The popular perception of the Mongols is of hordes of horsemen sweeping down and destroying all before them, and there is much truth in that image. However horsemen, no matter how skilled, can only achieve so much and when the situation called for it the Mongols had to dismount, even in battle. As their empire expanded they were to find themselves in areas ill suited to cavalry such as Vietnam, so in some campaigns unmounted warriors were more important, although these were in large measure warriors from subject peoples rather then Mongols themselves. However there is no avoiding the need for dismounted action when conducting a siege, as the Mongols often did, and certainly actions like the two seaborne invasions of Japan needed many foot warriors, so despite being a mounted people by nature fighting on foot was required, and this set depicts such men for the first time since the handful of poses in the Zvezda set.
Whilst there are a fair number of archers in this selection many other Mongol weapons are also being used, and on the whole these are done correctly. There is only one spear, with the rest being swords, axes and a mace. The first figure in the top row has a ring hand and a choice of sword or axe. While some of the bows leave something to be desired in terms of shape the weapons are reasonable.
As might be expected there is quite a variety of costume here. Many men are armoured with what must be lamellar armour, and some have traditional Mongol costume. However as time went on the Mongols became increasingly influenced by their subject peoples, so Chinese and Muslim influences all contributed to a gradual change and broadening in Mongol style. Nonetheless much of what is on display here is typical Mongol and looks fine. All but the missile men are carrying small round shields, and while such shields are authentic it is likely that only a proportion of mongols on foot would have carried them, so having every man with one is somewhat unrepresentative in our view.
The sculpting is not good and in some areas it falls well below modern standards. A few of the poses are fairly flat and the ring hands need to be expanded a little to take the separate weapons, but there is no flash and detail is quite good. However once again we find Strelets figures with some elementary anatomy mistakes which spoil the look of these figures. Most obvious is the short arms, including the last man in the second row, who is stretching his right arm fully into the air yet cannot reach much beyond his head. Our first test of a good pose is to try and reproduce the stance ourselves, and this is one of those instances where no one actually has such short arms. Equally the man running with his axe behind him is a very awkward pose and not at all natural.
No army ever spent all of its time in the saddle, and a set of dismounted Mongols is a worthwhile addition to the existing mounted sets. However this is not a particularly good quality set and the sculptor needs to study the human form more before his next piece of work.