Thursday January 26th. Our reporter ventured into totally unknown territory, going to North Island New Zealand in November 1845. I had laid on a Sharp Practice scenario loosely based on the so-called “Flagstaff War”, with historical characters as leaders but in a fictitious setting. The game saw Greg’s British/settler column aided by allied Maoris trying to locate a Maori Pa and demolish their ritual gate as a punishment for a Maori raid on a farmstead. Phil took the Maoris who were trying to prevent the “Pakeha” from performing their mission.
The game saw the British arrive en masse at one deployment point, with their Maori allies deploying to their flank and rapidly advance through the trees.
Phil deployed his troops near the Pa
into the woods and then moved several units off their moveable jump off point to attack the British Maori allies.
Greg got a nasty shock when his Maori allies lost two figures dead due the heavy Maori first fire helped by the “buck and ball “ rule, which reflected the Maori tactic of double-loading their muskets.
Greg’s troops more than held their own and soon had one of Phil’s units reduced in strength and with a knocked out leader.
Greg’s dice rolling was much improved compared to other games played recently. Maori force morale was being dented.
Greg’s Naval Bluejackets and Colonist militia swung into action, albeit taking shock meant the colonists couldn’t act as a formation.
A British regular officer ran across to take command of one of the volunteer units and soon they too were firing at the Maoris hiding in the woods. After one spectacularly poor round of shooting Greg exclaimed that it was like playing a Vietnam game but armed with muskets. Not a bad analogy! Finally the weight of fire from the “Pakeha” told and a Maori unit broke and ran off-table, with more retiring to lick their wounds and find new defensive positions.
Back with the main British column, the regulars got their act together and advanced in line deploying into skirmish formation to move through the woods.
Another SP2 “Maori Wars specific” rule which seemed to work well. The Royal Engineers unit trailed in their wake with on incapacitated officer. One of Phil’s units retired into the Pa intending to use the palisade as cover, and this point he also deployed “Leader Number 6” who Greg had noticed hadn’t done anything throughout the game so far. This was a dug-in naval carronade purchased from an American trading vessel.
The look on Greg’s face was a sight to behold, and he accused me of Sharp Practice in playing fast-and-loose with the rules! It poured 16 dice worth of canister into the British regulars, but thanks to the skirmish formation and light cover the effect was relatively light, and the British continued to advance on the Pa.
At this point we decided to call it a night, and Phil conceded defeat. His units were retreating and his carronade almost out of ammunition, having not performed well at all. Both Phil and Greg said they enjoyed it. It is obviously a quite different game from most of our SP games, with one force comprised solely of skirmishers and lots of wooded terrain and a few specific rules all of which seemed to work well. The game seemed to reflect what I have read of the war, with Maori guerrilla tactics trying to inflict heavy losses on the British and wear away their morale. Even the Pas were not considered vital “fortresses”, being placed at choke points which forced the British to attack them and hence lose men. For me it was nice to finally get my Maori Wars forces into action. I think I’ve had them sitting in a box fully painted for maybe 5-6 years, so their arrival on the tabletop is long overdue.
Simon
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