This is a guest post by Anatoli- make sure to check him out at Anatoli's Game Room!
There are a couple of options for those interested in fielding Polish Early War cavalry in Flames of War (and 15mm WW2 in general). Up until now the ones' I've been familiar with were Battlefront and Old Glory/True North. Not that long ago, Forged in Battle released their cavalry adding another alternative to the list.
Being a huge fan of Forged in Battle castings and quality I purchased a blister so that I could flesh out my cavalry company. The blister contains enough miniatures to give you:
1 company command base (2 models)
4 bases of cavalry (4 models per base)
1 base of 2nd in command/anti-tank rifle team (2 models)
20 models in total, of which 1 was the obvious commander, 2 buglers and 17 riflemen. There is no obvious mounted anti-tank rifleman, which is a bit of a shame since the troop organization and real life had the cavalry equipped with these weapons. I can possibly imagine Forged in Battle releasing cavalry anti-tank rifles in the future as a standalone blister, just like they did with the regular infantry anti-tank rifle teams.
Quality wise the models are what you would expect from Forged in Battle if you are already familiar with their product. That is, crisp and clear sculpting style, good quality metal and good castings. I only had 1 model (a horse) that had a bit of a miscast lower jaw.The Forged in Battle cavalry is available in two versions, 1 blister with lances and field caps, and 1 blister with Adrian helmets and rifles. The field cap/lancers were released first, and when that happened I emailed FiB and asked if they would consider making a version with rifles (as that was how approximately 99 % of the Polish cavalry were armed during combat in 1939), the lance was for parades and no longer standard issue. Cavalry in 1939 had rifle and sabers for close combat, anti tank rifles and artillery for taking care of vehicles. I don't know if my question prompted the sculpting of the second blister, but I'm happy they did.
I really love the riders, they are perfect, the crest on the Adrian helmets may appear to be a bit too pronounced until you paint it, when it looks quite right. The horses are more "chubby" than the Old Glory/True North horses that I already owned. The thichkness of the horses is good as the riders legs aren't hanging down the sides and past the abdomen of the horse. The length of the horses is perhaps a bit short and the animals may appear a bit "stocky". They could have been a tad larger. Height wise they are a good match with the FiB infantry, the mounted riders really loom over the infantry as they should.
Of all 3 manufacturers I would go with Forged in Battle for a couple of reasons.
First of all they are cheaper than both Battlefront and Old Glory/True North.
The sculpting is better than Battlefront, quality of metal is better than Old Glory/True North (models are not soft metal, neither are they too hard).
A blister gives you the correct number of horses needed for a platoon, the same can be said of Battlefront but take into account the other reasons above.
The few negative things are:
No mounted anti-tank rifleman sculpt
The horses could have been a tiny bit longer.
It should be noted that you don't get any bases with Forged in Battle miniatures so you have either to buy separate Battlefront bases or laser cut MDF bases from Warbases.co.uk
Taking into account that this blister is the first ever cavalry from Forged in Battle I think they did a good job.
