poses. If I were redoing the army, though, I would add in some Essex's line (which did not exist when I painted these).
The Nubian army's only contingent capable of charging and engaging the enemy in close combat are its warbands. There are not enough of them to rely on, though. They are probably best used to ambush an enemy -- jumping out of terrain or closing quickly and unexpectedly on a flank of the enemy. Their warband charge can enable them to punch holes in enemy heavy foot, but it is not a high percentage tactic. The figs are also from Chariot miniatures. Since Chariot's metal is (was?) so soft, I bent the arms to get a variety of poses. However, this did result in a few "casualties," as the resulting miniatures were even more fragile.
A high percentage of the army can be composed of these,unarmored skirmishing bowmen. These operate in a more open order than the bowmen above, and are thus, in contrast, skittish of enemy mounted. They are able to operate more freely in difficult terrain, though, and can be used to "swarm" heavier and slower enemy troops. These type of Nubians also appear as mercenaries in the armies of Egypt. Most of these miniatures are Essex from their Egyptian range. Of course, now Essex makes a Nubian range, but they didn't at the time of my purchase.
A friend of mine gave me the Sphinx I used in this camp. So, this was a very easy one to do. I simply epoxied it onto the styrene base at an angle, affixed a Nubian archer from the Essex command pack, as well as a (I believe) Falcon camp follower with baby beneath it. Add in a couple goats and it was done, except for the flocking. The flocking is my new "Biblical" style flocking, where I (1) Cover the base with Liquitex to give it texture (2) After it dries, paint it Polly Scale Sand Yellow (3) Paint white glue onto the surface, sprinkling on Woodland Scenics "Turf" sparingly (4) One coat of clearcoat spray (5) Put globs of white glue and sprinkle a blended grass made from Woodland Scenics, as well as tiny stones, which are Woodland Scenics "ballast" (6) Another clearcoat spray (7) Brush on a 50/50 or so mixture of white glue and water (8) Finally! Coat of Testor's Dullcoate.
