See the Light – US Light Walkers in Konflikt ‘47

Kris Sherriff, our Community Manager, has got a serious case of Konflikt fever. We recently found him in a darkened office, Konflikt ’47 rulebook in hand, muttering about light walkers, hit probabilities, and expected casualties per turn. Once we’d put him under a cold shower, we persuaded him to get his thoughts down on paper – and here they are! If you’re a US player looking to learn how to get the most out of your Coyotes and Jackals, read on!

Glancing through the Konflikt ‘47 US army list you could be forgiven for skipping past the light walkers to get to more impressive looking beasts like the Kodiak that can pump out 28 shots (with rerolls), or the Linebacker that can dominate an entire flank of the battlefield by breaking all the rules of armoured combat – it’s fast, heavily armoured, AND can dish out tremendous firepower. While the Pondskater variants have their particular roles on the battlefield, I’m going to focus on the Jackal and Coyote – both two-legged light walkers with a pair of arms. Just because they can’t output such massive quantities of fire, doesn’t mean they don’t have a few tricks up their (Damage Value 8+) sleeves.

First, let’s remind ourselves of how walkers move in Konflikt ‘47. Both the Jackal and Coyote have 12” Advance moves and Run 24”, making them able to cover lots of ground in a single activation. The Jackal also has Jump, more on which below. While Multi-Legged walkers like the Vogelspinne can reverse at full speed, the trick bipedal walkers can pull off is being able to make two 90° pivots with a Run order. This means you can Run forward, and end up pointing the way you came – handy for ensuring you aren’t exposing a flank or when you need to react to charges.

That incredible manoeuvrability means you can, if placed centrally, get to any corner of the battlefield in a couple of turns. With relatively light armour though, a better tactic is to take two light walkers and put one on each flank, to give coverage across the board. The Jackal has the Jump special rule, meaning it can move over terrain (though it can only make a single pivot at the start of its move), and most importantly can deploy anywhere on the battlefield from Reserve.

This means you can predict the lines of advance of enemy assaults and interdict them. I’d be tempted to take one of each, deploying the Coyote on one flank and looking like you are refusing the other, then bringing the Jackal on from Reserve (not getting the -1 penalty because of Death From Above) to surprise your opponent who was expecting a clear run. Even the threat of doing something like this can be enough to disrupt their plans.

As a US player facing Axis and Soviet Bloc armies, some of the scariest units to face are Schreckwulfen and Ursus. These bioengineered horrors can rip infantry to shreds and even take out vehicles with their teeth, claws, and in the case of the Ursus, massive great hammers. At DV7+ they are immune to conventional small arms and being Fearless ignore Pins, so even hosing  them down with HMG fire isn’t a reliable way to stop them hitting your lines – even a single monster can destroy an infantry squad or team in short order. 

This is where your light walkers come in. When walkers assault infantry they can do so with a Run order or an Advance order, unlike other vehicles who must make a Run order so can’t fire. In both cases you simply move the walker into contact and if the infantry fails a Morale Check it is destroyed. That won’t affect Fearless units, though even armoured troops like Stahltruppen will have to test.

Either way, the walker then completes its move. Unlike other vehicles, walkers get to make attacks as they pass – one per pair of legs and one per arm. These hit on a 4, 5 or 6 and have a Pen value of +2 for legs and +4 for arms – both light walkers will get two at +4 and one at +2. That gives you a good chance of killing at least one of those beasties, and if you Advance you can also fire your HMG or Flamethrower (if you’ve taken the upgrade). The MMG won’t hurt the tougher horrors but can kill Totenkorps, and cause pins on Schwertruppen and their ilk. Remember that the Coyote will get to reroll shots with both weapons thanks to The Arsenal of Democracy.

So, if you’re facing a unit of heavy infantry in front of you, it’s possible to Run 24”, making ‘slashing’ attacks as you go, then turn 180° to face your target so that if they assault you in this turn they need 6s to hit if they are Fast, and can’t hit you at all if they aren’t! If they try the same in the following turn, before your activation you can make a Fire reaction to the charge. When infantry (even monstrous infantry like Ursus and Schreckwulfen) assault walkers, the walkers get to attack first. These attacks hit automatically, and both the Jackal and Coyote will get one attack at +2 Pen and two at +4. This means even against DV7+ monsters you’re likely to kill a couple of them (well, 1.67 of them to be exact..).

Because you need a 4+ to hit when assaulting, but hit automatically when being assaulted, your opponent has a real dilemma. Do they ignore your walker, hoping you won’t score too many hits when you attack? Or do they charge it, knowing that they’ll likely lose models in the process, and more importantly not get to do their real job of chomping your infantry? For a couple of hundred points you can give an opponent using horrors a real headache. Do be careful assaulting large units of Totenkorps, though – you’ll kill plenty, but if they can Surge their Rift die they get +1 Pen so can hurt you in close combat if they catch you stationary.

With DV8+ you do have to be wary of anti-tank weapons, but walkers benefit from halving the Pen value of shaped charged weapons, meaning those Panzerfausts aren’t quite as scary as they might otherwise be. The best protection is numbers of course. At 105 points  Regular and 126 for Veteran, you can easily fit two or three of these mini-marvels into a list.

The British Commonwealth also have access to the Jackal and Coyote (known as the Guardian in Commonwealth service) and can use their Army Special Rules to pull off an extra trick. If you time your charge for the end of the turn, you can Run over a unit and make your attacks, or Advance over it, punching and kicking as you go, then turn and fire. Then, you can use your Superior Codebreaking rule to get the first activation and do it all over again. The US versions don’t have that option, but both factions can take advantage of the walkers’ manoeuvrability to finish within 6” of a hero with a point of Guts, who can expend it to return their Order die to the bag, so they can go again!