#23: Undaunted: Normandy/North Africa (Mark's Top 100 2022)

Undaunted: Normandy/North Africa

BoardGameGeek and BoardGameGeek

• rank: 186 & 693
• rating: 7.8 & 7.9
• published: 2019 & 2020 

Print Status

• in print

Why It's On The List

• Take the basic deck-building combat design of War Chest and ground it in the theme and combat tactics of WW2... for this old AH/SPI wargamer, it's the best of both worlds. It feels like the best games of Squad Leader without the long playing time or the rules headaches.

Tips & Tricks:

• It has all the feels of a classic wargame - with the deck-building system that adds fog of war and command & control issues with extremely low fiddliness.
• So far, scenarios in both boxes seem to be well-balanced... even those with asymmetric objectives. 
• Like any squad-level combat game, cover is important.
• Lessons learned in the Command & Colors games work here as well - try not to strand units in indefensible positions.
• Both boxes reflect a solid understanding of the different kinds of WW2 tactical warfare they work to portray - impressive.

Extras

• The Reinforcements box not only adds new units and scenarios for both of the original boxes - it also adds a complete storage system for both games... and, more importantly for my purposes, a sophisticated solo system that is challenging and makes pretty solid tactical decisions.
• So, yes, this is tenth of 18 games recommended for solo play on my top 100.
• A new game in the series has been announced for later this year - Undaunted: Stalingrad.
• This is the second of three David Thompson designs on my list... and the first of two Dávid Turczi designs.