Araby army

[jchaos79]

Hi, I'm just thinking in a 1500 fantasy army, so I decide go for this list

6x spearmen     45*6 =250

4x archers        55*4 = 220

2x Knights  110*2 = 220

2x desert raiders 80*2 = 160

-----------------------------------------  subtotal core army = 850

3x guards 70*3 = 210

1x flying carpets 1*85 = 85

1x camel riders 1*100 = 100

----------------------------------------  subtotal especials troops army = 395

1x general 125

1x heroe + fate sword (+5) = 85

1x mage 45

----------------------------------------- subtotal command = 255

TOTAL = 1500   Break point =10

Any advice/criticisim/comment is very welcome

[David Wasilewski]

Looks good but personally, I'd lose one of those guards and perhaps a spearman and buy another camel rider unit (perhaps you could mount one of your characters on a flying carpet with the points left over)

Dave

[jchaos79]

Hi Dave,

Never played with araby yet, but just think a little bit how to command the army. The option you suggest of adding camels (cav) is interesting by the choice of move a brigade of two camels raiders without distance penalities, but quite risky. They have -1 command so should be the general who take the chance. As I see araby army has very few command characters (Ld, 9, 8, and 7) which I guess is difficult to manage moving a 6 or 7 brigades,  so I believe trusting in camels could make you fail general orders and stack the army.

Guards brigaded improve the first order with general to command to 10. So I think is more valuable having a 3 unit brigade of guards to move for sure 1 per turn without distance penalities.

Even also considered to get rid of the camels and maximize guards, but I like the idea of having camels in the army because takes a lot flavour and I like the concept, so finally I decide to introduce it in the list.

Are my thoughts rights or should I max camels and get rid of 1 guard? 

[Claus]

Well....there are two approaches.....

The effective army set up and the style set up

If you want to have an effective army:

Reduce the spearmen to max 5 units.
Don´t take guards....use spearmen instead. (the 5+ save and ability to succeed first command on 10+ ist not worth the 25 points difference-- > my opinion)
Use more Knights

An effective list could look like this:

1 General
1 Hero
1 Wizzard
6 Spearmen
4 Archers
6 Knights
1 Desert Rider

1480 points and Breakpoint 9 but there is a risk of succesfull commands as you have only the General and 1 Hero.
(You could get rid of Desert Riders and take 1 hero in addition)

The fancy play stile list:

Well....no recommendations here from my side but if you want to go with Desert Guards and Camel Riders.
Don´t mix the brigades and take at least 3 units of the same as. As someone mentioned allready.....with Camel Riders you allways risk to spare your General for giving orders to the Camel Riders.....I learned not to do it this way....I usually take Heros to command the Camel riders to have the command value 9 for the other troops.....this turned out to be much more effective for my playstile (which I consider as "agrressive" one)

There are a lot of different ways to set up an Araby army.....and all of them make fun....beleave me.

Regards
Claus

[David Wasilewski]

I play regularly against Araby (3-4K though) and my opponent has a very nasty tactic of using a brigade of camels and a brigade of guards thrown out on one flank. He uses the general each turn to move the guards once and then move the camels once. This "Camel Corps" (as I call it) is a good, combined arms flanking force that justifies the tying up of the generals rolls each turn in my opinion. Of course, in emergencies the general can choose to issue his orders elsewhere.

Statistically, our group agrees that Camels are, point for point, better than the desert riders. I would only field desert riders for the aesthetics/fluff of the army, not because they are particularly good.

I agree re Guards being expensive. For effectiveness I would only field them in large games - the ability to always move a brigade on an unmodified 10 is powerful. In small, penny packets they are less good value.

Dave

[jchaos79]

Ok, thanks for the feedback,

@Claus, I think with 1500 points you only can have 1 hero, 1 wizard and 1 general

[Claus]

@jchaos79

No...it´s unfortunately a mistake in the initial list for Araby army where you were limited to 1 Hero per 1000 pts. (it´s a confirmed mistake)

Araby can take 2 Heros per 1000 pts.

Regards
Claus

[Lex]

Correct !!

[Claus]

@David

I learned to love the Desert Riders.

Usualy I have 2-3 units in my army set up and most of the time I add 1 unit of Desert Riders to 2 units of Araby Knights.
This way I can charge the front of other heavy armorder cavalry units with my Knights and putting the Desert Riders in the edge as the front is allready covered.....and in total I spare 90 points (compared to Knights) which I can spend for an additional Hero or flying carpet unit 

Regards
Claus

[jchaos79]

@jchaos79

No...it´s unfortunately a mistake in the initial list for Araby army where you were limited to 1 Hero per 1000 pts. (it´s a confirmed mistake)

Araby can take 2 Heros per 1000 pts.

Regards
Claus

uuups I thought having only one hero was one of the peculiarites of the araby list which made it more interesting/different/difficult to play with. The special units have influences in command (camels and guards) and I thought this could balance the lack of one hero. (never playtested yet)

Yep It seems two heroes makes it more playable, but I got a little deception because now it is more "regular"

thanks for the answer!