Although this is the first set produced with the label 'English Civil War', the figures from the Revell Thirty Years War range are equally appropriate for this conflict. It is fair to say therefore that this set has to be compared with the Revell sets, and that is a very hard act to follow.

This set provides the same sort of product as the Esci artillery sets - 16 men in four poses serving four guns. There are no horse teams and no equipment except what the men carry. The poses are nicely done and realistic, and their costume, which was purely civilian, is equally well done and accurate. All the men are armed with swords, which was common enough though not universal.

The gun is very nice, with a long barrel and carriage. The barrel has considerable decoration, which is well executed, and the carriage has as much detail as can reasonably be achieved within the limitations of the manufacturing process.

The big drawback of this set, especially when compared to the Revell artillery set, is that it would have been nice to see many more poses, and more figures generally. Even discounting the team to move the piece, a gun would need much more than four to serve it in battle. OK so the Revell set was almost too generous in what it provided, and we thought it was fantastic, but A Call To Arms should have provided a full crew for the guns.

These are nice accurate figures with little flash and expertly sculpted - in that sense at least this set is superior to the Revell artillery. Of course there was no difference between the look of artillery on the Royalist or the Parliamentary side, so this set is equally good for either. Great poses nicely sculpted and with a good quality finish, plus a very good gun. It's just a pity that the set only offers a minimum number of figures.