Like World War II, the American Civil War is an immensely popular choice for modellers and wargamers, and that is partly down to the large number of battles big and small which can be depicted, refought and analysed. Italeri produced their Gettysburg set quite early on in the range, and they had a wealth of choices for other major battles when they came to put this new product together. In fact they went for a generic action, named so as to include some interesting buildings, but doubtless fairly typical of many actions fought in and around farms in both the eastern and western theatres.
As always, we start with the figures, and there are no surprises as to the choices made here:
For some reason the Union cavalry did not make it into the final product, despite a mention on the side of the box, and inclusion in the beautiful made-up diorama widely photographed on the box. Clearly the decision to exclude this set was made very late on, when print decisions had already been made. Of course, there is nothing to stop you painting some of the Confederate cavalry for the Union, just as the box mentions confederate artillery when in fact you would have to paint some Union artillery as Confederates. With the civil war many, perhaps most figures can be placed on either side simply by changing the paint scheme, so there is plenty here for both sides. Of particular interest is the generous quantities of artillery. Although the crew figures are the same in both sets, they do provide a good range of ordnance, making the guns quite a feature of this set. The usual battlefield accessories are already taken care of thanks to their inclusion in the first artillery set, which leaves us with just the two buildings to complete the package. Both are laser-cut MDF models, one of a farmhouse and the other of a barn.
The farmhouse is pictured above, and is quite small and plain. Certainly it is much less impressive than the drawing on the side of the box - again it seems the box was developed long before the final makeup of the set was confirmed. What we get is a small building with hardly any windows, which seems like a very poor place to make a home. However we have no particular reason to think it is inaccurate.
The barn building is rather more impressive. Again this is a marketing shot taken by Italeri, so it shows it in the finished state with a nice paint job rather than the actual raw wood, but as can be seen it is rather larger than the house, has an upper storey, and looks pretty typical of the period and area. Whether many fights ended up happening in and around a barn we do not know, but it seems perfectly likely, and this looks like a nice model as a platform for your troops.
The usual, multiple pictures of different aspects of a diorama made in part with the components of this set decorate the back of the box, and once again the quality of the piece is very good. There are lovely painted figures, a great finish to the buildings and some good terrain features. Of course there is no base or terrain features in the box, as like the figures of the Union cavalry, this much overplays what you get in the box. Nevertheless few among us can deny taking pleasure in looking at such lovely dioramas, and it suggests what can be achieved using this set as a starting point.
In general these are good figures, although we have our reservations about how the artillery crewmen are presented. Nevertheless, with a nice barn and adequate farmhouse, this makes yet another attractive product which largely offers a complete battle in a single box.