One More Go

To put it simply, I think Undaunted: Normandy might be one of the best board games I’ve ever played. A tense two player game that is part card game and part board game, but when combined, creates an entirely unique experience. As you might expect from the name, this is a game set in World War II with each player controlling either US or German forces. The game is staged over a ten scenario campaign, with each mission often sporting asymmetric win conditions. In one scenario the US might need to capture strategic objectives while the German forces might need to hold out by pinning the US riflemen. The skewed starting positions, terrain layouts and objectives all make for a good reason to replay missions as the opposing side, as well as giving enough inspiration to create scenarios of your own.

The ‘board’ is a spread of square tiles depicting farmland, forests, and rivers to create the picturesque French countryside where the battles takes place. Each side begins with a set number of units, tokens representing a squadron of riflemen or scouts, placed in their starting positions, poised for war. To issue orders to their units each player also starts the game with a deck of cards corresponding to the soldiers in the field, usually one copy of each, and a further supply of cards that can be added to their decks as the game progresses.

Each round begins with players drawing four cards and simultaneously revealing and discarding one of them to compete for initiative, the player who reveals the highest value card gets to move their units first. The remaining three cards are used to command specific units, activating their abilities which range from basic concepts such as moving and shooting, to more complex actions such as drawing additional cards or bolstering your deck with soldiers from the supply. Assessing those four cards as you choose which one to play for initiative is Undaunted in a microcosm. Activating your troops first is so important, whether you’re rushing to claim objectives or trying to suppress a pesky rifleman, you have to do it as soon as possible, otherwise those units will scarper to cover or your soldiers will be outmaneuvered. But, the higher value cards allow you to perform game changing abilities, like giving an activated solider a second action, meaning they could move twice and dash for an objective to end the game. So what do you get rid of? Gamble on a low value card and hope that you win initiative so you can achieve your goals now, or play a higher value card and put yourself a step closer to victory on the next turn… provided the cards you need show up.

That’s where managing your deck comes into play. To move most units, the tile they’re moving to first must be scouted, but each time a unit performs a scout action, fog of war cards are added to your deck, emulating the difficulty of issuing orders when your troops are disparate or in the heat of battle. Add to that the pain of losing a card each time a soldier is eliminated and your deck can begin to feel off balance or unwieldy, less and less consistent with each passing round. In Undaunted you’re playing two games at once, balancing your card pool so that the orders you need actually show up, while also playing a strategic area control game, making sure you’re in a position to win the moment they do.

Undaunted is tense from the off, a tension which grows with every decision that follows. Each round will only ask you to play four cards, which keeps the game relatively quick and stops you from over analysing, but a couple of errors and a bit of bad luck can drive the tension through the roof. You’ll be desperately hoping for the cards you need, and trying to play it cool if they do arrive so as not to tip off your opponent.

Undaunted: Normandy is a fantastic game, so much so that its success has spawned an expansion, Undaunted: Reinforcements, a sequel, Undaunted: North Africa, a big box legacy game, Undaunted: Stalingrad, and a spin off dogfighting game, Undaunted: Battle of Britain. That’s a lot of war, which happens to be one of my only criticisms of the series. While I think there’s value in recreating iconic theatres of war as a means of educating and exploring historic standoffs, returning a named solider card to the box after each elimination is a sobering ritual. Thankfully the names are fictionalised, but even so, recreating scenes of an actual war has definitely stopped me from getting Undaunted: Normandy to the table as often as I would have liked. If that seems like it might be too large a hurdle for you, Osprey Games have an announced an upcoming science fiction entry, Undaunted 2200: Calisto, which will hopefully offer the same tight considered gameplay, but in a more widely palatable setting.

Undaunted: Normandy has set the standard for what I now expect from two player board games. Its production values are excellent, from the drab manuals that would look at home in a military tent, to the characters depicted on its cards and counters. This is a game clearly crafted with affection, where theme and mechanics work together to create a tense and knotty puzzle for players to unpick as they face off against one another.