Book 3, List 37
Despite the changes brought in with DBM v3.0 this is still (in my opinion) undoubtedly one of the best competition lists for DBM, and some of the top UK players still use it regularly. That said like many of the "top" armies it takes practice to use successfully, and in the hands of a beginner it is often a failure. I decided to go for this army as I felt I needed a good competition army from this sort of time period and many of the figures I already had or could double up for other armies.
My figures are mainly Essex and old Mike's Models supplemented by my Grumpy's from the Ghurid army for the Ps archers.
It's strength is as a combined arms force containing Regular generals, Cv(S) and (O), LH(O) and (F), Ax(S) and Sp that can be supported by numerous Ps. There is also an option to upgrade some or all of the spearmen and archers into double based elements of Bw(X)/(O) which makes them very effective against Kn. On top of this the Ahl Khurasan Cv(O) can dismount as Sp(O) which can then be supported by the Ps archers! However, it is worth noting that this is not a tactic that the more successful players rely on, but they are well aware it is there as an option to protect the often vulnerable Cv(O). It has an ally option - Dynastic Bedouin, Hamdanid - who could bring a significant number of LH to add to the Abbasid's own, however, they probably already have enough LH(O) in the list anyway.
In use this army is definitely a Regular combined arms manoeuvre army. It has very few troops that can punch a hole in the enemy line by brute force; it relies on getting the right troops in the right place and getting overlaps and flank attacks. The supported Sp blocks can be relied on to hold ground and are pretty hard to break in a frontal fight - even the (I). Against lighter mounted opponents they could also be used 1 rank deep with Ps support to cover a large frontage whilst the mounted troops are massed elsewhere.
Like many of the Arab and other eastern armies it is not that good at dealing with bad going. It has 6 Dailami Ax(S) and the Abna can be fielded as Ax(S) as well for another 9 if you think they are going to be needed. However, to do the latter you lose the Reg Sp(O) option that may be more useful in an open competition scenario (of course if you play a 2 list competition you can take both options and choose at the start of each game).
It is worth noting that the Khurasanian list (book3, list 43) is quite similar to the Abbasid, which is hardly surprising as they were a break-away from the Kaliphate, but with some different options such as El(O), and is very much worth considering.
abbasidanticv.txt - an Abbasid army designed to fight armies based on Cv, 400AP.
abbasidantikn.txt - as above but based on fighting Kn and/or foot, 400AP.
abbasid400ap.txt - another 400AP army.
abbasid400ap2.txt - and another.