One of the most important battles of the Napoleonic Wars, Austerlitz is often referred to as Napoleon's masterpiece, where the new emperor took on a larger Austro-Russian army and won a decisive victory that would shape Europe for the next decade. Sokolnitz was one of the villages on the battlefield, and a key building used as a strongpoint was Sokolnitz Castle, really more of an extensive manor house complex with farm buildings. This would see considerable fighting throughout the day, and makes a suitable landmark for the wider battle. Their eventual defeat would send Austria out of the war, force the Russians back to their own country, and bring many concessions to the benefit of France and her allies.
For reasons unknown, Italeri departed from their previous policy of numbering their battlesets starting with '61', and numbered this set as 6071, putting it amongst their range of figures. This gives it a code that precedes the rest of the range, which might make it seem like it was the first of its kind, yet it was actually released in 2025, on the 220th anniversary of the battle, and after over 30 other battlesets had already been released.
In the early days of the hobby, such Napoleonic figures as were available concentrated almost entirely on the last few years of the Napoleonic Wars, so that recreating a battle such as Austerlitz was virtually impossible. In the 21st century that situation has improved enormously, with many sets suitable for the 1805 period, and many of these have been made by Italeri themselves. Therefore they were in a great position to bring out a set such as this, which includes several of their figure sets as well as a model of Sokolnitz Castle as a central focus. The figures to be found in this battleset are:
All these are nice sets, and while they all have some issues, these are relatively minor, and they generally showcase the good sculpting Italeri have brought to most of their figure sets. The various reviews give some indication as to their relevance specifically to the Battle of Austerlitz, but in general almost all are suitable. However they are not necessarily typical, so the Russian grenadiers are not typical of ordinary Russian line infantry, and how great a role the hussars played in the defence of the castle is open to question. Purists may have some quibbles, but this is a battleset and mostly about fun, and these figures look great in the various scenes photographed on the box. Note however that someone has put the painting instructions for the wrong set of French infantry in the accompanying leaflet, which is sloppy quality control!
The usual MDF laser cut building for the set is the Sokolnitz Castle, which as we have said was not a castle at all. The impressive manor house is to the top of the above photograph, and the other large building is a barn. At the bottom of the image is what the box calls a stable, and these are all connected by a number of walls to form a courtyard. Images of what this complex looked like on the day of the battle are hard to find, but the buildings still exist today in modified form, and from what we can tell from this evidence this is a pretty good model, true to the general look of the buildings. It is however quite a bit smaller than the real thing, which is to be expected given the limitations involved in producing such a model, but it is plenty large enough to be a satisfying environment for the battle going on around it. Both the house and barn have internal floors which give some scope for deploying troops at the windows, so as usual this is a lovely model that really adds greatly to the play value of this set.
As always, the box and leaflet contain excellent photos of a beautifully made example of the set, with well-painted figures and buildings, and plenty of good terrain details. Much time and skill would be required to create a model of this quality from the basic ingredients included, and a few extra materials, so these are aspirational images that will hopefully excite and inspire modellers to make something of beauty out of this set.
Italeri have a very large range of figures on their books, but until now their only Napoleonic battlesets were of Waterloo, so it is great to see them expand into other, equally important battles. Many other sets of figures can be added to this one to better depict such a crucial battle, but as an inspirational gateway to the joys of Napoleonic dioramas this lovely set does very well, and with a terrific model building, there should be much fun to be had in putting it together.