Blood in the Streets - Konflikt 47 AAR

This past weekend, I drove over to Half Day Studio to play a game of Konflikt 47 against Bill. 

This was an escalation, as our previous games were at 500 points. This time were were bringing 1000 point lists. 

Bill's list, from memory:

• 1st Lieutenant with bodyguard
• Two squads of veteran infantry
• Heavy Infantry squad
• Bazooka team
• Coyote light mech
• M4A9-T Sherman. 

My list had:

• 2nd Lieutenant
• Two infantry squads (split between a LMG fire team and an assault rifle/rifle armed squad)
• Fallschirmjager Falcon squad
• SS Shocktrooper squad
• Spinne light mech
• Panzer IV-X

The scenario was Maximum Attrition. We would have six turns (with a seventh turn on a roll of 4+) to attempt to remove as many of the opponents squads from the table, scoring 1 victory point for each squad.

Both sides rolled onto the table during the first turn, either setting up in cover or trying to get up the flanks.

Bill's Coyote dodged behind cover to avoid a shot from my Panzer's gravity gun, while my Falcons continued to sneak up the side of the table.

The Germans managed to get their reserves on to the table, while the American's Sherman bogged down, and the accompanying infantry squad was forced to dig it out.

A massive firefight broke out on the right side of the table between the Americans and Germans, with little effect. Meanwhile, the Sherman rumbled on to the table, but both tanks missed their shots.

Bill's bazooka team attempted to skirt around the Panzer and get a rocket in its side, but missed. The Panzer's MMG, on the other hand, shredded the team.

While the Falcon's armor protected them from the Americans' small arms, they flew away when charged by the Coyote. One of the American infantry squads was reduced down to a two men after taking fire from the advancing Germans squads.

Bill's Sherman and my Panzer continued to duke it out, but Bill's heavy infantry were less foruntate. They attempted to move out of their cover, only to be ambushed by the German LMGs holding down the left flank. The weight of fire was enough to find the weak points of the heavy infantry's armor, and brought them down.

Bill lost another infantry squad to the combined fire from a German infantry squad and the Shocktroopers. However, they were replaced by the Coyote, which opened up on the German infantry and caused several casualties.

Bill finally managed to score a victory point when the Sherman's Tesla cannon tore through the Panzer's armor and destroyed it. However, the Spinne managed to do the same to the Coyote.

The game ended on the sixth turn, with the Germans securing victory, 4-1.

Bill commented that he's still getting used to the differences between Konflikt 47 and Warhammer 40k - mostly, that infantry that isn't behind heavy cover is going to get shredded. Even armored infantry, which have a 6+ damage value, will still go down under heavy enough fire.

Painting Update - Blood Bowl, Test of Honour, DBA

Recent changes in location have made painting a little more difficult, but I'm still trying!

I finished another Blood Bowl team - the Zharr-Angkor Immortals! These miniatures are from an Impact Miniature kickstarter that produced resin versions of Rolljordan Volmarian Dwarves and Necromantic teams.

I also finished the rest of my Test of Honour warband. Since I have a group to play with now, I shifted a group of archers from the other planned (and now unnecessary) warband into the one I'm using now. I also completed all the support commoners - the two sergeant types, a bannerman and a musician - and four samurai with a variety of weapons.

Another project that I finally wrapped up was an Ancient British army for DBA. This is the old Corvus Belli set that I picked up a couple years ago at Fire in the East (NJ Con). Since DBA is one of my 6x6 games for this year, I'm making an effort to get all of the armies I have for it painted. Their opponents are an Early Imperial Roman army from Rebel Minis.

Blood Bowl League, Post Season Analysis

The Blood Bowl league at Aetherstorm Gaming came to a close recently. So here's a look at the Zharr-Angkor Immortals, a Chaos Dwarf team, at the end of the season. 

The team ended with 9 wins, 2 draws, and 3 losses. It wasn't enough to score them the top spot, but enough to place them high in the league's standings.

