The French and Indian War is often seen as a part of the Seven Years War, although it is usually seen as beginning two years before that conflict in Europe. It was essentially a conflict between British and French colonists as both sought to expand their influence and control, gain trading rights with the natives, and protect themselves from their European rivals. The nature of the war was largely one of capturing or defending isolated forts scattered throughout the disputed territory, and the armies involved often number only a few hundred, so it was very different to wars in Europe.
Despite its importance to the history of North America and its high profile thanks in part to works such as 'The Last of the Mohicans', the hobby has paid scant attention to this conflict, so it was pleasing to see Italeri make it the theme for this set. However as there have been very few sets of figures dedicated to the French and Indian War, Italeri got creative with their choices for this battle set. As a result, the figures are an interesting mix:
All of these sets were originally made for the American War of Independence, a conflict more than twenty years in the future, so the question has to be asked as to how suitable these figures are for the earlier campaigns. For the American infantry, acting here as American colonial militia, the figures are a pretty good representation. Ideally we would have liked to see more wearing mitasses (leg protection - so necessary in this terrain), and a wider range of clothing would have been better too, but individually these make for quite acceptable militia of the period. Unfortunately the set itself is quite ugly in sculpting, and has some odd poses, so reasonably accurate but not an attractive collection. In contrast, the set of Indians is a lovely one, with great sculpting and pleasing poses. The look of the men is perfect for this conflict, so although they are a bit large for the scale, they are otherwise fine in this set. There are some issues with the French, including the very shallow hats, but for the French and Indian War the main problem is the cut of the coats, which on these figures is well back to reveal the waistcoat, so these make quite poor representations of regular French infantry in New France. For colonial infantry they are worse still, so these are a huge compromise. Finally, the British Light Dragoons have no place here. Light dragoons were only raised by Britain for the first time part-way through this conflict, and the heavily-wooded terrain in which most of the war was fought made cavalry useless and very difficult to maintain, so it was not used. No British cavalry served during the war, so these figures are simply to add something to the set but have no historical value here. The set also includes accessories, which are a half set of the Italeri Battlefield Accessory Set. Specifically this is two of the four sprues - the ones that allow construction of a watchtower, bridge and a couple of the chevaux-de-frise, exclude those for entrenchments, artillery positions and gabions. Since there is no artillery in this set there is logic to this, although the remaining items are of marginal use in this context.
The major piece here is the laser-cut MDF model of a North American blockhouse/fort. Made by Sarissa, like the other wooden buildings in the Italeri batteset series, this is again a really nice model. In total this covers an area 33 cm square, with walls 45 to 50 mm high, making a pleasing and large stockade which is more than enough for the figures. The design looks pretty authentic to us too, and if necessary its modular design means it can be expanded with further kits from Sarissa.
The back of the box is mainly taken up with the usual nice images of how the whole product might look if well painted, arranged on a suitable base and with the necessary terrain features. The modeller has done their best to make some sense of the cavalry, who would hardly be a part of the defence of such a fort, but the overall impression is very good.
This set, though not without its charms, is rather too much of a compromise for those of us that care about historical accuracy. The French are a poor fit here, and the cavalry should not have been included at all. The Indians are much the best of the figures, and we really liked the fort too, but while it is great to see something for the French and Indian War, we are still waiting for some good figures to represent all sides in this pivital conflict.