This past weekend, Sam hosted a few of us local wargamers over at his place for a game of Konflikt 47.
The scenario was a Soviet attack along the Vistula River. Hoping to turn the German's flank, the Soviets goals were to push through the German defenders, as well as secure the bridge over the Vistula, which could mean a faster collapse of the German lines.
The German defenders' objectives were fairly straightforward - stop the Soviets from pushing through, and defend the bridge.
Bill and Keith were commanding the Soviets, while Brandon and I lead the Germans.
The battle started with a line of smoke deployed by the Soviet's artillery support. While this meant the Germans couldn't shoot during the first turn, it also meat their positions were hidden by the smoke.
Further complicating the battlefield was the early morning fog along the riverbank, which also obscured line of sight.
Most of the Soviet horde advanced onto the table during the first turn, with an armored car leading the pack.
With the smoke clearing, a squad of inexperienced Soviet soldiers moved to the bridge, only to discover that the Germans had placed their Locust panzermech to defend it. The Locust opened fire and caused a number of casualties, but not enough to force a moral check.
On the other flank, the Germans pushed out with a halftrack full of Rift-tech horrors, which unloaded into the cover of a ruined Polish village.
The Germans also used their artillery observer to call in a barrage.
It was in the next turn that things started to go downhill for the Germans. The artillery bombardment was delayed, and the Schreckwulfen and Nachtjagers squads were shredded when they tried to assault a squad of Soviet paratroopers.
The halftrack managed to recce away from the assaulting Soviet troops, but this left both the German Captain and his attending medic out in the open in front of the oncoming Soviet troops.
You can also see a small part of a second smoke bomardment that the Soviets had laid out, which prevent a number of German units from shooting during the turn. This also allowed the Soviet armored car to speed off the table, scoring a victory point.
And while the Locust was able to defeat both the inexperienced Soviet squad and a unit of the superhuman Daughters of the Motherland, a lucky return-fired Panzerfaust round caught the panzermech squarely in the cockpit, killing the pilot and destroying the walker.
This left the bridge wide open, apart from the Waffen-SS troops defending a ruined building.
The game had now gone on long enough that Soviet outflankers began to show up. The Soviet's had sent a Cossack light walker and a Rift-tech equipped T-34 appeared, ready to cause havoc. Unfortunately, both of the Waffen-SS' Panzerfaust rounds missed the T-34.
The smoke cleared to reveal a much reduced battle along the Vistula, with a small squad of Waffen-SS supported by a light howitzer. On the other side, the Soviet Commissar yelled at an approaching squad of assault engineers to hurry over the bridge.
Also revealed was a Panther armed with a light railgun. The massive weapon charged up a round, aimed at the T-34... and missed.
Luckily, neither the T-34 or the Cossack managed to pierce the Panther's armor.
The German counter-attack had been severely blunted. The Soviets pushed forward as the Germans reeled back with a bloody nose.
Without much firepower, the Waffen-SS squad could only through a few rifle rounds at the approaching Soviets.
They weren't able to do much damage, and the Soviets were firmly in control of the bridge by the end of the game.
While the Panther destroyed the T-34, the strange Rift-tech sound weaponry the Soviet tank had been equipped with did massive damage to the German lines, causing multiple casualties and wiping out a Nebelwerfer's crew.
At that point, we decided to call the game. The Soviets had accomplished multiple objectives, scoring 10 victory points to the Germans' 3, earning Bill and Keith a major victory.
After the game, a vigourous discussion ensued on how the scenario felt. It was agreed that the Germans should have gotten two victory points per enemy unit destroyed, since the Soviets had so many ways to score points. This would have given the Germans a score of 6-10 - still a loss, but not quite so one sided.
Other considerations were perhaps adding some chance to the arrival of the Soviet smoke barrage, and tweaking the Germans to be more of a defensive force.
Overall, it was a fun game and Sam plans to host more games of Konflikt 47 in the future.
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