Through no fault of its own, La Haye Sainte must be one of the most famous farmhouses in history. On the 18th June 1815 it found itself a little forward of the Anglo-Allied position, a strongpoint defended as much to deny it to the enemy as to support the main line. Throughout the day, while the rest of the battle swirled around them, the defenders stubbornly defended their little fortress against numerous attacks, and only withdrew late in the afternoon after their ammunition had been exhausted. The French gleefully poured into their prize, but by then it was too late - the Prussians were arriving and the battle was being won elsewhere.
To mark the 200th anniversary of the battle, in 2015 Italeri produced their Waterloo 2 battleset. It contaned some good figures and a great partial model of the La Haye Sainte farmhouse, and perhaps its success inspired Italeri to make another set. Certainly the packaging for the first set would be dated as it explicitly refers to the anniversary, and so we have this latest set. The figures include some that had appeared in the first set, plus some new additions. They are:
These are all pretty nice figures; not without their faults, but good-looking and appealing, particularly for a child. During the day the farmhouse was defended principally by the Kings German Legion, assisted by some Nassau units and men from the 1/95th Rifles - the only British unit involved. Therefore all the Allied infantry in this set represent the KGL - some of Wellington's best troops, trusted with the hugely important task of keeping the farmhouse out of enemy hands. The Nassau troops are not represented however. The French infantry are a nice set and appropriate, but the staff and artillery sets have little to do with the action directly, though they do add variety to the range on offer. Equally the British artillery is peripheral to the fight for the farmhouse as no guns were placed inside the compound.
The centrepiece is the farmhouse. This is a complete model of the farmhouse, and includes the model included in the previous 2015 set plus extra buildings to complete the installation. As always, a terrific model, and from all appearances very much as the complex appeared on that historic day.
Like all the rest, the finished diorama pictured on the box is excellent. The figures are nicely painted, and the terrain is extremely good, with some of the best rendition of grass we have ever seen (usually this is far too long and bright green in our view). However the standout element for us is the painting of the buildings, and particularly the weathering and damage. The large wooden doors at the back are fantastic - they really look like doors with old paintwork gradually peeling away. Of course this requires a lot of skill, and the base, terrain and trees are not part of the box, so this is more of an ideal, but doubtless it sells product. Interestingly, the modeller has completely ignored those elements of this set that have little or nothing to do with the actual fight, so there are no French staff or British artillery.
This is a worthy successor to the previous Waterloo battleset, both for some nice figures and the complete farmhouse. Italeri have made about as much use as they can of the available figures, so while there are some compromises here, they do not serious impact the appeal, and of course the gaps can be filled by the output of other manufacturers. The whole battleset range from Italeri has proved to mostly be impressive and highly desirable, and this one is no exception.