Undaunted: Battle of Britain

Product Information

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?” We immediately started to compile research material. We hadn’t actually settled on the scale of the game yet, and our research would help us make that decision. Who were the players in this game? Did they control entire squadrons? And if so, what did each counter on the board represent? Each card?

Undaunted: Battle of Britain | Magic Madhouse Osprey Games | Undaunted: Battle of Britain | Magic Madhouse

In Undaunted: Battle of Britain you lead RAF or Luftwaffe aircraft and battle over the skies of Britain in the most famous aerial battle in history. In the game you’ll experience dogfights and bombing runs, with British ships trying desperately to escape the Luftwaffe, antiaircraft guns aiding the RAF fighters, and much more.

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 review – swooping and soaring

Each air force has a unique set of planes to work with, though both feature ace pilots. Some planes move faster, some can fire in combat only ahead of them, whereas certain planes can only fire behind them or to the sides. And there are certain Luftwaffe aircraft that can bomb as well when over a specific land- or water-based target. 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. 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. First of all the game is visually stunning and the top class Osprey production qualities are well to the fore. The terrain tiles, in particular, are a delight with beautiful, clear artwork and a clever design that enables the maps for all eleven scenarios to be reproduced. Undaunted: Battle of Britain is gorgeously illustrated by the amazing Roland MacDonald. I say this for each Undaunted game in the series, but I really do believe that Undaunted: Battle of Britain is the most beautiful game in the series. It would have been very easy to lose the personal touch that the previous Undaunted titles have had in the shift to an aerial combat game. But the decision to keep the cards focused on the crew, and Roland’s gorgeous art, really helped keep the game feeling personal.In May, just a couple months after starting our work on Battle of Britain, Trevor and I reached out to Filip and Anthony Howgego at Osprey and let them know we were ready to show them the first prototype of the game. 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 who are looking to extinguish all resistance and pave the way to invasion, or the resourceful and determined RAF opposing them at every turn. 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.

Undaunted: Battle of Britain : Thompson, David, Benjamin

This aircraft was the mount of leading Battle of Britain Spitfire killer Oberleutnant Herbert Ihlefeld, who was promoted from Staffelkapitän of 2.(J)/LG 2 to Gruppen­kommandeur of I.(J)/LG 2 on 30 August 1940. The following month he claimed at least 15 Spitfires destroyed whilst flying this aircraft from Marquise, in the Pas de Calais." summertime. In less than a year, the German war machine ploughed down the continent, destroying everything in its path. All that stands between Germany and triumph in Europe is Britain. Control either the resourceful and tenacious RAF that is battling the battle-tested Luftwaffe at every step or its goal of putting an end to all resistance and opening the way for an invasion. 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.

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

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

Helping Undaunted: Battle of Britain’s core systems to shine is the scenario book, which comes with a variety of highly interesting set ups. In some fights, clouds or lethal barrage balloons dot the landscape. In some, the RAF’s planes are still on the runways, and can be bombed to bits before they get into the air, while in others the Luftwaffe just wants to get their bombers off to safety. 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! The biggest change here is the map which is now comprised of a hex-grid. This design allows aircraft to maneuver by adjusting the front of their plane to a new edge of the hex. As such, turning can take some time and players must navigate to a new hex to maneuver to the next edge. And aircraft must be in constant motion, so they must move forward to a new hex before they can even maneuver in a new direction. Ace pilots are the exception to this rule. Due to their expertise, they are the only unit allowed to maneuver prior to moving forward. Your country needs you! We're proud to announce a brand-new Undaunted game coming next year - this time taking players to the skies in the Battle of Britain... 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?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. 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... 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." 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.