Undaunted: Battle of Britain takes the Undaunted system into the skies!
Does this elevate it above the other games?
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.
Undaunted: Battle of Britain First Game Overview
Quick Rules Summary
Players control either the UK or Germany and have a bunch of planes. Cards are used to move, turn these planes around a map, and shoot of course.
Other cards let you recruit more cards into your deck or take bonus actions.
How do you win?
Complete the scenario to win.
Main Mechanisms
Deck-building is used to play cards.
USP
Not really, it’s part of a series with Undaunted: Stalingrad and I’ve played a full campaign of that one.
It is set purely in the sky though, I believe all the other games have been on the ground.
Theme
World War 2, but in the air!
Setup
Setting up the map takes a while.
Components & Artwork
The components are pretty standard across the board. The map tiles can break apart when moving planes around.
I’ve mentioned before, I like the art style in these games. I always like borderless colourful art on white backgrounds like Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn.
Ease of Teaching
The game is fairly easy to teach, you just need to know what each of the words on the bottom of the cards means.
Movement and turning are not that straightforward to the point where I can’t remember how they work now.
Similar Games
I’ve already mentioned one of the other games in the series!
For a similar non-Undaunted game, how about Talon? Spaceship fighting where damage is marked using a dry-wipe marker on the spaceship tiles.
Undaunted: Battle of Britain First Review
Positives
Familiar gameplay if you’ve already played a game in this series.
Using planes changes the game up enough.
Mechanisms such as some cards requiring planes to be within radio range are a nice touch.
Movement, turning and shooting arcs seem very thematic…
Negatives
…but they are a little fiddley.
Setting up the board for every game is annoying if you play a few games back to back.
Summary
“More of the same”, but that’s far from a bad thing!
Jesta ThaRogue