Historical model maker Warlord Games has revealed a spread of new plastic miniatures for its Weird War Two wargame Konflikt ’47, which will go on sale alongside the game’s second edition this September. With former Warhammer 40k maestro Andy Chambers leading the rules design team, and now plastic kits for its cool sci-fi designs, 2025 is shaping up to be a very good year indeed for K47.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with Konflikt ’47, it’s an alternate history sci-fi wargame in a world where super-science derived from interdimensional Rifts has reignited the second World War. The core rules are based on Bolt Action, Warlord Games’ hit WW2 game, and if you have 28mm scale WW2 models (particularly late war) then they’ll be readily usable in Konflikt ’47.
Aside from being another sci-fi game that mixes early tank designs with superscience, there is actually a design connection between Warhammer 40k and Konflikt ’47. Bolt Action was made by two ex-40k designers, Rick Priestley and Alessio Cavatore, and they took some core systems from third edition 40k – moving units and damaging vehicles are noticeably similar.
But as Bolt Action only had to handle humans, all the rules for simulating the various Warhammer 40k factions – notably the Toughness stat – were ditched, making room for more in-depth morale and unit activation rules. Konflikt ’47 then adds in rules for power armor, monsters, super science weapons, and so on, but building on top a totally different framework.
So despite sharing many elements with 40k and Bolt Action, it’s a unique experience – like Warhammer 40k fourth edition from a parallel universe where the designers were allowed to rebuild the whole thing almost from scratch.
Until now, all the miniatures for the science-fiction side of K47 were only available in metal or resin, which has certainly limited the game’s audience. Warlord revealed four new plastic kits to the world at the UK Games Expo last week, all of them for iconic super-science units and mechs. Preorders for these kits open early in July, and they will release as part of the first wave of K47 second edition products in September. Here’s what coming:
Axis Stahltruppen, heavy infantry in powered armor that makes them “all but impervious to small arms fire”. That armored exoskeleton lets them wander around one-handing machine guns or wielding field guns like rifles. They can even sport a cheeky shoulder-mounted Panzerfaust.
The Vogelspinne is a six-legged Panzermech, which can be equipped with a variety of weapons. Of course it can – all self-respecting Wehrmacht vehicles come with a bewildering range of marks each with marginally different armaments, even the spidermechs.
The American Firefly drop troopers are equipped with “gravity-defying repulsor packs” and armed with powerful “Rift” weapons. Rift technology will apparently have much more impact in this edition of the game, though Warlord hasn’t specified exactly how.
Last but by no means least is the American Linebacker jump walker. It is, as you can see, a hecking great mech, equipped with specially enhanced landing claws designed to “withstand the pressures of a high velocity, low altitude combat drop”.
Warlord Games has also released some details about K47’s second edition rules, which seem to be shifting more towards the sci-fi side of the game’s heritage – the firm is even billing it as a “Game of Heroes, Horrors, Monsters, and Mechs”. But it will retain plenty of elements from Bolt Action: Third Edition, and hasn’t ditched the order dice system that recreates the fog of war so well.
Rift Energy, the sci-fi maguffin that powers all the supertech that the Axis and Allies are playing with, will play a bigger role this edition. Warlord says it’s a limited resource “woven into the very core of the game”, that means”Rift units are capable of extremely powerful feats”.
The game will also feature new named Heroes who “can alter the ebb and flow of battle with powerful in-game effects”, and will also have a key role in the game’s evolving narrative. That’s a whole lot more pulpy than Bolt Action, which has a much more understated depiction of officers.
I’m laying down a gauntlet right now – if Konflikt ’47’s Polish army doesn’t include a super-intelligent Wojtek the bear wearing a brainwave-enhancing cyber helmet, Andy Chambers will have failed as a designer.
As for army building, all the miniatures from the current edition of K47 will be playable in the new game, “though they may not be exactly the same”. PDF army lists “will be available as free digital downloads from day one”, which will be “regularly updated as the game expands”. Warlord even says it has plans for “new units, new miniatures, and new rules” to match an evolving narrative for K47 “over many years”.
The new story will kick off with Operation Valentine, “a joint US / Comomwealth assault on the Axis fortress-city of Stuttgart” in 1947. Warlord Games had a colossal display board for this battle on show at the UK Games Expo which Team Wargamer breezed past but, foolishly, didn’t think to look closely at. More fool us – the close-up picks kick ass.
Did you catch the Konflikt ’47 diorama at UK Games Expo? Are you an existing fan, or a Bolt Action player looking to add a little Weird to your World War? We’d love to chat about K47 in the official Wargamer Discord community.
We did try out a whole lot of other games at the Expo which impressed us greatly. Check out our Star Wars: Battle of Hoth preview, and our thoughts on the rather tasty epic-scale steampunk wargame Armoured Clash.
Source: Wargamer
