Game summary
A game for 2 players
Play time around 45 – 60 minutes
Publisher is Osprey Games
Introduction
Summer of 1940, and Britain is the only thing standing in the way of Germany’s victory over Europe. Within a year, the German war machine has conquered almost all of Europe. But now it is up to the German Luftwaffe to show how strong they are. Will they manage to dominate the Royal Air Force in preparation for the German invasion? In Undaunted: Battle of Britain, you lead a squadron of brave pilots where one player is in command with the German Luftwaffe and the other player is in command with the Royal Air Force. In this exciting deckbuilding game full of manoeuvres, bullets and bravery, the battle takes place in the sky, where every decision counts and one well-placed attack can make all the difference.
Will you succeed in deceiving the enemy and be brave enough to fly through the barrage?
Let’s get it on the table
Undaunted: Battle of Britain is a two-player deckbuilding game set during the air battles of World War II. One player leads the British Royal Air Force (RAF), while the other commands the German Luftwaffe. The game consists of different scenarios with specific objectives, such as shooting down enemy aircraft, destroying structures or protecting ships.
The setup is similar to other games in the Undaunted series, but due to the air combat themes, there are unique elements that do not appear in the other games.
Step 1. Choose a scenario from the scenario book.
The scenario indicates which card tiles to use to build the playing field, the objectives, the units and cards each player gets and any special rules and/or circumstances. The cards also indicate which cards are in your deck for the first time.
Step 2. Build the playing board
Use the hexagonal card tiles as shown with the scenario to build the board. Place them in the correct orientation and place any targets as well as clouds, anti-aircraft guns or other terrain elements on the playing board as indicated on the scenario.
Step 3. Prepare your squadron
As indicated in the scenario, you create a deck of cards with pilots, squadrons and support cards. You place the remaining cards next to you so you can grab them during one of your actions, this is your supply. After this, you take your plane tokens, corresponding to the planes you have in your supply and deck. You place the plane tokens on the game board, as shown in the scenario.
Now we are ready to start playing.
Step 4. Draw starting cards
Each player draws 4 cards from their own deck.
Step 5. Determine initiative
This step is repeated every time after a round in which both players have played 1 set of cards. Each player chooses a card from their hand, once both players have chosen a card, they are turned face-up at the same time. The player with the highest initiative value wins and receives the Initiative marker. The card played is then discarded
Step 6. Start the game!
Players take turns performing an action, according to the order of the initiative marker. During your turn, players play cards, move planes, attack, but will also have to position cleverly with the aim of achieving the scenario.
Let’s play
Each player starts with a basic deck of cards on which you can perform actions with your planes. During the game, players can add new cards to their deck, giving them more possibilities and stronger actions but also preventing planes from disappearing from the game anytime soon.
During your turn, you play one of 3 cards from your hand to e.g. move, manoeuvre or attack your planes. Each card shows the available actions and their effectiveness.
Planes move over board, the direction a plane points is crucial, as most planes can only shoot in a certain direction. As a result, you always want to have your plane well positioned before you end your turn to strike the next round. But beware, planes must stay within a certain distance of each other for communication. If they get too far apart, players can get “Discord” cards in their deck, which offer less effective actions and weaken the deck. Fortunately, you can remove these cards from play but at the cost of an action.
For attacks, distance and cover determine the difficulty. Players roll a ten-sided die and compare the outcome with the target’s defence value to determine whether the attack is successful.
The Game ends
The game ends as soon as a player achieves the scenario. After this, you move on to the next scenario.
Final Conclusion & rating
Weight: 2.82/ 5
Replayability: 8
Our rating: 8 out of 10 dices
Undaunted Battle of Britain, this is a 2 player game just like the other undaunted in this series which are about World War 2. In Undaunted you have 11 scenarios you can play, we have chosen to go through them from 1 to 11 but you can of course decide for yourself.
Each scenario is completely different, not only how the landscape looks but also with which planes and what the objective of the scenario is. Sometimes the English have to protect their ships and other times the Germans have to destroy 2 planes and then try to escape with 2 planes.
The game contains 2 booklets, 1 with the rules and 1 with the scenario. This makes it easier to read because in the beginning you sometimes want to look things up in the rules. What would have made it more pleasant was an overview card with in short the most important actions incl explanation. But after a few games you know these actions, but this would have made it a bit easier.
What is nice is that the game board always became a deed looking but t set up is very simple. It is clearly indicated which tiles you need and therefore the game can start quickly. Each scenario you also play with different planes, some a bit stronger than others and some you can only shoot forward and others only in oblique directions.
Unfortunately, we found out that two scenarios are hugely overpowered, allowing the English to win one scenario very easily, while the scenario after that was won by the Germans. Fortunately, the scenario after that did go well and that quickly got the fun back. The game rules are clear, unfortunately sometimes a tad dry. The artwork looks cool, the planes are also nicely done both on the tiles and on the maps.
We think Undaunted Battle of Britain is a really cool edition in this series and are already looking forward to playing another one soon.
Thanks to Osprey Games for this review copy and the opportunity to write about it.
