Undaunted: Battle of Britain

Product Information

There’s some great difficult decision making and risk taking here. Do you fire at a distance, hoping you’ll get to move in closer and take another shot before zipping by, or get right up close now for the best chance of hitting, knowing that by doing so you’re putting your own plane in a vulnerable spot? Undaunted: Battle of Britain is a very good game that has the misfortune of living in the shadow of its outstanding older siblings. What it does bring to the table, however, is novelty: for such a broadly similar game, this feels fresh and new, with the forced movement of aircraft forcing you to plan ahead as best you can. Undaunted is almost ready to take to the skies with the latest instalment, Battle of Britain . But before then, hear from co-designer David Thompson all about the design process behind the scenes of this exciting new direction for the series...

Undaunted: Battle of Britain - Launch Day - Osprey Publishing Undaunted: Battle of Britain - Launch Day - Osprey Publishing

Along the same line, the aircraft illustration doesn’t do enough to distinguish between the two different sides of the war. The Luftwaffe have a darker token, but it does little to contrast with the RAF. As a comparison, it was very easy to know which units were yours in Stalingrad. Soviets were white, Germans were gray. Here, this is further muddled by units on each side sharing the same letter/number combinations. Did I just move your Y1 plane? Oh, I thought that was my Y1 plane. Now, where were we? Card illustration remains excellent though the card variety isn’t as unique as in other Undaunted sets. Final Thoughts: The latest board game in the award-winning Undaunted series is here with Battle of Britain , taking to the skies for the first time. Read on to hear all about the historical inspirations behind its creation...Strongly encourages forward planning, but the randomness of dice and cards will often force your plans awry Undaunted: Battle of Britain (or BOB to his friends) is the latest installment in Osprey Games’ much vaunted World War II series. It covers the period of fighting between the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the German Luftwaffe in the Spring and Summer of 1940.Like the other games in the Undaunted series, Undaunted: Battle of Britain is not a simulation, it is a tabletop, card and counters based game that intends to invoke the spirit and feel of combat in a playable manner. I played a number of scenarios from Undaunted: Battle of Britain to get a sense for its gameplay, replayability, and accessibility (particularly in terms of how it compares to previous Undaunted instalments). You can see find out more about our process with this guide to how we test board games and tabletop RPGs. The timeline meant that Trevor and I would have just under a year to complete the design for the game. While a year might seem like plenty of time, we were also juggling quite a few other projects, our day jobs, and family life. So we got started right away. At times, Undaunted Battle of Britain feels more like a racing game than a war game. That’s because it’s all about positioning and movement. See planes, unlike humans, don’t really have the option to stop and take a breather; that tends to lead to plummeting. In Undaunted, what that means is whenever you play a combat card representing a plane, that plane hasto move as well as any other actions it takes. You don’t get a choice.

Undaunted: Battle of Britain - Osprey Publishing Announcing Undaunted: Battle of Britain - Osprey Publishing

You can’t crash into other planes and there are rules to cover what must happen if you would fly out of the map area but if you fly into a barrage balloon it’s curtains! Osprey Games is the dedicated games division of Osprey Publishing (part of Bloomsbury Publishing plc) and publishes a wide range of wargames, card games, and board games and roleplaying games. Final Score: 3 stars – Battle of Britain reenacts the fate of Europe from the safety of a bird’s eye view. The scenarios start with a straight dogfight over France and gradually introduce additional elements: Bombers, Ships, AAA, Airfields, Ground targets as they progress. For future games, on account that Normandy, North Africa, and Stalingrad will exist, I would love to do something a bit different, so Battle of Britain seems like a great fit.”

