Throughout the First World War, the Eastern Front presented some very different problems to those on the Western Front. It’s sheer length was a major headache, as it meant it could not be held at all points with the same concentration of troops found in France, so lightly held stretches had to be regularly patrolled by cavalry. In addition, the relatively fluid warfare of that front gave cavalry more scope for meaningful actions, and their reconnaissance role was vital, so it was no wonder that Russia deployed vast numbers of mounted men, including perhaps over 130,000 non-Cossacks, during the conflict. While a key element of their role was to exploit breakthroughs in the enemy line, when such breakthroughs did not occur they still had an important part to play.

At the outbreak of war, half the men in each non-Cossack regiment carried the lance, and they formed the front rank, so we find several of the figures in this set carrying one. Lancer poses are very tricky to do using conventional moulds, so unless you have a separate arm you are mostly limited to holding the lance upright or having it level, and all here have it upright. While a perfectly valid pose, it does not give the impression of battle, so while it works well as a game marker, it has little value in a dramatic diorama, and is hardly an exciting figure. The fourth man is holding his rifle to the side, so again is a reasonable but passive pose. The lancers have their rifle slung on their back, and all of them have a sword as a sidearm, but have not drawn it. The fifth man is an officer, and he has drawn his sword, though he is holding it out directly to his side, which is a very odd pose that is easy to sculpt but makes no sense in the real world. So the poses are very limited and frankly quite dull if reasonable, except for the poor officer pose holding his sword.

Each lance is about 42 mm long, which equates to just over three metres, so is a correct length, and as they have no pennon, this too is correct. The rifles are not particularly clear, but look about the right shape and size, and the swords in their scabbards, though also lacking much definition, seem reasonable too. That of the officer however is bad. To begin with, it is enormous, with a blade of about 1.1 metres in length, and it is also very curved. The standard Russian cavalry sword of 1914 was the M1881, which had a blade length of about 86 cm and was only slightly curved. The scabbard of this officer follows this description exactly, which means his sword could not possibly fit into it, which looks absurd. While officers did sometimes have leeway in regards to such things, the mismatch of sword and scabbard is an obvious flaw, and it just looks wrong overall. Ideally too the scabbards of all the men should also house the bayonet for their rifles, but this small detail is not present here, though the pistol holster for the officer is a good feature.

In 1914 the Russian Army was dressed, like most European armies of the day, in a practical and relatively simple uniform, which in this case was based on traditional peasant’s garb, and so differed from that of other European states. All the men wear 1907 service dress, consisting of a peaked cap, a pullover tunic called a gymnastiorka, breeches and riding boots, all of which has been well done here. Normally they would wear pouches on their waist belt, but none have them here, and instead their only item of kit is a bandolier slung around their body over the left shoulder. For warm weather, therefore, these figures are properly dressed.

The four horse poses available in this set are exactly the same as those in the HaT set of WWI Russian Cossacks, and only differ from those in their WWI German cavalry sets in their saddlery. The poses themselves are not the worst we have seen, but don’t survive close scrutiny, partly because so many hooves are flat on the ground, but in some cases the legs are poorly posed too. To their credit, none of them seem to be at full stretch, and the two lower poses are standing still, which is the most useful pose, especially as the riders too are not active. The kit is minimal – just a rolled greatcoat across the front of the saddle, and a small valise at the back, so no saddlebags or other impedimenta, items that were standard and so should have been included here.

The sculpting on display here is fair but not brilliant. Detail is fairly soft but the proportions are good and the faces have some character to them. There is a fair amount of flash, including some large tabs, although these are easy to remove, but there is some excess plastic between the rifle and the man on all the lancers. While the men fit easily onto their mounts, this is very loose and they will need securing in order to stay in the saddle.

The box claims 12 mounted figures, and so there are, as only 12 horses are included. Since there are 15 riders, this is presumably to allow us to have an officer pose without forcing 3 such officers for every nine troopers, which would be excessive in a set with only four poses. However the lance is somewhat over represented, since only half the men should have one, not three-quarters of them (one lancer pose could have been a man holding a sword perhaps), and all the poses are quite sedate, with a poor and very flat officer. Accuracy is mostly good, with fair sculpting, so with only a few small issues this is an appropriate set, particularly for depicting the cavalry in their most common stance, of waiting for a breakthrough that wouldn’t come. However, this is not one of those figure sets that generates much excitement or admiration.