The plan

After spotting some cheap 28mm 1840's British in Kilmarnock cap on eBay, I decided to look into the New Zealand Wars, I reckon these are absolute gold for skirmish wargaming, and using Firelock Games Blood & Steel, one of my favourute rules sets, is a clever fit. It already “thinks” in terms of small-unit friction, activation pressure, morale collapse, as well as character-led action rather than Napoleonic lines.

I won the bid, not quite as cheap as I thought, as it turns out, but still great value for Foundry miniatures. Hope they fit with my Empress Miniatures, although they may be small.

Somewhere between 6 a side skirmish up to 40 a side is a sweet spot where I can start with narrative scraps and grow it into proper bush fights.

Probably narrative games following characters

The figures

Kilmarnock capped Regulars red tunics blue trousers. I've seen conversions of Perry ACW into British regulars, but i really wil have enough.
Militia, blue tunics blue trousers, variety of headgear.
Constabulary. As above I think. Mounted as scouts maybe.
Civilians are a case of using cowboys on foot and a few Victorian types.
Maori, I already have a dozen Empress Miniatures actually. For the rest those Frostgrave tribals are essentially Maori, although I use them as Carib Indians. I have a few sprues of these guys and they are cheap enough to add a few more, just adding muskets rather than bows and blowpipes.

1) Why I think the 1840s NZ Wars will work on the tabletop

This is not a game of “big battles” but:

raids
ambushes
stockade / pā assaults
night alarms
bush movement
split forces + confusion
political/moral tension baked in

That makes them perfect for:

skirmish rules
linked scenarios
small forces with big consequences
personalities & named figures

I don’t need 200 models, just a few dozen per side.

2) The “look” — Kilmarnock caps are bang on

I'm thinking early period, but, this was a look until the 1870s. Tgese guys are good for half a century of wars. Quite apart from fictional wars in Europe they could fight in the America's, India, African Cape Wars, China. Useful.

3) Forces: what I actually want on the table

Blood and Steel already has this period covered with army lists.

A) British regulars

These are:

disciplined volley shooters
bayonet morale threat
slow in bush, better in open
prone to overconfidence

Table role: “hard core, brittle if surprised”.

B) Militia / Volunteers.

brave, nervous, vengeful, reckless
local knowledge (or totally none)
often badly coordinated

Table role: unpredictable, scenario-dependent.

C) Armed Constabulary

semi-trained colonial paramilitary
patrols, escorts, warrants, arrests
protection of roads and supply

Table role: small professional patrol force with local authority.

D) Civilians

Civilians make this period special because they:

create dilemmas
trigger panic
cause mission shifts
are why the fight happens at all

And in Blood & Steel terms they’re fantastic as:

objective markers that move
morale hazards
“burden” units (escorts)
witnesses / hostages / rescued captives

E) Māori friendlies

Māori working in their own interest for the Crown.

4) Māori forces

Māori on the table become tactically fascinating.

I can represent them as:

fighters with superior movement and concealment
Blinds!
ambush specialists
pā defenders with engineered advantage
sharpshooters
small groups of 4 figures with initiative and aggression

Also: Māori aren’t one homogeneous group. I can do:

allied iwi vs rival iwi
Māori vs Māori with settlers/constabulary as third party
mixed war parties with different motivations

Blood & Steel scaling: 6 → 40 per side

Skirmish scale (6–12 a side)

Perfect for:

patrol encounters
messenger missions
prisoner rescues
bush ambushes
night alarms

“Proper fight” scale (20–40 a side)

Perfect for:

pā assault / pā relief
convoy defence
village raid
holding a ford / bridge / track junction
two groups converging without full knowledge

But I want to keep command control limited. The New Zealand Wars should feel like:

“we think the enemy is over there… wait—where’s the firing coming from?!”

6) Constabulary vs Civilians

Lets me game the period without turning it into:

“Colonials vs Māori” every time because frankly that's uncomfortable, and not historically correct.

