French cavalry under Louis XIV was divided into three groups. The most important formed part of the Maison du Roi, the Royal Household troops, and the various such companies have already been produced by Strelets in several sets. The second group was the Gensdarmes, of slightly lower status than the Maison du Roi, and consisting of 12 companies during the War of the Spanish Succession. The bulk of the cavalry were in the third and final group – named the cavalerie légère. Despite the name they were not light cavalry in the sense understood today; they were so named in the 17th century to distinguish them from the cavalry that wore the cuirass, which was termed ‘heavy’ cavalry, and while by 1700 this distinction no longer applied, the name remained. True light cavalry only appeared in the 1690s, when the first hussars made their appearance in the French Army, and while dragoons were mounted, they were not generally considered as cavalry during this period. So it is the ordinary line cavalry, the third and final group, that is portrayed by this set (although the Gensdarmes looked the same as the line cavalry, so can also be represented by these figures).

The cavalerie légère was armed and clothed much like the horse of any other Western European nation of the period, and the figures in this set reflect that well. They have a tricorn hat and a closed coat with large cuffs, aiguillette on the right shoulder, and no collar, which largely hides their waistcoat and breeches. Their boots extend to cover the knee, and every man wears gauntlets. The coats of the officer and standard-bearer have considerable lace decoration, and that of the trumpeter is awash with it, as it should be (colours being those of the king if a royal regiment, otherwise those of the colonel). This last also has the false sleeves which were still traditional for trumpeters in the early 18th century, so all of the clothing here is correct.

The standard weaponry for such men consisted of a sword, a carbine and a brace of pistols, as we see in this set. The sword correctly hangs from a waist belt by this time rather than the earlier baldric, and the carbine is held on the right side from a belt over the left shoulder. Also held by the waist belt is a small cartridge pouch which contained 12 charges, and also a powder flask, tucked behind the carbine. The powder flask was an item carried by dragoons, and as the line cavalry had prepared charges, they had no need for extra powder, so this flask is wrong, but hard to see and very easy to trim away. Otherwise, the weaponry and kit is accurate here.

The horses here are the same as used in several previous sets of French cavalry of the period, and are equally appropriate for line cavalry as for the elites. Our comment on them is the same as for previous appearances, which is that they are not all good or natural poses, though most look to be at the gallop, so are at the very final stage of a charge. The saddlery and pistol holsters look reasonable, but for line cavalry the roll at the rear of the saddle is likely to be a rolled cloak rather than the valise modelled here, though the difference on these models is slight.

If the poses of the horses are not great, then those of the men are much better. The selection includes mostly men wielding their sword in various ways, all facing forward as if in a charge, which matches the horses well. Two of the poses are holding a pistol, which was only effective at very close range, so very unlikely to be held whilst on a horse at full gallop, but on a more suitable mount these men work for a close-quarters fight. It was common for a pistol to be fired on its side, with the lock uppermost, to help reduce the risk of a misfire, but the fact that one man here fires it upright is not necessarily a problem. The trumpeter is quite dramatic, holding his instrument in the air for some reason, perhaps carried away by the thrill of the charge, but the standard-bearer is much more conventional, as is the officer, holding sword aloft and turning as if to yell encouragement to his men. We thought all of the poses were reasonable, and if a less excitable trumpeter is required, then this can be obtained from other sets.

The sculpting of the Strelets range for the War of the Spanish Succession has been remarkably consistent, and this set is just the same. Detail is pretty good, and the general anatomy and postures are fine. There is a slightly chunky feel to the figures, and some smaller items can be a bit thicker than would be ideal, though this is not too bad. The swords are a good example. The blade of the real thing was usually about 90 cm long, but here they are 11 mm in length, which equates to 79 cm, so not hugely different, but not quite right either. The fit of the man with the horse is generally a bit poor – most figures hover just above the saddle rather than touching it, but there are exceptions. The last three figures in our images have all been given much fuller coat tails, which means they have absolutely no chance of sitting on the saddle on any horse. You can mitigate this by giving them the one horse pose that has no roll at the back, which is still not good but at least a bit less bizarre, but of course there are only two of this horse, and there are three problem figures. This is really poor design, and a hard thing to solve except by sourcing a horse from elsewhere. Flash is about average, in that most seams have some, but nothing too terrible in most places.

There are a few other details worthy of note. The officer is the only figure that wears a cuirass under his coat, which is as per regulation, though in reality there seems to have been much reluctance on the part of many officers to do this, as the rule was often repeated through the period. This man also has a particularly large wig, which is something that was very much subject to fashion, but perfectly plausible here, though the wig of the standard-bearer is much more orthodox in shape and size. The standard this man carries is roughly 13 mm (94 cm) square plus the fringe, which we initially thought seemed rather large. Indeed, most sources state that the standard was between 50 and 60 cm square, though whether this was always the case is unknown. René Chartrand in his Osprey title (below) contradicts this and says standards could be around 100 cm square, which matches what Strelets have modelled, but in his more recent work for Helion he changes this to the usual 50 to 60 cm claim, so we remain unconvinced about the large size of this model. Whatever the truth, the standard has a nice fringe but is otherwise unengraved, but includes tasselled cords as it should. The staff is of a fair length, and shaped like a jousting lance with a rail to attach it to the belt, which is all correct.

At its peak during the wars for the Spanish crown there were well over 100 regiments of French line cavalry, which made it the largest cavalry force in Western Europe, and a very important part of the forces at Louis’s command. Having covered all the important, but small, cavalry of the Maison du Roi, Strelets needed to add the ordinary cavalry to their range, and this set does that pretty well. The figure poses are good, but the horses are not so great, and the inability to sit some of the men on the animals is inexcusable. The extra powder flasks and the over-large standard are likely errors, though both are relatively straight-forward to resolve, and the sculpting is pretty nice too. The ability to also use these figures for Gensdarmes, and to potentially use them for other nationalities, makes this a very useful set, but Strelets need to make sure they make riders that can fit their horses, especially when reusing horses sculpted long before.