In Battle of Britain, players can partake in eleven different historical battles above the English Channel. The first thing to note is the end-game situation. Typically, the game is won by either the Royal Air Force (RAF) or Luftwaffe neutralizing a certain number of aircraft. There are other end game goals that require ships to escape the board, structures to be bombed, or a combination of these. Players compete until a goal is reached, or all their aircraft are neutralized. Summer, 1940. The German war machine has rolled across the continent in less than a year, crushing all before it. Britain is all that stands in the way of German victory in Europe. David Thompson was born in Savannah, Georgia. He grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying games, but turned his attention to Eurogames and Wargames in the 2000s. He began designing games in 2014, after moving to England and meeting the Cambridge-based chapter of Playtest UK. His first published design was Armageddon , followed by Orc-lympics, Pavlov’s House, Warchest, Castle Itter , and Switch & Signal . He now lives in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife, two daughters, and son. Summer, 1940. The German war machine has rolled through the continent in less than a year, crushing all before it. Britain is all that stands in the way of German victory in Europe. Command the pilots of the battle-tested Luftwaffe, looking to extinguish all resistance and pave the way to invasion, or the resourceful and determined RAF opposing them at every turn. At that point, we turned the design over to Filip and Anthony at Osprey Games. They put the game through its paces through the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022. Occasionally they would reach out about specific design intent, strategies, and clarifying questions for various scenarios. But other than minor tweaking, from a gameplay perspective nothing significantly changed between the design Trevor and I delivered and the final game. However, as always, the game benefited immensely from Osprey’s amazing attention to detail when it comes to delivering an amazing, top quality final product.

Undaunted: Battle of Britain | Board Games | Zatu Games UK

We identified a TON of Osprey books that would help us out with the research stage (one of the obvious benefits of making a military-themed game with Osprey is their massive catalog of military history books). Osprey sent them over right away and Trevor and I pored over them, trying to identify the right time period, regional focus, and scale for our game. Note that if one plane in a section is shot down, “neutralised”, the other will be automatically Out of Comms for the rest of the scenario. This can justify a plane with no cards hanging about (see above) to provide Comms to its wingman but it seems a bit artificial. BOB & Weave Arial combat enthusiasts will slowly circle this title with anticipation. The combat is well thought-out and unique to this series. Undaunted fans may even enjoy the change of pace. I’m certain the setting itself is a big draw. Unfortunately for me, and especially fresh off Stalingrad, the emotional investment is almost entirely removed and leaves this as a non-essential entry. Out of the eleven scenarios, there’s little variation in goals. Enough to make me wonder if this could’ve been a mini set of scenarios within a larger release. I do hope this finds gamers who are enthralled enough by the new twist. Kudos to the designers for trying something different. Despite not enjoying this release as much, I still cannot wait to see what they come up with next.It's always an excellent service with brilliant products at a very competitive price - will use again! Undaunted: Battle of Britain is a standalone game in the Undaunted series, adapting the core gameplay of the previous games to recreate the dynamic dogfighting of aerial combat. Maintain cohesion between your pilots, evade anti-aircraft artillery, and leverage talented aces to win the battle for the skies!

Undaunted – OnTableTop – Home of Beasts of War Undaunted – OnTableTop – Home of Beasts of War

Over the next couple weeks, Trevor and I met often, comparing our research and notes, chatting about what we felt would make for the most engaging game, while also leveraging the core Undaunted system. We knew the game had to feel like Undaunted, but we were also willing to push the system to the extreme. Overall, I’ve had a great experience with Undaunted: Battle of Britain. It’s a perfect balance between simple and strategic. Casual enough that anyone can have a great time playing, but deep enough that you can spend a while pondering over a decision. It’s a great couples’ board game, providing laughter and frustrated gnashing of teeth in equal measure, and will probably be my go-to when I need a two-player board game for a good long while.or would you prefer to go with something totally crazy with a scale/scope change, like re-working the soldiers as planes and creating a Battle of Britain type game where you command a squadron of aircraft?” Undaunted: Battle of Britain is a standalone game in the Undaunted series, adapting the core gameplay of the previous games to recreate the dynamic dogfighting of aerial combat.