In Greek warfare the cavalry had not been particularly important because of the terrain - the infantry hoplite ruled all - but both Philip II of Macedonia and his son, Alexander the Great, built up their cavalry element, quite possibly in anticipation of their struggle with the Persian Empire. Under these two innovators, Macedonian infantry was made heavier and became the anvil on which an enemy was crushed by the hammer of the heavy cavalry. The cavalry was formed in a wedge shape to allow greater manoeuvrability, and by the time of the conquest of the Empire it was made up of units from various sources and with different roles. The most famous however was the Companion cavalry, usually led by Alexander himself.
Zvezda's set of Macedonian Cavalry can be summed up in one word - beautiful. You get a good number of poses, and a good number of horses. The men are absolute top quality, beautifully detailed and perfectly sculpted. Even the figures with ring hands to accommodate separate weapons have those hands well proportioned, unlike the chunky rings sometimes seen.
The set has a good variety of weapons and costume, and also includes a figure of Alexander himself, advancing on his steed. We can tell that it is supposed to be Alexander as it is clearly based on the Alexander Mosaic found in Pompeii, as are most modern representations of him. In fact, as he was frequently in the thick of the fighting, he would normally have worn a boeotian helmet, but Zvezda probably omitted this to make it more obvious that this was Alexander.
The set seems to depict figures from several branches of Alexander's cavalry, and there are problems with the accuracy of some of them. The most obvious problem is that Alexander's cavalry, Macedonian or Greek, did not carry shields, so three of these figures are therefore unusable as the shields are a part of the whole piece. Various details of many of the figures also seem inappropriate, often making them look more like Macedonian cavalry of two centuries later on, during the rise to power of Rome.
Accurate or not, these are well produced pieces. There are no mould lines and no flash, which makes the mistakes in terms of accuracy all the more frustrating.