Undaunted: Battle of Britain

Product Information

The timeline meant that Trevor and I would have just under a year to complete the design for the game. While a year might seem like plenty of time, we were also juggling quite a few other projects, our day jobs, and family life. So we got started right away. We identified a TON of Osprey books that would help us out with the research stage (one of the obvious benefits of making a military-themed game with Osprey is their massive catalog of military history books). Osprey sent them over right away and Trevor and I pored over them, trying to identify the right time period, regional focus, and scale for our game." or would you prefer to go with something totally crazy with a scale/scope change, like re-working the soldiers as planes and creating a Battle of Britain type game where you command a squadron of aircraft?” In Undaunted: Battle of Britain you lead RAF or Luftwaffe aircraft and battle over the skies of Britain in the most famous aerial battle in history. In the game you’ll experience dogfights and bombing runs, with British ships trying desperately to escape the Luftwaffe, antiaircraft guns aiding the RAF fighters, and much more.

Undaunted: Battle of Britain | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

Yes. Undaunted: Battle of Britain is a good-looking game that is straight forward to play and gives a good feel of aerial combat. It is not a simulation, bogged down in a lot of technical rules but it is redolent of historical detail and the spirit of the time. In the end, playing Undaunted: Battle of Britain works similarly to other Undaunted titles, but it feels very different. Each air force has a unique set of planes to work with, though both feature ace pilots. Some planes move faster, some can fire in combat only ahead of them, whereas certain planes can only fire behind them or to the sides. And there are certain Luftwaffe aircraft that can bomb as well when over a specific land- or water-based target. Command the pilots of the battle-tested Luftwaffe, looking to extinguish all resistance and pave the way to invasion, or the resourceful and determined RAF opposing them at every turn. It's always an excellent service with brilliant products at a very competitive price - will use again!Undaunted is almost ready to take to the skies with the latest instalment, Battle of Britain . But before then, hear from co-designer David Thompson all about the design process behind the scenes of this exciting new direction for the series... Gents, we’re ready to show you the core gameplay concept we’ve developed for Undaunted: Battle of Britain. The concept is that the players play elements of the RAF and Luftwaffe from Dunkirk through the Blitz. Each unit = 1 plane, so players are controlling about six aircraft each in a typical scenario. We’ve included a couple screenshots from the most recent test (RAF fighters trying to stop BF 110C’s bombing key targets, while they are defended by BF 109E/Fs).” And so, Undaunted: Battle of Britain was born – or at least conceptualized! Osprey wanted it as a 2023 release, timed for either UK Games Expo (June) or GenCon (August). Trevor and I needed to complete the core gameplay concepts by June 2021, complete 80% of the design by December 2021, and hand over everything by March 2022.

Undaunted: Battle of Britain - Design Diary - Osprey Publishing Undaunted: Battle of Britain - Design Diary - Osprey Publishing

It is also competively priced for such a quality product. One thing that could enhance it is to have actual model miniature planes. I have seen these available from a 3rd party, built on special stands that hold the tear-shaped markers. I’ll probably get these at some point although it will take some patience to paint them nicely. Historical Note Summer, 1940. The German war machine has rolled across the continent in less than a year, crushing all before it. Britain is all that stands in the way of German victory in Europe. Roland MacDonald is a graphic designer, illustrator, and board game designer. With a BFA in Fine Arts and an MA in Game Design, he started working doing 3D modelling for PS2 and PC games. After doing concept art and illustrations for Shogun 2 Total War , he moved on to work primarily on board games, illustrating titles including Stop Thief!, Kaiju Crush, and Battle Line. David Thompson was born in Savannah, Georgia. He grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying games, but turned his attention to Eurogames and Wargames in the 2000s. He began designing games in 2014, after moving to England and meeting the Cambridge-based chapter of Playtest UK. His first published design was Armageddon , followed by Orc-lympics, Pavlov’s House, Warchest, Castle Itter , and Switch & Signal . He now lives in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife, two daughters, and son. Undaunted: Battle of Britain (or BOB to his friends) is the latest installment in Osprey Games’ much vaunted World War II series. It covers the period of fighting between the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the German Luftwaffe in the Spring and Summer of 1940.Like the other games in the Undaunted series, Undaunted: Battle of Britain is not a simulation, it is a tabletop, card and counters based game that intends to invoke the spirit and feel of combat in a playable manner.Osprey Games is the dedicated games division of Osprey Publishing (part of Bloomsbury Publishing plc) and publishes a wide range of wargames, card games, and board games and roleplaying games.

Undaunted Battle of Britain

The combatants consist of 11 RAF planes, all fighters – Mk I Spitfires and Hurricanes and Boulton Paul Defiants whilst the Luftwaffe has 15 planes (plus 4 decoys ) fighters Messerschmitt Bf 109 E and 109 F, fighter bomber Messerscmitt Bf 110 C, dive bomber Junkers Ju 87 Stuka and bomber Heinkel He 111. These are all presented on teardrop shaped counters which gives the indication of their facing. There are also red dotted lines showing the direction in which their guns fire. For all of the fighters this is just straight ahead with the exception of the Defiants with their rear gun turret which can fire in any other direction except straight ahead! 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. Over the next couple weeks, Trevor and I met often, comparing our research and notes, chatting about what we felt would make for the most engaging game, while also leveraging the core Undaunted system. We knew the game had to feel like Undaunted, but we were also willing to push the system to the extreme. Undaunted: Battle of Britain is a standalone game in the Undaunted series, adapting the core gameplay of the previous games to recreate the dynamic dogfighting of aerial combat. Maintain cohesion between your pilots, evade anti-aircraft artillery, and leverage talented aces to win the battle for the skies! Finally, I found the documentation a bit light on detail and historical context, of all things. That’ll leave it to old grognards like me to explain the finer points of the period aircraft and tactics in play. At least the 45-60 minute playtime means you won’t have to listen to me prattle on too much.First of all the game is visually stunning and the top class Osprey production qualities are well to the fore. The terrain tiles, in particular, are a delight with beautiful, clear artwork and a clever design that enables the maps for all eleven scenarios to be reproduced. Undaunted: Battle of Britain is gorgeously illustrated by the amazing Roland MacDonald. I say this for each Undaunted game in the series, but I really do believe that Undaunted: Battle of Britain is the most beautiful game in the series. It would have been very easy to lose the personal touch that the previous Undaunted titles have had in the shift to an aerial combat game. But the decision to keep the cards focused on the crew, and Roland’s gorgeous art, really helped keep the game feeling personal. My father, Cyril “Carl” Duncan Watson-Bartlam, was a pilot for the RAF right from the outset of the War. He was a bomber pilot, the Captain of a crew of three flying a Bristol Blenheim. He was shot down in early June 1940 after the evacuation of Dunkirk over the coast of France between Le Havre and Dieppe.

Undaunted: Battle of Britain - BoardGameGeek Solo | Undaunted: Battle of Britain - BoardGameGeek

The main negative I can say about it is that I can’t imagine bothering with the campaign rules, which are as light as anything. They basically amount to adding up points, with no actual mechanical changes to the gameplay. Still, it’s better to have them than not. The latest board game in the award-winning Undaunted series is here with Battle of Britain , taking to the skies for the first time. Read on to hear all about the historical inspirations behind its creation...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, looking to extinguish all resistance and pave the way to invasion, or the resourceful and determined RAF opposing them at every turn.