From IannickM : Maryanna of the King (120 pts)

WOW, that was close! I did not think I would make it in time but I did! My last submission, submitted a half hour before the end, is a unit of Canaanite Royal Guards, "the Maryanna of the King". Excuse the less than perfect pictures, it's a bit late!

Each Canaanite city-state had its cast of maryannu, professionnal warrior whose wealth derived from his holding of a fief. Among the general warrior caste of maryanna was an inner elite of "picked men" (na'arun). These elite units comprised infantry as well as chariotry. From these picked men, a small battle guard called the Maryanna of the King served as Royal Guards.

We know very little about the appearance of these soldiers, so I had the choice to use pretty much any colours I wanted. My royal guard chariotry is dressed in  purple so I had to include the colour, and then I used turquoise for the shield and on the command group to differentiate them from my other elite soldiers. It looks like the kind of expensive colours a truly elite unit of the time would wear. While it is probably doubtful they had a common uniform, kings from the Pharaoh to Murat always enjoyed dressing up their elite soldiers so I figure why not? I will gladly accept pictures to prove me wrong ;-)

I find the bronze of the armour, helmets and weapons gives them a shiny look which works wonder as an elite and spoiled bunch. I normally am not a fan of single pose infantry, but it works well for troops which would be highly disciplined and it will make them stand out in my Canaanite army.

With this unit, I am but a few chariots away from finishing my Canaanite army, and actually respecting to the letter the plan I drew up around 2 years ago. That, is not something I manage often!

And, for the first time in the Analogue Challenge, I reached my goal and, even surpassed it! Yeah me!


From Curt:

Ah, its terrific to see you get another unit done for this army. (Hey, and there is that wonderful turquoise again!)  Such beautiful brushwork Iannick - I'm always amazed.  The next time we're in Montreal we're going to have to get in a game with these rockstars.

Again, great job!