WBG Score: 8
Player Count: 1-4
You’ll like this if you like: Any of the Undaunted Series
Published by: Osprey Games
Designed by: Trevor Benjamin, David Thompson (I)
This is the reviewer's copy. See our review policy
The Undaunted series has taken us to different theatres of war, has seen us fight tooth and nail across epic battles, and has even taken us to the skies. Now, it takes us to the next logical step in that evolution... the sea... space. Wait, space? Really? Well, in that case, here is my review for Undaunted. In. Spaaaaaacceee.
How to Callisto.
If you’ve played any of the previous Undaunted games, then, bar a few new changes, you’ll know how to play this game. If you haven’t, then essentially Undaunted is a two-player deck-building strategy war game. Players will make up a basic deck of cards as dictated by the scenario you're playing. At the start of a round, each player will draw four cards, then choose and play one of them for their initiative value. Then, in turn order, each player will play the rest of their three cards. Each card will relate to a unit on the board and have a number of actions on it. You can play one of those actions on each card using that unit to carry them out. There are actions that let you move, control areas, attack, add cards to your deck, and many more. Your objective will change each scenario, but needless to say (although I’m going to say it anyway), whoever completes their objective first wins!
“That’s no moon”
If you’ve read my other Undaunted reviews, then it’s no secret that I love this series of games. If you have read my previous reviews, then all the praise that goes for those previous games applies here as well. Don’t worry, I’m not getting lazy and making you read previous reviews just so I don’t have to put the work in here. I am going to get to why I love this game. Although, that’s not a bad idea for the future!
Speaking of the future, that’s exactly where the designers have decided to place this particular conflict, and this decision alone has done so many things for this series that I personally really appreciate. I know quite a few people who’ve really wanted to try an Undaunted game, but the real-world war theme just isn’t for them, so they’ve avoided the games. The minute this new theme was announced, though, all of them were immediately on board. In fact, I think most of them bought it upon release, and that speaks volumes to me about how popular this system is and the reputation it holds. It suddenly opened up the door for so many people to try this awesome series and get to experience a game that I already love and, in a slightly more selfish vein, it means that there are now so many more people I can potentially play this game with. I’m not sure if this was their intention to bring new players to the game when they had the idea for this new setting or if they just wanted to change things up in general, but regardless, it’s really opened things up.
When two become one…….and four
What else has opened up is the player count (I am on fire with these segway's) previous iterations were two player only unless you brought the reinforcements box (which I reviewed here) in which case you had a solo and four player mode for Normandy and North Africa.
This is the first game to come with a solo and four-player mode out of the box. The four-player game is pretty much what it was in that reinforcements box. Two teams of two, each player with their own separate squads, and the player with the commander/captain card on each team will draw four cards, and the other players three. The leaders play a card for initiative, with the winner's leader playing their turn, and then turns alternate until everyone has played a turn. Leadership changes hands when the current leader plays the captain card, which then goes in their teammate's discard pile, and then command passes to that player. Since the squads are already split into two in the setup, it’s a simple case of setting up as normal and just handing each player a squad. I still really like the four-player mode. Having someone with you to bounce ideas off of is a really nice change of pace and opens up room for some nice banter in a game that can sometimes be quite “heads down and get on with it.” Not only that, I can now happily take this to a game night/meet-up and get it played, and let’s be honest, any excuse for me to get this game to the table more often is a good one in my book.
Of course, your other option is solo play. Solo play has changed from reinforcements. Rather than being on cards, the solo bots are now in one book, making things a lot more manageable, easier to set up, and taking up far less room on the table (I have mine on a chair beside me). It still takes a little bit to run and still has a good-sized learning curve, so knowing the rules of the regular game is highly recommended before giving solo a go, just to save you from hopping between two rulebooks. The solo runs off a flowchart-style system. For example, it will say, if this situation is true, do this thing. If not, do this other thing, and so on until you can play one out or the bot can’t do anything. They’ve certainly learned from their previous efforts, as it does feel simpler to run than before, but as I said, it will take some getting used to and will require some perseverance before you can run it at a pace that won’t drag the game time. After a few goes, you start getting the hang of it, and you'll find that it’s a solo bot that can actually give you a decent challenge.
