New Zealand Wars - Claymore 2003 -

"The New Zealand Wars" (also known as "Te riri pakeha" - "The white man's anger") were a series of conflicts that ran from the 1840's to the 1870's, caused largely by the colonists' demands for further land. In some ways they were classic examples of 'small wars' - trained troops against irregulars; raids against settlers and rear areas; skirmishes in the bush; and heroic defences against large numbers of attacking natives. The colonial forces included a variety of troop types including regulars, naval landing parties, militia, armed constabulary and allied Maori or kaupapa. Generally even the larger actions involved only a few hundred men per side.

But there were some unique features which are of special interest. In the majority of cases, the Maori were heavily outnumbered by the colonial forces: for example, during the Waikato War the British mobilised more than 10 000 men, while the Maori were never able to put more than 1000 men into the field at any one time. In most of the major actions, the Maori were outnumbered by more than 2:1. Although the Maori were mostly armed with muskets or double-barrelled shotguns (tupara), the British weapons were generally more modern and they could call upon the most up to date artillery of the period. In spite of all this, the Maori were able to fight a number of extended conflicts in which they were never decisively defeated on the field of battle, whilst the Brtish received a number of sharp reverses.

To achieve this, the Maori used a combination of strategy and tactics which came together to rob the British of a single decisive victory, and which led on a number of occasions to major defeats for the colonial forces. New Zealand at this time was largely covered with forests and fern, often with hilly terrain cut by steep sided gullies. The Maori were able to move through this much more easily than a regular force with supplies and artillery. When the British sent a force of some thousands of men up the Waikato River, guerilla tactics (including an attack on the main supply depot at Camerontown) were used to force the regular troops to use the majority of their forces in guarding supply lines rather than at the front of the attack.

But the most distinctive feature of these wars was the use of defensive positions, or pa. Originally the pa was nothing more than a settlement defended by a heavy palisade, bank and ditch. But when fighting the British, the Maori rapidly adapted it to include trenches and bomb-proof shelters, while the use of bastions and projecting angles allowed effective use of crossfire. In addition, a lighter barrier to the front (the pekarangi), made it difficult to see if a breach had been created; while rifle pits and abatis were used in the bush to set up effective ambush positions. These defenses could be raised very quickly, and a typical strategy was for a pa to be built close to a British camp in order to provoke an attack. On numerous occasions the British approached these pa, (often following a difficult trek through thick bush) and prepared an attack, only to discover that the dfenders had abandoned the defences. On other occasions the British assaulted and were driven back with heavy casualties. The pa might be defended conventionally; but at other times the defence was coordinated between Maori forces inside and outside the pa; or the British were attacked as they made their approach. At Gate Pa (which sustained a bombardment as heavy as any in the First World War, for a loss of one casualty!) the British were allowed to break into the pa itself, and were then routed by the defenders fighting from internal trenches and rifle pits. When the British tried sapping (digging trenches as in a formal siege) they could take weeks to prepare an attack on a single pa, which would then be abandoned by the Maori in favour of another one a few miles away.

In addition, a certain number of mutually supporting pa might be built to defend an area or protect a line of advance. Several pa were built around New Plymouth during the first Taranaki War, keeping it under a state of siege for some months.

It is fair to say that the British never developed a real answer to Maori tactics. In the end the British overcame resistance largely by being able to maintain an army in the field for a far more extended period than was possible for the Maori, and by their ultimately overwhelming numbers.

The display game was a hypothetical situation set in the mid 1840's. It presented the British with the core dilemma of the period: how to bring about a decisive victory over the enemy. The Maori, who were probably outnumbered and outgunned (although it did not seem like it to the British when they were repeatedly repulsed during the game) have a primary objective of avoiding defeat. If they can inflict enough casualties on the British as well, much mana will be gained and the course of history may yet be changed...

The game uses a set of home grown rules which are a variant of RFCM's PBI2. The 'square bashing' system simplfies the management of the hidden movement required in most scenarios, and also make it simple to factor in the difficulty of the command and control in the bush.