The Battle Of Puketutu Reprised

Dave arrived back in the civilised south for a “triple-header” of games over Thursday and Friday. First up was a game of Sharp Practice set in the Maori Wars of the 1840s. Dave decided to take the British and their Maori allies, leaving Phil with the Maoris, or “Indians” as he kept calling them. The game was based on a scenario from the so-called “Flagstaff War” set on North Island, and saw a British punitive expedition trying to punish the Maoris by destroying the ceremonial gateway to their Pa. The Maoris objective was to thwart the British and reduce their force morale forcing a retreat.

With his deployment points set far away from the Pa gateway, Dave deployed on a wide front with his British regulars and Bluejackets on his right flank, Maori allies in the centre and Colonial Volunteers on his left. Phil deployed musket -armed skirmishers across the British front and soon began to cause the Bluejackets casualties. The Maoris themselves suffered a setback when their powder was found to be damp and firing reduced to half-effect. However, the Bluejackets were finally forced to retreat and force morale slumped. As the British advanced the Maoris also began to fire on them from the protection of the Pa inflicting more casualties on the Regulars especially when they managed enfilading fire.

All didn’t go the Maori way, and eventually some Maori units had to pull back to the Pa and one broke, leaving only one outside the Pa holding a firing pit. Just as Dave manoeuvred his British regulars into position disaster struck as his senior officer Lieutenant Colonel Despard was knocked out, hors de combat and the line retreated.

This left the Colonial Volunteers as the British’ most forward offensive force and in an attempt to clear their way blasted their own Maori allies in a volley of musket fire. Ouch!

Dave finally had enough when his remaining unit of Regulars attempted to close with the Maoris in the firing pit and engage them with the bayonet, only to fall short with their charge and suffer another withering volley of short-range musketry.

Despite force morale not reaching zero the British called it a day and retreated off the table.

It was nice to get my Maoris back on the table, and they gave a better account of themselves than in a similar scenario I had played against “The Australian” a few weeks ago. The luck of the draw often didn’t favour Dave with quite a few “Tiffins” appearing to frustrate his deployment. However, that’s Sharp Practice for you!

Simon