Māori War 1845 Using Rebels and Patriots Rules

 On 6 Feb, it is Waitangi Day - a public holiday here in New Zealand to mark the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the united tribes of Aotearoa and the British Crown in 1840. Our regular gaming host and Māori Wars "buff" Barry has been asked to host a game on the day for another gaming acquaintance (I have not seen him face to face for 20+ years, although he has commented on a couple of my posts) and a friend of his, using a slightly adapted version of "Rebels and Patriots" that the two have used for small scale skirmish games on a 3 or 4 x 4 table. The game will be on a much grander scale that the two players are used to and will represent the attack on Russell/Kororāreka in the Bay of Islands in March 1845. Before hosting the game, Barry wanted to do a trial run, and that's where Mark, Chris, Paul and I came in today!

Thanks to Wikipedia, here is a quick background to the battle:

On 8 July 1844 the flagstaff on Maiki Hill at the north end of Kororareka was cut down for the first time by Hone Heke's ally Te Haratua, the chief of Pakaraka. Heke himself had set out to cut down the flagstaff but had been persuaded by Archdeacon William Williams not to do so. As a signal of his unhappiness with the British, and encouraged by the American traders, in the space of six months Hōne Heke returned to chop the flagpole down three times. Heke had been strongly influenced by stories of the American War of Independence.

Battle of Kororāreka

The uprising began when the flagpole was cut down for the fourth time at dawn on Tuesday 11 March 1845. A force of about 600 Māori armed with muskets, double-barrelled guns and tomahawks attacked Kororareka. Heke's warriors attacked the guard post, killing all the defenders, and Heke cut down the flagstaff. At the same time, possibly as a diversion, Te Ruki Kawiti and his men attacked the town of Kororareka.

HMS Hazard had arrived in Auckland in July 1844. Dispatched to Kororāreka by Governor Robert FitzRoy in early 1845, it helped bring the town’s defences up to 140 soldiers, sailors and marines. Two hundred local residents and visiting seamen were also armed.

The target of the group led by Ngāti Hine chief Te Ruki Kawiti was the one-gun battery at ‘Matavia’ (Matauwhi) Pass, the southern entrance to the town.

Kawiti did not expect to encounter substantial opposition. By coincidence, however, Acting-Commander David Robertson and 45 men from the Hazard were on their way to improve nearby entrenchments when the attack on the battery began.

Much of the fighting took place around the enclosure of Christ Church. Although they put up a determined resistance against superior numbers, the men from the Hazard lost a third of their number. Six were killed and Robertson himself was among those wounded. After a long and desperate struggle, they were forced to retreat.

 The survivors from the 250 soldiers and settlers abandoned the town as HMS Hazard bombarded Heke's warriors with cannon. Heke's men then raided the town taking anything useful they could find. Heke's order that the southern part of Korororeka remain untouched resulted in the Anglican and Catholic churches being undamaged.

Many Māori under the mana of the leading northern Rangatira, Tāmati Wāka Nene, stayed loyal to the British government. They took an active part in the subsequent fight against Heke and tried to maintain a dialogue with the rebels in an effort to bring peace.

More or less contemporary plan of the action

The location of the battle

Another contemporary view.

Now that the unsolicited history lesson is over, on to the images of today's game. Mark and I took the defending Brits, with Paul as Hone Heki to the north, Barry as Kawiti to the south and Chris as a third Māori commander in the centre - he presumably did have a name, but I don't know it!

Illustration from a vintage book in Barrys possession, on which he has based the scenario. As I mentioned, Barry is very interested in the New Zealand Land Wars and all the figures you see in the following images are from his collection (he also has them in 15mm!)

The famous "flagstaff" after which the ensuing "war" was named.

British line infantry of the 96th (Manchester) Regiment and some armed local civilians.

The centre of the British position, including the local Māori village. the inhabitant's, knowing trouble was coming but not wanting to get offside with either Hone Heki or the British, tactfully (and tactically!) absented themselves for a few days!

 

The view from the south, with the town of Russell/Kororāreka on the left. Kawiti would attack from this position - the gun battery can be seen in the centre - an 18lb naval gun had been brought ashore from HMS Hazard, unknown to the attacking Māori.

The view from the north (above) with the top of the flagstaff in view. Paul/Hone Heki would attack from this position

Chris had a command that would attack across the open ground from the tree line this side of the road

Kawiti appears in the Matauwhi Pass.