I'll run scenarios like:

settlers illegally raiding a village / property
constabulary trying to stop reprisals
civilians refusing orders
militia officers with grudges

This gives:

three-way tension
“law vs vengeance”
arrests, escorts, riots, hostage situations
moral ambiguity without lectures

And Māori can be:

third party
informants
victims
opportunists
allies of one side

7) Scenario ideas (short, sharp, playable)

Here are 10 scenario ideas I've trawled up for this project and Blood & Steel:

The Track Patrol
Constabulary patrol + guide. Ambushed. Must withdraw without losing the guide.
Burn the Storehouse
Militia raid to destroy supplies. Māori defenders delay until civilians escape.
Flagstaff Alarm
British detachment must reach a signal point. Māori attempt to cut them off.
The Warrant
Constabulary attempt to arrest a settler agitator. Civilians resist. Māori scouts watch.
Escort the Prisoner
One side must escort a captive through bush. Opponent tries to free him.
Night Raid
Māori raid a camp for muskets/ammo. British must hold until dawn.
Crossing at the Ford
A bottleneck scenario. Perfect for small forces scaling up.
The Lost Child
Civilian objective that moves randomly. Both sides try to secure (or exploit) it.
Pā Recon
British must map/locate weak point. Māori must prevent intel extraction.
The Retaliation Party
Militia trying to burn huts. Constabulary tries to stop them. Māori arrive mid-game.

8) Terrain: don’t need much, just the right stuff

This period is won by:

cover
movement restriction
sightlines

So the essentials are:

bush/fern patches (LOS blockers)
stream gullies
rough tracks
fences / small clearings
A log cabin or blockhouse, call me crazy but I intend to make it from scratch using twigs from the sycamore tree behind my house!
pā works (Simple palisade sections)

I can do a pretty good looking table with:

a cloth mat
scatter bush clumps
3-6 palisade sections
a single “objective building”

9) Miniature shopping list (minimal but expandable)

Start small, but actually I have the Maori, just mostly unpainted. The eBay buy of those guys in Kilmarnock caps will be the Colonials.

Core (for the first games)

12 British (Kilmarnock caps)
12 Māori (mixed firearms + hand weapons)
6 militia/civilians
6 constabulary/colonials

Expansion (for 40-a-side Blood & Steel)

+20 British
+40 Māori
+10 militia
+6 Constabulary
+4 Scouts
+10 civilians (women, elders, kids as markers) but maybe also as a small fighting group.
packhorses / carts / boats

For the games to feel New Zealand Wars, add named personality figures. :

My Officers, and NCOs
Guides
Missionaries
Interpreters
Chiefs / rangatira
Scouts

This use of personalities should steer it away from generic colonial gaming.

10) Campaign structure

The idea is to run a District Trouble Campaign.

Each game changes:

public order
settler fear
Māori anger
government authority
who has the moral high ground

So the “winner” isn’t just who kills more — it’s who controls the district narrative.

Some pictures: where I am so far...

Some Maori

Northstar Tribals and an Irregular Shaman. These have been my Carib Raiders up to now, repurposed as Maori. Added to my Empress Miniatures it's still a few dozen left to paint. And the basing needs work.

Terrain making

Pieces of coir doormat, pan scrub and some dried green moss, all on hardboard bases. Drying out from the pva.

Quite pleased with that. Stand alone trees added

And the På village, on a retouched battle cloth. I'll work on those pallisade bases.

The Budget

Horsehair and fern "bush" £3.50 (still have a big bag of it left.)

Flock hardboard, paint. Call it £5

The Maori. Already had the Empress Miniatures and the Tribals. Call those £30 all in, 30 figures.

The eBay Foundry 1840s Colonials. £25. 30 infantry, 5 horsemen and two cool guys carrying a stretcher, great objective marker.

Civilians. Some of my wild West civilians, just the less wild looking ones.

The Naval Landing Party, a £5 lot I bid on at the wargaming club, complete with rowing sailors, guns and mortars, with crew, and the usual cutlass and pistol wielding guys. It's a scratch build project for a couple of Maori war canoes, and a pair of British Naval boats.

Port Royal. On my refurbished battle board. The buildings nowrest on thin carpet sections and are not so easy to slide around any more. I probably need to do more flock work on it all though.