The overall idea for each of the team's positionals are pretty obvious. The Chaos Dwarf Blockers took the brunt of the fighting, which was made easier thanks to judicious amounts of Mighty Blow and Guard (and one Claw, which was the first skill roll I made for the team!). The Bull Centaurs did most of the legwork, scoring touchdowns and dealing out the pain. And the Hobgoblins, while not spectacular, helped to add a little variety to the team with a more diverse range of skills.

I had fun with the Chaos Dwarves. They're a team that can developed into a really nasty bash team, but still have some vulnerabilties that other teams can exploit; chiefly, their lack of ball handling skills and the squishy Hobgoblins.

I'll be moving on to another team for whatever league I participate in next; maybe Undead, or Underworld for a real change-up.

What's "Brains" in Russian? - Konflikt 47 AAR

Apparently, it's мозги.

Sam put on a game of Konflikt 47 at this month's meeting of the South Jersey Wargamers Association.

The mission was a prison break. The US force, consisting of veteran Rangers and airborne infantry with mech support, needed to liberate a number of Russian POWs from a German prison camp.

The Germans needed to hold the Americans off until reinforcements could arrive.

As the Germans waited in ambush, the Americans moved up the board, their airborne infantry and mechs leapfrogging over the terrain to each the open field.

Both sides exchanged fire as the Americans reached the final bit of cover before the camp. A squad of Firefly jump infantry ducked behind a sandbag emplacement after its previous occupants had been chased off, as the mechs behind them poured fire into the German positions.

While it seemed as though the Germans were reeling from the attack, the sudden arrival of their mechanized reinforcements halted the American's momentum. Another squad of jump troopers were wiped out by a massive squad of assault rifle-armed German infantry, who were in turned shredded by the American Rangers. A pair of Spinnes flitted onto the table, opening fire with their flak guns and flamethrower. And the American's M4A9-T Sherman was forced back to avoid a squad of panzerfaust wielding grenadiers.

The biggest surpise came when an advance squad of Fireflies landed in the prison, hoping to secure the POWs. The rest of the American force then watched in horror as the POWs, having been turned into zombies, poured out of the camp buildings and tore the airborne infantry to pieces. 

Demoralized, the Americans called for a retreat, as the Germans attempted to herd the horde of undead back into their pens.

Sam put on a great game, and had even gone as fair to create a few custom squads to represent the Rangers, who conisted of miniatures from Dust and fit in fairly well with the rest of the K47 aesthetic. 

Ghosts in the Ruins - Test of Honour AAR

Last week's game of Test of Honour was against Bill and Lady Yoshikira. 

The table was set up as the burnt down ruins of a town after a battle.

Both sides needed to search the ruins for supplies and wounded comrades. When discovered, those points would then become objectives that needed to be held to the end of the game.

There was a catch, however. If a unit failed a search, then the ghosts of the slain villagers (or a crafty ninja using smoke and mirrors) would rise up and scare away the unit if it failed a Test of Nerves.

Both sides managed to call up the unquiet spirits. While my samurai managed to regain his nerves and chase away the supernatural interloper, Lady Yoshikira and her warband decided to press on for the objectives further into the ruins.

Both sides advanced into the ruins, with Bill's ninjas taking up the flanks.

Lord Jiro managed to slip around the side and slay a lurking ninja, while Lady Yoshikira and commoners from both sides clashed in the middle of the village.

I managed to clear the flanks with my two samurai, chopping down Bill's commoners left and right. Bill, however, wasn't going to let me off the hook so easily, and Lady Yoshikira quickly carved up two of the three ashigaru in a group. 

Lady Yoshikira then went on to skewer my musketman and engage my second spear ashigaru group. While Lord Jiro returned from dispatching a ninja archer, my other samurai engaged the spear ashigaru unit holding the center objective.

Commoners on both sides were busy attempting to avoid the flashing blades of their enemies.

The game ended on turn six, with my warband in control of two objectives, just beating out Bill and his single objective.