Cardboard Corner: Review of Undaunted Normandy

Are you tired of endless pages of rules? Have you had enough digging through bowls of tiny chits to find the exact acronym you need? Weary of back-and-forth over the table discussing the finer points of a gray rule? Are your thumbs sore from flipping pages, trying to locate that specific reference which confirms your side of the argument but you just can’t seem to find it? Have big, heavy war games finally overstayed their welcome in your basement? Look no further than Undaunted: Normandy (2019) – War Game-lite.

Yes, my friend, Undaunted: Normandy is a light/mid-weight war game. A 2-player-only competitive experience, it takes 30-40 minutes. Depending on the scenario, the players will scout, shoot, machine gun, mortar, and command their way to their side’s asymmetrical objective. One player taking on the role of the Americans and the other the Germans, choose the scenario, set up the modular board and soldiers, and start shooting—ahem, playing. Deckbuilding the primary mechanism, at the beginning of the round players will draw four cards and bid for initiative. The player who wins will then be able to play any or all of the remaining cards in their hand—scouts, riflemen, officers, machine gunners, etc. If they are unlucky, or if their opponent has been stuffing their deck, there is also the possibility of having Fog of War cards in hand—cards intended to clog up the player’s card engine. Naturally, first player to achieve their objective, wins.

Dice deciding combat, all else is tactics with a little strategy. Players must be wise in using terrain, sending scouts, and adding and not adding reinforcements. (I cannot emphasize the latter enough.) Most choices taking advantage of some aspect of game state, they likewise leave things open for the opponent, meaning there is a lot of back and forth. With a max of four cards playable per turn, these decisions come quick and fast—one player’s luck or advantage one turn often flipping on the next (kind of like the pyrrhic moments of real war, no?).

The rules of Undaunted are simple and clear—the opposite of the sophisticated war game experience. And yet decisions still feel meaningful. Perma-death a thing, soldiers get shot, and are removed from the game, reducing the player’s army’s potential. There are enough but not too many options, which means the player can quickly refocus their brain’s RAM from rules to tactics. And lastly, the game board is relatively small, which means the impact of decisions is often quickly felt.

One area which Undaunted aligns with many wars games is components. There are no plastic minis. Repeat, no plastic minis—not even standees. Everything is cards, tokens, and board. And it works very well. I liked moving the thick cardboard discs and tokens around the board. They felt right. The cards are a touch flimsy (they almost require sleeving for many playthroughs), but the overall aesthetic is consistent and complementary to location and theme. The cherry on top is something that many war games do not invest in: there is a simple, 1940s-50s’ vibe to the art which gives the game an identity.

If there are drawbacks to Undaunted, one is perhaps that the first couple of scenarios are not the richest experiences. It’s clear they are intended to ease the player into the game, introducing more complex elements as things progress. But that doesn’t stop the first scenario, for example, from being a dragged out, shootout, burn out. The goal is to be the first to capture five objectives, but we never came close. It was drawn out shooting, and shooting, and shooting. After eight or so rounds of rinse and repeat, until finally one person didn’t have an army, it wasn’t terribly exciting. When the other elements, machine gunners and mortars, are added, however, things start getting interesting. In other words, some gamers will need the full-option experience to fully appreciate the game. Another drawback is the semi (emphasis on “semi”) repetitive campaign. The board being modular and the setup different for each scenario, things nevertheless can become a touch same-y given each side possesses the same elements.

In the end, Undaunted: Normandy accomplishes its goals of offering a light, tight, war-game experience (after the first two scenarios). Setup is 8-10 minutes, the tokens and tiles are solid, and the rules are clear. This is an easy, fun deckbuilder to quickly jump into. Campaign play possible, there are a dozen real-world WWII scenarios waiting. Overall, this is a war game experience streamlined for players either tired of their big, heavy games, or perhaps looking for a gateway into those big, heavy worlds.