Hone Heki's warriors launch a surprise attack on the infantry detachment guarding the flagstaff.

In pretty short order, the men of the 96th were driven back with loss and in severe disorder.

By about the third turn, both sections of the 96th had quit the field - not a great start for the Crown forces!

Meanwhile, the naval "Brigade" consisting of a unit of Royal Marines and another of sailors from HMS Hazard, retired from their exposed position to the more defensible stockade, joining their army colleagues and the armed civilians. The "battery" of small ships guns headed in the same direction, but at a much slower rate of knots!

The Māori from the bush impetuously charged across the open ground, making for the army barracks - well, Chris is in control of them, so what else would we expect!

To the south, the 18lb gun engaged Kawiti, causing some casualties and a great deal of consternation on one of his units, which failed the morale test and were forced to retire!

The detachment of the 96th in the barrack block opened fire with withering effect, causing the advancing Māori to come to a grinding halt. From the flank to the south, another detachment added their own long-range fire 

To the south, Kawiti, after the initial shock of the unexpected naval ordnance, quickly revised his plans and moved his warriors into the bush to approach the settlement

"Where have the cheeky blighters gone?"

Despite having dispersed one unit of Māori with their musketry, and halting a second, the third band drove the 96th out of the barracks and occupied the building.

Meanwhile, to the north, the garrison of the stockade nervously repositioned in an attempt to cover every angle of approach the enemy might utilise. The naval gun crew continued to slowly move their weapons back too.

Having observed the impact of British musketry to their whanau in the open, Hone Heki ordered his command to approach the stockade via the cover of the adjacent bush. Meanwhile, one of his four commands hacked away at the flagstaff, determined to topple the symbol of the untrustworthy pakeha.

To the south, the naval contingent was having very little trouble dealing with Kawiti

Kerasshhhh! The flagstaff finally topples to the ground (the party tasked with cutting it down had made hard work of things, failing their activation multiple times, then, when they did activate, often only rolling a 1 or 2 on a D6, to indicate progress made!)

The defenders of the stockade make ready for the inevitable assault by forming close order, whilst the detachment from the barracks (having driven off the attackers in that section of the field) arrive to reinforce the northern flank.

To the south, Kawiti is in a parlous state (in fact, the leader figure had been killed, so technically, Kawiti was in a deceased state!)

"There's no one left to shoot at, Bosun"

As Hone Heki's command advanced down the hill from the flagstaff, the 96th let rip with a devastating volley - 12 dice scored 11 hits - which equate to 5 casualties on the attacking unit. Not surprisingly, they were stopped dead in their tracks (no pun intended) and sent reeling back with two disorder markers!

In a last gamble, Hone Heki charged in with his personal unit and went into melee with the Royal Marines. The Māori scored 6 hits = 3 casualties on the Brits - the marines scored 9 hits = 4 casualties. Hone Heki was forced back whence he came.

About now, Barry announced an unexpected event - although, given this happened the last time we played this scenario in Tarawera several years ago, maybe we should have expected it! Based on an historical event during the battle, the British ammunition store exploded - right next to my gun battery and a detachment of the 96th, both units (plus a second detachment of troops under Marks command) receiving two disorder markers as a result!

Fortunately for the Brits, this was too little and too late to help the attackers, and Hone Heki ordered his men back into the bush as the action came to a close.

Well, that was a great little game (he would say that, wouldn't he?!) To be fair, after the initial overwhelming of the flagstaff guard, which went much worse than it might have, due to some terrible dice rolling by me, the British were never really seriously threatened. I had some poor rolls trying to activate the guys in the barracks too - they should have got a volley off before the Māori got close enough to launch their assault, but after that my rolling improved, and as I said to Paul, I made up for all my poor rolling with the 11 out of 12 hits when the marines shot the xxx out of his warband coming down the hill. The Māori players needed more troops - which is a problem because Barry had all the figures in his collection on the table - but perhaps they could be recycled into successive waves of warriors in a future game?

I really liked how these rules played, too - Barry had several photocopies of the play sheets available and I brought one home with me as there are lots of things in there I would like to use in solo games - perhaps I can get my FIW/LOTM figures on the table, using these rules?

Thanks, as always for dropping by and hopefully a few kind souls will leave comments on this AAR!