Undaunted: Normandy is the first game in the Undaunted series from Osprey Games. It's designed by Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson, with art by Roland MacDonald.
The game follows on from the D-Day landings of June 1944. Units are represented by counters and the landscape is made up using tiles which effectively form hexes once laid offset. The game comes with a series of scenarios that can also be played through as a campaign and is designed as a 2-player experience, although Undaunted can also be played solitaire.
Each player has a starting deck of cards based around the troops they have in play, as well as a supply of cards available to them to add to their deck during play. Each unit has multiple cards available to it, with a card removed from the deck whenever the unit takes a hit. This neatly represents the weakening of the unit, and eventually the unit can be lost from the board.
Players compete to reach their individual objective, and the multitude of maps and scenarios keep each play fresh and interesting. Whilst playing you’ll be faced with numerous decisions that can swing the fight, different ways to focus and respond to your opponent and different terrain to think about. These are all important decisions but you never find your are having to fuss over some of the details that bring other games to a halt – line of sight and range, for example, couldn’t be easier than they are here. What impresses most is how the important elements of what creates the tension in a wargame are all here: everything that’s needed is perfectly recreated.
Undaunted: Normandy is a great game. Osprey have already announced a follow-up next year representing the North Africa campaign, so we're looking forward to a series that will continue to grow.
(Review by Steve Berger)