The Ansar to Woebetides Arabs?

When I first started planning the new Woebetides campaign my thought was that the Gripping Beast plastic Arab infantry would, with a little conversion, be usable as coastal Arabs and or Company Sepoys.  However, Jamie's had a look at them and his view is that they wouldn't work well as they are all designed to hold shields in their left hands and would look odd without them.

So when I was in Wargames Emporium at lunchtime on Friday, my eye was drawn to the Perry Miniatures Mahdist Ansar.

Fortunately I was able to have a look at the contents and I think they should be eminently usable.  Contrary to what you'd think looking at the box art, the sprues do contain non-Beja heads and I think I can add a few muskets from the Warlord American militia sprues donated by Geoff Taylor.

The unlooked for bonus was that there was a sale on so the price was reduced from £20.00 to £16.44 - some kind of English Civil War reference?

So 40 figures will give me three units of 10 militia, one of six skirmishers and a few leaders maybe?  Not straight away though; I've two boxes of Warlord European infantry to work my way through first!