Hyksos is a term used to describe the people who overran Egypt and established a dynasty at the end of the Middle Bronze Age. They came from the east to invade Egypt where Aamu or Amorite tribes had been living for centuries.
It is postulated that the Hyksos, (meaning “rulers of foreign lands”), were generally an Amorite people. As such, their dress and military tactics would have been similar, if not the same, as the Amorite Kingdoms of Mesopotamia and Syria, which had existed for the past 500 years. Indeed it is possible the Hyksos were those Amorites who had been displaced following the destruction of the Early Babylonian state at the end of the Middle Bronze Age. In the absence of evidence to the contrary or indeed much evidence at all, it is suggested that the army would therefore have initially appeared like those of an Later Amorite city-state.
Early Hyksos armies can be built using figures from the Amorite Kingdoms and Early Desert & Dry-Steppe Nomad ranges. For the core of the army it is suggested that the Medium Retainer Infantry, Later Household Archers, and the Early 2-Horse Chariots, (particularly Early 2-Horse Chariot III) be used, along with the various skirmishers, (Levy Archers, Javelinmen and Slingers). More recent evidence from the apparent Hyksos settlement of Avaris on the eastern Nile delta seems to indicate that the Hyksos were not responsible for introducing the chariot into Egypt at the time of their “invasion”. A very early Hyksos army can therefore be built without any chariots.
However, once the Hykos had taken control of Lower Egypt, by the time of the 15th and 16th Dynasties, it is likely that these later Hyksos forces would have taken on a more Egyptian appearance. As such, later Hyksos forces can be built using the following: Egyptian Close-Fighters I, Egyptian Archers and Egyptian Chariot I. These can be supplemented with Amorite style skirmishers as with the Early Hyksos (Levy Javelinmen, Archers and Slingers).
