USD ($)
EUR (€)
Undaunted: Normandy is a two player deck-building game that was the first in the Undaunted series. This series follows historic battles in WWII (though I think they’re branching out now) and allows you to play as the different parties involved. I’m not really a war game person but I find this series really fun and it’s good for my non-board gaming husband who’s more interested in historical war themes.
In the trenches
Something interesting about the Undaunted series is that you get a scenario booklet that you can work through. You and the other player can decide which country you’d like to play through the campaign (or ad-hoc games) with.
In each deck there are a variety of characters you can play and the scenario determines which ones you use. There are riflemen and squad leaders and scouts to name a few. The gameplay is more symmetrical than other Undaunted games. All the characters have specific abilities that you use to try and win the scenario, for example, by winning a certain amount of objective points. There are tokens that represent the characters that stay on the tiles and the only way to make them do actions is by playing a card. The tiles create the boards and are used in different orientations and configurations for the scenarios.
The basic gameplay is that you use cards to make moves. You deal four cards and decide how you want to play them. The first player is determined by initiative so it’s based on the highest ranked card played. These tend to be the better cards so you have to decide whether it’s worth using it to go first. Then you can use a card to do one of the named actions. Certain actions will allow you to get more cards from the deck or the supply (i.e. adding more cards to your deck). Other cards will let you remove cards (e.g. either weaker basic troops or fog of war cards that clog up your deck). You can also choose to hunker down, which removes the card from the deck into the supply. This is good if you want to hone your deck for a particular strategy. Once your deck runs out you shuffle everything again, and it’s only at this point where new cards get added in.
The scenarios take between 15-60 minutes and there are different features that add more depth like hills, different characters and objectives.
Hunkering down
I think Undaunted has one of the best deck-building systems. Deck-building is so fun and what’s nice is that since you’re only drawing four cards a turn, you only have so many options. But you’re also drawing cards hoping to get the really good cards you’ve been adding in. It’s also a game that gets more fun as you learn it and has lots of satisfying moments within the game.
The artwork of the game is very nice, everything is well produced, though it could be argued that the game could do with a bit more character in the cards and components. It could look a bit bland. Not that this is very off-putting but it’s something to consider.
The combination of mechanics is really well done and easy to learn but difficult to master. In theory you learn how to be more efficient with your deck as you play more. The scenarios are also a good way to slowly amp up the difficulty and introduce new mechanics into the gameplay. You’ll definitely get a good number of games out of Undaunted: Normandy with the 15 scenarios provided in the booklet. And you could play the scenarios again, though it may not be as fun. Overall, Undaunted: Normandy is an excellent deck-building game that introduces the concept well and is a really fun head-to-head experience.
