Konflikt 47 Soviets vs Germans 1500 pts

By Chris Masucci

Being somewhat versed in WW2 wargaming years ago with Flames of War V2, my recent gaming time has been taken up more and more with Warlord Games’ 28mm take on WW2, Bolt Action. Scaling down the company level engagements of Flames down to a more platoon and infantry centric scene, Bolt Action has seemed to echo older editions of Warhammer 40k in the more recent years. Having an interest in the system already, late last year I finally decided to expand my collection into the realms of Bolt Action’s official sci-fi expansion

Playing a German army, your options cover the Dieselpunk staples. Zombies, monsters, power armored troops take to the field along with some mechs and a few weird science equipped tanks. My first few additions of the undead and heavily armored troops immediately changed up the standard bolt action formula. The undead gave my Germans access to cheap but durable infantry, able to screen more important units as well as threaten small enemy weapon teams with their weight of attacks.

Armored infantry adds in an expensive but hard-hitting unit that requires a bit of finesse to utilize their short-ranged but numerous attacks. Mechs generally have lighter armor but provide more weaponry than tanks and can move faster and pivot more frequently. The new unit types along with a plethora of special rules to cover all of the monsters and weird science tech change up the well-tread standard infantry platoons that Bolt Action often defaults to.

I am lucky enough to have a very populated gaming store not too far from me so this weekend our game group at Mythicos Studios met to get in a few games of Konflikt 47. My opponent for Sunday was one of our Russian players, his list was an interesting combination of elite soviet troops such as the daughters of the motherland and the monstrous Ursa warriors. These units were also supported by a mortar, multiple pieces of Soviet armor including a large KV-8 flamethrower tank.

The standard groupings of lower quality Soviet infantry also advanced on the board. I decided to take the opposite approach with a small amount of elite and well-equipped infantry supported by a panther tank, puma and a locust mech. The fighting was immediately fierce with the Germans forced into an aggressive position due to all of the soviet presence on the vital objectives.

Taking the center the German veterans had the arduous task of forcing multiple soviet infantry elements and a light Cossack walker from the village square. The bloodshed began to turn 2 when I, unfortunately, had to trade my locust mech to a reaction fire order from a SU-76 Assault gun, an entire unit of Soviet infantry fell under it machine guns, however.

The center of the board saw the panther tank fail to do anything as it was pounded by Soviet armor. The town square was going much better however with the more experienced German troops taking down both Soviet infantry and the Cossack with small arms and panzerfausts.

As the game advanced on the Germans were becoming more entrenched in the town square as the Soviets tried to reinforce their efforts with their elite Ursas and the daughters’ squadron. With the support from the Puma, the Ursas fell to machine-gun fire and a well-placed cannon shot, the daughters ducked for cover inside a nearby building. Over in the outskirts of the village, the soviet advance was savage.

The Panther’s crew was finally driven from the field when the lumbering KV tank opened fire with its flamethrower and without proper tank support the German infantry caught in the open were quickly becoming pinned down. As the end of the game drew near we both needed to gain ground as quickly as possible. The Puma sacrificed itself to knock out a nearby T34 tank, only to be destroyed by an AT rifle shot to the rear.

After a third Soviet assault and a repeat mortar bombardment of the village square, only the German First Lieutenant and a few scattered men remained, but the square was still in German hands. The Soviets had completely destroyed all resistance in the fields outside town however and their KV tank along with the assault gun quickly moved their tracks to cover objectives. The game ended turn 6 with a score of 2 to 2, a vicious battle ending in a draw!