The Tauregs - DBA120a
(900-1800 AD)
By Eric Lindberg
An ethnic branch of the Berbers, the nomadic Tuaregs historically inhabited the central
and western Sahara, in an area covering portions of what is now Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso,
Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, and Morocco.
Named Tuareg or "abandoned of God" by crusading Arabs, they refer to
themselves as the "Imashaghen," (the noble and the free), "Kel
Tamashek" (speakers of the Tamashek language) or "Kel Taggelmoust" (wearers
of the blue veil).
Until the twentieth century, they lived off the Saharan caravan trade as merchants,
bandits, and mercenaries, all based on their skills as camel riders. The Tuareg capital in
medieval times was Tadamakkat (in the Adrar-N-Ifogas of Mali).
There is no DBA list for Tauregs and it turns out that the Tuaregs only account for one
optional stand of camels in the West Sudanese (#120) list. Here's a proposed Tuareg list,
based upon the DBM army book 3:
6x 3Cm, 3x 3Cm or 3Wb, 2x 3Wb or 3Ax or 2Ps, 1x 3Cm or 2LH
Enemies
The enemies of the Tuareg would be the West Sudanese, Berber, and fellow Tuareg.
Painting Tips
Taureg are easily recognized by their dark blue turbans and veils, usually worn with a
lighter blue robe. Tuareg camels tend to be white or light brown. Absolutely no worry
about choosing color schemes here!
From what I could make out, the veil is always a very dark blue, with a "stamped
indigo" cloth being particularly prized. This has an almost satin look to it in
texture. (An excuse to use a medium gloss paint.) Some of the pictures show the robes to
be a lighter blue, or sometimes even a white, but I had the impression that this might be
a style borrowed from the Berbers. Then again, it might be due to differences in style
between Tuareg tribes.
Taureg Beads and Art has a few
samples of Tuareg art. This and the "Lonely Planet" Travel Guide to West Africa
book gave me some inspiration for the belts, javelin cases, and so on. Basically, I used
lots of deep red, silver, and bronze colors, highlighting with bright green, orange, and
yellow.
I painted the camels by dry-brushing an off-white over a brown base, and then covering
it in a yellow-brown ink wash. The shields are supposed to be of white oryx-hide.
Other bits of trivia about the Tuaregs of little to no value in painting, but worth
mentioning: They are among the earliest North African converts to Islam, but continue to
use a cross motif in their artwork to this day, probably as a remnant of pre-Islamic
Christian beliefs. They are, to my knowledge, the only Islamic culture in which men, but
not women, wear veils to cover their faces. Despite, or perhaps because of, the historic
availability of gold from the Sahel south of the Sahara, the Tuaregs favor silver jewelry.
Tauregs also bore a straight, double-edged sword with simple cross-guard called the akouba, which is
comparable to medieval European rather than to tradional curved Arabic swords.
I just finished adding the hide shields to a couple of the figures. The combination of
the blue robes and the tan shields has me humming the university of Michigan fight song.
On further research, however, the tan should probably be white.
Notes on Miniatures
I bought a sampler of Peter Pig 15mm Tuaregs through Brookhurst Hobbies. There are five
different packs of camel riders and three packs of infantry (four if you count the
casualties). These come eight infantry and four camelry to a pack. The infantry have three
poses each. The camelry include two poses each. Do the math, and that comes to nine
infantry poses and ten camelry poses. In addition, there are four different types of hide
shields that are glued on separately. A Tuareg army is mostly just camelry and warband,
but the variety looks quite good.
Peter Pig 15mm figures are slightly smaller than Essex, for comparison, but not
noticeably so. The figures also tend to look a little stocky. Flash is minimal, and the
poses all look good, and are appropriately active. (In DBM, Tuaregs are an all-impetuous
army that make Medieval French knights look sedate by comparison.)
Other Resources
General Information on
Tauregs: The best site to start with, if you're willing to plow through all of the
incidental information. A lot of the sites are also in French, but the pictures are the
most useful part for painting anyway.
Taureg Beads and Art: has a few
samples of Tuareg art.
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Last Updated: Jan 2, 2001
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