A thank you to Victrix for sending out this kit of Islamic Horse Archers for review purposes. 

We're back with more Islamic horsemen, if you missed our review of the armoured version then you can check that out here. This newer, unarmoured, bag of minis is just as full of bits, head options, and command to expand your ever-growing medieval-aged Islamic army. Or if you're like me then you're using these to add a splash of colour to your otherwise very drab and boring Milites Christi collection in form of Turcopoles. I'll spoil this article for you right now if you want to know if it's a good kit or not: it is. Of course it is. It's a new Victrix set and I haven't seen a bad one yet.

What's in the Bag

Simply, twelve total horse archers. You get the same three frames of four horses as the Islamic Cavalry kit and three frames of four bodies with a mix of options; there's even the choice between three different torsos for one of the bodies to give you more variation in posing between leaning left, right, or holding an arm up for a banner or sword. From Victrix there's:

• Mix of both Sejuk & Turkoman heads.
• Wide variety of bow arm poses, including left arm poses.
• Mix of shields that can be both applied to arms or hanging off horse saddle.
• Standard bearer options and drawn swords.
• Arrow quivers and bow cases.

I built two full frames of models for eight total horse archers using a mix of the arms available for a few aiming/shooting, some more focused on their riding, and of course a clear "leader" of the unit with sword raised. Since I'm using these for Turcopoles I used more of the Turkoman heads.

Victrix Islamic Horse Archer build instructions - credit Victrix Ltd

If I have any complaints about the kit it's just that I don't care for the one torso that has an arm jutting out at a right angle on each sprue removing a bit of variation straight out the bag; of course with a little cutting and maybe a little greenstuff you could easily snip that off and put any arm you want on. In the photo below the two right-most models in the front and back rank are this torso, so there is still some choice! Other than that I really like that the rest of the arms all have the exact same attachment point so that while there are recommended arms for each torso you can really make any of them work. The model below holding the sword there uses the torso for the banner bearer with a sword in hand.

Victrix Islamic Horse Archers - credit Bair

Between all of the head options you can get pretty creative for what this kit could be used for between different medieval and pre-medieval armies, keeping it relatively flexible. I can see this set being used, easily, for Huns with the right head choice; with the current lack of plastic Hun models this is something I've wanted for a while and works pretty well. Might mean getting another 4 bags of these for that project then...

There's loads of extra bits as you've come to expect from Victrix sets for optional scabbards and quivers of a couple varieties.

Compatibility

With some exception this set works very nicely alongside its armoured variant with most of the arms fitting on the same and the heads having about the same join with similar amounts of neck attached to the torsos. Combining the two kits together will give you much more variance in poses. One in four bodies on the armoured cavalry sprue actually isn't armoured so if you were building a set of each at the same time you'd end up with sixteen unarmoured models and eight armoured ones, the perfect mix for two points each of warriors and hearthguard in Saga!

The two Islamic Cavalry sets are perfectly scaled to each other, as you'd expect

In terms of cross-compatibility with other ranges, the Victrix horse archers fit in well with a range of others. Perry and Footsore are easily comparable and a unit mixing the three would look very good, while Gripping Beast look a little smaller and are effectively replaced as the go to light cavalry kit by this release. You've done well, old cavalry, but it's time to hang up the bow and retire!

L-R: Perry, Victrix, Footsore, Gripping Beast

Turcopoles and Saga

Translated to "son of Turks" these were lightly armoured mounted archers that would be recruited by orders of the Milites Christi during the Crusades from locals. These would often act as scouting forces for the knightly orders and skirmishers. They also didn't conform to the knightly orders uniforms or colours, either, keeping their own clothing which was much more vibrant and colourful!

In Saga Age of Crusades a few of the factions can take a point of Turcopoles as a mercenary unit consisting of eight light horse archers; available to Byzantines, Crusaders, Milites Christi, and Ordensstaat. In game these are warriors with no equipment that get to make a free shooting action of range L once each turn with a free move that doesn't generate fatigue after. Since they're not actually armed with ranged weapons they get to keep their Armour 4 in combat instead of being reduced. Additionally every mounted unit within S of the Turcopoles get two bonus defence dice in every melee including the Turcopoles themselves! These are pretty common to see in Milites Christi armies for good reason, adding that extra protection to what is normally a very hearthguard-heavy force helps save the few bodies you have.

Also, it's just really nice to add a splash of bright colours in and amongst my otherwise very dark Knights Hospitaller army!

Painting

As with most cavalry models I recommend keeping the riders separate from the horses to make the horses easier to paint. To get these going the steps I followed were:

• Spray horses and separate riders Colourforge Hyrax Brown
• Paint the horses
• Attach the riders
• Paint the riders
• Shade all-over the model
• Add basing material
  
  Victrix Islamic Horse Archers - credit Bair

For a great painting method for horses go check out our guide by Ilor here where you'll find lots of information about coat colours, socks, why horses are the colours they are, and more. My paint method is very straight forward:

• Main horse colour in Pro Acryl (PA) Warm Brown, Drab Brown, and Dark Orange Brown
• Manes painted in PA Dark Neutral Grey, Warm Brown, and Beige Grey
• Blankets and tassels in PA Ultramarine, Burnt Red, and Dark Turquoise
• Highlight those as appropriate with PA Faded Ultramarine, Orange Red, and Turquoise (I like to paint clear brush strokes along the edges and blankets to give a feel of texture)
• Leather straps and saddles in PA Mahogany
• Hit all the studs and little metal bits with PA Steel
• Horse socks done with PA Bold Titanium White
• Hooves gone over in a simple PA Dark Neutral Grey

Then the riders, after super gluing them onto the horses, which use all of the same colours as above on various parts of the cloth to give lots of colour, the skin simply done in a 50:50 mix of PA Advanced Flesh Tone and Tan Flesh. The rider in off-white is done with PA Dark Ivory and the greens with PA Camo Green.

After that's all done then the whole model gets a wash over with Citadel Targor Rageshade, a slightly purplish brown shade. The basing material is Geek Gaming Scenics Mediterranean Soil stuck down with Mod Podge, it feels more permanent to me than

Victrix Islamic Horse Archers - credit Bair

Good Kit?

Yes. I think that should be fairly obvious is you read all of this, I even spoiled that for you at the very start! The models all go together very nicely, have plenty of options for variety in posing, and are nicely compatible with the unarmoured arms and heads from their other Islamic Cavalry set. What more could you want?

I'll echo Lenoon's thoughts from his outro of his review for the armoured cavalry that I'd really love to see more heavily armoured Mongols and camel riders from Victrix now. Plastic camel riders would just be excellent and an very easy quick "in" for me to doing yet another whole warband.

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