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Konflikt'47 |
| 2026-04-08 |
Konflikt'47
The United States of America dropped a nuclear bomb on the Nazi Germany city of Dresden. At least, they did it in the alternate timeline of Konflikt'47. That gave the Jerries a "rift" and their boffins got to work on the anomaly.
We worked through the first five (of six) missions of the Introductory Set of the game. Mutazoid led the Germans, black and feldgrau, with gleaming green eyes. I took the springy US fireflies.
The first mission left me wondering, will the evening be one-sided? My light infantry jumped in range and fell like flies, barely making a dent on the heavy german armor. Drinking the bitter Krupp to the dregs.
Konflikt'47 is a Warhammer 40K descendant, via Rick Priestley. You roll a handful or two of six-sided dice, fives and sixes hit, then the adversary's armor gets its say, roll high and it absorbs the hit. A Cover gives the target another merciful layer of dice roll. Range, line of sight, as usual.
Beware of melee, it is lethal.
The difference with Rogue Trader starts with the initiative being resolved by a bag containing one dice per units on the table. Green for the fireflies, grey for the jerries.
A die for your side is drawn, you now have to decide of an order to give to a not yet tasked unit on your side.
<Fire> stay in place and shoot at the adversary; <Advance> move and fire (with a -1 to the to hit resolution); <Run> full advance with potentially contact and melee; <Rally> roll 2d6 if it's under your morale score, shed all your pin markers; <Down> may not move or fire, gain a cover save +2 in place; <Ambush> may not move, prepares for an opportunity fire or charge.
The introductory mission go cognitively on an easy crescendo, first the basic orders, then the introduction of pin markers, followed by rift technology and its rift dice. Mission five sees a Linebacker US mech plodding along the battlefield, to be ambushed by anti-tank guns.
A unit gets one more pin marker each time it takes one or more hits. Units without pin markers readily do what they are told. A unit with them has to roll a morale check 2d6 ≤ (vet 10, experienced 9 or rookie 8) - pin marker count. Failing a morale check results in the unit getting the Down order dice (consolation lot: the +2 cover save).
Rally lets a unit pause and regroup, it rolls under its unmodified morale level (vet 10, exp 9, rookie 8) and in case of success, sheds all its pin markers.
The few paragraphs above are enough to let one play Bolt Action from which Konflikt'47 is directly derived. I'll spare you a description of the rift dice system, but be assured, it is not difficult and it flows.
I wanted to play Trench+Crusade first, but Konflikt'47 got me distracted. The order dice system of Bolt Action put the foot in the door. Also the smaller dystopian distance between the 1944 divergence and 1947 to T+C 1099 divergence to 191x is less dizzying. The terrain I am almost done building for T+C will also find its use with K47.
I love the order dice and the pin markers. I like the openness (the whole world of WW2 28mm miniatures is fair game), the Bolt Action rules and lists are usable if your opponent agrees (though a bit underpowered).
It was an excellent evening of gaming, and now I want to play again, with the full rules, in this rift-powered extension to the second world war.
(Update 2026-04-09: excellent Alessio Cavatore on Bolt Action video)
