Undaunted: Stalingrad First Impressions (Spoiler Free)

Undaunted: Stalingrad sees the war in Europe represented on a board.

Token play that game.

Stalingrad, 1942. Before you awaits a gruelling conflict in this cornerstone battleground. As the bullets and bombs tear the city asunder, only through wits and valour can you seize the cornerstone of the entire Eastern Front and change the course of history.

Undaunted: Stalingrad Game Overview

NOTE: This will be spoiler free down until the spoiler warning banner. After that, there will be minor spoilers for what the game does after game one. Nothing specific plot-wise, just general “this is what to expect” comments. All images from the first scenario before the game began.

Quick Rules Summary

This is a 2-player game where one player is Russian and the other is German. In scenario one a board is set up and players have decks of cards representing units. After reading an intro to the current scenario as well as its goal, the game starts.

Players have a hand of 3 cards and will play them in any order to activate the abilities of those units. Scenario 1’s available units allow you to scout into new areas with Scouts and move into these scouted areas with various units.

Scouts can also remove useless Fog of War cards from your deck, or add them to the opponents.

Riflemen can be used to control areas of the board they are in.

Units can attack by rolling dice depending on the strength of the attacking unit and rolling over the value of the defender’s defence plus any bonus they have for being in cover.

When damaged, you remove a card of that unit from your deck. If you have no more cards left they become routed and you need to recruit more of that unit to get them back.

Squad Leaders and Platoon Sergeants allow you to ‘buy new cards’ to add to your deck. Squad Leaders can only recruit units for their own squad.

How do you win?

The first side to complete their objective wins the scenario. There is then some upkeep, and you play the next one.

Eventually, one player will be told they win the campaign as a whole.

Main Mechanisms

The main mechanism is deck-building as it’s used for your unit cards. You draw, play discard, recycle and recruit just like a normal deck-building game. But here each player has their own pool of cards to recruit from.

USP

It’s hard to say there is a USP. This is the 3rd game in a series that started in Normandy and then went to North Africa. I haven’t played the other two so I’m not sure if this one is particularly special.

Theme

The theme is really good. Without going into specifics there was one scenario where I just felt well and truly defeated from turn one. I mean this in a thematic way, which was reflected in the mechanisms well.

Setup

Setup involves adding tiles in a specific order to set up a game board. You then have to follow a scenario map for all the tokens and starting unit positions.

You have to do this for every scenario and some can be quite short so I’m glad there are 2 people there to do it.

Components & Artwork

The quality of the components is pretty standard across the board.

I do like the art on the cards and the graphic design is really clear.

Ease of Teaching

The game itself is very easy to play. If a player has played a deck builder then the rest of it is easy to explain.

The only hidden information is in the 3 cards in hand and asking for clarification for one action on a card won’t hurt too much.

Similar Games

Well, any deck-building game obviously.

Also any scenario PvP game like Starcadia Quest Showdown.

Undaunted: Stalingrad Review

Positives

You discard a card in hand for initiative every turn which is often a tough decision and often initiative can be key.

The core gameplay is fun.

The story that unfolds as you win and lose scenarios is pretty good.

The scenarios are really thematic, especially one that just hammered me into submission,

The advancements in the game as the campaign unfolds will keep you wanting to play more.

The branching story is resettable and replayable.

Negatives

2 players only.

I often struggle to get campaigns finished. (But not this one, fortunately)

Undaunted: Stalingrad Summary

A very fun game that’s well worth the time investment.

Jesta ThaRogue

These are some generalisations about things that happen as the game unfolds:

After each scenario, 1 or more of your injured cards are selected to downgrade to show the injury this unit has. This makes them have weaker or missing abilities.

Additionally, 2 of your units upgrade giving them better and/or more abilities.

The different map tiles in the game can upgrade if bolstered and degrade if destroyed.

The scenario book can have intel that the other player isn’t aware of.

The new units in the game are really good, especially the vehicles.