Oh yes... and there's that von Tempsky fellow

Also last weekend I thought I was going to get in a solo game, but for various reasons it didn't happen. What it did do was make me realize that I need to decide how to re-base my Maori Wars figures. And that, my friends, makes me have to decide what rules I want to use.

I wrote (and finished the core of) a Brother Against Brother adaptation some years ago (which you can find posted on the Maori Wars Yahoo Group). But since my group uses Iron Ivan rules, it probably will be best to use the This Very Ground French & Indian rules with some simple house rules governing Breech Loaders. I think the key to this era is to approach it not like a "colonial war" but more like an "Indian War" (as in U.S. Frontier Wars). To stay thematic you need to really try and play out the differing goals of the three factions (Government, Kupapa & Hau-Hau)involved. In my opinion this makes using a scenario-generation system or a mini-campiagn system (both ala RFCM rules ) the way to go. I tried in some way to do this in my B-A-B adaption, BUT also a certain minimum literacy in the conflicts by the players might be necessary and that is probably asking too much.

(the above photo shows the death of von Tempsky)

In some ways an adaptation of Patrols in the Sudan would work well because of the terrain placement and hidden placement mechanics. The Patrolling mechanics used by P-i-t-S would simulate the kind of actions which made up most of Te Kootis War and much of the action in the later part of the East Coast Wars which preceeded it.

My ideal would be to be able to comfortably use a small number of stands (around 30 per side) for short solo-games. I'm not sure that I'll run this at the club again since I just don't think that using a giant (8x12) table is in any way helpful in simulating this conflict. But I am still very much interested in these wars and also in the inter-tribal "Musket Wars" of the earlier 19th century which are much more bloody and epic in nature.