The completed Canaanites of Arsephat, King of the Girgashites

The Complete Canaanites.  No base texturing yet!

Not a huge army, but still a challenging one.  The spear armed warriors and skirmishers give a solid base, with four of the elite Maryannu chariots.  I even included a "Royal Guard" of swordsmen as a strike force.  I`m not sure how well they will deal with the rampaging Peleset, but even if they prove difficult to use they have a lot of character.

Historically the Canaanites inhabited the southern Levant, typically in areas of the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.  The figures I chose for the army are pretty much ubiquitous however.  Representing a generic city state force from the Ancient near east I would be comfortable using these figures to represent pretty much any city state from the Levant, the Phoneticians or Ugarit itself, or even as far as the southern Anatolian coasts. 

Having visited the museums locally I`m equally happy that the Semetic look of these figures is pretty much usable for Cyprus too, prior to the Sea Peoples, and although I draw the line at using them as Hittites, meaning central Anatolian armies they would only need the hair extensions to be believable.    

According to the Holy Bible the Canaanites were a wicked, idolatrous people, descended from Noah's grandson Canaan.  They sound just the thing for one of my armies.  Given that the invading Hebrews practiced genocide, and seem proud of it, I have no problem being on the Canaanites side!  According to "Judges" the Canaanites included the Hivites, Girgashites, Jebusites, Amorites, Hittites, and Perizzites. 

Sodom and Gomorrah were typical Canaanite cities!

Professor Drews has a slightly different theory.  In Egyptian "Canaan" would be similar linguistically to "the subdued" and referred to the entire Levant.  The name came to mean the specific geographical area only later, in much the same way as the Romans, another super-power, named "Provence."  

I intend to give the Canaanites a try out against the Philistines at the weekend.  

As the Holy Bibley says, "By his armies shall ye Know him," wicked idolatrous Canaanites and Philistines in my case... apparently.

George!

As yet I have very little in the way of names for my characters but one that does appeal is "Adonijah," but only as played by veteran actor George Sanders in the Biblical Epic "Soloman and Sheba."  Now that is a move that has the Look. Yes he may be a back stabbing git, but he has style... 
With the Sacred Casket of Baal as its sacred relic (seen here behind my commander, and rumoured to contain a teste of the storm god severed by Vectron himself) the Canaanites are ready to go.

My Canaanite General will be Arsephat, (an Ugaritic name, but used here for the King of the Girgashites)  His eldest and most smug son Prince Yul-Yassib (as played by Yul Brynner) and his younger son the Prince Adonijah of the Girgashites, as played by the great Girgashite George himself.

I will have to work out a rule for "set your men to polish their shields  and the Egyptians must now drive into a chasm."  (that movie has some of the greatest ham lines ever written, and they are delivered with absolute Biblical sincerity) To be honest I`m more worried that the Girgashites will be more interested in polishing their helmets than their shields.