While the different unit types all share the same overall art, each has a different face and unique name. Once Otto Zimmerman is killed, that’s it, no more Otto. We had just landed in Normandy. It was the summer of 1944, but it was relatively cold. We were thousands of miles from home and the landscape was unknown to us. Yet, we had to push deeper into a country we didn’t know in our goal to push the German forces out of France. There was regular machine gun fire and mortar bombardment. It was really scary, but we remained Undaunted: Normandy by Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson from Osprey Games. The Setting For the second player, go through the same system. If their initiative card is higher, then they get to start the next turn.

DT: Team play, for sure. My favourite part in any game, ever, is team play. Like Birth of America: 1775, or Quartermaster General – any sort of light wargame that supports team play – that’s my jam. One of your four cards will be simultaneously revealed and then discarded for initiative, and when choice is limited, you’ll be spending some time thinking about which card to lose. Added tension comes from the fact that the current initiative holder wins ties, incentivizing players to bid higher. Initiative not only allows you to play your hand first, it also protects it. If one of your tokens takes a hit, a corresponding card must be permanently removed from the game. I did it by working the initiative system a turn in advance. Deal the start player a hand. If it contains a "Fog of War" card, that is always chosen for initiative. If not, choose a card for initiative and set it aside. Then play the turn. So on the Reinforcements Normandy side, each tank is a single unit on the board, and each card is one of the crewmen. It’s abstract, but essentially each of the cards can perform all of the actions of the tank. We haven’t specialised the crewmen cards.Inspire”, which allows players to replay a card in their hand. This latter action can lead to devastating combos that are tough for your opponent to predict, often swinging the tide of battle! Designed by Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson (I). Published by Osprey Games in 2019For 2 players in about 45-60 Minutes

I know there are now many games in the Undaunted series and more are coming out soon, but I can confidently say that starting with Undaunted: Normandy is a good option. If you like this game, then you’ll want to try one of the others. Personally, I got my eye on Undaunted: Stalingrad which introduces even more mechanisms and concepts, creating more of a legacy game experience. Anyway, please give Undaunted: Normandy a try and see where it takes you. Sources One point that needs making is that the scenarios don’t always feel balanced. The first scenario for example seems much easier to win as the Germans. However, I think you have to decide not to let that bug you. No scenario I have found is impossible to win as either side. If you take it in turns to play both sides through the same scenario you can challenge yourself to do better than your opponent when they were in your shoes. The scenarios are based on historical events, so of course they are not all perfectly balanced. Pre-pub link is up, and the game is getting great numbers to start. https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1083-wings-for-the-baron-deluxe-gmt-edition.aspx D-Day: Facts on the Epic 1944 Invasion That Changed the Course of WWII: https://www. history. com/ news/ d-day-normandy-wwii-facts Half of me it so absorbed by this that I want to try again and see if it works, see if there's a German counterpoint to work against it. The other half wants to try the other eleven scenarios in the book. That part wins. So I take it to a friend's house to play the third scenario. This involves a river, and for the first time, the sheer simplicity of Undaunted: Normandy disappoints. There are no special terrain effects for the water: it's mere decoration and it feels wrong.Poring over cards, alone, there's nothing left but to ponder why a game this good has so few takers in my circle of friends. I asked them but got no clear responses. But second-guessing the answer, I think, is the theme. If you haven’t played an Undaunted game before, the gameplay is through card drafting, hand management and throwing dice to determine hits taken. You can choose any single scenario to play on its own but the real value of this game comes through playing through the whole campaign with another player, and that’s the way I experienced it. Trevor and I aren’t that familiar with this. My general stance on solo design is if I’m working on a solo game, I like it to be solo from the start. And if it’s a multiplayer game that we worked on, then I feel way more comfortable with somebody that has the skills of turning a multiplayer game into a solitaire game, which is a skill set I don’t have. DT: One thing that also helped us, I think, is that Duncan Malloy [who signed the game to Osprey Games] actually commissioned Undaunted: North Africa before Normandy was ever even released. So Trevor and I have worked on Undaunted games two years out. We were done with the design for North Africa before Undaunted: Normandy released. Having that prepped and ready to within a year of Normandy being well received and released, I think that helped, too. Over 12 scenarios, playable individually or as a complete campaign, players will follow in the footsteps of the US Army’s 30th Infantry Division (The designer’s grandfather’s unit, as noted in the Campaign book) from the beginning of their struggle in Normandy until the crucial Battle for Mortain that ended August 12th. The campaign adds a bit of tension and replayability to running through each scenario, but I’m happy to say the final scenario acts as a standard ‘competitive’ layout with access to all cards and a virtually identical beginning for the two sides. You can imagine Undaunted: Normandy tournaments where players sit down to that last scenario over and over again.