In terms of theme, I love the little thematic changes they’ve added here. Elevation brings a nice little bit of extra strategy to the game as players fight for Obi-Wan's favorite place, the high ground. Now, units shooting down from the high ground will roll a D12, and units shooting up to the high ground will roll a D8. There’s only a two-number difference between each of the dice, but it really makes a huge tactical difference and is hugely thematic. You can’t help but feel powerful sitting up high and throwing those D12s and feel like you're just taking a random potshot with those D8s. Especially as you have to get closer to be able to make the shot, it adds that extra element of danger.
The part where I gush about the artwork
One thing that I’ve only ever really touched on in previous reviews for these games is the art. Roland McDonald’s art for these games is as much of a staple as the game design and wouldn’t feel the same without him. With this game, though, I think he’s outdone himself. The art on the cards really pulls you in, and the small pictures on the cards displaying the characters under the helmets are inspired and keep the personal touch of the previous games. Where he’s really allowed to shine in this one, though, is those boards. Up until now, the modular tiles have had their own restrictions art-wise. Because of the now permanent, unchangeable boards, he’s been given the opportunity to show what he can really do, and he hasn’t disappointed. Every one is its own work of art that could easily distract you from the game as you look at every little detail that he’s been able to flood the board with. It makes the whole experience so much more thematic.
Let’s talk about the boards (seriously though, should I get into Segway riding? Is that even a thing?) Callisto veers away from the modular boards of old and now gives us four double-sided map boards. When this was first announced, I was a bit apprehensive about them. Now that I’ve played with them, that apprehension has gone away, for the most part. As mentioned above, the space for beautiful art is a huge bonus; it reduces setup time, and pretty much all of your mission info and starting setup (aside from the deck makeup) is printed on the board, so you shouldn’t need to reference the mission book after initial setup. On the downside, the box now needs to be much bigger than the previous games and is now a lot heavier. You also don’t have the flexibility to create your own maps. This one doesn’t bother me personally, as I never really did that anyway, but it could definitely be a downer if that was something you dabbled in.
The dark side of the moon
The next thing I want to touch on may very well be a “me” issue, but I wanted to talk about it because it’s the main reason why the score is lower than I think a lot of people would expect from me at this point.
For some reason, I find the deck setup for this game takes me considerably longer than in the previous games. I don’t know if it’s the sheer number of cards that you use as the missions go on, or if it’s that you’ve got two to three separate units per mech, or just that I’m still getting my head around the different naming conventions of previous games. I’m not sure. The boards have made board population quicker, but the deck setup seems to have nullified that advantage for me. It doesn’t help that some of the letters in the LFA cards are quite similar. The V and the Y, and the font used, make these two look very similar.
That similarity also doesn’t help when identifying units on the board, that coupled with the generic naming convention of the enemy and we found ourselves on a few occasions taking back a couple of moves because the wrong counter was moved. The names are of course very thematic to a big corporation and this may well be an overhang from me coming from the previous iterations but I’ve played the game enough that I probably should have acclimatised to it by now. I’d be genuinely interested to see if this is just me or if anyone else feels the same way, especially if you’re a veteran of the previous games.
There are also quite a few typos throughout and these can range from, not over important up to game changing. One is a wrong point objective value on the scenario two board and another puts a wrong unit into your deck setup on another scenario. It’s understandable that games will have the odd typo now and then, but it’s unfortunate that these have been missed and had game changing effects. I’m confident Osprey will have these corrected on the next print run but for now they’ve posted and errata document on board game geek which I’ll link to here
This game still presents all of the simple, fun and strategic game play of its predecessors that make these games close, tense affairs that will have you coming back to them time and time again either to try a different side or a different strategy.
If you already love Undaunted then I see no reason, other than if the theme doesn’t grab you, that you shouldn’t enjoy this new addition. The changes made are minimal in the grand scheme of things so the quick to learn gameplay of previous editions has been kept relatively intact.
Right I’m off to try and predict where or when the next Undaunted game is going to be set. Probably not going to put any bets on it though, especially not after last time when I bet my house! That reminds me, I need to let my wife know we're moving!