Medieval sergeants have already been quite well represented in this hobby, so we need not describe them again here. They were a crucial element of any Teutonic army, and while inferior to the Brother knights they could be almost as well clothed, armoured and armed, although some would have been much more poorly resourced. Mars have already made such men on foot, so this set of mounted sergeants is a logical next step.
The most obvious of the many faults in the set of foot sergeants was that the figures were far too large for 1/72 scale, so those considering a purchase of the mounted version will be reassured to know these are not so bad. They are, however, still considerably taller than the average European of the period around 1410, and so manage to poorly match both the foot set and the properly-scaled sets available from other manufacturers. Properly scaling their figures remains a serious problem for Mars, although this set suggests they are at least heading in the right direction.
Another problem common to many Mars sets is the quite dreadful horse poses. Whoever sculpts the horses clearly has no good feel for the animal as these are pretty bad. They are the same as those found in the set of Mounted Crossbowmen, and have therefore been adequately described in that earlier review. However here there is scope for horses in all modes including the charge, so some will be disappointed to see that all the animals are in quite a relaxed mood, apparently trotting at most. All the horse furniture however does look reasonable, if sometimes poorly done.
The poses of the men is somewhat better, although the man with his arm wrapped tightly around his head (middle of the top row) looks far from natural. Several of the others do not give the appearance of being in a fight, which is not necessarily a problem but is worthy of note.
The sculpting is nothing to get excited about, although the men are at least more realistic than many of the horses. There is fair detail, but some elements are awkward and it is not always clear what is being depicted. There is relatively little flash except for a few areas where it is extensive, but particular mention must go to the last figure in the second row. His helmet is severely crushed on the right side, which would certainly be fatal, so removing the large lump of flash from that figure merely reveals that something went badly wrong in this area. It is all pretty unimpressive, but regular readers of our Mars reviews will perhaps guess where the worst element is. Points to anyone that said the weapons sprue, because once again we find a set with what is little more than an engraved slab, from which you are optimistically supposed to retrieve any of a variety of weapons. Pick any of our reviews of Medieval Mars sets and you will get the idea; this is an almost entirely useless component and you are much better off arming these fellows with weapons from another producer.
While there may be plenty of fault with the crude production values, the accuracy is perfectly good. The men mostly wear the bascinet or war hat and a variety of mail and plate armour, as well as some quilted garments. Everything here looks reasonable, although it is with relief that we see the sculptor failed to engrave the cross depicted on the box artwork, which is as well as sergeants were not permitted to wear such devices! Many of the figures wear cloaks, which would not normally have been worn in battle as they restricted movement, particularly of the sword arm. However since all the cloak-wearers are fairly sedate they are probably not in battle anyway.
A subject such as this offers a lot of leeway in terms of accuracy, which always helps, but a sergeant at Tannenberg would not have difficulty recognising these men by their costume and weaponry. What he, and we, would struggle with are the basic stances of both man and beast, and the very poor production quality of the weapons in particular. This very unattractive set offers nothing particularly new, and while we applaud the Mars philosophy of covering a subject comprehensively it has to be said that there are alternative figures out there, and many people will probably choose to go with them instead.