Undaunted Battle of Britain Review - Undaunted Takes To The Skies

Undaunted by Osprey Games, is a series heralded as perfectly blending a deck-building game with wargaming elements. The series of games first started in 2020 with Undaunted Normandy, and rather than start with a review of the original game, we're working backwards from the latest game, Undaunted 2200 Callisto. This time we're looking at Undaunted Battle of Britain, which takes the Undaunted rules to the sky, and as a previous member of His Majesties' Royal Air Force, one that I'm personally excited to get into.

Although we've only just started covering Undaunted on the site, we have previously covered several of Osprey Games' titles, including the brand new Bolt Action 3rd Edition, copublished with Warlord games, and also some of their awesome supplements for their miniatures agnostic system, Frostgrave.

How Do You Play Undaunted Battle of Britain?

In games of Undaunted, as was the case in Undaunted 2200 Callisto, players draw 4 cards from their deck each turn and then use those cards to play actions from the tokens they have on the board, such as moving and attacking. Certain cards also allow you to draw more cards from your supply, or move cards from your hand to your supply, allowing you to tailor your deck as you play. Rather than introducing new tokens as cards are added to your deck as the other Undaunted titles we've covered did, in BoB, in certain scenarios, aircraft start grounded and need to take off before they can take actions as normal.

This card system, as well as working for actions, also controls a unique damage system. As a unit takes hits, you must discard a matching card from your hand. If you don't have a matching card in your hand, you discard one from your discard pile, and if there isn't one there too, you discard it from your deck. If you can't find the card at all, the unit is eliminated. This can put real pressure on going first in the turn and focuses you on picking your targets. If a unit you have the card for in your hand is hit, then you discard the card and you might not be able to activate it this turn. It also adds a nice hidden element as you and your opponent try to determine how many cards units have left, and which is the optimum target to hit.

How Does The Ariel Combat Work In Undaunted Battle of Britain?

The difference between Undaunted Battle of Britain, and the other Undaunted games, is that BoB is focused on aerial combat and the difficulties that entails. For example, in other games in the series, you don't have to move or worry about the facing of your unit when shooting. In Undaunted Battle of Britain, every time you activate a unit, it has to move, and its directional facing for shooting is shown on the unit's token.

This means that positioning is key over the other Undaunted games, and anyone who's played Star Wars X-Wing will feel right at home. If your fighter flies past your enemy, it's not an easy matter of turning to attack them next turn, aircraft have to wheel around, taking them out of position and circling to face their target again, which can take a couple of turns. This captures the thematic feel of WWII dogfights perfectly, as fighters would zip past each other and then maneuver to get the upper hand.

Another change from other Undaunted games is that the fog of war has gone. This was a mechanic that as you scouted ahead on the map, you added fog of war cards to your deck (interference in Undaunted 2200 Callisto). In Battle of Britain, you need to keep your matched units grouped close together when you play communications cards, otherwise you get a discord card added to your deck. Keeping your aircraft together can be challenging, so this mechanic is a great reflection of the radio communications at the time, and the challenges of radio communications in general, and is a great thematic inclusion.

Does Undaunted Battle of Britain Have Different Factions?

Undaunted Battle of Britain features the 2 historical forces that were part of the campaign during WWII, the German Luftwaffe and the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (RAF). The reality of the war was that the Luftwaffe was coming off the back of a string of victories over most of Northern Europe. Their pilots were experienced and their aircraft were technologically advanced. The RAF was struggling to match production to get aircraft into the sky. 

To capture this in the game, without making the units vastly different, across the developing scenarios that introduce new units and rules as you progress, the German forces generally have goals to achieve, while the RAF just need to take out Luftwaffe aircraft. It creates a great blend of feeling the pressure, but not making the scenarios too uneven for either side.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Undaunted Battle of Britain?

Undaunted Battle of Britain is a fantastic take on the Undaunted mechanics, perfectly blending the great core mechanics with the aerial combat theme. The scenarios are a blast to play through, and both forces feel realistically thematic. The way movement is handled perfectly captures dog-fighting and the change from fog-of-war to discord adds a realistic element to the battles. If I had to pick a criticism, it would be that the aircraft tokens are quite small, which would be fine for a huge map with hundreds of aircraft, but here I would have liked bigger tiles and tokens, but that would also have increased the size of the compact box that stores well.

Should I Buy Undaunted Battle of Britain?

If you like the Undaunted mechanics and want a new challenge, then Undaunted Battle of Britain offers that, or if you never played Undaunted, but want a great aerial combat game, then U:BoB is fantastic. If you don't like the sound of maneuvering to line up a target for shooting, then consider checking out one of the other Undaunted Games, either Normandy or North Africa for standard troop battles, Stalingrad for campaign play, or 2200 Callisto for a futuristic battle with a deeper terrain system.

The copy of Undaunted Battle of Britain used to produce this review was provided by Osprey Games.